After the school day had ended, the two Loud siblings found themselves heading straight home the moment they got out, though Lincoln was taking notice of drastically how much worse Lynn's mood had gotten, not in an easily discernable way, it was more like she was constantly distracted by something on her mind, and whatever it was that weighed on her thoughts was only increasing in size. Lincoln felt guilty, not because of anything he had done, but merely because he was in a very positive mood now due to getting Stella to agree to be his date to the party tomorrow, he was completely oblivious to Lynn agreeing to be Clyde's date though.
Lynn had been dealing with the obsessed personality since lunch, she found it odd how she never felt like she was close to losing control to it, that did not make the suffering it caused to her skull any better. Thankfully after enough resistance the brunette had been able to withstand the split personalities glorified assault on her mental state, it made her miss the other voices in her head far more however, something she could not believe really.
"Don't worry Lynn, I promise Lisa will figure something out." Lincoln put a hand on his older sister's shoulder, Lynn sniffled, not able to deny, she was scared of what the 2nd youngest Loud might do or say, that uncertainty is what made the sporty Loud terrified, but the thing she was afraid of the most, was the possibility of hearing that there was no way to fix the split personalities. Lynn did not know what she would do if that was the case, she tried not to think about it to the best of her ability.
"What if she can't Lincoln? What then?" Lynn weakly asked, not even looking to her brother, she did not want him to see that fear that her eyes currently held.
"Lynn, if she can't find a way to get rid of them, then she can use what you know to help suppress them." Lincoln tried to reassure his sister, insisting that this was not a hopeless situation, if they had the means to suppress them then they had the ability to be rid of them, Lisa was surely smart enough to be able to do it. Lynn did not know what to say to that, the suppression of the personalities was not a fool proof process, the polar opposite actually, any solution she found for them seemed temporary at best, like with the depressed personality, the pushpin trick she had used this morning had already begun to become useless towards the end of the school day. Lynn guessed it was because she had gotten used to the pain. The aggressive personality was never satisfied until after a fight, a real brawl at that, beating on training dummies or punching bags did nothing, the obsessed one seemed easy to remove by just hugging Lincoln, the maternal personality was the only one truly easy to dispatch, and that was the one she hated the least.
Lynn still recalled the words her 2nd youngest sister had told her though, how the split personalities could get stronger, become something more dangerous, and that terrified her given the fact they already were plenty dangerous, the brunette held her head, still refusing to glance to her only brother.
"Did things go okay with Stella?" Lynn attempted to inquire, she was wanting to hear how things went, as well as desperately change the topic from the potentially grim outcome.
"O-oh, yeah, it uhm... It took a little talking, but she said yes." Lincoln felt a nervous smile appearing on his face, he was excited for tomorrow night even more now. He already had a plan in mind on how him and Lynn could stay out late that night, the white-haired teenager had given up on sneaking out without a cover at all after him and his many siblings' failed attempts at being out past curfew dozens of times over due to one reason or another, including their parent's increased awareness now that a lot of the Louds were older. The Loud children were only able to buy so much time for one another too.
"That's great, Lincoln! I knew you could do it as long as you were bold enough." Lynn congratulated him, thinking it was about time he got over his last girlfriend. Though the sports loving Loud found herself slowing down as their home came into view, the 5th oldest Loud sibling never thought she could dread returning home after a long day of school, she was scared to see Lisa, and she did not want to admit it.
"Don't worry, it's actually a good thing you delayed talking to Lisa by a day, a lot of the others are out if I'm right." Lincoln assured Lynn that she did not have to worry about her secret getting out to anyone else unintentionally, the only ones that should be home right now should be Lisa Lucy and Lily. Luna was spending all of her free time trying to practice more for the music competition this Saturday, Luan had a date with Benny, Lola had gone to Leni's to buy new clothes, and Lana was at a friend's house. If there was one thing the bucktooth boy was good at, it was memorizing his sisters plans for any day, he had heard their plans for the day during breakfast.
Lynn took in a deep breath, trying to be brave as they went inside their home. It seemed like Lincoln was not wrong so far about the number of family members there, the Loud house was eerily quiet, usually silence was the definition of a bad thing in their home, it was a blessing to the sporty girl this time. The two could see Lucy watching television, with Lily resting her head on her gothic sibling's lap and sleeping away.
"Oh, hey Lynn, hey Lincoln, you two are home early." Lucy greeted her roommate and brother, surprised to see them back home already since the two had been staying out late recently. Lynn tried not to cringe at the vampire movie on TV, taking off her coat as she tossed it up on the coat rack half-heartedly.
"Hey Lucy, do you know where Lisa is? We need to talk to her." Lincoln replied to his goth sibling, hoping that the child genius had not gone out herself when the two needed her. The middle Loud sibling was wanting to meet with Lisa right away, mostly because he knew that his older sister's confidence was being chipped away more and more with each passing second.
"She's working on something; I didn't really understand anything she said about it, she told me to make sure Lily stayed downstairs for a while though." Lucy explained to the two, the black-haired girl was not the best with translating Lisa's scientific speech, Lincoln was the most capable at that, Lucy just listened to the request to keep their youngest sister downstairs for the time being.
"Thanks Lucy. I'll let you know when the coast is clear." Lincoln thanked his vampire loving sibling, he could see Lynn already heading upstairs, it was obvious by how she carried herself that it was forced bravery at best, the bucktooth teenager was not going to complain though, it made things easier for now, he followed after their older sister, though the young boy still felt bad that he more or less had to force Lynn into this.
When Lynn got to the younger kid's room, she could see Lisa at her foldout workbench, working away on a small device. The 5th oldest Loud did not know what it was, the only thing she could tell was that it had a hexagonal shape and had wires popping out all over from it, with Lisa soldering away at the circuitry inside.
"Oh dear." Lisa said in minor surprise, as suddenly a fountain of sparks began shooting out, the child prodigy reached under her workbench and took out a small container, it had a small tag on it that read 'In case of potentially explosive emergencies.' Lisa covered the device with it, resting her soldering iron aside for the time being and taking off her goggles.
"Is now a bad time, Lisa?" Lincoln asked, Lisa turned in her seat to face her older siblings, she could tell something was wrong right away just from their expressions, Lincoln looked rather solemn and had sympathy written across his features, whereas Lynn appeared to be nervous, she saw their only brother close the door to the room.
"No, not at all, we're relatively safe at the moment." Lisa answered, unsure if her device was at risk of detonating or if it was simply a minor malfunction, either way she was going to quarantine it under the blast proof lid for the rest of the evening most likely, for safeties sake. "Is something the matter?" The glasses wearing girl asked while resting her goggles aside.
"I... I need your help." Lynn forced the words out of her mouth, right now the sporty Loud wanted to get out of there, her confidence was waning quickly. Lincoln was guarding the door for that exact reason, he wanted to be there for moral support and to help convince Lisa in case she was reluctant to help, though he had to make sure above all else that his older sister does not chicken out last minute. Lisa blinked upon hearing that, Lynn confessing to needing help already was a pretty big red flag, given the stubborn nature of the sports loving girl, this felt a lot bigger though due to that hesitant tone.
"Of course, please, take a seat." Lisa insisted, Lynn paused for a moment, Lincoln patted her back, insisting for her not to be scared, the girl with the fractured skull went and took a seat on Lisa's bed. The white-haired teenager remained near the door to be safe.
"She's going to just call you crazy, what's the point in this? It's all a waste of time... We deserve to suffer anyway; we don't deserve her help..." The depressed personality spoke within Lynn's mind, she already felt uncomfortable enough, it did little to help.
"So, what is the matter? Did you sustain an injury again?" Lisa asked while reaching into her nearby cabinet to fetch her medical kit, usually that was the only reason Lynn came to her was when she was in need of medical treatment, though from a cursory glance her older sister seemed rather intact at the moment.
"I'm hearing voices." Lynn declared, her grip on her leg tightening as if to resist that left hand trembling from her ever-increasing anxiety. Lisa stopped in place upon hearing that, the child prodigy cast her gaze to their only brother, wondering if this was a prank orchestrated by Luan. Lincoln nodded to his 2nd youngest sister, insisting it was no lie, despite how much he wished it was.
"For how long?" Lisa requested a precise timeframe; her older siblings were rather caught off guard at just how serious the 2nd youngest Loud had become without warning.
"Ever since those jerks took a bat to my skull." Lynn said, she took in a breath, trying to calm down. "I've been hearing 4 voices in my head ever since then, and now I'm losing control of my body to them..." She continued; Lisa could be seen writing this down on a notepad immediately. The 5th oldest Loud felt like she was already being turned into a lab rat, so far, the reaction was a lot better than she had anticipated.
"You are aware that my psychological knowledge is rudimentary at best, correct?" Lisa asked her older sibling, while her and Lynn did not have the closest relationship, it was by no means bad, Lisa was never a fan of psychology, mostly because she had her own share of mental baggage, like anyone else, the child genius wondered if she truly could be of help. Lynn slowly nodded her head, adverting her gaze away from her younger sister.
"You require a professional's aid on this matter, especially if the voices are of any danger to you or others." Lisa continued, while she was smarter than most people, that did not mean she was able to handle any problem that was thrown at her, even if in the Loud family that literally could mean ANY problem. Lincoln did not like where this conversation was going, mostly because it sounded like the exact thing Lynn did not want to hear, he was worried it might set one of those split personalities off.
"Lisa, I don't want to pay someone to listen to me and pretend they care, I don't want to wind up in a padded cell, I don't want to live like a lab rat, I just..." Lynn buried her face in her hands, she was suddenly feeling emotional, as if she was being torn apart from the inside out at the matter she was facing, along with the sorrow that accompanied it. There was no backing out now, they had already spoke the truth. "I don't want to give up my life and who I am just because of them, even if they are part of me... I'd rather be dead." Lynn choked out, by the end of her small rant she was trembling. The depressed split personality's voice only increased in prominence at this moment.
"Why can't you ever just listen to me?"
"You made a mistake trusting Lincoln, now him and Lisa are both going to ruin your life, all because they think they're helping you."
"It's funny, all you do is hurt people, yet here we are, with our lives in the hands of people that can only pretend to know what we're going through. The same ones who always leave us alone just because they feel safer that way..."
Lisa was caught entirely off guard when seeing Lynn beginning to breakdown like this, never in her life had she seen the sporty Loud ever break under pressure such as this before, the child prodigy began to ponder on it, she wanted to doubt Lynn's words, she knew the negative bias people had towards those in the psychological field, and understood it entirely, Lisa did not want to abandon her older sister to their own mental turmoil either.
"You're fully aware of what you're requesting of me, right?" Lisa requested, seeing Lynn hesitantly pull her face away from her hands, her watery eyes looking into her sister's serious ones. "You're asking me to do the very thing I swore to never do, torture anyone in my family. Even when I tested anything on any of you, I did my best to make sure I could reverse it, or that it was temporary, this might be neither." Lisa began, she loved her family, the child prodigy did not want to come off like a backstabber when Lynn had to muster up the courage to speak the truth to begin with, but this was a very serious matter.
"We're not asking you to torture her, Lisa, Lynn just needs your help." Lincoln tried to correct what it was that they wanted, only for Lisa's head to snap towards him, a scowl on her face, it made him clam up instantly.
"Trying to help someone psychologically, through a maze of their own mind's creation, is nothing BUT torture! Those voices are formed for only a few reasons, and the truth behind them might be far worse than their mere existence! But it isn't just her mind at risk, is it? I'd be no better in the end than the voices, I might make them worse even on accident!" Lisa shouted; she had always found the oath 'do no harm' to be rather counter-productive towards the progress of science and medicine, this time however, she was in full belief of it, the idea of potentially making the split personalities worse was already enough to her, Lisa was understandably scared.
Lincoln had never seen Lisa this angry before, he understood that tensions were high, they were coming at her with a lot all at once. However, the bucktooth boy bit his lip, trying to think on what to do, Lynn's pleas had failed, it was clear Lisa was going to be hard to move from this position, and definitely impossible to silence.
"What choice do we have, Lisa? I sure can't ignore it, and I know neither can you." Lincoln tried to counter; Lynn was no longer looking at either of them, her spirit seemed broken, her face damp and her eyes closed, as if she could not listen to them arguing. "I'm not asking you to go crazy with treatment, I'm not asking you to do anything that'll hurt her, I don't know how much more stress Lynn can take though..." The middle Loud sibling sighed; he was starting to become worried that the constant stress was beginning to tear Lynn apart both physically and mentally, she was already getting weaker to their influence, that much was apparent to him judging from the incident with Miss Lynn. Lincoln could only alleviate that stress by so much as well.
Lisa slammed a fist on her workbench in frustration, she shook her head while listening to her brother's words. He stepped closer to her while she had her back turned to him. "What would it do to our family?" Lincoln asked, Lisa took her glasses off her face and rubbed her eyes. The Loud family were not the best with bad news, the opposite in fact, it spread like a wildfire through their house, while the many Loud siblings meant the best, and would go to the ends of the earth for one another if they thought it would help, sometimes they caused the exact opposite effect.
"Using our family's overbearing and overprotective nature is a cheap strategy... That's why you told me, isn't it? Because you knew I'd either help, or be forced into perpetual silence and eventually relent anyway, correct?" Lisa glared at Lincoln, he had a nervous smile but nodded, he wasn't proud to admit it, but that had been his best emergency plan, he had promised Lynn that he would do his best to help her, he wasn't going to go back on that promise so easily.
"Fine." Lisa exhaled in irritation, Lynn looking up at the two of them. "I'll do everything I can to try and help, but if I believe the situation is reaching a critical point, then I will have no choice other than to force Lynn into seeking professional assistance... And if that does transpire, then I promise to make sure it's only the best of the best." Lisa gave in, deciding to attempt to help them within her own rules. The second she said that, she felt Lynn pull her into a tight hug.
"Thank you, Lisa! Thank you so much!" Lynn exclaimed in relief, Lincoln felt a lot of the tension in the air starting to fade away, though he knew Lisa was going to be mad at him for a while, he wasn't happy about it either, the bucktooth boy would accept it as long as their older sister was able to get help in some form.
"You're welcome... Please release me, you're crushing my spinal cord." Lisa groaned in pain, the glasses wearing girl always felt embarrassed whenever held like this, just a downside of being short, at this rate Lily would outgrow her in a few more years.
"Sorry." Lynn meekly said while letting go of their 2nd youngest sister, they watched as Lisa went and got a clipboard and a pen, it was obvious she wanted to start right away.
"Alright, let's just begin with the basics." Lisa took her seat, they mostly had the room to themselves for the time being, she was not going to waste the chance at peace and quiet while they had it. "And I expect you to fill in any blanks she may have in memory." She informed Lincoln, her older brother nodded, glad to be able to be of help beyond being the bodyguard for the door.
Needless to say, hearing the events that Lisa was informed about in great detail by Lynn and Lincoln did little to help that uncertainty the child genius held in her mind, obviously the two withheld certain parts that they had silently agreed were better off not being said. They had spent roughly an hour already bringing Lisa up to speed about the 4 split personalities.
"So, correct me if I summarize this incorrectly." Lisa tapped her pen on the clipboard. "One personality implores you to fight." She spoke, Lynn nodded.
"It doesn't like beating up training dummies and punching bags." Lynn claimed in addition to the summary. "It doesn't hold back either, I thought it was working with me but... I guess I've lost control over that too." Lynn exhaled, missing when she could work with any of the voices, she was at the point where she no longer trusted any of the voices in her own head now.
"Another personality merely wants you to give in to your depression?" Lisa quirked a brow, still finding that one to be rather strange to her.
"It will turn everything and anything into a worst-case scenario, it wouldn't shut up when we were talking earlier when it seemed like you weren't going to help me..." Lynn explained, the bespectacled Loud feeling guilty now about how hostile she had been initially, she tried to not allow it to affect her personal opinion.
"The next personality is quite maternal, wants to take care of others, hates ignoring those in need, treats everyone as if they are their child, and likes making people happy?" Lisa continued her questioning, still uncertain on that third split personality in question, it was rather oddly specific behavior, more so than the rest of them.
"Miss Lynn doesn't mince her words either, if she thinks you did wrong then she'll want you to apologize for it. She really acts like a mom." Lincoln interjected in addition to his older sister's comments, he took his cellphone out of his pocket and went to the photo gallery, handing it over to Lisa for her to view the photos of Miss Lynn for herself. "I recorded the talk I had with it a few days ago." He said, Lisa was staring in disbelief seeing the photos of Lynn in various dresses, it was like she was staring at a whole different person, the prodigy forwarded the audio recording to herself before returning the phone to its owner.
"I'll add the maternal one's name as an addendum to my documentation." Lisa said while writing it down, it was a rather strange name, albeit fitting it seemed.
"And the last split personality is in love with Lincoln?" Lisa had to repeat that for clarity, Lincoln found it weird how little of a reaction Lisa had to that, actually he found it suspicious, Lynn did not seem to notice it though.
"It's addicted to him. That personality is more addicted to Lincoln than Lori is to Bobby!" Lynn declared, that comparison made Lincoln cringe, it was honestly unimaginable to him to even believe that, Lori used to spend hours a day talking to her boyfriend, he imagined she still would if she was not in college, though the two lived together now and he imagined that helped a lot.
"Hm, it appears I was incorrect." Lisa muttered while writing it down. Her words confused both of her older siblings.
"What were you wrong about?" Lynn asked, they saw the lab coat wearing girl shrug.
"A few years ago, I calculated the odds of one of our sisters creating a far more... 'personal' bond with Lincoln, as sort of an experiment I've maintained documentation about all of our relationships to be safe. You were the third most probable option if my calculations were correct." Lisa explained, Lincoln did not look comfortable at all hearing that, which was a lot given just how many various samples he had given the genius in the past already.
"You were thinking I was going to get with one of our sisters?" Lincoln couldn't believe what he was hearing, he loved his family, but this was a little crazy to think any of them believed he was capable of such an act. "If Lynn was third, then who did you think I was going to... You know what, no, don't tell me, I don't want to know." The white-haired teenager declared, wanting to get away from this topic immediately, if he wasn't needed in the room currently, he would have taken his leave already.
"Certainly, but only because you requested it." Lisa nodded, returning to the topic at hand despite Lynn's confusion.
"To redirect this conversation away from my theories." The child prodigy cleared her throat. "You've found a way to temporarily silence all four of the personalities, you silence the aggressive one by engaging in physical combat, you quiet the maternal one through helping others, you're able to overcome the depressed one through self-infliction of injuries or pain, and you can reduce the obsessive or loving one by physically interacting with Lincoln. Is all of this information accurate?" Lisa elaborated with the information she had been given thus far, she was upset when hearing Lynn had been hurting herself at all, no matter what the reasoning was for it.
"Yeah, that all sounds right." The sports loving Loud nodded, there were a few minutes of silence, aside from the sound of scribbling from Lisa's pen on the clipboard, she had already amounted a few pages of paper documenting each personality with everything she was told thus far.
"These personalities are all a part of you, none of them wish to impede one another, yet they do not have any trouble collaborating either, they can think independently, and only one truly is reasonable." Lisa found it rather odd, so far everything was nothing short of a jumbled bundle of confusing questions that had no answer, she was thinking on it for a moment, the most important part of treating any problem was having enough knowledge on it. Now it was her turn to pose some questions of her own.
"Do you want to fight people?" Lisa began the questionnaire while flipping over to another blank page on the clipboard, to begin writing down the notes she needed here. Lynn found herself pausing at that inquiry, sighing.
"Come on, she wants to know? Just sock her in the nose, that'll be plenty enough of an answer." The aggressive personality chuckled, the girl with the ponytail ignoring it despite the head pain.
"I... don't know, I mean, sure. I feel a strong urge to hit people that get on my nerves, but who doesn't?" Lynn tried to answer to the best of her ability, for some reason not getting a reply to that while her younger sister just wrote away, did not help that nervousness.
"On the topic of the depressed personality, do you ever feel a desire to hurt yourself?" Lisa quirked; it was rather blunt, Lynn looked between her brother and sister, suddenly feeling like they were not going to be happy to the answer with that.
"I-I feel down sometimes, but I've never wanted to hurt myself before these voices came along." Lynn responded; Lisa did not respond yet again, simply writing down the reply she had received, she could tell that Lynn was becoming more shy towards answering the questions the harder they became.
"Please, continue to be honest with me, my secrecy is pretty much assured now due to Lincoln's dirty, albeit clever, trap." Lisa implored her 5th oldest sister to not hide anything if she had to, Lincoln trying to ignore the minor glare that was aimed at him. "Have you ever wanted to kill yourself?" She followed it up with another query, this one was a lot more serious than the last.
"... A few times..." Lynn sighed, Lincoln was wide-eyed hearing that, he had expected his older sister to blow up at that question, hearing the answer made his heart sink to his stomach. Had the split personalities really gotten this bad? Or was it something that had transpired before that. A lot of people had bad thoughts; these, however, were the kind that most would want to seek help for.
"Thank you for telling me, I know that couldn't have been easy for you to answer." Lisa thanked Lynn, while she continued writing, Lincoln coming over to his sports loving sibling.
"Lynn, why didn't you ever tell anyone you felt that way?" Lincoln requested to know, his eyes were full of nothing but sympathy, and all that Lynn's held were shame, she felt cornered already in this situation, her brother was not helping at all. He wanted to help her, yet it felt like every other day there was some new truth coming out that made this secret harder and harder to withhold.
"Lincoln, please don't pressure her, we all have our reasons for secrecy in regards to many situations." Lisa requested their only brother try to relax, she was as upset as he was, it was one of a myriad of issues they had to confront at the moment, instead of letting one detail in the whole thing distract them from the bigger trouble at hand. Lincoln took a moment to compose himself stepping aside while holding his head, he was unable to deny, he felt like a failure to Lynn, he wanted to take care of his family after all.
"I doubt you're going to be any happier with my last inquiry, but I do have to ask since it is in regards to the obsessed personality." Lisa prefaced her next question with a slight warning, if Lynn wanted to stop for the time being she would not argue against her, the child genius was going to need some time to come up with ideas or theories to tackle these split personalities.
"Don't hold back at this point Lisa, not like I have any shame left." Lynn scoffed at the hesitation, she felt nothing other than shame at this point.
"Okay... Are you in love with Lincoln? And I mean romantically." Lisa asked one of the biggest questions in mind, Lynn felt her heart begin beating faster from hearing that, sure enough when she thought she could not feel anymore ashamed, here a new layer was. She wished Lincoln was not in the room, mostly because she was not sure what to say. The white-haired boy looked at Lynn with a raised brow, curious on that answer as well.
"I-I... Uh, well..." Lynn rubbed her neck nervously, the aspiring sports star had accepted the personalities were parts of herself, she could not go back on that at this point, even if they were bastardized equivalents of herself as far as she cared. "I have to, right? W-Why else would I have that voice in my head, if I didn't love Lincoln? All it wants is Lincoln, which means, all I want is him... right?" Lynn questioned, she had an upset broken expression on her face, Lisa had definitely struck a nerve with that query. Lincoln dragged his hand down his face, not sure what to really think about what she was saying. It was clear how the sporty Loud felt like she was going crazy at this, though it obviously was a revelation she had concluded upon already.
"That's why she pushed me towards asking Stella out." Lincoln realized when thinking about it. It was apparent now that Lynn had done it like a contingency plan, someone to distract him and make him happy.
"I believe that is enough for now, I need time to go over this all and try to fabricate a plan of some sort." Lisa knew pushing any further was going to end badly, as if the results of this whole conversation weren't going to strain the twos relationships, Lynn was upset and unstable as far as the child genius could tell, and as much as Lisa wanted to meet these split personalities personally, now was not the time.
The second Lynn got told they were done, she was already making her way out of the room, Lincoln wanted to stop her, but thought maybe it would be for the best if they were apart for the time being, the white-haired boy knew she was upset, nor did he blame her.
"You couldn't have been a little gentler, Lisa?" Lincoln requested, seeing his 2nd youngest sister was focused on the papers currently while at her workbench, getting out her laptop to begin researching and compiling data for the task at hand.
"Lincoln, I understand you're enraged at me, and are most likely absorbing everything you just heard, but you have to be aware of just how serious this situation is from all sides. Lynn is the one facing the worst of it as well." Lisa did not even turn to him, she knew he was mad, the glasses wearing girl was also frustrated with him equally, but did not blame him either.
"You're already doing the things you're best at, being supportive and clever, if I require your skills, I'll let you know immediately." Lisa ended it there, Lincoln clenched his fist. Though at the realization of his rage building up at this entire situation, he just left, not able to argue with her, he wanted to just go to his room and focus on his homework for the time being.
Lynn had returned to her and Lucy's room, she was trying to distract herself by writing in her diary, it was a ritual at this point for her to write down each day's events in her diary, it was therapeutic, though right now, the brunette was feeling anything other than that from this. She was using it as a diversion from herself at best, and she knew why. Lynn did notice that a page in her diary had been ripped out, she did not recall doing it, though paid it little attention, the journal had been rather untouched until recently after all.
"Think about it, you told Lincoln you love him! That's a big step." The obsessed personality cheered, Lynn gritted her teeth in annoyance at this, she was torn between being upset or relieved at having Lisa's help.
"She's going to tell Mom and Dad the second they get home, why did we bother...?" The depressed mindset sighed; the aspiring sports star felt her heart starting to beat faster.
"Lisa won't, Lincoln made sure." Lynn retorted in frustration, Lisa was no backstabber, even if Lincoln had not planned to trap Lisa more or less like he had done, the sports loving Loud had made her plight clear to the genius as well to what it was that she wanted.
"Even if she doesn't tell them, you know what it makes you right?" The depressed voice spoke in rhetoric, there was a moment of pause as Lynn felt her pen pressing harder against the diary page. She swallowed hard. "What?" Lynn weakly asked.
"An experiment, now you're just another one of her toys, she'll play with you until you break, and then just lie when saying she's helping..." The depressed split personality declared; the auburn-haired girl's breathing began to become rougher and shallow. "She's an emotionless monster, she will put her science before her family gladly. And you know I'm right." It insisted, that was when Lynn began to take notice of her vision starting to get blurry. It seemed that the talking with Lisa had succeeded in making the brunette more susceptible mentally.
"Shut up already!" Lynn growled, jabbing the pen into her left leg once again, the shockwave of pain it sent out made her entire limb hurt, she had to resist screaming, but she felt relieved when there was silence initially.
"We deserve to suffer for all we've done, all we do is make people's lives harder... They'd be happier if we weren't us." The depressed voice chiming up once again made Lynn's heart begin sinking, her vision was only getting worse and worse. In her panic, Lynn tried desperately to stab at her leg again, and again, over and over, but no matter where she hit, or how hard she did it, it wasn't working.
"I need to do something... more..." Lynn panted, she wanted to call for help, she couldn't get the strength in her lungs to do it, she tried to stand up, but just as she did, her vision went completely black, she went limp, collapsing backwards into the floor, leaned back against her bed.
A few minutes passed, Lucy was heading upstairs, leaving a sleeping Lily on the couch, the goth loving girl was going to retrieve her phone, having left it charging in her and Lynn's room. Though when opening the door, the raven-haired girl was confused to find Lynn sat on the ground, her gaze looking at the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Lynn?" Lucy stepped to her older sister, receiving no response. The brunette seemed alright, though the gothic Loud reached down and shook her older sister some, Lynn leaned back looking up to her younger sister. Lucy was startled when seeing that empty vacant gaze in her sporty sibling's eyes.
"What...?" Lynn asked, her voice hollow like someone had sucked all the life out of her, Lucy being completely unaware of the fact the depressed personality had taken control, honestly it was reminding the vampire loving girl of herself more than anything.
"Is... Is everything okay?" Lucy felt like she had seen this before, she was unnerved initially at this, though now that she thought about it, Lynn's behavior was reminding her of Lincoln's when he gave being goth a shot, that was years ago however. Lynn made it clear how much she hated her roommate's gothic side a few times over their years together, this was a rather sudden shift though.
"It doesn't matter... None of this matters..." Lynn grimly sighed while letting her head fall back down, as if she didn't even have the willpower to keep her head up. That was when an idea came to Lucy's mind, if Lynn's strange behavior was a result of her wanting to go goth, maybe this was just her not being able to hide it anymore. Lucy wrapped her arms around her roommate's neck.
"I know it doesn't... I'll help you adapt to this change, don't worry." Lucy hummed, not able to hide the excitement in her voice, having no idea about the reality of the situation. She was more than eager to help Lynn with this transition, she only wished her brother would give it another chance, sadly her many attempts to convince him failed.
Lincoln currently was in his room, the door closed. What once was Lori and Leni's room had more or less been given to him, he wasn't sure why though, he expected his sisters to all fight over it and try to convince him to vote in any of their favors, instead at the family meeting they unanimously voted for their only brother to get the room, he did not know why, but was not complaining, it was a lot bigger than his old room after all.
There were posters on a lot of the walls with various characters he loved, a wardrobe with a medium sized television on it, his bed set near the window, his childhood toy Bun-Bun resting on the pillow. Lincoln was sat at a decent sized desk with his computer on it, a bookshelf setup beside him that looked filled to the brim with comic books, games, and his possessions. The middle Loud sibling was getting through his homework with relative ease, he had calmed down but was still unhappy, knowing his sister was suffering and he could do nothing to be of help was a constant burden on the back of his mind.
"Hm?" Lincoln heard his phone ringing, he reached over and picked it up off his nightstand, he saw it was Clyde calling, "Hey Clyde, what's up?" He answered, keeping the phone between his shoulder and head while he continued working away.
"Hey Lincoln, how'd things go with Stella?" Clyde queried curiously, having called for a few reasons of his own but was trying to delay it a little before getting to his point.
"I embarrassed myself, but she said yes." Lincoln smiled, he was looking forward to spending time with Stella after school tomorrow, it was pretty much the only highlight of his day.
"So, what's the real reason you're calling?" The bucktooth boy asked, he could tell when his best friend was beating around the bush, they knew each other very well.
"Well, I was trying to get ahold of Lynn, but she isn't answering me at all." Clyde explained, having been trying to text her for a while now to no avail, he wasn't trying to come off as clingy, but he was hoping to talk to her about their plans for the party tomorrow, in case she needed help being allowed out past curfew.
"Look Clyde, I appreciate you looking out for her but, she's really upset right now..." Lincoln sighed, as glad as he was to have his best friend watching out for the 5th oldest Loud at school, he did not think it was a good idea to let Clyde in on the secret of Lynn's current troubles, normally Lincoln would go tell his sister and let her borrow his phone, he was not in the mood to interact with the sporty Loud right now though.
"She is? She seemed pretty upbeat since she got those invites out of Chandler... I hope I didn't make her mad when I asked her to be my date for the party." Clyde commented, finding the jarring difference in Lynn's mood from earlier today to be rather odd, though he would not blame her for changing her mind on this date, the glasses wearing boy was not exactly confident himself after all. Lincoln blinked; his eyes no longer focused on the homework; his brain had finally registered what his best friend had said after a minute.
"You did what?" Lincoln calmly asked him to repeat himself, given how he nearly ended their longtime friendship due to how bad Clyde's obsession with Lori had once been, the bucktooth boy had broken his best friend out of it after a hard confrontation, though hearing his friend was now taking interest in another one of his sisters, that did not make the bucktooth boy too optimistic.
"What? She didn't tell you? I asked her to be my date to the party right after you bolted from the cafeteria, she said yes, but she seemed distracted." Clyde explained, having presumed that Lynn would have told her only brother in casual conversation, it wasn't that big of a deal he thought.
"I'll text her and let her know you're trying to reach her. And Clyde, you better treat her right, because if you hurt Lynn, well... You'll have to worry about her way more than me." Lincoln forewarned his best friend to not hurt his older sister, while the white-haired boy was equally scared about her hurting Clyde, he was more worried that the last thing Lynn needed right now was a relationship when she was already mentally unstable, Lincoln knew that the obsessed personality would be fully against it as well.
"Trust me, I've seen you at your angriest, I know I'm not much compared to her, but I promise to treat her the way she deserves." Clyde assured his best friend, as much as Lincoln wanted to try and dissuade his childhood friend out of this, it was another set of eyes that could watch out for Lynn, and another set of hands that could help her if she needed it as well.
"Alright Clyde, I trust you... I'll see you tomorrow." Lincoln hung up at that point, resting the phone aside, he leaned back in his chair tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling. The future was an uncertain nightmare to him now, he was putting a lot of his faith in Lisa to help Lynn, he would do whatever he could for his sports loving sister, but there would come a point where Lincoln would have to draw the line, yet he had no clue where to draw it at. He decided to put on his headphones and listen to music for now, wanting to spend a little time not thinking at all for once.
Time ticked by as normal from there, it was not long before the Loud family were starting to get back home, their father Lynn Senior was in the kitchen trying to get started on dinner, though he was rummaging through the many drawers, trying to find something.
"Has anyone seen my short knife?" Lynn Senior called to the living room, normally he had his personal utensils neatly organized away in one of the drawers, away from the rest of the cutlery, this time however one was missing from the knife set, and he could not find it for the life of him.
"Did you check the dishwasher?" Lana asked, being sat in the floor in front of the couch watching television with Lola, the two saw the front door open and Luna stepping in, her guitar carried over her shoulder.
"Nope, it wasn't there..." Lynn Senior scratched his head, he hoped he had not thrown it out on accident.
"Hey you guys, how'd your days go?" Luna greeted the twins while plopping into a seat on the couch, resting her guitar beside her, she looked a little tired at the moment, the guitarist has been practicing like crazy all day, Sam more or less had forced her girlfriend to go home when she began to exhibit signs of exhaustion.
"It was good, Leni made me a great dress for my next pageant. That new worker of hers still weirds me out though." Lola claimed, having been happy with the time spent with their 2nd oldest sister.
"Yeah, she never told us what was up with them." Lana commented, as far as they knew Leni just randomly got a new worker from thin air for no reason seemingly, they didn't look like they belonged in the fashion store either. No one had put much thought into it until recently.
"Where's everyone else at?" Luna quirked, noticing it was just the three of them and their father downstairs currently, she didn't see Rita or any of their other siblings around either.
"Dad forgot to get something at the grocery store, Mom and Lily went to go get it. Luan's in the shower." Lola replied, not taking her eyes off the TV, though the blonde girl had to admit, something felt rather odd in the house tonight, she didn't know what however, it was just a strange feeling she had.
"Lisa said she was busy with something important, Lincoln's working on his homework and I haven't seen Lynn or Lucy." Lana claimed in addition, it was supposed to be the redcap wearing twins turn to help prepare dinner tonight, Lynn Senior was more preoccupied with his missing knife at the moment however.
"I'll go check on them, I need to put my guitar up anyway." Luna volunteered to go check on her younger sisters, the twins let her do as she pleased, they had been assuming that the two were just resting in their room after a day at school. The aspiring rock star had gotten a lot more protective of her guitar after the vandalism incident, she refused to leave it in the practice location now, no matter how much of an inconvenience it was to lug back and forth.
Once Luna got upstairs, the guitar playing Loud noticed the door to Lynn and Lucy's room was closed, she did not think much on it, the 3rd oldest Loud sibling put her guitar up in her and Luan's room and headed back out into the hallway, she caught a glimpse of Lisa working away at her computer, the genius looked completely focused at the moment, Luna decided to not bother her for the time being. She figured it would be better to leave Lincoln alone as well, the rock lover was primarily worried about Lynn at the moment.
Luna's concern about Lynn had only increased since that talk they had the other day about love, how one could tell when they were actually in love and the feelings associated with it, it was clear to her that the sports loving Loud had not been happy whatsoever by the end of that discussion, but what could Luna do? It drove her nuts.
"Hey Lynn, Lucy, are you two awake?" Luna called out while knocking on their door, there was no response. After another moment of no reply, the guitarist grabbed the doorknob, it wasn't locked so she saw no reason to not open it now. "I'm coming in." Luna announced before opening the door, the room was incredibly dark at the moment, though she took notice of a few candle lights in the floor, she reached over and flicked on the light switch. What she saw made her go wide eyed in surprise.
"Lynn?!" Luna shouted in shock, there sat with several candles around on plates on the floor, was Lynn, except, it was as if she had traded places with Lucy. Lynn was wearing a black shirt with white stripes on it, her hair was as dark as night, she had elbow length arm covers as well now, the sporty Louds eyes being covered by the hair.
"Oh, hello Luna." Lucy greeted Luna warmly while being sat in the floor as well, as if the two had been meditating, the aspiring rock star held her head, trying to process what she was seeing was making her head short-circuit.
"Wha... What is this? Did Lynn lose a bet or something?" Luna was baffled, the depressed personality controlling Lynn's body seemed tame currently, it did not seem to want to move at all, as if it had a million thoughts running through its mind. Lynn remained there like a rock, refusing to look to anyone unless they directly interacted with her it seemed.
"No, I think she's giving being goth a chance though, so I offered to help her." Lucy explained, Luna was not able to believe what she was witnessing still. "It's just a wig if that helps any." The gothic Loud stated in addition, Luna stepped over the candles, going down on one knee beside Lynn.
"Lynn, are you okay?" Luna requested an answer, she did not believe there was any chance on earth that Lynn would voluntarily agree to any of this remotely. She put a hand on Lynn's shoulder, the girl with the wig tilted her head away from her older sister, her eyes may be completely hollow and empty looking, but the way they pierced through Luna left her stunned in fear.
"Who cares...?" The depressed split personality that held Lynn like a puppet replied, that hollow emotionless voice did little to ease the fear Luna had currently.
"I do! I know we've asked you to get along better with Lucy before, but this is a little extreme dude!" The aspiring rock star declared, wondering if this was some prank that Luan had helped plan. No one could fake that hollow look in their eyes, Lynn looked like she had been broken beyond repair almost.
"Just leave me alone." Lynn finally moved for the first time since Luna entered the room, the possessed Loud pulling her knees closer to her chest, albeit in a lethargic fashion.
"No way dude, not until you tell me what's going on." Luna firmly stated, Lucy felt like she was missing something here, from the young goths perspective, she had been bonding with her older sister for a change, Lucy had presumed that her sports loving sibling was just trying to see the world from a different perspective.
"You'll be gone soon anyway..." The depressed personality exhaled; Luna did not understand what she meant; she literally just declared her refusal to leave. "Just like Lori, just like Leni, you'll be gone... Then Luan will leave next..." She continued; Luna swallowed the lump in her throat, it was as if some big secret of the rock loving Louds had been hit, it was impossible to believe.
"Lynn, I don't know what you've heard, or how... But you've got it all wrong! It was just me and Sam daydreamin', that's all! I'm not going anywhere anytime soon; Lori and Leni aren't gone either!" Luna tried to explain, still racking her brain on just how Lynn could have even heard it, only her and Sam knew after all, unaware of the fact it was pure coincidence.
"Is something the matter? Our house's volume usually decreases the later in the day it gets." Lisa requested, having left her room when the noise had not immediately stopped. That was when she took notice of Lynn. "... Oh dear." The glasses wearing child was able to tell what was going on right away, Lisa guessed it had to be the depressed split personality, she had been completely unaware of what had transpired to set it off enough for it to take control however.
"Lisa, I hate to ask you for a favor again but..." Luna began, she hated asking for so much help like this, the Mick Swagger fanatic was worried she herself had caused this though, if that was the case then Luna knew she would be the least useful in the situation. She felt bad making any requests from the 2nd youngest Loud, yet she felt she had no choice currently, Lucy was now becoming concerned as well.
"Of course, I have no qualms talking to her. I'm certain I'll be able to get through as well." Lisa agreed before their older sister could make her desires clear with no argument, this was what she had signed up for, she was fascinated in talking to the split personality controlling her older sister directly as well.
"Bring her to my room, please." Lisa asked for their help, Luna nodded, since Lynn was unwilling to move the aspiring rock star simply picked her younger sister up, though it did take a little effort, Lucy helping to make it easier as well.