Fanfic / Cheshire (Miraculous Ladybug)

Plagg: You can’t tell anyone about me alright!
Marinette: But they’re my parents.

Plagg: And I’m your kwami.

Marinette: What does that mean? Oh I get it! We’re meant to be like super best friends right! Okay I’ll grab some food and we can talk some more about our super friendship!

Cheshire is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction by RozonRozark. In this AU, Chloé's bullying of Marinette has gone much further, leading the girl to be isolated her whole life. Meanwhile, Plagg has had a long history of evil bearers, to the point that Master Fu and the other kwamis assume that he's somehow become corrupted. So what happens when these two lonely souls find each other?

• Season 1 is complete with 52 chapters.
• Season 2 is in progress.
• The author also has a series of side stories and AU chapters for this universe — one of which, Cheshire: Early Discovery has become its own Spin-Off fic.

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The main fanfic contains examples of:

• Abomination Accusation Attack: Played With. Because of the Cat Miraculous' long, uncomfortable legacy of producing Evil Heroes, Master Fu and the other kwami have a kneejerk distrust towards Cheshire and Plagg and have set out to retrieve her miraculous for fear of what she might do with it, a fear they have tried enforcing in their various users. However, because Cheshire's official debut was proceeded by countless acts of civilian level heroics (stopping muggings, rescues, walking old people across the street), combined with the heroes attacking her unprovoked without context, Cheshire ends up becoming Paris' most popular hero in spite of what the other heroes claim.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Max cared more for the received attention after being revealed as a former hero than about Kaalki's wellbeing in Cheshire's hands.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Misterbug can't help but laugh when Marinette confesses that Wayzz did not tell her the detransformation phrase.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • While canon Marinette had her issues and a long history of being Chloe's victim, she was otherwise popular among her classmates, had a stable family life and an extensive circle of friends that coalesced into her becoming The Paragon as Ladybug. Here, Chloe had done everything in her power to make Marinette miserable, ranging from bribing or threatening anyone who wanted to be her friend, to creating her own circle of bullies to harass her, to even fixing it so that her parents are so busy that they're unable to raise her. Meanwhile, while things were better as Cheshire, as soon as akumas enter the picture, she is routinely hounded by all of her fellow miraculous users from all sides (the heroes because of the Cat's bad legacy, Hawkmoth for his own ends). This results in a sweet and selfless girl with massive self-esteem issues to the point where she risks having a panic attack if she's separated from Plagg for too long.
  • Plagg is a lot more cynical and mistrusting than canon due to the aforementioned bad legacy, as every user of his since the first one has been some flavor of scoundrel prior to his meeting Marinette.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • The Grimoire makes an early appearance, appearing before the first battle in canon, when Bella Blue has Marinette do a partial translation. Notably, unlike canon, where there's one copy, by halfway through the story, Hawkmoth, Fu and Marinette all have their own copies.
  • The power-up macaroons appear much earlier, due to Marinette having been using the Grimoire since she was eight.
  • Mayura appears much earlier than in canon, during the Rogercop incident due toHawkmoth's fixing the Peacock Miraculous with the help of Marinette's translation of the Grimoire.
  • Due to King Monkey's Uproar messing with Kaalki's power, Cheshire obtains the Eagle Miraculous, meeting Lirii and also meeting the United Heroes.
  • Cheshire meets Luka after the Pixalator incident.
  • Fluff appears during the final battle of the first season, and Bunnyx herself appears at the end of the first season.
• Adaptational Expansion:
  • In canon, the original Darkblade was a Tin Tyrant that ruled over the common people of Paris in the Age of Knights. Here, it's revealed that he was a previous owner of the Cat Miraculous, using the power of destruction as a method of terrorizing innocent people into line, and was responsible for killing one of Kaalki's owners.
  • Marinette discovers a new power, Catalyst, which allows her to become a full-on Cat Girl, with all her abilities enhanced extensively.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Due to Chloe's bullying campaign, several characters take several levels in jerkass, notably...
  • While Alix in canon was surly, here she is an accomplice in Chloe's bullying campaign against Marinette. However, thanks to the presence of Bunnyx, it is all but implied that she goes on to become a strong ally and friend to her after Chloe's Fall From Grace.
  • While Kim was a dumb, but otherwise affable jock in canon, here he is a bully who routinely harasses Marinette at Chloe's request. As King Monkey, he is the most hostile towards Cheshire because she took the Horse Miraculous from Max.
• Adaptational Name Change: All over the place, due to both Marinette and Adrien switching Miraculous and several Miraculous being used by different users to canon.
• Adults Are Useless: Due to Chloe's influence, the school staff do absolute nothing against the bullying Marinette suffers.
• Affectionate Nickname: Plagg calls Marinette "Bread", or sometimes "Pigtails". As she claims more Miraculous, each of them has their own nickname for her.
• Alpha Bitch: Chloe, who borrows some of the aspects of Lila Rossi in ensuring Marinette is loathed by the entire class. When she's outed as Queen Bee, her reputation is ruined.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Marinette gets this in her civilian identity from her classmates and the school staff, and as Cheshire from other Miraculous holders.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Chloe blackmails Alya into joining her clique and abandoning Marinette by threatening the jobs and careers of Alya's parents.
• Anger Born of Worry: More than once, an exasperated and worried Plagg warns Marinette to be careful when fighting other Miraculous holders and to care about herself. The other kwamis join in the worrying once they warm up to her.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Subverted whenever Trixx tries to convince Marinette to meet Master Fu. She and Plagg helpfully point out each time that Fu (and later, her fellow holders) tried to murder her on sight upon their first meeting and likely wouldn't be open to a nice talk to fix the communication issue. Trixx side-steps giving an actual solution to this problem in favour of doubling down but eventually accepts that they're right in saying that this isn't realistic after an attempt to talk with Misterbug has him instantly assume Trixx has been brainwashed.
  • Marinette, in both her superhero and civilian identities, pose several scathing ones to Master Fu and Misterbug when Queen Bee and King Monkey are revealed, due to how terrible those choices are: the former is a narcissist and a bully, and the other is one of her blind supporters, meaning they prioritised attacking Cheshire over stopping the Akuma, which only made things worse.
• Artifact of Doom: Subverted. The Cat Miraculous — and Plagg by association — has basically become this in the eyes of the Order and the other Kwami, having come to assume that either Plagg is purposefully choosing Evil Heroes or is corrupting his users. In reality, the ring is a Slippery MacGuffin and Plagg is just really unlucky.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Xuppu is distracted from rescuing Pollen by Chloe's bracelet. That leads to the Kwami outing Master Fu to Marinette.
• Attention Whore: Chloe, to the point that she uses her Queen Bee identity to gather votes for the class president election.
• Beleaguered Assistant: During the Darkblade fight, Bixi has to deal with Misterbug's lack of a plan and Darkblade's knights, which includes the corrupted King Monkey and Queen Bee, and protect the civilians in the City Hall.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Chloe and Hawkmoth - while Hawkmoth is the villain when it comes to the superhero side of the story, Chloe is the main villain in Marinette's civilian life.
• Big Damn Heroes: For the people of Paris, Marinette’s victory over Stoneheart is this.
• Black Knight: One of the past Cat miraculous users was a black knight, this being a particular sore spot for the horse kwami Kaalki.
• Blatant Lies: Juleka's excuse on how she got the Tiger Miraculous is that she just happened to steal it. Cheshire knows full well she's lying since she was the one who gave Misterbug the idea.
• Break the Cutie: Chloe's objective with her bullying campaign against Marinette, where in order to break down her "rival", Chloe uses her connections and wealth to bribe and/or threaten their classmates into bullying and ignoring Marinette, with the school staff ignoring what is happening. Add that she uses her father's influence to flood Marinette's parents with catering jobs, it leaves Marinette alone and miserable.
• Broken Pedestal: For Adrien, the slow realization that Chloe is Marinette's bully.
• Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: Adrien has a tendency for this:
  • First time, during the Bubbler fight, Chloe prevented Adrien's escape to transform, leaving the fight to Cheshire.
  • Second time, in the Horrificator incident, it was Cheshire and Trixx that stopped Adrien from getting away from the group.
  • Third time, in King Monkey's debut, he was held back by his bodyguard.
• The Cavalry: Cheshire become this, first to Sparrow and Uncanny Valley, and then to the United Heroes.
• Cerebus Call-Back: In season one, Plagg offhandedly mentions that he and his users were the ones that rendered the dragons extinct, joking that it was because they burned his cheese. In season two, it's revealed that not only does Longg despise him for this incident, not that Plagg had any choice in the matter, but the last dragon Grougaloragran made a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Plagg's Miraculous when the bastard prince who was trying to claim it from the dragon forced Plagg to use Cataclysm to destroy the entire mountain they were on.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Marinette, by constantly wearing at least more than one Miraculous, began to increase her magical endurance to the point that she can wear three Miraculouses, and routinely swaps out between half a dozen at a time.
• The Chooser of the One: Deconstructed. The story shows how much research and observation one would need in order to make the right decision about who gets superpowers. Master Fu's picks for Miraculous holders tend to go awry because he does not truly know what these people are like, having only superficial information on each of his chosen.
  • Max did not get along properly with Kaalki and he became overwhelmed by the responsibility.
  • Kim was one of Marinette's more serious bullies and he was unable to prioritize properly. He became an active hindrance multiple times due to his gung-ho approach to trying to "stop" Cheshire.
  • Marinette herself was selected to wield Pollen. What Master Fu was unaware of is that Marinette is Cheshire, his enemy (though only because of the legacy of the past Black Cats making her a Hero with Bad Publicity to his faction). Furthermore, he was completely unaware of Marinette's terrible social situation, which would make her a terrible fit for heroism in most cases. Hilariously, in the resolution of Black Queen's situation, Marinette is the only person who actually keeps the Miraculous chosen for them by Fu.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Marinette, definitely Marinette. Despite her class bullying her at Chloe's urge, being hunted by other Miraculous holders, her chronic loneliness, and the effects of these factors on her health, she continues to save the class and the people of Paris from akumas. As Plagg puts it after a particularly tough fight:
  Plagg: Bread (Marinette) decided to be a stupid heroic wonderbread.
• Chronic Villainy: An interesting case that applies to an object, not a person. The Black Cat Miraculous has had nothing but evil holders over the centuries and the few times it’s landed in the hands of someone with good intentions has always ended with that person falling to the temptation of the ring’s power, with Cheshire being the only exception so far. Sass theorizes that the universe itself is actively trying to force the ring’s wielders into villainy as the price for the Wish made by the Order.
• Clark Kenting: Marinette constantly. To Master Fu, as herself, she's the future wielder of Pollen, a good ally for Adrien and one of the most knowledgeable about the Miraculous he knows, while, as Cheshire, she's Evil Incarnate.
• Combo Platter Powers: Marinette frequently uses Unify, where she uses more than one miraculous at once. Her frequent use of this causes ever more strain on her body.
• The Corrupter: Tikki and Fu think that Cheshire is this for the kwamis she collects. Meanwhile, Chloe is actually this for the class, and Fu himself is unintentionally causing this within Misterbug's team.
• Cute Little Fangs: After using "Catalyst" during the fight against the Zookeeper Amok, Marinette wakes up to find that she has fangs now.
• Cuteness Proximity: Bella Blue has this reaction to Cheshire.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite her black uniform and the bad legacy of Plagg's previous holders, Marinette as Cheshire is the most heroic character in the story.
• Declaration of Protection: Marinette promises to protect Plagg and the other kwamis. Knowing that she means it, this leads to the kwamis to be worried for her.
• Delaying the Rescue: Both Marinette and Master Fu are forced to delay Pollen's rescue from Chloe's hands for the same reason - if any of them rescue Pollen, Chloe will retaliate against Marinette (even if she isn't the one with the Bee Miraculous).
• Deep-Immersion Gaming: Marinette's Miraculous Cube is essentially a Holodeck for kwamis.
• Didn't See That Coming: Misterbug managing to defeat Black Queen completely alone was a shock. Later, Misterbug has this reaction when he sees Pollen as part of Cheshire's kwami, making plans to get her back for Marinette, not thinking that Cheshire is Marinette...
• Didn't Think This Through: Bella Blue comments that to herself when she tries to find Cheshire, the Cat Holder... at night, when everything was dark.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: Newscaster does this to the TV studio, to lure Cheshire and Misterbug into a trap.
• Downer Beginning: The story starts with how Plagg was forced to serve a series of bad holders, to the point where he was blamed by other kwamis for their actions. On Marinette's side, it starts on the day that Chloe began her bullying against Marinette, turning the class against her.
• Downer Ending: Season 1 of the story ends with Marinette completely spent and passed out on her bed with Plagg trying to convince himself that she'll be fine when she clearly isn't.
• The Dragon: Kim is this for Chloe.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • After the Stormy Weather fight, Tikki and Fu think that Cheshire is able to use Unify due to how different her Kitsune form is from the traditional Fox transformation, when in reality Marinette asked Trixx to base her uniform on the cross fox, which Trixx had simply never considered before. Later, at the Bubbler fight, Cheshire actually uses Unify with Plagg and Trixx for the first time.
  • Adrien genuinely wants to be Marinette's friend, but his Stunned Silence at the times that Chloe bullied her convinced Marinette that he is like Chloe. To add to the irony, she is Cheshire, who Adrien as Misterbug wants to bring down.
  • Marinette chews out Fu for not saving Pollen from Chloe and vows not to communicate with him until he can provide Pollen so Marinette can apologize to her. Pollen was not retrieved because Adrien and Fu were trying to find a way to do so without Chloe having another excuse to take it out on Marinette. Of course, since Alix managed to give Cheshire Pollen's comb after being de-akumatized, this is merely an excuse to cut ties with someone who caused all the trouble in the first place, not that Fu knows it.
• The Dreaded: Other Miraculous Holders, including Master Fu and Hawk Moth, consider Cheshire this due to the bad history of the past Cat holders.
• Double Agent: Misterbug discusses this with Marinette, wondering if such an approach could work with Cheshire. He decides to try it and gives Juleka the Tiger Miraculous, in hopes she can gain Cheshire's trust Of course, since Cheshire is Marinette, it doesn't really work and she simply feigns ignorance until she can turn the tables.
• Equivalent Exchange: In Season 2, Sass speculated that the Wish the Order made at the beginning, which was meant to increase their miraculouses and prosperity, made it so that Plagg and his bearers would always be enemies of the Order (and even just generally Born Unlucky, given the context), and the Kwamis even speculate that it's why they were able to accept that Plagg truly was The Corrupter, the Universe was affecting their minds, as Sass was never even able to consider any of this before joining Marinette's new Order.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Even some of the Akumas (particularly Stormy Weather) find Misterbug and Pegasus assaulting a distracted Cheshire (who was clearly comforting an Akumatized victim, not threatening a civilian) appalling.
  • Hawk Moth, despite wanting to use the Wish, is reluctant to directly engage with Cheshire, since he knows the Cat's history of evil users, and thus mistakenly believes Cheshire's an ingenious and scheming Villain with Good Publicity. At least Hawk Moth is honest that he's a supervillain!
• Evil Former Friend: Nino reveals to Adrien that Chloe and Marinette were friends when they were younger. Then her mother Audrey instilled the idea that life is about beating one's rivals and Chloe took this to heart, having since conspired to destroy Marinette every way she can, bribing those who could be bribed and threatening those who couldn't with her father's connections to bully and isolate her.
• Exhaustion-Induced Idiocy: Due to her exhaustion from long fights and/or the use of Unify, Marinette accidentally reveals more knowledge to Fu than she desires, which includes being able to read the symbols of the Miraculous Grimoire, her great-grandfather's journal about the kwamis, and her ability to make power-up potions.
• Experienced Protagonist: Marinette and Plagg have been doing hero work as street-level vigilantes for a couple of years by the time the main plot kicks in.
• Failed a Spot Check: Marinette didn't realize that she was wearing four Miraculous (Plagg, Kaalki, Lirii and Pollen) returning from Alix's birthday.
• Failure Hero:
  • ANY holder that is not Chesire, Misterbug (at times), and Rena Rouge. Calling them incompetent would be an insult to incompetence.
  • Subverted with Purple Tigress and Viperion, who are new, but they still show more competence than the previous holders. And the only thing they did so far was patrolling and rescuing civilians.
• Forgotten Birthday: Due to Chloe's bullying, no one in the school remembers when Marinette's birthday even is, and her parents are usually too busy to celebrate it, if they even remember to wish her a happy one.
• Fridge Logic: In-Universe. Max questions how Cheshire is able to fix the city from the damage of Akuma fights if her power is Destruction.
• Friendless Background: Marinette (due Chloe's bullying) and Plagg (due to his past Holders).
• The Glomp: Alix, Alya, and Rose give one to Cheshire when she returns from New York.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • After the Black Queen incident, Marinette decided that the situation is dire enough that she recruited temporary heroes to be her allies: Alya become the Fox Holder Rena Rouge and Alix the Horse Holder War Horse. By Season 2, Alya is permanent, and Alix is on the way to becoming Bunnyx.
• Going for the Big Scoop: Alya's tendency for this allowed her to record when Misterbug and Pegasus attacked Cheshire after she helped them defeat Newscaster. This led to their Hero with Bad Publicity status. It also allowed her to get the information needed to destroy Chloe's untouchable status.
• Good Versus Good: The conflict between Cheshire and Master Fu is this. Both wish to take down Hawkmoth, but while Marinette is a genuine hero who uses the Cat Miraculous for good, Master Fu and the Miraculous holders he chooses assume that she's another villainous faction.
• Grail in the Garbage: Marinette finds Plagg's ring in a mud ball as a child.
• Hates Being Alone: Marinette, to the point where she cannot bear the idea of giving any kwami away in order to gather allies, and the thought of being away from Plagg specifically for any significant period of time causes panic attacks.
• Hates My Secret Identity: Alix becomes a big fan of Cheshire after being saved by the hero, but joins the bullying of Marinette when she joins the class. By the time she becomes Bunnyx, Alix is desperately trying to make up for it all.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In Plagg's backstory, Grougaloragran, the last of the dragons after some of Plagg's previous wielders exterminated all the others, protected Plagg's Miraculous with his life when one of the local king's Bastard Bastards came in intending to take it and use it to usurp the throne. Since the bastard had poisoned Grougaloragran, he couldn't fight back, and Plagg was forced to Cataclysm the entire mountain, killing everyone in it, and his Miraculous only survived because Grougaloragran protected it to the end.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Played With.
  • Cheshire is this to other Miraculous Holders due to the bad history of the past Cat holders.
  • Since their first encounter results in them attacking her in broad daylight, Misterbug and Pegasus get this from the rest of Paris as Cheshire is a long-established hero by the time they appear. Even the akumas call them villains. The new "allies" do not help: King Monkey aka Kim is hit hard after he attacked Cheshire when she was about to fix the city with Catastrophe, right after she had defeated an akuma, and Queen Bee aka Chloe is a Drama Queen Attention Whore that cares more for what the press says about her than the akuma victims, who she mocks on Twitter.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Marinette suffers one when she receives an ominous and vague message from Alya, who is being blackmailed into joining Chloe's clique and leaving Marinette, fearing that Alya will abandon her like the rest of the class.
  • Master Fu suffers one when, after telling her he'll be wiping his memory, Plagg reveals himself, and he realises exactly who he's talking to, the numerous kwami he was declaring as kidnapped and in great peril letting him know how much he fucked up.
• Heroic RRoD: Marinette tends to collapse into bed due to exhaustion after fights, especially if she uses Catastrophe and/or Unify, and her Kwamis frequently encourage her to rest more.
• Hope Spot: Marinette has just met Pollen, and then some moments later, the Bee Miraculous is taken by Chloe.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Snrk... Where to begin?
  • Every Kwami thinks bad of Plagg because of his previous holders...and just for that. He's actually a cool guy to be with as some Kwami finds out. Sass speculates that this is because of the consequences of the Wish the Order made at their dawn, as he was only able to consider that hypothesis after he joined Marinette's new Order.
  • Fu. Attacking someone only because they're a Cat Miraculous holder, giving Miraculi to the most incompetent people... It's basically his character trait in this fic.
  • Adrien doesn't think that Chloé can be a bully... Might as well gouge his eyes, it's not like it's obvious that she's one. He manages to zig-zag this somehow because when it comes to choosing holders, he's actually pretty decent.
  • You'd think at least Marinette would be excluded from this, right? WRONG! She zig-zags this as well when it comes to choosing holders. While Rena Rouge has been a decent holder so far, the same can't be said for War Horse (Alix, one of her bullies), who lost her Miraculous during her first Akuma.^note Not even Pegasus, King Monkey or Queen Bee managed to lose their Miraculous on their first Akuma. Notably, Bunnyx, Alix's actual Miraculous, is much more capable.
• How Can Santa Deliver All Those Toys?: In this universe Santa has an arrangement with some of the Kwamis that lets him draw on enough of their abilities in order to deliver things on Christmas.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Bixi, The Turtle Miraculous Hero (aka Marinette), is seen as this by the witnesses of Darkblade battle in comparison with the other members of Misterbug's team.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Marinette's main motivation to get more Kwamis and becoming a Guardian.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Bella Blue has this before her disappearance in her meetings with Cheshire.
• Innocently Insensitive: Cheshire appears wearing the Horse Miraculous, while both Misterbug and Max are talking with some students of the Bustier's class. Angry, Max asks how she dared to appear with "his" Miraculous. Cheshire defends herself saying that she did not know that he was in the group and she let escape that he did not treat Kaalki well.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • The whole situation with Alix's watch during her birthday is practically the same, except the akuma and the reasons for the watch being broken are completely different.
  • Despite Alya having to break up her friendship with Marinette, she still becomes Rena Rouge thanks to Marinette realizing that Alya has been coerced into doing so.
  • Despite Marinette not having the Tiger Miraculous with her, Juleka still becomes Purple Tigress thanks to Misterbug.
  • The Miraculous Box still gets the design it receives under Marinette's guardianship due to the hero simply making her own.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In Chapter 11, Trixx informs Marinette about the bad reputation of Plagg's past holders.
  • After being akumatized, Max is revealed to be Pegasus.
• Intrepid Reporter: Alya, trying find evidence of Chloe's bullying campaign against Marinette.
• I Shall Taunt You: One of Cheshire's favourite strategies. Misterbug attempts it... with less success.
• It's All About Me: Chloe's standard mental state.
• I Work Alone: Actually, for Cheshire is more "I need to work alone", since every other Miraculous Holder is after her Miraculous, and they give fighting her priority over defeating the Akumas. By the Volpina incident,Marinette decided to give Alya and Alix the Fox and Horse Miraculous respectively.
• The Kindnapper: While her actions count as theft or kidnapping, Marinette takes Trixx for a good reason, and when he sees how much better life is with her he promptly defects of his own free will. The same for Kaalki and Mullo later.
• Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman:
  • Adrien honestly wants to befriend Marinette, but as Misterbug he wants to capture Cheshire, her alter ego, and retrieve her Miraculous.
  • Adrien can't help but compare the status of his civilian identity as "Paris's Golden Boy" with the cold reaction of the Parisians to his hero self.
• Living Emotional Crutch:
  • The kwamis that Marinette collects are this for her. She vetoes the idea of gaining allies in equal parts that she cannot trust any humans she knows and that she cannot bear the idea of giving any of them away.
  • It is even worse in the case of Plagg: the mere suggestion to not wear his Miraculous for a short period of time is enough to send Marinette into a panic attack.
  • It is implied that Marinette is this for Plagg.
• The Load: Cheshire quickly comes to see Misterbug's team as this. They have no experience, she keeps having to bail them out of their own messes and that's when they're not attacking her instead of fighting the Akumas. Later, even Misterbug thinks the same for King Monkey and Queen Bee.
• Loophole Abuse: Cheshire and her kwamis have tested and found ways around the limitation on saying a Miraculous user's identity that you could drive a truck though, though we don't see any of them. It's pretty telling that when Plagg calls out the Order for being egotistical idiots for not plugging these loopholes, none of the other kwamis defend them.
• MacGuffin: At last three:
  • The Miraculous Grimoire, since, unlike canon, not just Hawkmoth has a copy due to Emilie and Marinette making their own copies, the former falling into Fu's hands.
  • The journal of Marinette's great-grandfather. Not only it allow Marinette to translate the Grimoire, but it has additional information and theories about the kwamis's powers.
  • Marinette's first partial translation of the Grimoire kept by Bella Blue. It would allow Hawkmoth to fix the Peacock Miraculous.
• Magitek: Marinette managed to create an improved version of the Miraculous Box that she called the Miraculous Cube, which magically interfaces with her video games to provide a holodeck-like experience for the kwamis.
• Mêlée à Trois: Cheshire is opposed by not only Hawk Moth but Master Fu. The former has his usual goal of obtaining the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses for the Wish. However, the latter mistakenly believes that every Cat is Always Chaotic Evil and wants to end the "threat" of Plagg.
• My Instincts Are Showing: Marinette shows some feline tendencies due to her bond with Plagg, much to the kwami's surprise. Later, she began to show some fox-like tendencies.
• Moment Killer: Chloe, in the nastier way possible every time that Adrien and Marinette try to talk to each other.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • It could be applied to the original Order of the Guardians as a whole, as it is implied that the knowledge of the Wish was what made the first Cat Holder choose to steal Plagg's Miraculous.
  • Master Fu's sudden attack on Cheshire allows her to get Trixx.
  • Misterbug and Pegasus attacking Cheshire after she helped them to defeat Newscaster turned the public opinion against them.
  • Max's akumatization gives Cheshire the opportunity to collect the Horse Miraculous. Though she'd consider it a Nice Job Fixing It, Villain moment instead.
  • Marinette's incomplete translation of the Grimoire would allow the fixing of the Peacock Miraculous by Hawkmoth.
  • Sass theorizes that the Order did this by Wishing for prosperity and more Miraculouses - as the karmic backlash could well have been the loss of Plagg and him being forced to always be in a rival organization to them.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Chloe's attempt to bully Marinette further by giving her the job of gopher during the internship at her father's hotel gives Marinette the chance to impress Jagged Stone and Penny Rolling with her design skills.
  • King Monkey attacking Cheshire while she is Knightmare with Uproar, during Black Queen's fight, teleports Cheshire to New York where she finds the Eagle Miraculous and helps the United Heroes. Not only that, but it also leads the heroes still in Paris to face Black Queen alone and she easily takes both the Monkey and the Bee Miraculous. Once she's defeated, Alix secretly gives the Bee Miraculous to Cheshire, while Misterbug manages to retrieve the Monkey Miraculous. So, yeah, King Monkey's actions lead to both him and Queen Bee losing their Miraculous and Cheshire getting two of them.
• Nothing but Skin and Bones: Plagg is in a bad state when Marinette finds him. He gets better.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Marinette and Adrien have a tendency for these kind of remarks when they manage to talk with each other. The first time was at Parents Day, commenting about their parents being held up by work. In the second time, both of them commented about wanting to have friends when Adrien visited her as Misterbug.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: After King Monkey's debut, part of Bustier's class discusses the event and eventually Cheshire's powers. At one point Alya comments to herself that "If only Misterbug was more helpful." Adrien (who is Misterbug) looks affronted and Alya justifies that Cheshire carries most of the fights, so she needs to save her power to capture the akuma. That makes Adrien realize how he had been relying on Cheshire during Akuma battles.
• Oblivious to Love: Adrien does not realize that he is starting to crush on Marinette.
• Oh, Crap!: Cheshire has the tendency to cause this reaction in other holders:
  • Master Fu when he realizes that Cheshire has Trixx.
  • Tikki when realizes that Cheshire has a new power, Catastrophe, that demonstrates how strong Cheshire is.
  • When Cheshire reveals her Kitsune form in the Stormy Weather fight, Tikki and Fu think that Cheshire knows Unify.
  • Tikki's reaction when she realizes that Cheshire has access to power-up potions.
  • Master Fu again when he visits Marinette one last time... and Plagg speaks up.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: The kwamis think and comment this way when they hear that Xuppu got stuck in Chloe's bracelet.
• Overly Long Scream: Marinette can scream continuously scream for 33 seconds, as counted by Plagg.
• Pent-Up Power Peril: Marinette must release Catastrophe, her version of Miraculous Cure, soon after she purifies an Akuma with Cataclysm, or she will suffer great pain and exhaustion.
• Point of Divergence:
  • The Cat Miraculous was never given to the Order of Guardians, so Plagg was forced to serve a series of evil holders, creating a dark reputation that would turn any kwami and miraculous holder against Plagg.
  • Chloe had a better relationship with Audrey who told her how important it was to not only defeat but utterly destroy your rival...so to impress her mother, Chloe chose a "rival", Marinette, and started a systematic campaign of bullying to make Marinette miserable.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Adrien genuinely wants to be Marinette's friend, but his Stunned Silence at the times that Chloe bullied her convinced Marinette that he is the same as Chloe. His Accidental Theft of her umbrella and lucky charm do not help.
  • While Max and Kaalki never had the best relationship, Kaalki never explains that she literally cannot tell Max certain information, simply stating she is not at liberty to say. This leads to him becoming Gamer when he gets frustrated and, not knowing that it'll be a binding order, tells her not to talk at all until she can tell him, so she can't calm him down after he loses to Marinette.
• The Poorly Chosen One: With the exception of Adrien, all of Master Fu's other chosen fall under this. Max had Poor Communication Kills with Kaalki and valued being able to say he was a hero over actually being one, while Kim who prioritizes fighting Cheshire over everything else. Even Marinette falls into this by technicality, as she is the civilian identity of Cheshire, the very holder that they want to bring down.
• Power of Trust: The mutual trust between Marinette and Plagg manifests in her developing some feline tendencies, and more importantly, being able to use Catastrophe and Catalyst.
• Pungeon Master: Cheshire is this. Misterbug too, with less success.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The Volpina incident. While they managed to defeat Volpina, Mayura stole the Horse Miraculous from Alix and gave it to Hawk Moth. Marinette admits that nothing good came out of said 'victory'.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Marinette lets some of her anger and sadness slip through at Fu and Mister Bug when she goes to meet them in person after Kim is outed as King Monkey while giving them an, unknown to them, impossible task in order to cut ties with Master Fu cleanly.
  • Earlier, she vented to Adrien to "get with it", thinking that he was complicit with the bullying.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Penny Rolling and Jagged Stone, so far.
• Recursive Fanfiction: Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Lady M-Coon, in which the Ladybug Miraculous is the one stolen and used for evil throughout the centuries. Though it goes in the Spiritual Antithesis direction, as Ladybug eventually wins everyone’s trust and Chloé has a Heel–Face Turn and becomes Lady M-Coon.
• Redeeming Replacement: One of the driving conflicts of the story is how literally every other Cat in history has been a murderer, thief, etc. Marinette is the first one to use the Miraculous for good, but no one who knows about the Cat Miraculous's history, such as Fu or Adrien, is willing to believe that.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons:
  • Chloe thinks that Marinette stole her bracelet, despite the fact that Marinette wasn't in the room. Marinette does have said bracelet, but it was given to her by Xuppu, who stole it after she freed him.
  • Upon seeing Bixi, King Monkey concludes that Cheshire has the Turtle Miraculous and is prepared to attack her. Misterbug explains that Bixi is a temporary hero that he recruited for the fight...except that Bixi is Marinette who is Cheshire.
  • Seeing Pollen in Cheshire's hands, Misterbug assumes she stole Pollen somehow after the fight with Black Queen. Actually, Alix gave Pollen to her rightful owner.
• Role Swap AU: As by Point of Divergence tradition, Marinette finds the Cat Miraculous and Adrien receives the Ladybug Miraculous from Master Fu.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!/Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: This is how Chloé has the power to keep the class and the school under her thumb.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Marinette cuts ties with Fu after Kim is revealed to be King Monkey and Pollen goes missing. While her stated reason are implied to be true, it is also an excuse to stop helping Mister Bug and Fu.
• Second Super-Identity: Marinette has several forms at her disposal, depending on the Miraculous that she uses.
  • Plagg: Cheshire
  • Trixx: Kitsune or Cheshire Foxy Mode
  • Kaalki: Knightmare
  • Mullo: Multicat
  • Plagg+Kaalki: Manecat
  • Plagg+Lirii: Griffin
  • Plagg+Pollen: Lady Noir
  • She is also the Temporary Turtle Hero Bixi
• Shipper on Deck: Alya and Master Fu notice that Adrien is interested in Marinette.
• Shout-Out:
  • As Marinette is more of a Gamer Chick here, there's several Pokémon references. For example, since Stoneheart never gives his name, the narration calls him by names like those of Rock-type Pokémon.
  • The amok that Bella Blue used to create copies of the Miraculous Gremoire resemble Yoshi, from Super Mario World.
  • Evilnator directly namedrops Final Fantasy X-2 when he compares Cheshire's Unify power to dresspheres.
  • One of the names that the narration calls Stoneheart is "Garnet". Another used is Cinderblock.
  • Similar to the Stoneheart example, when Master Fu transforms to fight Cheshire he's referred to by the names of the Ninja Turtles (and Shredder).
  • The simulated worlds in Marinette's Miraculous Cube are based on Kingdom Hearts (Twilight Town), Skyrim and Subnautica.
  • The last dragon was named Grougaloragran.
• Sleight of Handiness: Adrien uses this to save the macaroons that Marinette gave for his birthday from Chloe's wrath, but he didn't inform Marinette about this.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Jacob, a cleaner for the Agreste Estate, finds a copy of the Miraculous Grimoire, one of the two copies made by Bella Blue, and a journal with Marinette's original partial translation. Nathalie gets the translation journal, while Jacob manages to give the book to Adrien - who would give it to Master Fu.
• Small Steps Hero: Cheshire was doing things like helping elderly people across the street, finding lost animals, and stopping muggings even before Hawkmoth made his debut. This is part of why she's so adored by Paris, as people started talking once she made her big debut stopping Stoneheart.
• Smug Snake: Chloe.
• Sore Loser: Max is akumatized for losing his place in the gaming tournament and that leads to Cheshire collecting his Miraculous.
• Start My Own: Marinette decides to create her own Order of the Guardians.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Cheshire does it a lot.
• Stuffed into a Locker: Kim does this to Marinette to coerce her to give up her place in the gaming tournament.
• Stunned Silence: Adrien's standard response to Chloe's bullying - this doesn't endear him to Marinette. Although this is changing very slowly and outside of Marinette's view.
• Skewed Priorities: While Fu and Adrien try to defeat Cheshire because they, wrongly but sincerely, believe that she is a dangerous Villain with Good Publicity, Kim as King Monkey fights her to give the Horse Miraculous back to Max (to the point that he ignores the Akumas), while Chloe as Queen Bee is only interested in the fame and see Cheshire as a competitor for it.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Cheshire was willing to work with other Miraculous Holders to defeat Akumas, but after being attacked by Misterbug and Pegasus, she is far more reluctant. She fights the Akumas at their side but is always careful to prevent attacks from them.
• Tempting Fate: Alya thinks that nothing is getting between her friendship with Marinette. She was wrong.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Alya gives a low-key one to Misterbug:
  Alya: After Cheshire/Knightmare did most of the work along with saving you. [Alya shows a video of Knightmare stepping through a portal and smashing the router] Plus being a hero is more than fighting villains, it’s being there to help the citizens. Cheshire is there for us, she takes time out of her day to help people with the smallest of things. The stories I get are of her doing small nice things. The Cat saves people from robbers, helping find animals, heck she even helps elderly citizens across the street and carries their groceries.
• Token Good Teammate:
  • So far Cheshire is concerned, Bella Blue aka Emilie Agreste was the only Miraculous Holder friendly to her.
  • To the witnesses of Darkblade fight, Bixi aka Marinette was the only competent member of Misterbug's team - especially in comparison with King Monkey and Queen Bee.
• Took a Level in Badass: Marinette, being an Experienced Protagonist with years of heroic acts before her public debut.
• Trust Password: Averted. Mayura fails Cheshire's test when she doesn't correct the name of the previous Peacock user, Bella Blue.
• Villain with Good Publicity: This is what Adrien and Tikki think that Cheshire wants to achieve with her countless acts of civilian-level heroics, so the public would be on her side.
• Wham Line: At the end of chapter 50, we have Fu seriously reconsidering his role with this simple phrase.
  Fu: Hello, Marianne… Yes, it is as you said. I will hand over my title of guardian to the boy soon, but before that, I have some unfinished business to do first.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Marinette chews out Fu for giving Miraculous to her bullies and not trying to retrieve Pollen. She uses this as an opportunity to cut ties with them.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Marinette's parents sincerely care for her, but are extremely busy catering for several events for the Mayor of Paris or by his indication, like catering for the United Heroes in New York. This was planned by Chloe to keep Marinette alone and miserable.
• World-Healing Wave: While Adrien as Misterbug has the Miraculous Cure, Marinette as Cheshire has Catastrophe, an equivalent ability activated when she purifies an Akuma with Cataclysm. But it has the catch that it must be released soon after Cataclysm, or it will strain Marinette's body.
• Written by the Winners: The elders of the Miraculous Order forbade the kwamis to tell the younger recruits the stories of past wielders that didn't conform to their views, as well as using Plagg's previous users as boogeymen to instill fear, causing the other kwamis to keep reliving their memories of the more vicious users and take it out on Plagg himself, leading to Fu immediately attacking Cheshire despite her clearly not trying to harm him and thus setting a major conflict into motion, simply because those stories still terrified him even a century later.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Cheshire's reaction when Kim blows his secret identity as King Monkey, making her wonder what Fu was thinking to give Kim a Miraculous.

The side stories contain examples of:

• The Atoner: Future!Alix is revealed to be/to become this.
• Berserk Button: Marinette's capture by Misterbug is this for the United Heroes.
• The Cavalry: The United Heroes come to Paris to rescue Marinette/Cheshire.
• Collective Identity: Alix suggested this to Mylene and Alya for them to use the Mouse Miraculous in the Mouse AU.
• Failed a Spot Check: In the Captured AU, Marinette didn't realize that Misterbug noticed one of her mice selves, allowing her capture. Also Misterbug didn't realize that he was being followed by Alya.
• Find the Cure!: In the Early Discovery AU, Cheshire is aware of Emilie's condition, so she gives priority to find a cure in the Grimoire.
• Forgotten Birthday: Due their massive workload masterminded by Chloe, Marinette's parents forgot Marinette's birthday. Plagg implies that was a repeated incident.
• Friendship Trinket: Played With. The only reason why Plagg did not give a Kwagatama to Marinette is because he didn't know about them. He start to make one soon as Trixx explain the process.
• Godzilla Threshold: In order to find evidence of Chloe masterminding the bullying against Marinette, Alya considers to being akumatized again an option, although a desperate one.
• Heel Realization: After Marinette's identity is revealed in the Captured AU, Alix and other classmates realize that they have been bullying their hero for years.
• Meet Cute: Adrien and Cheshire's meeting in the Early Discovery AU works like this.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Adrien is struck by this after exposing Marinette's identity in the Captured AU.
• Ominous Message from the Future: Future!Alix's worried but vague comments made Plagg and Trixx realize that dark times are ahead.
• Point of Divergence:
  • Early Discovery AU: A stronger coughing attack makes Bella Blue too weak to return home by herself, forcing the peacock user to drop the transformation and reveal her identity: Emilie Agreste.
  • Captured AU: Misterbug manages to escape from his bodyguard, giving him the chance to capture one of the mice that Cheshire became after using Multitude to flee King Monkey, leading him to unmask the hero as Marinette and capture her.
  • Mouse AU: Marinette did not find the Mouse Miraculous during the Horrificator incident, so it goes to its planned user, Mylene.
• Rage Breaking Point: Alya reaches hers after Marinette is unmasked, and she decides to tell the truth in a scorched earth manner, starting about how Chloe is the mastermind bully and that Adrien's scarf was actually a gift from Marinette.
• The Unmasking: In the Early Discovery AU, a stronger coughing attack forces Bella Blue to reveal her identity as Emilie Agreste, while in the Captured AU, Marinette is unmasked as Cheshire and captured by Misterbug.
• Virtual YouTuber: Wanting to repay Marinette for all she's done for them, the Kwamis manage to set up a way to stream their adventures in the Cube online to make money.

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