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Ladybug tried her hardest to not show any favoritism towards reporters. She really did try to keep things professional and give only established new sites interviews. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the smaller blogs, more so that she was worried that once she did an interview for one blog she'd be expected to do an interview for all of them. However, she made an exception for her best friend.
Chat Noir seemed to be in the same boat as her. He tended to stick to TVi only, but she noticed that he was always down for an interview on the Ladyblog. She never asked him any questions about why he preferred Alya's blog (perhaps it's because she had the original Oblivio kiss), and he never asked her any questions about her blatant favoritism. Which, really, was a relief for Ladybug. She wasn't sure how she could write off her affection for Alya.
So The Ladyblog had the reputation of being the one and only fan blog that Ladybug and Chat Noir actually gave the time of day. She got exclusive interviews, rumor has it they're in her comment section, too. She wasn't sure about Chat, but Marinette was definitely a frequent commenter on the Ladyblog. It also helped that Alya was a superhero herself, so Ladybug could show some favoritism towards her without it being too suspicious. However, she really did try to limit herself.
So when Alya had called for both her and Chat Noir to meet her at her house, Ladybug was a bit worried. She knew Alya would understand if they couldn't do a long interview, but she really hated letting her friend down.
"Ladybug! Chat Noir!" Alya had a smile on her face as she opened up the sliding glass door of her balcony. "Please, come on in. Have a seat." She gestured to the bean bags in her room. Chat Noir happily flopped down in one.
Ladybug wondered what Alya thought about this, having the protectors of Paris hanging out in her room casually. From the way her eyes sparkling, she supposed she had a pretty good guess.
"I want to thank you both for coming on such short notice," Alya began, sitting in her desk chair.
"Of course, anything for our favorite fan," Chat Noir winked at her. Alya grinned.
"I have a favor to ask you two, not an interview." She added at Ladybug's hesitance. "I'm going out of town for a few days, my parents want to take us to London. However, I still need someone to moderate the blog. I tried to get a hold of my civilian friends, but none of them really responded and I trust you two. You won't have to do anything major, I've got posts that are scheduled to go up automatically. Your job will involve looking through the comment sections and if you see any comments you think are inappropriate, take them down." Alya explained.
"Sounds easy enough, I'm totally down for it." Chat Noir gave her a lopsided grin. Ladybug wasn't so convinced. Alya had asked Marinette first after all, she had thought she would be way too busy. But maybe since Chat Noir was helping her, it wouldn't be too bad?
"Alright, I'm in." She decided after a few short moments.
"Oh, thank you!" Alya squealed before she turned serious again. "Inappropriate comments include anything with hate speech of any sort, any sexual content, obvious spam comments like advertisements for sketchy sites, all the basics. Other than that, I really tend to let people have free reign. It's never gotten to a point where I feel like I have to ban a user, but I tend to have a three strikes you're out policy? Um, some of my articles talk about the possibility of you two being a couple," she looked sheepish, "a lot of people support it. Obviously, I know you two actually aren't actually together, so if that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable you can just leave those articles alone."
"Aw, but what if those comments finally convince my lovely Lady to give me a chance?" Chat Noir through a wink in Ladybug's direction. She rolled her eyes, but there was a grin on her face.
"Keep dreaming, Chat."
"So yeah, that's basically it, I'm trying to think if there's anything else."
"How do we get our accounts set up?" Ladybug asked.
"Oh, of course!" Alya booted up her computer, waving the two over, "you two have an email account reserved for hero duties, right?"
"Of course I do." Chat grinned. Ladybug only shook her head.
"Set up one for moderating the Ladyblog, and then create an account." Alya directed. "Let me know what usernames you two chose and I'll transfer admin privileges over to you two. Deal?"
"Deal!" Chat Noir nodded his head quickly. "I purromise to only use your blog in respectful ways and to not take advantage of my power. Cat's honor." He placed a hand on his heart. Alya snorted.
"Is he always like this?" She asked Ladybug.
"Unfortunately, he's being pretty tame right now."
"Hey!" Chat pouted, but there was a smile tugging at his lips.
"I think that's everything, just shoot me an email when you have your accounts up and running. Thank you guys again, you're real life savers." Alya stood up, walking the two of them out to her balcony.
"Of course, Alya. We're honored that you would think of us," Ladybug said earnestly.
"I'll remove your privileges on Monday, but if you like to keep your accounts you won't hear me complaining." Alya shot them a wink.
"We'll be sure to keep that in mind." Chat Noir laughed. "I know I will be keeping my account for all time. It's a precious memento of the time I got to run the most popular blog in all of Paris."
"Psh, I wouldn't say that," Alya waved him off, a slight blush on her face from the praise.
"Well I would," Ladybug spoke up, "you're the only blog I trust with exclusive interviews. You work hard, Alya. We promise that we'll take care of the blog."
"Thank you, really." Alya was clearly relieved. Ladybug smiled, how bad could it possibly be?
The answer was bad. Alya had one new article come out, conveniently while Ladybug and Chat Noir were "patrolling," and God there were a lot of comments. Luckily, Alya had explained in her email that she had an algorithm that took down a lot of the obvious comments. The bots, hateful language that was flagged, etc.. Ladybug had never been more thankful for Max's programming skills in her life. But still, there were quite a few comments that slipped through the algorithm's grasp.
"Ew," Chat Noir said as he took down yet another comment supporting a scandalous site.
"God, I hate the internet," the post had been innocent, but trolls were gonna troll. She took down a comment that contained hate speech.
"I guess that's the harm of being successful, right? Look, this bot is clever." She scooted a bit closer to him to see his screen. "It copied the comment of another user, that way it looks like a real comment, but it isn't. You can tell by the profile picture." Sure enough, the profile picture was of a half-naked girl.
"Great, makes sense why the algorithm didn't catch it, then." She rolled her eyes.
"I honestly don't know how Alya can do this!" Chat Noir gave her a somewhat crazed grin, "I mean there's two of us here and it feels like we're never going to be done with it."
"That girl must have a lot of freetime on her hands, or maybe she just stays up until two in the morning every night." It would certainly explain how she was always drinking some sort of caffeine.
"That's not healthy! We need between eight to ten hours of sleep every night. Assuming her school starts around nine, that's seven hours at the most."
"I know, I know! Don't lecture me, lecture Alya. She's the one apparently staying up that late." Ladybug muttered as her eyes scanned the comment section.
As much as she hated the many, many comments she had to take down, she had to admit it was a bit thrilling seeing everyone's reactions to the article. It was a simple rundown of the latest akuma attacks that included a lot of quick statistics about the battle. How long it took them to defeat it, what the lucky charm was, what the akumatized object was, things like that. Comments flooding in discussing where they were at when one akuma or the next interrupted. A few of them were even detailing their experience of getting saved by Ladybug and Chat Noir themselves!
Of course, there were other comments that Ladybug wasn't quite sure what to do about. Several people leaving "I love you, Ladyblog!" or a string of emojis. She didn't think they fell into the spam category, and she remembered Alya saying she gave people free reign, so she let them be.
Ladybug's attention was snapped back to the present when she heard Chat Noir nearly growl. She knew what that meant. Some commenter with some unwanted criticism of her. She rolled her eyes, she had gotten used to the criticism by now. She tended not to look at it, for the sake of her own health. She had seen a few negative comments here and there, saying how they were terrible superheroes because Hawkmoth wasn't in jail yet, how akuma attacks were getting longer so obviously they were failing, one comment even claimed that Chat Noir was just a sidekick! Nothing made her angrier than people saying her beloved partner was simply a sidekick. She was so tempted to take the comment down, but they were technically just giving their opinion and it wasn't actual hate, so she couldn't.
Alya had explained to them it was a tough balance between criticism and hate. If it had hateful language, take it down. But if it was expressing concern, then Alya had to leave it up. Even if she disagreed with the comments, if there was some value to it then it stayed up on the site. Unless it was mass reported, then Alya would happily take it down.
So comments about her and Chat Noir's partnership and what they could do better stayed up because they were criticisms. Comments claiming they were nothing but horrible people and should hand their miraculouses to Hawkmoth got taken down. Anything that was pro-Hawkmoth Alya shot down, so they did too.
"Chat, it's okay, seriously. I can take a little heat." Ladybug placed a hand on her partner's back.
"I can't believe this. They're saying you're some idiot for not giving me a chance and that you're abusing me for power. All because of what? Because you're not interested in me romantically?" He was fuming, his hand lingering over the screen.
"Technically, it falls in the criticism camp. Does it suck? Yes. Is it incredibly untrue? Also yes, but we can't start censoring people."
"Yeah, yeah, slippery slope and all that. Still, I'd like to give them a piece of my mind." She could see in his eyes just how angry he was. It was really sweet, him getting so worked up on her behalf. Especially because the commenter pointed out her lack of romantic feelings towards him. She really couldn't have asked for a better partner.
"Look, a ton of comments are disagreeing with them." Ladybug pointed out the replies, all saying this commenter didn't know what they were talking about. "That will convince them they're wrong more than just taking their comment down."
"I know, you're technically right. I just... I hate how people think we have to be in love to have a good partnership. I know you don't feel that way about me, and that's totally okay. I'm here if you ever change your mind, but the fact you don't love me back doesn't change our friendship." He rolled his eyes.
"I don't think I've ever met someone who's as understanding as you are," Ladybug whispered, a sudden rush of appreciation for him flooding through her. "And for the record, I do love you, just not romantically."
"I know, you can't help who you love, Ladybug," he gave her a heart-stopping grin. "I don't mind it." His face turned back to his screen, glaring at it. "But this commenter certainly does."
"Ha! Look at this one," she showed him a comment that claimed they were actually aliens for outer space. "Now isn't that something?"
Chat Noir gasped.
"No! My secret identity! I've been outed! My Lady, it's time I told you the truth," he grabbed her hand, "I'm actually an alien from outer space. It hurt me so much to keep this a secret from you. I hope you understand the sacrifice that I had to make. I did it to keep you safe." He sniffed, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye.
"Oh my sweet kitty, I have been keeping something from you too," she lamented. "For I am also an alien from outer space, I have been sent to Earth to help defeat the evil Hawkmoth. I am no human, I am sorry that I led you astray. Will you ever forgive me?"
"Always, My Lady, always."
The two of them met each other's eyes and burst out in laughter.
"I'm sure for a little bit there, people actually thought we were aliens," Chat Noir said through tears of laughter. Ladybug only laughed harder, holding her stomach. She remembered very clearly Alya going on a rant about how Ladybug and Chat Noir were actually from outer space, and so was Hawkmoth and akumas. That was until she got a miraculous of her own.
Wiping the tears from her eyes, Ladybug turned back to the screen, scrolling through the comments. It was a bit odd seeing the myriad of fans on the site. Some of them were die-hard fans of Ladybug and Chat Noir, others seemed to be more invested in the blog itself than her and Chat Noir. Those comments were always a very nice change of pace. It could be quite overwhelming sometimes, knowing all of these people looked up to her. She knew a handful of them were watching her to trip up, to make a mistake. That's why she was always so careful. She couldn't afford to lose.
"You alright, Ladybug?" Chat asked, noticing her breath had gotten shaky.
"Yeah, it's just... so many people are counting on us to save them. I try not to think about it too often, but just how many are waiting for us to trip? Waiting for us to make a mistake?" Ladybug let out a sigh.
"Well, it's not like we haven't made mistakes before and we still have plenty of fans. Plenty of people who believe in us and will even fight by our sides. You remember Heroes Day? A whole mob of civilians wanted to help!" Chat Noir laughed fondly at the memory. "The expectation is a lot to take in, don't get me wrong. I have the same fears that you do, that perhaps this isn't enough or perhaps we'll never find Hawkmoth. But as long as we keep de-evilizing people, as long as we keep fighting, patrolling, doing what we're doing, the people of Paris are going to keep on supporting us. This comment section is as much evidence to that as it's evidence people are praying for our downfall." Chat Noir gave her a reassuring grin.
"You are a fantastic motivational speaker, you know that?" Ladybug snorted, tapping her shoulder with his.
"Meh, I try. I just say the honest truth. And the honest truth is that you and I take names and kick butt."
"Hell yeah we do, kitty." Ladybug held out her fist, he happily gave her a small fist bump before capturing her hands and giving it a kiss.
"You get a two for one special, it must be your lucky day." Chat Noir gave her a wink. Ladybug rolled her eyes, he was such a silly kitty. But she wouldn't have it any other way.
"Alright, come on now, we've got work to do. The sooner we finish up these comments, the sooner we can race to Notre Dame."
"Loser buys the winner ice cream?" Chat Noir asked cautiously.
"You're on." Ladybug nodded, turning back to the comment section with fierce determination. Watch out bots, here came Ladybug on a warpath.
"Thank you guys again, seriously. I don't know what I would've done without you two." Alya told them on Monday. They were over at her house again to review how the weekend had gone with her.
"Of course! It was no issue at all. I'm honestly not sure how you manage to take all those comments down by yourself," Ladybug said.
"A lot of late nights, sometimes I rope my boyfriend into moderating it with me." Alya shrugged, leaning back in her desk chair.
"Maybe it's time you hire some permanent moderators," Chat Noir suggested, stretching out in the bean bag. He really was a cat. "I'm sure you've got plenty of fans who would be down to volunteer their time to help out."
"You think so?" Alya rolled around the idea in her head.
"I know so, take it from me. You should be able to accept help, Alya. You don't have to do it all on your own," Ladybug said earnestly. She knew what it was like to have the world on your shoulders. Alya didn't deserve that.
"You know, maybe I'll put out a post asking." She spun around in her desk chair, keys beginning to clack as she began her first draft.
"You should! I really wish I could apply myself, but..." Chat Noir trailed off, rubbing his neck.
"I get it, it's pretty weird to moderate a blog about you," Alya snorted. "Don't worry about it, you guys do enough by providing me content."
"We're happy to help, Alya," Ladybug reassured her as she walked over to the door.
"I owe y'all one!" She waved to them as they stepped outside.
"Anytime, Alya,." Chat Noir smiled.
"Seriously," Ladybug finished for him.
And even if they had enough of the internet for the next two months, they both truly meant it.