Rate This (Trust is Hard to Come By)
is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic by Unmasked Again.
Thanks to Lila's lies, all of Marinette's friends in her class have abandoned her and began treating her abominably, resulting in her losing all her trust and respect for them. She thus decides to sit back and let things play out when a superfan of Ladybug's gets akumatized and gains the power of posting a numeric score over people's heads which reveals how much Ladybug trusts each of those people. Sure enough, her classmates (sans Chloé) are shocked and horrified to learn that Ladybug despises all of them, and when people see the appallingly low scores over the class's heads, the class quickly become shunned by all. But that isn't even Marinette's favorite part, for it turns out Lila Rossi wasn't paying attention to the akuma's announcement and has no idea whatsoever why a large negative number is now hovering over her head. By the time she learns what's going on, it's far too late for her reputation.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Accomplice by Inaction: The biggest and boldest of the warnings attached to Adrien's 14 is that he's a COWARD, along with being spineless, naive, pushy and a bad friend.
- Adults Are Useless: Miss Bustier was well aware of how Alya and most of her students were bullying Marinette, but saw no reason to intervene, dismissing their misbehavior as perfectly normal for children.
- All for Nothing: When Lila walks in, Alya and the rest of the class collectively realize that Marinette wasn't the massive bully Lila made her out to be, and that they all turned against their "everyday Ladybug" for no reason whatsoever.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Thanks to Gardener, Lila gets all the attention she could possibly want and then some. Her incredibly low score makes her the talk of all of Paris, with Chloé cheerfully informing her that she's gone viral: everybody wants to know just who Lila Rossi is and what caused Ladybug to label her outright EVIL.
- Broke the Rating Scale: The numbers are supposed to be on a 100-point scale, so negative numbers shouldn't be possible. However, Hawkmoth and Mayura each individually have -2, while Lila actually has a -51.
- Bully Turned Buddy: Chloé wound up as the only person in their class that Marinette trusts, clocking in at a solid 86 and labeled as both a good hero and a good friend.
- Caught on Tape:
- Alya unintentionally damages her own reputation, along with those of her friends, when she decides to livestream the moment they get hit by Gardener's power... meaning everyone watching that stream on the Ladyblog gets to see just how low their scores are.
- Miss Bustier pales when Marinette casually reveals that she's been recording videos of how everyone has been conducting themselves in her class lately and intends to show them to the school district.
- Cyberbullying: The class has been sending nasty texts to Marinette, castigating her for bad things she allegedly did to Lila. They're shocked when Marinette tells the class she showed Ladybug those texts and that's one reason why Ladybug hates them.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- As Chloé smugly reminds Alya, Marinette was the one who arranged her first interview with Ladybug. Meaning she had known that Marinette had some kind of connection with the superheroine, yet never considered that she might be friends with her. Instead, she'd swallowed up Lila's Celebrity Lie and Easily Condemned her former bestie, despite everything Marinette had done for her... without realizing that her actions might get back to Ladybug.
- The class as a whole didn't think about the fact that Marinette could show the evidence of their cyberbullying her to anyone, much less to Ladybug.
- Lila spots her negative number while checking her reflection, but doesn't spare a single thought as to what said number might symbolize.
- Dramatic Irony: Before Gardener's powers reach them, Alya jokes that Marinette's likely to end up with a ten or lower, as there's no way that Ladybug would trust someone like her. Not only is their former "everyday Ladybug" secretly the actual Ladybug, Alya's score ends up even lower than what she predicted for Marinette.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Gabriel sees a photo of Lila with her abysmal rating, he considers breaking off contact with her not just in his civilian identity (which he did as soon as he learned what's going on) but also as Hawkmoth. He figures that apparently Lila did something so evil that Ladybug hates her more than him, so he may not want to be associated with her any longer.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Most people that Marinette/Ladybug has barely interacted with have scores in the 30s or 40s. Even Gabriel has a solid 30, while Nathalie has a 34. Their scores as Hawkmoth and Mayura are much lower, but pale in comparison to Lila's whopping -51.
- Failed a Spot Check: Played With in that Lila does see her number before heading outside; she simply dismisses its potential significance. She also fails to notice everyone she passes by gawking at her with shock and disgust, or when somebody reaches out to touch her number and call up its warning labels.
- Friend of Masked Self: This is how Chloé justifies Marinette's impressively high score; as she reminds Alya, Marinette was the one who helped her land her first interview with Ladybug.
- Hated by All: After people see their low ratings, the class winds up hated and shunned by everyone. Lila is even worse. She actually starts trending online as people marvel at photos of her with the giant red '-51' floating over her head.
- I Warned You: Marinette is decidedly unamused by Nino telling Alya that they had no way of knowing Lila wasn't being truthful, bluntly reminding them that "I told you she was a liar. You didn't listen. You turned against me... for her."
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Used in-universe. Marinette apparently hates Lila even more than Hawkmoth, based on the numbers.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Lila successfully turned Marinette's Fair-Weather Friends against her... and all of Paris gets to see just how much Ladybug hates her. Alya, Nino, and all her other classmates sans Chloé also discover just how little Ladybug trusts them, and Miss Bustier winds up losing her job after the school investigates her misconduct.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: When Gardener proclaims that her powers will reveal "who has failed our Queen Ladybug", Marinette decides that she's not going to be in any rush to confront this particular akuma, as her powers are only really damaging in the psychological sense.
- Liar Revealed: Thanks to Gardener's power, all of Paris learns that their heroine absolutely DESPISES Lila Rossi, with a laundry list of warnings about her negative attributes.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The whole class reacts this way when Marinette casually informs them that she showed Ladybug all of the nasty messages they'd been bombarding her with. Tellingly, Bustier is not part of this; she gets her own individual Oh, Crap! shortly afterwards when Marinette alludes to the school board getting to see videos of how they've conducted themselves in class.
- Mr. Exposition: Max explains to Adrien that a group of ladybugs is known as a "loveliness of ladybugs", hence Gardener describing herself as a "protector of the Loveliness".
- Never My Fault: Upon learning that Ladybug has seen how much she harassed Marinette, Alya insists that she only did that because of how Marinette was (supposedly) bullying Lila. Once they see Lila's number and all the warning signs surrounding her, she dissolves into tears while declaring she had no way of knowing, Marinette calls her out for it, reminding her that she warned them.
- Offscreen Karma: Downplayed with Miss Bustier, who's not present in the cafeteria and misses out on being Shamed by a Mob alongside most of her students. Ms. Mendeleiev gives her a suspicious look after seeing her score, and narration reveals that she'll be fired the following week, but the story ends well before then.
- Power of Trust: Invoked by Gardener, as her power was meant to expose who Ladybug trusts most of all... and who threatens the "loveliness" of Paris by betraying their heroine.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lila gets one near the end, that Marinette redirects towards her former friends by the end:Nino: Those numbers tell the world how much Ladybug trusts you. Or how much she doesn't. And why.
Adrien: The lower the number, the less she trusts you.
Chloé: And guess who has the only negative number in Paris. Besides Hawkmoth, but at least he was smart enough to hide. You're trending by the way.
Lila: No! No! (checking her phone) This can't be happening! How can this be happening!
Marinette: Because you're a bad person. You're mean and you're cruel. And worse yet, you dragged everyone down with you. (looking around the class) Ladybug will never trust you again.
Chloé: (as the bell rings) Time for class. Maybe you guys will finally learn something. - School Bullying Is Harmless: Miss Bustier takes this stance; despite being fully aware of how Marinette's former friends have turned upon her, she dismissed it as "kids being kids". Thankfully, this attitude is not shared by the school board, getting her into serious trouble once they learn what she was letting go on right under her nose.
- Shamed by a Mob:
- Gardener's powers strike Marinette and her classmates while they're in the cafeteria, surrounded by students whose scores are all in the 30s and 40s. Once the initial shock wears off, they scramble to clear out while followed by a sea of suspicious stares.
- After Lila walks into class and everyone sees just how low her score is, all of her former followers wind up glaring her down as they realize just how much her Toxic Friend Influence has cost them.
- Tempting Fate:
- After hearing Gardener announce her abilities, Kim looks forward to finding out just what Ladybug thinks of them, while Alya boasts that she's at least a 90 and prepares to livestream her results, joking that Marinette will only have a ten. Suffice to say, she's dumbstruck to see she only got a 2, while Marinette wound up with 92.
- Upon hearing that Marinette has recorded video evidence of how she's been treated in class under her watch, Miss Bustier reassures herself that things haven't gotten that bad, and that surely the school board will keep in mind that her students are just kids. Turns out the board doesn't agree with her assessment, costing her her job.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Thanks to Lila, Alya and everyone in Miss Bustier's class aside from Chloé has turned against Marinette. Gardener's power hammers home the massive impact of her influence, and Marinette makes clear that none of them will ever regain her or Ladybug's trust again.
- Tranquil Fury: Marinette enters this while giving Lila her "The Reason You Suck" Speech, with her voice staying even as she turns her attention to her former friends and states that Ladybug will never trust any of them again.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: While she notices the blood red -51 floating over her head as she's getting ready to head for school, Lila dismisses it as no big deal, figuring it's just some random akuma's power.
- Villainous Breakdown: Lila goes full-on "This Cannot Be!" once she learns what her number means, as it's far too late for her to prevent any damage to her reputation. People already saw her strolling through the streets with said number on full display, and the whole world is keen to know just who she is and why Ladybug despises her so much.
- World-Healing Wave: Played With; Gardener's power works much like the Miraculous Cure, sweeping across all of Paris. Rather than repairing the damage done by another akuma, however, it reveals just where everyone stands in Ladybug's regard, boosting the spirits of everyone with high numbers... and serving as a rude awakening to Lila and her followers.
- You Lose at Zero Trust: Non video-game example; Gardener's magic exposes precisely where everyone's relationship status with Ladybug currently stands, and those with low scores get punished by being viewed with distrust and suspicion.
