So someone approached me, asking if they could do some guest chapters.
So I was thinking, you guys wanna try submitting your own? Tell me yes or no?
And because I hate chapters that are only just author notes, here's a short chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Loud House.
As the group watched the screen turn on for another session, Lincoln spoke up. "Hey, you guys feel like we're forgetting something?"
Everyone paused for a moment, before shrugging.
"Yeah, maybe we'll remember after this session." Luna said as the screen changed.
Grown up versions of Liam, Rusty, and Zach fell back, breathing heavily. Liam wore leather armor and boots with a green cape over his shoulder. Rusty looked like your stereotypical fantasy barbarian, his short tattered pants revealing his chiseled physique. Finally, Zach was dressed in a blue robe, with a large wizard hat being set on the ground.
Everyone but Lincoln stared at the screen before they started laughing their heads off. Lincoln stayed quiet as he got up and paused the screen. He leaned against the console as everyone slowly gained control of themselves.
"Oh, my brave heroes, having come far and wide!" Lola mockingly swooned. "Take me into your big strong arms!"
"No offense, Lincoln, but imagining your nerd friends like this… BWA HAHAHAHA!" Lynn Jr couldn't control herself and fell back laughing.
"Boy, bet that version of your friend is an English major. I hear he's very particular about his SPELLing!" Luan began laughing harder as everyone groaned.
"Dang it, Luan." Lana groaned.
"You know, now that I take a second look at it, you think you could invite your friend Liam over? I actually don't think his outfit looks that bad on him." Leni said as she took out a notebook and starting taking notes.
"Hey, what do you think they're even doing in a place like this?" Lucy asked.
"Come on, Luce, just let us have this before the brutal stuff starts happening." Luna begged.
Lincoln resumed the playing.
Sitting in the middle of the abandoned barn, there was a regular looking old man who sneered at them. Despite being covered in his blood and one of his toes seemed to be shorter than the others, his sneer might as well have been the full moon on a cloudless night. He also was wearing a necklace with an ominous looking symbol that looked vaguely religious, the effect doubled so covered in the man's blood.
Lori sighed. "Too late."
Lynn Jr turned green. "Geez, what did they do to this guy?"
"Judging from the amulet that he is wearing, I would probably guess that he is a member of some demonic cult." Lucy guessed.
"Still, a little brutal, mate." Luna shivered.
Luan's eyes looked carefully at the short toe the guy had before paling. "Oh my god, I think they cut off his toe!"
Lincoln leaned back. It was one thing to see yourself doing terrible things. It was honestly another thing to see your friends doing the same thing. Still, where was Clyde in all this?
"You fools, do whatever you like. The will of our dark god shall come to fruition. Squirm in futility as our lord's grasp controls the human sheep of this kingdom through the bread they eat and the water they drink. IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME! HAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!"
"And that is why science will be superior to magic." Lisa said snidely. "You can have your fireballs and summoning, but magic will always pale to the wonders of science."
"Pretty sure magic doesn't care if you have water filtration." Lana pointed out.
"This guy ain't cracking." Liam frowned. "Any of you fellers got anymore bright ideas?"
Rusty shook his head. "I got nothing...Unless you want to try 'punching him harder.'"
"Huh, that didn't work? Usually works for me." Lynn Jr scratched her head.
The rest of her sisters grumbled.
Zach reached inside his robes and pulled out a book before he began searching through the pages.
"I could try ripping the info out of his head, but then we'll run the risk of mind crushing him!"
"...Science is still better." Lisa said. "Though I wouldn't having the ability to do that to some neanderthals…"
Liam and Rusty looked at each other. "Let's take another five minutes. If we can't do anything in that time, we'll have to do it."
It was at this point that the door opened and someone stumbled inside. Dressed in fine armor with a symbol that looked vaguely religious, it clashed with the drunken expression on grown up Lincoln's face as he looked around, taking in the scene. He then raised the jug of booze and drank heavily from it, excess alcohol escaping his mouth and running down his chin.
The jug left his mouth, soon followed by a loud belch.
"...Wow, what a hero." Lola grimaced.
"Hey, what's even everyone supposed to be?" Leni couldn't help asking.
"Well, looking from their clothes and seeing that we are in a setting with, I think that Liam is a ranger, Rusty is a barbarian, Zach's a wizard and I'm a paladin… Wait, why am I drinking?" Lincoln contemplated.
"...NERD!" Lynn Jr shouted.
"So...did you guys get anything with your torture?"
"...Not really." Zach admitted.
Lincoln sighed. "Typical. If you're going to do this, you gotta do it right."
He wondered around the barn, before getting a chair and setting it in front of the man, the back of the chair facing him. Lincoln sat down, his arms rested on the back of the chair before he laid his chin on top of it. He clinically looked the man over, taking note of any serious bruising and injuries.
"I don't want to hurt you I just need to know the locations of your brethren, then this can be all over for you. I assure you, the moment that you tell us, I will make sure you are safe and cared for."
"Huh, good cop and bad cop routine, huh?" Lola commented. "A little trite, but it could work."
Lori looked at Lola. "Everyday I have to ask myself where you keep getting stuff like that."
The man stared at Lincoln for a while, before a small chuckle escaped his lips. It grew and grew, until the man was outright guffawing, his belly heaving with some squirts of red every now and then. Finally, the man calmed down, an evil gleam in his eye.
"HA! What do I have to fear from you? I know you, Sir Lincoln the Lionhearted Paladin. Your order, your God won't allow you to lay your hands on me. If you even touch a hair on my head wrathfully, you will lose your powers and your ability to fight! WHAT CAN YOU DO?!"
"Lincoln, what does he mean by that? You're the nerd." Leni asked.
"Ignoring that one, Paladins usually have to abide by some code from their god in order to get their powers." Lincoln explained.
"So should they stray from his path… they will become powerless." Lucy realized.
"You mean that Lincoln has to help that jerk, otherwise he can't do anything? That stinks." Lana complained.
Lincoln didn't even react to the man's taunts. He simply stared and allowed the man's mad laughter to subside. Liam, Rusty, and Zach started to come over before Lincoln held up a hand.
He sighed.
"You seem to be under the misconception about what I am, what I do. I am a paladin, but I don't fear falling…"
His drunkenness seemed to recede like the tide, his eyes now shining with a dark light.
"I look forward to it."
Silence reigned over the room as everyone leaned back.
"Okay, I got chills from that one." Luan admitted.
"Join the club." Lola agreed.
The man blinked, unsure and a little nervous at that statement. He looked over at the three. Liam, Rusty, and Zach looked just as lost. The man opened his mouth, but Lincoln cut him off.
"As a paladin, I walk on a razor's edge. Not between good and evil, I could never be something like you, but between 'law' and 'justice'. The 'law' I follow doesn't permit me to harm you, but I could be 'justified' in anything I did to you in order to save innocent lives."
"A dangerous philosophy." Lisa adjusted her glasses.
"Pretty sure you're the last one to talk, Lisa." Lincoln sniped.
"What do you mean by that?" Lisa couldn't help asking.
Everyone looked at Lisa with a raised eyebrow.
He exploded into motion, standing up and grabbing the chair in one motion. Lincoln hurled the chair into the wall, the wood shattering into a million pieces with the sound of thunder. Everyone in the room flinched, before the cultist realized that Lincoln was looking back at him.
For the first time in forever, the cultist felt fear.
"ANYTHING!"
Like a panther stalking his prey, Lincoln walked up to the cultist, anger and rage starting to make themselves clear in his eyes.
"You don't know what it is like to be me. You don't know the pain of having to store all your anger, all your fury, all your sense of justice, and hold it inside you, all day every day for the rest of your life. Doing the right thing doesn't mean I get to stop all evil, I just get to trim it when it becomes overgrown. The path I walk is not about vengeance, or what's right; it's about moderation in the face of power, restraint and compassion for scum. just. like. You."
"Okay, this Lincoln is getting scary." Lynn Jr hugged herself.
Suddenly, Lincoln pushed the chair over, the cultist shouting in shock before hitting the ground. Scant seconds passed before Lincoln straddled the man's chest. Grabbing the man's shoulders, Lincoln started to squeeze, looking like he was trying to rip the flesh straight from bone. The cultist started to hiss in pain, his terrified eyes keeping Lincoln in his sight.
"No kidding." Lori said as she patted Leni on the back, who had her eyes closed tight.
"This is why paladins don't fear falling. We don't spend all day looking for ways to prevent ourselves from doing evil and giving in to the darkness - we actively seek it out. Every time we face evil, we ask ourselves, 'Is this the threat that I'm going to give it all up for? Is this what I am going to give up my ability to help others in the future, in order to bring it down now. Is this the evil that I am willing to forsake my God and my power to stop?!'".
With that, Lincoln stared down the man, their noses almost touching.
"What you should be asking yourself now, what you really need to be thinking about, is: 'Is what I'm doing something that will make this guy want to fall?' Because you should know that once I fall, all those rules which protect you from me are gone. No longer will I be able to be stopped by you, or by my order, or by my God. If I give everything, and I mean give everything, I will never stop. If you escape me today, I will hunt you down and grab you into the pits of hell myself. Even if that means that I have to invoke the wrath of every demon in creation, just so they throw open a pit and drag me down where I stand, because when they do drag me down, I will make sure that my fists are wrapped firmly around your ankles and you go down with me. I want you to listen to me now, and I mean really listen, because Hell truly hath no fury like a paladin scorned."
"How has this guy decided not to spill the beans yet? I would be singing like a canary." Lincoln said.
With that said, Lincoln put the chair upright. He still stared the cultist down before continuing to talk.
"So I ask you, one last time: tell me where the other rituals are being held, or I swear to all on high that I will fall, and fall hard, just so I can show you why paladins truly keep their code..."
The scene shifted.
Lincoln lifted his eyes from a tabletop where figurines, character sheets, and dice laid strewn about. Liam, Rusty, and Zach stared at him from their seats while Clyde stared at him from behind the DM screen. Silence reigned over the table.
Looking around, Lincoln finally picked up the dice.
"I like to roll intimidate."
Everyone stared at the screen, before they flipped out.
"YOU WERE JUST PLAYING A DUMB GAME?!" Lynn Jr put her hands on her face. "That was movie worthy! MOVIE WORTHY! And it's just for some dumb dungeons and dice monsters or whatever!"
"Kinda takes the epicness out of the whole thing, doesn't it?" Luan sighed.
"Definitely." Lucy agreed.