I was at my room, being me. And there was little, dainty Lincoln, being too cute to see dazzling sparkles in front of him. I really can't wait to play with him. I carried him to the attic where I set up a royal palace for him to stay at. I promised that I would give him the most royal-est blessing of them all.
Lori was playing at the toy castle at that time. Luna was trying out her new toy xylophone. Luan was playing with her socks. And Lynn was playing around the kitchen. So I took this chance to play with precious baby Lincoln.
Leni enters the attic through the folding steps erected from the top. She lifts up Lincoln there to show him her modelling of the dim attic. The space is filled with pink, brought by the pink sheets, thematic posters and glitter that Leni decorated. A white bow is placed to the top to resemble a hall. Leni's colorful horse and unicorn figurines are set along the red carpet on the hall. Leni crafts the whole attic from top to bottom to make it resemble a royal palace. And to complete the scenery, she has erected a throne, decorated with gold sheets, made especially for Lincoln.
Needless to say, Lincoln is happy to what he is seeing.
"You like it, Linky?" Leni asks.
Lincoln replies with a cheerful giggle.
Leni is delighted of his reaction. "Great! Now we can play. Let's say I'm the queen of the land, and you are the prince. And our job is to stop any trouble happening in our kingdom. Okay?"
In response, Lincoln happily nods his head while clapping his hands.
With that, Leni dresses herself as a queen, complete with a pink dress and tiara, donned on top of a knight's armor, a helmet, a toy shield and sword. She also dresses up baby Lincoln with just his shirt and a toy breastplate and helmet to be fully donned as a knight.
Afterwards, they ride on Leni's rocking horse to set off to their adventures. "Alright Linky, are you ready?"
Lincoln utters gibberish, then blows berries to what can be translated as "yes".
And at that note, Leni rocks the horse back and forth, pretending they are riding like the wind. It was a blistering adventure for the two siblings, even with just a couple of swings. But all the while, Leni feels the need to venture more.
As the queen, I have to discover more of my land. So, why settle just my castle when I have the whole kingdom at my hands?
Giving that idea, Leni looks out from the attic window and sees Lori playing with her plush toys (with one particular plush of Totoro) at her house playset on the yard. She then spots the family trampoline, just paces from Lori's position. Learning of the position of the objects, Leni finalizes her plan and propose to Lincoln.
"Okay Linky, we got trouble," she says, "A monster is about to Lori. We've got to stop it! But we must dive down. Are you up for this, my brave prince?"
Convinced, Lincoln readies his toy sword and utters "yes" in gibberish.
With our very bravest souls, me and Lincoln become the rescuists or protecters from any intruders in our land. So, we jumped.
With that, Leni has Lincoln tug on her shoulders, gets her toy stick pony and readies to jump from the window. Leni feels nervous at their upcoming attempt. "Okay, just be brave, Leni. Remember, you are defending the kingdom from trouble," she utters to herself.
Lincoln taps her shoulder in support.
And feeling his support, Leni takes a leap towards the trampoline. The two scream at the top of their lungs as their bounce lands them on top of Lori, making them slide to the plush toys.
Leni and Lincoln may feel the need to cheer, but Lori gets annoyed. "What are you doing, you two?!"
"We were just stopping the monster that is in your midst." Leni then spots the Totoro plush toy from afar and attacks it. "You fiend! Stop attacking our kingdom!"
But as an overeager Leni keeps stomping the poor stuff toy to the ground, Lori swipes it away from her, causing the former to the fall.
"Will you stop disturbing me? I have to apologize to my dear guests for your intrusion."
"Ooohh…big word. Intuition."
"No Leni, it's intrusion." Lori then looks at her pretend houseguests, her plush toys, to apologize. "I'm sorry, dear guests. You'll have to forgive my crazy sister for ruining your visit. She is not literally being her behaved self." She then looks back at her sister, who is doing Dee Dee tiptoeing gestures. Angered, she berates her, "Is there anything else you have to do, besides horsing around?!"
"Lori, but I'm not a horse."
Lori then facepalms when her sister said that. "What I mean is 'do you mind not messing with me?!' You can mess with Luna. She's in the garage 'getting the shreds'."
"Oh my, Luna is getting shredded?"
"No." But Lori realizes that this may distract Leni to get away from her. "I meant, yes. Yes Leni. Luna might have gotten shredded. You know what, why don't you go and check on her, to make sure she is safe."
"You're right, Lori. She's our sister, and it's my duty to protect my sisters and my kingdom from troubles." She then picks up her pony stick and gears up with her toy sword. "Come on brave knight Lincoln!"
Despite calling him courageously, Leni spots Lincoln playing with Lori's tea party set. "Lincoln, we have a call to rescue, or a calling to the rescue. Let's go, brave knight." She then brings Lincoln in front of her on the pony stick, and they ride off.
"Wait, you're bringing Lincoln with you?" Lori then reflects back on Lincoln playing with her tea set. At that note, she realizes who she can play with.
Meanwhile, Luna, draped on her purple dress and long brown hair, is pretending to play guitar from a toy one while watching a tape-recorded Mick Swagger concert from the old TV set that Lynn Sr. had disposed of. At every beat and rhythm Swagger is playing, Luna can feel the music playing on her hands.
But as she gets in the moment, Leni abruptly busts in, strikes the plastic guitar that Luna is playing and beats it to the core.
"Leni, what are you doing?!"
"You better stay away, Luna. This monster is trying to shred you."
"Shred me? Wait, did Lori told you about this?"
"Mhmmm." Leni nods happily.
"Dude, I am not getting shredded. I'm just feeling the jams. Now, dude, I have to focus."
"Awww I thought there was trouble here. Sorry about that, Luna."
"Well, if you're looking for trouble, Luan is messing with her 'funny sock puppets'."
"Sock puppets are messing with Luan?"
Unsure at what to say, Luna plays along with the flow, just to get rid of Leni. "Uhmmm sure. Yeah, the sock puppets are taking hold of her hands. She is now trapped with doing the demands of the evil sock puppets."
"Oh no, we must do something," Leni replies.
"I guess she needs a rescuer to save her."
"Not to worry, me, the Queen of my Kingdom, and Prince Lincoln shall rescue Luan from the crutches of evil."
"It's actually clutches, sis."
"Oooh, and that too." With that, she retrieves her stick pony and readies to leave. "Let's go Lincoln."
However, Lincoln is busy rhythmically tapping a plastic bottle with his toy sword. So, Leni lifts him up to her shoulder. "So, our Highnesses, are we ready to battle more bad guys?"
But Lincoln demands to be put back to play his bottle.
"No Lincoln, we'll do that later. For now, we have to save Luan."
Suddenly, Luna intervenes, "Sis, I think Lincoln wants to take a break and join my jams."
"Come on Luna, he wants adventure. And knights don't need breaks. They need breakthroughs. Let's go!" And with that, Leni skips towards Luan's room, but Lincoln tries to reach out to Luna as they skip away. Luna then ponders at this discovery, in the same way as Lori.
While that is going on, Luan is doing her standup routine with her sock puppets, whom she named it "Ren" and "Stimpy" based on the eponymous show.
"Hey Ren, how was your day?" Luan asks the puppet.
"Well, it was not good. I almost bump to another dog. And he went 'ruff'."
"Hahaha. Oh, that's a good one, Ren."
"You think that's funny. Just because of that, I missed my ride at the pug boat."
"Hahahaha. Ren, stop it. You're killing me!"
Rushing to the scene, Leni overhears this and 'rescues' Luan from trouble. "Don't kill my sister!" She then dives to Luan, getting a grip on her arms. And Lincoln dives to pull out the sock puppets from her hands. "That's to stop your dusterly weeds, evil puppets."
"What are you talking about, Leni?" Luan asks.
"Oh don't worry, I stopped the attack from your puppets."
"First of all, Leni, it's dastardly deeds, not 'dusterly weeds'. Second, I'm not being attacked by my sock puppets. They are part of my act."
"Then why they looked freaky?" Leni points out on the uncanniness of the puppets, whose facial features are just crayon scribbles and a bottle cap.
"I know it socks but it's a working progress. Hehe. Get it?"
However, Lincoln obliviously interrupts their arguing when he wears Luan's sock puppets and plays with them with clapping. Needless to say, he feels delighted playing with them.
"Awww, he's working it out," Luan sweetly remarks. "Do you like it, Linky?"
Lincoln then claps his hands happily to confirm it.
But Leni, wanting the both of them to go through their quest, carries Lincoln to her arms. "Well, if he likes it, good. But we have a kingdom to protect."
"What are you protecting from?"
"From all troublemakers, like you!"
"Me, why would I be a troublemaker? Lynn's the real troublemaker, after breaking dad's favorite trophy with her ball. I bet she's looking for the toy box where dad hid it."
"Wait? A toy box?"
"Yeah, the one we used for treasure hunting. Lincoln was my first mate because he was the last resort. Hehehe. Get it?"
When Luan mentions about that, she recalls one particular instance when she recognized that toy chest when she and her siblings played on the park and spotted a similar one while tidying up the attic for her playhouse. But even when receiving that memory, Leni bluffs it off. "Oh well. We'll just have to stop her then." She then takes off the sock puppets from Lincoln's hands and hands it back before they scoot off.
However, Lincoln enjoys the puppets so much that he tries to reach them out. Luan recognizes this and gets an idea.
As they walk away, Leni has them stop nearby the staircase. "Okay Linky, we have a new duty now."
He responds with an innocent curiosity.
"Well, since my sisters are not the trouble, our other sister is. So we have to find her."
But Lincoln pouts about how he feels fed up of their quest.
"Come on Lincoln. We have to continue our journey. Or else, who'll protect the kingdom?"
In gibberish speak, Lincoln opposes. "Nope."
"Nope?"
"Nope."
"Oh don't nope me, my prince. I am the queen and you better obey my orders!"
"Nope."
"Why nope?!"
"Nope."
"Come on Lincoln. What is it you want?"
Abruptly, someone interferes with their chatter. "Oh, I think I know what he wants." And out of the shadows emerges Lori in a blue princess outfit. As she appears, the older Loud sister means business to Leni but care to her young baby brother.
The heat is getting on. To be continued.
