So, uh, well then. I- uh- I had every intention of posting a blog update last Friday, exactly as I said I would in my previous blog update. I woke up the morning of the 13th with a timeline planned out for publishing my post. I had spent the better part of the week mentally plotting out what I wanted to say and everything.
Then Friday got away from me. I'll get into why later. Bummed and not-so-lowkey mad at myself for missing my blog update when I had it actually planned out, I became determined to work on the post on Saturday instead. Then I felt under the weather and spent the day curled up in a ball on the couch. SUNDAY! SUNDAY I WOULD PUBLISH! Sundays are my short work days, so I had late afternoon and all evening to work on- Oh, I ended up passing out after work; still drained from Saturday.
MONDAY! I actually did write a large portion of this blog update on Monday, but the day got away from me again and I wasn't able to finish in time to actually publish on Monday. Okay, it's mostly done anyway, and Tuesdays ARE my normal update day; I could publish then. Nope. Yet another day that got away from me. Stupid, slippery time.
Wednesday was just too packed of a day to even bother trying to finish this post, so that was when I just waved the white flag. I would end up missing a week again and just post what I had written thus far today.
Which really bums me out because I actually had some exciting news last Friday! I really didn't want to wait a week to tell you guys - most of you probably already know by now anyway - but, I guess wait-a-week is what I had to do in the long run. Either way, for those of you that might not know...
I WROTE SOMETHING! LIKE, SIGNIFICANT SOMETHING!
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Aside from this blog, I haven't written anything significant since March! This is probably one of my longest writing dry spells since I started recreationally writing again in 2010! A decade! I've written SOMETHING with more consistency than this year for a decade! No wonder I've been in such a funk all year.
Screw 2020 already!
Let's get back to happy thoughts though: I wrote something! Last Friday was the 13th, which, most of you should know by now, is also a little fandom holiday I am championing: Plagg Appreciation Day. See, despite Plagg being Chat Noir's kwami - the main companion to the deuteragonist Chat Noir/Adrien Agreste - he actually gets surprisingly little screen time. Also, in fanfiction, neither kwami truly gets showcased all that often, but when they do, it's usually the relationship between Marinette and Tikki. Not that they don't deserve to be showcased or their bond get the love they've been shown, but where's the love for Plagg?
Since Plagg is probably one of my favorite characters, I wanted to champion for a time where we just focus on this little black cat being of bad luck and destruction. What better day to celebrate a black cat and a being of bad luck than on the superstitiously unluckiest day? Thus Friday the 13th being Plagg Appreciation Day was born. As its main (and probably only) promoter, I felt silly if
I, of all people, missed it. Especially when
the last Plagg-centric story I wrote - which also happened to be the last thing I wrote, period - concluded with me telling everyone "Catch you guys in November for the next Friday 13th!"
Maybe I cursed myself to not write anything in the interim by wording it like that.... Either way, I do find it amusingly appropriate that my writing dry spell was bookended by Plagg-centric stories.
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I spent this whole year with "Plagg Appreciation Day is coming up in November" bouncing around in the back of my mind. I spent the greater part of October trying to brainstorm ANYTHING for it. I'm just having a harder and harder time coming up with Plagg-centric plots. I should probably start brainstorming again now for the next Plagg Appreciation Day. I only have until August to figure out my next story.
As for this story? Well, my biggest issue was that the stories I came up with all started off as Plagg-centric, but always ended up evolving to be more about Love Square character and relationship growth. Even the concept I ended up going with became more Love Square focused in my initial plotting, and I had to really rein it in. I'll get into that more in a moment.
Before I do, I want to acknowledge that there was an unexpected bonus to, well... everything with regards to last Friday. For one, the date being Friday the 13th unofficially forced me to "just suck it up and write already," to make sure I had SOMETHING posted on the date. No more hiding in the corner and sobbing about my inability to write anything. I "had" to write something for this date. I had promised my readers that I would, and I couldn't disappoint you fine folks.
I know, I know. I should write for ME; not YOU. My mindset of writing for YOU is what gets me into my depressive spells when my stories don't get the recognition as other fanfics out there. However, if I'm only going to be disappointing myself if I don't write a story, I can live with that. Not wanting to disappoint you beautiful people by not writing is what truly motivates me. It's what keeps me wrestling with One and the Same instead of just junking the whole thing and leaving Peeping Tomcat as a solo project. Yes, I know that if the story just isn't working I SHOULD junk the whole thing, but parts ARE working and I'm DETERMINED to wrestle this thing into submission. For you, dear readers.
So, when it comes to WHAT I write; I write for myself, as many writers advise. However, when it comes to WHY I write; that's a nice 60/40 split between "to not disappoint my readers" and "because I'm not myself if I'm not writing". You guys take the 60%, just FYI. Which leads me to this super huge thank you for supporting me, loving what I do, and motivating me to keep going.
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The other benefit of unofficial Plagg Appreciation Day pushing me to write, and, oddly enough, my inability to actually FOCUS on Plagg as the star of my story ideas? Well, I had to just keep brainstorming, now didn't I? It'd be one thing if I realized I had to write a Plagg-centric story, and instantly thought of a plot that would work. I'd be less stressed, sure, but I also wouldn't have any motivation to KEEP coming up with ideas. I already found one.
Plagg constantly drifting into the background of stories that were supposed to showcase him forced me to keep trying. In the meantime, I ended up finding quite a few new plot bunnies. I have myself a happy little fluffy farm again. Which means my list of Miraculous Ladybug WIPs and plot bunnies has now increased into:
- One and the Same - Yes, as I mentioned, I am still periodically working on this oh-so-stubborn sequel to Peeping Tomcat. I am DETERMINED to get this sequel out for my amazing readers. If nothing else, I have three or four really great bits that I'm desperate to share, and they need the context of the whole story for them to be as impactful as I hope they are.
- I Don't Care - My vision of what the Gabriel Agreste and Emilie Graham de Vanily romance was like leading up to Emilie's "disappearance" just before the show's start. It's a story I'm not actively working on, but I'm happily adding to it whenever I'm inspired. For a couple of months now - thanks to listening to both "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur and "2AM" by MK, featuring Carla Monroe - I've been mentally working on a chapter based on the first time Emilie asked Gabriel to spend the night. I feel I really need to figure out their first official date before I get to a potential "sleep over" chapter, though. So I'm sticking a pin in that. I'd also gladly welcome first date ideas if any of you have suggestions.
- See Through My Eyes - Similar to my story Prescription for Love being my way of filling in the "off-screen" scenes in the episode "Backwarder," I want to write a companion for the New York special. The aim would be to show "missing" scenes (scenes that would help with character growth, but wouldn't necessarily help with plot progression, which is probably why they weren't written into the special), as well as scenes from other character POVs to better showcase what I interpreted as unspoken subtext in the special. A way to kind of explain it better to those who were a bit salty about how some characters/scenes were written. (Also, this is just a working title, so it might change)
- When Love Matters - A rewriting of the entire series where but one thing is changed: Gabriel Agreste is actually a loving and attentive father. There are still some episodes where the inciting incident is hard to rework using this premise - ones like "Chat Blanc" for instance - so this project is way on the back burner, but I've been periodically playing with it in the back of my mind since 2018.
- Untitled AU ending for the New York Special - This is kinda-sorta the story I ended up writing for the 13th, but here I'm talking about the initial version that evolved to be more about Adrien and Marinette than about Plagg. I'll go into more detail below, I promise.
- Untitled story making the original anime-stylized concept of Miraculous Ladybug canon compliant - it's a bit involved, so I'll go into more detail next week, but the long and short is that the reason "Plagg" and "Tikki" look different in the anime concept art is because they are actually "clones" of the real kwamis Adrien and Marinette are partnered with. I got the idea when watching One Piece and was told about the existence of Smile Fruit. This would be a bit of a long project as well.
- Untitled potential collab with Taurus Pixie inspired by the episode "Backwarder" - Specifically, we had talked way back in early 2019 about how cool it would be to delve further into Fu's and Marianne's relationship, and what Fu did between the disappearance of the monastery and WWII. Mainly, why is it the Nazis are implied to have known about Fu, the Miracle Box, and the Miraculous?
I think that's all of them. Most of those plunnies are going to be large, multichapter projects, so.... yeah, it will be some time before I get any/all cranked out. The farm is getting pretty full though, and I guess that's a good thing.
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Circling back to the story I DID write though. Based on what I noted above for Plot Bunny #5, you can probably guess that it will contain spoilers for the Miraculous World: New York, United Heroez special, aka the ML NY special. So....
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For those who don't know the special, but don't care about spoilers, or for those that might need a refresher, here's the basic synopsis.
New York City is hosting a French-American friendship week in honor of Washington's friendship with Lafayette, and Marinette's class is invited to join in on the celebration. One of the museum exhibitions showcased during the celebration is a collection of Washington and Lafayette artifacts, which unknowningly includes a Miraculous. Discovering this potential Miraculous in NYC, Gabriel Agreste decides to go as Hawk Moth to steal it. Initially, Adrien wasn't going to be allowed to go to NYC. However, after Marinette asked Gabriel to let Adrien go, and the man realized it's a golden opportunity to sneak to NYC without his son noticing his disappearance, Adrien was told he's going on the trip. Problem there, though, was that Ladybug had already informed Chat Noir that she'd be leaving Paris for a few days, and entrusted the city's protection to him. Adrien tries to let Ladybug know that he suddenly won't be in town either, but Plagg convinces him that it would only cause her to needlessly worry. Adrien can check the akuma alerts on his phone to see if Paris is in danger, and if there is an attack he can fly back to Paris using a new power upgrade.
On the way into the NYC airport the plane is attacked by supervillain Techno-Pirate (who later becomes akumatized by Hawk Moth into Techlonizer). The plane and passengers are saved by the American superhero team of Majestia (a combo of Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Carol Danvers' Captain Marvel), her android daughter Uncanny Valley, and the duo of Knight Owl and Sparrow (homage to Batman and Robin). After safely landing and their class meeting up with the American students, Marinette and Adrien befriend Jess and Aeon. The next day, while the classes are visiting the museum, Techlonizer attacks. Aeon and Jess secretly transform into Uncanny Valley and Sparrow, but they are no match for the added magical power upgrades of an akuma, forcing Adrien and Marinette to transform for the assist. Chat Noir and Ladybug are both surprised to see the other in NYC; causing a rift between them as Ladybug worries about Paris, which is under attack by a Sentimonster while the duo is battling Techlonizer. With the teen superheroes occupied with Techlonizer, Hawk Moth manages to steal the Eagle Miraculous from the museum exhibit.
During the battle, Chat Noir powers up his Cataclysm to attack Techlonizer, but can't find a clear shot as he's focused on protecting Sparrow from the villain's attacks. Meanwhile, Ladybug is protecting Uncanny Valley and trying to figure out her Lucky Charm. LadyNoir have their normal back and forth about Ladybug coming up with a plan, and she makes a snide comment about not trusting Chat Noir anymore since he broke his promise to stay and protect Paris. Startled by Ladybug's words, Chat Noir drops his guard and is instantly thrown by Techlonizer; aimed straight for Ladybug, Cataclysm first. Uncanny Valley steps in the way and is destroyed by Chat Noir's power instead. Majestia, sensing her daughter's demise (or something like that?), rushes to the scene and pummels Techlonizer. As Majestia mourns, Ladybug uses her Lucky Charm to restore the city and Uncanny Valley. While no permanent harm was done, Chat Noir is still stricken with guilt, and Knight Owl demands the Parisian superheroes relinquish their powers while in the US. Ladybug refuses, and she and Chat Noir run from Knight Owl.
Safely hidden, LadyNoir discover the Sentimonster vanished from Paris, meaning any and all destruction to their home city is now permanent; Ladybug can no longer repair it with a Lucky Charm. Feeling even more guilt, Adrien, out of sight from Marinette, renounces Plagg and his possession of the Cat Ring. He then sprints off before Ladybug can stop him.
Both Marinette and Adrien then separately wander the rainy and empty streets of New York; the city is on lockdown since Techlonizer was still at large. As the teens return to the hotel their class is staying at, Gabriel sends a car to pick up Adrien, declaring the trip too dangerous and demanding he takes a private jet home ASAP. Adrien turns to Marinette in hopes she'll convince him and his father that Adrien should stay, but she's too distraught over Chat Noir and remains silent. After Adrien drives off Alya yells at Marinette for not saying anything in Adrien's time of need, and Marinette runs after the car. She can't catch up, however, and, even more defeated, continues to wander the city alone.
Meanwhile, Techlonizer - now Miraclonizer after Hawk Moth gave him the Eagle Miraculous - uses his Miraculous power to remove the moral inhibitions of the adult superheroes, causing them to run amok within the city. This gives Miraclonizer and Hawk Moth free rein to hold the whole world hostage as there are no superheroes left to stop them, and Miraclonizer gained control over American missiles; readying them to launch. The city's - and world's - only hope is Uncanny Valley, Sparrow, Ladybug, and Chat Noir. Uncanny confesses that her robotic brain was able to see through the magic that normally conceals Ladybug's and Chat Noir's identities, so she knows exactly who to look for, and flies off in search of Marinette. Meanwhile, Sparrow tries to negate as much damage caused by the superheroes as possible.
Uncanny Valley finds Marinette alone, lets her know that she knows Marinette is Ladybug, and asks for her assistance. Marinette laments the loss of her partner and admits she doesn't think she can be Ladybug without him. Uncanny offers to return Chat Noir's ring to him. She then flies off and breaks into the private jet flying Adrien home. She offers the Cat Ring back to him, but he refuses to accept it, stating that there was no way Ladybug could forgive him. Uncanny plays an audio recording of Marinette stating she couldn't imagine being Ladybug without her Chat Noir; convincing Adrien to take on the mantle again. Uncanny and Chat Noir then meet up with Sparrow and Ladybug.
Ladybug comes up with a plan to get the Miraculous away from Miraclonizer, return the adult superheroes to their senses, and then collectively take down Techlonizer so she can cleanse the akuma. The plan goes off without a hitch, and in the process Ladybug gives control of the Eagle Miraculous to Sparrow. After defeating Techlonizer, and restoring both the superheroes and New York City, Majestia and Knight Owl apologize for being so harsh with Ladybug and Chat Noir earlier. Ladybug then leaves the Eagle Miraculous with Sparrow as its holder.
The Parisian superheroes promise to meet up again in Paris, and then Uncanny Valley and Chat Noir fly back to the plane so Adrien's absence isn't noticed. Marinette and her class close out the evening holding up a sign saying hi to Adrien during a news feed about Ladybug and Chat Noir saving New York; explaining why the superhero duo wasn't around to protect Paris. It's implied the Parisians don't mind the heavy cleanup to repair their city since they understand LadyNoir saving NYC instead.
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Okay, that was a lot, but it was also an hour-long special, so I feel I was able to condense that down fairly succinctly. Everything I included is fairly crucial for understanding both Plot Bunny #5 and what I actually wrote last Friday.
The main concept was birthed upon my sixth-or-so rewatch of the special. Uncanny Valley confesses to Marinette, "Your suit's quantum-masking is meant to confuse human minds, Ladybug. I am not human." This canonically explains why Uncanny could figure out Ladybug's and Chat Noir's identities (there are fans who have pointed out that this means Max's AI friend Markov must therefore also know who the superheroes truly are). This is all well and good, however, earlier in the special, when Techno-Pirate first shows up in his akumatized form Techlonizer, Aeon tries to scan him to better understand his new superpowers. Confused, she tells Jess that she can't get a proper read, "...as if magic were interfering with my scanning tools."
Add in that Plagg reminds Adrien that kwamis can't be registered by technology when Uncanny Valley can't see or hear Plagg. Finally, sprinkle in Ladybug's comments to Lady Wifi from season 1 about the masks and costumes being magical. Tie them all together, and what if the magic that created the suits caused enough interference with Uncanny's scanning that she couldn't see who is hidden under the costumes after all? What if Uncanny Valley didn't know Marinette was Ladybug, and couldn't return the ring to Adrien because she also didn't know who Chat Noir was?
That was the initial jumping point for the Plagg Appreciation Day story. From there I wondered, "Plagg is the only one who knows that Adrien was Chat Noir, so what if it's actually Plagg who gets the ring back to the kid?" In the end, I more-or-less went with that concept for the story I posted on Friday. However, before I whittled back down to that idea, the plot ballooned. Plagg couldn't tell Marinette the name of his holder, and I'm not sure if the magic also restricts him from pointing to Adrien to mime to Marinette who Chat Noir was, so he couldn't get the ring back to Adrien that way. Instead, I had this whole plotline planned out where Tikki and Plagg work together to convince Marinette that Adrien would be a good "replacement" Chat Noir. In the end, Marinette agrees, Ladybug offers the ring to Adrien, he accepts, and the duo tearfully re-unite with Ladybug now knowing the identity of her partner. In return, she de-transforms so he knows who she is too. They no longer have any secrets between the two of them. Yay, happy ending!
Except, this is HEAVILY focused on Love Square and their dynamic instead of Plagg. It's also such an involved story that there was no way I would be able to write it in the one day I had left.
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OKAY! SPOILERS OVER NOW! YOU CAN START READING AGAIN IF YOU SKIPPED THE LAST PART!
For those who skipped that huge section up there, first of all, sorry to force you to scroll past a heavy portion of this post. The special is an hour long, so I had quite a bit to recap to make sure my story made sense for everyone interested in reading it. Secondly, the spoiler-free version of the above is that the story I posted on Friday is an alternate telling of the NY special's ending so that Plagg has more agency.
For those of you who don't care about spoilers, or who have seen the special already, you can find my story in my normal four haunts.
Word Count: 5,683
Rating: General Audiences
Since it's been up for a week now, might as well get into the stats of the thing.
FFN: 114 views, 7 favorites, 5 followers, and 4 reviews
AO3: 281 hits, 32 kudos, 2 bookmarks, and 3 comments
DA: 34 views and 4 favorites; no comments though
Total Results: 429 views, 43 faves, 7 followers, and 7 reviews
Tumblr Notes: 13 total - 11 likes and 2 reblogs
Reviews:
1. *cries and applauds at the same time* beautiful. This broke my heart then repaired it again. This was amazing. I love it (from TLOS21)
2. Love the bromance Plagg/Adrien. Beautiful story (from Kapel85)
3. (one of Taurus Pixie's semi-lengthy reviews; please see below)
4. Oh I love this! Especially with how it puts more of a spotlight on how Plagg could have had a bigger role in the resolution of the NY special. Because yeah, [REDACTED DUE TO SPOILERS INCLUDED IN THE REVIEW], and I just love him and Adrien loving and appreciating each other! Also Plagg confessing that he was the one who pushed Chat into not telling Ladybug he was leaving; that IS something he bears some responsibility for. (from Keyseeker)
5. I absolutely squealed when I saw a story from you in my inbox. This made my month. Plagg is absolutely one of my favourite characters, and I think you did a grest job keeping him at the forefront of this story. (from MalcolmReynolds)
You may notice that my reviews count doesn't match with the number of reviews I actually shared here. Unfortunately, the first review I got on this story was just someone dumping salt all over Marinette and Tikki, and really had no relation to my story whatsoever. I wasn't about ready to perpetuate it by posting it here. The second missing review wasn't actually a review per se. I had replied to Keyseeker's review that, even with my rewrite of the special's ending, I still appreciated the ending we got and the thought the writers must have put into it. Someone else responded to that reply, and that is the 2nd missing "review."
Oh, geez, you guys! You are all way too sweet. I- I can't-
Also, thank you, Pixie, for this one line in your review: "I can't believe you managed to write this high quality piece in such a short span of time!" I'm beginning to think that maybe writing nearly 6000 words, polishing it, and formatting it for 4 different website uploads within the span of about 12 hours is.... fast?? Not the normal pacing for most amateur writers?
And here I thought I was both going painfully slow and wasting my entire day off last week.
See, the reason last Friday "got away from me", as I mentioned at the top of this post, was because I did not intend for this story to take me the whole day to write. I started it at about 7:30 or 8 in the morning, or something like that. I had intended to have it written and published by about noon; maybe 1pm. It was a rare day that both Hubby and I had off together, so I had every intention of getting the story done, write the blog post promoting the story, get some grocery shopping and laundry done, maybe work on some much needed joint chores around the house - such as rotating our mattress and cleaning the windows - and then spend the evening snuggling and just enjoying having some time together.
Well... apparently a surprisingly larger number than I give credit. Also, only a month-or-so ago I had someone comment on a story I wrote back in 2017 for my never-played Numenera character Jynna. A story I even forgot I wrote, and they said such sweet things about it: "Awesome story! I would love to see more. Your descriptions put me right in the setting, and I like the voice." So... that's cool.
Anyway, back to last Friday. Between formatting my story for FFN, AO3, and Tumblr - which in and of itself was a pain - gathering up my laundry, and then sprinting over to the grocery store before it closed for the bare essentials to tide us over...
I was not a happy camper by the time I got home at about 9:30 at night. Especially since I zipped out of the house the moment I was done writing my story, instead of, ya know, eating dinner first. Hubby fed me and hung up the clothes that need to be line-dried. Meanwhile, I tried to calm myself with some Animal Crossing to get my dailies in, and then I continued battling with Tumblr and DA. By the time I was finished publishing my story in my normal 4 spots, it was past midnight, and I was exhausted, and frustrated that I "wasted" the day instead of spending a rare joint-day-off with my husband, and mad that I didn't get the story up soon enough for people to actually read it on the 13th, and mad that I didn't get to my blog post when I had it all planned.
It was not a good day for time management, and I was already hormonal, so.... it was just not a good day.
Thank God for my husband, who was nothing but understanding and supportive and a wonderful caretaker last weekend.
I don't think that image properly conveys my love for this man, but I think you guys get the idea.
