GLE – My standard MLB-fic notes: I'm using the official English names because I am fluent in French and the way that words sound to my readers – even in their own heads – is important to me (for the record: the "t" is silent, it's pronounced "Sha"). I also ship the two main characters with each other (forget the square; I call my ship MabugAdoir). And her name is "Marinette"; a shortened version of that would sound really strange in French (in my opinion).
Other notes – This was supposed to be kind of short, like under 10,000 words. It's looking like it's going to be nearly double that… haha! Well, let's start this journey…
Dreamcatcher
Chapter 1: Future Planning
"I'm going to be famous, just like all the actors I met when my parents and I dropped by Hollywood," said Lila Rossi. She leaned back in her chair, twirled a strand of hair in her fingers, and grinned in what she knew to be a cute manner. "After all, it's only natural that they'd want me to be just as famous as them. We get along so well!"
Pierrette Cadieux bit her tongue to keep from rolling her eyes. As the Guidance Counsellor at Collège Françoise-Dupont, she wanted to help her students map out their paths to their dreams during their Careers Advice sessions with her. But that would be rather hard to do when students like this one just lied about everything. Still, the girl had a good idea for her future since she obviously liked make-believe. Mrs. Cadieux was going to try her best to encourage it in a productive way.
"Perhaps you can take some supplemental acting classes so that you can enter your career even faster," the advisor suggested. "I know a theatre group that is always open to new talent which I recommend you join as well."
"Why would I need to do that?" asked the girl. "You don't need skills to be famous. People just have to like you. And luckily for me, lots of people like me."
Mrs. Cadieux frowned slightly. Uncoachable students were disheartening. Glancing at the clock, she noticed that their fifteen minutes were up. "Alright, Lila. Thank you for coming in. Could you send in the next student, please?"
And so a steady stream of students arrived at Mrs. Cadieux's door.
"I understand that you're already a successful model. Will you be continuing this career when you graduate?"
Adrien Agreste shrugged. "Probably. I mean modeling is okay but it wouldn't be my first choice."
"Oh? Well, what is? Perhaps I can give you guidance in that direction."
The boy's shoulders slumped a little. "No point." He waved a dismissive hand. "Father wouldn't approve."
Mrs. Cadieux bit her lip. It wasn't for an educator to come between a parent and child, and that troubled her.
"Work? Me?" Chloe Bourgeois wore an incredulous expression. "You must be joking. Daddy wouldn't dream of putting me in such an undignified position."
Mrs. Cadieux sighed and rubbed her temple. "Next?"
"I don't know what I want to do." Phillipe Guillaume crossed his arms and slouched further in his chair.
"Well, what are you interested in?" Mrs. Cadieux asked gently.
The boy gave a noncommittal shrug.
"How about your favourite subject in school?"
"I don't know."
"Things you like to do with your friends?"
"I don't have friends," he said quietly.
"Can we get this over with?" asked Alix Kubdel before she'd even taken a seat. "It's nearly the end of classes and I've got places I wanna be after this."
Mrs. Cadieux gave her a tight smile. "This won't take long. How about you tell me about any career path you're contemplating?"
Alix snorted. "Aw, who cares about that right now?" she said flippantly. "I've got at least another year of goofing around with my friends before I even have to start thinking about a career."
The counsellor's lips grew thinner. "Would you at least consider trying to begin on a career plan?"
When Alix left the office – one minute after the bell – Mrs. Cadieux sunk into her chair and let out a long, low breath. How could the girl so easily dismiss something so important? But it wasn't just Alix; most of the afternoon in general had been frustrating. If only she could show these students the importance of their dreams, they'd surely take their sessions with her more seriously.
She stood and paced in aggravation, letting the emotions express themselves, to get them all out before she would go into her calming routine. Unfortunately for the educator, however, it was at the peak of her vexed state that the local supervillain decided to target her. A black and purple butterfly fluttered in through the window and landed on the clipboard in her hands. Her face lit up with a moth-shaped outline and a voice spoke in her head.
"Dreamcatcher," he said. "I am Hawkmoth. These students obviously don't understand how important it is to plan for the future. But I do. I will give you the power to make a lasting impression on them, and all I ask in return is that you guide me to my future by getting me two objects that I desire: the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Agreed?"
A sinister smile that didn't quite fit on Mrs. Cadieux's face bloomed across it in that moment.
"Yes, Hawkmoth."
– One Hour Earlier –
Gabriel Agreste was sitting in his office at work, rifling through a number of sample materials on his desk. The knock at his door didn't disrupt his flow.
"Yes?" he said without looking up.
The door opened and Nathalie stepped in.
"The men's outfits are ready for your inspection," she said without preamble.
At this, the man finally paused. He gave his assistant a nod and stood, letting the sample in his hand fall back onto the desk. "Thank you for informing me."
The two of them exited the room and walked down the hall, entering through the door at the very end of it.
The space was large, full of tables with sewing machines that were noisily humming while seamsters worked. The boss and assistant took a left, heading into a smaller section that had been walled off from the rest of the room. It was full of racks and hangers and clothing, where all the completed outfits were stored. The closest rack to him housed the suits he was looking for.
Gabriel's normally stoic expression became grave. He flipped through several suit jackets and grimaced. Grabbing one off the rack, he marched back into the main space and raised his voice. "Chantal? George? What is this?"
The two employees he'd called dropped what they were doing and rushed over to him, both appearing concerned and slightly apprehensive.
Gabriel thrust the jacket out for them to see, pointing at the accents and lining. "The colour of the year is greenery, not this horrible olive shade! Who is responsible for this?"
Chantal and George glanced at one another. Clearing her throat, Chantal's gaze returned to Gabriel and she took the jacket from him to give it a closer inspection. Her brows furrowed and she replied, "I'm sure we ordered the correct colour, sir, but this isn't it. Perhaps we were sent the wrong material…"
Gabriel's lips stretched into a displeased line. "I see. Be that as it may, someone should have spotted this well before this point. Take them apart, have the green pieces dyed the proper shade, and get them sewn back together again. I'm giving you a day to complete this, understood?"
"Yes, sir," they responded.
"Good."
He turned around and left the room, heading back to his office as Nathalie followed silently, taking note of the incident on her tablet.
The upcoming Saturday evening's Gabriel's Formal Wear Line Gala (or Formal Gala for short) had undoubtedly been affected by a lack of attention, due to all their efforts having been focused on their most recent success. Gabriel had been commissioned by the cast and crew of Le Rêve dans le Cauchemar, a film that was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, and they'd put in numerous hours creating exceptionally designed outfits for the attendees. The final dress had in fact been completed only days ago, and needed a minor alteration yesterday, just in time for the red carpet.
With the Gala two days away and still so much to do, Gabriel was feeling annoyed. They couldn't afford mistakes like this. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew he needed to remain calm otherwise his work would really suffer. A niggling thought at the back of his mind started to worm its way forward as it always did when he was feeling particularly tense like this. Its appeal was perhaps similar to what drugs meant to an addict, though it wasn't something so crude and meaningless as that. And the rush, the incredibly powerful feeling it gave him was beyond comparison. That said, it was not without a worthy goal, though the perks of transforming and using powers were most definitely an added bonus.
Ready to quench his sudden thirst for that feeling once more, and to relax from his current stresses, Gabriel dropped the pattern he'd just lifted off his desk.
"I'm going to go home to work on these," he said to Nathalie. "I need a change of environment."
"Of course, sir," agreed his assistant. She tapped a quick text message on her phone. "The car will be out front by the time you get there."
He gave her a curt nod to dismiss her, gathered his things, and left.
Once he'd arrived home, he headed to his office immediately, setting aside the samples for later. Alone in the house as he was, he slipped unseen into a secret passage that led to a domed room full of butterflies. Watching them flutter to and fro set a slight smile on his face. It was time to let his frustrations out of his system.
"Now," he said out loud to the open space, pulling aside his tie to reveal a hidden brooch, "let's continue our quest for Ladybug's and Cat Noir's Miraculouses. Nooroo, Dark Wings Rise!"
The mauve kwami that had silently floated out of hiding to be in his master's sightline was promptly absorbed into the oval brooch, changing its shape into a butterfly. A purple energy flared out and transformed his appearance, leaving the masked menace of Paris, Hawkmoth himself, in Gabriel's place.
He reached out with his mind over the city, trying to catch a taste of distress, someone he could push into expressing their darker feelings in an antagonistic way so as to draw out his prey. However, truth be told, today was one of those days where he wasn't focused so much on getting the Miraculous as he was just exercising his powers. He just wanted to use them and feel that some forward progress was being made, especially since the men's outfits for the Gala were headed in the reverse direction. Just a quick evilization of someone and he could return to work feeling much calmer, get more accomplished. If he happened to also succeed in retrieving the Miraculouses he desired, then that would be a spectacular bonus.
The school wasn't too far away, and with the highly unstable emotions of teenagers, it was often the easiest and fastest place to find a candidate, so he focused his attention there first.
"Ah yes," he announced. "I sense someone who is feeling just as frustrated as I am with incompetent underlings."
He reached out further with his emotion-detecting aura and got a slightly better semblance of her situation.
"It seems that a teacher has made no impact on her students whatsoever." He chuckled lightly. "Should I give her a new syllabus that will have those children enthralled in all her lessons?"
Pulling his focus back to himself and his domed lair, Hawkmoth held out a hand and a white butterfly landed upon it. He covered it with wicked intent, then released it into the air.
"Fly away, little akuma, and evilize her!"
His spirit seemed to follow along with the butterfly, fluttering this way and that across the city. It reached the school in no time and found the correct window, flitting in silently and dashing straight towards its target. It landed softly on her clipboard and melted into it, linking her consciousness together with Hawkmoth's.
Hawkmoth smiled as he spoke to her, assigning her a new name, and convincing her to be his new champion. She didn't really have much of a chance against him, even if the negative feelings of hers that he was manipulating weren't quite as potent as some of his previous villains. Having his akuma aligned with her gave him a much clearer image of her exact problem, and he tapped into it with all he had.
Granting powers was his special power, like Cat Noir's Cataclysm and Ladybug's Lucky Charm, and it always felt exclusive, unique. It combined the champion's own thoughts and feelings with the impression Hawkmoth had of them. What kind of supervillain would he create this time? What kind of powers would his champion have? What would they do to ultimately attract the attention of Paris's superheroes? Hawkmoth was endlessly fascinated by the answers to these questions.
Dreamcatcher was born and Hawkmoth scrutinized the powers she'd been granted.
"How very interesting," he muttered to himself. A satisfied grin stretched his lips. She would be able to affect a lot of people probably, and all the better if Ladybug or Cat Noir got caught in her attack. However, it would likely be some time until the public noticed her.
He watched through her eyes as she turned into sand and slid out the window, floating on the air to her first goal, the Grand Paris Hotel, which everyone knew was home to the Bourgeois family. Locating the room of the mayor's daughter, she slithered inside and reformed her body, still hovering above the floor. Before Chloe Bourgeois could even scream at the intruder, Dreamcatcher put her to sleep. The villain settled herself down on a chair to watch the girl and peer into her dreams.
A first warning beep sounded from his Miraculous, and Hawkmoth released a long breath, his tension from earlier subsiding. Dreamcatcher would leave the building with no one the wiser once she was satiated, and move onto tracking down her next victim. He could check her progress later. For now, there was still a lot of work to be done over the next couple of days, and he needed to get to it.
"Dark Wings Fall, Nooroo," he said, and his kwami reappeared, taking with him the transformation of Hawkmoth and returning the man to his state as Gabriel Agreste.
Gabriel reached impassively into his jacket pocket and removed a small, opened package from within. He tossed it to the floor, and Nooroo settled down upon it, digging into the contents: his preferred food for regeneration.
The designer retreated to his office and no sooner did he sit down at his desk than a call rang out on his phone.
"Yes?"
"Sir, could you come back to the Gabriel premises?" said Nathalie on the other end. "There's an urgent matter regarding the women's dresses for the Gala which needs to be dealt with."
"On my way," he replied shortly and hung up.
Despite her undesirable message, Gabriel was still feeling rather relaxed, though not quite content as he had been mere moments ago. Perhaps her neutral tone played a part in that, but the larger credit was most certainly due to the activities his secret identity had just had a hand in. He sighed and stood. If they had to dye all the dresses too, so be it. His employees would have to stay up late tonight to make sure they'd have time to dry by Saturday, but at least there was still enough time to get everything done by then.
"What?" Gabriel bit out when he was informed of the problem. "How did this happen? No, never mind, I don't have time to hear it. Just… give them to me and I'll find an appropriate solution."
Of all the things that could go wrong, this was one of the worst oversights he'd seen in years. Somehow the measurements for the dresses had been taken in the wrong units. Some further miscommunication occurred between departments resulting in all of the dresses being far too small for the models who would be wearing them and there wasn't enough material to let them out to the necessary sizes. There were now less than two days until the Gala and as it stood, no dresses would be appearing in it!
Gabriel closed the door loudly when his employees left his office and he whirled around to stare at the rack of dresses they'd wheeled in. He rubbed at his temple. What on earth would he do about this? His company's reputation, his name's reputation, was dependent upon the continued display of excellence. He demanded it of all his employees and of himself. And as the boss, it was his responsibility to set things right.
The designer sat heavily down at his desk and pulled out a fresh pad of paper. He would probably be here until late at night reworking what he had into something that met his standards and could be completed in time for the Gala. The framed photo on the corner of his desk caught his eye and he paused. Adrien. Dinner with Adrien was no longer an option today. He let out a resigned sigh and picked up his phone instead.
"Nathalie? Yes. Could you inform Adrien that I will not be present for dinner tonight? Yes. I have a lot of work to do and I don't know when I'll be coming home. Thank you."
Hanging up, a frown set in and he got started on his task.
It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that Gabriel finally made his way home. He had enough time for a half hour nap, a quick shower and shave, and breakfast. Adrien didn't say anything to him, and unfortunately, by the time the boy was only halfway through his meal, Gabriel needed to leave for work again.
When the man arrived back at the Gabriel premises, he was already prepared for the day. He took charge of the potential disaster quickly and had all of his employees tackling various assignments to get the Formal Gala back on track. His late hours last night had proven fruitful. He'd been able to rework the designs of the dresses with the material given, and keeping in mind the previous versions of them not to mention the realistic amount of time it would take to complete them for tomorrow night. He'd had to remove two dresses from the lineup, but overall, he believed that it would all work out – the event was not a lost cause!
He spent the day concentrating on his own assignments and was so focused he'd put his current akuma villain quite far from his mind.
In late afternoon, Gabriel was granted a slight break from the intense work indoors.
"Nathalie, let's go to the Gala venue now. The tech rehearsal will be starting in half an hour and I need to make sure everything is accounted for. We'll pick up Adrien from school on the way. I know he was supposed to come later, but I want to make sure his outfit for tomorrow night fits properly since it was dyed and re-sewn with the rest of the men's line."
"Of course, sir."
While Adrien would not be appearing on the catwalk – he was a photo model only – he would be present at the event and Gabriel would not waste an opportunity to dress Adrien in clothes that would make him look great in any photos taken by the media, as well as further promote the Formal Wear Line.
With Adrien's bodyguard driving and Nathalie in the front seat next to him, Gabriel sat in the back and used the time during the ride to respond to messages on his tablet. There was a lot to do, but he believed the event could still be a success.
The car pulled up outside of Collège Françoise-Dupont and the driver got out, going around to the other side and opening the door. Gabriel looked up then, expecting to see his son coming down the steps from the school and climbing into the car. What he didn't foresee was a panicked student body suddenly bursting out the doors of the school and a dreadfully familiar villain following after them, floating a few meters in the air and throwing attacks at students who would promptly fall to the ground, unconscious.
Gabriel's own sense of alarm took quick hold of his heart and he hoped that his son was safe. How could he have forgotten his current champion? It seemed that she certainly hadn't forgotten their deal. She'd obviously become far more active in the recent hour or two, and it wouldn't be long until Ladybug and Cat Noir showed up. A fleeting thought went out towards the Miraculouses that could potentially soon be his, but Gabriel's concern for Adrien quickly pushed that from his mind as he clambered out of the car to go find him.
"Chloe Bourgeois… Alix Kubdel… Lila Rossi… Phillipe Guillaume… They're learning what kind of future they can have, and so will all of you!" Dreamcatcher announced dramatically. "Now, where is Adrien Agreste? I must make sure he gets a taste of his future too!"
"Don't you dare go after my son!" shouted Gabriel up at the villain.
This would not do at all. He needed to distract her until Adrien could get to safety and at some point, he would get away to transform and order Dreamcatcher to focus only on the retrieval of the Miraculous.
Dreamcatcher looked down at him and tilted her head to one side.
"His father," she muttered in understanding. "It would do you well to see what kind of future you and Adrien will have."
With that, she wrote a quick note on her darkened clipboard and ripped the sheet off. She threw it at Gabriel, the paper transforming into a streak of energy that whizzed forward before he could blink and hit him in the chest. He caught a glimpse of Cat Noir racing towards him, and then everything went dark.
-(x)-
GLE – I didn't expect how detailed I'd write how Hawkmoth's powers work, but they just ended up coming out that way and I think they're pretty neat! So, to some extent, his powers are like Lucky Charm in that he doesn't completely control the outcome and the powers themselves take on their final shape on their own. I think that he has more time than LB and CN do before his Miraculous times out. LB and CN have the most powerful Miraculouses, so they probably burn out faster too. HM's Miraculous has a longer time-out window, maybe more like 5 minutes per wing (at 4 wings, that's 20 minutes).
Not all, but some of the OC names in this fic were borrowed from people I used to know (French teachers, other students in my French Immersion classes, etc). Just the names – the characters themselves are vastly different from the people I remember. For example, Mme. Pierrette was my first French teacher (senior kindergarten). Mme. Cadieux was a later French teacher of mine (and my sister's too). I liked both of them, and I needed a civilian name for the villain-of-the-week character, so I decided to combine those names (Pierrette is also a first name).
"Greenery" is Pantone's colour of the year for 2017.
I've seen my mom sew a dress from scratch (uh, well, based on a pattern); it takes a lot of time (took her a couple weeks). The trickiest part seems to be getting the cuts (measurements) right. So, those men's jacket's? Already cut to the right size. Taking them apart to dye them then putting them back together again, with a team of people working on it, is not as big of a task as needing to rework the designs for the dresses using the material available.
This "Dreamcatcher" villain is partly based on Hawkmoth's less driven attempts at obtaining the Miraculous. For example, Vanisher was left to her own devices for over a day without any prompting from Hawkmoth to seek out Ladybug and Cat Noir until they finally showed up so much later. By comparison, Hawkmoth was entirely invested in obtaining the Miraculous when he'd akumatized Pixelator and Evilustrator, prompting them both to knock it off on their obsessions and to get focused on bringing him his obsession.
Thank you to my sister, Fey Phantom, for beta-ing this!
I'll be updating this story on Saturdays and Tuesdays. Let me know what you think so far!