#quit au

A sheen of sweat plagued Poppy’s brow as she kneeled in the dirt, pulling weeds from the flowers that grew in front of her shack. The sun was setting beyond the trees and cast the clearing she now lived in into slight shadow. She had been managing her time well in her self induced seclusion, moderating it by either fixing up her shack, gardening, scrapbooking or patrolling for critters. One thing she found herself NOT doing, was singing. She had barely sang anything for the 2 months she had been here and not from lack of trying. She just didn’t feel like singing and when she did, she wasn’t sure what to sing. Ever since she had found out she was half-Funk and that Queen Essence was her Aunt, she had been questioning what she should sing, something she had never done before. She couldn’t decide wether to sing Pop or Funk, so she had tried to do both like Cooper had. And it had worked! She had never felt happier singing both Pop and Funk and enjoyed learning about being Funk. Until she heard those two Pop Trolls talking …

Poppy shook her head, picking up her basket full of weeds. Not her problem anymore. She turned towards her shack and walked up onto the front porch, setting the basket down by the door and turned to her new rocking chair, plopping herself down into it with a yawn. She had been really tired the last month and it was nice to sit down and relax.

Poppy watched as the sun set even further beyond the top of the trees, allowing the stars and the moon to make their nightly appearance. Poppy closed her eyes as a gentle breeze blew, enjoying the cool air it brought as she began to rock her chair, her mind clearing as her exhaustion took over. She slipped into sleep, the stars beginning to twinkle overhead. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Where was she?

Poppy looked out ahead of her, staring into the white void that surrounded her on all sides.

What was happening?

Poppy desperately turning every which way, but to no avail. White met her eyes at every angle. Her breathing picked up as she began to run, trying to find something, anything! That could tell her what was going on. Then a flash of colour. Poppy turned to it and found … her Dad? He was standing in the white, a frown on his face. Suddenly footsteps behind her.

Poppy whirled, finding … Queen Essence? She too, was frowning. What?

Trolls began to appear all around her, surrounding her. Her friends, the other leaders, even Trolls she didn’t recognise. All of them staring at her with frowns on their faces.

Poppy tried to speak, but nothing came out of her mouth. What was happening?

Suddenly, a voice hissed into the void. Echoing in the empty space.

“Maybe that’s why she’s such a lousy Queen.”

*CRACK*

Cracks began to web across the floor, starting at the edge of the crowd surrounding her and racing towards the middle … towards her. Poppy tried to get away, but the floor gave out beneath her, causing her to fall into a endless dark abyss never to see light again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Poppy jerked awake with a short scream, gripping the chair beneath her as she heaved for breath. Her head darted around, looking through the darkness outside her house, the light coming from inside only lighting up the porch.

Look left? Nothing there. Look right? Zilch. Then what happened caught up with her and she gave a deep sigh, slumping in her chair. That dream again. It was the same every time, but it still cost her more than a few nights of sleep. She’d been having it almost every night for over a month, and it was the main reason for her exhaustion.

Poppy leaned her head back, giving another deep sigh as she began to rock again, trying to sooth her mind enough to get back to sleep.

That’s when she heard the noise.

Poppy picked her head back up, looking around the clearing. What was that? It sounded like something … falling?

“Huh?”

Poppy leaned forward in her chair to look up past the edge of her porch roof. She barely got a glimpse of huge, black and red, before it struck the earth in front of her house.

With a ‘BOOM’ a cloud of dust flew up into the air and towards her, causing her to cough and squint trying to clear the the dust from her eyes and lungs.

As the dust began to settle she could tell exactly what it was the came crashing from the sky. Black leather? Red lights and accents? Zipper mouth? There was no denying it.

Barb’s Angler-Bus.

The mouth of the bus slowly zipped open, red light flooding out.

“Poppy!”, growled out a familiar voice.

A familiar head of bright-red Mohawk appeared from the depths of the bus.

Poppy kept a neutral expression on her face as she looked into the face of the Queen of Rock.

Wow that is old.

Yea, honestly I would rework a lot of things. But the point of the au was to emphasize how alone Adrien was with how little people trusted him and so on.

Well, Zodiac au / Quit au happens because Fu wasn't open with Adrien/Chat noir and he felt unneeded.

So if I had to do something like that. He would have to quit because Ladybug is hiding stuff from him.

That is basically the premise of Quit au.

Aka Zodiac Adrien au.

Hmmm.

I originally planned it to be kagami, Nathanael or Luka.

I never actually decided. The point was it was going to be a mystery.

-Adrien was sick of all of the secrecy that Fu had enforced on him and Ladybug. He was sick of having little involvement in anything regarding the Miraculous, sick of being forced to keep his identity hidden away from ladybug, and sick of being treated more like a sidekick then a partner by everyone.

-Chat noir requests a meeting with Fu, through Ladybug. Ladybug sets it up and Fu and him discuss.

-Chat noir voices his concerns and complaints to Fu. Fu tells him that he needs to understand that this way is better for everyone.

-Chat noir takes off his ring. “Then it will be better without me.”

-Adrien quits and that was the end of the conversation.

-Adrien was sitting in class when an akuma attacked a few days.

-Adrien felt his heart break seeing Ladybug with a new chat noir.

-He watched the livestream, this one was so different then him. he was polite, tough, he acted only when Ladybug told him to. He was efficient in a way that Adrien was not.

-After about two week, everyone caught on that this was a completely different chat noir. (The different hair color was an indicator)

-Ladybug seemed so content with this version. They had an interview on Nadja’s show that was meet the new Chat noir. It was like he never even existed, except as some has been celebrity.

-The people loved him.

-There wasn’t a single question asked about the old chat noir, not from Nadja or the Audience.

-Nadja made the first comment about it.

-”I must say, you are much more endearing then the first one.”

-The audience laughed and cheered, and the cat commented about how he hopes to live up to the old one’s legacy

-Ladybug putting her hand on his shoulder telling that fake that he is doing great.

-Adrien felt him self seething with hatred.

-The next day in class, everyone was talking about the new cat in town. Everyone was going on about how they LOVED the new hero.

-Even Nino was saying how cool he was. “The old one was kind of a cocky jerk.”

-Alya agreeing.

-But what killed him was hearing Marinette say it.

-”He is quite a hero.”

- Adrien shot up from his desk. He said he wasn’t feeling well and went to the nurse.

-Adrien felt his hatred fester as he walked in the hall. There was an akuma following him. Adrien ran to avoid it.

-But it would not let him escape

-Hawkmoth knew what to say, his words were too enticing, no matter how hard he resisted.

-”Hello Chat Blanc. I am Hawkmoth. The city has turned its back on you, the people have forgotten you and cast you aside. I will allow you to show Paris why you are the best cat in town, in exchange, you get me Ladybug and Chat noir’s Miraculous.”

Adrien didn’t want Marinette involved because she was the only one of his friends that wasn’t trying to fight him.

When He got back months after Hawkmoth’s arrest. Everyone kind of avoided Adrien. Adrien was the son of a villain. The class backed away, his friends were awkward and distant because they knew he was a villain himself. 

Only Marinette remained kind to him. Marinette still treated him like a person. She talked to him, listened to him, brought him cookies some times. She was trying to help soothe his soul.

Adrien fell in love with her. She saw the person inside. Ladybug was a person he thought was his partner once, but he believed it was fake. Marinette however always had his back. She always listened to him vent about things. (He didn’t tell her he was Zodiac though)

-Nathalie let her in, Ladybug wanted to talk to Adrien agreste.

-He sat in his father’s office chair, it was turned away for Ladybug.

-”I know you have the miraculous.” Ladybug would ask.

-”I know you have Nino, Alya and Chloé outside waiting. As well as the new Chat noir.” Adrien responded.

- “Just hand them over and we can all move past this.”

-”You put my father in jail Ladybug. There is no more moving ‘Past this’.”

-”He was a villain. There is still a chance for you to not be one.”

-He turned to look at her. His eyes weren’t angry, they were full of pain.

-”I loved you.”

-Ladybug fell back as she listened to him go on. he talked about his insecurities how he began to feel less useful and more of a hinderance. He wanted to talk with Fu about his concerns. He wanted to maybe feel like her partner again.

-”I quit, and you didn’t even try to get me to comeback. I was that easy to replace.”

-Ladybug told him that she knew Fu messed up, how angry she was when she learned the truth. But that this was just as much on him. How come he never talked to her first? How come he felt like he was alone?

-There was a lot of heated argument. Adrien stopped.

-”In the end, I guess that old man was right. I really couldn’t be trusted. Cause look where we are now.”

-”What about your other friends? How would they think of you if they saw you?”

-”They don’t truly care.”

-”What about Nino? What about Alya? Chloé?”

-Adrien rolled his eyes.

-”What about Marinette?”

-”Don’t bring her into this.” He was defensive now.

-”I am sure she would hate to see what you’ve become.”

-”You are probably right.” Adrien admitted. “But once I get the miraculous, I will bring everything back to the way its suppose to be.”

-”I won’t let you do that.”