Decision Made: Peeping Tomcat Wins

OK. I think I have a decision made. I'm still way behind on my prep-work, and the concept is just growing larger and larger, but I think I'm going with the "Miraculous Ladybug" story "Peeping Tomcat." I even created the NaNo profile for the story officially. I guess it helped that I already had a title for it, and "Varekai: A Novelization" is kind of boring, title wise.

For anyone who wishes to, feel free to check out my profile and/or add me as a writing buddy. I'm LycoRogue over at NaNoWriMo as well.

As for how I came to this conclusion? Well, oddly enough it was because I realized I had nothing plotted. Last week I decided to try to figure out which story I was more set to use for NaNoWriMo, so I tried to plot each one out. This way I knew where my holes were, what I needed to focus on, and which story called more to me.

I didn't even bother trying to plot out the Varekai one. I started working on Peeping Tomcat, and I wanted to address two of the main issues I came across with my pantsing version of it. Mainly, if Cat Noir was spying on Marinette for a month, like I originally had, how the HECK did he not spot Tikki sooner, since she never hides while she and Marinette believe themselves alone, and how did Adrien not notice that Marinette has pictures of him basically wallpapering two walls of her bedroom!?

I couldn't really justify him being so laser focused on Marinette to miss those two huge secrets for a solid month. Even a week is hard, but I wanted him to get into the habit and showcase that it's becoming an addiction for him.

So I started plotting things out under the assumption that he was going to discover Tikki about a week after he started spying on Marinette, so I had to up my game of him realizing he might like his classmate.

It was when I had him spot the pictures of himself on day six that I realized my problem, but also realized that this was the story I was going to do next month.

He freaked out realizing that Marinette liked Adrien, and to a near-obsessive level. It's understandable. He's about 15, and even though he's a bit of a minor celebrity within Paris due to his modeling, it's still a bit overwhelming to realize one of your best friends is basically in love with you. Not that he can really judge.

I was originally going to run with it, thinking it would be fun to have him sort through the whole "Marinette likes me" thing as he also starts to realize he likes her back, and she's Ladybug. Then I thought of a scene I already have in the original PT story. Adrien is a bit slow on the uptake, so he hasn't quite grasped that Marinette is Ladybug, but he is starting to see the parallels. When Plagg teases Adrien that he needs to just admit that he likes Marinette, Adrien freaks out that he really doesn't, since he never thought of Marinette romantically until he started to see the LB parallels. Feeling guilty because he thinks he's just projecting his feelings for LB onto Mari, Adrien takes a sick day from school to try to take the time to sort things out. When he decides to talk to Marinette and confess that he was spying on her he's distracted by the fact that Mari, Nino, and Alya are all at his front gate trying to offer him soup that Marinette made. Adrien's father's assistant Natalie turns them away without accepting the gift, and Cat Noir follows the trio back to Marinette's. He overhears how the soup was Mari's idea and how she put a lot of effort into making it to try to make Adrien feel better. Alya convinces Marinette to try to give him the soup again the next day, which perks Mari up as she decides that's exactly what she'll do.

In this scene, Adrien gets another glimpse of Marinette, one of her in public without Adrien causing her to be nervous. It's a part of her that is distinctly not Ladybug-like, and yet it's another reason why Adrien starts to fall for her. He feels like a heel that he's spying on her to find out more about her, and yet she's able to know exactly what would make him feel better without stalking. Little does he know that she is probably way more of a stalker than Adrien could ever be.

Either way, it's a way for him to fall for Marinette that is absolutely not LB-related, helping him realize that he does indeed like her for her, not just because she's his superhero partner. It also makes him realize how sweet of a friend she is to put in that effort. If he knew that she liked him before this scene, then it taints it. She's no longer a friend dropping off soup to make him feel better. She's a girl trying to find an excuse to woo the guy she likes. She becomes kind of Chloe-like at that point.

So, I feel like I have to try to avoid Adrien realizing Marinette likes him until after that scene. Sure, it still sort of taints the effort once he puts two and two together, but it's more of an "ah, the soup makes so much more sense now" after he's already realized his feelings, instead of "well, she does like me, so trying to make me feel better seems natural" before he sorts his feelings out. If anything, finding out Marinette likes Adrien might push him more towards Ladybug again.

OK, but I'm back to the original problem of how does he not notice the pictures of himself!? How does he not spot Tikki?

I couldn't think of a plausible way to avoid those early reveals. Was there a way to have a soup-like scene where he realizes a non-Ladybug trait of Marinette's that makes him realize he likes her for her? Would the soup scene be that tainted? Can he work past it? What about if he discovers she's Ladybug first? How would that effect the other two reveals?

That's when I truly and honestly knew I had no clue what to do with this story. I had three major revelations that Adrien had to go through - he likes Marinette, Marinette likes Adrien, and Marinette is Ladybug - but I wasn't sure what order to reveal them to the little cinnamon roll.

I tried plotting them out with bulleted lists, but it got too complicated. So I went with Plan B: notecards.

This stack has 16 cards. Just ONE possible plot line!

Ten cards are JUST for the Adrienette plot line first.
I'm not even done yet. I still need him to realize Mari likes him.

Each card is roughly one scene within the story. Depending on how it is written, it may be one scene per chapter.... Anyway, the green cards are main plot points that won't change no matter what order the reveals are. These are scenes such as Adrien starting to spy on Marinette in the first place, and how he's grown addicted to doing so. The orange cards are Akuma attacks. I feel like I need to add one more to the stack to finish up the story.... The yellow card is a "special scene" where Plagg confesses his relationship with Tikki. It will be in every incarnation of this story, but the way it plays out might be different depending on the Mari is LB reveal. Finally, all those blue cards are for the scenes specific to "Adrien realizes he likes Marinette first" plot line. I have pink ones for the "Adrien discovers Mari is LB first" plot line alternative, and white ones for the "Adrien finds out Mari has a crush on him first" plot line option.

My fixation with figuring out the order of these reveals and how it would alter the rest of the story had me focused solely on PT for the past week, which made me realize that this HAS to be the story I go with for NaNoWriMo. I'm just too engrossed in figuring out the mystery of Adrien figuring out his mysteries to focus on Varekai.

Now, I have to admit, since the PT "prototype" story has the order as "Adrien suspects he likes Mari, he finds out she's LB, he knows he likes her, he finds out she likes Adrien," I'm partial to keep that order. It still leaves me with the same two questions:

How does he miss the pictures of himself?
How does he not spot Tikki?

I went back to the notebook for those questions.

I basically broke down where Cat Noir was in relation to Marinette each night he watched her. What was Mari doing? What window was CN at? How was the lighting? What angle was CN at compared to the pictures of Adrien? I plotted six of them out. That sixth one was tricky, though. I have him watching a quiet moment with her to showcase how drawn in he became that it wasn't boring to watch her.... read... or whatever. This also meant he had "downtime" to scan her room for more info about her, and thus finding the pictures, or even Tikki.

I then came up with an interesting question: would Adrien necessarily realize Marinette likes him if he saw the pictures?

He's not an idiot. He has proven that he's a great student; a potential valedictorian. He doesn't even need to really pay attention in class to still keep up with the lesson and know the correct answers. He's a smart man. He also is intelligent enough to follow Ladybug's lead without much communication, therefore keeping her plan secret from the Akuma Villain they are attacking at the time.

However, how does he NOT already know Marinette is fixated with him with all the rambling and tripping over her own tongue she does? She's a nervous wreck around him and talks like a bumbling fool, and yet he just shrugs it off as "Marinette being Marinette" - which is kind of the starting premise of my story. There's also the frustration of every fan that he can't figure out that Mari is LB just based on the fact that there aren't that many half-Asian teenage girls in pigtails just walking around Paris. How does he NOT put two and two together? He even feared that "his" Ladybug was actually Chloe, even though Chloe still had her blonde ponytail while she was cosplaying as LB. Does he NOT pay attention!?

I have some theories, as do many fans, but I won't get into that. I just wanted to paint the picture of who Adrien is, as presented in the show. Based on his level of observation thus far, I really don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities that he misreads why Marinette has pictures of him.

Most of the pictures are actually magazine ads ripped out and taped to her wall. Marinette doesn't keep it secret that she not only wants to be a fashion designer, but also that Adrien's dad Gabriel is Marinette's favorite designer. I don't think it's that far fetched to assume that, assuming Adrien only spots a few of the pictures by her sewing station, he justifies the pictures as Marinette studying Gabriel's designs. Especially since it seems Gabriel uses his son exclusively as a model for his teenage line, so there wouldn't be any non-Adrien pictures showcasing Gabriel's work. Adrien could even think of trying to gift Marinette some of his dad's old sketches, should he convince Gabriel to fork them over.

I still have to play with the idea a bit, and I have to figure out, canonically, what pictures Marinette has where to see if it's even plausible. However, I might have taken care of that first issue. Maybe after he started figuring out his feelings for Marinette does he finally spot how many photos Mari truly has of him, letting him know of her crush back. I'm still trying to figure that out too.

That leaves the Tikki issue. I haven't locked that down yet, but I have about 15 days to figure that out. In the meantime, I'm still working on those notecards.

I'm also still working on those Akuma Villains.

Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comic books
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

I still need to figure out the villains for this story, and I've been so preoccupied as to how Adrien figures out what and in what order that I haven't worked any further on the Akumas. The only thing I do know? I'm probably not going to be using Headline after all.

The more I worked on the story the more I realized that, regardless of revelation order, Adrien comes to the same conclusion: Marinette may like Adrien, but Ladybug doesn't like Cat Noir, at least, not romantically. How could he have a relationship with Marinette if his alter ego, and arguably his "true" self, Cat Noir was still left out in the rain? He also can't just reveal himself to Mari - maybe I WILL keep Headline so he comes to that conclusion? - because how will he know if she likes CN for who he truly is, or if she just likes CN now because she knows it's Adrien?

He took the time to decide if he likes Mari for Mari or if he only likes her because she's LB. He decided that he likes both sides of her. He decided that he likes Marinette, and it's because of who she truly is that he loves Ladybug. He needs to know that she came to the same conclusion. He needs to know that Marinette will like Cat Noir for Cat Noir, not just because he's actually Adrien.

All I can think of now is the movie "You've Got Mail." Specifically that movie, not the play/movie "The Shop Around the Corner" it was based off of, mainly because of a main twist the update made. I'm talking about how Tom Hank's character Joe Fox unofficially convinces Meg Ryan's character Kathleen Kelly to want her pen pal NY152 to be Joe.

A little info for any who haven't watched the rom-com, beware of spoilers.

Kathleen and Joe met in a chatroom, knowing only each other's online handles: Shopgirl and NY152. They start becoming email pen-pals while being careful to keep their anonymity. They also start to fall for each other despite both being in a relationship already. The problem is, Joe Fox is part-owner of a mega bookstore chain whereas Kathleen owns a tiny corner bookstore that used to be her mothers. Joe, walking his half-brother and "technically aunt" around the neighborhood where his latest store will be built, comes across Kathleen's store. The two hit it off, until she realizes he's the man running her out of business. They obviously come to verbal blows. Separate from their real world interactions, Shopgirl and NY152 decide it's finally time to meet up. Joe gets to the meet point late and discovers Shopgirl is none other than the "irritating" Kathleen. It takes him a bit to come to terms with this, but then wonders how NY152 could ever make things work with Shopgirl if Kathleen hates Joe for forcing her to close her shop. He decides to stand her up as NY152, and just "happen" upon her as Joe. He mocks NY152, but Kathleen defends her "missing" companion. Joe then purposely tries to "happen" upon Kathleen as much as possible. He slowly charms her into becoming his friend while also delaying a second potential meet-up as NY152. He stays charming as NY152 so that Kathleen still desperately wants to meet him, even if Joe tries to convince her that NY152 isn't worth her time. Over the course of about six months, Kathleen and her boyfriend break up, and Joe does the same with his girlfriend. Kathleen and Joe become even closer, and Kathleen is desperate to meet NY152 finally. Once Joe is certain that Kathleen is torn between her feelings for NY152 and her feelings for Joe, he has NY152 arrange a meet-up. When Joe finally reveals himself as NY152 Kathleen is elated that her two loves are one and the same, uttering the quote "I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be you so badly."

OK, so that's the movie. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to translate it into ML, but I like the idea of Cat Noir kind of nit-picking Adrien until Marinette falls for the goofy superhero as well. Once he knows she's torn between the two, he'll reveal himself to be Adrien, and she'll have the same iconic line; elated that her two loves are the same man.

Granted, I'm going to have to rewatch the movie to get a refresher on how exactly Joe woos Kathleen over, but I still think it's a fun idea. An appropriate one, too. It's a bit of a weird role reversal though.

In "You've Got Mail" the idea is Kathleen likes a man whose identity she doesn't know, meanwhile, a man she does know and can't stand becomes a friend and then a love interest. Meanwhile the man she knows is bashing his alter ego to try to get Kathleen to like him instead. In the end, she still wants to know who the man she originally liked was, and was happy it was the man she knew.

This formula would work better as a genderswap with CN and LB. Adrien likes a woman whose identity he doesn't know, meanwhile, a woman he does know becomes his friend and then love interest. The woman he knows is bashing her alter ego - LB - to try to get Adrien to fall for her instead. In the end, Adrien still wants to know who the woman he originally liked was, and is happy to find out it's the woman he knew personally, AKA Marinette.

However.... I am a stickler for the idea that Adrien, in his pursuit to find the woman he loves, discovers Marinette first. Besides, it's a lot easier to realize Ladybug is Marinette than it is to realize Cat Noir is Adrien.

So, we do a bit of a role reversal. Instead of Marinette being like Kathleen and liking a man she doesn't know the identity to - NY152 and Cat Noir - she instead likes the man she knows: Adrien. Instead of the man she knows - Joe and Adrien - being the annoyance who has to woo her, it's the man she doesn't know - Cat Noir - who has to win her over. The same tactics apply, though. This will bring about a lot of the Marichat shippers I think.

It's a bit too big for the existing story, though, and the mood of the story would be different. So, I'm playing with the idea that Peeping Tomcat ends with Adrien knowing all the facts: Marinette is Ladybug, she likes Adrien, and Adrien likes Marinette back regardless of if she's Ladybug. I need to make it a nice conclusion for that story, but leave the readers wanting the full-reveal.

That's where "One and the Same" will come into play. It won't be a Miraculous Ladybug/You've Got Mail crossover per se. Marinette won't be Kathleen, and Adrien won't be Joe. Still, it will be inspired by the movie and it will have Adrien's playful attempts as Cat Noir to woo Marinette until the final reveal of Adrien being Cat Noir, and the two finally being together. I think for THAT story I'll use Headline. She will start off the story to convince CN how dangerous it is that he knows who Ladybug is. It's also a nice way to let the readers know he has this information if they didn't read Peeping Tomcat. However, she could also be a great final villain of PT to convince Adrien to not reveal himself once he knows Mari is LB.

I'm still trying to figure it out. I also need a new copy of "You've Got Mail" so I can really get the feel of the plot. I have it on good old VHS, but that's not much help when I don't have a way to hook up my VCR.... assuming it still works after being in storage for six years.

However I handle the story and apparent follow-up that already sprang up, I at least know I'm doing this next month. I also know what things I really need to crack down on in the next two weeks: how to avoid Adrien discovering Tikki too early, and who the HECK are going to be my villains!?

Feel free to drop me some suggestions below in the comments section. You can also tell me if you're planning on doing NaNo as well and what your concept is. It's fun to see what everyone is working on.