A Picnic in a Certain Park
Lila fakes surprise at her classmates holding a picnic for her — one in the park right next to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. A grand celebration of her latest charity drive, collecting clothing to help those less fortunate find nice outfits for themselves...
...Or so she claimed. In reality, this Fake Charity was nothing more than her latest scam. And she planted the seeds for this 'surprise' as well, having claimed on her social media that she was meeting a fashion mogul that day, enticing her friends into setting this up in hopes that they might just happen to get a glimpse of that famous celebrity. Maybe even start making some connections of their own.
They also brought their own donations, bringing their nicest outfits — mostly clothes Marinette made for them. Lila's sincerely surprised by this, questioning whether it's really alright for them to do this... after all, won't Marinette be hurt when she finds out?
...Well, yes. As they swiftly discover when Marinette comes across the scene. Though it's just twisting the knife, really, given how she'd been waiting for them to show up to the party she was throwing for Lila as a way of trying to smooth things over. But even though they'd all known about it — that she'd been planning it all week, sending them invitations and everything — not a single one of her classmates bothered to show up, or let her know about the picnic they were planning right in front of her home.
A little 'accidental' slip from Lila ensures that she sees how they've donated all of her hard work to the Con Artist's latest cause. Rather than blowing up or dissolving into tears, Marinette forces herself into a Tranquil Fury, drawing Adrien aside to have a quick word with him.
Naturally, Lila follows, spying on their private conversation. Though Marinette pleads with Adrien, asking him how he can just stand by and let her do this, Adrien dismisses all her concerns. It's not like she's hurting anyone or anything with her lies, after all... and anyway, they're just clothes. She can always make more, right?
Hurt beyond belief, Marinette retreats, canceling her party. The last thing she wants is to deal with any of her so-called 'friends' right now. Sobbing into her pillow, she grimly informs Tikki that at this rate, it's really only a matter of time before Hawkmoth wins. Since contrary to Tikki's advice, she can't keep swallowing her emotions forever. Sooner or later, all the pain's going to boil over, and once she gets akumatized... game over.
Desperate, Tikki entreats her to find a confidant, suggesting several candidates, only for Marinette to shoot down each one. Alya won't work; nor will Nino, or Kim, or any of her classmates... and Chat Noir's even less of an option, given his utter lack of care for her wishes. However, she does realize that there's one person she still trusts, and she heads out post-haste.
Meanwhile, Plagg entreats Adrien to reconsider. Marinette and all of his other friends are suffering, and yet he still refuses to do anything about the one responsible. But Adrien continues downplaying everything she's done, insisting that it's not that bad. Once she eventually gets exposed — which will surely happen without him having to do anything about it — everything will go right back to normal. Then she'll be able to be real friends with everyone, because honestly, why wouldn't they forgive her right away? It's not like she's done anything seriously wrong...
This chapter contains examples of:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Marinette seriously contemplates giving up the Earrings, as she feels it's only a matter of time before she cracks under the pressure and gets akumatized. Tikki manages to talk her into talking it out with somebody she trusts instead.
- 419 Scam: Adrien defends Lila by pointing out how she hasn't attempted this sort of scam, namedropping the concept of a Nigerian prince... while missing the little detail of how she's used her 'celebrity connections' in much the same fashion. Such as presenting her latest scam as a fashion drive headed by a famous Italian mogul.
- Accomplice by Inaction: By standing aside and staying silent, Adrien allows Lila to bilk his classmates out of all their generous donations, including all the clothes Marinette made for them.
- All Take and No Give: It's made clear how much Marinette's classmates take her generosity for granted when they thoughtlessly donate the clothes she made for them and blow off her party to throw one of their own, without inviting her. Kim even assumes that she's going to have "those banana cinnamon buns" that he likes ready for him.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Sadly Subverted with this exchange, as Adrien glosses over Marinette's point-blank statement of her pain to insist that she's fine, actually:Adrien: So what's the harm in overlooking a few lies to keep everyone happy and friendly?
Marinette: Because I hurt, and I'm not happy.
Adrien: (shakes head dismissively) You're our everyday Ladybug. I know you're strong enough to handle her. - Armor-Piercing Question: When Tikki starts up her usual lecture about how Marinette can't let her emotions get the best of her, Marinette glumly summarizes her talking points, then asks "You know Hawkmoth's going to win, right?" This, along with her Despair Speech, impresses upon Tikki that she's not helping her holder by reciting empty platitudes and insisting she needs to be stronger.
- Because You Can Cope: This is Adrien's justification for letting Marinette twist in the wind: that she's strong enough to deal with Lila's constant cruelties, so he doesn't need to do anything to help her.
- Broken Pedestal: Adrien's blithe dismissal of her pain and empty reassurance that she'll be fine because she's their 'everyday Ladybug' gets Marinette to really look at him, realizing that she's been Loving a Shadow this whole time.
- The Charmer: Adrien clearly sees himself as this, as he expects to be able to smooth things over with Marinette with a smile and empty words. When that doesn't work as Adrien, he considers paying her a visit as Chat Noir to try again.
- Distinction Without a Difference: Alya protests that they haven't been excluding Marinette. They just haven't been inviting her to anything since she 'can't get along with Lila'.
- Downer Beginning: Lila's latest scheme works out even better than she could have hoped, as Marinette's friends willingly ditch a party their 'everyday Ladybug' was throwing for her in order to surprise her with their own picnic, and donate all the clothes Marinette made for them. She then gets to listen in as Adrien tells Marinette not to make such a big deal out of her scamming everyone, since it's not like her handiwork was worth anything, being 'just clothes'.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: When Marinette tells him point-blank that she's been hurt by Lila, Adrien just offers her a 'dazzling smile' and insists she's strong enough to deal with it.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Invoked; Adrien hopes that he'll dream about the future where Lila's been exposed and forgiven, and everybody has become True Companions.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Lila herself notes how disrespectful it is for the others to treat Marinette's hard work so frivolously.
- Easily Forgiven: Adrien assumes that once Lila's crimes are finally exposed, the others will forgive her quickly. Even Marinette.
- Entitled Bastard: Marinette's classmates presume that they're just fortunate enough to have opportunities fall in their lap, ignoring how hard she works to help them. Adrien encourages this entitlement by 'reassuring' Marinette that everything she made for them is easily replaceable.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- The very first line shows Lila's thought process as she narrates her tearfully 'surprised' reaction to the others surprising her with a picnic.
- Adrien gets two of these; the first comes when Lila notices him standing off to the side at the "surprise party" and goes over to greet him. He bluntly (but quietly) asks her if the fashion mogul is fake, then remarks that she shouldn't lie, but readily accepts her claiming that she just wants to make friends, reassuring her that he won't do anything to expose her.
- Marinette reveals that she was giving in to her friends' peer pressure to 'just be nice' to Lila, even going so far as to throw a party for the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing at their teacher's urging, only for her efforts to go completely neglected.
- Adrien's second moment comes when he casually dismisses Marinette's hurt feelings, attempting to smooth things over with a smile even while telling her that everything she made for her friends is innately replaceable and not worth getting upset about.
- "Eureka!" Moment: While shooting down all of Tikki's suggestions for potential confidants, listing off all the reasons why she can't trust Chat Noir in particular, Marinette abruptly realizes that there's still somebody she does trust enough to talk to about her problems, and heads out to see them.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Lila is legitimately surprised that her classmates willingly donated everything Marinette made for them to her drive, noting that they really don't appreciate how hard she worked for them. Not that she cares one whit about sparing Marinette's feelings; she’s just surprised at the extent of their disregard.
- Played With when Adrien lists off all the things Lila isn't doing, ignoring that she's still scamming his classmates in much the same vein as the type of scams he's talking about.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Once she moves close enough, Lila is able to overhear all of Marinette and Adrien's conversation without being noticed.
- Fake Charity: Lila's fashion drive is nothing more than a pretense for her to take all the clothes they donated, pick out the best pieces for herself and dump the rest into a donation box in another city.
- False Friend: Both Lila and Adrien are quickly established as such, with Lila cheerfully scamming her friends while Adrien stands by and lets it happen.
- Foil:
- Lila and Adrien are shown to use strikingly similar tactics here; both smile and act charming for their classmates, while also acting ignorant about Marinette's pain. Lila is intentionally inflicting it, while Adrien simply doesn't care about it.
- Tikki, like Adrien, starts out trying to tell Marinette how she should feel, and that she needs to maintain control of her emotions and not let Lila get to her. However, Marinette's Armor-Piercing Question actually breaks through Tikki's obstinacy and forces her to see what's right in front of her, while Adrien completely ignored her.
- Foreshadowing: Juleka looks mildly uneasy when Marinette notices the donated clothes, but doesn't say anything, while Rose chirpily explains about the charity drive.
- Hope Spot: To keep Nathaniel under her sway, Lila sends him a letter that's supposedly from Marvel Comics, claiming that he got past the first round of judging for the writing contest. In reality, nobody at Marvel has seen his submission, and she's stringing him along, planning to eventually claim that it must have been destroyed by a jealous executive.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Adrien tells Marinette that nobody's actually being hurt by Lila, then reassures her that she's strong enough to handle whatever the Manipulative Bitch throws her way, indirectly acknowledging that her lies are damaging... he just doesn't care because he's not the victim.
- Innocently Insensitive: On top of his Lack of Empathy over her being jerked around by her friends, Adrien 'comforts' Marinette by declaring that everything she made for them are "just clothes". She can easily make more, right?
- Jerkass Realization: Tikki is hit by one upon recognizing that her well-meaning advice has just increased the pressure on Marinette rather than actually doing anything to address her holder's problems.
- Lack of Empathy:
- Alya and the rest of Marinette's 'friends' dismiss her unhappiness over how they've been treating her as an overreaction.
- Adrien looks right into Marinette's anguished face and tells her point-blank that she's strong enough to deal with Lila's harassment, so there's no reason to do anything about it.
- When Plagg points out that not all of Adrien's classmates have access to the same kind of resources he does, he shrugs it off; that's not his problem.
- Missed the Recital: On Ms. Bustier's advice, Marinette decided to throw a party for Lila as a way of smoothing things over. Despite having advance notice, her whole class promptly skips out on it and holds a picnic for Lila instead... right outside the bakery where she lives.
- Open Secret: Despite supposedly keeping Marinette's crush on Adrien a secret, when she takes him aside, Alya jokes to the rest of the class that it's about time for her to confess already, to scattered laughter.
- Secretly Selfish: Lila privately notes that her classmates decided to throw this 'surprise' picnic out of the hopes that they'd catch her with one of her celebrity friends, waltzing right into the trap she'd baited for them.
- Shipper on Deck: Alya still supports the idea of Marinette and Adrien getting together, despite her estrangement from her 'bestie'... though she jokes about the concept with her classmates.
- Sidetracked by the Analogy: Plagg compares Adrien's inaction to knowing that a bunch of cheese is about to spoil and not letting anyone — like, say, an adorable kwami — eat it before it all goes to waste. Adrien just chuckles at how much he obsesses over his Trademark Favorite Food, letting the intended message sail right over his head.
- Skewed Priorities: Adrien considers keeping Lila happy to be more important than protecting his friends from getting scammed, or Marinette from being hurt.
- Take a Third Option: Rather than doing anything about Lila directly, Adrien muses that he might drop by Marinette's place as Chat Noir and 'lay on the charm' to distract her from her pain.
- Taking Advantage of Generosity: Marinette's classmates exploit her kindness to their own ends. They're also attempting to do the same with Lila and her 'connections', though Lila's using that to her advantage in order to scam them.
- Trauma Conga Line: Marinette is being pushed increasingly to the brink by the casual cruelty of Lila and her classmates, with Adrien providing no help or support whatsoever. Tikki only proves helpful once she's slapped in the face with how her insistence that Marinette needs to 'control her emotions better' is just making matters worse.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Marinette is being pressured to 'take the high road' with Lila by Adrien, Ms. Bustier, and her classmates. Tikki is also adding to this pressure by claiming she needs to focus on controlling her emotions, putting the burden on her to handle everything rather than addressing the actual problems at hand.
