#pv plagg

For this reason, Plagg eases up slightly. Slightly. He is a god of misfortune, he can’t go against his nature. He never tells Marinette about manipulating her luck to tempt her to use it, knowing it’ll come back at her for doing so (he has a feeling she wouldn’t do it anyway, no reason to waste his breath). He does still pull pranks here and there. Her yarn looked to peaceful, and to put together. It needed to be unrolled. That button didn’t look good on that jacket. There, now it looks better on the floor. These books on the desk were blocking his view, now he can see with them on the floor. Her cat pillow wanted attention, that’s why it jumped off the bed and landed on her. 

Essentially, Plagg became the cat Marinette never anticipated having. A cat that ate cheese, a cat that would intentionally spoil all cheese related products in the bakery below to hog it all. And after she gets past the anxiety and dread, Marinette finds herself becoming that exaggerated cat owner. She’s probably one of the few that Plagg is actually fond of, and will miss once the ring leaves. 

The curse doesn’t appear as bad as she feared. Unlucky every day, she sometimes can’t tell if its the ring’s luck or her own. She trips more often, messes up more often, drops more stuff, runs into walls more often. Just, a lot of her mistakes just happen more often. They do wear down her self esteem time to time, but she always bucks up, always comes around and looks at things optimistically. It often makes Plagg impressed and skeptical. It was still hard. Especially since it was hard for her to find any source of support. Alya could be dismissive. Her parents selective in what they noticed, and sometimes just not help her at all. But she kept going forward, she could make this work. Grin and bare. There was even an odd friendship that she had with Plagg, sort of. 

The only thing that seemed really bad had to be with two certain blondes. 

She came across Chloe far more often, and thus, became even more of a target for her to torment. Though sometimes, it seems the bad luck would rub onto Chloe, and bad things would happen to her suddenly. Marinette suspects that its Plagg acting out against her, but she’s not certain. The other trouble is with her first love. Adrien. The sweetest boy she’s ever met, wanting to make to make up for the gum, giving her his umbrella to take home. The worst of her luck was with him. Every effort she made to spend time with him was fruitless. Either she messed up or something got in the way. And then Adrien… there were so many mixed signals with him. 

He always gave her so much praise, built up his admiration of her, how much he thought she was great. But he never made an effort to spend time with her like she did with him. And then came Kagami. When Adrien first made his interest with her clear, Marinette had thought it was her he was talking about, that she was about to hear a confession from him and she was so hopeful and excited and it all came crashing down when Kagami’s name came out of his lips. And then he asked her to help him with his first date… And then the bench broke under them and Marinette didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry. 

What Marinette could tell you was that she was devastated. She considered moving on, and Alya and the others got on her case for it, snapping at her for even thinking of doing so after all the time they’ve spent pursuing Adrien. She goes to that date to “help”, was fine to leave them alone, and then she sees Adrien keeps looking her way. And he left his date to help her up and it drew Kagami over. And now she just… she just doesn’t know what to do or feel. And when she asked Plagg, all she got was, “Love cheese. You can’t go wrong with cheese.” 

She was actually considering it. Being in love gave her so much heartache and confusion, and it hurt and wore her down. Maybe she should just move on. And Plagg, never one usually direct anyone in the right, gave her a very vague agreement. 

When Lila came, Marinette found herself truly alone. Her lies pulled people in like moths to a flame, and people Marinette thought she could count turned on her. And Adrien, he pushed down any thought and motive she had to fight against Lila, insisting to just let her be. He knew, he’d be there, he told her so. But he wasn’t. He left alone to sit in the back. And when Lila came to torment, Chloe often joining her, he never spoke up to defend her, to help her. He just watched on with his honey green eyes. And after she was left alone, he’d come by, pat her shoulder, and declare, “You’re doing great!” 

She had a feeling it was Plagg who broke Adrien’s bag strap that had scattered his things to the floor. Or maybe it was her, subconsciously. 

Often she went home to just lay in bed. Sometimes she cried, sometimes she just laid there quietly. Plagg left her alone till she came down to join him. Offer her cheese or they just sit quietly with her. One day, she told Plagg, “I… I think I’m over Adrien.” He didn’t reply to her, he just tapped his chunk cheese against her mug in a silent cheers before he inhaled it. 

When the villain arose, Marinette had been scared, terrified of facing him (especially around Origins), and it was reassuring to hear that Plagg didn’t care if she got involved. Someone would rise up to face this villain, and he was right. Someone in red appeared, a ladybug, ready to fight this butterfly. And at first, Marinette rather left that ladybug alone to fight. But as the situation started to get dangerous, Marinette found herself acting, rushing to the battle, grabbing who she could, helping however she could. She even dabbled in her bad luck, not for her own gain but for the Ladybug’s, making the akumas unlucky, easier to be caught by the hero. 

“You’re going to get yourself killed doing that,” Plagg voiced once, actually amused and impressed and a little weary. People dying of the curse was extremely rare, but it did happen. What she was doing with risky with her curse. And she wasn’t doing this to try and ease up her curse, was doing it because it felt right and help was needed. 

And when she stood by that, she got a Cheshire smile. “Then you should have something more protective on.” She freaked out when Plagg dove into the ring and magic washed over her, and she became something similar to the Ladybug. Plagg warned her the Ladybug may not be so welcoming, and he was right. She was regarded wearily when he approached, unwilling to accept her help. And that was fine. It didn’t need to be them that she could help, it can be others, it can be the people that were in danger. She kept distance, helped around the battlefield, shifted the level of luck from a distance when she saw that LB needed it. Sometimes, she’d dare come closer, share what she has observed, offer an idea she had on what to do. It became to a point that the LB even came to her for help, asked for her ideas, or if she would help them in battle. 

 The curse could wear her down, give her more bad days, and be a true test to her optimism. Especially as the little things piled up, people in her life she expect support and love from didn’t always provide it, when the boy she loved loves another and she was the one he came to for advise. It was hard. But she kept going. She wasn’t as easily put down as she was long ago in her first day of school. She was stronger, she was resilient. 

In these situations where its just unfortunate, its a test of endurance. Can you rise above a bad situation? Can you still smile and see the light in people and life? Or are you beaten down by it? 

Marinette endured. She kept going. She rose above the worst, even while it hurt and took a lot out of her, she moved forward. She was stronger than how she started out. And the ring took note of that. 

There was no goodbye. No warning. 

Marinette woke to no Plagg sleeping on her face. She didn’t think much of it, sometimes he liked to sleep in her trash bin, bury himself under all the crumbled up sheets of torn up paper. Only, he never came out when she came back to her room with tea and a cheese filled croissant. Didn’t answer when she called. It was then that she noticed that there was no ring on her finger. It was gone, she was free of the curse. Didn’t have Plagg anymore. She… 

She felt dread and fear. It must have been one last unlucky strike from the ring, she concluded. The butterfly was still at large. The Ladybug needed help, and she wasn’t going to be able to appear as the Black Cat to help them. They were on their own, Marinette was more limited in how to help, having no more power to use. 

She handled it like how she handled everything else. Accept, rise up, and move forward. Power or not, she could still help. Maybe not in battle, but she can help people. She got through a curse of misfortune, she could face anything. 

And with no ring, her luck did change. One of her tormentors was suddenly having a sour time. Marinette had wondered but, dismissed it as her change of luck. 

There was suddenly a new Black Cat running around, but instead of helping the Ladybug, they were wooing them, trying to get a kiss that Plagg had mentioned once would free Marinette, if she wanted a quick out. The LB regarded all the colder, refusing to work with the BC, or even acknowledge them. And the curse would hit this new cat hard, making them miserable on the battlefield. 

A part of Marientte wondered if she should approach, offer advise, see if she can see Plagg again and get a proper goodbye. But, she deemed it safer to leave that be. She can’t have this Butterfly know that she was the previous Black Cat, and with the bad luck that comes with them, it made it risky. Anything could happen. Just do what she could. Sometimes she noticed the Ladybug would glance her way, but they never approached. They’d just make a face when they heard the new cat calling for them, and hurry away. 

At school, her friendships weren’t mended. Chloe and Lila still tried to target her, and Marinette, she was ready to face them, unafraid. Adrien would send her warning looks from the front but she didn’t care what he thought anymore. It was a daily battle at school, fights Chloe and Lila would initiate. And they came to a stop when a new boy moved to their school, a miracle in disguise. He was cold eyed, wore dreary attire that Marinette found boring and dull. He wasn’t interested in making friends, and sat as far away from everyone as possible. When Lila tried to make him anther groupie, she was immediately shot down, this boy unwilling to humor her. 

And when the bullies turned on Marinette, ready to start the next battle of the war, things were interrupted. The boy, Felix, cut in, his savage words tearing them apart and hurting their egos. And when the akuma came later, Marinette returned the favor by helping get away. The next, he actually came to sit with her, deterring Lila and Chloe from coming near her, another improvement on her luck.