I want to thank slkworm for being my beta. I'm not a native English speaker and she made this readable for you. Thank you. Also thanks to x-rayLady for helping me with the song titles in french.
Chapter 1
To be honest, when Bob Roth announced that he and XY were leaving The Cataclysm a couple of months earlier, the first thing Adrien had felt was relief. XY was a nightmare of a bandmate, and Bob Roth resembled more a slave owner than a producer. He didn't hate them… that much. He honestly wished the best for XY in his solo career, but he was glad he didn't have to work with them anymore. Nino, Kim, and Nathaniel shared the feeling.
But then came the panic. The Cataclysm was now without a producer and was down one member, and they didn't know what to do.
The bad news kept coming when Jagged Stone announced he was taking a long break from writing music because he had lost his inspiration after Fang's tragic demise.
Adrien hadn't expected two bad things to make one good. Adrien and the rest of the band had almost passed out from shock when Penny Rolling showed up on their doorstep announcing that Jagged Stone was interested in becoming their producer. Adrien was pretty sure they had said yes before she even finished presenting the idea.
Several things changed after Jagged stepped into the role. They went from rehearsing eighty hours a week to a reasonable forty-eight hours. Jagged was eccentric, childish, and demanding, but, unlike Bob, he wasn't abusive.
Jagged seemed to care about the band members' opinions and feelings, and usually asked them for their input before making any drastic decisions.
And they had made drastic decisions.
Like changing the band's style. Neither Jagged nor the boys were fond of the generic, soulless songs and largely identical outfits Bob forced onto them. Some of their old songs were salvageable, but some were going directly to the trash can. But the clothes... none of them wanted to see those horrendous outfits again. The only thing they were keeping was Nino's iconic hat. Nino was fond of that hat and the fans loved it. They loved it so much that thousands of identical copies were sold every day to Catafans. It would be madness to get rid of it.
They had also decided to include a new member, because The Cataclysm had always had five members. They were a little unsure, since the fans were fond of XY and the boys weren't sure how well the Catafans would receive a replacement, but it was a new phase for The Cataclysm and fresh talent would do them good.
They decided to hold an online contest to pick a new member. The beauty of the internet was that people with talent didn't need to have the right connections, just internet access. All they had to do was submit the video to the official The Cataclysm website and voilá, they were entered into the running.
The sixty most popular videos (based on the number of views and likes) were going to get called for a closed audition, with the band members, Jagged, and Penny serving as judges. From among those, they were going to pick the twenty best for a second audition, this time live on TV. From among those twenty, they were going to pick their new member.
The idea was well-received by the fans, all things considered. Of course some of them hated the idea of a new member, but most of their Catafans were on board. In the six weeks that followed, they received thousands of videos.
Adrien didn't have a lot of time to watch the videos. Between the band and the occasional modeling gig for his father, he barely had free time. Yet he always found himself going on the website and watching the same video on repeat.
It was one of the first videos that had been uploaded to the website. Adrien would never admit it, but he had probably seen the video a hundred times. Even now, the day before they announced the Top Sixty, when there were thousands of other videos to watch, he always ended up re-watching that one video.
It had been submitted by a boy named Antoine Dubois-Yang, age nineteen. The boy in the video was wearing an oversized generic white t-shirt, black skinny jeans, and one of the Nino hats that the fans adored. He was really small and scrawny with chubby cheeks and the bluest eyes Adrien had seen.
The boy had picked Partir for his audition. Partir was one of the few songs from their old albums that survived their change of style. It was a generic song about becoming an adult; it was full of clichés, but it was a fan favorite and it was fun to dance to. The lyrics were a little convoluted, yet Antoine delivered them flawlessly. His voice was clearly untrained and could use practice, but his high-pitched voice actually matched the song better than the original voices.
It was not his voice that Adrien was obsessing over though. It was the dancing.
This Antoine guy knew how to move. Every time he re-watched the video, Adrien was invariably hypnotized by the way Antoine moved his hips and they way every part of his body was in synch with the song. This guy had talent. Every time Adrien hit play, his eyes were glued to the screen for three minutes and eleven seconds.
Adrien had watched Antoine's video at least once a day since the day it had been submitted until the very day before the Top Sixty was announced.
He really hoped this Antoine guy was in the Top Sixty. He was very talented. Besides, if Antoine submitted the video, it meant he dreamt of becoming part of The Cataclysm. If he didn't get picked, his dream was going to be crushed. Adrien understood the same could be said about every single participant, but there was something about Antoine's blue eyes that made Adrien hope his dream would come true.
Marinette had submitted the video as a joke. She had seen the announcement that The Cataclysm was looking for a new member, and she couldn't resist submitting a video. She was the number one Catafan. She knew all their songs and choreography by heart. So as a joke, she suggested to Alya that she could probably submit an audition without any preparation. She even matched almost all the requirements to be eligible. She was French, between eighteen and twenty-five years old, and she was fluent in English as a second language. The only requirement she didn't match was being a boy because of course it was impossible to be in a boyband as a girl.
One thing led to another, and half an hour later she was wearing one of her dad's old shirts, hoping to hide her small boobs under the billowing shirt. She put her hair up in a bun and put on her Nino hat (which she owned, of course) to cover her hair. And then she recorded an audition. She picked Partir because the dance was very fun, and she submitted the video under the name of Antoine Dubois-Yang.
She literally got that name from the most popular baby names in the year she was born, and the most common French and Chinese last names.
She was not expecting anything to come out of it. She was not expecting the video to gain any popularity at all. And she was sure as hell not expecting to receive an e-mail from Penny Rolling informing her that her (or rather Antoine's) video was one of the sixty most popular videos and she was supposed to show up for a closed audition the following week.
After screaming into her pillow for a few minutes, she ended up phoning Alya and explaining to her the situation in mild (absolute) panic.
"Calm down girl, it's not the end of the world. You can reply to the e-mail telling them the truth," offered Alya. "Maybe it's not too late for them to contact another participant."
At the lack of reply from Marinette, Alya added, "Or you could just ghost them. I mean, Antoine Dubois-Yang isn't a real person, so it won't be too hard for him to just disappear."
"Why would I do that?" asked Marinette in confusion, holding her phone with one hand and still browsing the e-mail with the other.
"If you have a better idea on how to avoid the audition…" replied Alya.
"I'm not trying to avoid the audition," explained Marinette. She was starting to feel like she and Alya were having two different conversations.
"Weren't you screaming in panic a few minutes ago?"
Oh, so that was where the misunderstanding was.
"I'm still in panic," said Marinette. "Also I'm in shock because I wasn't expecting to be selected. It was supposed to be a joke. That being said, I was selected, and Antoine is definitely showing up for that audition."
"Why?" It was amazing how Alya could convey all her worries about Marinette's sanity in one word.
"Both Adrien and Jagged Stone are in the jury," explained Marinette excitedly. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet both my future husband and my favorite musician. If I don't show up to the audition, I might as well forget about my dream of marrying Adrien in spring, wearing a dress I designed myself, and having Jagged Stone play a rock version of 'Here Comes the Bride'. I have to show up to that audition. I just have to."
Marinette was joking about the wedding, but she did want the chance to meet Adrien in person. And meeting Jagged Stone was a nice plus.
"Marinette… babe, I don't know how to tell you but I think you've lost your mind."
Why was Alya being so difficult?
"But Alya…"
"Girl, this is not like the online audition, where you only had to submit a video under a username. Antoine doesn't have an ID, a real address, or anything that they will probably ask you for," explained Alya. Her tone was the same one she might have used to explain to Ella and Etta why they couldn't have chocolate for dinner. "Besides, Antoine looked credible thanks to my awesome camera angles, but I don't think you'll fool anyone in real life hiding your boobs in your dad's shirt and your hair in that hat."
"My boobs aren't that big. I bet they can be hidden with bandages and a loose t-shirt," Marinette pointed out. "And I can always cut my hair. I can get a boyish haircut and after I'm done with the audition I can fix it with a pixie cut."
The line was silent for a couple of seconds, Marinette wondered if Alya was still listening to her.
"Let's say somehow you survive the audition without anyone discovering you are girl. Antoine Dubois-Yang is still non-existent person."
"I can just give them whatever papers."
"The words you are looking for are 'falsified documents', and I'm pretty sure that's a crime."
"But as you said, Antoine Dubois-Yang is not a real person. It shouldn't be so hard for him to ghost them. It's just one night, I get to meet Adrien, and then Antoine drops of the face of earth."
"And what if you get picked? You're an awesome dancer. What if you are selected?"
"There are fifty-nine other contestants, and all of them are awesome too. What are the odds I'll get picked anyway?"
Marinette heard Alya sigh. She recognized it as her 'Marinette is clearly insane, but I'll tag along anyway because I'm an awesome best friend' sigh.
Marinette smiled triumphantly.
Marinette and Alya were welcomed to Miraculous Records by a woman in her twenties holding a tablet. She introduced herself as Gabrielle, gave them their passes, and gave Marinette a nametag and a number.
"The judges and the contestants are divided in two groups," explained Gabrielle. "Your number is fifteen, and you belong to group number one. You're going to audition in front of a panel of three judges. This is a closed audition, which means only the candidate can be in the room with the panel of judges. Friends and family can be with you in the waiting room, but they cannot access the audition room. Understood?"
Marinette and Alya nodded.
"Great. Keep your nametag and number visible, and wait until you are called."
Marinette and Alya followed Gabrielle to the waiting room. It was a huge room, but it felt a little crowded with all the contestants and their companion there.
Marinette had cut her hair, bandaged her boobs, and contoured her face to appear more masculine in an attempt to conceal that she was a girl. She was still a little unsure about her disguise. She was not fond of the haircut; it looked too much Justin Bieber for her taste. She still felt like her shoulders were way too small, and she was way too short and way too slim to look like a boy. And it was quite noticeable she was wearing makeup.
When she entered the waiting room and took a look at the other participants, she saw that she did indeed have the smallest shoulders in the room. But she was not the slimmest nor the shortest. And she definitely not the only one wearing at least a little bit of makeup. Her nerves calmed a little. After all, boys came in all shapes and forms. And there was no reason for people to know she had contoured her face with her makeup. It just looked as if she was wearing natural makeup. There was no reason for anyone to suspect she was a girl.
About half an hour later, the auditions began.
Marinette understood why they needed to divide the contestants and judges into two groups. If all six judges had judged the sixty contestants, it would have taken too much time and these were busy people. But still, Marinette wasn't overly fond of the idea. If only three people were going to judge her, there was a chance neither Adrien nor Jagged were among her judges. If that happened, she would've done all this (including paying a dodgy guy for Antoine's paper) for nothing.
Marinette waited for her turn shaking nervously. She was not that nervous about auditioning - she was not intending to win anyway, so there was no pressure. She was shaking because there was a chance she was going to meet Adrien today.
"Number fifteen, you're next," said Gabrielle after what felt like an eternity of waiting.
Marinette walked to the audition room. She was shaking so much that if she were holding a glass of cream she would've turned it into butter. The door finally opened and she glanced at the judges.
The first thing she noticed was that she couldn't see a blonde mop of hair among the judges. Adrien was not here. Her disappointment felt like a physical ailment. She took another look at the judges. Sitting in the middle seat at the table was the one and only Jagged Stone. Some of her excitement returned. She didn't get to meet her future husband, but she at least got to meet her favorite musician. The other two judges were Lê Chiến Kim and Nino Lahiffe. Marinette was a big fan of them both. She was happy to meet them, she really was. She was just disappointed she was not going to meet Adrien.
"Hey man! What's your name?" asked Kim. It was the same Kim whose parts Marinette listened to on repeat because his was her favorite voice in The Cataclysm. Marinette figured that they knew Antoine's name already, probably listed in the papers they had on the table in front of them, but they still asked for the names to be polite.
"Ma...Antoine Dubois-Yang." She had almost slipped.
"How old are you dude?" asked Nino. It was the same Nino whose interviews Marinette watched faithfully because the guy was just so chill. The same Nino that once said in an interview he had called dibs on being Adrien's best man when he got married. Ever since, when Marinette daydreamed about her wedding with Adrien, she had included Nino as the best man.
"I'm nineteen." That was easier, since she was actually nineteen.
"Sweet, like the rest of the band," replied Nino.
Marinette only nodded. The members of The Cataclysm were all around the same age, except for XY who was twenty. But since he was no longer part of the Cataclysm and he had always been Marinette's least favorite member, he didn't count.
"And tell us Antoine, what have you prepared for us today?" asked Jagged. It was the same Jagged whose poster was hung on Marinette's wall and whose entire album collection was in her possession.
Everything was so surreal.
"I'm going to be singing Très Jolie," replied Marinette.
"Well, go ahead," said Jagged.
Even if she didn't intend to win, Marinette had prepared for the audition. She did it because she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Adrien. Now that she knew Adrien was never going to see her audition, she felt deflated. But that was not a reason for her to do any less than her best. She still wouldn't like to embarrass herself in front of Jagged, Nino, and Kim.
She sang and danced to Très Jolie. She had picked it because it has always been one of her favorite The Cataclysm's songs and one of the least known. The song was about crushing on someone who was extremely beautiful. While the lyrics may have been a little superficial, the song was upbeat and had a happy feeling.
When the song ended she looked at Jagged, Nino, and Kim, the three of them looked back at her. She didn't knew how to feel.
Jagged was the first to speak.
"That totally rocked, man!" said Jagged. "It was very rock and roll."
Was Marinette seriously being congratulated by her favorite musician? What even was her life?
"Thank you so much!"
"It was awesome, dude!" added Nino.
"Yeah, you did a great job," agreed Kim.
Marinette kept repeating variations of "Thank you…"
"Thank you so much for coming," said Jagged.
Gabrielle took her back to the waiting room. She explained to Marinette that the top twenty candidates were going to be announced on The Cataclysm's website at midnight, and that if she were among the top twenty, she would also receive an e-mail with further instructions.
Marinette didn't pay much attention to that part. After all, she was not going to get picked among the top twenty, so why bother?
Marinette was feeling so many different things at once that she had trouble organizing her thoughts when she came out of the audition room. She was disappointed that she didn't get to meet Adrien. She was ecstatic that Jagged Stone (as in THE Jagged Stone) had told her she rocked. She felt guilty because she had submitted fake papers. She was scared she was going to get caught. But most of all, she felt relieved that the whole audition thing was over. Antoine Dubois-Yang was going to disappear forever.
Marinette ran to the waiting room and took Alya by the arm, who immediately bombarded her with questions about the audition. Marinette was totally taking Alya to get ice cream, where she would tell her about the whole thing, celebrate that she got to meet Jagged, and mourn her lost chance to meet Adrien. The very next day, she'd leave the whole thing behind by getting rid of her Bieber hair and finally getting her pixie cut.
Or so she planned.
Adrien was tired and sleepy. He had woken up at two in the morning for no reason and he had had trouble falling asleep again. When the clock read 5:00AM, Adrien gave up his hope of sleeping again. He was supposed to be awake by 5:30 anyway.
Everything was crazy after that. Since the auditions were that day, everybody was running.
Several hours and two coffees later, Adrien still felt dead. He, Nathaniel, and Penny had already heard fifteen contestants, and they were still supposed to hear fifteen more. Luckily they took a break after the fifteenth contestant. Adrien would probably have ended up falling sleep if they hadn't. The contestants were not boring; Adrien was just sleep deprived.
He used his break to get himself his third cup of coffee. He was absently watching through the window while he waited for the coffee machine to finish. It was not an interesting view, just the parking lot. Today, it was particularly full because of the auditions, and lots of people were going in and out. Luckily, the window of the breakroom was a one-way mirror, so nobody on the outside could see him.
"I'm just saying that in a fair fight, King Kong could take Godzilla," Kim was saying while he entered the break room.
"Dude, have you seen Godzilla? I don't think King Kong stands a chance," replied Nino heatedly.
Then they seemed to notice they weren't alone in the break room.
"Hey dude! I hope you've made enough coffee for me, too," Nino said to Adrien, pointing at the coffee machine.
"I hope so. I suck at calculating how much coffee I need to make," replied Adrien.
"Adrien, make Nino see reason and explain to him that King Kong could totally take Godzilla," interjected Kim.
"Adrien will take my side on this," said Nino smugly. "He loves Godzilla and he loves me so…"
"What's there to love? It's just a giant iguana."
"Well, King Kong is just a giant monkey!"
"At least he has thumbs!" argued Kim.
Adrien had to agree with Nino here. Godzilla would totally win the fight. He was organizing his argument with all the seriousness the topic deserved when he saw a familiar face in the parking lot.
He had seen the video countless times, and he could recognize the face anywhere.
Antoine Dubois-Yang was just outside the window.
He looked even shorter in person than in the video. His head was hatless, and for the first time, Adrien could see Antoine's dark hair. It suited him. He was having a lively conversation with a girl, both of them resting their arms on a bike that Adrien guessed was their vehicle.
Adrien knew Antoine was in the Top Sixty, but he was not expecting to see him. After all, Antoine was put in the other group and the judges were not going to have contact with the participants outside the audition.
He wished he could've seen his audition though. He was a talented boy, and Adrien could appreciate talent; he would've liked to see his performance. If he ranked in the Top Twenty, then Adrien would get a chance to see him in the second audition.
The coffee-maker made a sound indicating that the coffee was ready, interrupting Adrien's thoughts and Nino and Kim's argument.
"Hey Kim, do you want coffee?" offered Adrien while he served one cup for Nino and one for himself.
"Nah, not a fan," replied Kim.
"Sucks to be you," said Nino. Then he turned to Adrien, who was giving him a cup of coffee, and said, "Thank you dude, I love you."
"You are welcome, babe!" said Adrien, sipping from his coffee and glancing at the parking lot where Antoine and the unknown girl kept talking.
Nino jokingly blew him a kiss before he started drinking his own coffee. Adrien would've blown one back but he was distracted.
"What are you looking at?" asked Nino. He following Adrien's gaze. Out of curiosity Kim glanced too.
"Hey, that guy auditioned today! He was the last one we saw before coming here," said Kim, looking at Antoine.
"How did he do?" asked Adrien. Was it weird that he was asking? He hoped not. After all, Kim had mentioned Antoine had auditioned, and Adrien was just politely followed the conversation.
"He was awesome, dude!" replied Nino. "The dude's got moves. And Jagged thought it was very 'rock and roll'."
"Yeah, impressive," agreed Kim.
"So you think he is getting a second audition?" Adrien couldn't help but ask.
"We haven't watched the other half of the participants yet, but the guy stands a very good chance," replied Kim.
"Do you know him or something?" asked Nino.
"Y...no," replied Adrien. He had no idea why he almost said yes. It was true he didn't know Antoine. Maybe it was because he had seen the video a thousand times and because he knew his name that Adrien forgot he didn't actually know him.
"Then why were you staring at him?" inquired Kim.
"I wasn't staring at him, I was just distracted and I was accidentally looking in his general direction. Big difference."
"Were you staring at the girl?" asked Nino.
"Why would I stare at the girl?"
"Well, she's gorgeous," explained Nino, blushing a little.
Adrien raised one eyebrow and gave Nino a knowing smirk.
"Gorgeous, huh?"
"Shut up, she is. I'm just stating a fact," replied Nino. "Do you think she's dating him?"
"Nah," replied Kim way too quickly. When both Adrien and Nino looked at him, confused by his sureness, he added, "That girl is way too hot to be dating him."
Nino nodded.
Adrien felt offended on Antoine's behalf. Yes, the girl was gorgeous, with her tan skin and her wavy hair, but Antoine was not bad looking!
"Dude is attractive too," replied Adrien. Nino and Kim stared at him as if he had grown a second head. "What? Just because I'm not into guys doesn't mean I can't recognize if another man is attractive."
"I agree with that last part, but that dude is pretty scrawny looking and that girl is way too hot for him," replied Nino.
Adrien disagreed, but he didn't want to continue talking about this topic.
"So, I never told you my input in the Godzilla versus King Kong debate…"
And just like that the topic was forgotten.
At midnight, Marinette's phone rang to let her know she had just received an e-mail. Half asleep, she opened it.
M. Dubois-Yang:
We are very excited to let you know you have been picked as one of the Top 20 finalists to be the new member of The Cataclysm…
The songs mentioned in this fic are not real.
Translations:
Partir: To leave
Très Jolie: Very Pretty
Variations of 'I'm not into Antoine, I'm interested in him because he is very talented': Marinette is just a friend.