why did burger king choose evil tikki as the pose for their kid’s meal toy?
probably to draw attention to the dearest family episode because of their other merchandising tie-in (the crowns) or for a more sinister reason we can’t know yet
Lila Rossi had lived her life by the golden rule: You could get people to do anything if they thought you had gold. Honestly, anyone would be blinded by a glimmer if you made it seem it was worth something.
And Lila was very well versed in the allure of pyrite. As well as what people would be stupid enough to do for it. “All that glitters is gold”, after all. A little shine here. A sparkle there. With a few choice words, she could have anyone convinced she was gold.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Even when things were found out eventually, it never came back on her. They tended to make excuses for her so much that she didn’t have to bother coming up with lies half the time. Then by the time anything did start to fall apart, she was already moved on. A fresh start with no one the wiser.
Consequences were for other people. And this situation with Witch Hunter was no different. Annoying as it may be.
She just had to bide her time until Ladybug showed up to deal with the akuma like she always did. Lila could stay hidden until then. And even in the worst case, Hawk Moth considered her his ally and she still too valuable to risk. If Rose did catch her, he wouldn’t allow her to go through with harming her.
And if he did decide to try and cut her as a loss, she had suspicions and reasonable evidence as to his true identity to implicate him.
Lila had been in this game for years, after all.
Even now, despite where she was, she still had an edge. That was Lila’s true skill. She was crafty and clever and fully capable of turning any circumstances to her advantage.
While she cursed Marinette for shoving her in the supply room, even that ended up being more to her own benefit. It seemed that the supply closet carried within it a number of useful items. Cleaning supplies. A cart. Towels. And it seemed a couple of the staff had been using it to store their personal belongings, bags, and work clothes.
Clearly she needed it more than they did right now.
Within minutes, Lila had donned a disguise. The janitor’s uniform was big on her, though it allowed room underneath for extra padding to make her look more filled out. And apron on top of that to keep things in place. The shoes were old and clearly belonged to a man given the smell, but they were useful nonetheless. And then the hairnet and hat to keep her hair hidden.
She checked herself in a mirror…and promptly stuck out her tongue in distaste.
She looked horrible, but she at least didn’t look like Lila Rossi. And it might be enough to keep them off her tail for a while. People were stupid, after all. Especially when groupthink was involved.
Now disguised, Lila poked her head out of the closet. The hallway was empty. She could still hear voices further along, but it was better to be out and about now instead of letting them catch her in the supply closet or leaving the supply closet. That would just make them think she was hiding, and at least acting like she was “working” would give the sense that she belonged there and add to the illusion.
Lila started pushing the cleaning cart in the direction of the stairs. It would be closer to the exit for one thing, but there were also restrooms right nearby the stairs and she could make the excuse that she was heading there to clean the stalls.
Although she heard shouting, no one was in sight. Not even Marinette, whether the girl had disappeared to. No doubt she’d planned to trap Lila and lead the mob right to her.
Honestly, it’s what Lila would have done had their places been switched. Why would Marinette act any differently?
Of course, Marinette was a goody-goody. It made her easy to predict and manipulate. But really, Marinette was no different than anyone else. She’d drop the nice girl act once it inconvenienced her. It only made sense that Lila act first.
“Hey! You there!” Came a voice. Staying cool, Lila casually looked over her shoulder to see a man and woman walking towards her. Strangers. She hadn’t met them before, but from their countenance and the rope the man was holding, they were clearly part of the akuma’s thrall. “You didn’t happen to see Lila Rossi around here, have you?”
She cleared her throat before speaking in a voice as low and gravely as she could. “What’s she look like?” She asked, acting curious.
“She’s a teenager. Fourteen to fifteen years old. She wears orange and has her hair in this ridiculous style. Honestly, it looks like sausages are attached to her head.”
How dare you—!
“No, sir!” Lila replied with false cheer as she had to hold back her annoyance. “Just fixing to do my sweeping! Sweepy, sweepy!”
The man gave her a strange look. “Okay…”
The woman shook her head at him before turning to Lila. “Just keep an eye out if you see her. She’s a horrible liar and cannot be trusted. She has a good punishment coming to her.”
Like that would be happening.
“Sure thang! You give that little miscreant what for!” She replied before pretending to go back to her work. The two gave each other uncertain looks before shrugging and going back to searching the rest of the school.
Hah. Fools.
She carried on towards the exit, patting herself on the back for another crisis avoided.
Unbeknownst to her, the two watched her leave.
“Why was she talking about sweeping with a mop?” The man asked his partner.
“Who knows?” The woman replied, sending out a message on her phone. “Let’s make sure to keep an eye out for her, just in case...”
_______________________
The sounds of chanting distracted Marinette from her kwami, drawing her attention to the hallways outside of the room. It seemed that some of the marchers had started searching the school for where Lila could be hiding.
And it appeared that Lila herself had noticed as well, Marinette bumped into her shortly after hiding Tikki in her bag and leaving the classroom.
“Lila, what are you doing out here?” Marinette hissed upon seeing the other girl out of the closet. She was wearing a disguise of some sort that she must have lifted from the supply closet. Clearly an act of desperation, Marinette could tell. The apron hung loosely around her and barely held the blankets she’d stuffed underneath it in place. The janitor’s jacket was much too big for her. And she had gone so far as to put one of the hairnets over her head. The boots covering her feet were ill-fitting and clunky, more likely to trip her if she tried to run in them. Altogether, it was an attempt to give her the illusion of a different weight and stature, and make her appear to be one of the school’s janitorial staff. A good idea in theory.
But as it was, she just looked like a disaster bound to get more attention than deflect it.
“They started to check the rooms and nearly found me!” Lila hissed.
“Not if the door was locked!”
“They could have busted it down!”
“It was a SUPPLY CLOSET! If you’d stayed in place and kept quiet, they would have just moved on. All you had to do was stay hidden!”
“And then what?” Lila demanded. “Wait for you to lead the mob right to me?”
Marinette growled. “In case you’ve missed the memo, I’m the only one fully aware of just how horrible you and still NOT willing to sell you out to the akuma.”
“And that is ever so kind of you.” Lila said with false graciousness.
Marinette…just didn’t have it in her to try and fight. She was already anxious, paranoid, and on edge. The akuma was slowly taking over the city all for the purpose of hunting down one teenage girl. A teenage girl that Marinette could honestly say she despised more than any other, and would be ashamed to admit she would want to simply leave to her fate. Even her own kwami was advocating for it.
But Ladybug is better than that. And so is Marinette.
So despite her misgivings, nudging from Tikki, and temptation in general, Marinette took it upon herself to protect her enemy and try to lead her to safety.
However, since she was doing so as Marinette, it was only a matter of time before they were bound to run into a search party from the mob. Glancing around the corner of the school, Marinette counted…five…six of them? And sure enough, there was the akumatized Rose—Witch Hunter herself, scouring the streets and calling more people to her cause as she continued to read from her list with one hand and ring a bell with the other.
Was the scroll the akumatized object? It seemed too obvious. But the bell was questionable as well…
Nevermind that. Sanctuary was the priority right now. And the safest place she could think of was home.
But as it was, the mob was blocking the way to the Bakery. As loathe as Marinette was to let Lila into her home (and as much as part of her knew Lila would abuse the sanctuary to find something to use against her), it was the only place at this point she could think of to safely hide the other girl while she transformed into Ladybug.
Unfortunately, they had to find a way past the hunting party first.
Also unfortunately, Lila had her own plan on how to get around this obstacle.
Said plan involved shoving Marinette into the open. And hard enough to make the naturally clumsy girl tumble out from their hiding place and face plant onto the ground.
“Look!” Lila called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to make her voice echo. “A conspirator helping the Witch! Someone grab her!”
Marinette gasped and sent Lila a nasty glare from over her shoulder.
Curse her sudden but inevitable betrayal!
Marinette turned back to the mob, fully knowing she would have seconds to see them converge upon her before her untimely demise.
Only…they just stood there staring at her.
“Hey! That’s Marinette!” Came a cry—Alya, she recognized.
“She was shoved!” Someone exclaimed.
“But she’s an innocent!” Witch Hunter announced. “The sort to try and help someone no matter how horrible they are or how little they deserve it.”
Oh. Thank you, Rose. Kind of someone to actually notice.
“And someone shoved her and tried to make her a target!”
Gasps abounded. Marinette blinked in confusion.
“Sure, let’s go with that.”
Lila was clearly even more confused, given her bewildered and frustrated expression.
“Only the Witch would do that!” Witch Hunter proclaimed loudly, drawing more people to the area. She pointed to the poorly disguised Lila. “No disguise can hide your foulness! GET THE WITCH!”
“Wait…let’s not go with that!” Marinette cried out, but she was ignored as the mob charged at Lila with a multitude of battle cries and wielding various objects including but not limited to some branches, two hockey sticks, and somehow, a pitchfork.
“Oh come on!” Lila exclaimed, swiftly turning and making a run for it.
The mob chased after her with Witch Hunter at the lead. They all made sure not to trample Marinette as they passed, leaving her unharmed save for her initial tumble, so there was that at least.
Within moments, Marinette was left mostly alone, save for a few members of the hunting party who saw fit to try and check on her. She was still sprawled out on the ground. Less injured than she expected she would be. But alive! And not taken by the mob.
That...
That did not go as she expected.
Though it clearly didn’t go as Lila expected either.
So…win?
“It’s okay, Marinette.” Alya said, in a way that might have been considered comforting had it been a couple months ago and a mob-inciting akuma not been involved. “Lila is a horrible deceiver. You didn’t know any better.”
…She could swear Alya was patronizing her.
“Yeah. Sure.” Not like she had been the one trying to warn everyone else or anything.
Alya appeared oblivious to the sarcasm. Instead, she pulled out her cellphone and grinned at whatever was on it.
“No worries! I’ve already put out an alert to the Ladyblog. Everyone will know of Lila’s crimes, so there’s no way she’ll escape punishment.” She smiled at Marinette. “You go home and rest. You’ve been through more than enough from that Liar.” She spat out the final word like a curse.
Marinette…forced herself to weakly smile back.
“Thanks…”
She watched, wondering what weird morbid world she was in as Alya announced she would be going to rejoin the search so she could get Lila’s demise on camera. For prosperity.
Marinette just stared as the last of the mob trailed off.
i actually low key disliked tikki the whole time but it was just because i found her design creepy because it reminds me of boss baby and she was like floating there the whole time watching marinette
tikki could’ve very easily told alya to not wear the alliance ring. like girl marinette explained this to you when she decided not to wear it, you couldn’t pass that along to alya?
