Royal Woods, Michigan, 2026.
It was a nice cool summer day in the suburbs, a welcome break from the usual scorching heat.
Heat. That seemed to be rippling in two members of the Loud House...questionable heat.
Things were so different now in the Loud House.
Over the many rotations of elder siblings, Lincoln Loud, now seventeen years old and the oldest one left in the house after the elder sisters left for college or their careers, finally got Lori and Leni's old room, the biggest of all the sibling rooms, all to himself. The grand space and greater amount of privacy was a welcome addition to his usually hectic and loud life.
He had to take on more responsibilities since...events, so the privacy was welcome.
So much happened over the years. Lincoln Loud was now, the only male in the house, the effective "man of the house," a role he was thrown into without any warning.
It was all still fuzzy in memory, but one day, something happened.
Only Lincoln, Lori and Luna saw this go down...on their front yard of all places. An altercation that determined every event since.
Three years ago, Lori, Luna and Lincoln were all lounging on the couch watching tv, nothing special.
Vanzilla pulled up; dad was home, nice but nothing out of the ordinary.
But...then Pop-Pop came screaming in his car, breaks skidding to a grinding stop as he awkwardly parked. The teen Louds looked out the window.
They had never saw Pop-Pop with a look of such rage, such anger, such...disgust and impending wrath, and he was looking square at Lynn Sr.
The teens were mortified to see the next things; no reason, no cause, but Pop-Pop got into Lynn Sr's face, and roared in rage and fury they never thought their bubbly grandfather could. He shouted down Lynn Sr, Lynn Sr shouted back, swiping off Pop-Pop's hand gestures and rage.
They couldn't make it out. Lori and Luna went outside for a moment, having Lincoln stay put.
Pop-Pop roared at them to go back inside the house, sending them in terrified tears. What had caused Pop-Pop to utterly loose it?
Then he shouted a name that kept being said.
Thea
Thea Alters
Who was that the teens thought? But, it seemed enough to shock Lynn Sr to his core, freezing for a few moments, as though a bowling ball was shot hundreds of miles an hour into his stomach.
Suddenly Pop-Pop punched Lynn Sr so hard he bounced off Vanzilla, coughing up blood and several teeth. Lincoln, Luna and Lori instinctly ran out horrified and tried to shield their father from their grandfather.
"Tell them Lynn! Tell them about her!" He shouted at him through the mortified teens.
Thea. Theat Alters. Pop-Pop kept rattling that name.
"I'm...I'm so sorry...I...I-"
Lynn Sr suddenly made a run for Vanzilla, giving his children a sad, hopeless look, as though he had fallen onto the sword of cowardice, unable to tell them.
Lori, Luna and Lincoln shouted for him as he turned on Vanzilla, and sped off, down the distance.
They were speechless, teary-eyed, unable to fully grasp what had just transpired. Where did their father go?
They turned to see Pop-Pop, holding a camera and a folder, shaking from the incident, tearing up, collapsing on the ground.
Lori went up to him and asked...who was Thea Alters.
"Kiddos...I'm...I'm so sorry you had to see that. You, don't deserve this, none of you do," he weakly said. He softly handed the folder and camera over to Lori. It took moments to register the contents...because it was that unthinkable.
Lori just stood there with such a thousand-yard stare it spooked Luna and Lincoln.
Luna pried the contents from Lori and saw it herself.
It took her several moments to process it fully as well...and she went into a rage. Luna roared so loudly it rocked the neighborhood, ripped the mail box out of the ground and threw it out far into the street in the direction Lynn Sr screamed down.
"YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU, YOU...GOD DAMN YOU DAD! YOU PIECE OF SHIT! YOU LYING PIECE OF SHIT CHEATING BLOODY CUNT! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO MOM!" Luna kept shouting into the air, crying and gasping for air.
Lincoln was just...silent...processing it all.
"You...you monster," he mumbled, horrified by the contents of the folder and the video footage...showing years and years of documentation and coverage of this Thea Watterson, a woman in the pictures...and his father, Lynn Loud Sr, with her in multiple pornographic poses, dining out at restaurants far out of town...Lincoln had wondered why Lynn Sr had began taking his restaurant pursuits farther out of the city limits.
Now they knew...
Lincoln felt so ready to cry, to break down, to denounce everything associated with the man that was half him, denounce that other half...he held the tears back. And he saw the wreckage left alone right here.
Lori had started tearing up, cuddled in Pop-Pop's arms, Luna was quaking, looking at the direction Lynn Sr sped down.
He walked over to his closest sister, tepidly touching her shoulder.
"Luna...Luna," he weakly called out, tear streaks down his cheeks as well.
She turned around; her face soaked in rage, misery, tears, mascara...broken, befuddled.
"Luna," Lincoln said with a weak tender smile, before wrapping himself around his still taller sister, "we're, we're gonna be okay."
Luna tried saying anything, but she just choked on her words and broke down into Lincoln's shoulder
He led her to Lori and Pop-Pop. The two sisters consoled one another as Lincoln talked with Pop-Pop.
"Please Pop-Pop...you gotta, for mom's sake. They...they shouldn't know, not yet. Please Pop-Pop."
Pop-Pop nodded his head, rubbing Lincoln's shoulder, then embracing him in a tight hug.
"Kiddo, I-I'm sorry. You never should have had to find out like this."
"I don't want my younger sisters finding out, not yet. Mom, Leni, Luan and Lynn Jr should know, but...please Pop-Pop?"
Pop-Pop conceded, pulled out his phone and called a number.
"Hi sweetheart...it's good to hear you too. Oh, the kids are rowdy eh? Um...Rita...is there any chance the kids can be watched by Aunt Ruth? We need to speak. Please bring Leni, Jr and Luan as well. We...I wannna see my lovely daughter and tell her how proud I am of her and spend time with her," Pop-Pop said, holding back a choking sob.