Fanfic / The Miraculous World of Caline Bustier

The daily struggles of being a teacher are a lot by themselves, but when your students are superheroes, things can get out of hand quickly.
A collection of one-shot stories that follow the trials and tribulations of Caline Bustier and her students. Where Chloe is trying so hard to be a decent human being, Adrien is owning up to his grief about his mother, Caline is discovering being a superhero means more than punching people in the face, and Marinette is quietly losing her mind over everything.

The Miraculous World of Caline Bustier is a Miraculous Ladybug Series Fic by Ronoken on Archive of Our Own. It's a series of one-shots (mostly) in an AU verse of Miraculous Ladybug where Caline Bustier, the teacher of Marinette's class, is a lot more active in the role of a teacher in a divergence of canon.

The series can also be read here on FanFiction.Net. There are 12 official works of the original series and an 8 work sequel series that takes place years after the end of the original series featuring Gina Agreste — Marinette and Adrien's daughter — as she goes through timeline shenanigans to protect her disasters of parents. You can read the sequel series here.

There also features a non-canon five-chapter crossover story between the Gina story and Sorry Just Another Person's Panthera Noire AU.

Both series are completed.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

The Miraculous World of Caline Bustier

• 11th-Hour Ranger: Caline when she becomes Mamabug to save Queen Bee and Chat Noir.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Chloé's mother Audrey Bourgeois emotionally abused and damaged Chloé, abandoning her for many years and being the catalyst of many of Chloé's own abusive behavior. It goes far to even say that Chloé may have been an outcome of an affair Audrey may have had in the past with a random model she doesn't even remember, as she confesses to this to Chloé one night while drunk.
  • Another abusive parent is Sabrina's father Roger, who had an unhealthy relationship with his wife and kinda made that Sabrina's problem, while also being homophobic, calling Chloé a tramp for trying to corrupt his daughter. Roger can also represent the trope of the Not Now, Kiddo kind of authority figure towards Chloé, or the literal Knight Templar Parent when he gets akumatized over Sabrina's outburst against him when he yells at her in front of everyone.
• Action Mom:
  • When Queen Bee and Chat Noir get captured by Emotionabull, and Ladybug is out sick, this is what Caline turns into.
  • During an akuma attack where Marinette is incapacitated, Sabine steps up and wields the Ladybug Miraculous in her daughter's place, going as far as to beat the crap out of Mayura.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In canon, Ms. Bustier never questions any of Lila's outlandish lies and is very eager to cater to her; here, she's very much aware of the girl's true nature as a Consummate Liar.
• Adults Are Useless: Noticeably averted by Caline, as she figures out Marinette and Adrien's identities in Startrain and just hasn't said anything about it in regards to keeping their secret. This explains why she gives Adrien and Marinette slack when they need to leave for their superheroing in contrast to the canon show where she just simply believes them.
• The Alcoholic: Ms. Bustier is seen drinking a lot, usually to cope with stress. Thankfully never during school hours, but there are days where she shows up with a mild hangover.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Caline is a kind-hearted teacher, but when she is first loaned the Ladybug Miraculous she proves to be so violent that Alya has to put a content warning on the Ladyblog video.
• Born Lucky: Some of the stories point out how Marinette is this (fittingly, given what her alter ego represents): she has two loving parents that support her unconditionally and thus she grew up in a healthy family environment; she has earned the friendship and good graces of a number of very prominent celebrities; she's incredibly talented in a very wide array of subjects, from getting very good grades, to winning videogame tournaments to impressing a world-class fashion mogul like Gabriel Agreste with her designs, and all of this before even reaching adulthood. This, in turn, causes many people, such as Chloé (by her own admission) or Lila to envy and resent her.
• Clark Kenting: Discussed when Caline deduces Ladybug's true identity and muses that Superman is able to disguise himself just by donning a pair of glasses; she wonders if Marinette's acquaintances are all very unobservant, or if it's magic.
• Cursed with Awesome: Juleka's photo curse saves her neck when she is attacked by an akuma with the ability to freeze people with their photos.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Caline has an unfortunate tendency towards stress drinking, and opens the back half of I Don't Remember The River nursing a raging hangover.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite willingly helping Hawkmoth, Marinette is not only very willing to forgive Chloé, but she even returns the Bee Miraculous to her and allows her to keep it on a permanent basis.
• Face Your Fears: Emotionabull is an akuma that drowns you in your insecurities, fears, and personal demons.
  • Caline's being when her mother died
  • Adrien's assumedly being his of his disappeared mother
  • Chloé's being her abusive Mother Audrey ignoring her.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • Marinette accidentally detransforms and reveals herself as Ladybug in front of Alix who was sitting in her room the entire time for a sleepover.
  • This happens again with Caline and Sabine as they completely forget Juleka is in the same room as them as they discuss their plans with the cat and ladybug miraculous when the class has been captured and unable to fight.
• Family of Choice: Caline and Chloé make a strong family bond, to the point that Chloé's family of choice becomes her real family when Caline hooks up with and marries Chloé's dad.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • During their heart-to-heart in the second oneshot, Chloé told Marinette that the reason why she bullied Marinette in the past was because she resents Marinette for seemingly being Born Lucky.
  • Chloé also warns Marinette that this is exactly how Lila feels as well: Marinette is basically all of what Lila pretends to be (and more importantly, what she wants to be) and that no matter how friendly or forgiving Marinette tries to be, it won't deter Lila to make sure Marinette loses everything. And like Ms. Bustier pointed out before, Lila might charm her classmates with her outlandish tales, but deep down she knows they're just lies and they can't stop her from feeling empty on the inside-
• Hot for Teacher: Cat Noir gets quite tongue-tied around Mamabug.
• Insistent Terminology: Caline would like to remind everyone that she is a goat hero, not a cow.
• Jerkass Realization: Sabrina coldly says "You did this" when Chloé accidentally causes Princess Fragrance's second akumatization via Chloé's attempts to help in her very unorthodox and manipulative way, making her feel bummed a lot.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: This is Chloé over the course of the story as she gets a redemption arc with the help of Caline's motherly teaching and support, though not going through her own share of conflict as she struggles to better herself after her history of being an Alpha Bitch. She still is a mess, but she becomes kinder and more considerate to the people around her, especially her best friend Sabrina who used to be her assistant and lackey who she confesses to being in love with, to which Sabrina reciprocates and they get married in the future.
• Lemony Narrator: The anonymous third-person narration will occasionally interrupt the story to poke fun at the characters and elaborate on certain situations.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Chloé never stops being a bitch (and even refers to herself as one at some points) but she does try to be nicer about it and even helps people in need.
• Mama Bear: Caline, full stop, when it comes to her students. Her heroic alias is 'Mamabug' for a good reason.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In What To Do When Your Class Field Trip Is Attacked, when Sabine (borrowing the Ladybug Miraculous) and Caline (borrowing the Cat) confront Mayura, they beat her so badly Gabriel convincingly explains it as her being in a car crash.
  • When Mamabug realizes exactly what kind of psychological torture Emotionabull is subjecting her students to, she just goes to town on him with fists and feet. She doesn't even get to call up the Lucky Charm until he's completely broken and she just uses it to fix everything. And a good thing too, since it turns out to be a baseball bat...
• Noodle Incident: Caline offhandedly mentioned "The Pasta Incident" with a shudder. Explaining some things must never be talked about. We are never informed what this is except for it being the reason Miraculous holders are banned from transforming in the classroom.
• Parental Substitute: Caline becomes the mother figure and the actual mother of Chloé, but also becomes a mother figure to about every character on the show. She calls them her Kids, which can be seen as a goat pun especially when Caline temporarily receives the goat miraculous.
• Refusal of the Call:
  • Caline at first rejects Tikki's powers but agrees to use them to save Queen Bee and Chat.
  • This happens again except instead of Tikki, it's with the Ziggy, the Goat Kwami, mostly because he's just annoying to her the first few days they become assigned to each other.
• Running Gag:
  • "The jacket is distracting" is a phrase Caline says when a very hormonal teenage boy who has no idea he is accidentally ogling his own teacher Chat Noir makes some attempt to charm the teacher when she is either Mamabug or Capricorn.
  • People keep breaking Mayura's nose.
  • Another gag is also her cup that says "My Ranch My Rules" which shows up a lot in her story, whether being a cup for Caline to slowly sip in a deadpan matter or for her to unfortunately spit take with when something crazy or weird happens.
• Saying Too Much: Chloé accidentally rambles a little bit too long on her advice about pining and unrequited love, adding details about her own love issues.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • The very premise of the fic is Caline figuring out Marinette's secret identity. By the end of The Adventures of Captain Cowgirl, she either knows outright or can make educated guesses towards the identities of every hero other than Ryuko.
  • After becoming a superhero, Caline gains a few secret keepers for her superhero adventures: Marinette, Chloé, Alix, Juleka, Sabine, and Adrien.
  • Marinette gets Alix and (unbeknownst to her) Sabine as secret keepers.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Ms. Bustier ships Marinette/Adrien (and by extension, Ladybug/Chat Noir since she knows about their alter egos). She uses the excuse of their grades slipping a little to give the two of them a group project to work together for extra credit, in hopes of bringing them closer.
  • Juleka ships Marinette/Luka. Both to make her brother happy, and for Marinette to stop obsessing over Adrien while making zero progress on getting into a relationship with him.
• Superpowers for a Day: Marinette's mother Sabine substitutes in as Ladybug for her in "What To Do When Your Class Field Trip Is Attacked".
• Tempting Fate: When Marinette comes down with the flu, Caline hopes that the rest of the day will pass without incident. Not three seconds later, an akuma attacks.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Caline and Sabine when subbing in for Ladybug don't quite have her knack for using the Lucky Charm with a creative strategy to trip up the Akuma and expose its weak point. However being grown adults and therefore more powerful when transformed and not subject to a time limit, they don't really need to and are perfectly capable of taking down Akuma And Mayura through brute force.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing:
  • Caline espouses the wisdom of this attitude to Marinette about dealing with Lila. Lila's skills at manipulation ensure that she can destroy Marinette's social life if she challenges her openly, but give her time for her lies to catch up with her and she'll eventually implode.
  • Chloé, however, doesn't seem to share this mindset: she warns Marinette that she needs to do something about Lila. She does agree that challenging Lila openly isn't a good idea, but points out that merely ignoring her will only encourage her more.

The Miraculous World of Gina Agreste

• Abusive Parents: It is heavily implied that Lila had an abusive father when Gina faces her and receives a Police Report Lucky Charm of said abuse.
• Beyond Redemption: Lila isn't redeemed, and rolls off after her final confrontation in the beach hotel and is never seen again in the story.
• Everybody Knew Already: Everyone already knows Marinette and Adrien are Ladybug and Chat Noir except, well...Marinette and Adrien.
• Exact Words: In "Sabine Cheng: Part/Time Hero", when future Gina stays with present Sabine for a week, Sabine explains this to Tom by saying Gina's her "aunt's, son's, cousin's daughter's little girl, on her mother's side, of course". This sounds like a distant, far-flung relative, and Tom takes it accordingly...but it just means Gina's her granddaughter.
• Inconvenient Attraction: In "What To Do When Your Superhero Is Having A Baby", Chloé finds herself hot and bothered over the backup Ladybug — emphasis on bothered, because, in addition to already being in a relationship with Sabrina at this point, she knows full well that said backup Ladybug is Marinette's Kid from the Future.
• The Matchmaker: In the future, Sabrina ships her son with Gina, and has been since they were four.
• Parents Know Their Children: When Gina goes into the past, Marinette recognizes her as her future child.
• The Power of Love: When Marinette cannot use the Ladybug miraculous because she is pregnant, Rose and Juleka step up to face Romantica when the akumatized scientist blocks out the science lab to only allow in Couples Completely On The Same Page. Which unfortunately, Rena Rouge and Carapace are not at this point of the story.
• This Explains So Much: When Adrien and Marinette reveal themselves, this is what goes through them.
• Time Travel: Alix aka Bunnyx lets Gina time-travel to the past multiple times through this fic. There are allusions to multiple timelines, deaths that have both have and haven't happened, and darker plot lines we don't get to see besides Alix's cryptic warnings and references.
• Truce Zone: Nathalie (Mayura) and Gina (backup Ladybug) both know each other's identities and fully intend to take the other down... but when Nathalie shows up at the Dupain-Cheng bakery for coffee and sees Gina working there, the two quickly work out that fighting there would benefit neither of them. This eventually extends to calling "bakery rules" as a sign of truce elsewhere.
• Would Not Hurt A Child: When August gets akumatized into Gigantitan again, Mamabug is adamant that the hero team will not be punching him. No matter how badly Chloé wants to punch an akuma that day.

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