Fanfic / Couturiere

"All these years you've proven time and again, your loyalty, your reliability. And the one time you needed them to trust you, to believe in you…they turned their backs on you. They chose her pretty words and false promises over you.
"But I can help you rise above that. I can help you cut away the frayed threads, and stitch out your own destiny. No more will anyone define you, especially not Lila Rossi! And all I ask in return, is that you bring me Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous'.
So, Mistress Couturiere... what do you say?"
Marinette was silent, before slowly standing up. A single tear trekked down her face behind the glowing butterfly mask.
What the hell. It’s not like she had anything left to lose.
"... yes, Hawk Moth."

Couturiere is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic by hattafan2593 in which Marinette is akumatized thanks to Lila. Unlike most fics of that nature, however, this one is mostly light on the salt and instead focuses mainly on the effectiveness of Marinette as an akuma.

Couturiere contains examples of...

• Adults Are Useless: Mme. Bustier is aware that she embodies this trope. It doesn't help that her higher-ups themselves told her to keep her head down where students with influential parents like Chloé are concerned. However, after Marinette's akumatization, she decides to subvert this by contacting Lila's mother and telling her everything.
• All Take and No Give: Marinette practiced the inverse for so long that the others started to take it for granted and never realized how much she did for them, which contributed to her state of mind.
• And Then What?: Jagged Stone and Alya almost manage to get through to Couturiere, when Hawk Moth intervenes. While it's true that they both know the truth about Lila now, he points out that even if Lila is exposed, there's no guarantee that something similar won't happen in the future. After all, Marinette was bullied by Chloé Bourgeois for years while her classmates did nothing to stop it. And Alya has already proven herself to be a Fair-Weather Friend...
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • When Alya asks why Marinette never told anyone about Lila threatening her, Marinette asks "Would you have listened?".
  • She also gives Adrien one after her massive What the Hell, Hero? speech, asking why she should listen to him after his terrible advice of ‘taking the high road’ and his refusal to help her.
• At Least I Admit It: Hawk Moth fully admits to Couturiere that he sees her as nothing more than a means to an end. However, he points out that unlike Marinette's friends and classmates, he at the very least is willing to give her something back in return.
  Hawk Moth: I have kept my promise. Can you say the same for them?
• Back Handed Apology: When Couturiere finally corners Lila and demands she own up to her lies, she instead gets a non-apology that all but push the blame of her actions on her classmates for believing her lies, and on Marinette for being hurt by them. Needless to say, Couturiere isn't amused, and proceeds to give her a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Lila wanted to break Marinette. She succeeded - and Marinette became an akuma that proceeded to ruin her life by revealing her lies and traumatizing her so thoroughly that she's left permanently mute. Couturiere also invokes this by pointing out that everyone wanted her to be the bad guy - so now she is.
• Bittersweet Ending: Marinette is saved, but her relationships with her friends are ruined due to how much they had used her and how quickly they abandoned her for Lila (or in Adrien’s case, did nothing to help her). Despite that, she is willing to try to rebuild the bridges... though she makes it clear that she is not going to be doing things for free anymore: Something the class gracefully accepts, since they had realized how awful they were to her and genuinely want to make it up to her. Lila is healed, but the trauma has left her unable to talk and she is unable to return to school due to that and her lies finally being exposed. And due to Adrien getting wounded, Hawk Moth has decided to never akumatize Marinette again, deeming it to be too dangerous.
• Bullying a Dragon: Chloé and Lila both choose to talk condescendingly to Couturiere and get physically struck for it.
• Broken Bird: Lila's constant bullying and her classmates' isolation has pushed Marinette to the breaking point, allowing Hawk Moth to finally akumatize her. Lila herself is later turned into this as Couturiere exposes her lies and breaks her arm and leg before putting her through Cold-Blooded Torture that renders her mute and traumatized for life.
• Clingy Costume: The outfits Couturiere uses to control her victims are sewn to them via her powers. They cause no damage inherently, but she makes it clear that Chat will hurt them if he tries to remove the outfits.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: After beating the crap out of her, Couturiere takes Lila to the basement, and ties her up in such a way that not only is it pulling on her broken arm, but also puts weight on her broken leg, causing the girl indescribable amounts of pain. And this is before Couturiere sews her mouth shut.
• Darker and Edgier: Couturiere ends up one of the worst Akumas yet, as she succeeds in her vengeance by sewing Lila's mouth shut, and her actions inflict serious trauma on all involved.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Chloé gets struck to the point of injury by Couturiere for mouthing off to her.
• Elective Mute: Lila becomes this after being traumatized by Couturiere sewing her mouth shut.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Gabriel comes to the conclusion that Couturiere somehow broke into his home (which she actually did), kidnapped Adrien, and then injured him severely in his escape, all without him knowing. This is because he ruled out Adrien being Chat Noir long ago, and he does not want to open that Pandora's box again.
• Et Tu, Brute?: The reason behind Marinette getting akumatized: Her classmates had turned on her in favour of Lila, Alya had implied the reason she didn’t believe Marinette is because she sees her as a bad, untrustworthy friend, and Adrien had simply stood by and let it all happen despite knowing the the truth.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Gabriel decides to not akumatize Marinette in the foreseeable future when he believes she physically harmed Adrien.
• Everyone Has Standards: Near the end of the fic, Rose expresses concern for Lila. While she acknowledges that Lila is not a good person, and that Marinette wasn't in control of her actions, she also doesn't believe that Lila deserved what Couturiere did to her. Her classmates' uncomfortable silence implies that they agree with her.
• Exact Words: The akumatized Marinette assures her classmates that she has no intention of killing Lila. Later, she instructs her that she should think carefully about what she says next, as they could be her last words. Ivan expresses confusion at this, with Couturiere irritably telling him to shut up. Turns out she always intended to sew Lila's lips shut.
• Expy: Couturiere is one of Nui Harime. From her appearance, to her powers, and even her personality.
• Fate Worse than Death: Couturiere tells everyone that she doesn't intend to kill Lila - after all, that would mean she got off too easily. Lila does survive the Cold-Blooded Torture she's put through afterwards but by the end of it, she's so traumatized she's rendered mute.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Explored:
  • Adrien had allowed Lila to continue lying simply because he thought she would stop sooner or later, that lies were ultimately harmless, and he had mistakenly assumed she was like him and sympathized with her. Even if that were true, it is made painfully clear that none of it gives Adrien an excuse to allow Lila to bully Marinette so horribly or to allow her to use the class for her own means.
  • The reason Mme. Bustier had never punished Chloé or Lila is because she was told to simply let them be and to keep them happy due their positions as daughters of rich political figures if she wanted to keep her job. Even though she finally wises up at the end, it does not excuse how she allowed her students to endure their bullying for so long.
  • The class believed that Lila could help them accomplish their dreams, and wanted to make her happy in the hopes of her helping them. They are called out massively for this as they were willing to turn against Marinette because of it.
• Get It Over With: Knowing that she can no longer hold off being akumatized, Marinette renounces Tikki, hides her earrings, and resigns herself to her fate. When the black butterfly inevitably shows up, she says this, holding up her wrist so it can possess her charm bracelet.
• Gone Horribly Right: One of the reasons Lila kept harassing and framing Marinette for things she hadn't done was so she would be so stressed Hawk Moth would be able to akumatize her. She succeeds when Marinette is turned into the titular Akuma... who not only proceeds to prove her lies to their classmates, but then breaks her arm and leg, tortures her by hurting her and sews her mouth shut, something that traumatizes Lila so hard she becomes an Elective Mute.
• Hope Spot: A couple of times (once by Jagged Stone, another by Alix) it seems like they're getting through to Marinette, but it fails to take. The second time seems like Couturiere doing it deliberately to rub it in.
• I Always Wanted to Say That: After Chloé mouths off to her, Couturiere punches her hard enough to send her flying across the room, commenting how she always wanted to do that.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter title is named after a lyric from the Evanescence song "Everybody's Fool".
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: When Alya calls Lila to lure her into the trap, Lila claims she was just talking with famous French writer Marcelle Auclair - who died in 1983.
• Innocently Insensitive: In a mix of this and Didn't Think This Through, Adrien was so focused with keeping Lila happy and ensuring she didn’t get akumatized, he failed to notice how much she was hurting Marinette, how she was taking advantage of his class and how much of a bad friend he was being to them for not stopping her. Sufficient to say, he is horrified when he finally realizes.
• Ironic Echo: Used sarcastically and vindictively by Couturiere when Jagged Stone reveals that, contrary to what Lila claims, he does not have a cat, he did not write a song for her, and that he doesn't even know who Lila is.
  Couturiere: Really? Well, imagine. My. Shock. [slowly turns to a very pale Alya] Well, this is embarrassing. I mean, I can’t imagine why Lila would lie like that. I mean, my friend Alya certainly thought she was telling the truth. Even posted it on her blog. After all, "A good journalist always checks their sources."
• It's All My Fault: Several characters blame themselves for Marinette's akumatization.
  • Alya, for not believing her best friend (or consider that she may be telling the truth about Lila) and not checking on Lila's claims (which would have easily shown her the truth).
  • Adrien, for not standing up for Marinette for the sake of keeping Lila from being akumatized, even though he knew that Lila was framing Marinette and that Marinette was clearly getting hurt by everyone's accusations.
  • Master Fu, for holding Marinette to too high standards and forgetting she can break just as easily as any other person.
• Life Saving Misfortune: Couturiere stabs Chat Noir in the leg as he reaches her akuma. The blood on Adrien's clothes, that doesn't go away with the Cure, leads Gabriel to the conclusion under Entertainingly Wrong. This ensures Marinette will not be akumatized again.
• Lured into a Trap: Couturiere lures Lila into a trap by having Alya call and invite her to a 'study date', which is supposedly a cover story for a party the class is holding in her honor. Lila falls for it hook, line and sinker.
• Meaningful Name: Couturiere is the French word for "seamstress". She uses costumes to control her victims and sews Lila's mouth closed.
• Mouth Stitched Shut: Couturiere does this to Lila as punishment for her lies that hurt Marinette so much.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Alya begins to collapse when she realizes Marinette was right about Lila, and that her telling Marinette she couldn't trust her was The Last Straw.
  • Adrien breaks down after he realizes how his decision to "take the high road" backfired because Lila not only didn't stop lying, she also started to turn everyone against Marinette.
  • Marinette, being who she is, feels innumerous amounts of guilt for what she did as Couturiere, even though she was not in control.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The only reason Couturiere ends up being defeated is because she decided to let Adrien go after he makes a heartfelt (and unlike Lila's, genuine) apology, owning up to his failure for not helping her when she needed it.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Lila receives a nasty one from Couturiere, after giving a Backhanded Apology and ultimately refusing to own up to her lies. She has her cheek cut open with a pair of scissors, gets kneed in the stomach, kicked into a wall, and has both her arm and leg broken. And that's without getting to what happens later...
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Couturiere is an incredibly intelligent Akuma and isn't afraid to drop the schtick when the time comes. She punches Chloé in the face hard and when Lila first pisses her off, she starts beating the crap out of her right there.
• Occam's Razor: Played With. Jagged Stone deduces from a statement of Couturiere's (see Ironic Echo above) that Alya not believing Marinette about Lila is what got her akumatized. He's only partially correct - Marinette's akumatization was a result of her classmates constantly disregarding her feelings and abusing her generous nature. The situation with Lila was just the last straw.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Master Fu, when Wayzz tells him that Marinette has been akumatized. The same happens as Marinette's classmates find the same.
  • Lila when she realizes she's fallen into Couturiere's trap. And when Couturiere begins to move her needles way too close to her face...
• People Puppets: One of Couturiere's powers allows her to physically control people via her specialized outfits. Her victims are very aware of what's happening, and they're powerless to stop it.
• Pet the Dog: After the Couturiere incident is over, Chloé comes to Marinette's house to return her charm bracelet and give her a Quit Your Whining-style pep talk, in her own way.
• Rage Breaking Point: Marinette reaches hers in an argument with Alya, when her best friend not only refuses to believe Marinette's claims, but also implies that she believes Marinette untrustworthy.
• Rejected Apology: After recovering from being akumatized, Marinette goes to Lila's house and brings her a box of éclairs to apologize for torturing her as Couturiere. When Lila sees them, she grabs the box, throws it on the ground, and stomps it until it's completely flat before slamming the door in her face.
• Reset Button: Couturiere mocks the notion of Ladybug's Miraculous Cure functioning this way, and milks it for drama. The akumatized Marinette shows her captives a pair of fake Ladybug earrings, informing them that their heroine will not be coming to save them, and that all the damage she inflicts upon them will not be wiped away by a wave of magical ladybugs. That it will, in fact, be permanent. After she's freed, Marinette retrieves the real earrings, transforms, and uses Miraculous Cure anyway. While this erases the physical consequences, the emotional and psychological impact remains.
• Sarcastic Clapping: Couturiere does this when Lila falls into her trap.
• Secretly Selfish: All of the class is guilty of this: They take advantage of Marinette for free babysitting, clothes and pastries, and never once paid her. And when Lila comes in and makes it look like she could help them accomplish their dreams, they don’t even hesitate to turn against Marinette simply to get on Lila’s good side in hopes of using her supposed connections. Needless to say, they spend all story getting chewed out for this. And when everything is said and done, Marinette makes it clear that she is done being taken advantage of, and is going to start charging for her services and it’s going to take a long time for her to forgive them. Thankfully, everyone accepts this with grace, having had realized how crummy they were.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Couturiere gives one to Alya in Chapter 4 that has the girl reeling.
  Couturiere: I don't need you to tell me how expendable I am, Alya. Believe me, I learned that the hard way.
• So Proud of You: Master Fu apologizes to Marinette for failing her and tells her he's proud of her because, even though she was beyond the Despair Event Horizon, she still kept Hawk Moth from getting his hands on the Ladybug Miraculous.
• Sugary Malice: Couturierre presents an affable demeanor even when beating up her "guests" and sewing Lila's mouth shut.
• Tastes Like Disdain: To apologize to Lila for traumatizing and injuring her as Couturiere, Marinette visits her house and brings her a box of éclairs from her family's bakery. When Lila sees them, she grabs the box and stomps on it before slamming the door in Marinette's face.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The akumatized Marinette really rips into Adrien for standing by and letting Lila run rampant:
  Adrien: JUST LISTEN TO ME! You're better than this! You're better than him! You've got to...
  Couturiere: ...listen to you? You want me... to listen to you?
  [she drops Lila, turning to face him]
  Couturiere: I did listen, Adrien. When Lila was lying to our friends, playing with their hopes and dreams by giving them false promises, and taking advantage of their kindness by having them carry her books and lunch trays and even doing their homework for her, do you remember what you told me? You said to not say anything. That exposing her would just make things worse. You said, and I quote, 'As long as both you and I know the truth, does it really matter?'
  [the other captured classmates stare at Adrien in shock]
  Couturiere: And so, I did as you asked. I said nothing. I let Lila continue to lead our classmates on. I took the high road. And guess what happened?
  [Lila attempts to crawl away; Couturiere slams her heel down on her knee hard enough to crack it]
  Couturiere: Nothing. Nothing changed. Lila continued to lie, and everyone continued to eat it up with a big ol' dessert spoon. She, surprisingly, didn't reach an epiphany on the evils of lying. She didn't see the error of her ways. She just. Kept. Going. [smirks bitterly] No, that's wrong. One thing changed. She started lying about me. How I was tripping her in the hallways, despite no one being around to see it. How I was calling her names, despite no one being around to hear it. How I was stealing from her. How I was jealous of her. How I was bullying her. You know, stuff that could potentially get me in trouble with the teachers or even get me expelled, but hey, it's not like her lies are hurting anyone, right?!
  Adrien: Marinette... Marinette, I didn't—
  Couturiere: She threatened me, Adrien. In the bathroom, and at the front of the school. She told me that I would lose all my friends. That I would lose you. That I would be alone. And well... she was right.
  [Her classmates bow their heads, ashamed of themselves.]
  Couturiere: Actually, though, I didn't lose you. I never had you to begin with. You said that we were in this together. You said that as long as we both knew the truth, it wouldn't matter what she did to us. So why was I the only one to suffer? Why was I the only one to lose everything? [tearing up] Today in class, I just wanted it to stop! I was getting closer and closer to the edge, and I needed someone, I needed you, to just stand up and say 'I know Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and she is no monster!' And yet... you just sat there. I needed you to catch me... and you let me fall. So tell me, Agreste: after how everything went down after listening to your stellar advice... why should I listen to you now?
  • Nino gives a short one when Adrien explains why he kept Lila's lies a secret from the rest of the class.
  Nino: Dude. She had us carrying her books for her! We kicked Marinette to the back of the class because we thought she had a disability! That didn't seem messed up to you?!
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Hawk Moth decides to let Couturiere do whatever she wants to Lila, since while she'd been previously useful, he has since gotten tired of her entitlement and ego, and had simply been biding his time until he could replace her with someone else. And as far as he's concerned, as long as he gets what he wants, what happens to her is of no consequence to him.
• You Will Be Spared: When Couturiere captures Adrien and brutally tears into him, Adrien immediately owns up to his mistakes. This causes Couturiere to let him go, considering it a waste of thread.
• You Remind Me of X: Played With and Subverted at same time: The real reason why Adrien did nothing to stop Lila is because he had wrongfully assumed Lila is just like him: a person who constantly has to lie to fulfill people’s expectations and felt sorry for her. Needless to say, he had to learn the hard way that this does NOT give him an excuse to essentially abandon Marinette and that Lila is ultimately nothing like him.