#ml spite

Sounds less like salt and more like Spite.

Imagine, if you would, a slightly different scenario in our usual “High Road” plot. Instead of turning Lila’s lies against Lila, Marinette uses Lila’s lies against the classmates themselves.

Realistically speaking, in these fics, the class has already made it a matter of sides and have already made it clear just whom they’re going to side with. The fact that Lila has no proof of anything whereas Marinette at least has two potential witnesses to the truth (Adrien and Ladybug) doesn’t seem to matter. That means the classmates are actively choosing to trust the new girl over their “Everyday Ladybug”. And if they are putting their trust in someone they don’t know that well vs someone they do, whom they KNOW is a good person whom has helped them before, that means it’s because they WANT to trust Lila more. It seems that choice is primarily based on this belief regarding what Lila can do for them rather than a matter of whom is actually trustworthy.

Under these circumstances, trying to reveal Lila will only backfire. Lila can just pull out the crocodile tears and claim she “only wanted to make friends”, and you know the class will eat it up because a positive impression of someone can’t be broken that easily when people REALLY want to believe the best of the person involved.

To beat Lila, Marinette realizes she can’t just disprove Lila’s claims or even let Lila accidentally out herself. That won’t be enough to get the class our from under her thrall.

No. What she has to do is make Lila’s lies unappealing.

Cue Pettynette’s version of the “High Road”.

“But wait!” I can hear you say. “Hasn't that been done?”

Not like this.

In the other versions, Marinette, even when being petty, kept her focus on Lila and twisting her lies against her.

In this case, Marinette is twisting Lila’s lies against everyone else.

Its six am here and I just got to work. And am now writing a drabble at my desk. Again tweaked prompt a bit. Oh and I just realized that based on this and my last few “drabble” that are long that some picture books… I don’t know what a drabble. Or least I know it doesn’t apply to what I usually write.

No one would who or what had caused the akuma this time. However, when a thirteen-year-old superfan of Ladybug got Akumatized, everyone knew it.

A loud voice boomed in the ears of all the citizens in Paris, “Beware Paris, I am the Gardener, protector of the Loveliness. Those who have failed our Queen Ladybug will be revealed. A number you shall be given on a scale to 100; the higher the number, the more trust the Queen has in you. Low numbers have failed our Queen, betrayed our queen, betrayed the loveliness, and will be punished!”

“Loveliness,” Adrien asked, already preparing to make a break for it to transform.

           Unaware that Marinette decided to wait for a bit. Some lessons needed to be learned the hard way.  All the kids were at lunch and seemed to be enjoying the day until the alert happened.

           Max pushed his glasses up, “A group of ladybugs is called a ‘loveliness of ladybugs.’. Gardeners love Ladybugs because Ladybugs protect their gardens.”

“Cool!” Kim grinned. “We get to see how much Ladybug digs us.”

           Alya preened, “I’m at least a 90.” She pulled out her phone. “I’m so going to live stream this.”

“I think I’m like an 80, dude,” Nino smirked.

           All the kids gave their guess; most figuring they were at least in the 70s. It was Alya who joked, that Marinette probably had a ten.

           The others agreed; thinking the girl had been such a bully lately, and so mean to Lila.

           Marinette overheard them from where she, Chloe, Kagami and their new friends sat. A smirked spread across her face. This would be good.

           A blindingly flash filled the cafeteria. When it was gone, all the kids had numbers above their heads.

           One by one the excited grins on the students of Bustier’s class faded.

“A two,” Alya paled. “How can I be a two?” A dark ugly red 2 floated above her head. She touched the number and words appeared next to it: Warning: Disloyal. False friend. Bully. Anger control problems. Easily swayed. Bad journalist… etc.

           Nino frowned, “I got a four.” How could he have a four? He was carapace. Ladybug had chosen him herself. Or at least she had. He hadn’t gone Super in over a year. Was that when Ladybug lost her trust in him?

           He touched the number. His warning said: bad friend. Disloyal. Bully. He touched it again before he could read any more.

           Kim had a five. Alix had a three. Mylene had a seven. Rose and Juleka had 10s. Ivan had an eight. Nathanial had an eleven. Max had a six.  All were in the red. All had similar warning signs.

           Adrien had frozen in his seat when he saw his number. A 14. How could he be a 14? Why did Ladybug barely trust him? They were partners, friends, maybe more one day. But how could they be any of that she didn’t trust him.

           He touched his number. His warning sign read: Naïve, Spineless, pushy, Bad friend, and, in bold letter, COWARD.

“We should go,” Max whispered. “People are staring.”

           And sure enough they were. Most of the student body had numbers in the 30s or 40s, it was respectable seeing as they barely dealt with the hero. However, this meant it was easy to find the kids who ranked so much lower.

           Slowly suspicious eyes fell on Bustier’s class. What had they done, most wondered. Whatever, it was they knew it was bad. Somehow the students of Bustier’s class had hurt Ladybug. And as far as the rest of the school was concerned, and those watching from Alya’s livestream, if Ladybug couldn’t trust them, they couldn’t either.

           Marinette watched with cold eyes as her classmates and ex-friends scrambled to rush out of the cafeteria. Still she kept a smile on her face as one by one student came up to thank her for whatever she had done for Ladybug; for being such a good friend to the hero.

           A glowing, bright beautiful emerald green 92 floated above her. It was the highest number anyone had seen so far. Her words attached were less of a warning and more of brag: Loyal, Honest, Good. Trustworthy. Caring. A great friend. Hardworker. Heroic. Brave. Then her warning was: A bit too insecure but working on it.

           Aurore beamed at her friend, livestreaming from her own phone to her new Bugout. She had a neon green 70 above her head. Her words: Honest, Hardworker, loyal, good friend, amazing journalist. “Everyone post a pic of themselves with the number above their heads; it’s blowing up Twitter.”

           Chloe gave everyone smug grins, as she had the second 86 above hers. Her words: Brave, strong, loyal, good. A great hero. A great friend.

Kagami had a 72. Her words: loyal, confident, headstrong, good, good friend.  Marc a 67. Ondine a 66. Claude a 71. They all had similar ones to Kagami.

“You’re in Bustier’s class, right, Marinette?” A girl who had come to thank Marinette had asked. Her question drew attention from everyone. “Are you going to be safe there? With them?”

           Claude frowned, “Maybe you shouldn’t go back there.”

           It took a lot of reassurance to get her friends and even quite a few of the other students who had been in the cafeteria to allow her to go back to her class. Even then, Marinette found Ms. Mendeleiev, who had a solid forest green 71 above her head and had a bit more pep in her step that usual, escorting her and Chloe to class.

           Students in the hall moved out of Marinette way as soon as they saw her coming, a look of awe on their faces. The bluenette couldn’t find the pink blush that crept on to her face.

           They knew they had gotten to Bustier’s class when they saw the red glow emerging from the room

           Alya couldn’t believe it. How couldn’t Ladybug trust her? She was Rena Rouge. Or least she had been. There had been a new Fox running around with Ladybug, lately. Rena hadn’t been seen in over a year. Still, Alya ran the Ladyblog. Alya thought they were friends. But how could that be true with a 2 above her head. And she wasn’t a bully or disloyal.

           The rest of the class had a similar mindset. Even Bustier, who had a three, had a sorrowful look on her face. She didn’t understand what she had done wrong.

           When green glows entered the room, they all noticed. Mouths dropped.

           Ms. Mendeleiev with a 71, they could understand. She was a great teacher, no one could deny it. The beautiful blond Chloe they could sort of understand. She had an 86; maybe she had done more good as Queen Bee than they knew about. Marinette though? Their minds just couldn’t compute.

           How could Marinette have a 92?

           They read the words attached to her and Chloe’s numbers with disbelief.

           Said girl thanked Mendeleiev who had taken to blatantly staring at Bustier with distrust. It occurred to Mendeleiev, that the younger teacher did have an absurdly high number of Akuma transformation from her students. When Mendeleiev and told everyone what she had seen and realized; most of the other faculty would begin to keep a close eye on Bustier and her class. Something just wasn’t right with that lot.

           Marinette and Chloe made their way to the seats in back. The green above their heads looked a halo.

           Alya wanted to scream. “Why does Ladybug trust you?” She asked the girls.

“She’s Queen Bee,” Marinette pointed at Chloe. “A loyal ally of Ladybug.”

           Chloe smirked, “Don’t you remember that it was Marinette who first got you that interview with Ladybug; the reason your blog became as popular as it did?” She asked reporter. “Marinette’s Ladybug’s friend.”

           Any scathing thing the students had been thinking to sneer at the girls died on their lips. Marinette was Ladybug’s friend. They knew Marinette knew the hero but never thought about how close they were.

“Why do think Ladybug stopped giving you interviews?” Chloe leaned back in her seat. A euphoric feeling filling her. “She only started working with you in the first place because she knew you were Marinette’s bestie. Once that changed, well… Ladybug just didn’t want to work with you anymore. Something about Journalistic Professionalism. How is your website doing by the way? I haven’t checked in a while. I normally use Aurore’s Bugout blog. Ladybug endorses it, you know?”

           Marinette could have kissed the blond. The devastation on Alya’s face was finally karma for all the nasty texts she had sent to Marinette before she change her number.

           Nino pulled his girlfriend into a hug.

“She read those texts you sent me by the way.” Marinette sent them a cold smirk as horrified looks overcame their faces. “Every last one. She was so disappointed.”

“You showed her?” Rose whispered. “How could you show her?”

“Why not?” Marinette shrugged. Rose hadn’t sent as many mean texts as the others in class and weren’t all that mean; just accusatory and claiming that she refused to be friends with a Bully. “I trust her. She trusts me. I even sent her videos of what a day in our class has been like lately. Ladybug got to see and hear everything personally. She has so many concerns about the goings on in this. She’ll be going to the school board with the videos.”

           Bustier paled. She knew the students had gotten a bit out of hand but surely they weren’t that bad. They were just kids after all. (The teacher would get her answer a week later, along with a pink slip.)

           Alya sobbed as she remembered everything she sent Marinette. How could she know Ladybug would read them? No wonder Alya got a 2. Ladybug probably hated her. “I only sent that because you were being such a bully.”

“Yeah,” Alix hissed. “It’s not fair. You were being such a freak about Lila!” There were nods.

           And as the old saying goes, speak of the devil, and the devil…

           Lila had taken her sweet time getting to school that day. She had lied to her mother that it was closed for the morning because an Akuma. And it was just her luck that one would appear. She had stayed in bed all day, earphones blasting music in her ear, wondering just how she’ll amazing her classmates that day. It felt great to be adored.

           When Lila got up to leave for school, she looked in the mirror and saw a dark, blood red glowing Negative 51 above her head. She shrugged and left her apartment. Earphones still in her ears. A happy smile on her face.

           She didn’t notice the shocked and disgusted looks on people’s faces as she passed them. Or why a mother picked up her a child and ran in the other direction. Lila didn’t see the brave man who reached out, with shaky hands, and touched her number as she passed by. Nor she see the People taking pictures of her and her warning signs. The photos went viral almost instantly, everyone wanted to know just who was the girl with the only negative number in all of Paris… As far they knew.

           When Gabriel Agreste saw Lila’s image on the web, he ordered Nathalie to sever all connections to the teen girl and release a statement making it clear the company had no idea just what Lila Rossi had been capable of. Afterwards, Gabriel wondered what Lila had done to earn such a dramatically low number.

           Gabriel himself was at a respectable and average 30. While Nathalie was at solid 34. Decent not too green numbers. Though as Hawkmoth, they were both an Ugly negative -2. He knew he was a Supervillian; Ladybug regarded him as a bad guy. But she seemed to regard Lila Rossi as pure evil.

           …Maybe Hawkmoth should sever his connection to the Italian girl as well.

           Lila arrived at school, just at the end of lunch, students had just started to leave the cafeteria for lunch. She didn’t notice that students stopped in their tracks to stare at her. Or the teachers with horrifying and calculating looks on their faces. She didn’t seem Damocles’ pale and rush off to call her mother.

           She didn’t notice anything. Lila just smiled pleasantly; having decided to go with a Prince Ali story that day. Maybe that he asked her to marry him. She’d be the envy of all the girls in class.

           However, when Lila got to the class she did notice the shocked looks she got from her classmates. But not the cold smirk on Marinette’s face.

“What?” Lila asked looking around. “Did something happened? Oh, no is the Akuma still around? How awful!”  She said fighting the smile off her face. Hopefully Ladybug was getting her ass kicked, she thought.

           Alya dropped her phone. Negative? How could Lila be negative? How could she have such a low negative number at that?

           Everyone in class read the giant warning label attached to Lila Rossi’s number: Liar, backstabber, nasty, bully, untrustworthy, manipulative, rotten, villain, horrible person; the list went on and on. However, it was that shook them to their cores: Evil. Not bad. Not awful. Evil.

           Alya collapsed against her boyfriend, “No. No. I didn’t know. I swear.”

“Shh, it’s okay,” Nino comforted her. “None of us knew.” There were nods from the other students.

           Marinette and Chloe looked at them with narrowed eyes because: What the hell.

“Except I told you she was a liar,” Marinette glared at them. “You didn’t listen. You turned against me… for her.”

“You turned against Marinette,” Chloe said slowly. “The girl who did everything for you. And for what? A few glittery stories and false promises?”

           Adrien closed his eyes. Was this why Ladybug distrusted him? Because he didn’t side with Marinette like he knew he should’ve. Plagg had warned him he was wrong. But he just didn’t want to risk losing all his friends like Marinette seemed to be losing hers.

Marinette looked at Rose, “Now I want you think again about every text you all sent me because of Lila Rossi.” Once again the students turned pale. They had been so mean, so harsh, so unbelievable cruel to the girl that had been so dear to their hearts. “Now I want you to remember again that Ladybug saw them.”

           Rose was the first to break out in tears. “I’m-I’m sorry!” She sobbed and struggled to find her words. She had disowned one of her closest friends for a villain. “I’m so sorry!”

           Other students were in the same boat she was. The fiery Alix was had been contemplating going on another tirade against Marinette when Lila walked in, felt her anger be snuffed out a like a campfire in a thunderstorm. The pink haired girl remembered helping lead the charge in showing Marinette what it was like to be bullied; tripping her, ripping of her homework, shoving her. What she done? Kim had been crushing on Lila hard felt crushed. Marinette had been since friend since pre-k, and he just… left her.

           Lila looked honestly confused. She had missed something, and it was big. “What’s going on?”

           Nino glared at the girl; his eyes red, tear streaks his face. “Those numbers tell the world how much Ladybug trusts you. Or how much she doesn’t,” He said darkly, thinking about his own number and his actions against the girl he once called his best friend. “And why.”

“The lower the number,” Adrien added. “The less she trust you.”

           Chloe leaned forward in her seat and sent vicious smirk to the Italian girl, “And guess who has the only negative number in Paris.” She teased. “Besides Hawkmoth, but at least he was smart enough to hide. You’re trending by the way.”

“No!” Lila said, looking around desperately, but all she saw was cold stares. “No!” She pulled out her phone, and sure enough the name Lila Rossi was trending. Her picture with the giant negative number above her head seem to be everywhere. “This can’t be happening! How can this be happening!”

           Marinette stood up, “Because you’re a bad person. You’re mean and you’re cruel. And worst yet, you dragged everyone down with you.” She said. Her voice was righteous or angry. It was like she was stating a fact from a history book. Marinette looked over every single one of her ex-friends, “Ladybug will never trust you again.”

           The bell rang.

ML Writers: Of course. Understood. You want to be the new guardian of the Miraculouses. But not in a few years after training and experience. No, right now.

Marinette: Huh?

ML Writers: Master Fu will be gone.

Marinette: Wait-

ML Writers: You won't have any way of contacting him and even if you did it wouldn't matter because he doesn't remember you or anything about the Miraculouses.

Marinette:

Lol. See what i did there?

<- PT 8

Tags: @7-sage-7 @kris-pines04 @crazylittlemunchkin @shreky-boi

@kanamexzeroyaoifangirl @ravennightingaleandavatempus @kuroko26

@bamagirl513 @lunar-wolf-warrior @aegyobutpsycho2 @goggles-mcgee

@thesunanditsangel @salsyy301 @nanakeid @shadowberrybinch @corabeth11 @reyna-avila-ramirez-alreanaldo @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog

@bee-wrecker @spinatelle @uwuteamleader @ur-beautiful-when-u-smile @animalgirl05

The plan was to find the layer and run Gabriel out (as hawkmoth) into the public and unmask him there.

Or

Use the cameras in the mansion, get him to transform, and post the reveal.

The more they investigate, the more they realise how much of an idiot Gabriel is.

They realise he basically made his villain persona his brand. Like. Honestly dude!?

So they go with the first option

Anyways

They ask Nino(or anyone) to try to feel a negative emotion so hawkmoth can transform and they can hide in the lair

Gabe transforms, but suddenly doesn't feel the negative emotions anymore. All of a sudden he is whacked through the glass of his lair. Due to marinette with the OX miraculous (i have a strange obsession with my idea of the Ox miraculous). She has a Harley Quinn size hammer

They're out in the street fighting. Stuff happens. Gab looses and he's revealed in public.

Pics and videos are EVERYWHERE in the media

Headlines with "PARIS' BIGGEST FASHION DESIGNER REVEALED TO BE TERRORIST"

Gabriel is arrested. And he has a live interrogation where everyone in paris can see. (Im pretty sure your not allowed to do that. But IDC)

He tries to lie, and say he was framed or forced and that he didn't want to do this. But he's hooked up to a lie detector machine, and eventually gives up

He owns up to doing it, why he's doing it, gives up his lair

The biggest thing was who he was working with and the media goes wild again

News organizations are going wild on how they got two big news in one day

Headlines with "MODEL LILA ROSSI: ACCOMPLICE TO HAWKMOTH" and "MAYURA: GABRIEL AGRESTE ASSISTANT KNOWN TERRORIST"

(Before anyone asks about Chloé, Miracle Queen never happened)

Natalie is turns herself in and is live interrogated, but not as many people report on it cause she says the same as Gabe did

Lila tries to get out of paris, the the police is already there at the airport to get her. She's arrested and brought in for interrogation

She also tries to lie, but is hooked up to the machine and gives up

She owns up to everything. Why she helped, when she started, how much she helped

SHE TELLS THE TRUTH ABOUT MARINETTE AND THE PEOPLE OF PARIS FEEL LIKE IDIOTS

THE MEDIA GOES WILD

Mari's name is cleared and everyone wants to find the little girl they talked so bad about for so long

People end up finding the new Dupain-Cheng bakery and apologize Soooo much

Everyone who still hung out with Lila felt Extremely betrayed and felt like fools for believing her for so long. They felt so terrible for thinking of Mari in that light

The three are jailed for life

Two months later, the designer of DCD is revealed to be a The fiance of Felix Culpa: MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG

MEDIA GOES WILD AGAIN!

A month after that Nino sends out invitations for a reunion...

~~~~~~

ONE MORE Y'ALL

Its gonna be written as a one shot. It will include spiteful Marinette (this entire au is spite and salt so..)

Better Lies

It started a couple of months when I had finally gotten Marinette to leave this class and Adrien alone. These sheep were hanging off my every word, they were turning into servents instead of classmates. I sadly never got Adrien attention since he still was waiting for me to come clean...ha as if I would ever do that, it was all great until one Monday…

“This is our new transfer student from America, I hope you all make her feel welcome” stated Miss Bustier,“My name is Amy Rivers, it’s nice to meet you all,” said the girl, I decided to be the first one to introduce myself as the class president should,“It’s nice to meet you, Amy, my name is Lila Rossi and I’m the class president, if you need any help, please come to me for help” I replied,“Of course” replied the girl her eyes turn cold and calculated for a split second before returning to eyes filled with kindness.The next few days were normal, Amy was a doormat and not someone to worry about even if she gave off a different impression when I had introduced myself. Amy surprisingly had a lot of connections with pop stars and actors in America which was nice and of course, the perfect opportunity to get free things and the girl did it happily. Until one day Amy had given me concert tickets which I planned to give the class with the lie that concert runners had given it to her as a gift, I already knew that Amy didn’t have the guts to argue with her but when she walked into the class, me sheep were surrounding Amy as she sobbed.

“Uncle John gave me the tickets as a birthday gift and I was going to give them to you guys but they went missing at lunch” Amy sobbed,“Do you have any idea on where they may be?” asked Alya while Rose and the rest of the girl squad hugged her in comfort,“they were in my bag which I had with me at all time which I didn’t open at all” responded Amy. Oh hell, no was this brat going to frame me like this with something so simple,“Are these yours, Amy, I found them in the corridor?” I said with a look of fake concern on my face,“Yes, thank you so much” exclaimed Amy,“Wow, Lila you’re a lifesaver” stated Nino, “those are tickets are something people will die for”.

As Amy came over to get them back, she had the most spiteful look on her face hidden from the clueless class as she practically ripped the tickets from my hands. The next few days, I was on watch to try and figure out her next move but everything went back to normal until three weeks later which is when Amy ramped up her plans by eleven as day after day she started to accuse someone stole stuff from her only to be found by me or found in my bag, it was getting increasingly hard to lie my way out of it especially when she kept winning the class by giving them free gifts, she had turned them against me so much that they started treating me like they had with Marinette.

It all boiled over when I got called into the headmaster’s office, there waiting was Amy and my mother. “Mum, what are you doing here?” I asked panicking a little,“I’m here because imagine my shock when my own daughter was being accused of stealing and intentionally bullying other students which went so far as to make her transfer out” responded my mum as my blood ran cold,“I never-” I was cut off by Mr Damocles,“That is enough we have video evidence which includes security footage” the man stated clearly regretting himself for falling for my lies,“It’s not my fault that you lot were to gullible to fall for my lies” I snapped,“Lila, that is enough” retorted my mother glaring at me so hard I thought I would set on fire,“You are going to apologise along with Amy for the lies you both have told but whereas Amy will be doing detention for a month, you are hereby expelled” the man stated giving no room for argument as we were both sent to class.

The class are been angry but no one was angrier than Alya who had tried to attack me with Nino and Adrien, who looked at me with pity, holding her back as she shouted profanities. As mother was finishing with the principle, Amy joined me as she had forgotten her bag in the office. “Why did you do all this with your skills we could have ruled this school?” I asked glaring at the girl,“Because I only used those skills for good” Amy responded making me gag,“Good, you got yourself in trouble for no reason when you could have just given you evidence without lying” I snapped,“True true” Amy muttered before looking straight in the eye, “I lied so you would know what it is like to not be believed, to be the victim for once in your pathetic life”.

Amy had said that with so much hatred in her voice and eyes, it made me step back in surprise, “I get revenge for my love ones like both my parents taught me too” she continued,“Loved ones,” I asked confused, “I’ve never hurt your family before”,“You did, my cousin, in fact, Marinette” she answered as shock washed over me, “unlike her and her parents who are known for their kind, my part of the family is well known for our sympathetic nature and trust me when I tell you that I wanted payback for what you did to her” she sneered before skipping back to class, leaving me there stewing in anger with no purple butterfly insight.

Notes:  Here's my first oneshot of the year.  My sleep schedule when to shit towards the end of the year so my writing hadn't been the best it could be but I hope that by getting it back on track, I can make better-written chapters.

Hello! I’m back! We introduce a few classmates and how Alice deals with them, and also Alice witnesses Bustier’s 1st class teaching! (I’ll sweep up any salt I spill at the end of Origins Part 2, I planned to do it at the end of each episode salt is involved but the 2 parters make it a bit difficult, sorry is that bothers you!) Hope you enjoy!

Walking into class I notice a red-haired woman, prim and proper in appearance, call on a student. “Nino, why don’t you have a seat in the front row this year?” The boy wearing a cap and glasses, who was sitting in the back row rolled his eyes and gathered his belongings, adjusting his headphones to rest around his neck as he walked down to the front row or desks. I then looked back to the teacher, who I presumed was Miss Bustier, and was about to tell the girl who brought me to the class, ‘thank you, I need to talk to the teacher’ however that was rudely interrupted by a blond girl who wore a scowl when she saw the navy-haired approach a seat on the second row.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” The blond sneered. So that’s her name, my bad for not asking, but what’s this chick’s problem with Marinette? Marinette just grimaced when she heard the other girl.

“Ugh… Here we go again.”