Hello everyone! This is my first Miraculous fanfiction and my first time writing in a bit, so if you've got criticism for me or my rustiness, please stone me gently!

This story is going to be loosely based on a game called "Conan Exiles", which is a fairly explicit survival RP game. The fiction will be rated 18+ (M) for violence, gore, language, and adult situations. If you are not a fan of any of the afore mentioned themes, this is NOT the fiction for you.

The characters in this fiction might seem a little out of character, but that's because everyone is going to be AT LEAST 18. Most people do not retain the exact mindset they had as early teens, and this is merely my guess as to how they would react as older people.

Depending on if readers want it, I might keep a dictionary at the ends of the chapters so that everyone can understand some of the definitions of acronyms, words, or phrases that I use within this fiction. I assume that most of the people who read these stories have played games in their lives and are familiar with gamer terminology, but that doesn't mean everyone has. Please let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Miraculous or Conan franchises, nor do I own any franchise that I may or may not make a reference to in my writing. I'm just a big nerd that enjoys throwing Easter eggs in stuff. :)

Chapter 1

What the hell.

Marinette wasn't normally one to think negatively about a situation, but her current one didn't seem to be that great. Bound naked to some pretty thick wooden posts in the middle of a desert with no end in sight didn't seem ideal. And she had no idea how she got there.

"Hey, are you still alive?!" Marinette could hear a frantic voice from behind her fast approaching.

"Y… Yes…" she struggled. Her throat felt so dry… how long had she been out in this heat?

"I only have a sharpened rock, so I apologize in advance if the job is a little shoddy…" the voice continued and Marinette assumed the entity that was attached to the voice started hacking away at her bindings.

It didn't take long before her ankles and wrists were free, but Marinette didn't have the strength to catch herself from falling face first.

"So sorry!" Just as she was about to hit the ground, a warm arm wound its way around her middle. "Can you stand?"

Marinette tried as hard as her heat scrambled brain would allow to assess her answer. "I… n…eed help…" That same arm and a hand slowly raised her to a standing position to face a gorgeous, also very naked, young man that was close to her age. Blonde brows were furrowed over big green eyes as he tried to assess her face.

"You're probably very dehydrated. I don't have any water on me though. I spied some large rocks that we can use for shelter up over that hill. Can you walk with me? Or do I need to carry you?"

"I think… I… can walk…" She tried to take a step forward, but her balance immediately failed her.

"I'm going to crouch down now. Get on my back," the teen replied after he caught and steadied her.

The trek up the hill felt long and awkward. So much skin touching skin of a stranger, but there wasn't really a faster way around it. When they were finally in the shade, he carefully deposited Marinette on the sandy ground.

"I'm going to see if there's anything in this alcove that can help us. I'll be right back," the blond teen said softly as he turned away from the mouth of the shallow cave.

"Why are you helping me?" Marinette asked.

"It was the right thing to do," he said simply, shrugging his shoulders. "If I can do something about it, I'm not going to leave someone hanging on a cross to die out in this blistering heat."

"So you're just a common philanthropist?" she chuckled, slowly attempting to curl her limbs into herself to cover up.

"I suppose…" he trailed off. "I… had actually passed a few crosses like yours before I found you. The others weren't alive."

"Oh."

"So I'm going to change the subject," the teen said as he emerged from deeper in the cave. "Do you think we're in a video game right now?"

"How could we be in a game right now? I mean, sure, I know I'm hundreds of miles away from my home because I don't live anywhere near a desert. But a video game?" Marinette tried to light-heartedly reply.

"The reason I asked is because when I walked further into this cave, a screen appeared in my field of vision saying that I completed a journey milestone: Find Shelter."

"No way," she breathed in awe. Marinette then stood herself up without as much difficulty as before and realized that there was a small temperature icon in the upper left corner of her field of vision. "Your theory is starting to sound quite plausible. I just realized that there is a temperature gauge icon in my upper left field of view. And I'm able to move a lot better. I know if I was heat exhausted in real life, I wouldn't be able to move like this so quickly."

"Maybe there's a menu?" The blond teen thought aloud. He then tried swiping his arms in different directions.

"Are you trying to fly away?" Marinette giggled.

"Well, I read in a comic once that that's how the characters were able to access their main menu in a VR game. Do you have any ideas?" the teen smiled in response.

"I don't," she admitted. "I'm just finding your flapping around quite entertaining."

"Happy to entertain milady," he grinned, briefly stopping his motion to bow.

"Hmmm…" Marinette walked further into the cave herself and watched the milestone screen flash before her eyes. "What if you grab it?" She then attempted to grab at the air as if the screen could be held. The air around her crackled slightly and an inventory screen appeared. "Hey! I think I figured something out! Come here!"

"What happened?" the blond asked and Marinette felt warm breath by her ear and shoulder. "Oh! You got it to work! …Your name is 'Ladybug'?"

"That's usually the tag I use in games, not my actual name- this is crazy! It looks like we really are in a game."

"I agree with you Bugaboo," he chuckled wryly before mimicking Marinette's motion. "Looks like you're onto something." After his inventory screen appeared, he flicked it around so she could see.

"Cat Noir sounds so edgy," Marinette giggled, watching the blond's cheeks grow slightly more flushed.

"It sounded really cool to 13 year old me, so blame him," Cat Noir mumbled. "Plus with my luck, I've always felt like a black cat was following me around..."

Marinette's smile dimmed a bit at that. "Hey, I'm sorry about that-"

"Don't be," the blond interrupted. "I'm not that depressed 13 year old kid any more. I've moved past it. Now, it's more that I'm used to the gamer tag, so it'd be weird trying to make up anything else. If it makes you feel any better, you can call me by my real name. It's-"

As Cat Noir tried to say his actual name, a deafening wave of static noise sounded, having the pair of teens clapping their hands over their ears.

"What the hell was that?" Marinette shouted, her ears still ringing in the wake of the noise.

"I don't know!" He yelled back, seemingly just as dazed.

After the ringing in her ears had subsided, she asked, "I wonder if this is the game's privacy policy or something… Do you want me to try to say my name to see if that noise was just a one-time thing?"

"I want to say no, but I'm also curious," the blond admitted.

The same grating noise sounded when Marinette attempted saying her name. "O.K. No saying our real names. Got it."

"I wonder if it also pertains to personal details about our lives? Like I'm the son of-" The awful noise came back again, preventing Cat Noir from being heard.

"Apparently, this universe has something against us knowing who the other really is in real life," Marinette grumbled, trying to massage the skin around her ears.

"It's almost like we're superheroes or something," Cat Noir chuckled. "'Ladybug and Cat Noir' has a nice ring to it."

"So how are you going to play your persona, Cat Noir?" Marinette asked.

"Since I don't know how I got here, and I don't know how long I'll be here for, probably close to my actual personality," he shrugged.

"Which is…?"

"This seems like a survival game, and we might have to kill NPCs so we won't die, but I'm not going to go be a murder hobo or anything like that. I'll try to be a decent human being…?"

"Well that's music to my ears," Marinette sighed in relief. "I know that some people role play in games like this, and I was hoping that you weren't going to be cruel."

"People do that?" Cat Noir gaped at her.

"Yeah, it's pretty common in RPGs like this…"

"I'm glad you're the first person I saw then," Cat Noir said and stuck his hand out. "Can we be allies?"

"Sure," she grinned, grasping his hand.

The pair held hands and eye contact for much longer than was necessary, and when they noticed, they jumped away from each other in embarrassment.

"So, what's our plan forward milady?" Cat Noir asked quickly.

"We need to find water, food, and preferably shelter not in this desert," Marinette ticked fingers off as she went. "Those will be our immediate goals. Once we've located those, we can move on to more complex goals like setting up a more permanent base, seeing if we're the only PCs in this game, and figuring out how we beat this game."

"It seems I've found myself a really good partner," he beamed. "Do you think we'll be able to… find clothes?"

"I'm sure there will be armor loot from hostile NPCs. I'm sure there's a crafting system too…" She pulled up her inventory screen once more. "Aha! There are different tabs on the inventory screen! Stat points, stat feats- oh excellent! Here's the crafting system. It looks like you get points every time you level up to put into your stats and what you want to craft…"

After a few moments of watching her babble excitedly about her discovery, Cat Noir chuckled. "It seems like you're quite the veteran."

"Oh, I was monologuing, wasn't I…"

"I honestly found it cute," the blond grinned while pulling up his own screen, completely oblivious to Marinette's now beet red face. "So what should I do with my spendable points?"

"It's up to you, really. How do you want to play this game? I have a suspicion it's role play heavy, so take it where you want!"

"Any pointers with where to start?" He asked sheepishly, looking a little overwhelmed by all the options.

"Yeah!" Marinette said enthusiastically and sidled up next to him to compare her screen to his. "I would start with how you want to fight, since this is a survival game."

"Makes sense."

"So it looks like there is some magic, but it looks like it's pretty much all ritual based and kinda hard to get… Are you a ranged or melee kinda guy? It looks like non-magical weapons are by far easier to play."

"Definitely melee Milady," he said without hesitation. "I'm a one handed sword kind of guy, but staves have their own charms. Do they have any rapiers or thin sabers?"

"Looks like there are rapiers and a thicker saber… Scroll down- there you go! Now you can see the stats on the weapons on your own screen."

"I will admit, I was hoping to impress you with some fencing tricks I've picked up over the years," Cat Noir chuckled wryly. "Unfortunately for me, none of these blades are what I'm used to. I think I'm going to do a staff or a spear."

"Apparently I've been stuck with a flirtatious Tom cat," Marinette giggled.

"Two important questions: one, do you like dad jokes, puns, and play on words?" the blond asked seriously.

Marinette lifted an eyebrow. "And how is that relevant?"

"Because this kitten is smitten with prose. A good yarn or a pun always has me feline some kind of way."

"You're a dork!" Marinette snorted with laughter. "Is that how you want to play your persona?"

"I typically make obscene amounts of puns casually IRL," Cat Noir grinned hesitantly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Since I haven't been able to find how to log out, you might be putting up with a lot…"

She whipped her head around at that. "You can't find where to log out?"

"Nope. That was my second important question."

And that's a wrap for the first chapter! Thank you so much for giving this story a chance; I really appreciate it.

I'd love to hear your feedback, whether it be good, bad, ugly, or constructive! Geeking out with people in the same fandom truly is one of my favorite hobbies. I try to respond to each and every review, so don't be shy!

Thanks again and see you here next time! :D