Characters / The Warm Embrace Of Shadow

Adrien Agreste

“What have I ever said to make you doubt my feelings for you?”

— Adrien, Chapter 36: Dancing

In canon: A sweet cinnamon roll who can do no wrong, aside from being so oblivious as to somewhat not notice his feelings for Marinette.

In The Warm Embrace of Shadow, this could not be further from the truth. Adrien is a hopeless romantic with a passion for the classics, linguistics, and playing jazz piano; He's also later prone to violent outbursts and pushing everyone but his girlfriend out of his life for fear that his father might use them to find out about his secret relationship with Claudia Perreault.

• Adorkable : Whether it's through references to Pride and Prejudice or comparing raindrops to the IPA "Voiceless Velar Plosive", Adrien Agresté's internal monologue shows he is one hell of a huge nerd. He also has a tendency to gush about romance, especially around and about Claudia.
• Byronic Hero : As the fic transitions into its latter half, Adrien starts to display a more cynical, paranoid view of the world. He starts to embrace his own internalized self-doubt, and becomes much more upfront about his willingness to manipulate or talk down to people.
• Hysterical Woman : Inverted. Gabriel constantly compares Adrien with his dead mother, usually through this being invoked (although sometimes his sensitivity is also brought up to emasculate him).

Adrien as Chat Noir / Chat Errant

• Black Magic : Chat Noir's "Cataclysm" powers, and the Miraculous itself to a degree.
• Iron Butt Monkey : Deconstructed. Chat was able to survive being thrown down stairs and off of buildings, among other comically absurd abuses at the hands of Ladybug, but the experiences left him with an intense fear of her and only contributed to his social awkwardness around “typical” girls his age.
• The Friend Nobody Likes : Chat Noir is noted to have been the black sheep of the Lucky Lucky Ladybug Team, constantly being picked on for his incompetence and bad luck.
  "God, Chat, why are you being so lazy? I'm starting to regret even inviting you..."
  "Look, Ladybug, he's not even flinching! Hahah, I bet I could punch him flat right now and he wouldn't even do anything!"

  — (Implied) Lucky Lucky Ladybug and Viperius, Chapter 2: Breaking
• The Woobie : Before the events of TWEOS, Chat was berated, physically assaulted, and nearly killed multiple times, sucking out all of his canon flirty traits and making said 'facade' much easier to break. Because of this, Chat Noir is much more sensitive and awkward, and at times indistinguishable enough from the real Adrien that the narrative lets him switch between the two instantaneously.

Claudia Perreault

“Part of me had hoped you wouldn’t come back, so I wouldn’t feel forced to stay. But… I wanted to stay just in case you did, one day. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait long.

— Claudia (as Cynic), Chapter 10: Forgiving

In canon: Nonexistent in Adrien's life, if not already dead.

Claudia Perreault serves as a stark contrast to any canon Miraculous character and for multiple reasons: She deals with a long-term depressive disorder, dropped out of school in order to work, and has no interest in using her kwami to fight against Hawkmoth. While her relationship with Adrien is essentially an in-depth look at a B-plot in the 'show' that is The Miraculous Adventures of Lucy Lucky Ladybug, she stands out with her impulsivity, aggressiveness, and snark. ...Okay, but she's not that bad. She has her nice moments.

• Creepy Loner Girl : In the few insights given into Claudia's life, the only two people she regularly talks to are her employer and her mother—Both of which refer to her as her dead sister 'Lydia' instead. Her hair is also described to often be matted and dull, her eyes are so dark they reflect no light at all, and she has deep dark circles under her eyes from her horrible sleep schedule. Of course, Adrien finds all this to be Creepy Cute.
• Penny Among Diamonds : The fact that Claudia is Adrien's first "poor friend" is dicussed openly in one of their first interactions.

Claudia: “You don’t have a lot of… ‘non-rich’ friends, do you?”

'Adrien “I mean, that depends. Nino’s dad is a pretty popular public speaker, Alya’s parents are both attorneys, Chloe’s dad is the mayor, Marinette’s parents own a franchise of pastisseries… But like, none of them are rich like me, except maybe Chloe, so I guess I do?”

Claudia: “So you all probably go to one of those fancy private schools, don’t you?” she asked, disregarding his previous answer.

— Chapter 5: Stealing

• Working-Class Werewolves : While Cynic is technically a coyote, she is often conflated with and referred to with lupine or canine imagery. Most notable is Gabriel refusing to ever refer to her by name and insisting she is just a 'dog'.

Claudia as Cynic/Cynique/The Cynic

Marinette Dupain-Cheng

“I was never actually going to kill him, I just needed him to listen to me! It’s not my fault that I could only do that by threatening him!”

— Marinette, Chapter 14: Bothering

In canon: Just a normal girl with a normal life.

Despite never meeting Adrien with the exchange of an umbrella, Marinette Anne Louise Dupain-Cheng has truly convinced herself that she is the only one to deserve her celebrity crush's attention. So much so that she becomes a sellout superhero in order for the chance to get closer to him.