Authors notes: So commentary wasn't present in the last one but I think id like to throw some in this time. I have to admit I feel a lot less sure about this one than I was with the other one.
Not quite sure why but some criticism and thoughts would really help me figure it all out.
Also since I forgot to put it last time, I do not own Loud House, or any associated settings, characters or the like.
...
Lucy cringed slightly as the wall of pixelated sounds and yells assaulted her upon entering the pizzeria.
It surprised her somewhat that the noise even really affected her considering she grew up in the LOUD house, but she supposed it would be too much to ask to have grown some tolerance.
"So, you think this game of yours will help me learn how to dance?"
"Well, with any luck it'll help you work on some basic footwork, once you've got that down we can use it as a starting point for some of the fancier stuff."
Lincoln explained as he paid for their food and tokens. Lucy nodded plainly, still not quite sure if she was enthusiastic or cautious towards the idea, but willing to trust her older brother regardless, knowing he'd not steered her wrong yet.
After everything was paid up, the two made their way past the tables towards the arcade sections set in the back of the resterant.
All the activity buzzing around the tables, children running to and fro all the games, and parents and older siblings giving chase did put Lucy slightly on edge. Despite her appearance the tiny goth girl was by no means anti-social, but she was still somewhat shy and didn't take to well to strangers or big crowds.
Unfortunately for her fate had chosen fit to thrust human contact upon her in the form of a pigtailed little girl wearing a standard pink conical birthday hat bumping into her.
"oops Sorry lady!"
The girl apologized, putting her hands behind her back in an almost exaggerated display of youthful innocence and cuteness.
Lucy having accidentally gotten some of her long dark hair in her mouth simply started brushing her hair away from her face before replying.
"It's fine, i've taken worse today already."
Unfortunately Lucy hadn't realized that she'd moved away some of the hair in front of her right eye, leaving her single dark-lined eye leering through her ebony locks like the villain in a Japanese horror movie.
Her frightening appearance, combined with her raspy monotone caused the little girl to tremble and whimper slightly, her eyes watering as this dark figure loomed over her.
Before Lucy could react Lincoln quickly moved in front of Lucy, leaning down towards the frightened girl and giving his best smile as he asked if she'd just come from a party and more or less distracting her as best he could.
The young poet simply cast her gaze down sadly, letting her long bangs cover her eye once again as she backed away into the shadows, briefly she thought about apologizing for scaring the youngster, but she knew Lincoln would handle it better than she ever could, he was better with people, even weirdos like her.
After setting the young party-goer back on her way, the two arrived at the Dance Battle machines. Both machines sat side by side, their brightly tiled floors offering an open challenge to the siblings, the various squares flashing spastically with bright and garish colors.
"Players step it up!"
The machine demanded in a cheery and bombastic voice, as if amused by their defiance in trying to actually play it.
The little goth felt her resolve shudder slightly, but she remained stalwart in staring down the seizure-inducing lights and eardrum destroying audio.
She wasn't about to spend another dance sitting in the corner and being ignored.
"Alright Lucy, I'll pay for a song and we'll practice on it for a couple goes."
Lincoln said, stepping up to the coin slot and putting a few tokens in.
"Player one select your song!"
Lucy stepped up and looked over the screen, which displayed a number of album covers and instructed for her to move between them by stomping on the designated pad.
"Sigh...No death metal"
She lamented dryly.
Flipping through the various pop, contemporary and odd swing jazz number, she eventually settled on a simple techno dance number composed specifically for the game.
She doubted the poetry club would have any kind of song like this playing at any point, but she figured she be best off starting with whatever the game intended.
The beat started up, quickly she looked to Lincoln for instruction hoping for some direction before the game fully picked up.
"Keep your back straight Lucy, Slouching will only hurt you in the long run"
Lincoln said, placing a firm hand on his little sisters back to adjust her posture.
"Center your footing, fan your toes, that'll help you keep balance."
"There is no balance we are all simply tumbling around in the chao-"
"PLAYER ONE GET READY TO DANCE BATTLE!"
Interrupted the machine, startling the goth and prompting her to look at the screen.
Dozens of white arrows started floating through the screen, moving closer and closer to the black interaction bar, far too much for her to keep track of on her own.
"Down"
Lincoln shouted from behind.
Scrambling for a bit she eventually managed to find and stomp on the bottom floor panel. She was rewarded for her efforts with a loud "POOR" from the smug machine.
She grumbled angrily, she would see this hateful machine burn in the fire-pits of the underworld one day, that much was certain.
Meanwhile Lincoln continued giving her more pieces of advice, such as not using too much force to stomp or keeping her arms to her sides and not using up too much energy on complicated hand movements , and as she practiced, eventually "Poors" changed to "Goods" and even the occasional "Great".
With each and every bit of praise the announcer gave her she felt a slight smile start to tug at the edges of her mouth, She was getting it finally.
Unfortunately the machine seemed to pick up on her new found confidence, and took steps to crush it utterly, immediately picking up its pace and sending a flurry of much faster prompts across the screen.
"MISS!"
The machine reprimanded harshly, in a tone not dissimilar to one of Lucy's more despised teachers.
Panicking, Lucy attempted to correct herself, tragically fumbling for prompts that were already far too close for her to react to, causing the miss counters to pile up and her score to go spiraling downward rapidly.
"LOSER!"
The game declared harshly, causing the diminutive goth to flinch, thankfully her brother was there to give her a supportive pat on the shoulder.
"Don't sweat it spooky, you were doing great, way better than I did on my first go."
"I don't feel like I'm learning anything about dancing."
Lincoln raised his finger as if he was about to respond, before someone called out from the kitchen.
"Number fifty-six your order is ready"
"Oh that's us, Uh, here's a few extra tokens, keep trying. I'll get our food and a table and after that we can take a lunch break."
He said handing her a handful of tokens hastily.
Lucy sighed and nodded, she would have normally admonished him for thinking with his stomach when she needed support, but he was doing his best to help and to be honest she was more than a little hungry herself.
Resisting the temptation to ignore her brothers instructions and simply avoid the hateful, gaudy machine she inserted another coin and practiced on another song.
This time her footing came a bit slower, with a few misses occuring early on, however much like life in general, she did find it much easier to correct herself and keep a stable pace after accepting failure.
By the end Lucy had managed to get three "Greats" in a row, a new record for her, not that that was a particularly amazing accomplishment but she took what she could get.
"Geez Ghoulie is the rigor mortis setting in or are you just naturally this talentless?"
Lucy whipped her head around to see a boy, looking to be in his early preteens, blonde, wearing an outfit similar to her older brother's, save for a white beanie.
Shaking her head she turned back to her game and ignore him, Unfortunately a quick glance to the side confirmed that he had taken up the Dance Battle machine next to her.
Even worse was the fact that HIS efforts were being rewarded to a chorus of "Great" and "PERFECT" from the machine, and even with her limited experience, she could tell he was already making use of a far greater range of moves than she had.
Where Lucy would have had to find and clumsily stomp on a lit-up square, The blonde newcomer simply shifted and slid from one point to the other losing almost no momentum in his strut and flawlessly anticipating every queue before it occurred.
Despite her best efforts, the minuscule goth couldn't help but gawk at the boy's obvious skill, pure envy seeping from her every pore.
"Impressive eh?"
The beanie-wearing boy said smugly.
Lucy merely grumbled in response.
Unfortunately he only took it as an invitation to continue talking, much to her dismay.
"I could teach you a few moves, but it'll cost you."
"I've already got someone teaching me."
"Well they did a pretty sucky job if you ask me."
Lucy glared from behind her long bangs. Why was this guy even talking to her? She'd been used to people bullying and making fun of her, it was a price she had to pay for bearing her black soul out in the open for everyone to see.
But that hardly seemed to be the main motivator for this arrogant brat, if anything it just seemed like he'd be doing this to anyone who was playing at the cabinet next to him.
Maybe she could ask Lincoln if there was another machine they could practice at, one with a lower number of obnoxious preteens in eerily familiar attire.
"Say Luce, you like dressing on your salads right?"
As if summoned forth by Lucy's train of thought, Lincoln arrived, His signature smile nearly hidden behind a tray of pizza and various bowls and cups balanced on his arms.
His smile instantly faded as he saw the figure next to Lucy, a very uncharacteristic glare coming across his features as his gaze met with the other boy.
"Oh, it's you...I should have guessed this day was going too well."
Lincoln lamented, shaking his head dispassionately.
"Is this the guy? Oh man no wonder you're so awful, you're being taught by Stinken' Loud."
The white-hatted ner-do-well said obnoxiously, giving a mean-spirited chuckle that made Lucy's fists ball up reflexively.
Luckily Lincoln was quick to give his own reply, preventing Lucy from doing or saying something she might regret.
"Now careful Franklin, you don't want your mom to have to drag you out again...do you?"
An angry snarl from the blonde indicated his comment had hit its mark.
Lucy ignored the boys apparent rage and turned to her brother curiously.
"You know this guy Lincoln?"
"Unfortunately yes, he's half the reason I couldn't get my cereal last time I went to the grocery store."
He wisely decided not to mention that she and the rest of his sisters were the other half.
"Whatever, just tell Elvira over there to slither off and find another spot to flail around at, she's bringing down the place with her...everything."
Lucy growled slight, she wanted to be angry, she wanted to shout and punch and kick and claw at this jerk who was making fun of her and her brother.
But she knew that wasn't going to get her anywhere, even if she weren't so much smaller than him, starting a fight would probably only get her and her brother kicked out and she didn't want her brother to be kicked out and possibly banned from his favorite arcade and pizza restaurant.
With a resigned sigh, Lucy tried to attempted to step off the dance pad and walk away. before being suddenly stopped by a firm hand on her shoulder.
Turning to see who it was, she saw her brother, defiantly glaring down the would-be bully.
"Better idea, how about you take your bratty butt out of here instead?"
"And how exactly do you plan to make me do that?"
Franklin asked smugly.
Lincoln turned to Lucy and gave her his most confident, endearing smile.
His tired, but oddly bright eyes conveyed the message clearly.
Stand back sis, your big brother's got this
The younger Loud quickly confirmed her understanding with a nod, quietly grabbing the food and shuffling off to a nearby booth where she could still see both of the Dance Battle machines.
The other boy raised a curious eyebrow as Lincoln stepped up to the now-abandoned dance pad beside him, he seemed to get the idea, though he didn't give any direct visual confirmation.
Squaring off the two gave each other one final stare-down before simultaneously pulling out a token and inserting it into the coin slot.
Grasping for a the crispiest looking piece of pizza, Lucy observed both machines with rapt attention as her big brother faced off against the bully.
"Any rules you wanna set, Stinken?"
"Winner stays, Loser walks...Simple as that."
"TWO PLAYER DANCE OFF!"
And with the machines bombastic announcement, both the game was set and both kids readied themselves.
Even before the prompts started showing up on screen Lincoln was in motion, his shoulders and hips both bobbing to the beat as he flashed his opponent a cocky buck-toothed smile.
The first three moves were set to the downward pad, the arrows ominously floating downward like a bomb descending towards a hapless city.
Franklin gave a heavy stomp to the downward pad for each prompt, each one landing in perfect sync and earning a "Perfect" and giving a confident headbob in celebration.
Lincoln on the other hand simply shifted his leg behind with a slight twist of his hips, lifting his heel slightly over the pad before lightly tapping it down, dipping slightly with each tap before holding his arms out dramatically finishing the whole routine off by kicking into a spin and posing.
Meanwhile at the table, Lucy's eyes widened behind her raven-locks, she'd figured Lincoln was good at dancing, he likely wouldn't have offered to teach her if he didn't have some skill in the subject matter.
But it was a far different thing to actually see her, admittedly often dorky big brother, suddenly displaying confidence and grace she'd never seen in him before. A feeling of shame wormed its way into her head as she watched, her mind wandering back to her own far less-than-impressive attempts.
Franklin growled in irritation, clearly upset at Lincoln not only matching him but showing off while doing so. He responded in kind, hitting his the next three moves with a showy shuffle from left to right, bopping his shoulders to the beat as he did so.
"Whoa, lookit em go"
Came a young female voice from one of the tables, startling Lucy.
As she looked over she did indeed see a small group of kids, also preteens, gawking at the dance battle as it went down, a few of them chatting amongst themselves.
"I betcha five tokens the Blonde one is gonna win."
"Think I've seen one of them around here before."
"Wonder who that cute white-haired boy is.."
One of the girls in the crowd asked dreamily as her gaze shifted uncomfortably close to Lincolns hips.
Lucy resisted the urge to vomit, the thought of someone gawking at her brother like that made her stomach churn like the restless dead.
So this is what true horror feels like.
She thought, grabbing herself a sugar-frosted mini-brownie from one of the various boxes and nibbling at it as a distraction from the horrible mental images .
One thing she noticed was that, as far as score went the two were neck and neck, with Lincoln merely edging out a slight lead on Franklin points-wise.
However one look at the competitors themselves and it was clear who the victor was going to be as the blonde sweated and breathed heavily under the exhaustion, his shuffles and steps starting to get slower and more sloppy as he continued exerting his energy attempting flashy moves.
Lincoln on the other hand seemed far more energetic, His practice with the moves as well as the chaos of living with ten sister affording him some degree of endurance.
Sensing weakness in his opponent Lincoln pulled out his best "Running Man", sliding in step with every beat, making perfectly sure not to linger on a tile for too long and risk missing a prompt, before ending on another perfect spin and pose, just like with his opening moves.
Attempting to replicate the maneuver the bratty beanie-sporting child subsequently tripped over his own feet and, after still attempting a spin despite his trip up, subsequently fell to the tiled floor, defeated.
"YOU'RE WINNER!"
The, poorly localized, game proclaimed proudly.
A happy girlish shriek assaulted Lucy's ear from the table next to her, as apparently the group that had been observing had begun celebrating, only to be cut short as Franklin got up from his fall and angrily pushed past them.
Giving a showy bow and sending a wink in the direction of his new admirers, much to Lucy's mortification, Lincoln made his way back to their table and sat across from her.
"So, whaddya think?"
Lincoln asked innocently, sweating and panting a little bit, not quite exhausted but clearly having had a much more strenuous workout than he was used to.
And there was the million dollar question posed to the young goth girl, what did she think? She was certainly proud of her brother, while she'd always looked up to him she'd never known he could display this kind of talent.
On the other hand, it was somewhat daunting knowing she was so far behind him, A part of her wondered if she might have just been wasting his time.
"You're really impressive, I guess I've got a long way to go, don't I?"
Lincoln shrugged.
"Well, gee, I know it's hard spending time with your dorky big brother bu-"
"No!"
Lucy yelled, giving Lincoln a sudden start and causing him to drop one of the garlic knots he was attempting to eat.
"I don't think you're dorky."
She continued, only to be met with a skeptical raised eyebrow from her white haired sibling.
"...well okay, yeah I do...but that's not it."
She amended quickly.
"I just don't want to waste your time, I mean I probably won't be ready in time to go to the dance."
She lamented, turning her head away.
Lincoln gave his sister a sympathetic look, lightly patting her on the head, like he always had whenever he was trying to comfort her ever since she was a baby.
"Luce, a waste of time would be sitting around reading a comic i've reread fifty-million times front to back or playing a game i've gotten fifty perfect runs and platinum metals on again. I offered to do this, and I'd offer again, because I believe you can do it."
The elder loud gave his usual tired smile after his speech, hoping it would drive home the sincerity of his words.
Luckily she recuperated with her own, still somewhat reserved, smile.
"Thanks, Lincoln."
That earned a uncharacteristic scoff from Lincoln, the earlier mood stricken away as he slid comfortably into his "Coaching" role.
"Don't thank me yet, we've still got to work on your stance and footwork, then after that it'll be basic moves and steps, then onto the advanced stuff like coordinating arm movements with leg movements accounting for space, dancing with partners. Believe me spooky, you won't be thanking me after all this is over. ."
Lucy gulped, a chill creeping over her spine as her normally even-tempered and somewhat lazy brother had suddenly been replaced by an imposing dance-based-drill sergeant.
"...But before that, how about we eat?"
He said,suddenly shifting back to being the goofy, laid-back brother she was used to,as he casually for a small cardboard box.
"Normally I wouldn't start with a brownie, but it's so long since I've gotten a taste of choco-"
As he spoke, his eyes widened, tentatively, he picked up the box and shook it out onto his plate, only to be rewarded with a smattering of crumbs.
He looked up to Lucy, who could only offer a chocolate stained smile in response.
"Well, guess who just earned herself another three Dance Battle sessions on "Impossible" difficulty?"