The Story Behind Immortal Bond

This was a story idea that quite literally seemed to hit me out of nowhere one day. Then again, that's often where most of my ideas come from. But would it surprise you to know that I had the whole plot of this story planned out within a span of fifteen minutes? I shocked myself when that happened. Of course I didn't have the final details planned, but within that short amount of time, I had my beginning, my middle and my end.

But surely there was inspiration behind it? Yes, there was. Quite a bit actually.

I guess it all starts with my love and fascination with dark and spooky things like ghosts and demons. You'll often catch me locked in my room, watching creepy videos on YouTube such as 'Top 10 Creepiest Real Ghost Videos', that sort of thing. I don't really personally believe in any of that stuff, but I find it fun. Naturally of course, you're going to come across a few demon and Ouija board videos. I also have an original novel idea in the making that has a similar story line, in which a dangerous demon attaches itself onto a woman after she messes around with a Ouija board. Couple this with the fact that I did dabble in skim reading a few supernatural Chat Noir AU stories, and hey presto! All of this is probably what led to the idea.

So there I was, just sitting in the middle of my bed on my laptop, as I typically do, when the idea hit me. I knew I was onto something interesting, so I began jotting my thoughts down on the idea in the notebook that I use for fanfiction ideas. Everything just seemed to take on a life of it's own. Within fifteen minutes I had my story which made me super excited. Though I had never written a Miraculous Ladybug AU so I was feeling pretty nervous.

My very first notes when I got the idea.

Then it became a matter of just fleshing out the detail. I knew I wanted to try something a little bit different. It kinda always drove me a little crazy in stories like this where Marinette would just instantly fall for the supernatural Chat Noir, despite how borderline abusive his behaviour could be sometimes. How she would just always seem to immediately accept what was going on and not freak out. "Oh a demon is being way overprotective, controlling and wants my soul? Who cares?! He's HOT! Take me now!" Yeah, nah, that ain't for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really criticising those fics. I read them too, they're a guilty pleasure of mine. I just always find that reaction weird. It was just a trope that kinda irked me slightly. I like my realistic reactions and delving into how situations would properly affect someone. It made me think how Marinette might actually react in that situation. She let's herself freak out too much, but she's also a very strong willed person, and I just couldn't see her instantly falling for Chat Noir and submitting to him, no matter how scared and defeated she felt.

However, I was faced with a huge problem. I knew very little about occult stuff. I know my fair share of mythology on demons, and of course I could always make some of that stuff up to add my own unique spin on things. But I did want to try and remain as accurate as possible regarding things to do with the occult, such as the Ouija board and the tarot cards.

Luckily, I have a lot of friends in dark places.

My boyfriend was one of them. When I'd write myself into a corner, he'd help me get out of it again with a few ideas I could incorporate. He had a few supernatural experiences he could bring to the table - he attracts all kinds of weird stuff. But there was also the problem in that I had no idea at all how to use a Ouija board. As a kid, my parents never allowed me anywhere near one. They had both took part in Ouija board sessions when they were younger and refused to go near one again. I turned to my mum for a bit of help on the scary game. Naturally, as soon as I mentioned the board game, her face paled and she went into the typical rant I was used to about how people should never mess around with those things. But I did get more information out of her about what had happened when she and her siblings had played with one. That provided me with some more inspiration. But who could forget our lord and saviour, the good old internet?

Okay, so I had my Ouija board session down. I think it should have been obvious that Juleka should have been the one to suggest it. Marinette's reactions to the situation were all inspired by myself and how I would think she would actually react. We all know from the show that Marinette hates anything spooky. But I also get the impression that she'd be a bit of a skeptic seen as she's quite a logical person. So I knew that would provide some interesting reactions. It would be easy to write because she would be so much like me in that situation. Even though I don't really believe in ghosts or demons, it doesn't mean I want to mess around with these things and potentially be proven wrong.

As we all know, Marinette was proven wrong.

My first, crappy doodle of the demon mark

It was while writing this story that I met my good friend, ChibiRinni. She had left reviews on my stories that actually brought me to tears. No joke, I was literally blubbering like a baby at 3am, wondering what I had done to deserve such kind, well thought out reviews. I'd been having a bad week and was in the middle of a nasty depression episode. Her review helped pull me out of the dark place I was in that week. I just had to thank her. After that, we just kept messaging and became firm friends. It turned out that she was fascinated by the occult and by ghosts and demons, so she kindly offered her help should I struggle with the themes of the story. She mentioned to me that she read tarot cards and that got me thinking. As some of you may already know, I love to foreshadow like crazy in my stories. That's when an evil smile crept on my face. The idea couldn't sound more perfect to me. The problem was, I had no idea how to read tarot cards or what a tarot card reading was like. Enter this fabulous friend, with all the tools and knowledge I needed. Problem solved. We set up a fake reading, role playing as the various characters with ChibiRinni practically writing the whole scene out for me. Her reading was beyond perfect despite the difficulties of me not being able to reveal spoilers to her. But this amazing woman is truly magical. Everything she said was so spot on and perfect. It has me doubting my skepticism over tarot cards. But we had our scene that would help set the story in motion. 

The last obstacle I often face when planning out a story, is coming up with a title. I am terrible at coming up with titles for my stories. I always leave it until last. I spent hours jotting down potential names for the story, growing increasingly frustrated with myself like I always do. While looking back at my notes before I started writing this blog entry, I noticed that I had originally planned on calling this story Equilibrium. Now doesn't that just nicely role off the tongue? I'm cringing just looking back at my stupid ideas.

But then it hit me. Immortal Bond. The title is actually a play-on-words, I'm not sure if anybody has noticed that yet. It stands for the immortality of demons, the eternal friendship and love/bond between Chat Noir and Ladybug as well as the fact that Marinette is now trapped in an immortal bond, as bond can be another word for 'deal'. Is it sad that I was actually quite proud of myself when I came up with this title?

When I had all of my ideas down, I just knew that I had to publish it. I couldn't believe it when I saw the amazing reception it got. Considering it was my first Miraculous Ladybug AU, I was pretty shocked. I'm still shocked to this day. You guys make writing stories worth it. I'm so excited for you guys to see what I have in store, but I'm also scared because I know there are some parts where you'll probably want to kill me.

Thank you so much to everyone who has read the story so far, and an even extra big thank you to those who have left reviews. It's what helps me keep writing.

You can read the story here, and you can click here to access my fanfiction.net profile.

Pixie out.