MariChat May Day 6: Chat and Marinette get hella nerdy.

"You'd definitely have higher Strength and Constitution stats," Marinette said thoughtfully.

"Oh, so you think I'm strong, huh?" He made a show of flexing, and kissing his bicep. "These guns are pretty impressive, aren't they?"

She laughed. "Maybe, just a little." They'd just finished looking over the stats breakdowns for the different classes in the new Dungeons and Dragons game, and their conversation had turned to speculating on how the attribute points would be distributed for Paris's superhero duo. "But think about it. When you fight, you engage head on and take more direct hits to allow Ladybug to work from a distance. You're basically the tank."

Chat Noir blinked, and then grinned. "I've never thought about it that way, but I am, aren't I?"

"You really are," she giggled.

"I guess that makes Ladybug DPS, then? She uses more "ranged" attacks, and she has to manipulate that yoyo, so she'd have to have a lot of points in Dexterity but would need fewer in Strength and Constitution."

She nodded her agreement, and began ticking the attributes off on her fingers. "Ok, so that's Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity. What are—oh! What about Intelligence and Wisdom? You're both casters, kind of, so you'd both need decent numbers for both of those."

"Hmm," he hummed, thinking. "Those are tougher. I'd give her higher Wisdom, I think. She's damned clever, with the way she uses her Lucky Charms. She gets some really weird things, sometimes, but always figures out a way to make it work."

She nodded. "And you'd have more points in Intelligence. You always seem to immediately catch on to whatever Ladybug has planned."

"So you think I'm strong and smart, huh?"

She rolled her eyes with a smile. "Ok, so that just leaves Charisma. What do you think, Chaton? That one is less straightforward."

"Nah, that's one's easy. Ladybug would have way more Charisma points than I would."

"Seriously?" Her smile melted. "I'd put your Charisma way higher than hers, for sure."

"No freaking way!" He leaned back in her rolling chair with his arms crossed mulishly over his chest. "Ladybug's Charisma stat would be higher."

"Are you insane?" Her eyes widened incredulously, and she sat forward on the chaise in agitation. "You are so much better with managing the media and fans than she is. Even Alya has noted on the blog that Ladybug gets tongue-tied sometimes."

"Nuh-uh. She's the perfect balance of sweet and sassy and absolutely everyone loves her. What is that if not Charisma at work?"

"What about Lila?"

"Lila doesn't count," he shrugged. "She's an outlier. The exception that proves the rule."

"I'm not buying it," she countered flatly, leaning back again and mirroring his pose.

"You don't have to. But you're still wrong."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "You do realize that that this is entirely hypothetical."

"You do realize that this is the nerdiest argument ever," he shot back, perfectly deadpan. They glared at each other another moment, and then simultaneously burst out laughing. "I still can't believe that you play D&D, Princess," he added, still chortling.

"What, you thought that I only played Mecha Strike?" She gestured to her computer with a raised brow. "I started with PC games, Chaton, and RPGs were my favorite until I discovered Mecha Strike."

"You're such a nerd!" He sounded genuinely surprised.

"So are you," she scoffed, blushing.

"It's not a bad thing! I just had no idea." He grinned at her again. "Actually, this is a good time to be a nerd, I think. It's the Season of the Geek."

She grinned back at him. "Nerd life forever, Chaton."

On the off chance that anyone is not familiar with the abbreviations, RPG=Role Playing Game, and DPS stands for "damage per second." And I apologize for any errors I might have made. It has been a looooong time since I've been able to do any gaming, so I am rusty.