That Engineer: Not a two-shot. I'm thinking more like three to five chapters.
SKYx10 and The PhantomHokage: Thank you both very much for the kind words :)
Concerns about Hank and Hawk's hooliganism were still on Lincoln's mind the next day, mixed in with unpleasant thoughts about his break-up. So Lincoln was thankful that he had the Halloween house planning to do; it was a welcome distraction from all that.
Plus, he got to spend time with Lucy. More intimate time than usual…
Lincoln stopped dead in his tracks before entering Lynn and Lucy's room. He scowled to himself, quietly muttering "Dang it." He knew what his brain was up to, and he wasn't going to fall for it.
"Listen… if you don't mind, can I just spend some quality time with my little sister without you trying to make things weird? I'd be oh-so grateful if that were the case," he grumbled, before noticing Lily standing next to him, staring at him with wide eyes.
"Oh, uh, hey Lily. Just going to plan out the haunted house with Lucy," he weakly grinned at her.
"Weird," was all the youngest Loud sibling said before she went back to her room.
"Yeah, I guess I am," Lincoln sighed before grabbing the doorknob and opening the door.
"Hey Luce," he automatically greeted his gothic sister with a small wave. She was sitting on her bed, lying on her side as she read over her plans through her raven colored bangs. Her black dress was also slightly hiked up to her knees, revealing her pale and slender legs.
And just as the day before, her bed was scattered with plans for every spook and scare she could imagine (and certainly she could imagine them well), but now the mess of papers and blueprints had spread… in her coffin, on Lynn's pile of sweaty clothes, even tied and taped to some of her bats. As Lucy raised her hand to return her greeting, Lincoln raised an eyebrow, which did not go unobserved by the young girl.
"Sigh. I know; it's more messy than the House of Usher," she acknowledged in her monotone, "But it's just because I have so many ideas for what this could look like."
Lincoln glanced down at a small scrap next to his foot, and bent over to pick it up. "Who to use to record screams; Lola or Lily?" he read off it.
"I decided against both of them. I'll have Leni phone in a few recordings."
"I see," he said, before twirling his finger around the room, "I assume the rest of these aren't memos about voice recording."
"Very astute observation, Lincoln," Lucy muttered sarcastically, "The reason I have all of this is also the reason you're here to help me…"
She stood up from her bed, her long, inky dress spilling over her legs as she approached her brother, a small notebook with a felt cover in her hands, pressed comfortably to her bosom. As she got close enough, she swallowed and said "Lincoln, what I'm going to share with you is one of the most important things I've ever worked on. I've been writing in this ever since I was seven," she slowly extended her arms, offering the book to him.
Lincoln took it from her, their hands lightly brushing against each other. He flipped to a random page towards the middle and began reading from a lengthy passage...
"… Edwin spun towards Lucilla, his red sanguine eyes hungry and full of thirst. 'Now, my goth queen of the night,' he said in his silky Romanian accent, 'Let us to my chambers to consummate our marriag-"
Lucy snatched the book out of Lincoln's hand, her face burning with the same color as Edwin's 'sanguine eyes.' "W-Wrong book," she stuttered before tossing it across the room and digging through a small pile of booklets to find the right one. Lincoln had to bite down on his lip to keep from laughing.
"Is it just me, or did Edwin's wife have a really familiar name?" he teased.
"Shut up," Lucy stood up again, with a similar-looking book, "This should be the right one."
"I hope not," he jabbed, Lucy making an unamused expression as she presented the book to him. He opened the book again, and began leafing through the pages, noticing a lot of lists, diagrams, drawings, measurements and paragraphs. It became clear to him what this was. "So this is your Halloween book, right? Where you store all your ideas?"
"Sigh," she nodded, "I have so many themes and concepts to choose from… it can get really overwhelming. Last year I had to ask Luan for help choosing…"
"That explains the clown…"
"… but this time, I wanted to choose from my original concepts. The first ideas I recorded in this tome. And I'd like your help with that, as well as using some of your other skills."
"Like?"
"You draw comics. I was hoping you could help with some art and blueprints, as well as accurate measurements."
Lincoln rubbed his chin, thinking about it, then looked back at some of Lucy's concept art. Yikes. Maybe it was the fact that her pen seemed to be splattering blotches of ink all over the pages (though, knowing her, it might've been deliberate). Still, he needed to be kind…
"Well… I think you do some fine art yourself. Remember that horror comic you drew me way back when? I, uh, still look through it from time to time."
The pallid girl seemed to perk up when she heard this. "Do you… really still read that one?"
Lincoln nodded. He wasn't… lying exactly. He did, however, leave out the part about how he usually read it to chuckle at some of the grimdark parts…
"I'm glad," she said, "I haven't thought about it until now, but I remember how happy I was at the time... because I could give something back to you."
That made Lincoln's heart glow. Sure, it wasn't the best, from an artist and writer standpoint, but it was a project of love. And that was all that mattered to Lincoln. That Lucy loved him enough to do it… He still wished he could've gone to the damn convention though…
"Okay, these should be pretty good," Lincoln said as he scrolled back to the first page, where he found a small list of Lucy's ideas, presumably written years ago.
"Number one; a tunnel of webs and spiders," Lincoln read, before glancing up at Lucy, "I hope you mean fake spiders."
There was a lengthy, silent pause before Lucy answered "Sure."
"The best part is… now that Leni isn't here, we don't have to worry about her jumping out of her skin," Lucy observed, before putting on a little smirk. That would've been the sight…
"Yeah, but remember… Lily?"
Two months beforehand, Lily had been playing in the park when an exceptionally large tarantula had crawled up her back without her noticing. The young girl had only been made aware of it by her father's feminine screaming and, despite Lisa's reassurances that it could've had hurt her, Lily had been stuck with a fear of tarantulas and, of course, spiders. "I believe she associated the startle you gave her with the idea of arachnids," Lisa later explained to Lynn Sr.
"Dang it," Lucy pointed at another idea below it, "How about this one; a house haunted by the family that went insane there."
"That sounds pretty cool, honestly," Lincoln said, getting excited for the idea, "What's the story behind the crazies?"
"One girl went insane due to lack of sleep, because her roommate was snoring too loud. Another was driven mad by paranoia over April Fool's Day pranks. There should also be a ghost of a young girl who died after her eldest sister forced her to perform an impossible task. And then there's…"
"Uh… Luce? I like the idea but… do you think you maybe put a little too much of yourself in it?" Lincoln asked uncomfortably.
Lucy cocked her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Never mind. I think we should just drop it," Lincoln sighed, his eyes returning to the crisp pages and barreling through, "How about this one? A witch's coven. That sounds…"
He stopped when he heard Lucy scoff. "A witch's coven? This isn't the 50s."
"Well, you came up with this…"
"When I was seven or eight… I may have been a genius in delivering scares even then, but even the greatest artists have bad ideas."
At that point, Lucy simply slumped to the ground, sliding down the wall. Her dress rode up her a little, giving Lincoln a nice flash of whitish leg before her bottom hit the floor. "Sigh. It's really hard coming up with ideas."
"Yeah, it can be," Lincoln despondently agreed. With a flick of his wrist, the book of ideas went flying onto her bed, where it bounced off the mattress and onto the ground. "Nice one," Lucy mocked.
Lincoln scowled, but ignored it, putting it off as her frustrations. He scratched his hair as he started brainstorming some new ideas for an attraction. Think, Lincoln… think. What're people really scared of nowadays?
…
What're people really scared of nowadays that won't get us shut down for hate crimes?
He shut his eyes, and allowed his mind to show him images in the blackness of his eyelids. Scenes of bats, coffins, knifes, werewolves, insane messages on the wall… but suddenly, there was a jolt of energy on his hemispheres…
"Lucy, I think I have it," he said, a bright smile growing on his lips, "What if… we didn't have a specific theme… and instead we took a whole ton of your crazy Halloween ideas and combined them together?"
Lincoln couldn't see it, but Lucy raised an eyebrow behind her dark bangs. Still, she listened to him go on.
"And we take all of that spooky stuff, and put it in something like… I don't know, a place where all this haunted stuff happens, and then we…"
"Lincoln… you're just describing a haunted house…"
A beat passed, and Lincoln felt himself deflate. "O-Oh… right…"
Lucy couldn't help but smile at his disappointed reaction, raising a hand to cover her Cheshire cat grin. Lincoln rolled his head back and sighed loudly, frustrated with himself. He really thought he was onto something innovative…
"It's not the worst idea," Lucy suddenly said, her familiar neutral frown returning to her face, "Perhaps I can save my more creative ideas for upcoming Halloweens, when I have more experience… An average haunted house might be a good testing ground for what I can get away with."
"Right," Lincoln said, a little relieved she was on board with his idea, "And it doesn't have to be 'average' exactly. You can still throw in some of your more colorf… interesting concepts in there. I'm sure you have some wild ideas for that."
"Indeed I do," she shrugged, "I guess… it doesn't matter that others have done it. I can just… outperform them…"
"I know you can, Luce. No one in Royal Woods… hell, no one on the whole continent cares about Halloween as much as you do," Lincoln said, smirking in his brotherly way.
A nice shade of violet crept onto her face as he said that. "Thank you, Lincoln," she muttered softly, gazing at him as if under a spell. Lincoln looked back at her, just taking a moment to admire her passion for her dark interests, her unyielding loyalty to give everyone the best Halloween she could… her fierce yet sensitive beauty…
Lincoln shook his head. "So, uh… do you want to get to work?"
Her bangs bounced as she nodded. "Just one last question… are you willing to dress up as anything I tell you to? No matter how ridiculous you think it looks…"
That made Lincoln worry, and a hesitant "Uh… maybe if I got to see what you had in mind first…"
"I'd like to keep it a surprise," Lucy said. Her tone suggested she was trying to seem innocent, but once again, her lips curled into a conniving smirk…
The rest of October seemed to rush by quickly, as Lincoln, Lucy and the rest of their siblings got to work on their project. The first obstacle, of course, was convincing their parents to let them use their home for the haunted house. Of course, they refused.
"Sorry, honey," Rita said, "But it would be a huge mess to clean up, plus we'd be letting in a bunch of strangers. If one of them is sick, well, you know how fast diseases spread in here…"
As she was talking, Lynn Sr. rubbed his chin in thought, before seeming to get an idea. "Luan, do you remember that April Fool's where you bought an entire motel to prank the family?"
"Do I?" she said excitedly, before the nasty glares of her sisters calmed her down, "I mean… yes, I do."
"Well… you could do the same for Lucy, can't you?"
"Hmm… I'd have to make a few calls and pull a few favors. After all, the cost of getting a building isn't on the house. Ha ha. Geddit?"
Eleven groans went into the air, and Lola tapped on Lucy's shoulder. "Make her job something miserable."
But, within a week, Luan was able to secure a nice location for rent, and only a few blocks away to boot. Luna was able to drive all her younger siblings there in Vanzilla, where they feasted their eyes on… the dirtiest entrance to a house they had ever seen.
"What? It was close and cheap," Luan shrugged, as Lucy went to inspect the stairway. She ran one of her blackly painted fingers over the hand rail, and inspected it. Yep, it was dusty as all hell.
"I love it," she muttered monotonously, "Let's keep it exactly like this. We can work around it all…"
"Uh, Lucy. We have to clean up the dust. What if someone has asthma?" Lincoln pointed out.
"Sigh. You're right. We'll have to clean this up. But… not too much. This is really, really good for designs and visuals," she said the last part almost to herself.
Nevertheless, under Lola's guidance, the Louds set to cleaning up the place (not that she cleaned up, of course. She was perfectly happy to bark out orders to everyone, especially Lana. She wanted to savor the moments where the muddy tomboy was actually cleaning). The stair's railings were dusted, some of the mud and mold on the floors and in the bathrooms was cleaned up, and a little expedition by Luna into the basement yielded cracked plates and mugs.
"This glassware appears antique," Lisa noted as she raised it above her head, looking at it underneath the lighting of the room, "I would say this is… circa World War One. Also known as the Great War, as no one at the time imagined there would be a second, which also explains why it was called the War to End all Wars…"
"Alright, Lis, we get it," Lynn interjected, "It's valuable and shit."
"Actually, the material to make these cups is pretty worthless," Lisa observed, smirking at her interrupter and pushing her glasses up her nose, "While they may not yield a great price… perhaps our occult minded sister could use this for her presentation?"
"Hmm… I think I have an idea for them," was all Lucy would say about the matter…
Over the next few days, Luna would take anyone who was both free and willing to spiff the place up (but not too much. Just enough to avoid problems). And thanks in no small part to Lisa's special vacuums and smart mops, they were able to clean up the building in less than a week.
"And now comes the fun part," Lucy said, rubbing her hands together with shivering anticipation, "Bringing my ideas to life, and scaring said life out of anyone who dares enter…"
That was the most emotion they saw out of her for the rest of the year.
Days turned to weeks as work on their project continued. Finally, just three days before Halloween, it was done. Everyone had worked hard and, in Lincoln's humble opinion, it turned out pretty well.
He placed his hands in his pockets as he stood outside the building, swaying back and forth on his feet as he gazed on the fruits of their labor. It had the classic, downright crap clichés, on the outside; spider webs, gravestones (Respawn is lagging, it read) and of course, the hanging spooky skeletons that would give anyone above the age of two the giggles.
Lincoln grinned. That was part of their plan. Inside were the real horrors, and it would be unexpected.
"Hey Lincoln," Lucy said behind him, startling the young man.
"Lucy, please, my hair is going white because of you," he lightly joked, but still made clear he was annoyed. The goth shrugged as she walked to his side, and stared at the house with him.
"It came out better than I expected," she said softly.
Lincoln nodded. "A lot of that is thanks to your planning," he said, "And you getting everyone excited for the holidays."
Lucy blushed, preening a strand of hair away from her face. "Don't sell yourself short, Lincoln… I would never have come up with this if it weren't for you."
"Yeah… you would've come up with something a lot more creative than a simple haunted house," he chuckled, "Maybe a cannibal butcher shop or something."
"Gasp! I should write that down."
"Get a room, you two," another soft voice came from behind them, and the two jumped out of their skins. Lincoln turned and saw a dark haired girl his age, with Lucy's fashion sense of a skull pendant, fishnet on her arms and a dark shade of purple eyeliner painted on her lids. He squinted for a moment; she seemed familiar…
"Wait… Haiku?" he asked, and the ravenette gave a flicker of a smirk.
"You remember who I am… good. Despite the years that have passed, I am graced with the fortunate knowledge that I have remained in your conscious," the older Haiku took a pseudo-bow.
Of course. Only Haiku could ever get the drop on Lucy, Lincoln thought with a roll of his eyes, "So, what are you doing here? Come to admire the haunted house?"
"Admire… that depends," Haiku said curtly, and Lucy sighed.
"I asked Haiku to be a… judge… of our horror show. She's without a doubt the most qualified person to rate our scares," she flashed the older girl a small smile, which Haiku reciprocated.
"Now then," Haiku said, returning to her glowering normal self, "I hope to be impressed, Lucy. You always showed the most promise out of our morbid band."
And with that, she walked towards the building, her long, eloquent dress covering her feet, making it seem as if she was floating gracefully through the air rather than stepping on the ground. Of course, as she walked on, Lincoln had a chance to notice that... since he last saw her at eleven years of age, Haiku had grown into a downright beautiful woman, her body curvy and shapely and...
That breakup really did wonders to me. Now women are all that's on my mind...
Still, he managed to fix up a decent haunted house. He looked over to Lucy and gave her a brotherly smile. He was just glad he was able to set aside his personal problems and help put a smile... a less dour frown on her face.
Lucy's head titled towards him, and he realized he had been staring. "Oh, uh... so, what do you think she'll say?" he clumsily spilled, rubbing the back of his head nervously.
"Sigh. I have no idea. I find it to be some of my greatest work, despite the premise, but... it all depends on what she thinks," a small bead of sweat rolled down Lucy's forehead, and the young girl swallowed nervously. Lincoln was well-aware of how much respect Haiku commanded in Lucy, and there was no doubt the older goth's opinion would make or break Lucy's entire Halloween.
"I'm sure she'll like it, Luce. And, uh, even if she doesn't... wouldn't you say it's been fun working on it together?" he clapped his hand on her shoulder, "You know, with all our sisters... with me."
She titled slightly, giving him a side view of her satisfied smirk. "It was better than reading Edwin X Anon fics online."
Lincoln chuckled at that, and moved his hand upwards to caress Lucy's cheek. His fingers gently scraped her face, and Lucy's eyes widened behind her thick hair. "Lincoln... what are you..."
"Hey, I'm just... giving you a hug..." he said awkwardly.
"Weird way to give a hug," Lucy noted, and Lincoln barked a hoarse laugh.
"Yeah, but... I don't like hugging in public. And before you say whatever you were going to say... that was when I was eleven. Things change, ya know?"
Lucy exhaled loudly, steamy vapors exiting her mouth. "It's time like this, Lincoln, that make me thing about..."
Whatever Lucy was thinking about would remain a mystery, for at that moment, Haiku burst out of the front door of their attraction, causing Lincoln and Lucy to step away from each other. Her exposed eye was wide, telling a story of shock and fear, and she quickly made her way to the siblings. "That was quite the experience, Lucy," Haiku told Lucy in her ghastly tone, "You've outdone yourself."
"Does that mean..."
"You brought me here to judge. And thus my judgement is this... if I were to compare it to a season of Vampires of Melancholia..."
Lucy leaned in eagerly.
"It would be a Season 3."
There was a moment of silence, and Lincoln wished he had literally any idea of what that meant. He looked to Lucy for her reaction, and he noticed her face was... in that peculiar place. The place where she was incredibly happy but made sure to not show it. It's something Haiku would've not recognized, but anyone who lived with Lucy came to know that expression.
"Sigh. I'm so happy," Lucy said, and though she only gave a curt nod, the goth girl felt like jumping to the sky...