History Fanfic / MiraculousEscalation

** Similarly, the vision Taylor experiences when connecting to [[spoiler:her first Champion]] really puts the Locker situation into perspective on the trauma scale.

** Chloé is brought along when Chat Noir starts popping [[spoiler:Grey Boy bubbles]] mostly to stop it from happening again. She has trouble not having one of her own, which is where the [[spoiler:PRT-mandated]] psychologist OC Marcie comes in to watch out for both of them.

* ThisIsAWorkOfFiction: Earth Bet TV does not feature real Parahumans as characters, ever since the [[DaysOfOurLivesSoap Opera ''Days Of Our Capes'']] [[TooDumbToLive ran a Slaughterhouse Nine arc that Jack Slash "took exception" to]].

--> '''Taylor:''' You didn't telegraph that at all.

** [[spoiler:Defiant, Chat Noir and Queen Bee]] for the forces fighting the Butcher.

** [[spoiler:And lastly, Khepri herself]] for Arcadia High.

** Later, when [[ApocalypseHow Gold Morning]] begins, Taylor reaches two at once: She resorts to using [[spoiler: [[SuperpoweredEvilSide an akuma]], rather than calling a Champion]], and she uses it on [[spoiler:''the Simurgh'', as a means of controlling ''all of the other Endbringers''. That's technically ''twenty-one Godzillas'' responding to the threshold]].

** Hawkmoth ends up having one when [[spoiler:Chat Noir accuses him of kidnapping his mother Emilie Agreste as this unintentionally tells Hawkmoth that one of his worst enemies is ''his own son'']].
** Seeing the general state of [[CrapsackWorld Earth-Bet]] causes Chloé to realize how petty her issues are compared to everyone else's.

** Chloé is brought along when [[spoiler:Chat Noir starts popping Grey Boy bubbles]] mostly to stop it from happening again. She has trouble not having one of her own, which is where the [[spoiler:PRT-mandated psychologist]] OC Marcie comes in to watch out for both of them.
* HopeBringer: Chat Noir becomes one once it is realized that [[spoiler:he can destroy Grey Boy's bubbles, saving thousands of people and ending the suffering of not only them but all their loved ones]]. Rena Rouge gains a more... fervent following after [[spoiler:countering Mama Mathers' power and inspiring all of Brockton Bay with Mirage]].

** [[spoiler:Marinette writes a note to Kagami, telling her to recover Tikki and the earrings if she dies and return them to Master Fu, which she leaves with Imp before going to confront Mama Mathers.]]
* InnocenceLost: The entire Miraculous team has this after being sent to Earth Bet, with Adrien in particular taking things hard due to [[spoiler:[[TheseHandsHaveKilled having to use his powers to kill Echidna to stop her rampage]]]].

** Mama Mathers, a Master worshipping the Simurgh, is [[spoiler:completely thwarted by Rena Rouge, a hero using flute songs that fill everyone with hope]]. Something which was mercilessly lampshaded by readers.

* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler: The Slaughterhouse Nine]]. It's what happens when you get on the wrong side of Cauldron.

* NightmareFuel: InUniverse. Pretty much everything they learn about Earth Bet ends up being this for the Miraculous characters, which does lead to a few moments where the heroes lose their lunches.

** It's mentioned that [[spoiler: Khonsu, the new Endbringer,]] may have appeared to counter Rescue's power.

* NuclearOption: One actual and one proposed, at the exact same time no less. When the Fallen begin their attack on Brockton Bay, Tagg goes straight to [[spoiler: a ''Simurgh''-tier quarantine to prevent their escape, with the specific reasoning of it being worse than the alternatives]]. The second one is actual intercity missiles, in case the first plan doesn't work.

** [[MassOhCrap Everyone's reaction]] to the countdown to Gold Morning [[spoiler: being cut down to six months]].
** The debut appearance of [[spoiler: Khonsu]] elicits this reaction both in-universe and out.

** [[spoiler: Echidna rampaging through Paris]] was ''much'' more destructive than the average Akuma incident, the large force fighting against [[spoiler:her]] was well beyond Ladybug's usual team management, [[TouchOfDeath Chat Noir]] [[BleedEmAndWeep finds himself forced over a]] GodzillaThreshold, and Ladybug exhausts herself trying to clean up the mess.
** Whatever the Fallen and the Teeth were expecting in Brockton Bay, [[spoiler: Miraculouses]] ''weren't'' it. The Protectorate and PRT find themselves in a similar situation, diplomatically speaking, in the aftermath.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Skitter doesn't have a good intro to the world of Miraculous Ladybug. For starters, she doesn't speak the native tongue, and with her costume and powers getting her mistaken for an Akuma, Chat and Ladybug attack her, so she responds by attacking them back.

* RulesLawyer: Taylor's first thought on learning that the miraculous wish has a price is wondering if it can be gamed. When Tikki and Plagg later explain how it really works, she immediately drops the idea.

** [[spoiler: When Behemoth attacks L.A., Khepri empowers a young woman with the ability to transport people in bubbles, noted to be very similar to the Bubbler from ''Miraculous Ladybug'' canon. She evacuates the entire civilian population of L.A. (minus [[TooDumbToLive those who want to stay behind for a chance to loot in the confusion]]), and during the actual fight medevacs out severely injured heroes, keeping the cape casualties under a dozen.]]

* SuperpoweredAlterEgo: While Marinette/Ladybug has a certain degree of this anyway, the nature of the miraculouses makes all of the miraculous transformations be considered as separate individuals by ''Worm'' powers. [[spoiler:This is exploited to make Marinette immune to Mama Mathers' power, allowing Ladybug to experience it and then de-transform to report the information]].

* ThisIsAWorkOfFiction: Earth Bet TV does not feature real Parahumans as characters, ever since the Soap Opera ''Days Of Our Capes'' [[TooDumbToLive ran a Slaughterhouse Nine arc that Jack Slash "took exception" to]].

** [[spoiler:Echidna]] breaks down into an angry and spiteful tirade when [[spoiler: Chat Noir Cataclysms her]].

* YouAreInCommandNow: Ladybug takes over [[spoiler:the fight against Echidna]] when it [[spoiler: spills over into Paris]].

** ''Worm'' Thinker powers in general have this problem around [[spoiler:the kwami and the miraculouses]], up to and including Contessa, the Simurgh, and ''Scion''. Tattletale's shard completely checks out when [[spoiler:Ladybug and Chat Noir make the miraculous wish and become the embodiments of creation and entropy]].

* AbominationAccusationAttack: Ladybug attempts to compare Skitter's scare-tactics in their universe to the Simurgh's tactics in hers. This later prompts Chloé into giving Ladybug a WhatTheHellHero speech.

* AloofBigBrother: Of all the conceptual beings to gain a Kwami avatar, the only one not to do so was the eldest of them. While most see them as their eldest sibling, and Plagg enjoys blaming them for when he accidentally destroys anything, Tikki has nothing but disdain for them. The concept in question? [[spoiler:Destiny]].
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: The Kwami are revealed to be the avatars of living concepts. While their true forms are all powerful and all knowing, they wanted to create limited versions of themselves in order to be able to make limited changes. Plagg learned this the hard way.

* BadassBoast: Ladybug gives one to [[spoiler:Legend, Chevalier, Tattletale, and a crowd of Capes]] when Hawkmoth accidentally [[spoiler: sets Echidna loose in Paris]]:
--> [[spoiler:Chevalier: "Who is in charge here?"]]
--> [[spoiler:Ladybug "I am."]]
--> [[spoiler:Chevalier: "You-- You look--"]]
--> [[spoiler:Ladybug: "I'm the person who has been defending this city for the last two years. I'm the person who is watching my people get killed, and I am the person who you are going to tell ''how we are going to stop this monster''!"]]

** Mama Mathers spends the entirety of Arc 15 trying to get [[spoiler:Ladybug]] to come to her. Once the heroine actually shows up, she only waits to ascertain that the Fallen won't surrender before killing Mathers, while calling for an air-strike.

* DarkerAndEdgier: When Taylor and the Wormverse are involved, this is inevitable. However, this depiction of the Miraculous setting has elements of this on its own. The miraculous holders take their protection duties more seriously, such as holding akuma scrimmages, and Paris is shown to have a criminal underworld that Hawkmoth has connections in. Additionally, Taylor brings up a ''very'' valid concern about the damage their enforced secret identities can and do cause in their civilian lives, because they can't be credited for the time and effort spent as Paris' heroes that disrupts their short- and long-term plans.

* DemographicDissonantCrossover: ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' is a MagicalGirl show aimed toward kids, while ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' is an extremely dark {{Deconstruction}} of the CapePunk setting aimed toward adults and older teens. Much of the story is showing how the mixing of these two leads to a grayer morality for both sides.
* {{Determinator}}: During the city-wide battle against the Fallen, [[spoiler:Rena Rouge keeps playing her flute to block Mama Mathers' power even as she bleeds out of her ears, eyes, mouth and nose and her fingers can barely move because of the second degree burns she's suffering.]]

--> "The Simurgh appears to be a powerful pre-cog. Not only are those exposed to her scream turned into Simurgh bombs, they often appear, even if by coincidence, in places where they can do the most damage, such as the Tinker formerly known as Sphere, now widely known as Mannequin of the Slaughterhouse Nine. For this reason, heroes fighting the Simurgh are required to wear trackers with suicide charges in them, and cities are quarantined if they are exposed for too long." She looked up at Ladybug, then went back to reading. "However, the high number of suicides and other mental issues among quarantine zone troops opens the question: are they part of a Simurgh plot?" Chloé tossed the papers down. "I don't know if they're right, but you sort of told a Jewish person that you bet they were onboard with Team Nazi."

** Not that Hawkmoth sees his actions as evil, but part of that is because he deliberately chooses "jilted teens, depressed bird enthusiasts and others" who aren't so intentionally inflicting real harm that they might cause damage the miraculous cure wouldn't be able to fix. Plus, they're less likely to [[TheStarscream turn on him]].

* EvilIsPetty: Valefor more or less gives gives a teenaged girl anorexia for selling t-shirts commemorating Leviathan's defeat.

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:While Mama Mathers still dies, Tikki makes sure to show her how utterly ''insignificant'' she and her "gods" are in the greater scheme of thing. The woman is completely broken before she expires.]]

** Hawkmoth ends up having one when [[spoiler:Chat Noir accuses him of kidnapping his mother, Emilie Agreste, as this unintentionally tells Hawkmoth that one of his worst enemies is ''his own son'']].

* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:After killing Echidna/Noelle]], Adrien has one and Plagg tries to help him through it.
-->'''Plagg:'''You spared her worse pain, you spared others pain. And I know it hurts, because someone who doesn't care is the last person who should wield me. You care, you hurt, but you're still one of the best to ever bear my ring.
** Chloé is brought along when [[spoiler:Chat Noir starts popping Grey Boy bubbles]] mostly to stop it from happening again. She has troubles not having one of her own, which is where the [[spoiler:PRT-mandated psychologist]] OC Marcie comes in to watch out for both of them.

* TheLastDance: A dying pastor gets empowered by [[spoiler:Khepri to become the Knight of the Unbroken City]], enabling him to fight the Fallen and the Teeth in his last day of life.

* MakeAWish: The Wish is discussed heavily later into the story as a solution to [[spoiler:Scion and the Entities]], despite the potential of BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor. [[spoiler:When it's actually made, it isn't twisted at all, due to [[BigGood Destiny]] being impressed by the purity of the wish and their accepting whatever cost will come to them for it.]]

* MemorialForTheAntagonist: Chat Noir is impacted so much by [[spoiler:Cataclysming Noelle]] that, by the time of the epiloque, he has a physical memorial statue of her set up at her grave in Paris, and he names one of his kids after her.

** When she ''does'' try to communicate peacefully, Skitter's usual coercion techniques terrifies Alya by implying that she's holding Alya's family hostage- she wasn't, for the record, she's just ''really'' bad at not being terrifying.

-->'''Chat Noir:''' "I have friends who play RPG's and I'm never letting you near them. You'd come up with the most broken character in the history of games."

** [[spoiler: Echidna]] is this for Skitter's first attempt to get back home.

* SuperEmpowering: Hawkmoth, like usual. He turns Taylor into Gatekeeper with the power to open portals to other worlds.
** [[spoiler:He then goes one step further and [[PassingTheTorch gives her the Butterfly Miraculous when he realizes that she will need much more power to defend against Echidna]]]].

--> '''Marinette:''' "A good holder. Brave, strong, and gentle?"
--> '''Tikki:''' "Er... the first two, certainly."

* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: Tikki shows [[spoiler:Mama Mathers]] exactly what she truly is in her last moments and [[spoiler:the woman]] is only able to grasp how vast the force behind the polkadotted creature is.

* AbominationAccusationAttack: Ladybug attempts to compare Skitter's scare-tactics in their universe to the Simurgh's tactics in hers. This later prompts Chloe into giving Ladybug a WhatTheHellHero speech.

** Chloe remains a hero, implicitly because visiting [[CrapsackWorld Earth-Bet]] put her various [[FirstWorldProblems issues]] into context. [[spoiler:She even refrains from using the full extent of her power during the final battle with Scion, precisely because she realizes how susceptible she is to letting said power go to her head]].

* ComesGreatResponsibility: An interesting variant. In the final battle against Scion, Chloe refuses to use the deepest powers of Pollen (which would have made her a HiveQueen capable of uniting the entire defending force under her control) because she didn't trust herself to use such power without being corrupted by it.

--> “The Simurgh appears to be a powerful pre-cog. Not only are those exposed to her scream turned into Simurgh bombs, they often appear, even if by coincidence, in places where they can do the most damage, such as the Tinker formerly known as Sphere, now widely known as Mannequin of the Slaughterhouse Nine. For this reason, heroes fighting the Simurgh are required to wear trackers with suicide charges in them, and cities are quarantined if they are exposed for too long.” She looked up at Ladybug, then went back to reading. “However, the high number of suicides and other mental issues among quarantine zone troops opens the question: are they part of a Simurgh plot?” Chloe tossed the papers down. “I don’t know if they’re right, but you sort of told a Jewish person that you bet they were onboard with Team Nazi.”

** Notably {{Defied}} by Chloe, who even at the moment of uttermost need refuses to call on the deeper power of Pollen (which would have made her a HiveQueen capable of uniting the entire defending force under her control) because she doesn't trust herself to use that power without being corrupted by it.

** Seeing the general state of [[CrapsackWorld Earth-Bet]] causes Chloe to realize how petty her issues are compared to everyone else's.

** Chloe is brought along when [[spoiler:Chat Noir starts popping Grey Boy bubbles]] mostly to stop it from happening again. She has troubles not having one of her own, which is where the [[spoiler:PRT-mandated psychologist]] OC Marcie comes in to watch out for both of them.