Tattered Remains of Broken Dreams (Yours, Not Mine)
is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic by unmaskedagain.
Lila convinces the class to destroy Marinette's sketchbook, but Marinette reveals the sketchbook they destroyed was the one she used to plan school extracurriculars and gifts for her friends. Without it, she tells the others, she can't make their costumes, dance clothes, decorations, or anything else they needed. And she won't be redoing all that free work now that they've shown her how little they respect her.
This fanfic includes examples of:
- Accomplice by Inaction: Adrien didn't lay a hand on Marinette's sketchbook himself, but didn't make any effort to try and stop them, either.
- All Take and No Give: Marinette's Fair-Weather Friends repay all of her kindness and everything she's done for them by shredding their "everyday Ladybug's" sketchbook.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Instead of the anger and heartbreak everyone expected, Marinette's reaction to them destroying her sketchbook is to declare that "Yeah, it sucks. For you." The more she explains, the more horrified her classmates become.
- The Atoner: At the story's end, Rose not only apologizes again but also offers to pay Marinette for a dress instead of demanding free work. Marinette accepts that Rose has truly reformed and takes Rose up on the offer.
- Bittersweet Ending: While most of the class still refuses to admit they did anything wrong, Marinette finds that she doesn't mind not having to deal with her False Friends anymore. Rose also demonstrates that at least one of her classmates learned from the whole experience, and the story ends with her consulting Marinette to commission a dress for the dance.
- Breakup Breakout: Used in-universe. Kitty Section collapses after the members from Marinette's class get overwhelmed by doing the work Marinette had previously been doing. Marinette helps Luka achieve success by getting him onto a demo album with Jagged Stone.
- Celebrity Paradox: Marinette was working on taking the class both to Stark Tower and Marvel Studios, when of course Marvel is the company which depicts the fictional Stark Tower in comics and movies.
- Didn't Think This Through: Marinette's classmates shredded her sketchbook without considering how much work she did for all of them... or that there were still plenty of projects she was working on for them. Projects that, as it just so happened, were all contained inside the sketchbook they destroyed.
- Disappointed in You: Luka is upset to learn how Juleka and his bandmates participated in destroying Marinette's hard work, which eventually leads to Kitty Section breaking up.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed with Hawkmoth, who was more than happy to try taking advantage of his son's classmates being stressed and exhausted, but backs off after realizing that wait, they're all coming from Adrien's class... and that they're not even useful akumas, anyway.
- Fair-Weather Friend: As is usual for salt fics, most of Marinette's classmates prove to have been this to her all along. Near the end, when she points out they weren't really friends at all, Rose can only wince.
- Foil:
- Thanks to their backgrounds, Adrien and Chloé are both keenly aware of just how much Marinette's time and work is worth. Adrien is very reluctant to explain any of this to his friends, while Chloé gleefully rubs in their faces just how much they screwed themselves over by taking Marinette's generosity for granted.
- Alya blames Marinette for everything going wrong and refuses to learn anything from the fallout; she's last described as casting her former friend pitiful looks, hoping that she'll take pity on her and fix everything without her having to do anything in exchange. Rose, by contrast, has a full Jerkass Realization, sincerely apologizes, and ends the story by consulting Marinette with the intent of actually paying for a dress.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Downplayed by the end; when Rose apologizes again, noting that Marinette must think they're all monsters, Marinette replies that she still doesn't understand why they did what they did, but doesn't think they're monsters. Just False Friends.
- Grief-Induced Split: Downplayed. All the couples in class breakup because everyone is too exhausted, overworked, and stressed to stay together.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: By destroying Marinette's school sketchbook, all of her False Friends wind up robbing themselves of all of the projects she was completing on their behalf.
- Karmic Jackpot:
- Nathanial didn't join in the destruction of Marinette's sketchbook, tried to warn her about what happened before she could see the results, and paid for all of his commissions rather than expecting her to work for free. As a result, Marinette assures him that she'll ensure everything he asked her for will still arrive on time.
- Along similar lines, Chloé commissioned Marinette to make her dress for the upcoming school dance and paid her well in advance, and Marinette reassures her that her order is ready for the final fitting.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After the class destroys Marinette's sketchbook, she reveals that they just destroyed the designs for their own gifts, which they now will not receive. The class then finds themselves as overworked as Marinette was as they struggle to do the work on their own.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Hawkmoth attempts to exploit how most of Bustier's students are stressing out trying to compensate for Marinette no longer helping them out. However, he backs down after realizing how most of the akuma are coming from his son's class... and that they're practically worthless to him anyway.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Ms. Bustier wasn't present when the class shredded Marinette's sketchbook, and Marinette doesn't inform her that they were responsible.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The whole class goes pale when Adrien and Chloé offer a rough estimate of just how much all of the work Marinette was doing for them was worth.
- Never My Fault: Not only does Alya insist that they only wrecked the sketchbook because Marinette was supposedly bullying Lila, she angrily protests that it's "not fair" that she's going to redo all the work necessary for Nathanial's commissions. Most of the class implictedly agrees with her, acting as though Marinette is to blame for all their suffering, even after they backstabbed her and destroyed her hard work.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Lila's attempt to hurt Marinette only served to remove a huge source of stress, since she no longer felt obligated to do tons of free work for the class.
- One of the akumas Hawkmoth creates during his attempts to capitalize on Bustier's students being so stressed out has the power to... make everyone around them feel less stressed. Ladybug doesn't even bother going after that one, and he eventually recalls the butterfly.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Ms. Bustier laments Marinette's abrupt retirement from being the class president, as well as how she abruptly had to cancel all of the grandoise plans she had for their upcoming school trip. She has no clue that the class' mounting horror as she describes everything they'll be missing out on isn't just regular disappointment.
- Rejected Apology: After Marinette reveals that the gifts she was making the class could retail for as much as $15,000, Rose apologizes, but is bluntly rejected:Rose: I'm sorry. We're sorry.
Marinette: Doesn't matter. There's nothing to do. And now that I know that there are people in this class who can't keep their hands to themselves, all free commissions are now canceled. - Removing the Crucial Teammate: The class unintentionally does this by vandalizing Marinette's school sketchbook; the incident convinces her to step down as class president and stop doing free favors for them. Without her assistance, they find themselves scrambling to cobble together things, growing incredibly stressed as they learn the hard way just how much they relied upon her hard work.
- Shout-Out: Marinette had been in the process of setting up the class to tour Stark Tower and Gotham when her notebook was destroyed.
- Taking Advantage of Generosity: Aside from Chloé and Nathanial, all of Marinette's classmates took everything she did for them completely for granted, expecting their "everyday Ladybug" to continue bending over backwards for their sake even after they Easily Condemned her and destroyed her sketchbook.
- Vandalism Backfire: Shredding Marinette's sketchbook simply frees her from any sense of obligation of finishing the projects she was doing for the vandals.
- You Are Grounded!: Officer Roger outright grounds Sabrina in order to make her take the time to study and focus on other things.
