Mayura Mayhem
is an Alternate Universe Fic made by RockSunner, for Miraculous Ladybug. Part of the Smart Adversaries AU for Miraculous Ladybug on AO3, in which Ladybug villains make smarter decisions. The series has a tropes page here.
This is a six-chapter work and it is now complete.
This fanfiction series contains examples of:
- Alternate Universe Fic: A What If? with the change that Volpina casts an extra illusion to help Hawk Moth ambush Ladybug and Chat Noir from behind, leading to Chat Noir getting akumatized.
- Arch-Enemy: In Chapter 5, Lila has a day in class with Marinette as in "Chameleon" but is much more dangerous because she can escalate with Mayura's powers.
- Bittersweet Ending: Lila inadvertently tips off her identity as Mayura, but Marinette is framed as a bullying attention seeker. Adrien will become closer to Marinette because he wants to help her, but Marinette has lost all of her other friends. Lila suffers from actual tinnitus and a sprained wrist due to her abuse of the Peacock Miraculous.
- Cassandra Truth: Duusu tries to warn Lila of the danger of using a damaged Miraculous, but she cuts him off by invoking the transformation.
- Cliffhanger: Chapter 1 ends with Chat Noir akumatized, Ladybug alone against the villains, and Volpina having a realization that Hawk Moth does not intend to include her in his future.
- Demoted to Dragon: In Chapter 4, Gabriel is forced to acknowledge that Lila has all of the cards in their relationship and consent to taking orders from her for the time being.
- Dragon with an Agenda:
- Lila has different goals than Hawk Moth when she takes over as Mayura. Her fantasy is to "rule the world by his side," rather than his goal of getting his wife back.
- After Gabriel is Demoted to Dragon, he becomes this; he intends to give Lila enough rope to hang herself, either by getting her hide handed to her by the heroes or by overusing the damaged Peacock Miraculous.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Volpina makes an impulsive attack on Catalyst out of jealousy. It saves the day for Ladybug.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: Lila does this using herself as the fake hostage of her own snake monster in an attempt to get Ladybug's Miraculous. It fails when Ladybug uses ice water to slow down the creature and rescue (drenched) Lila.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Inverted. Volpina has a crush on Hawk Moth and is not happy to learn that his wish is to bring his wife back to life. Played straight for Catalyst.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Volpina loses her memory like a typical akuma victim, even though it happened in an unusual way. Because of this, Lila plays the rescue role as Mayura just as Nathalie did in the original, even though Volpina was responsible for getting Hawk Moth nearly defeated in the first place.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Lila summons a lamia as a fake akumatized Marinette and has it say that Lila's pretended disabilities of tinnitus and a sprained wrist are real. Thanks to the magic of the damaged Peacock Miraculous, it becomes true.
- Made Out to Be a Jerkass: Lila successfully makes Marinette look like a two-faced bitch by framing her for an akuma attack.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: It will kill Marinette's friendship life in this case. She secures her secret identity at the cost of losing her reputation as a good friend.
- Ontological Inertia: The extra villains and the damage from their attacks count as "akuma damage" that is not undone by simply breaking Catalyst's akumatized object. A Miraculous Ladybug charm, however, does the trick.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: This story explains why Volpina's costume was orange and white, not red like the others. It was a special akuma just for her that left her with more of a mind of her own. It turned out to be a mistake for Hawk Moth.
- Taking Up the Mantle: Lila gets to become Mayura, after defeating Nathalie.
- The Unmasking: Mayura's identity is exposed to Marinette when her attack fits too perfectly with Lila's goals. It is implied that Ladybug will force Lila to reveal what she knows about Hawk Moth, too.
