A/N: You know, there are a lot of fics based on episodes in this archive, but one episode that I haven't seen done before is one of my personal favorites: "The Butterfly Effect." I remember how I thought it would be pretty interesting to see a world where the events of the episode weren't just things that happened in Lincoln's head. Thus, this fic was born.
Just one small difference; here, Lori and Clyde never hooked up. While that was funny for the episode, since I'm playing this for the long run, it would be a little uncomfortable and disturbing. She just broke up with Bobby and disowned Leni. That's it.
I'd like to thank Omega Ultra for encouraging me to go for longer stories/chapters. And I'd like to thank Exotos135 and JamesSunderlandsPillow for giving me some idea of how to roll with this story.
Hope you all enjoy.
It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway across the world.
To put it in less poetic terms, the smallest of actions can have the greatest of consequences. The Loud family became familiarized with the butterfly effect on June 9, 2016, when the only son of the family, a young Lincoln Loud, accidently destroyed his sister's beakers with a stray yo-yo. Since that incident, his ditzy sister Leni had left to pursue science and academia, two of his sisters had become hardened criminals, and there was the small manner that the white-haired boy was currently in the clutches of his giant baby sister.
"DON'T EAT ME, LILY!" Lincoln shouted in pure fear, as the baby, supersized by the spilled chemicals, brought him closer and closer to her mouth, as if she were about to swallow him. The nervous boy closed his eyes shut, and prayed that she wouldn't chew…
"Lincoln… Lincoln… Lincoln, wake up…"
The boy's eyes shot wide open, though they later closed again from the intensity of the lights above him. He opened them more slowly and softly, rubbing his left eye as he sat up in his bed. He turned to the monotone voice that was urging him to wake up, and saw his younger sister Lucy standing by his bedside, shaking him to waking.
"L-Lucy, g'morning…" he said tiredly, before he let out a huge yawn, "Hey, Lucy, do you still have that book of dream interpretation?"
The Gothic girl nodded. "Why do you need your nightly visions deciphered?"
"Well, I saw a lot of weird stuff in my dream last night," Lincoln explained to her, "I mean, Lily was a giant, Luna got recruited by Mic Swagger, I think you were a vampire or something. Can you tell me what my dream meant?"
Lucy shook her head. "Sorry, I can't."
"Why not?"
"Sigh. Because this," Lucy said as she opened her mouth open for her brother, revealing her canines to have become elongated and sharper than they were before. Lincoln jumped back, startled by his sister's new vampire fangs, and the truth slowly dawned on him…
"That wasn't a dream. You… you really are a vampire," Lincoln said in a shocked and scared tone, pointing a shaking finger at his sister. Lucy nodded curtly, but then softened a little and gave her frightened brother a little half-smile, and cupped his hand to calm him down.
"It's okay, Lincoln. I don't bite," Lucy said somewhat jokingly, before slightly blushing and looking to the floor, "Except for earlier, when I was carrying you to your bed and… I got a little hungry."
It was then that Lincoln noticed a significant amount of pain and discomfort on one side of his neck. He motioned for a mirror, and Lucy gave him a small mirror, which he put in front of his neck, and confirmed Lucy's story. Four small holes in the side of his neck, though interestingly they didn't seem to be bleeding. Though, as Lincoln realized, that was probably due to the fact that Lucy had drunk the blood that escaped.
"So, everything that happened in my dream… Lori dumping Bobby…"
Lucy nodded.
"… Luan becoming a political activist…"
Again, Lucy nodded.
"… Lisa working at a gas station for Flip of all people…"
Lucy nodded one last time, before she interrupted his listing with "It all happened Lincoln. You didn't dream a single thing," she said calmly. Lincoln sighed, "All because of my stupid yo-yo…" he muttered guiltily, in a voice too low for her to hear. The boy began to feel waves of guilt for causing all of this to happen to his sisters; they weren't the most normal family before, but they were happier and more stable. Now…
Now…
"Oh my God," Lincoln said as his eyes widened in horror. He quickly grabbed Lucy by her shoulders, and panickedly asked her, "Lucy, what happened to Lily? You didn't just leave her…"
"Of course not, dear brother," Lincoln heard a lispy voice say in his doorway. Lincoln looked away from the Goth girl and towards the door, where he saw his second youngest sister Lisa standing, wearing her gas station uniform and holding a small juice box in her hands.
"Lisa," Lincoln exhaled in a moment of calming, as he withdrew his tensed hands from Lucy's shoulders. "I'm so glad to see you. I bet you took care of Lily, right?"
Lisa nodded. "I felt a bit guilty for causing my beloved roommate trouble with her body mass with my inability to adhere to lab safety standards, so I cooked up a formula after Lucy removed you from her hands yesterday, in my final act before I give up science for good," the toddler explained.
"Give up science for good?" Lincoln repeated in confusion, before he remembered what happened between her and Leni. When the normally ditzy and slow sister sustained a blow to the head, she received an impressive boost to her IQ. After she solved a complicated formula that Lisa had made a mistake with, the younger girl had abandoned science for good, and gone to work at Flip's Food and Fuel. Lincoln grunted with anger; only Flip would hire a toddler to work for him.
"Yes. I have opted to leave the study of the natural world to those more equipped for it. Like," the girl hissed before she spat out the name of her older sibling, "Leni. I'm off to my job later, and I just came by to ask you for some help."
"Help with what?"
The young girl smiled embarassedly as she walked over to Lincoln and handed him the apple juice box. "Could you… you know…"
Lincoln sighed, but put on a small smile. After the insane day he had, even by his standards, it was nice to have something small and normal to deal with. "Sure thing, Lisa," he said as he grabbed the small juice box and stabbed the straw into it. To his surprise, it didn't penetrate. "What the…" he muttered as he stabbed the juice box over and over, before he finally examined the straw itself.
"Great. The straw isn't even sharp," Lincoln said in annoyance, before turning back to Lucy, "Hey, Lucy, open up."
The vampire opened her mouth and Lincoln jabbed the juice box on her sharp fang, finally opening it up. He stuck the straw inside the hole his sister made, and handed it back to Lisa. "Thanks, Luce."
"And thank you, elder fraternal unit. Well, I will be making my way to the exit, and to the rest of my life as a gas station worker," Lisa said. She tried to maintain a little smile, but as she turned away from her siblings, she felt that smile quickly wipe off her face.
I'll get used to it. Eventually.
"Good morning, bro," Luna greeted from her seat on the couch, as Lincoln (and bat-Lucy, who was perched on his shoulder) descended down the stairs to the living room. Lincoln greeted her back with a small wave and a smile, and looked around the lower floor of his house. His home was a lot more… empty than it usually was. He knew Lisa was at her new job, Lily was most likely asleep in her crib as she was now back to normal, and Leni was off at Harvard disproving quarks or some other scientific fact. But it still seemed like no one else was around, something that saddened the young boy. He had always wished for peace and quiet in his home, but now that he got it…
It seemed like Luna noticed the forlorn and confused look on her brother's face, as she sighed softly before calling out "LANA!" Lincoln heard a disturbance in the other room, and watched as his younger sister Lana rolled in from the kitchen, still inside her giant hamster ball.
"Hey Lincoln," Lana said as she waved from inside her safety bubble, "Glad to see you're okay, after what happened with you and Lily."
"Oh yeah, I'm fine. I'm just glad Lucy helped me out. Even if she did bite me on the way back up," he said angrily as he shot a glare at the bat sitting on his shoulder. Lucy attempted a little shrug with her wings, but it looked less like a gesture of 'oh well' and more like she was about to keel over and die.
"I still can't believe the little spooky dudette's now got a vampire heart," Luna remarked as she scooped up a few remaining pieces of her cereal with her spoon. Lincoln looked at her with shock. "Wait… you guys know about Lucy?"
"Yeah, that she's a vampire because one of the bats got sprayed with chemicals and bit her… Of course we know," Luna remarked in a very "matter of fact" way.
"I'll be honest, I thought she was always a vampire," Lana admitted with a shrug. Lincoln could only assume that the noise coming from his shoulder was a weird bat form of giggling.
"Well… you all seem to be taking it very well…"
Luna grinned slightly. "Lincoln, we've seen Leni glow up like Christmas lights and a sentient monster of sludge. Is it really that hard to think our little Luce became a vamp? Besides, you know what they say; vampires will never hurt you," Luna said, her grin widening at her music reference.
Unfortunately for her, her brother did not seem to register it; "So, is Lana the only one here?"
Luna nodded her head. "Don't worry, everyone'll be back later today. Except for, well, Lynn and…"
"… Lola," Lana finished sadly. She sighed deeply inside her bubble, and sat down on the floor of it. It was clear to everyone that she missed her dear twin sister. Lincoln looked at the young repair girl with sympathy, and approached her airtight bubble. He got on his knees so he could talk to the girl at her eye level, and tapped the glass slightly, so she would look up at him.
"Listen, Lana, Lola's going to be okay. She and Lynn just had… an off day. I'm sure they'll be back to us in no time," Lincoln said with a reassuring smile.
Huh, that means no arm punches for a while. Cool.
"Yeah, you're right. Thanks Lincoln," Lana said with a smile.
"If you really wanted to thank me, you'd come out of that bubble and give me a hug," Lincoln offered as he extended his arms for an embrace. However, Lincoln was shocked when he saw actual fear go through Lana's eyes, as she jumped back in her bubble, rolling it slightly over, her tumbling a bit inside.
"N-no thanks, Lincoln. I… I think I'm fine in here. Really," she said with an uneasy smile, and before her brother could say anything the young tomboy had began rolling away from him in a panicked hurry.
"You shouldn't rush her out of her safe place, little dude," Lincoln heard Luna say behind him. He sighed audibly and turned to her, as she eyed him with pity, "After what happened to Lols, can you really blame her for being worried?"
"No, no, I can't blame her," Lincoln said sadly, almost to himself more than to Luna, "I can blame myself though, for causing all of this. I messed up, and now everyone else has to pay the price…" he stopped when he felt the bat on his shoulder nuzzling his cheek, as if trying to comfort him. He smiled slightly at Lucy, and petted her gently. "I just wish there was someone to turn to right now, who could help me out…"
Luna shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry, Linc. After the Popstar saw that vid of me trashing the hotel, he's grounded me for a while. But, you know, if you need someone who can get everything back in working order again…" Luna trailed off, hoping he would get it.
Lincoln scratched his head in confusion, wondering what she was implying... before snapping his fingers as the answer came to him. "Of course, Lori. If anyone can help me with all of this, it's her," Lincoln said excitedly. He grabbed the bat sitting on his shoulder and tossed her over to his rocker sister, and she carefully caught Lucy in her hands. "Thanks Luna. I'm going to go get Lori. Where is she right now?"
"I think she'd be at the mall right now. Though I should warn you; she just might be in a bad, bad mood," Luna cautioned him. Lincoln nodded and ran out the front door. "Bye Luna, bye Lucy."
"Bye, Lincoln," said Lucy as she shifted back to her human form in a cloud of smoke. She looked up at her older sister, who grinned nervously at her and asked; "Soooo… wanna watch remixes of my hotel freakout online?"
"That sounds like fun," Lucy admitted, as the two of them opened up YouView and found a playlist dedicated to exactly that ("Can't believe there's that many of them already").
When Lincoln arrived at the Royal Woods Mall, he had a few places in mind to look for his eldest sister. He recalled every place that she would frequent when she would bring him with her to the mall, and so, like any good man with a plan would, he had mapped out every possible place to find her based on her current emotional status.
"Well, I know she's angry with Bobby and Leni, but by now that anger should have cooled down into sadness. So if I'm correct, then…"
Lincoln made his way to the food court, and rushed past several burger joints, pizza places and sushi bars to find exactly what he was looking for; the ice cream parlor.
"Hi," he said as he approached the young man standing at at the cash register, "Have you seen my older sister? She's about seventeen years old, has blonde hair, wears blue…"
"Oh, you mean the crying girl who keeps ordering the rocky road ice cream and threatens me with bodily harm if I stop serving them to her," the teen said in a cracking voice, as he pointed to the far corner of the food court, "She's over there, crying about a bear or something."
Lincoln looked to where he was pointing and grimaced as he saw that it was indeed the eldest daughter of the Loud family, weeping openly as she played around with her brown ice cream with her spoon, only scooping it up and eating it after she wiped her eyes. "Oh, Boo Boo Bear…" she cried out like a banshee as she started another round of crying, putting her face to the table and wrapping her arms around her head.
"God, it's been like this for a while now. Seriously, doesn't she have better things to do?"
"Hey, don't talk about my sister like that," Lincoln snapped back defensively, even though he completely agreed with the young man. He walked away from the ice cream place and over to his sister, wandering past rows and rows of empty white tables and chairs.
How long has she even been here? You'd think she'd try to find someone else by now… Hell, maybe she'd even go for Clyde now, Lincoln joked to himself, grinning slightly as he did. However, as he finally approached Lori, he let that grin slide off his face, and replaced it with a look of concern and care for his sister.
As much as he and everyone else at the Loud House liked to joke about Lori's obsession with her Bobby Boo Boo Bear, he still knew that her boyfriend was very important to her, and he felt pangs of brotherly affection for her as he saw her in her unhappy state.
"H-hey Lori. It's me, Lincoln," Lincoln said softly as he tapped his sister's arm. Lori looked up from the table, eyeliner dripping down her face, and she responded with "What are you doing here, twerp?"
Just ignore that. She's having a hard time.
"Um, Lori, I know you're… sad and all," Lincoln said as he looked at the pile of spoons and ice cream cups that were scattered around his sister, "But we kinda have things going on back home. Like, really big problems. Lana's become scared of getting hurt, Lucy's a vampire now, Lynn and Lola are on the lam…"
"Lincoln, do you really think that a story that stupid is going to get me to budge? At least come up with something believable," Lori spat at him, "Lana wrestles with alligators, Lola would never do anything to hurt her reputation, and oh yeah, vampires aren't real."
"Well, it's not the supernatural creature, it's more of Lisa's chemicals and some loose bats… Wait, what about Lynn becoming a criminal?"
Lori sniffled and shrugged. "That's the one I can believe."
"Of course it is," Lincoln said as he rolled his eyes, "Look, Lori, we still need you at home…"
"No you don't. Who needs me when you have your precious Leni? Leni, who's younger and prettier and… and… has a bigger chest size than me…" Lori admitted shamefully before shoving another spoonful of chocolate ice cream in her mouth.
"Thanks for the mental images," Lincoln said with annoyance, "But Leni is also gone. She went off to Harvard or something…"
"Of course she went off to Harvard. All I can manage is a small college in the city. I guess I'm literally not good enough for them. Just like I'm literally not good enough for my Boo Boo Bear…" she ended with another sniffle.
"Well, technically, you don't know if he cheated on you…" Lincoln started, but immediately stopped when he saw the dangerous look that Lori flashed him in her eyes.
"What are you saying, Lincoln?" she hissed at him, any sign that she had just been crying completely gone from her voice.
"Well, um, haha," Lincoln stammered nervously as he backed away, tugging at his collar as he did, "I'm just saying that… all you did was find a gift from Bobby on Leni's side of the closet. And, well, you jumped to some," he gulped, "big conclusions."
At this point Lori had completely stopped sobbing, which was good for the man at the ice cream place, who took the opportunity to jump over the counter and run off like a coward. It was not good for Lincoln, whose older sister was now staring daggers at him, towering over him. "Lincoln… are you saying that Bobby and Leni… never betrayed me? Are you saying that I was… wrong?" she asked.
He swallowed again, feeling his knees shaking, as he choked out a feeble "Y-yes."
Lori seemed to think about it for a second, and Lincoln slightly eased up, expecting her to realize how irrational she was being. A look of annoyance washed over her face, but then, much to Lincoln's surprise and relief, her facial expression softened, and she looked down to her little brother with a bit of a sheepish smile.
"I guess… Maybe I should've talked to Leni and Bobby before I assumed anything," she admitted, "Actually, I'll talk to Leni right now, and let her explain herself. Is she back at home?"
"No, it's like I said, she went off to start inventing things…"
Lori's eyes narrowed at him. "Wait, you were being serious? Leni… is literally at Harvard? That's literally weirder than the vampire stuff (assuming that's also true). What, did Lisa give her some sort of brain boost?"
"Um, no, actually. In fact, Lisa was so confused by Leni's new brainpower that she quit science for good, and went to work for Flip…"
"Wait, Lisa… went off to work for Flip?' Lori repeated in confusion.
"Yeah, she wanted to…"
"HOW COULD YOU LET THAT HAPPEN?!" Lori screamed angrily at him, "YOU LET A FOUR YEAR OLD GIRL WORK AT A GAS STATION, FOR FLIP OF ALL PEOPLE! I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE RESPONSIBLE ONE!"
"D-don't blame me," Lincoln tried to defend himself, "I had my own things going on. I almost got eaten by Lily yesterday."
Lori just sighed angrily, and rubbed her forehead in thought. "Where are Mom and Dad in all of this?"
"Well, this is still Season 1. They don't really do much now."
Lori eyed him with confusion, causing the snow-haired boy to sigh. "It's something only I get. Isn't that right?" he said despondently as he turned to the reader.
"Ok, I literally don't have time for your usual sci-fi crazy talk, Lincoln. Come on," she said as she grabbed his arm and started walking towards the escalator, "We're going to see Flip."
Lisa did not know what was worse; the fact that she was filling up cars for the momentary gain of a cruel greedy idiot, or the fact that she filling up cars with juice because of Leni's invention. Maybe that was what bothered her the most; the fact that Leni made a huge societal change in such a short time of being a genius. She had been building robots since she developed fine motor skills; she should have been the one who invented a new car. Still, Lisa was relieved when most of the cars that came by were still using fossil fuels, as Leni's new invention had yet to break into the general market. Still, one day that would change...
As Lisa sat there, waiting for another vehicle to appear, she noticed one coming up from the road. She sighed slightly and got up off the curb, ready to serve another customer. But then she squinted slightly at the vehicle in question. It looked... familiar...
Hm. That looks a lot like Vanzilla...
The large van stopped before the small girl, and she watched her eldest sister and only brother exit from Vanzilla. As soon as Lori saw her, she sighed of relief, and scooped up her toddler sister in a hug, whispering in her ear "I'm literally so sorry, Lisa. I should've stopped this sooner."
"Hey, hey, Lincoln's sister, put down Lincoln's sister and let her get back to work," said Flip as he walked out of his mini-mart. Lori's eyes flashed with anger as she put Lisa down next to Lincoln, patting her head a little before rushing over to Flip, angrily yelling "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? FORCING A CHILD TO WORK AT A GAS STATION. SHE COULD'VE BEEN HURT OR GOTTEN SICK!" Even Flip, normally abrasive and unapologetic, seemed to jump back from Lori's anger, but quickly started shouting back "WELL, LINCOLN'S SISTER CAME TO ME FOR WORK, AND I'M NOT ONE TO DENY THE YOUTH JOB OPPORTUNITIES!"
"WELL, SHE QUITS. SHE'S COMING HOME WITH ME RIGHT NOW!"
"SHE CAN'T QUIT! WE HAVE A CONTRACT!"
As the two bickered and argued back and forth, Lisa turned to her brother Lincoln, and asked him "Why did you bring Lori, Lincoln? I told you, this is all I have after I gave up science."
"Lisa, it doesn't have to be like that. Just because Leni got a little smarter doesn't mean you have to give up what you love. I know that you like working with test tubes more than gas pumps."
Lisa sighed slightly, and sat back down on the ground, inviting Lincoln to do the same himself. "It's not just Leni. It's just that... well, everything that's happened recently with our family... I realized that it was all my fault."
"W-what do you mean?"
"I mean that the hole in Lori and Leni's closet... Lynn failing her classes and getting kicked off her teams... Lucy becoming a supernatural being... Lily turning into a giant... and everything else that happened to our siblings... it's all my fault, for not being caring of my chemicals. My science does no one any good."
"That's not true. What about what you did for Lily earlier?" Lincoln protested.
"One example of benefit does not make up for nine examples of harm. I made a mistake, and I need to take responsibility for that. So if you'll excuse me, I need to convince our eldest sibling unit that I'm fine with my job here," Lisa said as she stood up and turned to walk over to Lori.
Take responsibility for that.
Those four words caused Lincoln a strong feeling of guilt. So it wasn't Leni that caused her to give up science, it was him. It was all him. Lori breaking up with Bobby, Leni leaving her family, Lisa working for Flip, Lynn getting kicked off the soccer team, Lola getting injured, Lana getting scared of being hurt, Luna embarrassing herself before the world, Luan giving up comedy, Lucy becoming a vampire, Lily getting super-sized... it was all him. And now one of the few people who could help him get things back to normal had falsely blamed herself for everything. Lincoln swallowed heavily, knowing what he had to do.
"Wait, Lisa, hold on," he said, grabbing her by the shoulder to stop her. The young girl turned to him with curiosity in her eyes, and Lincoln sighed heavily, before confessing the truth, "It wasn't your fault that all of this happened. It's... it's my fault. I broke your experiment with a yo-yo trick, and I didn't tell you, and then... all this happened."
"But... but why wouldn't you tell me?" Lisa asked him, "You're usually the more responsible one."
"I... I thought you would hate me for ruining your work," Lincoln admitted, looking to the ground in shame, "So I decided to keep it to myself."
"Oh, Lincoln," Lisa said softly before she smiled softly at him, "Lincoln, I'd never hate you for ruining one of my experiments. And, truth be told..." she said as her smile turned more humorous, "That whole set-up was meant to be destroyed. That was the experiment."
"Wait, what? You mean I could have just stopped all of this from happening if I just told you?" Lincoln asked. Lisa nodded her head, and the young boy sighed audibly, "Dang it."
"Wait a minute... if I didn't mess up, then... that means I can go back to science. YES! Thank you, elder sibling," Lisa cheered as she wrapped her arms around Lincoln in an embrace. Lincoln wrapped his arms around her as well, returning the hug. "No problem, Lisa. Thanks for not hating me."
Lisa beamed at him before turning her attention back to Lori and Flip, who were still in a screaming fight with each other. "BOTH OF YOU, LISTEN UP!" she yelled at them, causing them to stop and turn to her. Lisa walked past them, into the store, and came out a few minutes later with several bars of chocolate in her hand. "Consider this my severance package, you Neanderthal, because I quit," she said triumphantly, Lori and Lincoln cheering her on in the background. And as Lori, Lisa and Flip huddled up back into their argument, Lincoln smiled and turned to the reader.
"Well, I've always said that living in a large family is tough. And now that some of my sisters are activists, criminals and vampires, things might get a little tougher. But... at least I know that I can do my best to get things back to normal. I just need a little help from my sisters, and know that they are always on our family's side," he finished as he turned back to watch Lisa turn the ice box into a laser-shooting robot to chase Flip across the lot.
Well, that was something. I know this was a bit all over the place, but I had fun writing it. I have a vague idea of how each sister is going to have her own little story arc, each of them intersecting with the other's, and I'll admit right now some sisters' story arcs will be more important than others, based on how different they've ended up after the chemical spilling incident. Luna is pretty much the same as before, so hers won't be as significant as sisters like Leni or Lana, whose entire personalities have changed.
Side note, first time I broke 5k. And all in one day, too. Sweet.
Thanks for reading. Next chapter is going to focus on two sisters coming home…