This is the new Leni timeline chapter… Uh… Let's play rock, paper, scissors. Ready? Go! Rock, paper, scissors, shoot! Paper! Just tell me in the comments which one of us won.
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Lisa-3 didn't anticipate trouble on her end of the experiment. Leni was an uncomplicated person, in all the ways that were relevant to the study. While Leni unmistakably had depths and details that were observable once one paid attention; when it came to matters of the heart, for lack of a better term, she was very simple. Care would still have to be taken, so as not to scare Leni-3, but Lisa-3 predicted little to no complications.
I'M MAKING RED PLUM AND BARTLETT PEAR PICKLES. I DON'T KNOW IF THEY'RE GOOD YET.
"Leni! Put me down, I was eating breakfast!" Her Linky shouted as she swung him around the kitchen. Like the day before, Leni woke up today with the undeniable need to hug her bestest brother. Her Linky Loo Loo, as she totes used to call him when he was a baby. He was the most adorbs baby until Lucy, then Lola and Lana, then Lisa, then Lily.
"Lincy! We should totally play together today!" She bubbled joyfully, setting him back on the ground. He picked up his chair, which had been knocked to the floor when she lifted him up, and sat down to eat his oatmeal. Why was he eating oatmeal? She totes would have made him a smoothie if he asked her.
"Yeah, okay, we can do that." He answered her around bites of mushy oats. Did you bite oatmeal? Leni thought something had to be solid to be bitten. You couldn't bite juice after all. He slurped the oatmeal than? "What did you want to do?" He asked.
Leni rocked backwards and forwards, on her feet, while thinking about that. She'd been wanting to check out the clothing stores at the mall to borrow fashion ideas, but would Link really want to do that with her? She knew he would go along with her, because he loved her and he was the best brother out of any brother anywhere, but would he actually have fun? Leni didn't know. She would ask, because that's what you did when you didn't know something.
"Ummmm…" She tapped her chin with one finger, "I wanted to go to the mall and look at the outfits. Are you okay with that?"
"I mean, I don't want to do that all day, but I'm fine with a little window shopping." He Finished his breakfast and slipped around her to the sink, to wash out the bowl and stick it in the dishwasher.
"Silly Linky, I'm not buying windows." Leni corrected him, then stopped. Lincoln was raising one of his eyebrows at her. That usually meant she'd said or done something unusual. Dang it, she'd been getting much better about that lately. Did window shopping mean something else?
"Leni." His voice was kind. "Window shopping means looking at things through the store window." He corrected her.
"But that doesn't make any sense." She complained. It didn't! Why would you call something shopping, when you weren't buying anything? Leni didn't like it when things didn't make sense. It made her feel dumb. She felt her eyebrows lower into an unhappy line, and her mouth settled into a frown, until Lincoln placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and she brought her head up to look at him.
"It's okay." He calmed her, "You're right, it doesn't make sense. Sometimes things don't make sense, that's just the way things are." He'd said these words to her many times before, but it always made her feel better, no matter how many times she heard them. "Come on, let's go." Her Linky took her softly by the wrist and lead her outside, to the bus stop.
I HAVE A BUNCH OF LEFT OVER PEARS, THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT INTO THE PICKLE JAR. I'M JUST EATING THEM NOW.
Lincoln watched as Leni skipped and twirled from store front to store front, pressing her face against the glass and pointing out different outfits to him. He wasn't the fashion expert that Leni was, but years of living in a house with ten sisters meant that he wasn't completely clueless either. She would bodily drag him to one store, point out a set of lace stockings, and expound upon all the different kinds of outfits that the stockings could go with.
"Beyond hip slit dresses, if you wore a skirt you could pair it with a pinstriped button up dress shirt and a hoop belt, you could look like a totally amazing business lady!" She would gush, excitement visible in her features, as she vibrated in place with barely restrained energy. All the while Lincoln let the words wash over him, nodding encouragingly, and making mental notes in case she wanted his opinion.
She whipped her head around and dragged him to another store.
"Look Lincoln!" She exclaimed, pointing through the window at a dark orange tuxedo vest. "You would look totes amazing in that." She breathed, her voice an exhilarated rasp. And looking at the piece himself, Lincoln did think he would look good in it, and not just because orange was his favorite color. If he got a blue tie to compliment it, and a white suit jacket and pants to match his hair… Of course he had no real reason to wear something like that outside of a wedding or similar occasion, but it would still be cool. He looked at his older sister and wondered if she was having similar thoughts. If she was, they were probably more detailed and complicated than his own, given that she had vastly more experience and skill in the realms of fashion design. Her eyes were glazed over and rather than looking at the tuxedo vest, she was looking past it, lost in her own thoughts.
Lincoln waited patiently for her to emerge from herself, looking around the area they were in. There were mostly clothing stores down the whole strip. A Forever Young was across the way, and down at the end was a shoe store. Glancing back at Leni, He raised an eyebrow, taking in the sight. Her mouth was slightly open, but otherwise normal, caught in her perpetual smile, and her cheeks were starting to redden in hue.
Alright, now might be a good time to shake her from her imaginings. If he left her, she may remain like that for hours. Lincoln didn't want to wait around the mall that long, thank you very much. He grasped her shoulder and lightly shook her, to wake her from her self created trance.
Leni jumped and blinked her eyes several times. Closing her mouth, she turned a bashful smile towards him, and ducked her head in embarrassment. Lincoln decided not to comment on the matter.
"Come on," He waved an arm towards the exit of the mall, "It's around lunch time. Let's go home and get something to eat."
"Yeah, okay." Leni complied, walking side by side with him to the doors leading outside. They got to the bus stop and waited for it to arrive.
I MAY USE THAT PROMPT I GAVE YOU MYSELF, LOUDLURKER. ONLY IF YOU DON'T POST ANYTHING WITH IT THOUGH.
"Hi Luna, Hi Luan, Hi Lynn!" Leni waved at them happily. Having just gotten home, she and Lincoln stepped into the kitchen to get something to eat for lunch and found the other three there too.
"Hey dudes." Luna replied, "Where have you two been all blooming day?"
"Leni wanted to hang out with me and we went to the mall." Lincoln told her. "What have you been doing?"
"Lynn asked us to help her with her defense in soccer, So we played monkey in the middle and went absolutely Ape! Ha ha, get it?" Leni got it. It was because an ape was a kind of monkey.
"We were just stopping for a break and a snack." Lynn added, searching through the cabinets for food.
"OOOooooo, I'll make smoothies!" Leni clapped, moving to the fridge and freezer, she pulled out everything she needed to work her art. Frozen fruits and unfrozen drinks, yogurt… Graham crackers, cream cheese… Looking down at what she'd gotten, she put back the yogurt and the juice. She put back all the frozen fruit, except the bananas, and pulled out peanut butter, vanilla, and honey. She had an idea. It wasn't breakfast anymore, and it wasn't dinner yet. You were allowed to have ice cream for lunch. This wasn't that, but it was close. Leni could feel the eyes of her siblings on her back while she worked.
Pulling down and plugging in the blender, she poured in some milk, vanilla, and honey. Surging the blades twice, she built up a nice froth in the sweet vanilla milk. She tumbled a handful or two of frozen bananas into the cup. A few tablespoons of peanut butter, and few tablespoons of cream cheese. She revved the engine and watched as the blades whipped the mixture into a whirlpool of delish. It was twirly whirly trance causing. When it was smooth enough to earn its name, she grabbed up some graham crackers and crushed them in her hand, into the swirl. Letting it run for another minute, she shut off the machine and poured the contents into five glasses. Picking up some more graham crackers, she crushed them onto the top of each drink and handed her four siblings her creation.
Peanut butter, banana cream pie, smoothies. A bubbling excitement rose in Lenis throat, while watching her sisters and brothers take a sip.
"Oooh, Leni. This is really good mate." Luna rasped, sipping the drink, and savoring each mouthful.
"This is the Cream of the crop Leni. Peanut Better then anything I've had in a while." Luan didn't even ask if anyone got her joke, too busy slurping her smoothie.
"Duuude." Lynn sighed, "I don't even feel like doing anything anymore. It's like my muscles are melting… It's awesome."
Leni took it all in, before looking at Lincoln, waiting for his response. It was important to her that he liked it.
He was staring intently at the glass. It looked like he was trying to super vision through it and see his hand on the other side. Suddenly he gulped what was in his mouth and lifted the glass to his lips, drawing and gulping the liquid continuously. His eyes widened, and he brought a hand to his temple, gulping down the smoothie that was still in his mouth.
"Gah! brain freeze." He shrank in on himself, holding his head with one hand, and the glass with the other, seemingly unwilling to put it down. "Uh. It's really good Leni. I just wish I'd had the forethought to consider that drinking it all in under a minute, was probably a bad idea." He still had half the glass though, so that was good. "Alright. Whew, I'm good. Lynn, you said you guys were taking a break? You want company? Leni and I just came back from the mall and relaxing for a while might be nice."
"What?" Lynn blinked her eyes, until they focused. "Oh, yeah sure. We were just about to go up to Luna and Luans food. Listen to some music and just hang out."
"Cool, that sounds good. You want to just hang with them for a while Leni?" He turned to ask her.
She nodded, a blanket of content settling over her, and they all moved towards the stairs, bringing their drinks with them.
I THINK I'M GOING TO GO TRY MY PICKLES FOR THE FIRST TIME, RIGHT NOW. I'LL TELL YOU IF THEY'RE GOOD… THEY ARE.
Leni woke up on Sunday, with a deniable need to hug her favorite Lincoln. Unlike the previous two days, she could resist it, but she really didn't want to. What would be the point in that? It would just mean she got to spend less time with Linky Loo Loo. She wouldn't get to show him how much she loved him. That was not okay. Lincy needed to know that everyone loved him always.
She swung her feet around and sat up from her bed. Looking around, she saw that Lori was already up and gone. Climbing to her feet, she tread to her closet and pulled out her outfit for the day. She was thinking… Something with stripes. She pulled a long sleeve shirt from her closet. It had thin, dark blue and red stripes, and ran from side to side. She pulled out a pair of blue bell bottom jeans, a hoop belt, and her underwear. taking her sandals and sunglasses from her dresser, she stepped into the hall and walked towards the bathroom.
She quickly went through her morning routine and put on her clothes. Resting her sunglasses on top of her head, like always. She explored the house, looking for her Lincoln.
"Liar!" she heard Lily shout from the back yard. Moving into the kitchen and stepping into the back yard, Leni saw Lincoln, Lily, and Luna dressed up. Lincoln and Lily looked like super heroes. Luna looked like an army man mixed with a music person.
"She's telling the truth." Lincoln seriously told Lily, holding her back. Huh, they were playing a pretend game, Leni realized.
"You knew?" Luna asked, apparently shocked by the revelation.
"I Suspected, but I didn't want to believe it." He answered
"Heh, well you are the best detective." Luna chuckled.
"No! Night Club, how could you!?" Lily fell to her knees sadly. Night Club?
"The game is up Night Club. Now tell us where Joker is." Lincoln commanded. Joker? Oh! They were playing superheroes. They were pretending to be the Full House Gang. Ha ha. She clapped happily, drawing their attention.
"Hey Leni!" Lily called, from her kneeled position. "You want to play superheroes with us?"
"That sounds totes amazing! I've always wanted to play superheroes. Let me go get a cape!" She called back excitedly.
"Cool, we'll wait for you here." Luna told her, as she was turning to go back into the house.
Leni ran, a giddy bounce in her step, up the steps and to her room. Unrolling a reel of red fabric, she cut a length from the rest and quickly tied the corners around her neck to make an instant cape. She skipped back down the steps and to the back yard, where Luan was standing around with everyone else now.
"Oh, Leni is joining? That's Super. Ha ha, get it?"
"Urg. Seriously? That's not even a clever one." Luna commented.
"I'm baaack!" Leni called, dancing across the lawn to them.
"Alright, cool. We were in the middle of something when you arrived though." Lincoln explained. "Stand back a bit, we'll go through the scene again, and when it's over, I'll introduce you and you can start playing. Okay?"
"Okay Lincy!" She bubbled, moving to sit on the back steps until he called on her.
"Okay, sooo. What were we just doing?" Lincoln cupped his chin in thought. "Ah, right. Okay." He got back into an aggressive stance and pointed accusingly at Luna.
Luan jumped, startled, and rushed to get into the shed. She struggled with the knob for a second, before giving up, shrugging, and just turning around to wait for her queue.
"The game is up Night Club. Now tell us where Joker is." Lincoln commanded.
"Don't call me that! I left that name behind, along with my previous life!" Luna bellowed angrily, quickly falling back into character. "As for Joker," She chuckled. "Allow me to introduce you to The Harlequin."
Luan, dressed in purple and green, strutted over to Luna and stood aggressively next to her, her arms folded across her chest.
"Hey Ace, what do you call it when you watch your chances of victory swirl down the porcelain throne? A Royal Flush. Get it?" Her voice was soft, but nasty.
Lincoln tensed his jaw. "I'm sorry Deuce, we're too late. I'm afraid you're wrong about our chances of victory though, Joker. I always have cards up my sleeves. Eleven of Hearts, COME TO ME!" He shouted, and she leapt from her spot on the steps to stand next to Lincoln and Lily.
Luna and Luan backed up a step, seemingly alarmed. "Che." Luna spat to the side, "Trust Ace Savvy to be a cheater." She stomped her foot forward.
They all glared across at each other… Or at least Leni tried to glare. She wasn't sure if she did very well. She wasn't very good at making unhappy faces. On an unspoken agreement, they all charged across at each other.
What followed was a lot of fun flailing and wrestling, as they all tried their best to pretend to fight without actually hurting each other. Lincoln and Lily faced off against Luna and Leni held Luan above her head.
"Oh my god! Leni, put me down! I have Eleven Heart conditions. Ha ha, get it?" She screamed as Leni swung her around. "Seriously though, put me down! I think I might throw up!"
They continued to flail and play and wrestle until they were sweaty and exhausted. Leni and Lincoln the only ones still on their feet, because Leni exercised a lot for her job, and Lincoln did free running and parkour as a hobby. The other three, who didn't exercise as much, were laying around the yard in different places.
"Alright. I think that's enough of that. Who wants to go inside and relax?" Lincoln, gulped air.
Nobody said anything, but Luna, Luan, and Lily raised their hands.
"Okay, cool. We can watch a movie or something. You know they made a direct to tv movie called Boat of Dreams? It's apparently based on the Dream Boat tv show. Who wants to watch that?"
"Wooo…" Lily cheered tiredly.
"Rad…" Luna groaned, turning onto her tummy, she pushed herself onto her hands and knees and began dragging herself to the back door. She was soon joined by Luan and Lily, while Leni and Lincoln followed behind them
They pulled themselves into the living room, where Lori and the twins were watching a rerun of Dream Boat.
"Hey Lori." Lincoln called to her, drawing her attention from the tv. "I see that you and the twins are watching Dream Boat, but how would you like to watch Boat of Dreams?"
One of her eyebrows rose, "The movie based on Dream Boat?" She asked, "Is it on?"
"I don't know if it's on right now, but I recorded it last week." Loris eyes widened at that.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's watch it; I want to see if it's as good as the show." She scooted over on the couch and allowed Lincoln to take the remote.
Leni sat down beside him and Lincoln flipped through the menus.
"Hey kids." Their dad stepped into the room. "What're you all doing?"
"Lincoln said he recorded the Boat of Dreams movie. We're about to watch it." Lola told him.
"Boat of Dreams?! The Dream Boat movie?! Holy cow! I'll go get everyone else!" He ran off through the house. "Rita! Kids! We're watching the Dream Boat movie!" He came back dragging his wife, and Lisa. Lisa looked kind of upset about being dragged into the room, which Leni thought was weird. She stopped struggling and sighed, as Lucy and Lynn filtered into the room and everyone gathered around the couch, holding their breath while Lincoln brought up the movie.
Lynn Flipped the lights off and covered the windows with the curtains.
"Oh no! I have twenty boyfriends and a yacht! How am I going to get rid of them?!" The movie began.
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Chapter notes:
Prior to this chapter, everything was happening in a single day, so I didn't need to specify when something happened. I mean, if something happened after something else, then you would just rightfully, and naturally, assume that the second thing came second. You didn't need your understanding to be any more detailed than that. Now you kind of do. Now you need to know that a day passed between one thing and another, otherwise things could get confusing. Like "wait what? They were just jamming out together, now they're playing football? Isn't it too late at night for that?" You know? Admittedly that's not a great example, but the point stands.
To help anyone who didn't pick up on this, Lincolns birthday fell on a Friday. The beginning of Lori and Lenis second chapters took place the day after, on a Saturday. Ronnie Annes second chapter took place on a Sunday. I'm fairly certain I left enough details in the story that you could figure that out on your own, but it's also possible that I just thought about putting those details in and then didn't actually do it. That happens sometimes. So tell me if you're ever confused about when stuff is taking place, and I'll endeavor to include more details about time frame.
I said to LoudLurker that I'm having trouble fitting everything I want to fit in a chapter. That's not true. Sorry for kind of lying. I'm actually having a different problem that's similar, but harder to explain. So I settled for the close, but not quite true explanation. I'm sure I'll get over it. As things shift around in my skull, some things become easier and other things harder.
In the first chapter of the second set (I'm considering each cycle through all the timelines to be a single set of chapters.) Lisas narration transitioned smoothly into Lincolns and then Ronnies. The Lisa narration at the beginning of each chapter after that, including this one, doesn't transition as smoothly. However, I still think it's good to take a peek into the mind of the custodian of each timeline.
If I do use that prompt, I won't use it for a while. I want to finish Splitting Hairs before I attempt it.
Hey, sorry I'm a little late in posting this chapter. I don't really have a specific reason for being late, so I'll make one up. Archemios attacked me with his army of undead minions, so I had to dig a moat of holy water around my house to keep them at bay.
Sometimes when I lack motivation to write, I can use music as a kind of replacement for a natural drive. When I lose motivation to write a story, it's not permanent. Sometimes I just go through minor bouts depression and I just don't feel like doing anything that's not mandatory. I can't stop writing though. I have people waiting on me to post chapters, and it wouldn't be fair to you guys if I stopped.
I wanted to call the smoothie a heavenly brew, but I realized that there's no way Leni would call anything that. Those just aren't the types of words she would use… Not to mention, she wouldn't brag about the quality of her own creation. I thought about setting that scene from Lincolns perspective so I could use that terminology, but it gains too much from being from Lenis perspective to throw away, just for that.
These chapters are limited to the week ends, because… Well there are a number of reasons. By skipping five days at a time, I can use the audience assumption that their relationship progressed in that time, without having to write it. By skipping five days at a time, it also allows me to progress the story faster. Another reason is that if I included every day of the week in each chapter, the chapters would be too long… Like WAY too long. Eventually I'm thinking of having a vacation from school happen, and when that happens I'll describe every single day of the vacation in detail. For now though…