History Main / MutualMasquerade

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
** The two main characters Marinette and Adrien have no idea that the other is their superhero partner. This causes [[TwoPersonLoveTriangle some complications]] in their romantic lives: Marinette loves Adrien, who thinks she's a good friend and has no idea how she feels. Cat Noir loves Ladybug, but she's endlessly annoyed by his constant flirting. The whole mess could easily be solved if they unmasked in front of each other.
** And on top of that, the two are constantly battling the minions of the evil Hawk Moth... who is in fact [[spoiler: Adrien's ''father''.]]

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', Negi and some of his students find out that each other knows about TheMasquerade.

* One episode of ''Series/AmazingStories'' featured the tale of a high-school-age boy whose parents revealed to him that a) they were actually alien scientists who came to Earth to study the "primitive culture" and b) their mission was over so they were returning home. The boy regretfully says goodbye to his High School sweetheart, lying to her about his dad getting a new job in a new city and them all moving away. On the spaceship, just before launch, he finds his girlfriend. Turns out ''her'' parents were also alien scientists, and that they are '''all''' going home.

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

* In ''{{LightNovel/Durarara}}'', a great deal of the conflict in the latter bit of the series is the various factions of Ikebukuro butting heads (sometimes very very violently) and maintaining secrets from each other and the public. As such, many, many, many characters that interact with each other don't know that these people are actually part of the Dollars, or Saika's army, or Nebula, or the Yellow Scarves, or the yakuza, or...

[[folder: Comics ]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Despite having known about wizards and himself being a wizard for years, he was still surprised to find that Mrs. Figg, one of his Privet Drive neighbors that he's known his entire life, has been in on the Masquerade the whole time and has also been tasked by Dumbledore to keep him safe.

* In the novel ''{{Twelve}}'', vampires have to hide themselves from human society. The protagonist discovers that the "mercenaries" his friend hired are in fact vampires. [[spoiler: Later, he is shocked to find out one of the vampires ''isn't''. So the villain could move about in the daylight ... OhCrap. Furthermore, said character had fooled the other vampires into thinking he's one of them. It helped that the vampires weren't particularly strong.]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* In ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz,'' Takumi thinks Kiba is an okay guy but the Horse Orphenoch is a villain. Kiba thinks Takumi is an okay guy but Kamen Rider Faiz is a villain. Naturally, they learn each other's identities ''before'' they learn they are (or should be) on the same side. It doesn't help that Kusaka (ostensibly one of the good guys, but a DevilInPlainSight and ManipulativeBastard) knows ''exactly'' what's going on and manipulates things to keep them at each other's throats, out of petty jealousy more than anything else.

[[folder: Tabletop Game ]]

[[folder: Webcomic ]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Timmy Turner has been classmates with a rich kid named Remy. After a series of suspicious events, Timmy has decided to spy on Remy and discovered that he also had a fairy godparent. When Timmy asked his godparents why he was never told, the fairies replied that it was against Da Rules for fairies to tell their godchildren about other children with fairies. They have to figure it out on their own.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'': Jake is secretly a dragon. His crush Rose is secretly the magical creature hunter Huntsgirl. This leads to situations like the two of them each ducking out of a study date with a [[INeedToGoIronMyDog paper thin excuse]] so they can fight... each other.

[[/folder

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', quoth one high-ranked member of TheMenInBlack, "[[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-05-09 the accessibility of magic has always been the real secret]]". So there's a lot of magic users who have no clue about each other and lose time in otherwise trivial cases. Such as when a wizard's apprentice Noah was trying for days to investigate a magical incident, and since he couldn't tell what it's about and had zero diplomatic skills, he was forced to [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2011-02-16 go the roundabout way through Elliot]] without telling him anything. Elliot himself being a full-fledged magic-user and knowing about the wizard but not Noah and working with another investigator connected to TheMenInBlack. By the time he got to his witness (yet another magic user who by this time had a good idea what's going on, but wasn't going to tell Noah anyway), the delay allowed [[spoiler:the follow-up incident, which loudly finished off already damaged {{Masquerade}}]].

* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' has [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/comic/464-thesecret/ two Dittos posing as humans to each other]].

* PlayedForComedy in the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' tale "[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/everyone-knows Everyone Knows]]": [[spoiler:Turns out, the entire population of Earth is aware of the anomalies, sans one Jeremiah Wuthers (and even that is doubtful). The organizations have upheld TheMasquerade simply because they have never correlated their membership numbers before.]]

* The ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics have some fun with this in their superhero stories, as the various heroes all know each other in their civilian identities but most secret identities are unknown[[note]]Donald knows that Fethry is the Red Bat, and so Fethry's girlfriend Gloria (herself a superhero as the Purple Butterfly). The latter was ''supposed'' to wipe her memory of his secret, but decided not to [[GenreSavvy because she knew that Fethry would need her help to get himself out of trouble]][[/note]], leading to multiple shenaningans-especially because Paperinik (AKA Donald) is prone to [[LaserGuidedAmnesia wipe the knowledge of his identity from the memories of anyone who stumbles on it]]. Most notable (and funny) is [[DependingOnTheWriter when the authors remember that Daisy has one]], as in those stories her and Donald hate but grudgingly respect each other's alter ego-and [[BelligerentSexualTension are also attracted to each other, much to their mutual horror]] (sometimes it's hinted that they've actually guessed each other's identity multiple times, only to forget through sheer denial).

* ''Series/{{Batman}}'':

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'': Jake is secretly a dragon. His crush Rose is secretly the magical creature hunter Huntsgirl. This leads to situations like the two of them each running away from a study date with a PaperThinExcuse so they can fight... each other.

* In ''DC Vs Marvel'', Clark is working with the Planet's new photographer, [[ComicBook/SpiderMan Peter Parker]], leading to a scene where they ''both'' try to make excuses to the other in order to change.

* In ''DC Vs Marvel'', Clark is working with the Planet's new photographer, [[SpiderMan Peter Parker]], leading to a scene where they ''both'' try to make excuses to the other in order to change.

* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' has [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2013/02/15/464-the-secret/ two Dittos posing as humans to each other]].

** There was also a pair of cross-over episodes with ''Franchise/TheGreenHornet'' series. Bruce Wayne and Britt Reid originally met and socialized (they are both millionaire playboys, after all), with neither aware of the other's identity as a masked crimefighter. The villain of the episode - or rather, his PerkyFemaleMinion - actually figures out that the two billionaires are also the two heroes but mixes up the secret identities (thinking Wayne is Green Hornet and Reid is Batman). When Batman proves this wrong, the idea is completely dismissed and the truth never occurs to anyone, including the heroes.

* In ''MahouSenseiNegima'', Negi and some of his students find out that each other knows about TheMasquerade.

** When Osan'gar, one of the Dark One's foremost Forsaken servants, infiltrates TheChosenOne Rand's organization, nobody outside the Forsaken is in the know -- not even the Black Ajah sisters also infiltrating the organization. Consequently, when he finally has an opportunity to assassinate Rand, he's promptly killed by a Black sister who thinks she's offing one of Rand's loyal bodyguards.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series has the Black Ajah working in this fashion. In order to prevent any Black Sister from having the knowledge needed to betray the entire organization all Black Sisters except the top few are normally only ever given the identity of three other members. Most members do not even know who the next person up the chain of command is, much less who is at the head.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': The two main characters Marinette and Adrien have no idea that the other is their superhero partner. This causes [[TwoPersonLoveTriangle some complications]] in their romantic lives: Marinette loves Adrien, who thinks she's a good friend and has no idea how she feels. Cat Noir loves Ladybug, but she's endlessly annoyed by his constant flirting. The whole mess could easily be solved if they unmasked in front of each other.
** And on top of that, the two are constantly battling the minions of the evil Hawkmoth... who is in fact [[spoiler: Adrien's ''father''.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': The two main characters Marinette and Adrien have no idea that the other is their superhero partner. This causes [[TwoPersonLoveTriangle some complications]] in their romantic lives: Marinette loves Adrien, but he's totally indifferent to her. Cat Noir loves Ladybug, but she's endlessly annoyed by his constant flirting. The whole mess could easily be solved if they unmasked in front of each other.