Oh no. I've got another plot bunny. Here we go again. I swear I'm trying to actually work on the AU's I have. I am working on them. But you're also getting this too, I guess. Introducing:
The Miraculous Aftermath AU
This idea started with essentially one major thought: what if cannon happened mostly the way cannon happens(with changes where appropriate and where I feel like it, lol) accept that Adrien is not the Black Cat Miraculous holder, never touched a miraculous at all, and has always been just Marinette's crush and a good friend to the group, both in and out of costume?
The story would be broad strokes the same as normal, but with a different Cat wielder, Adrien and Marinette not yet dating, and Adrien not actually being friends with the heroes civilian identities, but rather the heroes themselves, as in this world he still hasn't managed to go to public school. Obviously there are lots of deviations and changes to cannon from removing Chat Noire from continuity, but the actual important changes, and the story I want to focus on, all starts after Hawkmoth's death.
Marinette and whoever replaces Adrien as the Cat both agree to hide his father's identity from the world, and from Adrien. As well as agreeing to hide that he's a sentimonster.
However, like in cannon, Hawkmoth also has a letter set aside for Adrien in the event of his death. Unlike cannon however, that's not the only thing he's tucked away for Adrien to discover if he dies.
See, unbeknownst to the heroes, Hawkmoth was only Akumatized during the final confrontation with them, not actually wearing the butterfly miraculous. So when he died, it wasn't on his body. Instead, it was tucked away with Adrien's letter, waiting for its next wielder.
Adrien leans hard on Nathalie and his heroic friends after his dad's death, and it takes a couple months to find the letter and miraculous. Enough time that the team is starting to think Hawkmoth just hid the miraculous and hadn't actually set up for it to be used by another wielder in the event of his death.
It's enough time that Adrien has gotten a good look at what a Paris without Ladybug and Chat, and all the other heroes, looks like. Crime surging, a lot of the positive agendas they pushed in public no longer being supported by the government, and a thousand other smaller things all start to happen in the wake of the heroes semi-retirement and they watch and wait for the butterfly to pop back up.
So it's an Adrien with some perspective that finds his father's letter and the Miraculous nestled with it. At this point, he's already started to work out some thoughts about his father with Nathalie and a grief counselor, and finding out his dad was the monster that haunted Paris, in the name of his mother, no less, shatters any rosey memories he once had of the man.
At first, he really means to return the brooch to ladybug. He really, truly does. But before he fully figures out how, he starts thinking. Not just about how the city is starting to act without the constant threat of hawkmoth or the shining light of its heroes, but also all the times his father inadvertently did some good.
The times people who were trapped in unfair situations they had no power to change had their problems and struggles against whatever unfairness plagued their life exposed to the world, and in the aftermath the public demanded the problem fixed. Or how sometimes, hawkmoth gave power to the weak and oppressed to get some kind of accidental, twisted justice for the Akumatized that lasted long after Ladybug fixed any harm done.
And then Adrien can't help but wonder what a Hawkmoth who actually set out to right wrongs would be like. What a Hawkmoth who empowered those oppressed by the rich and the powerful, like Marinette was by Chloe right in front of him in school, to fight against their oppressors or struggles and make real change.
And how such a hero might appear like a villain. A villain that could make the real heroes stick around for a Paris that still needed them. And for an Adrien who misses the social contact with the few people besides Nathalie that actually care about him.
So Adrien becomes Metamorphosis, the new butterfly wielding "villain" of Paris. Now directly pitted against the heroes he calls friends who hunt him down with as much zeal as they once did Hawkmoth. To Adrien, they are as kind and friendly as ever of course, with their connection both deepening and becoming more public as a way for the team to really hammer into the media that Adrien is unconnected to his father's crimes.
So Adrien now juggles being Metamorphosis, being friends with the very heroes he fights, and also finally going to highschool like a normal kid.
I'm also toying with the idea of the butterflies Empathic abilities sticking around while he's just wearing the brooch, even when untransformed. Mainly because an Adrien that can sense emotions is really funny to me because it would certainly somehow cause more misunderstandings for the poor boy somehow.
But also just, an Adrien with conviction, a self assigned duty, and more than a little guilt for what his father has done, going alone against impossible odds to do work he thinks is necessary just feels too perfect.
It will also be fun to see a Nooroo who actually likes his wielder and actually agrees with the use of his miraculous(more or less. He's so happy to just not have an abusive villain actually) while still somehow being unable to actually return to the miracle box because the kid really needs him. Possibly the first time he's stayed away on purpose.
