The Seven Misfortunes of Lady Fortune
(Семь неудач Леди Удачи) is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic by Ozero_Kate. Originally in Russian, a translation to English is available.
Seven years ago, Marinette had learned Hawk Moth's identity. Not wanting to cause a scandal and hurt Adrien, she decided to settle the matter quietly. She came to Gabriel as Ladybug, and offered an ultimatum. Either he surrenders his Miraculous, or she blows the whistle. Gabriel had no choice but to agree.
However, Marinette made two mistakes. For one thing, she played the part of a cold-hearted blackmailer too well. For another… she revealed her identity to Gabriel. Afraid of further blackmail, he hired a hitman.
Surviving seven bullets by sheer miracle, Marinette had spent the past years as a lowly waitress, doing her best to cut all ties to her old life.
But the past does tend to catch up with you. Often, in more ways than one.
The Seven Misfortunes of Lady Fortune provide examples of:
- Air-Vent Passageway: Marinette does it during the factory scene.
- All for Nothing:
- After Marinette escapes with the package in Chapter 7, it turns out someone had swapped the contents for old newspapers already.
- Marinette makes a lot of sacrifices in the fic to prevent Adrien from learning about his father's crimes. He still does.
- Arc Number: Seven. The years between the hit on Marinette and the start of the fic, the bullets she gets…
- Masterfully used in chapter 15 where the narration is subtly turned into a countdown from 7 to the end of that story arc.
- The Art of Bra Removal: It takes Adrien five tries to get Marinette's off.
- Ate His Gun: How Gabriel dies.
- Babies Ever After: Marinette and Adrien have their regular three kids. And there is Alya and Nino's daughter.
- Back-Alley Doctor: One that saves Marinette's life. And Madame Yu's later.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Alya and Nino miss Gabriel's funeral due to their daughter being born.
- Blackmail Backfire: How the whole plot kicks off.
- Bluff Worked Too Well: Marinette learns Hawk Moth's identity, and blackmails him into giving up his Miraculous. Unfortunately, she plays the part of a cold-hearted blackmailer so well, that Gabriel, afraid of further blackmail, decides an assassin would be cheaper.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Wang Bao and his brother are killed by their escorts.
- Bookends: Not counting the epilogue, the ending reuses the first paragraph, except for adding a few more words.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Wang Bao's payment for the package. 500 Euro bills (which were discontinued precisely because they are being used for criminal transactions).
- Cannot Spit It Out: During their reunion, Chat Noir has real trouble revealing his identity, while Marinette cannot admit she still loves Adrien.
- Chase Scene: The whole of Chapter 7 is Chat chasing a motorcycle.
- Clawing at Own Throat: How Adrien reacts to learning his Lady's identity.
- Convenient Decoy Cat: When Marinette makes some noise while hiding during the factory scene, Nathaniel sends one of his moths to make a rat chase it.
- Cue the Flying Pigs: After Kim says at the reunion that he saw Chloé and Nathaniel leaving together, everyone laughs because a dead person will rise from the grave before these two will end up together. Then they go to their classroom and… sure enough, Marinette is right there.
- Dartboard of Hate: As the story summary says, Marinette uses Gabriel's photo as one.
- Dead Guy Junior: Alya named her daughter Marie.
- Deadpan Snarker: Chloé has the talent for that.
- Death by Secret Identity: Starting with Gabriel, and followed by half a dozen other people.
- Detective Mole: The police chief, Alain Dupree, has only one unsolved case – Marinette's assassination. Turns out he was the one who helped Gabriel make contact with the actual perpetrator.
- Dirty Cop: Alain Dupree.
- Distant Finale: The epilogue has Adrien visiting his father's grave seven years after the fic's events.
- Driven to Suicide: Gabriel, after learning what he did to his son.
- Drowning My Sorrows: The first time in his life Adrien gets drunk is the anniversary of Marinette's assassination attempt.
- Due to the Dead: Marinette visits Gabriel's funeral, despite all he had done to her. In the epilogue, she makes Adrien visit the grave.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Adrien notes that even the vilest of criminals have Ladybug fans among them, and would not have hesitated to avenge her had the details of the case become public.
- Faint in Shock:
- Adrien wrecks his room and almost commits suicide after learning the recently assassinated Marinette used to be Ladybug. Once Plagg reassures him she's still alive, he faints.
- Later, Nino faints after being present when Alya gives birth to their daughter.
- Tom faints after coming back home after a vacation and seeing his daughter alive.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Marinette spends several years working as a waitress. Luckily for her, Madame Zhou is too kind to force her into her main business.
- Fauxreigner: Marinette pretends to be a native Chinese speaker. Easier with her being half Chinese already.
- Gambit Pileup: There are half a dozen sides chasing the mysterious package.
- Gone Horribly Right: Marinette plays the part of a cold blackmailer to get the brooch from Gabriel. He buys it well enough to fear further blackmail.
- Heroic BSoD: Adrien has it bad once he learns his Lady's identity.
- Hood Hopping: Chat in Chapter 7.
- Interrupted Suicide: Adrien almost slits his own throat after learning Ladybug's identity. Fortunately, Plagg tells him she's alive before he can.
- It Always Rains at Funerals: The only part of Gabriel's funeral we see takes place indoors, but the weather is really gloomy when Adrien visits his grave in the epilogue.
- Language Fluency Denial: Marinette pretends not to understand English when a drunk businessman tries to hit on her during Gabriel's funeral.
- Last Breath Bullet: Liu Jin gives Alain Dupree one.
- Last Disrespects: Marinette seems to be the only one genuinely sad during Gabriel's funeral.
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Chloé exits the room the moment she sees Chat Noir arrived to speak with Marinette.
- Legally Dead: Marinette is announced dead after the assassination.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Throughout the fic, Madame Zhou insists Xiao Lu isn't the type to be behind the murders. Turns out he is behind them, and is also her son.
- Memorial for the Antagonist: Marinette attends the funeral for Gabriel (the main villain of the Miraculous Ladybug series) after he commits suicide, and seems to be the only one actually sad about his death. This is despite the fact that at the start of the fic, Marinette forces him to quit by threatening to expose him, and he obliges, but attempts to silence her later. She spent the last seven years Legally Dead after a hitman hired by Agreste put seven bullets in her.
- Miss Kitty: Madame Zhou runs a chain of brothels, and is very proud that no girl of hers is ever dragged in nor kept in the business against her will. After all, she knows firsthand how it feels.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Alya is actually happy that Adrien spent the night with a girl instead of wallowing in memories of the long dead Marinette, but goes absolutely berserk upon hearing a noise from upstairs, and realizing the two must have been defiling the late girl's bed.
- Mistaken for Junkie: Gabriel briefly suspects Adrien of using drugs due to his behavior and haggard appearance. In reality, he was afraid to sleep after what happened to his love, and was spending all his time looking for her.
- Mutual Kill: Alain Dupree mortally wounds Liu Jin, but gets a Last Breath Bullet in return.
- My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever: A non-violent case. Chloé tries to make Marinette give up her Legally Dead status and return home, but no arguments are sufficient to overcome her fears. So she gives up and leaves the room... because she saw Chat Noir arriving, and knows he will be more successful.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Gabriel, upon realizing his son is Chat Noir, and he had ordered his only love killed.
- Narrative Profanity Filter: When two people are cursing at each other in Chapter 22, Chat only notes that he can't understand half the Chinese curses despite knowing the language.
- Never Found the Body: Marinette falls into Seine off the bridge.
- No One Could Survive That!: Conveniently for Marinette, that's what everyone believes about a girl who fell off a bridge after being shot seven times.
- Offing the Offspring: Presumably, Madame Zhou “taking care” of her son after he's defeated involves that.
- Out-of-Character Alert: When Alya sees Adrien actually laughing, she drops her phone. Later, Sabine realizes her daughter is back as soon as she sees Adrien is in a good mood.
- Pair the Spares: Chloe and Nathaniel's romance has pretty little buildup. They do make a nice couple though.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Gabriel Agreste's suicide is the start of the fic proper.
- Punch a Wall: Adrien does this a couple of times. Not surprising, since he has plenty of reasons to be frustrated.
- Redeeming Replacement: Nathaniel as the new Hawk Moth. He still doesn't tend to show off his costume in public.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Madame Zhou knew Marinette's identity from the start, yet hadn't told her until she needed a favor.
- Stalker Shrine: Nathaniel has all the walls covered in Marinette's portraits.
- Succession Crisis: The head of the local Triad branch is seriously ill, so naturally there are a number of people wanting to take his place.
- Talking to the Dead: The epilogue is Adrien at Gabriel's grave.
- Tears of Joy: Happened to more than one person once they see Marinette alive.
- Tempting Fate: Marinette constantly says nothing can go wrong as she goes to meet Madame Zhou.
- Their First Time: Chapter 18 ends as Adrien and Marinette are about to have theirs.
- Treachery Cover Up: The full truth of Gabriel's crimes is never revealed to the public. Conveniently, the heroes do manage to gather enough material to cobble together a believable half-truth.
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue: The heroes' identity reveals to Nino and Alya.
- The Triads and the Tongs: Much of the plot is connected to a Succession Crisis in the Paris branch of the Triad.
- Vengeance Denied: Out of the three people connected to the attempt on Marinette, one commits suicide. The other two fall victim to a Mutual Kill.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Yes, just a quick trip to discuss some matters with Madame Zhou.
