History Fanfic / MissingMiraculousLadybug

* AdaptationExpansion: All of the characters get aspects of this to expand on their personalities and explain their actions in canon. From [[spoiler:Adrien's "high road" speech to Marinette being in part due to trying to keep the peace and knowing out of all the parties involved that she would be the most inclined to actually listen to him to Max canonically going along with Lila's napkin claim because he knew it was made up but mistook the claim as her telling a joke.]]

* AscendedFridgeHorror: When Lila admits that she lied to the police and claimed that Marinette was in a relationship with an older man, [[spoiler: Kim points out that this would definitely lead to the cops concluding that Marinette had left as elopement and thus would lessen the police's urgency and willingness to put in resources to find her, almost ensuring that Marinette will remain missing]].

* BrutalHonesty: Ladybug is very forthright and to the point when she informs Alya and Nino that they've been misinformed regarding her supposed 'friendship' with Lila.

** PlayedForDrama; Realizing how much pain might have been avoided if they'd paid more attention to Marinette's concerns about Lila causes Alya, Nino and Adrien no small amount of guilt.

** PlayedWith when [[spoiler:Sabine agrees to be akumatized in exchange for Hawk Moth using the power of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculi to bring her daughter back]], as the narrative focuses on ''Hawk Moth'' feeling intimidated by the whole conversation.

* DeusExMachina: For Lila. [[spoiler:As she's arrested and dragged out of school by the police, she begins focusing on her fury over being exposed in an effort to get herself akumatized on purpose. Unfortunately for her, just as Hawk Moth is preparing to do so, he gets distracted.]]
* EnemyMine: {{Downplayed}}. Tom's relationship with his parents is fairly strained, but as time passes with no word from Marinette, the two step up to help manage the bakery.

** Kim is also revealed to be more observant than others realize, as he picks up on [[spoiler:how Lila's descriptions of her injuries and the pain they cause go all over the place and don't line up with each other]].
** Of all people, ROGER gets this through an Interlude of his own. He knows full well he's ineffective against magic, but is fully willing to do anything he can to interfere if it means protecting civilians or just buying time until the heroes can stop the akuma. He has full faith in Ladybug's magic to fix any damage done and restore things to normal, [[spoiler:which is what makes the end of his chapter such a sucker punch when he realizes he's facing the first occasion where it didn't.]]

** Most importantly, she lied to the police, spinning a lie about Marinette being in a SecretRelationship. Bad enough in its own right, made worse by how [[spoiler:she painted ''Jagged Stone'' as the potential culprit, giving him reason to hit her with charges for defamation of his character]].

* IgnoredEpiphany: Gabriel seriously begins to consider the possibility he's gone too far when faced with the idea that one of his akuma killed Marinette, but quickly refuses to back down.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Lila's TheChessmaster antics [[LaserGuidedKarma all come crashing down on her comically fast]] all at once. After [[spoiler:she gets Alya falsely accused of assault and expelled]], this spurs Adrien to act and tell the principal. When he doesn't believe him, Chloe calls Lila's mother to come to the school and [[spoiler:broadcasts an EngineeredPublicConfession]] when she drops her victimhood act when her classmates finally put two-and-two together and realize that she was FauxAffablyEvil the entire time. Almost completely by coincidence, [[spoiler:Penny shows up right after the EngineeredPublicConfession and explains that Lila is also going to be sued for slander, Lila having implied to the police that Marinette was in a secret love affair with Jagged Stone as both a way to further slander Marinette's reputation and make it less likely the police will find her]].

** Ladybug's LackOfEmpathy regarding the Marinette situation eventually causes Chat Noir to snap, demanding to know "'''What is WRONG with you?!'''"

* WhatTheHellHero: Ladybug's LackOfEmpathy regarding the Marinette situation eventually causes Chat Noir to snap, demanding to know "'''What is WRONG with you?!'''"
** Plagg had intended to chew Ladybug out over letting everyone worry about her. This confrontation is what lead to him realizing she has no memory of being Marinette.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng always strives to do her best. Not just when it comes to her own interests, but helping others. There's plenty of reasons why her classmates have called her their 'Everyday Ladybug', blissfully unaware that she ''is'', in fact, the superheroine who's been fighting to protect their home from Hawk Moth and his akumatized victims.

* MaliciousSlander: Just because Marinette's missing doesn't mean Lila has any intention of easing up on this. She even lies to the police, claiming she was in a SecretRelationship with a much older man.

* AdaptationExpansion: All of the characters get a aspects of this to expand on their personalities and explain their actions in canon. From [[spoiler:Adrien's "high road" speech to Marinette being in part due to trying to keep the peace and knowing out of all the parties involved that she would be the most inclined to actually listen to him to Max canonically going along with Lila's napkin claim because he knew it was made up but mistook the claim as her telling a joke.]]

* DeusExMachina: For Lila. [[spoiler:As she's arrested and dragged out of school by the police, she begins focusing on her fury and lies in an effort to get herself akumatized on purpose. Unfortunately, just as Hawk Moth is preparing to do so, he gets distracted.]]
* EnemyMine: Downplayed. Tom's relationship with his parents is fairly strained, but as time passes with no word from Marinette the two step up to help manage the bakery.

** It is only after the class realizes that Lila was lying about everything and she drops the act do they find out that she was Chameleon.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Lila's TheChessmaster antics [[LaserGuidedKarma all come crashing down on her comically fast]] all at once. After [[spoiler: she gets Alya falsely accused of assault and expelled]], this spurs Adrien to act and tell the principal. When he doesn't believe him, Chloe calls Lila's mother to come to the school and [[spoiler: broadcasts an EngineeredPublicConfession]] when she drops her victimhood act when her classmates finally put two-and-two together and realize that she was FauxAffablyEvil the entire time. Almost completely by coincidence, [[spoiler: Penny shows up right after the EngineeredPublicConfession and explains that Lila is also going to be sued for slander, Lila having implied to the police that Marinette was in a secret love affair with Jagged Stone as both a way to further slander Marinette's reputation and make it less likely the police will find her.]]

** When Gabriel overhears Adrien's friends theory that Marinette's disappearance was caused by an akumatization, he feels pangs of guilt over it, having grown so used to Ladybug magically fixing everything that he isn't used to the long-term consequences of his excursions as Hawk Moth.

* {{Reconstruction}}: For Adrien and the rest of the classmates. Canon made them come off as very gullible and easily fooled simply because the plot needed it to highlight how dangerous Lila was. While salt fics tend to deconstruct the foolishness of their canon actions and blind trust in Lila over Marinette, the fact remains that they are teenagers who didn’t know what to believe and simply wanted to give the benefit of the doubt. The story highlights that, showing that the classmates aren’t monsters or idiots for trusting Lila, never actually turned against Marinette, and had their own thoughts and reasoning on what was going on between the two that influenced why they acted the way they did. It’s part of what makes it hurt more when the truth finally does come out and more cathartic when they are each given the chance to call Lila out.

* {{Unperson}}: In Chapter 7, everyone begins to realize that Hawk Moth is in someway responsible for Marinette's disappearance when objects remotely related to her -- from things her classmates own that she is someway related to to her own possessions at home -- begin to vanish mysteriously.

--->'''Hawk Moth:''' Such heartbreak. To learn of such betrayal from one friend only after it caused the loss of another. It’s the perfect prey for my akuma! Go forth my little one, and evilize him!

** The entire plot gets kicked off by Ladybug getting hit in a fight but waving off a swarm of Ladybugs because she doesn't ''feel'' injured, unaware that the injury is [[AmnesiacHero the loss of Marinette.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In chapter 6, Gabriel Agreste is prevented from akumatising Lila by Audrey Bourgeois calling about missing some key pieces for her next fashion show. [[spoiler: It turns out that these were all pieces designed by Marinette. In the very next interlude, Roger discovers that this has also happened to some items in Marinette's bedroom which are vanishing from existence.]]

* AdultFear:
** Sabine and Tom have to deal with their daughter just... mysteriously vanishing one day after an akuma attack. [[spoiler:A fear taken UpToEleven when Marinette's possessions begin to disappear as though she never existed.]]
** Thanks to her LaserGuidedAmnesia, Ladybug sincerely believes that she has nowhere to go. Superpowered or not, she's still a teenager who's effectively rendered ''homeless'' by her memory loss.
** Chapter 10 reveals that Roger lives in fear that one day, the damage caused by an Akuma will be permanent, and he'll have to be the one to explain to a family that their loved one will never come home.

* Reconstruction: For Adrien and the rest of the classmates. Canon made them come off as very gullible and easily fooled simply because the plot needed it to highlight how dangerous Lila was. While salt fics tend to deconstruct the foolishness of their canon actions and blind trust in Lila over Marinette, the fact remains that they are teenagers who didn’t know what to believe and simply wanted to give the benefit of the doubt. The story highlights that, showing that the classmates aren’t monsters or idiots for trusting Lila, never actually turned against Marinette, and had their own thoughts and reasoning on what was going on between the two that influenced why they acted the way they did. It’s part of what makes it hurt more when the truth finally does come out and more cathartic when they are each given the chance to call Lila out.

* WhatWouldXDo: Nino finds himself asking himself ''[='=]What would Marinette do?[='=]'', wincing internally at the irony.

What happens when the "everyday Ladybug" gets removed from the equation?

'''Alix:''' That's true. But in that case, if she could dig to find information on someone to make them look bad, where is the information to make ''Lila'' look good?

** Alix and Nathaniel's Interlude reveals that Alix is far more observant than anyone gives her credit for, and noticed that Lila, despite her claims of wanting to make peace with Marinette, was 'stirring the pot rather than taking it off the stove'.

* InsaneTrollLogic: {{Subverted}}. Alya jumps through several logical hurdles trying to justify Lila's various falsehoods and tries to think of reasons why Marinette would have disappeared after Ladybug confirms that she does not know Lila. Nino sees right through it as Alya being in denial due to immense guilt over not believing her best friend, being a {{Hypocrite}} by not checking her sources and potentially causing Marinette to run away.

* NoSympathy: {{Downplayed}}; Without Marinette's memories, Ladybug leans more towards being strictly professional. This makes her come off as strangely cold and curt to those who are used to her treating them differently. Alya, for instance, she recognizes as the Ladyblogger and former Lady [=WiFi=], and a member of the 'akuma-attracting class', and not as the girl she ''also'' regards as one of her best friends.

** {{Discussed}} by Alix and Nathaniel in their shared Interlude, as they agree that while Alya can be deeply passionate, it doesn't make sense for her to suddenly [[spoiler:get violent and assault Lila]].

* WithAllDueRespect: Adrien says this while talking to the Principal. His internal narration only underscores this further, saying 'disregarding that the man before him was far from deserving of any respect at this point.'

Marinette Dupain-Cheng always strives to do her best. Not just when it comes to her own interests, but helping others. There's plenty of reasons why her classmates have called her their 'Everyday Ladybug', blissfully unaware that she ''is'', in fact, the superheroine who's been fighting to protect their home from Hawkmoth and his akumatized victims.

What happens when the 'everyday Ladybug' gets removed from the equation?

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Ladybug dismisses Chat Noir's concern over Marinette this way; ultimately, Marinette is just one girl, and she can't justify focusing on her case ''alone'' when they're responsible for protecting all of Paris from Hawkmoth.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: Most of Marinette's classmates believe that she's run away from home -- including Alya, who blames Lila, and Lila herself, who turns the blame back onto Alya. Others, mostly the adults, fear that she was kidnapped or attacked by some criminal. In reality, a memory-erasing akuma is to blame.

* AndThisIsFor: When confronting Lila, Chloe leans in and whispers "''This was for Adrien, you bitch''" into her ear.

* NotSoDifferent: Part of Lila's gloating to Alya hinges on this:

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: PlayedForDrama; Realizing how much pain might have been avoided if they'd paid more attention to Marinette's concerns about Lila causes Alya, Nino and Adrien no small amount of guilt.

---> '''Chat Noir''': '''What is WRONG with you?''' A girl is missing! She is literally fading from existence and you don't care!\\

* InsaneTrollLogic: Subverted. Alya jumps through several logical hurdles trying to justify Lila's various falsehoods and tries to think of reasons why Marinette would have disappeared after Ladybug confirms that she does not know Lila. Nino sees right through it as Alya being in denial due to immense guilt not believing her best friend, being a {{Hypocrite}} by not checking her sources and potentially causing Marinette to run away.

** Adrien also starts blaming himself for Marinette's disappearance. [[spoiler:Nino then turns this around him to get him to calm down.]]

** As the stress of not knowing where Marinette is gets to her, the normally kind and motherly Sabine starts lashing out at customers [[spoiler:and quickly gets akumatized]].

* WithAllDueRespect: Adrien says this several times while talking to the Principal. His internal narration only underscores this further, saying 'disregarding that the man before him was far from deserving of any respect at this point.'

* {{Unperson}}: In Chapter 7, everyone begins to realize that Hawk Moth is in someway responsible for Marinette's disappearance when objects remotely related to her -- from things her classmates own that she is someway related to to her own possessions at home -- begin to vanish mysteriously.