Crazy Tae

Horded ducks see water for the first time

> That was heart warming, thanks!

> “NOO I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SWIM!!!…. wait, this is built in? well now I feel silly..”

> Who the heck hoards ducks?

> That music was the best.

> Beautiful video, thanks for sharing this gorgeous moment for those ducks.

> Love the way they stop as a group right at the waters edge as if to say “NO THANKS!”

> “Oh wow! I’m like a boat! You guys! Hey! You have to try this! I’m like a boat!”

Okay so clearly I've underestimated y'all

So how about we make this more interesting?

Now my question is why aren't you writing a story about it??????

The room was dark save for the streetlights peaking through the curtains. The off-yellow glow struck the creature, seeming to pass right through it’s solid body, not reflecting. It’s body seemed formless, it’s shape shifting and rippling into new textures every other moment. It looked as if it was moving and standing still at the same time, like an optical illusion you can’t look at for very long lest your head hurt.

Sandboy knew his brother suffered from sleep paralysis, and their mother was the one who could comfort him when they passed and he no longer saw the shadows and beasts out of the corners of his eyes. Noah didn’t ask about it, and he respected that Lucas never wanted to talk about it with him.

But Sandboy had no such restraints.

After all, Lucas was the one to take inspiration from a movie they both saw last week. He first scared Noah with tales of Halloween and its monsters, then used a cheap costume and mask to jump out and frighten the younger boy when he was trying to stay calm and happy. So sandboy was only repaying the favor. A prank for a prank, a scare for a scare. Broken trust for broken trust. So when their mother came in to investigate Noah’s crying, Sandboy took the opportunity to shower them both in glittering sand.

Pulling open the bedroom window, Sandboy leapt atop his floating cushion and left his brother to deal with his fears, alone. Paris was waiting to see more terrors come to life, after all. Who was he to disappoint?

Their mother coming in had been a lucky one-off chance to successfully make Lucas their first victim. The people dusted had to be connected through great trust for any effect to happen, after all. Even if one-way, it was all they needed. Had it been anyone else entering their room, the sand would have had no effect on either of them until their most trusted person got dusted with it as well.

And that, unfortunately, was the result they were mostly having at the moment.

Not everyone actually lived with or near the person they trusted above all others, so the changes Sandboy saw were gradual. He knew, however, that as long as he dusted more of the city with his sands, more changes would happen in the places he had already been. So he continued forward.

Sandboy didn’t care to take note of the places he passed. Schools, apartments, mansions, cafes, parks, skyscrapers, bakeries. He only wanted to see the fears of others come to life. So he flew higher into the sky, throwing more and more dust into the winds. Soon enough, all of Paris sparkling with the sands of nightmares.

He watched in glee, listening as the night came to life with the noise of thousands of people’s terrors.

Oddly enough, a white speck on the peak of the Eiffel Tower is what caught the attention of Sandboy and Hawkmoth.

She looked around, wondering what had woken her. Everything was quiet, though, and her room was lit only by her lamp. No strange shadows jumped out at her, nothing out of place could be seen. Even Tikki was peacefully sleeping away on a pile of felt squares on top of the sewing kit.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned, thinking back to if she had been dreaming or not. A frown graced her lips as she remembered blue eyes and a silent white bell.

“Stupid nightmares,” Marinette grumbled to herself, standing up as she turned off her computer for the night, but not before she had done one last just-in-case save on her project. She then trudged towards the stairs to her bed, intent on sleeping somewhere normal. But then a faint noise could be heard from downstairs, and she paused, listening.

The noise echoed from below once more, sounding like it came from several floors below. Holding her breath, she crept closer to the trapdoor in her floor and listened harder.

This time, the noise was a voice, her father’s. He was yelling something, though she could barely hear it. He must have been all the way down in the bakery for it to sound so quiet yet carry so far.

“Papa never yells,” Marinette whispered to herself as she swung open the door and descended the stairs, worried. She dashed to the living room door and opened it to the stairwell, listening again. Tom’s yells could be heard better now, and it was only one word that really registered.

“SABINE!”

There was pain and fear in his voice, and without a second thought, Marinette was dashing down the stairs two at a time. Her father never yelled. Her father was never scared. And her mother never, ever didn’t answer his calls.

His eyes suddenly looked at her and they went even wider as even bigger tears fell down his cheeks. “Papa..” she croaked, unable to look into the fire before them. “Where’s Maman?” He was upon his feet in an instant, wrapping her in his arms, picking her up. Then he turned away and ran. Over his shoulder, she saw the blazing fire within the kitchens. A form made of flames stood in the middle of it all, her smokey grey eyes radiating more heat than anything else around them.

The door to the front of the bakery closed behind them, cutting  off Marinette’s view. But her mother’s eyes were burned into her mind like a branding. Whatever had happened, it had caused her mother to become something Marinette and her father would fear for quite some time.

Tom finally stopped running and collapsed in the middle of the park across from their building. He continued to hold her tight as he shuddered with sobs, and soon, her own eyes stun enough from not blinking to make her realize she was crying, too.

Tearing her eyes away from the flames that grew faster than should be natural, she hugged him back, burying her face in his shoulder. It took her a long few moments before she could speak again, her voice quiet and trembling.

“Papa, what happened?”

His breath shuddered and he hiccupped, hugging her even tighter than before. “Nothing but a bad dream, Marinette, I promise. Nothing but a bad dream…”

Her breath caught and she looked up, her eyes set on the balcony that stood atop her bedroom. She could see Tikki there, flitting about in a panic like a tiny bird. Marinette could only hope her Kwami would notice them in the park soon and calm down.

But her father’s words made her mind tick into a new gear.

Ever since she was little, Tom and Sabine had taught her how to use the ovens and the stoves. They even gave lessons in open-fire cooking, and baking using traditional clay and brick ovens that used open flames and hot coals.

There was one thing Tom stressed above all else. “Remember, Marinette, fire can be good when used right. But having a healthy fear of open flaps is perfectly reasonable. It will keep you safe, just like it does me.”

As a little girl, that statement had always made her giggle. She could see the irony of a baker having a fear of fire.

But now? Now she realized what it meant. It wasn't just a healthy fear that had him running from the bakery with his daughter clutched in his arms. It was his worst nightmare.

The burning eyes of smoke could be seen in the fires behind the bakery’s storefront windows, and Marinette tore her eyes away. But her mind kept spinning out answers like a spindle and thread. Those eyes were Sabine’s, and that fire was Tom’s worst fear. Something unnatural had happened, something had done this to them.

A glimmer caught her eyes on her father’s back. It reflected the light of fire and streetlamps like glitter, but it was more of a powder, much like the surface of a diamond drill.

Marinette closed her eyes tight once more. Why? Why did it have to be Sandboy?

The image flashed in Marinette's mind and her heart quickened, her breath shallow. Barely managing to pull out of her father’s arms from both their reluctances to let go, she looked down at her own clothing. It sparkled in the light, just like her father’s did.

She felt sick. She tried to will her panic away, tried to flush it out alongside her tears.

“Marinette?” Tom spoke softly, looking ready to forget about his own fear to catch her if she fell. She shook her head and shifted on her feet anxiously.

“Papa, I- This has to be an Akuma, right? This has to be- Everything has to be able to go back to normal, right?” Her voice sounded desperate even to her own ears, but the words seemed to pull them both just a bit out of their dark holes.

He sniffled and nodded, glancing at the bakery before tearing his eyes away and back to his daughter once more. “For once, dear, I really do hope there’s an Akuma out there, too.”

She nodded back and whipped at her tears. “There just has to be. Maman- she- she isn’t gone, she-”

He hugged her again, nodding even more. “She’s just feeling a little different right now, sweetie, she’ll be okay. I promise.”

Marinette held tight to that promise, a lifesaver in the mists of a hurricane at sea.

Chancing another glance to her balcony, she saw her fairy lights had gone out, their wires burned and frayed by the cloth canopy and wooden furniture that was not lit by flames. Her flowers were wilted. They looked sad.

Tikki wasn’t there any more.

A quick glance around proved that the Kwami was nowhere near. And no nudge from her pockets or within her hair came, either. Marinette’s heart pounded, scared that Ladybug might not make it to the fight soon enough.

Shaking the unwanted thought from her mind, she pulled away once more and looked at her father, looking like a giant that had fallen from his home in the beautiful skies. He was so small without Sabine there with them.

“Papa, we have to get somewhere safe.” He nodded and stood quickly, ready to get his daughter to safety. She shook her head, knowing his thoughts. “I have to go check on my friends, they need me.” He wilted and tried to counter, to tell her no, but she pushed it, needing to help her city, desperate to turn back the wrong and make her life right again. “Papa, I have to go. They’re going to be scared, and my- I was affected by the Akuma, too. I don’t want to put you in danger. I don’t know what it’s going to be, and I don’t know if I can run from it, or if you can keep us safe by staying with me. I need to be able to run, Papa. And my friends can help me, they know how to help me hide.”

“But Marinette, I- I can protect you. Can’t I?” He looked heartbroken, and the fact she helped cause it tore at her. But she still shook her head.

“The fire- If that comes back, you won’t be able to shield me from both our things. You’ll get hurt, I won’t let you get hurt like that!” She hiccupped as she cried out her final plea, and she stood shaking in her spot as she stared him down, renewed tears falling.

The moment between her outburst and his answer felt long, but he did finally speak.

“You’re sure they can help? More than me?”

She swallowed back her sadness and nodded hard, feigning confidence in her words. “We’ve been around a lot of Akuma’s, Papa. We’re good at keeping each other safe. I trust them with this.”

She tried to suppress her guilt at her own words. Yes, she trusted them, enough to hand them Miraculous as Ladybug. But the truth was, she wasn’t going to let them protect her here, either. She would check on them, yes, that wasn’t a lie, either. But to let them see Ladybug’s worst fear? She didn’t want to bear that thought. She didn’t want them to know.

Yet something in the back of her mind told her she would have very little luck keeping this secret for much longer. Something with blue eyes and an unringing white bell.

She was enveloped in yet another hug, and Tom’s voice came to her in a hushed whisper. “Be safe, Marinette. I’ll find you again soon.” He let her go, and she turned on her heels, dashing away. But not without looking back at him.

Her father was sad and frightened. But he turned back to the burning Bakery despite it. She could tell that he would do anything to keep his family safe. Even if that meant letting his daughter leave. Even if it meant facing what he feared most.

“Oh, no…” Holding her breath, Tikki did what she did best. She hoped hard on the power of Luck being on their side, and took off, away from the flames and toward Plagg. He could help, right? At the very least Chat Noir would be more than enough to help find Marinette, even if that did mean putting the Miracle Box on the back burner. She winced at the thought of fire, wishing there was another phrase that didn't hit so close to home.

Plagg’s voice knocked her out of her thoughts and she barely managed to catch him as he slammed into her, causing them to spin wildly in the air.

“Plagg?! What are you doing here! Where’s-”

“No time, Sugarcubes! Adrien’s in trouble!”

Stilling them in the air, Tikki looked at Plagg in shock. The fear of what ‘trouble’ meant slowly creeping up on her like ice. “What-?”

“I was watching my regular late night shows while he slept like a log, and then suddenly, boom! Stupid sand was all over the place! Got in my fur and everything! I barely managed to save my precious cheese from the assault!”

“Plagg! Focus!”

“Oh, right. At first i thought someone had just put a sandbag in the vents as a prank again-”

“Again??”

“I did it the first time, I’ll tell you about it later- But anyways, it took a few minutes before anything happened, but suddenly Adrien was covered in this shadow and, well. I’m not really sure.”

“What do you mean you’re not really sure??” Tikki exclaimed in a panic. “What did it do??”

“He transformed, Tikki.” He wilted.

“Into Chat Noir? But you’re still here!”

He shook his head. “It was all wrong. He didn’t say the transformation words or anything, and his suit wasn't right, either. It was all...white.”

Tikki covered her mouth, her eyes wide. She was silent, unable to respond.

“What about you?” Plagg finally asked. “What are you doing here, Where’s Ladybug?”

She shook her head. “Something happened, the Bakery’s on fire and I can’t find her.”

Plagg’s mouth dropped open and Tikki grabbed him and pulled him to follow her. “We have to hurry, the Miracle Box is still in there! We need to get it out!”

“But, but, what about the kits?!” Despite his protest, Plagg still followed.

“We’ll have to find them later, Plagg, now hurry! We need to get the other Kwamis to safety!”

“Do you think we’ll have to get some of the Miraculous out, to help us?”

Tikki was silent at that, not sure how to answer. “Maybe,” she finally answered quietly. “But let’s hope we won’t need them.”

Civilians were often in groups, huddled together as strangers, united in their desire to keep each other safe and quell their fears. Many were covered in sand just like her. But the eyes of those people held something deep, something capable of shattering her heart like never before.

Their eyes were that of those who had been betrayed on a level they had never imagined could happen.

She knew that look well. She’d seen it in her own eyes.

She saw it the first time when one of her own classmates, Lila, turned on her at the drop of a hat, threatening Marinette and her friends worse than anything before, even by Chloe. She saw it when Chloe herself had sided with Hawkmoth of her own free will and became Miracle Queen, undoing all her progress towards bettering herself. She saw it, strongest of all, when she faced a pale boy with white hair, blue eyes, and a bell that never made a sound, an ethereal echo of the void she saw in his eyes.

Even after she had won all those fights, she still saw and felt that deep heartbreak and utter betrayal afterwards.

Even when she sat with Chat Noir, a version who never hurt her, atop the highest skyscraper in Paris and watched the sunset, she still knew that her heart and trust would not recover as easily as Tikki’s powers could restore the physical world.

Now, all she could feel was dread.

If the people of Paris were experiencing betrayal and fear of such magnitude, then she knew exactly what was coming for her. This time, however, she wouldn't have the help of Bunnix. This time she won’t be facing him, and him alone. This time, she had to be careful to keep a still-intact Paris from being turned to rubble amongst a flood that wasn’t yet there.

Worst of all, she wouldn't have Tikki, either. Luck was not on her side today. Only fear.

A flash of something in the sky distracted Marinette from her spiral, and she looked up.

Dust was falling in glittering waves from something high above. The silhouette of Sandboy was recognizable, and her breath caught before she started running his way. He was heading towards the Eiffel Tower. Following the Akuma there would hopefully reunite her with her Kwami. If she’s lucky, anyways.

He was listening to Plagg flipping through channels on the TV while pretending to sleep. The noise wasn’t keeping him up, no. He just liked being awake to experience how peaceful it was knowing he had a friend with him no matter what.

He had been slowly drifting off, though, when his ceiling started to glitter like stars. He smiled, thinking it the beautiful start to a good dream, and his eyes shut. 

He knew nothing else as the darkness of night took him away.

She almost tripped down the steps into the park surrounding the iconic Tower. Sandboy was far ahead of her, already nothing more than a speck near the top. The cascading sands stopped, the last of it falling like golden snow. Her eyes glimpsed an off-white in the yellow lights of the Tower’s peak, and she blinked to clear the vision away.

But the white was still there. Of course it was still there. No true nightmare would ever grace her with the mercy of letting her will it away.

The silence was back in her ears. Water surrounded her feet as the ground flooded. She barely realized there really was water sloshing against her ankles. Drowning wasn’t her fear, but it still was someone’s. It didn’t help.

She moved forward, eyes glued to the Akuma in the sky. She didn’t know if she ran, or walked, or if the water itself had moved her along. But as soon as the Tower obscured her view as she came underneath it, sound came back to Marinette and she dropped her gaze to the stairs. She ran for them and climbed.

But it wasn’t okay right now. She knew that. It wasn’t going to get better without her involved, either, she knew that, too. But she deserved to let herself feel this was. Even if the choice was already decided, she should get to be the one to choose it for herself. Yet still, it came too slow, too fast.

The doors opened with a quiet ding and she stepped out into the gentle winds of the city’s sky. Her legs felt like falling apart but they held locked together. She moved. She listened to the hushed noises of the world below. She kept going around the deck, eyes searching, for something, anything.

She found sand glittering at her feet. It crunched softly under her shoes. She rounded another corner. Sandboy was next to her, sitting on the floor. No, he was slumped against the wall. His eyes closed. He looked so small like that. But he had grown, too. The muted buzz of her mind wanted to know how much time had passed since his first appearance. It felt like forever. She wished it was never.

From behind, a hollow purr called out to Marinette. It was all she could hear. It wanted her to turn around. She didn’t want to. She did it anyways.

He was laying on his stomach on the ledge above her, chin propped up in his palms as his feet slowly kicked the air over his back. He looked so relaxed, so content to be there. It made Marinette wish the peacefulness of it was real. It wasn’t. It hurt.

“My Lady,” his voice purred, a murmur that deafened her to anything but him. “I’ve missed you, you know.”

“Chaton,” Marinette breathed out. She was having troubling breathing back in. It hurt. But not as much as seeing him hurt.

His ears perked toward her and he lifted his head, his clawed fingers lacing together before he dropped his chin back down. His smile grew. His eyes, half lidded with relaxation, were still empty. They still hurt. “I was so alone without you here, my Princess, but you’re here now, and that’s all that matters.” 

“Sandboy-”

“He’s out like a nightlight; he won’t be bothering us, and neither will Hawkmoth.” The boy in white frowned. Even the distaste in his words didn’t reach those surreal blue eyes. She wondered if he could tell. She didn’t know. It hurt.

She shook her head, trying to deny the reality before her. “You aren’t real, you aren’t really here. I saved you- I fixed my mistake- Everything should be better now…” Why did her words sound like lies in her own ears? What was she doing wrong? She didn’t know the answers. It hurt.

His frown turned into a knowing smile. His empty eyes drooped like he was teasing her. It was so familiar but so foreign. It hurt. “I’m me, Princess, and I’m really here. You know how Sandboy’s power works this time, you know you do. You know the truth.”

Her heart cinched itself. She thought of her mother, grey eyes of smoke, and of her father, a broken pillar surrounded by flames. They were both real. They both were hurting. She didn’t want to think about it, to accept it. She did it anyway, just like everything else. It hurt.

“It’s you.”

“It’s me.”

It hurt.

“No Akuma here, Marinette. Looks like I’ll be staying for a while.” Her eyes went to Sandboy. Maybe, just maybe- A purr grew loud in Chat’s chest as he chuckled. It sounded like danger, a leopard watching a mouse. “His Akuma isn’t here, either. The pillow drifted away in the wind when he went to sleep. You’ll have to find it.” She felt his eyes on her ears. “If you even can. Something tells me you’re just as stuck as I am.” His empty smile showed teeth and fangs. She wanted to see his real smile again. She wanted her Chat Noir. But how? And this time, at what cost?

He stood, then, jumping down to her level. Marinette stepped back, but he only walked past her to the railing. He looked over Paris with an expression like he had never seen it before. His eyes only reflected emptiness. Marinette took tentative steps forward, and joined him at the rail. She was so close to him, but he felt so far away.

“It looks so much nicer like this,” he spoke softly, and she dared to look his way. He was still white, blue, and quiet as death itself. Dying was noisy, though, so she preferred to see him alive and quiet, even if it was still painful, for both of them.

“It’s nothing but nightmares,” she whispered back. His gaze drifted to meet hers.

“Better than nothing at all, my Lady.”

She watched him, waited, but he said no more. So she stepped closer, ever closer. Their arms brushed and naturally, her hand split itself into his. Finally, she gave him her counter. “We can make it better.”

He purred quietly and leaned into her. The purr was no longer cold, but it wasn’t yet warm. “And what about me?”

“You’ll be free. Don’t you want that?” He shook his head and she looked at him with renewed worry. Her only reassurance was the neutrality of his purr.

“You want me to forget you, Marinette, my Lady, my Princess, my first real Love.” He leaned in, his forehead resting to hers. His eyelashes were lowered as he looked at her. “I might be free of this form, but that’s the only thing that will change. I’ll still be me. You’ll still be in danger of Hawkmoth. I’ll still be at risk of him finding out who I am. I don’t think we want that, do we?”

She held her breath, squeezing his hand to ground herself. He squeezed back, his claws poking at her but not hurting.

“No,” she murmured, blinking away a blurriness in her eyes. “I- I can’t lose you like that. I wish I’d known.”

His smile was small. It reached his eyes.

“Then do one thing for the safety of the Miraculous. For me.” His free hand came up and gently set a finger on her lips, hushing her before she could speak. “When this is over, do just this. Ask me who I am.”

Her eyes went wide and she couldn't speak, couldn't move away. How could she respond to that? He still smiled on, never blinking, never wavering. A rock in a storm, dangerous to ships yet the one thing keeping her above water.

“I don’t ask to be selfish, Marinette. I ask because I care. Because I don't want to ever be Blanc again. Because I don’t want you to suffer from my memory. And because right now, I’m capable of asking, instead of making. I don’t want to take your Earrings, Ladybug, but you know as well as I do that I can do it. That I will do it, because one way or another, something needs to be done.” His hand tightened around her, then he let go and stepped back. She almost stumbled from losing contact with him, but straightened up all the same, watching him.

His purr could be heard still. It was warm now. She didn’t want to lose that. She couldn't.

“Go,” she whispered. “Find somewhere safe, somewhere you can wake up from this nightmare without fear. I’ll find the Akuma and fix this.”

Chat Blanc nodded his head with a gentle smile. “As you wish.”

Chat Blanc stood out amongst the ash and coals. He seated himself on the chaise, the cushions melted away but the wood was still able to support him. He hummed to himself, and waited.

It felt like a lot of waiting. But he was used to that. It was also rather lonely. But he’s used to that, too. He misses Plagg. He’s not used to that as much. It was nice to know he wasn’t used to that, since it meant that Plagg was there for him so much. Blanc smiled, and continued to hum.

Plagg yawned, breaking the silence and dramatically drooping. Tikki huffed, peeved that he seemed to be taking his responsibility of holding up one side of the Box between them very seriously. “Oh re-lax, Sugarcubes, I won’t drop it again,” he drawled.

“That’s what you said last time right before it fell into the fountain,” Tikki chided. Plagg only shrugged.

“Anyways, I’m getting tired, and I’m soooooo hungry!” He bemoaned, and she couldn't help but sigh loudly.

“What do you suggest we do, then, you Stinky Sock? We can’t just-”

“Yeah, yeah,” he frowned at her lifting the box higher to jostle her out of her tirade before it could begin. “I know I know, we can’t leave trust anyone with the Box and we can’t find our Holders, nothing new. I say we go back to the Bakery, salvage any food we can find, and wait for your little Ladybug to come back for you.”

“But-!” She squeaked as Plagg dropped down again, once more cutting her off by making her hold tighter to the Box. She glared. He raised a brow at her, like he wanted to see her try to argue when they didn’t have any real good options anyways. She sighed. “Fine, we can go back. It’s better to be somewhere familiar that she will return to than to go on a wild goose chase around Paris.”

“Glad to see you still have your senses, now let’s goooo, before that fire takes out the rest of the cheesecakes!”

“Ugh, you and your stomach, Plagg!” Still, she followed, and they headed back.

He saw the Miracle Box, but he didn’t react. It meant nothing to him right then. He didn’t need it, and it was safe from Hawkmoth. That was all that mattered about it. So he looked away easily, and saw the Kwamis.

Plagg didn’t hesitate to fly to him like a bullet and smach onto his face with a tiny hug to his brow. Blanc chuckled and fell backwards against the back of the ash covered chaise. He petted his Kwami, who purred only louder.

Tikki came into his line of sight again, and he smiled at her, too. She was wary when he reached up to her, but he cupped her gently, so gently in his hand, and brought her closer.

“Everything will be okay,” he murmured to them both. His eyes drifted to the sky, clearly visible through the collapsed roof. It was beautiful. He liked that the moon was full. Unbroken.

He closed his eyes again, running his thumb over Tikki’s head gently. “She’s at the Eiffel Tower. Following the Akuma’s object. Just follow the winds.”

Plagg purred louder, and Chat Blanc fell into a serene calmness.

Tikki left his open hand, and the last thing she heard from the burned down room as she left to find Marinette was a gentle hum.

She still didn’t know what she was going to do once she found the Akuma Object, though. She wasn’t Ladybug, only Marinette. She thanked the stars and Tikki’s Luck that Chat Blanc hadn’t Cataclysm’d Sandboy’s cushion alongside knocking said Akuma out. She never would have been able to set Paris back to the way it was, the way it should be.

Maybe he had known that, too. She hopes so. She’s glad either way.

A speck of golden embroidery caught her eyes. The Akuma’s cushion looked like a balloon that had been lost, slightly deflated and barely floating where it was caught in the branches of an old tree by an old building.

She jumped with a squeak as the wind picked up, the branches of the tree scratching into the glass of a window. She sighed with relief that it had been nothing more. She felt silly, really, being startled by a tree. Even so, she hoped there wasn’t someone inside that room, experiencing fear of their own while she just stood there.

Determined to see things through, she tried to climb the tree. It was a valiant effort, if she did say so herself. But she wasn’t much of a tree climber as a child, and she still isn’t one now. She’s glad no one saw her failing to climb the trunk of a tree. She laughed wryly, knowing that public embarrassment might have been among her largest fears once, but not any more. Not for a while now.

A blur of red distracted Marinette just as she was about to successfully pull herself up onto a branch. She fell to the ground with an oof. A moment later, Tikki was pressing herself to her face while spouting a jumble of rushed words, sounding just about ready to cry.

Filled with relief, Marinette held the Kwami close and kissed her head. “I missed you, too, Tikki. I’m sorry I lost you back in my room, are you alright?”

With a sniffle, Tikki nodded. “I went looking for you, I didn’t see you anywhere. I- I thought I lost you.” Marinette gave her another kiss to reassure her, and then Tikki continued. “I found Plagg, we got the Miracle Box out of the fire. But we had nowhere to go, so once it was safe, we went back.” She paused, fretting as her eyes looked away. “We saw Chat Blanc, too.”

Marinette’s heart thudded painfully. She could imagine the pain Plagg must have felt at seeing his Chosen become like that. “It will be over soon, Tikki, I promise. Look, I already found the Akuma! See?” She pointed up the tree, and Tikki looked, spotting the object with wide eyes. 

Flitting into the air, Tikki exclaimed, “Well what are we waiting for then! Let’s save the day, Marinette!”

Giggling softly at that, Marinette called out the words, “Tikki, Transform Me.”

Ladybug had no trouble ascending the tree to its peak and claiming the cushion. She didn’t wait to get back down before tearing the beautiful gold embroidered midnight blue fabric. The little Butterfly fluttered out of it’s shadows. It couldn't even fly away before she swept it up into her Yo-Yo and purified it of it’s tainted magic.

“Goodbye, little butterfly. May we never meet again…Now then... Miraculous Ladybug!”

He wasn’t on his own bed any more. There was no noise from a TV like he had been listening to earlier. A single light was on, illuminating the pink room in a golden glow.

He sat up quickly, glancing around as he realized where he was. He scooped an indignant Plagg up and stuffed him into a pocket of his pajamas before anyone could see him. Not that anyone was in the room. But one could never be too careful.

“Marinette?” He called out carefully, but there was no response. A glance showed him that no one was in the loft bed. There were no sounds from downstairs, either. A digital clock told him it was past 3 in the morning.

Worried enough to risk it, Adrien pulled Plagg back out. The Kwami looked grumpy, but something was keeping him calm. He wasn’t sure, but Adrien thought that might look like regret on his little face. “Plagg? What happened, why am I in Marinette’s room and not at home?” Adrien shifted uncomfortably as Plagg grumbled and looked away. “Plagg, please!”

Giving in to Adrien’s worried kitten eyes, Plagg sighed. “Kid, there was an Akuma.”

“A-Akuma?? Ladybug-!” Seeing him just about ready to panic, Plagg shakes his head and silences Adrien.

“It’s over, kid, don’t worry about it.”

“Over..? But...I wasn’t any help...” Adrien drooped.

Plagg quickly shot up and slammed into Adrien’s face again, huffing like he didn’t want to be doing this show of affection and comfort. “Oh, trust me kid, you helped.”

“And Ladybug..?” Adrien prompted.

“She wasn’t needed either. Tikki wasn’t even with her until you told her where she’d gone.”

“I, what?” Adrien tried to process that. How did he know where Ladybug was if she wasn’t even Ladybug when he saw her? That confused and worried him. What had he done while he was out? “Plagg? What happened?”

The Kwami sighed and drifted back down into Adrien’s open palm. “I’m not that sure, sorry kid. I was pretty busy after you got affected, I couldn't even find you until I got here. It was that Sandboy Akuma again, though.” Adrien’s eyes went wide. “It turned you into...Well, let's just say it was pretty scary, kid. Totally nightmare worthy!” He cackled, though it was light, like he was trying to lighten the mood. Adrien smiled sadly, appreciating his efforts.

Plagg cleared his throat and continued, finally asking a question of his own. “Kid, do you, uh, remember anything?”

Adrien looked up, trying to recall anything. His brow scrunched in confusion as he thought of Marinette, standing at his side on the Eiffel Tower. She was scared. Her eyes looked like they were in pain. He doesn’t remember this ever happening, but why was the image so clear, so easy to imagine?

“Plagg, I think...I think I might have done something really bad.”

https://youtu.be/oNsJbdVi5iE

https://abc13.com/amp/texas-power-grid-outages-rolling-blackouts-brownouts/10344285

ur my cuddlefish

u give me the warm fuzzies

my three hearts are yours

our love for the pengWIN

anchovy mine

u turn me to jelly

ur my littoral crush

i think ur jawesome

thx for the kelp but

im a hermaphroditic Mnemiopsis comb jelly that can self fertilize sooo

a young elephant kneeling down in front of their car in a playful way and throwing zebra bones at the researchers, trying to get them to play with him

an 8-month-old elephant trying and failing to pick up some grass with her trunk (the author: “it reminds me of someone learning to use chopsticks”) and whose mother then pulled a sheaf of grass and ate it while making sure her daughter was watching the demonstration

baby elephants suck their trunk for comfort (as we all know!!) but also like to swing and whirl it around as they try to figure out what it can do and how to use it, and sometimes accidentally step on their trunk and trip over it

“often, babies reach with their trunks into the mouths of family members, taking a bit of what they’re eating”

all the female elephants in a family rushing over to help when someone’s baby trips and falls, while making comforting vocalisations

an enormous adult male elephant walking up to a family group and making an exaggerated display of nonchalance, with his trunk casually draped over his tusk, to show the other elephants that he’s not scary

researchers messing with an elephant family by collecting a bit of urine when the elephant walking at the back of the group stopped to pee, then driving some distance to leave the urine ahead of them. “When they encountered fresh urine from an elephant they knew was behind them, they seemed truly baffled, as though thinking, “Wait a minute—how’d she pass us? She’s back behind us!”

mothers instructing their babies to switch to the other side of their body and walk in their shade when the day is very hot

an elephant child trying to climb all over a bigger male teenager who was lying down for a nap, receiving a kick in response, and running back to its mother in alarm—then the teenager followed and lay down flat beside them as if to apologise and invite the child to climb onto him again

elephant children throwing tantrums when they are being weaned and their mother blocks them from nursing (“He got so upset, pushing her, poking her and tusking her, […] it was like, ‘Ooh, I hate you!”)

researchers followed a family that included a baby who was born disabled, with twisted forelegs that he couldn’t straighten. The entire elephant family (from the adults to the baby’s 8-year-old sister) nurtured him, patiently helping him up every time he fell over, “slowing their pace to his disabilities, continually turning to watch his progress, waiting as he caught up from behind” until (after a few days) the little one managed to straighten his legs and learn to walk normally

a researcher once saw an elephant pluck up some grass and place it in the mouth of another elephant whose trunk was badly injured. Also adults are sometimes seen carrying sick baby elephants on their tusks

a researcher saw a baby elephant who was wary of going into the water, wrap her trunk around her mother’s tusk as her mother patiently entered the river with her, like a child nervously grabbing her mother’s arm