Outcasts is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction.
The plot starts with Sabrina walking at the side of the river and witnessing Marinette getting rescued from Evillustrator. This makes her realize that Marinette didn't actually dump the school work on her and she makes up with her.
This simple event changes the story we know quite a lot.
The fic can be found here
This fic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Sabrina, who was Chloé's Beta Bitch for most of the show up until Season 5, becomes Marinette's best friend, and later girlfriend. She will also become the Bee Holder, calling herself Hornet.
- Gabriel is not Hawk Moth in this fic and in his Day in the Limelight chapter, he starts to get his act together and be there for Adrien.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Sabrina, obviously, since she resolves her misunderstanding with Marinette.
- In the show, André, the ice cream vendor, is a Shipper on Deck who believes that his ice cream is truly magical and that people should get with whom his ice cream decides, getting sad when his pairings don't get together (evident in the canon episode "Glaciator 2"). In this fic, he's an Excellent Judge of Character who correctly deduces that Marinette's feelings are confused and lets her choose which flavors she wants, much to her classmates' surprise. In "Interlude 2", he's given a small backstory with a bit of sympathy added in.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Marinette and Sabrina are best friends in this fic thanks to the resolution of the misunderstanding that happened in "Evillustrator". During "Heroes' Day, Part 2", they start dating each other after Ladybug kisses Hornet to remove Dark Cupid's influence and confesses her feelings to her.
- Unfortunately, them becoming friends causes a rift between Chloé and Sabrina. The former in fact starts to bully the latter, at least until "Style Queen", when Audrey gives her daughter a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Marinette is heavily implied to be bisexual in this story, as while she does have her canon crush on Adrien at the beginning, she later develops returned feelings towards Sabrina.
- Alas, Poor Villain: The heroes agree that despite being an absolute madman, Hawk Moth didn't deserve the fate of dying and then be erased.
- Ambiguous Situation: Boy, does the author love these...
- The whole 'Ruined Timeline' is completely shrouded in mystery, except for small glimpses that Marinette (and Adrien, once) dream. All that is known is that is a Crapsack World where The End of the World as We Know It was caused by several Akumas that got out of Gabriel's control and started killing people left and right.
- Hawk Moth himself is a giant mystery once he's revealed to not be Gabriel. Apparently he comes from the 'Ruined Timeline' and wanted to obtain the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous for unspecified reasons. This also leads on what happened to the two Miraculous in the alternate timeline for Hawk Moth to not be able to use them. But how did he come in this timeline? How did he get the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous from this world? Questions never answered.
- Following that, Hawk Moth's identity is never revealed. Only that he was a young blond man, who is extremely bony. It is highly implied that he's Adrien's 'Ruined' self due to a comment he said in "Gabriel", but it's never said outright. Nooroo is shown to know who Hawk Moth is but feigns ignorance, saying that it's better that way.
- The epilogue has the fic ending with Marinette and Sabrina calling their classmates saying they have to tell them something, but it's not known if it's about them being heroes, them dating, or both.
- Anger Born of Worry: An extremely worried Sabrina gets furious at Marinette for slipping into the Agreste Mansion to search for Adrien despite the Collector being on the loose. Of course, Sabrina doesn't know that was mainly an excuse for Marinette to transform into Ladybug but it still has an effect on her.
- Cassandra Truth: No matter how many times Marinette insists otherwise, everyone continues to claim that the only reason she's mean to Lila is because she's jealous that Lila also likes Adrien.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Audrey acts like this, calling out Chloé for her slothful behaviour harshly. When she meets up with André, she says that she was harsh so that Chloé can actually start to pull her weight.
- Darker and Edgier: The chapters that depict events from the 'Ruined Timeline' in contrast to the other chapters. The chapter "???", in particular, is completely dedicated to the day when the tragedy happened.
- Driven by Envy:
- Discussed. Alya believed that the reason Marinette was antagonistic towards Lila was because she was seated next to Adrien. While in the show it might have been a factor, in this fic it most certainly isn't.
- Ironically, Alya reveals that the reason her Shipper on Deck tendencies were more prominent is because she thought Marinette replaced her with Sabrina and thought that she would do her a favor by getting her together with Adrien. Marinette reassures her that it was definitely not the case.
- Fix Fic: This isn't a salt fic, by any stretch of the imagination, or even a Deconstruction Fic but some characters' flaws are definitely corrected.
- Marinette slowly stops being as extreme as in the show, mainly thanks to Sabrina being her Morality Pet. In fact, Sabrina makes her realize that her crush on Adrien is toxic but not at the cost of her friendship with him (although whether or not they're still friends is left ambiguous). She also makes her realize that she can't fault her classmates for believing Lila over her, as Marinette did have a jealous streak and actually made herself unlovable at times.
- After a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Ladybug, Adrien realizes, as Cat Noir, that all of her responsibilities are chaining her down and his entitlement to her are only worsening things on her mental health. As such he finally begins to take his role more seriously, stops flirting with Ladybug, and makes amends with Hornet for treating her harshly.
- Bustier and Damocles, during "Lila" (which covers some of the events in the canon "Ladybug"), are definitely more reasonable and do not immediately accuse Marinette of cheating on the mock test and stealing Lila's pendant, finding strange how she was accused of two different things on the same day. Before then, in "Chameleon", Bustier is not as flexible about seats as in the show, as she rearranges them herself once she comes to know Marinette was excluded from the seat change.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Audrey hits the nail on the head when she calls out Chloé over not doing anything noteworthy and only uses her father's influence to get what she wants.
- Morality Pet: Sabrina is one for Marinette. In fact, she stops her from throwing a napkin at Lila, reminding her that it would certainly not do her any favors.
- My God, What Have I Done?: What gets through to Adrien that he needs to improve his behavior as Chat Noir is when Ladybug tells him that his lack of help and refusal to take anything seriously made her feel trapped. Adrien, who loves being Chat Noir to escape his own feelings of being trapped, is horrified that he made someone feel the same way.
- Red Herring: The narrative makes it believe that Adrien will be entitled, delusional, and unrepentant. It's the complete opposite, as he'll eventually have a Heel Realization and apologize to Ladybug about his behaviour towards her.
- Secretly Dying: Fluff reveals that whoever comes from a different timeline will have their health deteriorate the longer they stay in it with Hornet comparing such a thing to nuclear radiation. Hawk Moth will in fact die, after staying in a timeline not his for too much time and will later disappear from existence.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Dark Cupid, who shoots Hornet with one of his arrows during "Heroes' Day, Part 2", making her become aggressive. This leads to Marinette having to kiss her, giving her the best reason to confess her true feelings to Sabrina.
- Take That!: Marinette and Sabrina once read a book about a superheroine who is loved by many but heavily bullied outside the suit. However, instead of telling anyone, she decides to suffer in silence, with both Marinette and Sabrina disliking it and stating how simply staying silent only prolongs one’s own pain. This is clearly a jab at several other fics with a similar plot.
- Wham Episode:
- "Heroes' Day, Part 1" looks like a normal re-telling of the canon episode...at least until Marinette has a dream about Paris being wrecked and people she knew being dead.
- "Gabriel". Gabriel finally starts to be a father to Adrien but most importantly, it's revealed he's not Hawk Moth in this fic. Oh, and the villain knew that Marinette is Ladybug and is coming to get the earrings.
