Miraculous Starts - Variations on a Theme

7- Variations on a Theme - Traits

Genre: General

1.

"Salut, Marinette," Adrien greeted, setting himself down next to the dark girl. "What are you eating for lunch today?"

An incoherent sputter shot out from the aforementioned teen, startled by the sudden appearance of her crush. The non descript bag in her hands, dropped to the floor spilling its contents for the blonde to see.

Confusion crossed the young man's brow as he a very curious snack on the floor.

"Silkworms?"

Flushing a deep crimson the young woman hid her face, completely mortified that her crush was the one that found out her secret, but her embarrassment quickly turned to shock when he reached into the bag and popped a few of the crunchy morsels into his mouth.

"Hey! These are pretty good!" Adrien exclaimed with delight, offering the bag back to her and pulling out a tuna fish sandwich.

Averting her eyes, the dark haired girl took her treat.

"I-It's a recent th-thing. I know you're weird. No! I mean I'm weird. No! Urgh!" Marinette spastically warbled as she became more and more flustered until she took a deep breath to collect herself a bit. "I-I'm sorry. I mean it's weird to like silkworms."

A kind smile greeted the young woman and the other teen patted her on the shoulder, sending the ladybugs in her tummy aflutter.

"No, it's not weird," he consoled before looking side to side conspiratorially to make sure they were away from anyone else. "Wanna know a secret? I've kind of picked up a taste for edible insects pretty recently too. Have you ever tried grasshoppers?"

Marinette's eyes widened with disbelief and she wanted to pinch herself.

To the blonde boy's confusion, the young woman dived into her backpack and pulled out another bag. But, his eyes lit up and he eagerly held his hands out when he caught sight of what she grabbed.

"I-I hope you don't mind. I-I'm not a fan of the flavored ones…," the dark haired girl warned, pouring a few roasted grasshoppers into his outstretched palm. "The regular ones are just… better?" she finished lamely.

However, Adrien just hummed in delight and popped the insects into his mouth.

"Awesome!"

Looking at the joy on the boys face as he chewed, Marinette screwed up every bit of courage that she had and finally ventured, "I-If you'd like. Th-There's a Chinese restaurant that serves them, too… W-We could go sometime."

"I'd like that," the young man replied.

Her heart soared when he turned to her and gave her a megawatt smile, but she couldn't help but let out a giggle when she noticed the bits of grasshopper adorning his teeth.

2.

"Are you sure you're alright, Marinette?" Alya asked with a touch of concern in her voice. "They're starting to get a little red."

The dark haired girl rubbed her eyes again as the itching sensation refused to dissipate. Her entire day had been marred by the strange feeling that wouldn't seem to stop. It was actually getting so bad, that she swore that she was starting to feel it across her body too.

"I'm okay, Alya. I think I'll just take a nap when I get home. Hopefully, that'll make it stop."

Her friend looked a bit skeptical and shrugged her shoulders.

"Well call me if you need someone to help you get to an optometrist," the copper haired girl offered, giving the other teen a big hug. "I have to go babysit the twins, but I can come by if you need me."

A soft smile appeared across Marinette's lips as she waved goodbye, but Alya didn't move and instead gained a speculative look on her face as she studied the dark haired girl for a moment.

"Maybe try switching back to your color contacts. That might be the problem."

With those parting words, the copper haired girl walked away, leaving her friend very confused.

"Color contacts?" Marinette asked herself, pulling out her phone to check her reflection.

A wave of panic ran through the dark haired teen as the girl in the camera stared back with a set of unfamiliar eyes. The bluebell orbs that had greeted her for her entire life had been replaced by a pair of onyx.

What was going on?

Quickly, the young woman dashed to her home and up to her room.

"Tikki! My eyes turned black!" she cried, beckoning her Kwami out into the open.

The little red creature zipped into view and gave a cry, "Oh no, Marinette! I'm so sorry. This is all my fault!"

Confusion dotted Marinette's brow as a bit of her panic dissipated. She was mildly relieved that this wasn't Papillon's doing.

"All of my holders reach a point where they start to get a few Ladybug Traits," Tikki explained sadly, looking downcast.

A wave of disappointment flooded the dark haired girl and she turned to her mirror to inspect the black pits that were her new eyes. She had always felt a little proud of her bluebell orbs since they were rare to have in a mixed Asian person.

A resurgence in the itchy sensation across her body brought her out of her musings. Turning her attention back to the floating creature behind her, Marinette asked, "Is it permanent?"

"Ladybugs don't have colored eyes," the little Kwami apologized, sending the dark haired girl further into despair.

She was dreading how she was going to have to explain this to her parents. Normal people didn't spontaneously change their eye colors while they were adults. Sighing deeply, Marinette rubbed at her eyes once more and absentmindedly scratched around her sides.

"Oh no…," Tikki mumbled, but the dark haired girl caught the words clearly and her anxiety began to spike.

Whirling around to face the Kwami, the young woman opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly was wracked with an intense pain that forced her to her knees. Waves of nausea began to hit and she felt the bile in her stomach well up and force her to vomit on her floor.

A stabbing sensation began to grow from her insides and along her back with a horrible pressure as if her body was being ripped apart. Her head was pounding and she could feel her bones cracking. Marinette felt tears begin to fall as the feeling to continued to build until she was wanted to scream.

"Tikki!" the dark haired girl cried, begging for help, but her suffering refused to abate. The pain was excruciating as her skin began to bubble before at last pushing outward, turning her clothes into tatters.

Minutes began to pass as the horrible feelings began to abate. Marinette laid unmoving on the floor until the agony drained out of her body.

Finally, the dark haired girl mustered the energy to lift herself up only to recoil in horror as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She opened her mouth to scream, but found nothing would come out. The nightmare that stared back refused to go away and she found herself praying this was all just a terrible dream.

An extra set of arms hanged limply at her sides, right below her original pair, a red outer casing with black spots lifted off her back, revealing a pair of large clear wings, and long black antennae shot out from the top of her head which had warped into a pyramidal shape.

This was much worse than having black eyes.

She was a monster.

3.

"An egg…?" Marinette asked incredulously, unconsciously moving her hands to clutch her bottom. "Is this why I've been feeling really constipated lately?"

Tikki nodded solemnly, "Yes. It's just one of a few traits you pick up from the Miraculous."

This explanation was not nearly enough to satisfy the dark haired girl and she began to hyperventilate a bit.

"Why an egg!?" she asked, letting her panic color her words.

The little Kwami shrugged her head carelessly and floated in a loop the loop pattern as if none of this was all that big of a deal.

"Ladybugs lay eggs," she explained matter-of-factly. "The first one will be the hardest but you'll feel better once you finish laying the entire clutch."

A fuse seemed to burst and Marinette fell back onto her chaise, the shock of everything had become too much for her and she fainted from the stress.

Immediately, Tikki burst out into uncontrollable giggles and performed a few aerial somersaults to let out her excitement and glee.

"Plagg was right! It's fun to prank your chosen!"

4.

"Doctor, are you sure you can't find anything wrong?" Sabine asked tearfully, clutching her husband's arm.

A frustrated sigh erupted from the physician as he raked a hand through his hair. It was clear that he was not happy with himself or the entire situation.

"Medically, we can't seem to figure out what is wrong. We have done test after test and everything has come back normal. It will be at least another week before the send-out labs return from the outside facility, but those all seem to be longshots as well."

The couple glanced sadly at their unconscious daughter who for all intents and purposes looked as if she was sleeping. It broke their hearts that she was like this, and the fact that nothing could be done left them feeling powerless.

Another sigh from the doctor drew their attention.

"It almost seems like this must be the doing of another akuma, but your daughter seems to be the only victim. I just wish Ladybug could be found. She might be able to offer a little insight."

Sabine nodded sadly, "I've heard that she's disappeared. Chat Noir has been a little frantic as well."

"Until Ladybug is found or we learn more about what is happening, I am sorry to say we will just have to keep waiting. Hopefully, something will come back," the physician groused, turning to leave. Just as he was about to cross threshold he seemed to remember something before saying, "Oh and Joyeux Noël. Perhaps the holiday will bring the miracle we all desire…"

5.

"Gyaah!" Chloé exclaimed, recoiling in violently as she struggled to spit out the oily fluid that got in her mouth. "What is this?"

While everyone was focused on the blonde haired girl's flailing, Marinette surreptitiously made herself scarce, hoping that people hadn't paid too much attention to what just happened.

She needed to get home quickly to wash away all of the evidence before anyone thought to check her. She really didn't want to get blamed for this too.

After all, it wasn't her fault she shot out her defense mechanism.

Chloé startled her!

6.

Marinette had to admit that it was kind of cool having wings.

While losing the ability to wear backless gowns in public was a bit of a disappointment, the freedom to take off into the air and rocket across the sky. It was a terrific stress reliever particularly when she needed to take her mind off of officially meeting her boyfriend's father.

The dark haired girl became so caught up in her enjoyment that didn't even realize that she had gone a bit outside the city limits toward some farmland until a billowing cloud of white slammed into her face and sent her flying down to the ground below.

Acrid burning chemicals filled her lungs as she coughed and sputtered, crashing painfully in a mishmash of limbs and gore. Even if she could have recovered from the poison in her body, her broken limbs just added to the hopelessness of her situation.

With her dying breath, Marinette cursed modern pesticides and faded into the abyss.

Back in Paris, Papillon had the strangest feeling that he was glad to be afraid of heights.

Immediately, he banished the thought and readied himself for dinner. His son was finally taking a step in the right direction; and, he was looking forward to meeting his girlfriend.

AN: Well that was fun. I happen to enjoy throwing together a bunch of drabbles like this. It's great especially when you don't feel like extending them beyond their initial idea. Really a great way to test out some of the darker or crack ideas. Hope you enjoyed 'em.

1. Ladybugs and cats both eat insects. Grasshoppers are pretty common for both and I decided to extend it to silkworms since they're also an edible delicacy. Insects are a great source of protein and I highly recommend.

2. A lot of the traits our heroes get seem to be fairly benign. What about something a bit more drastic? This idea was inspired by the 6-Armed Spider-Man. This was a classic story and has been brought back a couple times in his animated incarnations. His state progressed to a pretty grotesque spider monster mutant until he was able to find a cure. This incarnation of Marinette was not so lucky.

3. Kwami can be trolls too. Tikki is pretty no nonsense and Marinette does tend to jump to conclusions. In this case, a simple thing like skipping her vegetables too many times has given Tikki the opportunity to play a little prank.

4. This follows the whole seasonal hibernation and avoidance of cold to the next level. Here the constant sleepiness progresses to the point that Marinette falls into a coma.

5. Ladybugs have an extra defense mechanism that they can spray from their joints. An unwanted attack from a certain blonde brat totally counts as a trigger.

6. Flying is great except for all the terrible things we've created. Poor Marinette got a bit caught unaware and that led to quite the grisly end.