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He was most definitely not expecting this.
School had just let out for the summer in Paris, and Augusto had been planning to kick off his summer like every other summer; a straight week of him reading books at a worryingly fast pace (He had finished a 300-page book in under four hours last summer).
An Argentinian-Italian student who had come to Paris to live with his lawyer (and oddly goofy) uncle, Eliano Vega, in his relatively large home, Augusto was frequently left alone for weeks on end with nobody but a nanny to look after him, since, legally, he couldn't stay home alone for the amount of time that his uncle was away on business trips.
Lara Deboffré was an elderly lady, in her late fifties, who acted as Augusto's babysitter. While the Hispanic teenager hated that term, he had nothing against the lady. She was kind and had an affinity for reading, like him, albeit with more antiquated books (he had recently seen her reading Fahrenheit 451; he had tried previously on numerous occasions, but the dialogue was just too odd for him to follow).
His uncle was currently away on another escapade, as Augusto had taken to calling them, in Poland. Apparently, some lady had managed to create a makeshift gun out of household supplies and shot her husband for not taking out the trash. Thankfully, the man hadn't died and was pressing charges. Augusto, quite frankly, found the whole thing humorous.
So, reasonably, he expected for him to have the house pretty much to himself, with Lara Bedoffré coming by to bring him meals, despite heavy protests from Augusto, stating that he could cook for himself. She would occasionally stay a day or two in the guest room, to house-sit upon Elianos' request.
The Argentine teen had a sneaking suspicion that she had also been hired to make sure he didn't throw any parties. He would always chuckle at the thought, amused that his uncle thought that Augusto had the means to throw any sort of party. In the few parties he had gone to, he had usually stayed out of the main events, and sometimes even excused himself to the bathrooms because he simply didn't want to interact with others.
A solitary summer with little to no human contact (other than Lara or Eliano) had been Augusto's ideal summer plan, but it seemed fate had something else in store for him.
His uncle had stated that Augusto wasn't allowed to enter his office. Discouragement from entering wasn't an oddity, as Elianos didn't feel safe with Augusto in the same room that held confidential folders that contained personal information sent by his clients (and that was reasonable, Augusto had to admit), but he had never been told outright to not enter.
So, he did what any teenager would've done, and broke in.
Well, 'broke in' implies that A) he forced his way inside, and that B) he was breaking the law. He had done neither, simply picking the lock. His hand wasn't the steadiest, though, and it took around thirteen tries and ten bobby pins to do so, but he wasn't in any sort of hurry.
After having gained access to the room, Augusto quickly looked around the room for cameras, the Mission Impossible theme playing in his head.
After making sure there were no cameras, Augusto hesitantly stepped in.
He didn't know why he had hesitated, as he was the only one in the house at the moment. Maybe it was his conscious? Oh well. His uncle was a tidy person, by what Augusto saw, with a clean white desk in the middle, holding what looked to be a very modern computer. A white, sleek rolling chair sat behind that, on top of some sort of splash-painted rug containing mostly white, black, and orange. In a corner sat a clean white pot and some decorative branch-type-things. Against the room's stainless white walls sat cubbies, with seemingly random objects placed neatly in rows or patterns in some cubbies, with others holding drawers labeled 'Client Folders'.
Augusto had no intention of snooping around in people's private information, only to find out why his uncle had prohibited him from entering at all. Despite himself, though, he quickly opened the cubby labeled that, wondering if maybe there was some object hidden inside. Just manilla folders with labels such as 'A. Durand', 'B. Glavas', and 'O. Petrand'.
Seeing nothing of interest, he quickly closed the cubby, and decided to look at the desk. He circled around and saw that it had quite an amount of storage space in the front. He opened the top level; nothing. He opened the bottom left; nothing. He opened the top right; and there was something there.
It was an old wooden chest with steel corners that could fit in his hand. It seemed sorely out of place in the very modern and minimalist office. Curious, yet hesitant, Augusto grabbed the box. What could be inside? Top secret government files from his uncle's involvement with government cases? He humored the idea for a moment, then gave a small smile at the ridiculousness. Eliano hadn't done anything related with the government, short of around four times where government officials had to press charges or had charges pressed against them.
And even then, he heavily doubted Eliano would've had access to government secrets.
Augusto stared at the box for a while, letting his mind wander as to what could be held within the simultaneously unassuming yet out-of-place box. Fed up with letting his imagination wander, he quickly opened the box.
To reveal some sort of accessorial bracelet.
It was an odd mesh of orange, black, and white fabric, metal decorating, and some dark orange gem in the middle. Below it was a note. It seemed old. Very old. Older than Eliano himself. Some edges were torn, and the paper had yellowed with age. Some of the ink used to write it had dripped into the paper and made the letters uneven. It was still somewhat readable, what with Augusto's knowledge of most of the Italian language.
He barely got through the first sentence before the doorbell snapped him out of his focus, while simultaneously scaring him. He let out a short yelp of surprise, before gaining his bearings. He quickly closed the box and jammed it in his pocket, closed the drawers, and exited the office, making sure to close the door on the way out.
He quickly descended the stairs, noting that it was nine in the morning, typically when Lara brought him breakfast (he had usually eaten by then, but accepted the food nonetheless out of politeness).
He quickly reached the front door, skipping through the living room. Opening it, he found Lara, as he had expected. She was wearing a tank-top and khaki shorts, and she seemed to be sweating. She held a bag with some precooked food. Today, Augusto noted that she held in her hand some macaroni, diced vegetables, and a toasted sandwich.
"Here's your breakfast, Auggy! I was on a jog when I realized the time, so went back home and got the food," she smiled. Auggy was her nickname for him, one which he secretly hated but was too polite to say anything about. He smiled thankfully, "Thanks, Lara. You really didn't need to."
"It's fine, Auggy. Now, I must get back to my jog. Au revoir!" she then started jogging off back on the sidewalk, waving. Waving back, Augusto closed the door, his smile falling and letting his face fall back into its natural position; a relatively stoic face but with expressive eyes and eyebrows.
He absentmindedly put the bag of food on the island, planning on using it as a snack for the rest of the day until she dropped off lunch at around two in the afternoon.
But now, he was much more fixated on the box in his pocket than the food on the island. He reached into his pocket, grabbing it and fingering the cover. What was the bracelet for? Was it made for someone specifically? Like a duke or a king? Maybe even a noble?
He sat down at one of the barstools facing the island, opening the box and staring at the contents. He reached in for the note, so he could hold it up to a more natural light than the kitchen lamp. He walked over to one of the windows, brushing the curtains aside and holding the small, weathered piece of paper to the light. He couldn't read it word-for-word, but he got the basic concept.
According to the note, the bracelet was powerful in some sort of way, yet the note either didn't specify or the part that did specify was damaged or torn off. So that left Augusto trying to piece together what he had managed to understand.
Maybe he had to wear it? "Yeah, that's probably it," Augusto muttered to himself, stroking his chin with his hand. He carefully reached inside the box and scooped the bracelet out, as if one rough movement would make the accessory shatter. For all Augusto knew, it might. And his curiosity was driving him now, so he wouldn't take any chances with it.
He gently slid it on his left wrist, the fabric feeling oddly warm against his pale skin. And then a bright, orange flash of light erupted from the bracelet, surprising Augusto to such a degree that he lost his balance on the bar stool and fell on his back against the tiled floor, knocking the wind out of him, his legs still somewhat dangled in the pieces of wood stabilizing the legs. He would've groaned, had this been under any other circumstances, but he was too caught up with the flash of light. Or, rather, what became of it.
Some sort of creature-bug-thing had materialized in front of him, with a head bigger than most of its body. To Augusto, it seemed somewhat like a bobblehead The creature seemed somewhat like a tiger, with the signature orange with black stripes. It's belly-area was white, and it had little tufts of white on the end of its stubby little arms that seemed to resemble paws, not to mention the little tiger
This wasn't the oddest feature of the creature, though, as it was currently floating in front of him, staring at him with large, rust-colored eyes that currently shined in a questioning manner.
"Didn't you wielders train for years to use the miraculous? And aren't you supposed to be a bit… older?" The creature asked, "Nevermind; what year is it, and how did the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous wielders go rogue?
Augusto, caught completely off-guard, simply staring at the creature, paired with opening and closing his mouth, yet no words seeming to come out.
The creature waited patiently for a reply, simply raising its eye-ridge in a questioning manner.
He Argentine teen simply stopped trying to talk and took a moment to recompose himself and get off the floor, untangling his legs, all with the creature simply watching.
Once he was done, he started, "First of all, not to be rude, but what are you?"
The creature gave him a stare that made Augusto feel like a moron, "You've trained for over a decade to wield a miraculous… and you don't even know what a kwami is."
"I was supposed to be trained? And for a decade? I'm not even seventeen yet," Augusto replied, staring at the now-named kwami.
The kwami gave him a suspicious look, then flew circles around the teen, eyeing him from his PJ tank-top, to his hastily put on gym shorts, and to his sock-clad feet.
"You definitely don't look like you're from 16th century Florence," the kwami murmured. "Obviously. It's the early 21st century," Augusto gestured at his pajama-wear.
The kwami froze upon the comment, tilting its head much like a cat would. "So it's been around five hundred years since I last had to depose the Ladybug and Black Cat wielders. Huh."
"You mean Ladybug and Chat Noir?"
"What? They're still around? Are they running a dictatorship, are they waging a war?" the kwami immediately shot off a bunch of questions, with each seeming worse than the previous.
Unnerved, Augusto simply replied, "No, no, no. Ladybug and Chat Noir are superheroes protecting Paris."
"Superheroes? Paris?" the kwami echoed.
"Yes. They are superheroes. In Paris," Augusto enunciated, gesturing towards the nearest windows.
"That's odd. I'm typically only activated when the wielders have gone rogue," the kwami said. Augusto shrugged, "Maybe they have gone rogue, I don't know. I'm not exactly part of their little superpowered group."
"Then you'll have to do some reconnaissance to see if they have or have not gone rogue," the kwami instructed.
"Alright, first of all, we need to get our priorities straight. So, what is your name?" This was honestly all going way too fast for Augusto. The kwami gave a sigh and did a motion that resembled a human pinching the bridge of their nose, "I'm guessing you have little to no training, do you?"
He shook his head.
"Alright, I guess we'll just have to make it up as we go. I'm Rybbo, the tiger kwami," the now-named Rybbo told the teenager, "And I give powers."
Augusto became wide-eyed in a bizarre mixture of excitement, terror, and simply surprise, "So I'm going to be like Ladybug and Cat Noir? Suit and everything?"
The kwami nodded, "Yep."
"Just say 'Rybbo, stripes on!' and you'll be transformed."
"I'm guessing I say 'Rybbo, stripes off!' to detransform?"
The kwami simply replied with, "Mhm."
Eager, Augusto quickly said "Rybbo, stripes on!" before the kwami could explain further, with Rybbo sighing in exasperation as he was sucked into the miraculous, muttering, "Newbies."
In a flash of orange light, Augusto wasn't wearing his PJs anymore. Instead, he was wearing some sort of traditional robes he had seen in history shows. He seemed a bit like a ninja, with airy upper sleeves and legs, but with wrapped forearms and lower legs. His footwear was some sort of sandal-boot-hybrid, and his torso had a leather shoulder pauldron on his left shoulder. It had a bandolier attaching it, and on the bandolier was a myriad of weapons, some lethal and some not (he actually saw ancient swords and daggers on it). The outfit itself had a color palette similar to Rybbo's, with a white belly area, and the outer coats in orange, occasionally broken up by black stripes.
He quickly became aware of a foreign feeling in his rear, and he quickly looked back to realize that he had a tail. Not like Chat Noir's tail, that was a belt, but a legitimate, honest-to-god tail.
He looked at the isle, with its extremely reflective surface acting as a mirror. His hair was much redder than its original color of reddish-brown, and it had also grown out more, looking wilder than before, even though it was in a swept-back style. Somehow, it managed to look both wild and orderly. Not to mention the two large tiger ears on his head.
The area around his eyes was obscured by a domino mask that covered most his nose as well, with an orange base color and black stripes intertwined.
"Like it?" Rybbo's voice echoed in his head. Bewildered, Augusto looked around, trying to spot the tiger-like creature.
"I'm inside your head."
"That's pretty creepy, but alright. My costume is a bit too… ancient? It isn't something that would fit in with today's trends."
"The miraculous outfit is based off of two main factors; your taste and my knowledge. My most recent knowledge of fashion dates back to 16th century Florence, but an Eastern outfit seemed more akin to your tastes. Show me a few paintings and such, and the miraculous will make a main outfit accordingly, along with a few side ones to help you if you need to blend in with the rest of the crowd.
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After about half an hour of poring over clothes (and oddly some firearms and weapons), as well as Augusto best explaining electronics to Rybbo as he could, Augusto had an outfit he was satisfied with.
The outfit itself was modular, and parts of it could be used for different side suits that would help him if he ever needed to hide in plain sight.
He had the same domino mask, hairstyle, and ears. His torso was clothed in a sleek jacket/hoodie that could be unzipped to reveal his bare torso (much to his confusion, it felt comfortable). On the left shoulder, there was a more modern version of the pauldron before. A tiger claw design was on the shoulder pad itself, while the bandolier was made of leather and held multiple weapons (Augusto noticed some kind of throwing knife with a thin rope attached to it), many of which Augusto had never seen or touched in his life. It also had a few storage pouches, along with the jacket's zip pockets. The hood itself could be put over his tiger ears, and they'd somehow magically move to accommodate this, so they'd be attached to the hoodie instead of Augusto's head.
His tail was similar to Chat Noir's, though a much more 'heavy duty' approach was taken. It was longer and was made of thick and reinforced (somehow) leather.
He wore gloves made of some material that was a mix between rubber and latex, reaching to his mid-forearms. Retractable claws were at the edge of every finger, and Augusto still didn't understand how the claws worked. He had swiftly learned not to question it, though, as Rybbo would simply reply, "Magic."
His pants were similar to the old design, with somewhat airy thighs and skintight ankles, but with a carrying pouch strapped to each. The ankles were there because of the black combat boots that perfectly matched his shoe size.
What surprised him more were the weapons. Or, rather, the abundancy of them. He had counted three pistols, two magical rifles slung across his back, one bolt action, the other interchangeable between semi-automatic and full auto, two swords in their scabbards on his hip, and three daggers sheathed in his bandolier. Oddly enough, they weren't physically strapped to his back unless Augusto mentally pictured them there, so he could reach back and grab them.
The kwami had told him that the bottom pouch on his bandolier held all the ammo he'd need and specified the two rifles, with the bolt-action being a Lebel Model 1886 rifle (to fit with them being in Paris, Rybbo had told him) and the newer M4A1 (which had caught the kwami's attention, and the miraculous ultimately deemed it a fit weapon for Augusto). The three pistols were a No. 3 Schofield Revolver, a Colt M1911, and an M9.
There was no way Augusto would memorize these weapons, so had taken to cleanly painting numbers on all of them, with P and R standing for pistol and rifle respectively, followed by numbers.
The blades however, all looked the same to him except for size, and Rybbo didn't even bother explaining them, except for the throwing blade. It resembled a kunai, and could be thrown by Augusto and used as a sort of grapple. The string might've been thin, but Rybbo explained that this was magic, and that magic didn't abide by the laws of physics, and that the string could actually carry as much as three elephants (when asked how he knew that, he simply replied with "It's been tested".)
Everything was finished off with a tiger pattern. The outfit itself had a white belly area, and an orange color everywhere else, broken up by black stripes. His weapons and equipment just had black stripes on top of the orange base color.
As Augusto looked at himself in the mirror, he thought he looked relatively stylish. Everything seemed well though-out and planned, as if some fashion designer had created the outfit, and not some teen throwing something together for his first time as a superhero.
Lowering his transformation, he plopped down at the chair of his desk, "So why do I need so many weapons?"
Rybbo explained, "Well, the Ladybug and Cat miraculous are both the most powerful miraculous. This means that they can interfere with magic that is used against them. So, if you were to face off against them, many of your weapons would be gone, and you'd be down to one or two armaments. Three if they're inexperienced, but that has only happened twice before."
"Alright then, when do I get to go out on my first run?" Augusto grinned eagerly.
"What time is it?"
Augusto checked his phone, "Nine forty-eight in the morning."
The kwami seemed to be thinking, "I don't want you going out in costume anytime before midnight for now."
The Argentine teen frowned a bit, "Why?"
"Because that's typically the safest time for a newbie."
Reluctantly, Augusto conceded to the kwami's point, and braced himself for what would be an arduous wait.
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AN: I am back! No, I did not die, contrary to popular belief and the numerous PMs I've been getting. So the last couple of months have been crazy for me, as I'm still looking for a good college, had some relatively large family-related issues, and just a generally shitty time in general. My old laptop's keyboard broke, so I'm using a plug-in external keyboard, so that should explain any spelling error that slipped past Word audio dictating.
Having rewatched Miraculous Ladybug (which is miraculously still on Netflix) and steadily reading fanfics for the better part of the year, I got back into the fandom, and decided to rewrite one of my somewhat old works, by the name of The Bengal Tiger. I could barely get through it, as the cringe was strong. So here I am, revamping my old work because I really am swamped for ideas.
Moving on, one thing I despise is when an OC is already more or equally as important as the original MCs (E.g.: Say Larry, an OC, is best friends and/or a sibling to either Marinette or Adrien). It just gets on my nerves, and it's typically a red flag for somewhat poor story-telling. So that's why when I make an OC, I try to either keep them completely separate from the MCs, or have them interact by circumstances that are likely and believable (and the original superheroes of Paris noticing a completely new superhero who is also packing heat is VERY likely.)
Continuing with my impromptu 'rant', the night scene is going to be a new experience for me. Contrasting with the rest of the superpowered gang, the powers of the tiger miraculous don't actually give you the actual strength to hop from building to building like in the canon. So my OC will have to move around in a more Assassin's Creed type of style. And considering that he'll be doing this in the middle of the night, not the day, and we have a completely different scene on our hands.
Finishing, I'm going to gradually start going back into fanfiction. So, as always, review! It's a MAJOR motivation to continue fics and to keep working on chapters.
PS: This follows the AU lore I set up in the original, with the original six miraculous and whatnot.