History Fanfic / BurningBridgesBuildingConfidence

* MamaBear: As Alya, Lila, and Mrs. Bustier learn the hard way starting in Chapter 6, messing with Cole is not gonna go over well with her mother Adelaide, ''especially'' when Adelaide was a lawyer before becoming a CEO of her own company. [[spoiler: When Alya attacks Cole in Chapter 6, Adelaide gets it publically labeled as an ableist hate crime, and also sues the school for enabling it. She also sues Mrs. Bustier for her attempt to blame Cole for the attack and is aiming for her losing her job, and when Cole reveals that she collected evidence proving Lila is a ConsummateLiar, she ends up suing her, too]].

* CrimeOfSelfDefense: When Alya attacks Marinette and Cole with deliberitely-sharpened nails, Ms. Bustier immediately takes pity on Alya and blames Cole for the incident. She doesn't even bother to get medical attention for Cole [[spoiler:despite the fact that her eye socket sitiches got ripped out becuase of it]]. Fortunatly for Cole, everybody else, including the principal, immediately recognizes this blatant favoritism and Ms. Bustier finds herself in serious trouble. Not only does [[MamaBear Cole's mom]] utterly rip Ms. Bustier a new one for victim-blaming her daughter, [[spoiler:Damocles winds up putting her on forced leave as punishment and the school board is currently deciding whether or not to fire her because of her actions. Adelaide is also pressing charges against Bustier for child abuse/neglect]].

** Lila's love of EvilGloating only serves to create more evidence of her plotting and scheming, thanks to Cole making a point to record her threats and save them in her electronic cloud. So far, these recordings have helped Nino realize how badly Lila's been manipulating him and the others when he talks to Cole on Discord.

* MamaBear: When Alya attacks Cole, Bustier tries to blame Cole for defending herself. Not only does Adelaide outright ''ream'' Bustier for it, [[spoiler:she makes sure Bustier gets suspended from her job and is fully intending to sue her for child abuse/neglect]].
** Adelaide is pressing charges against Alya for the attack; she's also aiming for getting Alya busted for an ableist hate crime against her daughter since she kept claiming that Cole was faking having a missing eye.

** BullyingTheDisabled as excessively as Lila's goons are doing it not only leads to the complete and utter aversion of SchoolBullyingIsHarmless [[spoiler:but Cole's mother sues the school for enabling an ''ableist hate crime'' after Ayla tears up Cole's face. Ms. Bustier ends up with the risk of being fired from her job and Ayla gets put in the doghouse by her own family.]]

** BullyingTheDisabled as excessively as Lila's goons are doing it not only leads to the complete and utter aversion of SchoollBullyingIsHarmless [[spoiler:but Cole's mother sues the school for enabling an ''ableist hate crime'' after Ayla tears up Cole's face. Ms. Bustier ends up with the risk of being fired from her job and Ayla gets put in the doghouse by her own family.]]

* TheBrute: Kim gets the most physical in his efforts to 'defend Lila's honor' by confronting Cole, from trying to trip them to attempting to grab her while she's chatting with Marinette.

** Cole somehow lost her right eye sometime before moving to Paris. "A Night With Friends" reveals that [[spoiler: her abusive father attacked her with a hunting knife]].

** During a casual chat about how far the Ladyblog has degraded, Cole mentions three other blogs she prefers: ''The Heroine Report'', ''Spotlights-On'' and ''Miracu-Looking Glass'', noting that the last one is still too new for her to make a solid judgment about yet. In a later chapter, those three blogs have formed the Miracu-Media group, [[spoiler:and news outlets have started working with them, while also blacklisting the Ladyblog.]]

* MamaBear: When Alya attacks Cole, Bustier tries to blame Cole for defending herself. Not only does Adelaide outright ''ream'' Bustier for it, [[spoiler: she makes sure Bustier gets suspended from her job and is fully intending to sue her for child abuse/neglect]].

** Alya turning the Ladyblog into her personal platform to rage against Vexxin leads to her getting formally blacklisted by official news sites as a [[TabloidMelodrama trashy tabloid]]. Rather than being abandoned ''en masse'' by all her followers, she retains some loyalists, with Hawkmoth exploiting the drama to akumatize people on all sides of the debate.

** When the GirlPosse is brainstorming ways to deal with Lila's threats, Mireille suggests talking to the principal. Chloe dismisses him as a pushover who'd cave in the face of Lila's CrocodileTears. That said, even ''he'' is clearly disgusted by Bustier's blatant favoritism and [[spoiler:winds up suspending her for trying to punish Cole for defending herself from an attack that damaged her eye socket even further. The only reason why he doesn't outright fire her for this offense is that teacher employment lies in the power of school board, and they still have to review the case before they come to a decision]]. However, Adelaide views this as Damocles just attempting to save face when this incident forced him to realize he can’t turn a blind eye to what has been going on at his school anymore.

** Cole somehow lost her right eye sometime before moving to Paris.

* TabloidMelodrama: The Ladyblog descends into this as Alya gets increasingly worse about not checking facts and letting her bias show. After Vexxin's debut, she posts an article claiming that the Fox was ''stolen''.

* BullyingTheDisabled: Lila ends up claiming that Cole is faking her vision issues, which causes her followers to hate Cole. [[spoiler: After Alya's attack on Cole, Adelaide aims for getting it labled as an ableist hate crime because Alya uses her insistance that Cole's been faking her missing eye as a reason for the attack]].

* CaughtOnTape: Thanks to Marinette telling Cole about Lila, she audio-records every confrontation with Lila and also geotags pics of her and her friends whenever they're doing something fun together. For example, she takes a picture of herself, Chloe, and Marinette when they are eating lunch at a fancy cafe and geotags it, which proves to Principal Damocles that they did not threaten Lila in the girls' bathroom at the same time. So far, the collected evidence has been used to expose Lila's lies to Nino.

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Nino realizes this and laments as much regarding his plan to [[spoiler:break up with Alya]]. But it doesn't stop him from going through with it.

* YouAreGrounded: Following a violent confrontation, [[spoiler:Alya has been grounded by her parents, who also posted an announcement on the Ladyblog about it being put on hiatus... and why]]. This is noted to have caused several akumatizations as a result.

* ThisIsGoingToSuck: Nino realizes this and laments as much regarding his plan to [[spoiler:break up with Alya]]. He goes through with it anyway.

* TheScapegoat: While Cole's arrival ''does'' shake things up, she finds herself getting blamed for ''all'' the drama that starts unfolding in her new class after she transfers in. Not just by Lila and her followers, but by Ms. Bustier, who even goes so far to blame her entirely for Alya assaulting her and her cousin and neglecting to give her medical attention. [[spoiler: She winds up temporalily losing her job for it]].

* TeasingBehindTheLanguageBarrier: Cole and Aurore make fun of Lila by making mocking comments towards her in English, Spanish and German, aware that she can't understand them.

* MaliciousSlander: Lila does this to Marinette and Cole. Alya also aims towards Vexxin with this, attempting to paint her as a thief.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: While threatening Cole with the same fate as Marinette, Lila casually calls her a homophobic slur. She later thinks of her using the same term while alone in her room.

* SignificantWardrobeShift: ''On the Topic of Suits'' shows that Marinette is pondering one before the events of ''Burning Bridges, Building Confidence'', sketching out some designs to see what she likes most.

* AccompliceByInaction:
** Adrien knows that Lila's accusations are just MaliciousSlander, but opts to stand by and watch her turn the rest of the class against Marinette. Marinette's new friends are pissed when they found this out, especially when he's claims he's "taking the high road".
** Adelaide's thoughts in ''The Night After'' make clear that she sees Principal Damocles as one. While he ''does'' act after Alya assaulted her daughter, he's only doing so for fear of facing legal recourse, having allowed the situation to go on completely unaddressed until circumstances ensured he couldn't turn a blind eye anymore.

** When the GirlPosse is brainstorming ways to deal with Lila's threats, Mireille suggests talking to the principal. Chloe dismisses him as a pushover who'd cave in the face of Lila's CrocodileTears. That said, even ''he'' is clearly disgusted by Bustier's blatant favoritism and [[spoiler:winds up suspending her for trying to punish Cole for defending herself from an attack that damaged her eye socket even further. The only reason why he doesn't outright fire her for this offense is that teacher employment lies in the power of school board, and they still have to review the case before they come to a decision]].

** Adrien knows that Lila's accusations are just MaliciousSlander, but opts to stand by and watch her turn the rest of the class against Marinette.

** Ms. Bustier proves even worse. When Alya attacks Marinette trying to scratch her face with her specially sharpened nails and Cole intervenes, Bustier reacts with horror, only caring about the fact that she struck Alya while ignoring the fact that [[spoiler:Alya ripped some of Cole's stitches open]]. Unsurprisingly [[spoiler:she winds up getting suspended from her job for it]].

* CastFullOfGay: [[AdaptationalSexuality In-spite of their canon-counterparts' sexualities]], Marinette's circle of friends are all portrayed as queer, Cole, Chloe, Kagami, Aurore and Mirelle being lesbians and Marinette as pansexual.

* CrimeOfSelfDefense: When Alya attacks Marinette and Cole with deliberitely-sharpened nails, Ms. Bustier immediately takes pity on Alya and blames Cole for the incident. She doesn't even bother to get medical attention for Cole [[spoiler:despite the fact that her eye socket sitiches got ripped out becuase of it]]. It's immediately {{Deconstructed}} when everybody else immediately sees that Ms. Bustier is clearly showing favoritism. Not only does [[MamaBear Cole's mom]] utterly rip Ms. Bustier a new one for victim-blaming her daughter, [[spoiler:Damocles winds up putting her on forced leave as punishment and the school board is currently deciding whether or not to fire her because of her actions. Adelaide is also pressing charges against Bustier for child abuse/neglect]].

* HeroicBystander: During Nightify's attack, Cole leaps into action to help protect other civilians, like [[spoiler:Master Fu]].

* MamaBear: When Alya attacks Cole, Bustier tries to blame Cole for defending herself. Adelaide outright ''reams'' Bustier for it, makes sure she gets suspended from her job. and is fully intending to sue her for child abuse/neglect.
** Adelaide is also suing Alya for the attack, and is also aiming for getting her busted for a hate crime, since she kept claiming that Cole was faking her missing eye.

* CrimeOfSelfDefense: When Alya attacks Marinette and Cole with deliberitely-sharpened nails, Ms. Bustier immediately takes pity on Alya and blames Cole for the incident. She doesn't even bother to get medical attention for Cole [[spoiler:despite the fact that her eye socket sitiches got ripped out becuase of it]]. It's immediately {{Deconstructed}} when everybody else immediately sees that Ms. Bustier is clearly showing favoritism. Not only does [[MamaBear Cole's mom]] utterly rip Ms. Bustier a new one for victim-blaming her daughter, [[spoiler:Damocles winds up putting her on forced leave as punishment and the school board is currently deciding whether or not to fire her because of her actions]].

* MamaBear: When Alya attacks Cole, Bustier tries to blame Cole for defending herself. Adelaide outright ''reams'' Bustier for it and makes sure she gets suspended from her job.

* AccompliceByInaction: Adrien knows that Lila's accusations are just MaliciousSlander, but opts to stand by and watch her turn the rest of the class against Marinette.

** Chat's attempts to force Ladybug into a relationship with him directly lead to Vexxin becoming the new Fox, as [[spoiler:Master Fu heard him openly admit what he was doing without remorse]]. He immediately cops a condenscending attitude towards Ladybug, attempting to blame her for everything:

* {{Omniglot}}: Lila claims to be one. Cole and Aurore make fun of this by making mocking comments in English, Spanish and German.

** Ms. Bustier does this ''for'' Alya after said assault, fussing over the former and only giving her medical attention... and when called on this, replies that she was more concerned with the 'victim'. [[spoiler: Unsurprisingly, she got suspended from her job]].
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: While threatening Cole with the same fate as Marinette, Lila casually calls her a homophobic slur. She later thinks of her using the same term.

** When the GirlPosse is brainstorming ways to deal with Lila's threats, Mireille suggests talking to the principal. Chloe dismisses him as a pushover who'd cave in the face of Lila's CrocodileTears. That said, even ''he'' is clearly disgusted by Bustier's blatant favoritism and [[spoiler: winds up suspending her for trying to punish Cole for defending herself from an attack that damaged her eye socket even further. The only reason why he doesn't outright fire her for this offense is that teacher employment lies in the power of school board, and they still have to review the case before they come to a decision]].
** Ms. Bustier proves even worse. When Alya attacks Marinette trying to scratch her face with her specially sharpened nails and Cole intervenes, Bustier reacts with horror, only caring about the fact that she struck Alya while ignoring the fact that [[spoiler:Alya ripped some of Cole's stitches open]]. Unsurprisingly [[spoiler: she winds up getting suspended from her job for it]].

* CastFullOfGay: [[AdaptationalSexuality In-spite of their canon-counterpart's sexualities]], Marinette's circle of friends are all portrayed as queer, Cole, Chloe, Kagami, Aurore and Mirelle being lesbians and Marinette as pansexual.

* CrimeOfSelfDefense: When Alya attacks Marinette and Cole with deliberitely-sharpened nails, Ms. Bustier immediately takes pity on Alya and blames Cole for the incident. She doesn't even bother to get medical attention for Cole [[spoiler: despite the fact that her eye socket sitiches got ripped out becuase of it]]. It's immediately deconstructed when everybody else immediately sees that Ms. Bustier is clearly showing favoritism. Not only does [[MamaBear Cole's mom]] utterly rip Ms. Bustier a new one for victim-blaming her daughter, [[spoiler: Damocles winds up putting her on forced leave as punishment and the school board is currently deciding whether or not to fire her because of her actions]].

* ExactWords: Lila cherry-picks information from an article she found about [[spoiler: Cole Sullivan]]. Specifically, the article reveals that [[spoiler:'Sullivan' being found guilty of child abuse, assault with intent to kill, corruption and obstruction of justice]]. Lila makes it sound as though [[spoiler: Cole was the ''perpetrator'' instead of the ''victim'', telling Alya that Cole's picture is included with the article and feigning concern that she 'escaped custody']] in order to rile Alya up further.

** In Chapter 6, [[spoiler: Cole's Grandpa spots Trixx leave her backpack to help him get Cole through a panic attack. Cole's Grandpa reacting calmly to this indicates he knows about the miraculouses and about Cole being Vixxen]].

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Principal Damocles is clearly taken aback at how Ms. Bustier mishandled Alya's assault attempt. While he punishes both girls involved, Cole's punishment is ''much'' less severe than Alya's, and it's suggested that he only did so reluctantly. [[spoiler: He also suspended Ms. Bustier from her job as a teacher and notified the school board about the incident, with strong indications she's gonna lose her job]].

* {{Badass Gay}}: Cole is Vexxin and a lesbian. Marinette is, of course, Ladybug and a pansexual.