In one timeline, Monarch had won. The heroes had been defeated and he had claimed the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous to make the wish. In desperation, Alya leaps in to grab one of the Ladybug earrings, hoping to waste his wish by wishing that people will love Marinette. After all, Marinette is already loved, so reality can’t be changed that much…
In another timeline, Alya Cesarie wakes up with a headache expecting an ordinary day. Go to school with her girlfriend Marinette and her girlfriend Chloé, then fight off Hawkmoth’s Akumas as Rena Rouge alongside Ladybug and Queen Bee. And yet she has a feeling that some things are wrong, though she can’t put her finger on it…
Alya and the Harem Reality is a Miraculous Ladybug fic by Crossoverpairinglover where a last-minute effort to stop the Big Bad’s victory leads to an entirely different world. It can be read on Archive of Our Own here
or on Fanfiction.net here.
Alya and the Harem Reality contains examples of:
- Adaptational Context Change: Per
Word of God, every villain's origin is at least a little different, if not very different, from their canon counterparts.- Princess Fragrance in canon was created after Chloé tore up her letter to her crush Prince Ali. In story she was created after some school guys made fun of her because they could tell she'd been in the hospital, causing Juleka to run off crying.
- Weredad in canon was created because Cat Noir admitted he wasn't attracted to his daughter after a series of mishaps and covers went wild. Here he was akumatized because some customers slapped his daughter on the buttocks.
- Vanisher in canon was created when Chloé outright ignored Sabrina and told her she was invisible after an argument. Here Vanisher was created because she felt like Chloé was replacing her with Marinette.
- Simon Says in canon was created when Gabriel rudely refused to take part in The Challenge and then was mocked and dragged off set on Alec's orders. In story Simon was even more quickly rebuked by Tomoe in the final round, not only costing him any chance of victory but being dialed someone who was blind and thus completely impossible for his cards to do anything to made him and the temporary hosts Aurore and Mireille feel like it wasn't fair at all.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: While the story itself is set in and around early Season 2, Ladybug and co have already fought Weredad (a Season 3 villain) and Psychomedian (A Season 4 villain).
- Adaptational Late Appearance: Simon Says was akumatized after the equivalent of Riposte, a Season 2 villain. Simon Says was originally a Season 1 villain.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In canon, Weredad was created because of Chat Noir seemingly breaking Marinette's heart. Because Chat Noir, and indeed the Cat Miraculous, hasn't appeared yet, his creation is instead attributed to two random guys.
- Adaptational Villainy: Tomoe Tsurugi is shown to have a worse relationship with her daughter Kagami than in canon, putting her through Training from Hell which leaves physical scars. At the end of chapter 2, it’s revealed she is working with Hawkmoth in developing new technology to channel magic.
- Adapted Out: While not every villain has been mentioned by name, Hawk Moth notes at the end of chapter one he has not created the villains Copycat, Kung Food, Antibug or any other Chloé villain, and Simon Says, though he does create the latter in the next chapter. He also misses out on the chance to create Befana and seemingly never created Despair Bear or Volpina.
- Alternate Personality Punishment: Downplayed. Stommp doesn’t outright attack Alya for her past self interfering with Hawk Moth's wish and indirectly causing Master Fu's death in the new timeline thanks to Trixx's vouching for her, but Stommp emphasizes not wanting to stay with her because of it .
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Played With. Alya tries to waste Monarch's attempt to use the Miraculous Wish by wishing that people would love Marinette, who is already popular, thinking it wouldn't change the world too much. This creates a new reality where not only are Alya, Chloé, and Kagami all romantically attracted to Marinette (with Marinette in a triade with Alya and Chloé by the equivalent events of season 2), but they are several other changes either because of Equivalent Exchange or because Reality Warping Is Not a Toy.
- Big Little Sister: As one of several side effects of Alya hijacking a reality-altering wish, Zoe, Chloé's younger half sister, is now taller than her. This is among several sources of grief Chloé has about Zoe in the story's universe, along with the fact she has more time with their mother and the fact Zoe is nicer and more likeable than Chloé is by Chloé's own admission.
- Call-Forward: The timeline of the new reality takes place around the time of season 2, though chapter 2 has Tomoe Tsurugi cooperating with Hawkmoth to develop magic-channeling technology as she does in the season 5 episode "Multiplication".
- The Chain of Harm: Tomoe's parents inflicted much the same training from hell she inflicts on Kagami. In fact, it's implied that Tomoe's actually nicer about it than her own parents were (Tomoe uses rubber bullets, but she was trained with regular ones).
- Composite Character: Several of the akumas in story take ideas and themes from more than just one canon source.
- Vanisher takes the name, civilian identity, and (Scarlet Lady) powerset with the debut time and location of Despair Bear.
- One Ronin is an akumatized form of Kagami that combines elements of Riposte (her sword arm, being the first, a historic Japanese helmet), Oni-Chan (her akumatization being the result of Lila, devotion to someone, Adrien for Oni-Chan and Marinette for One Ronin), and Lies (her powers involving punishing deception).
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Kagami is shown to be far too normalized to the Training from Hell her mother Tomoe puts her through to really notice that it’s not normal or okay. She often has to deal with attack robots breaking into her locker room for surprise training and treats the idea casually, and doesn't notice Rena Rougue's horrified expression at the visible bullet scars on her legs. Part of the reason Kagami treats her life as normal stems from how Kagami's mother went through similar trials in both her childhood and the present. In fact, it is even implied that Tomoe's training was worse so from Kagami's perspective she has it easy.
- Covert Pervert: While Marinette is still the same sweet Nice Girl as in the old timeline, she's not above having perverted thoughts about her girlfriends. When she finds out that Chloé has a near identical half-sister, her first thought is a Twin Threesome Fantasy with her and Zoe. And when she learns of a designer contest focusing on swimsuits, Tikki has to snap her out of a fantasy where she dresses Alya and Chloé in her custom-design swinsuits.
- Create Your Own Villain: Lila, who in this reality found the Monkey Miraculous, is interested in creating her own bad guys to fight for her own glory. She's not the best at aiming it though: she tried to get Marinette akumatized but instead got Kagami akumatized into One Ronin.
- Death by Adaptation: Master Fu was killed by an unknown opponent by the time that Hawkmoth had found him.
- Distracted by the Sexy: While patrolling the rooftop, Ryuko spots Marinette and her mother on their roof. Kagami ends up staring at Marinette for too long that she crashes into a chimney.
- Dramatic Irony: Kagami reassures Rena Rouge that she won’t try to make the love situation she, Ladybug, and Queen Bee are in more complicated, saying that her interests are in another girl. Said girl is Marinette, who is Ladybug.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Gabriel fully admits he doesn’t understand why Audrey and Andre are still married, why Mr. Ramier is so obsessed with pigeons, or why Tomoe wanted Emilie to create Sentimonsters to try and kill her as part of their business arrangements.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- While Trixx likes his chaos, Alya drinking unholy amounts of coffee to try to stimulate lost timeline memories when left alone for two days went badly enough to worry the Kwami. Especially when the sheer amount of coffee in Alya's system was starting to give Trixx a boost just by being near his human partner.
- While Aurore and Mireille are hosts who need to put on shows and crown winners and losers, they are not as mean about it as Alec tends to be and they legit feel bad that Simon didn't just get the incredibly rude Tomoe as his challenge, but that he never could have hypnotized her in the first place (they outright checked the rule book to see if they had to count it, and were unhappy to admit they had to).
- Chloé might be a Clingy Jealous Girl towards Marinette and doesn't want Kagami to get closer and join Marinette's harem, but she definitely wants to get Kagami away from her mother.
- While Emilie Agreste was willing to use the Peacock Miraculous to create Sentimonsters and send them to assassinate Tomoe Tsurugi at Tomoe's own request, she drew the line at Tomoe requesting her to send the Sentimonster at her daughter Kagami.
- Evil Is Petty: Hawk Moth is perfectly willing to create particularly nasty akumas with names like Street Purger and Cannibal Guy when he's particularly annoyed. He in fact spent an entire week specifically making nastier than usual akumas because he just found out that someone stole his wish.
- Equivalent Exchange: This was part of the side effect of the Wish. By wishing that people would love Marinette in an effort to waste the wish before Monarch could use it, she created a new reality where Marinette was in triage with Alya and Chloé and Kagami had romantic interests in the former. In exchange, Adrien was never allowed to leave his home and develop romantic ties with either Marinette or Kagami, while Nino was never locked in a cage with Alya or fell in love with her. In addition, some relationships are more distant or toxic, such as Chloé with her father or Kagami with her mother.
- Foreshadowing: In chapter 2, Tomoe refers to Hawkmoth’s akumas as “scribbles”. Near the end of the chapter, it’s shown that Tomoe knows Hawkmoth is Gabriel Agreste, and sees his Akumas as a waste of his talents as a designer.
- The Ghost: Two characters who are no-shows none the less retain a fair bit of influence on the story.
- Zoe is all the way in New York and her relationship with Chloé and her family is far from well known. However it’s because Alya could recall Zoe's name and that she had some relationship to Chloé that got Chloé and Marinette to realize that something was up and led to them investigating.
- Adrien/Cat Noir isn't an active hero, having yet to get away from his house or find the Cat Miraculous. However his faint recollections by Alya are among the clearer ones. Meanwhile his absence makes it harder for Hawk Moth, as he has to find the Cat Miraculous hidden somewhere in Paris instead of having it conveniently in a known location he can throw supervillains at.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The unknown entity that attacked the Temple of the Guardians 200 years before the story, who stole several Miraculous Boxes and killed most of the Guardians. A young Fu managed to escape with the Chinese Miraculous Box but lost the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses in the struggle, which ended up in the hand of the Agrestes. The entity would soon return in the present day, forcing Fu to scatter and hide the Miraculi for their potential chosen to find them before he’s killed fighting the entity.
- Groin Attack: There are rules about when heroes can do this. Ladybug is fine to kick Person Snatcher in the balls (with a Lucky Charm pair of cleats) when fighting him, but Queen Bee can’t kick restrained villains the same way no matter what they say.
- Hate Fic: The opening note admits to it being one towards Villain Of Your Own Story. Downplayed as it began as a joke, is not the main focus and is done by being a Spiritual Antithesis rather than anything direct.
- Homeless Pigeon Person: Queen Bee thinks that Xavier Ramier is this. It's actually clarified he isn't, he has a home and everything the trio visit offscreen.
- Missed the Call: Master Fu before going off to face his ancient enemy hid the miraculous around Paris, each in a location that coincidentally were connected to their original canon holder. However this doesn't mean only they can find them: Oxtoppable found the Ox Miraculous instead of Ivan and despite being hidden at the pool he frequents Kim did not find the Monkey, who was instead found by Lila on a chance visit.
- Moral Myopia: The moment he gets it out of Nooroo that time had been altered and that someone had used his wish, Gabriel quickly declares the hero who did it a murderer because they prevented Emilie from being revived. Given what Gabriel's rap sheet is, it's a little rich coming from him.
- Mundane Utility: Emilie, at Tomoe’s own request, had used the Peacock Miraculous to create Sentimonsters to try and kill Tomoe. These were done as part of business deals between Tomoe’s brand and Gabriel’s.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Tomoe dismisses the claim that Ladybug is doing her best to stop the Akumas, saying that it would be faster and more efficient to kill the Akuma, purify the butterfly, then use Miraculous Ladybug to get them back.
- Nun Too Holy: Lila's secret identity with the Monkey Miraculous, Saint Scimmia, looks like a nun and Lila plays the part of one. It is still Lila though, with all that entails.
- Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: There are fanfics based on the heroes and villains of Paris, though the only type known to cause distress to the heroes, specifically Alya and Chloé, are the 'Queena' fanfics (Queen Bee x Rena Rouge).
- Original Character: A few akumas without any canonical counterpart come up, such as Hawk Moth's edgy villain septet in the forms of Street Purger, Person Snatcher, Arsenal, Tantalus, Butcher Box, Break-a-Leg, and Cannibal Guy.
- Polyamory: In the new reality, Marinette is dating both Alya and Chloé, and it is implied Kagami will join her “harem” as well.
- Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: A more sympathetic take on this trope as Alya's wish (that people would love Marinette) was a desperate attempt to stop Monarch from using Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous after defeating the heroes because she thought it was a harmless wish that wouldn't change things too much. She also had seconds to think of something before Monarch made his own wish. Though as the Kwami Stompp bluntly tells her Alternate Timeline self, there's no such thing as a harmless wish since the alterations are something that not even the Kwamis themselves can control. The results range from positive (Chloé having a Heel–Face Turn thanks to being in a relationship with Marinette and Alya), to negative (Master Fu already killed by an unknown adversary after having to scatter the Miraculouses), or even completely mundane changes (Zoe being taller than her half-sister Chloé).
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Kim is right that Marinette is a good influence on Chloé because of magic. He is wrong, however, to suggest that Marinette is using black magic to influence Chloé into behaving, a Kwami wish instead created the circumstances for it.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Alya, the Kwamis, and Gabriel all have a Downplayed version of this trope: they can vaguely recall things such as previous Akumas and Sentimonsters, a vague sense of the timeline and the names of Miraculous wielders from the old timeline and some personality traits or characteristics like Cat Noir's fondness for puns or competence, but not the identities of the heroes. Alya also remembers certain facts she learned from the original reality, such as Chloé having an American half-sister named Zoe or Rose having an unidentified chronic illness.
- Rules Lawyer: Aurore and Mireille try to invoke this trope after Simon not only got the blind Tomoe Tsurugi for his celebrity challenge (who couldn't be affected by hypnosis in the first place) but she hangs up before they can explain the contest to her. Unfortunately, the rules dictate that this was still a loss, much to the annoyance of both co-hosts and Simon.
- Secret-Keeper: Gina Dupain is one of the few people to know that Marinette, Alya, and Chloé are dating in their civilian forms. Finding out in fact helped clear up the issues that would have resulted in her akumatization.
- Secret Relationship: Given the risks to their secret identities, Marinette, Alya, and Chloé keep their polycule relationship a secret, especially with the (correct) speculation that their hero identities are dating.
- Shout-Out:
- Sabrina’s Vanisher powers is based on her portrayal in Scarlet Lady, albeit instead of getting back at Chloé for all her abuse, it was because she wanted to hold Chloé all to herself.
- The robots from Dimension 12 invade at one point in chapter 1.
- In chapter 2, Longg describes the Celestial Guardian as someone similar to Katsuki Bakugo, with both being temperamental, goal driven, and having no people skills.
- Silver Fox: Alya and Chloé admit that Gina's kind of a hot grandma to Marinette's displeasure.
- Spiritual Antithesis: To Villain Of Your Own Story, a comparison that Cross mentions in the author notes of chapter one where he calls the fic 'salt garbage'. Both of them involve Alya making the reality altering Wish, but the premises are polar opposites. Villain of Your Own Story applies the
Ron the Death Eater trope to Alya and has her take the Miraculous and make an impulsive wish against Ladybug, then having to deal with the undesired fallout on her own. Alya and the Harem Reality has Alya grab the Ladybug Miraculous in a desperate and last-minute effort to stop Hawkmoth by Wasteful Wishing, leaving both of their Alternate Timeline selves to deal with both positive and negative consequences together. Where Alya is trapped in an ironic hell in Villain of Your Own Story, in Harem Reality it is more close to the idea of a second chance to save the world. - Superhero Prevalence Stages: The fic is set firmly in stage three. While Ladybug is the first hero in Paris, heroes are internationally known enough to have an extensive set of international statutes that impact everything they do, including rules about killing citizens (do not) and when they can kick bad guys in the balls (only during combat).
- Take That!: The opening note alludes to One for All and Eight for the Ninth's portrayal of Bakugo as an example of Karmic Overkill, and dismisses grifinguy24's attempt to lighten said treatment due to backlash because of his original intent.
- Unrelated to 849, Crossoverpairinglover goes on to express a general bewilderment at All Might bashing.
- Truth Serums: As One Ronin, Kagami's main power is inflicting this on people. Instead of leaving wounds, a slash from her blade makes people uncontrollably speak what they are really thinking (ranging from classist dislike of Marinette to their immense admiration of Margaret Thatcher). When One Ronin cuts Ladybug while under the effect of Saint Scimmia's Uproar, Ladybug instead speaks lies uncontrollably.
- Twin Threesome Fantasy: After Alya mentions the name "Zoe" from the old timeline and Chloé clarifies that's the name of her near-identical half-sister, Marinette doesn't take long to start imagining having a double of one of her girlfriends with a bit too much glee for Chloé's comfort.Chloé: You were thinking about having two of me around, weren’t you?
Marinette: Well, that’s not a bad thing is it? Just think, it would be like you, but…symmetrical. Compare and contrast….
Chloé: You will not be comparing me and contrasting Zoe, do you hear me! Nope! Nada! Not at all! Especially with whatever devious thoughts are going through that head of yours! Only I can think deviously around here, stop it! Especially if they involve me and my half-sister! - Wasteful Wishing: Alya tries to invoke this trope at the start of the story when she interfered in Monarch’s effort by wishing that everyone loves Marinette, because the latter already is Loved by All and she thought it wouldn't change the world too much. As it turns out, the wishes have a greater impact than she anticipated.
- Wrong Assumption: After finding out that reality had been changed because someone interfered in his Wish, Gabriel suspects that Queen Bee was the one responsible, seeing her as the most selfish of the trio of heroes and the less likely to sympathize with his wish of bringing back Emilie. Besides the fact that Chloé wasn't a hero in the original timeline, it was actually Alya that interfered, albeit as a desperate and last-minute effort to stop him without any idea what his wish was.
- Yandere: Sabrina in the past didn’t take well of how close Marinette was getting with Chloé, fearing the former was replacing her. She got akumatized into Vanisher and trapped Chloé in a pocket dimension, singing how she’ll be the only one to take care of her.
