28. Chapter28

AN: This and the previous chapter were originally going to be a single chapter, but it was getting too long. So I cut it up, then fleshed out what I had left into this chapter. I should probably just save it until next week, but...eh, what the heck. Call it a Halloween present, I guess.

Lori stared at Leni from across their table. They'd relocated to a nearby diner, the kind of place you'd pull over for solely because you needed a vehicle to transmit syrup into your body, and little else. Thankfully, they weren't here to enjoy themselves. The quality, or lack thereof, worked to her advantage in this regard. She needed a place where they could talk without being disturbed. Unfortunately, Leni didn't seem to be feeling especially talkative.

"Leni..." Lori sighed as the other girl ducked behind her menu, a very transparent stalling tactic.

"Leni!" Lori said a bit more emphatically. This caused the fashionista to poke the tippy top of her head into view. That was progress, of a sort.

"Leni, I need to know why you did what you did."

Leni mumbled something from her makeshit hiding place. The one word Lori could make out was the "Linky."

Lori groaned as she leaned back in her chair. She hadn't seen what had happened herself, but she'd heard the commotion. By the time she'd arrived on the scene, Leni and Lynn had been engaged in a tug of war over their little brother. Leni had hugging the boy for dear life, his face planted firmly into her ample bosom, while Lynn was trying to extract the younger boy by yanking on his legs, as if pulling Caliburn from the stone.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Leni protested, finally attaining an audible level of speech.

"Leni, you were literally smothering the poor kid." Lori deadpanned. "And when we finally got you to let him go, his face was covered in lipstick." Leni blushed, and slid back behind her menu.

"Leni, I thought we were past this. You've been so-"

"I love Linky!" Her younger sister suddenly exclaimed, poking her head out defiantly.

"Of course you do Leni" Lori replied, trying to keep her voice level. "We all love Lincoln." She tried to ignore the strange, fluttery sensation that arose from within her at that last statement, pushing past the treacherous thoughts that threatened to manifest.

"But you can't just...assault him like that!"

"He liked it!" The younger girl protested emphatically. "He was making all those happy noises mom and dad make when they think we're asleep!"

Bleh, there was a mental image she didn't need. Alright, new tactic.

"Leni, do you remember when that really pushy boy was trying to get you to go out with him?

She nodded. "Yeah. He wasn't very nice."

"He wasn't." Lori agreed. "But you were going to go out with him anyway, because you felt bad for him. Do you remember what I said to you?"

"You said that you should only date someone that you really, really love a whole lot." Leni replied, quietly.

"Exactly-" Lori began.

"But I remember other things too!" Leni slammed her menu shut and slammed it on the table.

Lori blinked, not entirely sure how to react to this turn of events.

"I remember when we were little." Leni began "We were all playing together. You, me, Lynn, and Luna. And Linky. And it was totes fun, all of us together like that." She sighed, wistfully.

"A-and then Lynn told us that she and Linky were going to get married. Luna got mad, and they started fighting. I got scared, because they were hitting each other really hard. But you, Lori.."

She lowered her voice.

"You got really sad."

Lori cleared her throat, trying not to dwell on the memories that were beginning to emerge.

"Leni..." She tried to interject.

"You got supes sad, Lori!" Her sister pushed on, heedlessly. "Then you grabbed Linky and ran away with him!"

"I-I was trying to protect him!" Lori protested. "Lynn and Luna were out of control! We had to buy a new couch because they broke our old one in half!"

"You were." Leni said, nodding in agreement. "And we took him back to our room, and hid under the blankets until mom and dad got home."

Lori found herself smiling at the memory. It was a pretty good one. The three of them huddled together like that. Lincoln, completely uncomprehending what was happening around him, but happy to be spending time with his big sisters.

"And then I asked you how come Lynn got to marry Linky. And you said-"

"...Because she really...really...loved him." Lori finished, grimacing at the memory.

"Totes." Leni nodded in agreement. "And then you said that she had to wait her turn, because we were the oldest, so we got to marry him first!"

"Leni..."

"But then mom and dad came home and got really, really mad! And after the firemen left, they sat us all down and told Lynn that she couldn't marry Linky! No matter how much she loved him!"

"That made Lynn really sad." She continued. "And Luna was sad, and I was super duper sad! But you, Lori."

And suddenly, Leni was looking her straight in the eye. "You were the saddest of all of us."

Now Lori was the one finding it difficult to make eye contact.

"You cried, Lori!" Leni exclaimed, perhaps a bit more loudly than Lori was comfortable with, even with the diner being as deserted as it was. "I gave you so many hugs, and none of them worked! I even tried giving you that special kiss that mom uses to cheer up dad-"

"Leni!" Lori screeched, face burning with embarrassment. Leni, for her part, seemed equally embarrassed at Lori's reaction, and the pair fell into an awkward silence.

Lori sighed. This was not how she'd been expecting things to go.

"Leni, that was in the past. We were so much younger back then. We didn't know any better!"

"I know better now." Leni replied, nodding. "But that doesn't change how I feel. I love Linky, and I'm tired of pretending that I don't!

She paused to take a breath. "And...and I think you are too!"

"I-I don't know what you're..."

"-How come you never talk to Bobby anymore, Lori?" Leni interjected. There was a strange look in her eyes. It was almost...predatory.

"Bobby and I are on...a break right now." Lori mumbled, suddenly finding the floor to be utterly fascinating. So many kinds of brown. "We just need some time to reevaluate this whole, long distance thing..."

"You stopped calling him after you went on that date with Linky!" Leni shouted, pointing her finger at Lori accusingly.

"That wasn't a date!" Lori feebly protested. "Carol was there too!"

"And you were so angry about that!" Leni crowed, puffing up her chest with pride. Lori swore she heard the sound of fabric tearing. "About Carol joining you! Carol! Who now totes has a date with Linky all to herself!"

Lori frowned at the mention of...that. She hated thinking about...that.

"Leni, what are you trying to get a-EEK!" Lori squeaked in surprised as Leni leaped across the table and clasped Lori's hands between her own. Her eyes, burning with determination.

"I want you to help me beat Carol!"

"Luna! We've been over this! You can pick the laser glaive, the vibro guisarme, or the laser-bladed vibro glaive guisarme!"

"And I keep telling you to speak english! What's even the difference!"

"One has a laser! One has a blade! And one has a laserblade!"

Lincoln quietly groaned and hung his head behind his game master's shield.

Lincoln remembered playing his weekly game with Sam, making himself scarce so that she and Luna could have some alone time, and then...nothing. He'd awoken in his bed hours later and feeling strangely refreshed, but with no memory of how he'd gotten there. Short term amnesia wasn't an uncommon occurance in the Loud House, but he normally had something to go off to hint as to the cause. Lisa's subdermal tracking chips, a video recording from his past self, a series of cryptic yet pun ridden clues left by Luan. There had even been that one occasion where he'd awoken to find himself in possession of a mysterious cursed emerald. But this time...nothing.

He'd quickly set that aside, however, as shortly after awakening, he'd been met by Luna and Sam. And in a truely momentus occasion, Luna had asked to play in his game!

Initially he'd been thrilled when Luna had asked if she could play Swords and Cyborgs with him and Sam. Lincoln loved his sisters, but it was so rare for any of them to take an interest in something he liked to do. Plus, with Sam already on board, that put them one step closer to getting a real game going. As much as he enjoyed their solo games, there just weren't that many adventuring opportunities that were appropriate for a single player character, which severely limited the kinds of adventures they could play. But Luna joining them would change everything!

So excited was Lincoln, that he had immediately broken out his campaign notes and started making adjustments, eager to get the girls blasting through space as quickly as possible.

"How about a gun? Can I just use a gun?"

"You can't! You're not smart enough!"

"Excuse me?"

...And that's where things had started going wrong.

"I meant your stats, babe! Your wisdom and intelligence are in the toilet"

"I still don't know what that means!"

Lincoln sunk a little lower as the argument escalated for the umpteenth time that session. Luna, bless her heart, was trying. Really trying. But SC wasn't an especially accommodating game for inexperienced gamers, and Luna was never all that big a fan of science fiction to begin with. That combination was going to result in a fairly high barrier of entry.

"Alright girls." He said at last, climbing to his feet. "This isn't doing anyone any good. How about we take a break?"

"What? No!" Sam protested

"Come on, little bro! I'm really trying here, honest!" Luna chimed in.

"It's cool, Lunes, really." He reassured her, forcing a smile onto his face. "I'm not throwing in the towel. But I just think it'd do us all a lot of good if we took a little time to cool off. I've got a few things I need to work out anyway. How about we meet back here in twenty?"

The girls exchanged worried glances. A less discerning individual would have left it at that, but Lincoln was experienced enough to notice the tiny contortions in their facial features, a sure sign that there was an entire conversation silently taking place between the pair. Finally, activity ceased.

"A-alright Linc." Luna said at last, looking crestfallen. Lincoln flinched at the palpable frustration in her voice.

He leaned down and pulled his big sister into a hug. She froze up, and Lincoln was briefly afraid he had overstepped his boundaries, but she quickly returned the gesture with gusto.

"Seriously, Luna, it's okay." He reassured her. "I've got this. Everything's going to be okay."

He quickly took his leave, only allowing the long held sigh of frustration to escape his lungs after he was a safe distance down the hallway. He could fix this. He was going to fix this.

Lincoln started making his way back to his bedroom, mulling over the situation. The problem, as he saw it, was the setting. Luna wasn't lacking for intelligence or creativity she was just having a hard time wrapping her mind around a genre that she had little experience with. He was confident that if he could somehow repackage all these scary sounding mechanics into something more palatable for the aspiring rocker, perhaps using a game system for a genre that was a little easier to wrap her head around, she'd be able to acclimate to the actual gameplay fairly easily. So the question was, what game would best fit Luna Loud?

Lincoln started taking stock of his inventory, suddenly deeply regretting that crowd funded game he'd seen about rock bands battling it out for dominance of a post apocalyptic wasteland had failed to meet its goal. Battle of the Bands would have been perfect for Luna. But, no point in dwelling over what could have been.

Let's see, Dragons in Places? Fantasy was probably a little more accessible than sci-fi, but he still felt like he could do better. Secrets and Subterfuge? Hmm, a spy game might be a bit more Luna's speed. She already did a great British accent.

Then...it hit him. Holey schamoley! How hadn't he thought of this sooner?

Lincoln threw aside the stack of books he'd been browsing, and flung himself at his bookshelf, heedlessly tossing obstructive tomes over his shoulder as he worked himself deeper and deeper.

He hadn't even thought about this one since he'd bought it, but it had to be here, it just had to!

Just as Lincoln was on the verge of giving up, he found it. Greedily grasping his prize, he made his was back out of the surprisingly labyrinthian shelf. Blinking as his eyes adjusted to the light, he took in the tome that he had so desperately sought.

A familiar card themed, spandex clad hero adorned the front of the book. His trademarked, cocky smile staring back at Lincoln.

Heroes and Zeroes, read the gold embossed font that adorned the top of the cover. The Official Ace Savvy Roleplaying System.

Lincoln grinned triumphantly. Jackpot!