Lynn had an easier time getting through the rest of the school day, her left hand being bandaged partially now, the school nurse having insisted nothing was broken, though there was definitely going to be pain for a while. To the brunette, that was music to her ears, whenever the depressed personality chimed up, the sporty Loud would simply grab her left hand and squeeze it, it was painful, but it worked, sadly it being removed made the other voices become prominent again, Lynn found it a lot more tolerable to have multiple talking in different turns than a primary one, she had theories, however it did not help at all.
Ironically out of desperation to distract herself, Lynn had been far more attentive in classes than she had ever been. It weirded some of the teacher's out, none of them said anything and were merely happy to have another student acting like they cared about their grades for a change.
The school day ended rather abruptly it felt like to the aspiring sports star, Lynn found herself awkwardly milling about, trying to kill time until a majority of the student's had cleared out, anyone that would stay after school were either some of the staff, club members, or those that had sports practice to attend.
Now Lynn found herself approaching the chemistry classroom, she did see one problem with this plan her brother had however, and that was the fact the door to the room was locked.
"I feel like Lincoln did not think this one through..." The girl with the ponytail muttered to herself, at the time it sounded like a great idea for a safe location to have a discussion, she was far from comfortable discussing it in public anywhere, after all it felt like their many sisters were everywhere sometimes.
"That door looks pretty easy to break. Just get a good running start." The familiar aggressive personality chimed up, Lynn held her head, ignoring the obviously terrible idea. For being her split personalities, they seemed to not have the brightest intelligence.
After a few minutes of waiting, Lynn could see Lincoln stepping from around the corner, having had to make a stop at his locker really quick to drop his stuff off. The middle Loud sibling looked very happy to see his older sister looking a lot better than she did when he last saw her, though the young boy took notice of her bandaged hand.
"Hey, Lynn. Thanks for waiting for me." Lincoln thanked her, feeling bad for making her wait at all. "What happened to your hand?" He followed it up with his question, pointing to the bandaged limb. Lynn instinctively felt her right-hand reach to fruitlessly cover the bandage on her left hand in embarrassment, the sports lover was used to being seen with various bandaging on herself, yet she felt nothing short of shame with the fact she had inflicted this injury upon herself.
"Right, can't talk out here..." Lincoln nodded in recollection, guessing it was part of whatever it was that his older sister wanted to tell him, it felt important enough to him, so much so that he had turned down an invitation to the arcade from his friends, something he rarely did in the last few years. Lynn nodded, obviously uneasy at the idea of someone plausibly hearing them.
"Alright, give me a second." The teenage boy stepped to the chemistry classroom's door; the door had a long handle that looked like it had no intention of moving anytime soon. Lincoln simply raised his arm up, hitting the handle with a closed fist in a downward motion, there was a rattle and a clink, the door opening immediately on its own.
"Whoa... How'd you do that?" Lynn blinked in surprise, impressed.
"Oh, Rusty figured out the lock can't handle it when he tripped and hit his arm on it." Lincoln explained that it was an unspoken discovery amongst his friends, a pure accident, one he gladly was willing to use the knowledge of to his advantage. The two stepped inside, the young boy closing the door and locking it behind them.
The chemistry classroom, it looked as sterile as ever. The window blinds were drawn closed, all the stools were in order at the many tables that the student's worked at, aside from that one table in the back corner that looked like it had been the victim of a hundred chemical mishandlings.
"Relax, just pretend it's therapy." Lincoln tried to assure his older sister upon realizing she was tense, genuinely Lynn still had no clue as to why he was so nice to her. Comparing this to therapy though was not a sentence she found calming, the opposite really.
"Ahhhh, a dream come true... Two students, alone in a classroom, free to do anything they want. All it takes is a little bravery from one to make the first move. It's just like those manga he loves reading so much." The obsessed personality spoke in her head, that was enough to make the 5th oldest Loud want to bolt out of the room. She swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to ignore the voice entirely.
The two Loud siblings found themselves in silence, Lincoln did not want to force her into talking if she decided to back out, he was trying to show his support, yet it was clear to her if things went on any longer without any answers, he would definitely inform their entire family in a bid to get further help. Lynn found herself trying to figure out where to begin, how to talk about this even, honestly, she imagined saying anything would be far too much to start a conversation with. She did have one thing come to mind that she needed to confirm with him though, or rather, get him to swear to.
"Lincoln, will you promise me you won't tell anyone, anything I say in this room?" Lynn made her request clear, as well as the thing that was making her too fearful to speak. He tilted his head upon hearing this, though at this point he found no reason to deny her wishes, that was how desperate he was to get to the root of this problem.
"I promise that anything, and everything you say in here, will be kept secret... As long as you promise to tell me everything, and to not lie to me anymore about it." Lincoln declared in response; his arms crossed awaiting his older sibling's reaction to this deal. Lynn could not resist as a small smile broke out on her face, she chuckled.
"Lame-o, you really are cheesy... I promise, I'll tell you everything." Lynn made her own swear in reply to his offer, she saw no reason to even attempt to weasel out of his request, Lincoln knew his family the best out of everyone, lying would only become increasingly impossible. He nodded, looking very happy hearing her agree to his terms, ignoring the cheesy comment.
"Alright... I'm hearing voices in my head." Lynn came straight out and said it, she had no hesitation or reasons to hold back anymore, none of the voices in her head seemed to be against her saying it either, aside from the depressed one that the sporty Loud currently was silencing with her pain.
"W... What?" Was all Lincoln managed to get out, he was thrown so far off guard that his brain had trouble processing the information for a moment. At first, the Loud boy thought it might be a joke, something to ease the tension, one look at Lynn's serious expression made the truth clear, it made his heart sink to his stomach.
"I said, I'm hearing voices, four of them." Lynn held up four fingers on her intact hand while repeating herself, she put a palm against the side of her head. "Ever since those jerk wads in the alley broke my skull, my brains been broken too." She put it in terms that first sprang to mind.
"The worst part is, they can take control, and when they do..." Lynn paused as she felt a wave of anxiety starting to wash over her, she couldn't read Lincoln's expression currently, he was still processing what she was saying to him, she had no luck reading his face at all. The only thing keeping the sporty Loud talking now, was simply the promise her brother had made.
"It's like I'm locked somewhere, watching someone else borrow my body." Lynn finished on that note, she let her brother absorb the news to the best of his ability, the aspiring sports star leaned against one of the desks in a hopeless attempt to relax.
"You've been hearing voices for days, and they take control of you randomly?" Lincoln shakily had to repeat what he had heard in a summarized form, still uncertain what to make of this.
"No, it's not random... and I don't know if all of them can take control, only two of them have so far, and one got close to doing it." The brunette replied, sighing. "It wasn't me that broke up Lana and Lola's fight, it was one of them. I almost lost control when I was talking to you earlier today too, but I was able to stop it." Lynn continued her explanation, this situation felt far too complicated for him to even begin to grasp. Lincoln wondered if this was some experiment of Lisa's that had gone out of control, again, though he knew their 2nd youngest sibling would never do anything like this.
"You, stopped it?" Lincoln raised an eyebrow hesitantly; he saw Lynn raise her bandaged hand up.
"Yeah... I crushed my hand in my locker, pain is the only thing that makes it stop. Touching my leg used to be enough, but I guess it stopped working." Lynn explained the cause of her injured limb, it brought her nothing short of guilt and shame to admit to her only brother that she was hurting herself deliberately to keep only one of the voices in her head quiet.
"Lynn, this... Why didn't you tell anyone about this sooner? Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?" Lincoln had to question his older sister, still in disbelief, she remained silent, not saying anything, not even able to look at him.
"I get you hate asking for help, I understand that, but why? Why would you keep this a secret?!" The bucktoothed boy was understandably upset; Lynn was chewing the inside of her lip. "You aren't weaker for asking for help..." He added, that saying seemed to light something inside of her.
"Go on, tell him the truth, tell him. He wants it." The aggressive personality nudged at Lynn's mind, her head snapping up and glaring directly at her little brother.
"Because I didn't want it to ruin my life! I thought they would go away once my skull healed, and if not that then I had gotten good ideas from Lisa on how to stop them... I thought I could do it alone!" Lynn screamed, her older brother blinked when the sudden shouting happened, it appeared he had struck a nerve, and he struck it hard. "And no, before you ask, I didn't tell her, I lied and said it was for a test." The auburn-haired girl stepped closer to her brother, while Lincoln remained steadfast and unmoving, he did feel a sense of fear beginning to rise up in the ever-increasing tension.
"I don't want everyone looking at me, wondering when I'm going to snap! Wondering if I'm actually me or if one of those things in my head took over! Doubting every last thing I do, having to check on me constantly to make sure I'm stable! I want to be known as Lynn Loud Junior, all-star sports player, not Lynn Loud Junior, the walking mental time bomb!" Lynn screamed as she grabbed Lincoln by the lapels.
"Lynn..." Lincoln could only meekly say, beginning to get past his own fear, for one reason, because all he saw in his older sister's eyes now, was terror.
"Aw, look at him, all scared and in your arms, now's our chance to do whaaaatever we want with him." The obsessed personality hummed, seeing this as nothing other than an advantage. Lynn's left eye twitched, she jerked her gaze away from him, before she shoved her brother away from herself, panting. Lincoln wound up tripping over one of the stools, falling onto his back, he gasped in pain but withstood it.
The room was silent for a few minutes, Lincoln did not know what to say, he was not mad about being thrown into the floor like that, having tolerated far worse from her wrestling alone, though the bucktooth boy imagined it would hurt for a little while. The white-haired teenager pondered on what to do, Lynn claimed that she had a way to stop them possibly, he shook his head, not sure if he was crazy with what he was considering.
"You can't handle this alone, Lynn. Nobody could." Lincoln began while getting back to his feet, the white-haired teen seeing his older sibling closing her eyes, clearly in anticipation for the worst. "I'll try and do what I can to help." Those words made her eyes shoot wide open, Lynn looked to her younger brother in utter disbelief and confusion.
"What?!" Lynn gawked in disbelief; she found it hard to believe her brother was even considering this. Keeping silent was one thing, outright getting involved with these personalities individually though sounded suicidal, though if there was one thing the brunette knew, it was that her brother was not the type to break a promise without incredible reason.
"I said I'll try to do whatever I can to help you deal with the other four of... Uh, 'you'." Lincoln clarified further; he couldn't tolerate the idea of Lynn suffering through all of this alone. The bucktooth teen understood her fears well, the second a mental condition became apparent, it basically is all some people saw. If it was only temporary like Lynn theorized, then he was definitely not going to destroy her reputation by speaking prematurely.
"I promise, if you can't stop yourself, then I'll be there to stop you." Lincoln swore to his older sister, putting a hand on her shoulder, Lynn was not sure what to say, it did give her renewed hope, and was very comforted to know her brother would be there for her. All she could do was hug him, wrapping her arms tightly around her brother and squeezing. He was caught off guard at first, though gladly returned her embrace.
"Thank you, Linc." Lynn smiled, starting to relax again.
"It's nothing... Now, how about you tell me everything you can about them?" Lincoln said, and just like that the auburn-haired girl felt her embarrassment plus her anxiety returning just like that.
"Oh boy, where to start?" She knew he was not going to be happy with half the stuff he was going to hear, heck, not even a quarter of it probably, with that being said she decided to start where it seemed best, back at the day of the incident.
Lynn spent roughly an hour telling Lincoln everything about her 4 personalities, as well as all she could really understand about them. She recounted the last few days in great detail, almost like it was an interrogation, Lincoln listened intently the entire time, though the more he heard the more unnerved he became. By the time Lynn had finished, he was once again sat in stunned silence.
"So, you're telling me that one took you over, one got close to doing it, and another you willingly LET take you over?" Lincoln had to get clarity on that, his older sibling nodded, that was indeed the case.
"I'm pretty sure that's the only reason I was able to beat those thugs, because one took over. I barely could remember anything about it before I came to your hospital room." Lynn stated, uncertain if she was correct or not, though after the fight with Brandon and Tyler this morning, she identified the feelings to be the exact same as those she felt during the mugging.
"And that one of them... Is obsessed with me?" The bucktooth teen quirked a brow, not sure how to feel about that, it was obvious that Lynn had been deliberately vague when describing the obsessed personality.
"That personality is more addicted to you, than our entire family is addicted to chocolate." Lynn decided to put it better in comparative terms, that comparison was plenty to make her brother uncomfortable, and scared.
"And you beat up Brandon and Tyler this morning, but that personality did not take you over as much as work WITH you?" Lincoln continued, his 5th oldest sister narrowed her eyes at her little brother, feeling like she was being judged for being able to listen to and work with a split personality that told her to beat up people and cause violence.
"They hit Clyde when I tried to apologize, it got out of control." Lynn defended herself, she was not too happy when she heard that Tyler had to be taken to the hospital, yet she found it hard to muster up any sympathy.
"Jeez... This is like having 4 more sisters to handle." Lincoln held his head, not even sure where to start with any of this. "Do you know what they want?" He asked, aware that there was deep psychology behind these personalities being born in the first place, and neither of them had any clue why one would completely want him and only him.
"Not at all." Lynn shrugged, there was a moment of silence between them as she saw her brother trying to think. The gears were turning full speed in his head, his fingers tapping across the desk the two sat across one another at.
"Have you tried asking them?" Lincoln suggested, there was an awkward pause as Lynn stared at him, looking completely lost at that suggestion.
"What? Of course not, why would I talk to any of them- they're all in my head! I'd look crazy talking to myself." The aspiring sports star responded; the bucktooth boy did not argue with that, nodding.
"Yeah but, Lisa said every one of them was created because you either needed them, or wanted something you weren't able to get yourself, or to guilt-trip you for something you did." Lincoln repeated what she had told him, he was uncertain about it all either, that was just the situation though. Lynn did not want to treat these personalities like they were real, wanting to simply deny their existence completely.
"At least they aren't all bad, the motherly one sounds nice enough." He commented, taking out his cell phone upon hearing the text alert tone go off, looking down at it.
"I still don't trust it." Lynn replied with her honest thoughts, resting her head in her palm. "What is it?" She attempted to inquire; her brother had a raised brow.
"It's a text from Sam, it says her and Luna need me?" Lincoln stated, it was perplexing to both of them, Sam was the girlfriend of their older sister, Luna, as well as one of her bandmates. The middle Loud child had been their band manager for the last few years, albeit that was only because he was good at coming up with plans, he still found it odd when Sam first suggested it, so far Luna had no regrets with the decision at least. Although there were times where being the manager of the band was a very hard challenge.
"Sorry to cut it short, Lynn, I don't think I can brush this one off." He apologetically spoke, feeling terrible that this has come up, he did not want to leave any of his family alone if they were in trouble, the middle Loud sibling hoping Luna was alright since the text was rather vague.
"Hey it's okay, I'm kind of exhausted from all this talkin'... How about I go with you?" Lynn offered to her only brother as he stepped towards the classroom door, he paused and looked over his shoulder to her.
"Really?" Lincoln blinked, seeing his sports loving sibling stepping out of the room alongside him, the two making sure the door was locked once again before closing it behind themselves.
"Really, it's not like I can do anything else, so I may as well see if I can be useful with whatever's going on." The girl with the cracked skull responded, her only brother did not argue with her logic, he would feel a lot better keeping an eye on her if she stuck close too.
"Alright, come on. My bikes still parked outside from when we walked home last time... Or tried to." The bucktoothed teenager motioned for her to come along, that being said the two beginning to leave their high school.
Lynn was expecting to be the one controlling the bicycle, her brother's bike was big enough for the two of them, though he had forced his older sibling to wear the one helmet he had, while he handled steering the bike. The sports lover was relegated to riding on the back, just holding onto Lincoln and trying to enjoy the ride.
"Did Sam at least say why they needed you?" Lynn tried to ask while her brother took a sharp turn around a corner, she was actually surprised at how good he was at controlling his speed on the bike without losing control; he had no hesitation or fear in his style either.
"Not at all, the text just said they needed me at their practice place." Lincoln replied, trying to focus on where he was going, although his older sister enjoyed seeing him like this, she had been one of the ones that had helped him learn to ride a bike, though the best advice Lynn had been able to give was 'be confident'.
"Ugh, you mean that abandoned storage building that Mazzy swears her uncle owns?" Lynn rhetorically spoke, her younger brother laughing a little at hearing that.
"Yep, they didn't have much of a choice on where to practice after they graduated. Our house is too noisy, Sam's Mom is nice, but Luna didn't feel comfortable taking advantage of her like that, and Sully lives in too small of a place." Lincoln went on to explain the first half of the list for what had forced Luna's band to practice in such a random place, as long as no one was getting in trouble, the Loud family did not mind.
It did not take them long before they arrived at their destination, while the building was one of many several around, the area looked rather desolate. Lincoln and Lynn knew that was because it tended to get lively at night around this part of town, the later into the night, the more people that showed up. They began stepping towards one of the buildings, or rather the garage door of one since the front door and windows of it were boarded up. While this was Lynn's first time being here, her brother on the other hand was very used to the routine of this location.
"I just hope I don't have to play mediator to some fight again." Lincoln commented, as much as he enjoyed helping his sibling's, getting caught in the middle of a fight between a couple always felt weird, there had thankfully been only a few in the couple years since the band was created.
"Nah, they wouldn't text anybody if they were in a fight." Lynn insisted something else was going on, as she threw the bike helmet down by the bicycle. Her little brother went and banged on the garage door three times in short succession, the two waited for a moment before they saw the garage door get rolled up manually. Standing there was a blonde woman, roughly Luna's age, she had messy blonde hair with a blue streak in it as well as several earrings, she was wearing a light blue leather jacket with a white undershirt.
"Hey Lincoln, and Lynn?" Sam Sharp greeted them, however she was surprised to see Lynn there, she figured the sporty Loud would be at home, Luna had told her girlfriend in detail about the sport loving girl's odd behavior, though Sam decided to remain silent.
"Hey Sam, sorry, I was helping Lynn with something when you texted, I hope it's okay for her to be here." Lincoln felt bad for bringing an extra along without some kind of heads up.
"It's cool, it's nice to see you both in good health. I was really scared when I heard about what happened." The blonde girl reassured there was no problem, the Loud family quickly got attached to Sam, she put a high importance on family despite not talking about her own at all, the only thing Lincoln and Lynn knew was that Sam had a brother and that it was just them and her mother currently.
"Great, another person to treat us like a helpless baby and ask us if we're okay every 5 minutes." The aggressive personality chirped up within Lynn's mind, the brunette definitely knew what to avoid now topic wise at least.
"So, what's up? Your text sounded urgent. And where is everybody?" Lynn attempted to inquire to get past the topic of her and her brother's current health, the aspiring sports star felt a lot more relaxed knowing she had Lincoln to keep an eye on her now and help keep the personalities in check.
"Yeah, it was really vague." Lincoln continued, he was used to vague messages, especially whenever a sibling of his was upset. This seemed like something else entirely however.
"Mazzy had to go cool off, she was about to explode, and Sully is keeping an eye on her." Sam began, letting the two Loud siblings come inside as the blonde lowered the door once again, beginning to lead the two inside.
Lynn found herself looking around in rather stunned awe, the place was bigger on the inside than it seemed, it looked like an abandoned workshop at one point. The girl with the ponytail could see the lights mostly were coming from a few dangling fixtures, while there was not much room here Lynn could tell that Luna and her bandmate's had definitely made themselves at home.
"Wow, this place is like a dream hideaway." Lynn stated in astonishment, in one corner she could see a glorified mini bedroom was setup, near that was a makeshift kitchen that she assumed only was lacking an oven due to the fact Luna and Sam had an equal chance at setting even the most basic of cooking recipes on fire.
"Lincoln? Lynn?" They heard the familiar rougher voice of their older sister, Luna, who was sat on what appeared to be a makeshift stage where the band's instruments were. That was when the two could finally see what they assumed to be the cause of that text, Luna's cherished electric guitar, Sam's as well, both looked terrible. Sam's guitar had a few slices put into it, the worst being a nasty large gash within its main part, as it lay there with the strings in disarray, whereas the rock loving Loud's guitar had the fingerboard of it broken in two, and the instrument of destruction presumably, was resting within Sully's snare drum, it was an old fire axe, rusty and long forgotten by time clearly, until now.
"Jumpin' balls..." Lynn could only gasp out.
"What in the name of Ace Savvy happened?!" Lincoln stared, mouth agape, the two saw Luna put her guitar to the side as she stood up, wiping her eyes, having been silently crying for a short time now.
"You called them?" Luna glared to Sam, looking hurt, having not been told at all about contacting her little brother and sister.
"Luna, I didn't have a choice. We're literally being thre-" Sharp did not get a chance to finish her sentence.
"THEY DON'T NEED TO KNOW!" Luna suddenly shouted, that was enough to make Sam clam up on the spot, Lynn had never seen her older sister like this before, that guitar was a cherished item for the rocking Loud, having had it for many years and taken care of it throughout them all. Sam was no different of course, hers being a gift from her parents, there was dead silence in the air.
"Oh dear, she's really quite fragile." The motherly personality spoke within Lynn's head, somehow the sporty Loud had a feeling that the only reason Sam was not showing similar levels of grief, was merely because she had no choice but to try and be strong given the situation.
"But what can I do? I'm not useful in a delicate situation..." Lynn thought to herself, gripping her left hand in a pre-emptive attempt to silence the depressed voice before it could try and butt into the situation.
"Luna, I understand you're upset, Sam is just worried." Lincoln tried to console his older sister; it was scary seeing the one that many in their family treated like a practical second mother being so angry.
"You should just leave... There's nothing you could do anyway..." Luna's voice quivered; her head slumped down as she buried her face in her palms.
"You don't know that unless you tell us." Lynn countered that claim, she never was a fan of when Luna got in one of her moods, this situation seemed like something too big for anyone to ignore.
"Please, Lunes." Sam requested that the band's supposed leads not hide anything. Luna sighed, shaking her head. She did not want to drag anyone else into this mess, she took a seat on the edge of the stage once again.
"A month ago, an underground music competition got announced, we decided to sign up." Luna began telling what happened, her girlfriend coming over and taking a seat beside her, Sam taking Luna's hand into her own in an attempt to comfort her other half.
"We've been practicing like crazy ever since." Sam claimed, that explained to Lincoln and Lynn why Luna had been staying out so many nights these last few weeks, the rock loving Loud did not want talk about the music contest due to feeling embarrassed, and knowing that her family would definitely want to show up.
"We didn't know that it was a lot bigger than we knew it was, and that people were placing bets on who would win, the winner gets to leave with a quarter of the cash... Some big names from the underground scene have entered too." Sam continued for her girlfriend, the group had simply been excited to jump at the opportunity to advanced their music careers, unaware of how much actually was on the line for many people.
"So, some of the competition decided to take you out?" Lynn had to guess; it was pretty much the only answer that made sense to her at this point, it was plenty enough to make her blood boil. Lincoln looked to their older sister, wondering if the brunette had been right.
"... We think Adrian and his band did it." Sam confirmed since her girlfriend remained silent on the topic.
"Adrian? Who's that?" Lincoln quirked a brow, crossing his arms.
"He used to go to our high school, he was a cool dude, then he changed when he made a band with his girlfriend and another classmate. Their band's called King Woofer I think." Luna tried to put it as simply as she could remember, truly she was missing those days when she could go to music class, and just idly play to her hearts content, even after school hours.
"What makes you think he did it though?" Lincoln found it rather random to accuse an old former friend like that with seemingly no evidence, destroying another band's equipment was a ridiculous overreaction nonetheless. The Loud sibling's saw Sam reach into her pocket, taking out something and presenting it in her palm, the bucktooth boy picked it up with his fingers.
"It's... a shark tooth?" Lynn blinked, it seemed to be like a regular old shark tooth, it was not that big in size either, it looked rather old as well. She did notice it had a hole drilled in the base of it, as if it was meant to be on a string of some sort.
"Everyone has their own unique guitar pick, whatever you use can sound different when it hits the strings, and Adrian always said that was his 'lucky tooth'. He really liked showing it off." Luna exhaled, there was a heavy silence in the air, Lincoln was simply absorbing the information at this point and trying to think it over on what to do. It was clear the rock loving Loud wanted to go back to wallowing in self misery.
"If you want to make her feel better, I have an idea on how you can." The motherly toned voice chimed up to Lynn, she held her chin in consideration, obviously desperate enough for any idea at this point. "All you have to do is treat her how she would treat any of you when you broke down." It claimed, the brunette did not quite understand what that meant at first, until it struck her in sudden recollection.
"I do hate seeing her as broken down as Vanzilla." The 5th oldest Loud shook her head, she took in a deep breath in an attempt to prepare herself mentally, she had to swallow her pride if she wanted to actually help at all, once ready she began stepping over to Luna.
"Hm?" Sam looked perplexed, noticing an uncertain determined expression on the sports stars face.
When Luna looked up, there was a strange pause. Without warning, Lynn suddenly wrapped her arms around Luna's neck, the guitarist blinked in surprise, the sports loving girl pulling her older sister's head into her shoulder.
"It's okay, I promise... we'll find a way to fix this." Lynn hummed out in a calm tone of voice, gently caressing Luna's hair. At first, Luna's guard was broken entirely, utterly annihilated, but after a second, she was not able to resist her emotions, wrapping her arms around Lynn, sniffling and choking out a weak sob as she held onto her little sister.
Sam was in utter disbelief upon seeing that, sure Lynn had no problem being supportive, this though? Neither Sam nor Luna had ever seen her do anything like this before, it was of great comfort to Luna, yet a jarring shift to the blonde girl with the blue streak in her hair.
"Dude, did something happen to Lynn?" Sam quietly interrogated Lincoln while they were out of earshot of the two Loud sisters. Lincoln snapped out of his train of thought, looking to see what was going on, feeling relieved at seeing it.
"Oh, n-no not at all. She's just trying to get through her emotions, ever since we got out of the hospital, she's been more sensitive to people's feelings." The bucktooth teenager covered for his older sibling, he hoped she had not succumbed to one of her personalities in the midst of the conversation, so far Lynn seemed to be perfectly in control.
"Well, it's nice to see she's staying strong." Sam could only say, her gaze drifting back to her damaged instrument, it made her heart throb in distress even at the mere sight.
"I don't know what we're going to do, Lincoln. We don't have the money to fix all this, Sully's drums aren't the most expensive, Mazzy got lucky she had taken her instrument home to tune it last night, but all this together?" Sam had her hands close to her chest, trying to keep her own heart calm, feeling nothing other than doubt in the forefront of her mind now.
The band manager had to agree, any idea he had shot itself down pretty swiftly. Renting equipment? No, that would not work, instruments took time to get used to and adjust to, they were arguably irreplaceable, nor cheap, and he saw no way to simply fix them either, and even if they did, what was stopping Adrian and his gang from simply breaking in and doing it all over again?
"Maybe I could call in some favors to get the money for repairs?" Lincoln suggested, not having a large sum of cash himself, that did not mean he would not donate it to try and help fix his sister and close friend's cherished possessions.
"You're sweet Lincoln, this is going to take hundreds though, unless you know of a secret master at instrument repairs that charges cheap, I don't see how we're going to be able to compete by Saturday." Sam turned down their band manager's offer, Lincoln sighed, not able to deny how bad this situation was. And they had no solid evidence to take to the police to blame Adrian for it either, beyond a shark tooth that which the ownership of could easily be denied.
Lynn had been comforting Luna when she heard what Sam said, the brunette felt the gears turning in her head as she consoled her older sister. That was when the lightbulb turned on in the sports loving girls head.
"Can't we get Lisa and Lana to fix them?" The brunette said, though she had a feeling that Luna had already considered it at one point and gave up on that idea, it sounded like a long shot, it was the first idea Lynn had though.
"Lisa is a scientist and Lana is a mechanic, sure they're great at what they do, but neither of them has any idea what to do with busted guitars or drums." Lincoln shook his head when he argued against the brunette, seeing her supportive embrace with Luna ending now as she stepped towards the white-haired teenager, the rock loving Loud felt a hundred times better now, looking like she had gotten her mental stability back.
"Lisa is a genius and Lana is great with tools, if we can get them working together, then I'm sure they can figure something out." Lynn replied to her brother with her own perspective view of the idea, Sam and Luna looked to one another, looking uncertain about it.
"Well... I guess it can't hurt to ask." Lincoln relented to his older sibling, looking to Luna and Sam for their permission to do this.
"Sure, as long as they don't mind and we don't tell the others." Luna wiped her eye, not against the idea of enlisting other the siblings help, though the rock loving girl knew that if the truth came out their entire family would be involved in a matter of minutes. Luna was pretty sure Lola was being paid by Lori to keep her and Leni in the loop on anything that happened at the Loud house as well.
"If you think they can do it, then I'll give them a shot." Sam agreed, at this point in the mindset of 'it can't possibly get any worse' by now.
Lynn sure hoped this idea would work, even if it probably would take some convincing on her part to get Lisa and Lana to agree. Though while the Sam and Luna went to get their broken instruments with Lincoln's help, the sports loving Loud already was making plans of her own, she needed to pay a visit to this Adrian, it was not at the behest of her aggressive personality either, no, it was more the fact the nurturing motherly toned voice in her head insisted this could not go ignored, Lynn coincidentally agreed. For the time being the sports star tried to focus on helping them get the equipment gathered up, there was no way she was going to get anywhere without Lincoln's help in this matter.