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It was, very frankly, only by some cosmic miracle that it had taken until Alya had gone home and into her room after her heart to heart with Marinette--Maribug?? Buginette?? --before she started screaming her head off. It was even sheer-er luck that she had enough wherewithal to shove a pillow over her mouth beforehand.
If she had timed her screaming, she would have found out she had been going for three minutes straight. Her mom had even knocked on her door in concern for a shouted “I’m good!”, and all of her family was almost immune to her shrieking from all the times the Ladyblog’s coding was breaking somehow.
Needless to say, Alya was shocked.
She remembers her conversation with Marinette in the way one recalls a train crashing (and, holy shit, Miracle Queen . Marinette had been on that train. Ladybug had been on that train. Detransformed. ) with perfect, stunned detail. It had gone well, Alya thinks. Marinette hadn’t quite been smiling by the end of it, but she hadn’t been near out of her mind with maddening anxiety, so— a win?
She thinks she should feel happy. Her best friend is Ladybug. Her superhero idol, beyond even Majestia. The superhero she ran after, attack after attack. The hero she started a fanpage-cum-news site for.
Her best friend is Ladybug, the hero she had desperately tried to unmask— who she had gotten akumatized to unmask.
Alya falls back onto her bed and presses her pillow harder against her face. Because that was the crux of the thing, wasn’t it?
How the hell is she going to deal with this?
Her posts about finding out Ladybug’s (and Chat Noir’s) identity had faded more and more over the past months, first out of a growing concern for what Hawkmoth might do with that information as her blog grew from a minor blip in the ecosystem to an actual, semi-high profile source of akuma news and reports, and the likelihood Hawkmoth would actually look at it grew alongside it. Her time as Rena Rouge only cemented the departure. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t still a common topic of speculation, a frequent obsession spread throughout the forums. Alya knew well many, many people wanted to see who was behind the masks. And now she knows one of them.
There isn’t a moment, not even a nanosecond, where she thinks about revealing Marinette’s identity. Alya knows she’s a lot of things--hot-headed, impulsive, prone to acting without thinking--but she isn’t a promise-breaker. Not with something of this magnitude. Not with something that could tip the scales of Paris’s continued existence.
Not when Marinette had looked to her, tears in her fevered eyes, and begged Alya to keep her secret in confidence.
Alya put a lot on the line for the Ladyblog: her grades, her hobbies, her basic safety.
But in a fight between Marinette and the Ladyblog, Marinette would always, always win.
So, how would she play things on the blog? She contemplates the idea of downright lying, stringing along Hawkmoth with false clues and diversions. But… the journalist side of her, the part of her that still burns with shame for any and all lies she’s placed on her blog even by accident, balks at that. Striving for the truth is a point of pride for her, a goal ever to be reached. She doesn’t want to become someone who would willingly, immediately lie to those on the blog asking her only for correct information.
...would she do it if Marinette asked? Perhaps, with justification.
But Marinette had not asked, and Alya would not lie without due provocation, without proof that the benefits outweighed the price of passing around false information to those who trusted in her. But what if she did have a reason?
She shifts the pillow away from her eyes, peering at her laptop sitting sedately at her desk. She wouldn’t usually knowingly lie… but she could justify extrapolating, assuming, implying. She could deal with providing theories based only on what she should know, not what she does. Even if that means giving false information. If it was in the name of keeping her identity and Marinette’s identity a secret, she could deal with it. It wouldn’t be too hard, drawing false conclusions from reasonable groupings of facts. She could already see the bones of the article.
She’ll have Marinette check it over, she decides. If Marinette didn’t like her angle, didn’t want her to straddle the line, Alya could simply go fully into reporting the attacks and sightings, no further speculations. Truthfully, if Marinette asked it, she isn’t sure she wouldn’t be opposed to putting the Ladyblog on a hiatus. She isn’t sure if she could abandon it fully, not after so much work and effort, but she could pause it.
But that doesn’t matter right now. Alya puts that personal examination out of her mind and puts the article idea back in, swinging off from her bed and to her desk chair.
In the end, this new post is perhaps the fastest power speculation post she has ever banged out, forming in less than an hour. Usually, it takes longer to compile the proper screenshots and video clips of evidence, but today she is a woman on a mission.
Hello, bugheads!
I know this is a bit early for my usual speculation posts, but what can I say, inspiration strikes only when she wishes to! Now, the topic I’ll be talking about today is most definitely one talked about on other blogs and forums--I’ve read some of the posts myself--but as far as I’m aware no one has fully explored the implications of it to the extent I will.
I’m talking, of course, about the way miraculous change a user's appearance .
At first glance I’m sure you’re thinking, “Well, Alya, what about it? We’ve known about that since Chat turned up with green eye whites!” and no, it’s not just about the change in appearance itself. It’s about what it means for all the rest of our heroes.
Readers, I ask you: do we actually know what our heroes look like?
Let’s have a quick chat about hair. Now, I’m sure very few of you thought that Rena Rouge was hitting the town with such a distinctive dye-job that would rat her out immediately, or that the rarely seen Pegasus was prancing around with fully white hair all the time— for one, imagine the cost! Imagine the hair damage from all that bleaching! My scalp itches just thinking about it.--- but I’d also argue that it’s equally unlikely that Pegasus would be rocking such a notable and mane-like hairdo all the time as well; that’d give him away just as fast as the dye!
So, put that all together:
- Miraculous can change eye color
- Miraculous can change hair color like a dye
- Miraculous can change hair length--check Lady Noire’s braid
So what’s to say some heroes aren’t using these changes in more subtle ways than a gradient hair dye? Who’s to say Ladybug, with all her cleverness and casually extreme planning, didn’t choose to change her eye and hair color to remain undetected out of the suit? Who’s to say her hair isn’t longer as a civilian, shortened so akumas have less to grab on to? Lady Noire clearly had blazing green eyes and black hair nearly down to the knees for a tail— another style shift to keep people guessing? Maybe she doesn’t wear pigtails at all outside of the suit, preferring it down when she doesn’t have grab-happy akumas running after her.
That green eye detail means that our Chat Noir probably doesn’t have green eyes either, and they’re just an aspect of the cat suit; so, can we say that his blond hair is consistent in and out of uniform? Or is it another element of his goofy playboy persona? Maybe he’s brown-eyed and black-haired and wanted to see how bleaching his hair would go for him. Or maybe his hair is already dyed some outrageous color and the suit changes it back for a fight. Maybe he gels it back!
Or, consider Mayura. She doesn’t even wear a mask--so does that mean she has no reason to fear people recognizing her face? Being bright blue doesn’t manipulate your face shape or hide away any notable marks. So she must know nobody will connect the face of Mayura with whoever Mayura is out of the suit, meaning that perhaps the miraculous can even change more physical features, or at least convince the people looking at the user that they have different facial features.
So I ask again: do we know what our heroes look like at all?
Is that even a bad thing if we don’t?
I’ll say this, I won’t blame them for taking advantage: no better way to keep eyes off you in your normal day-to-day life than giving them the opposite of your regular look. Only means you can’t win the local look-alike contest.
With her wording double-checked, images and videos embedded, phrasing deliberately certain, Alya leans back and cracks her spine. This wouldn’t be the only thing to do— she’ll need to help Marinette continue explaining away her outburst today, will need to start finding excuses and practicing getting her out of the view of others to transform, will have to dig into Marinette’s duties and figure out what she could take on or at least help with--but it was a start that, if it went well, it would relieve Marinette of some of the tension of being found out through looks alone. Anything that could destress Marinette was absolutely a good thing right now.
She saves the article as a blog draft and opens her text messages.
Besties!!
Blog Queen: ok so about this blog post i wrote
Fashion Queen: alya
Fashion Queen: alya that better not be about what i think its about
Blog Queen: WAIT NO THAT WAS A BAD OPENING IM NOT TALKING ABT UR BIG THING
Blog Queen: sorry that was so so vague im not going to reveal that i promise
Fashion Queen: ALYA I NEARLY HAD A FUCKING HEART ATTACK
Blog Queen: i told you you could tell me anything and i meant it, that is firmly between us until the universes heat death if you want
Fashion Queen: i know, theres a reason i trusted you with it. Still utterly terrifying to read
Blog Queen: again, sorry, youve already had a bad day. its trying to help *misdirect* about ur thing
Blog Queen: i… dont want to bc someone who uses their platform to like blatantly lie, not even about this bc people really trust in the ladyblog and i dont want to directly compromise that. But i am willing to… imply, i guess is the right word. Make connections like i would have just this morning before you let me in
Fashion Queen: …?
Blog Queen: here, just give it a quick read through and tell me what you think. give me the word and its on the blog
Blog Queen: ladyblog.bug/draft4095
Fashion Queen: oh i see
Fashion Queen: ok why DIDNT i do this stuff wtf
Blog Queen: you were panicking?
Fashion Queen: i was panicking.
Fashion Queen: but seriously, if this is an idea that spreads around and people really start believing it…. It could be really useful.
Fashion Queen: thank you alya
Blog Queen: dont thank me yet, theres a lot more supportive moves heading ur way
Fashion Queen: aaaalya i already cried enough today!!
Blog Queen: i will run back to ur house if you want a crying buddy mar
Fashion Queen: omg no
Fashion Queen: really i should be going to sleep like t says. good night, and seriously, thank you. Its really really a weight off my back
Blog Queen: and if im doing my job right therell be a lot less weight soon, atlus
Fashion Queen: <3
Blog Queen: <3
Alya posts the article at the start of the class before lunch and somehow manages to resist the temptation to look at its reception until after lunch is almost over and her sandwich and apple (and the cookies surreptitiously slid her way from Marinette) are finished. Then and only then does she navigate to her blog post and eagerly start taking in the comments.
Some of them are denials of the idea--many Chat Noir fans despairing over the idea that their blond heartthrob may not actually be blond, but also more thoughtful questions about whether or not all the heroes would go so far. To her delight, most of it is a debate not that they changed their features, but what and to what extent. There are arguments about what hair color both heroes might actually have, and suspicious notings about how well their hair and eye colors serve to contrast nicely with their suits.
She googles her blog in the news section to check if there are any recent articles about her article and finds one that seems mostly in agreement so far. Most likely there will be more arguing later, but more agreement might come too. Twitter yields similarly agreeable arguing about what the heroes look like detransformed. Alya passes her phone along to Marinette with it still on Twitter and she takes it in quietly, eyes wide.
“They’re really taking to this theory, huh?” she says, and the only reason Alya notices how bright her eyes are and the way her voice trembles slightly with relief is that she was looking for it.
Nino peers up from the fifth period homework he’s desperately trying to finish and Alya willingly regales him and Adrien with her supposed newest hypothesis. He’ll know it’s probably not as an extreme change as her article implies with his superhero stints, but Adrien listens with intense curiosity that Alya takes as a favorable sign.
This is only one step one in a larger, sprawling plan to help Marinette that not even Alya herself knows the scope of yet, but Alya can’t help but feel determined to see it through.
Marinette may be Ladybug, but more importantly, she’s Alya’s best friend, and Alya will not fail her.