Apr 27, 2023

Hi guys! I'm back! After my fanfic about Lola reacting to Lincoln's death in Requiem For A Loud, it's time to see another sister taking the stage after the tragedy: Lucy!

Lucy is my favorite Loud sister, and I feel like she isn't explored much in the cartoon beyond the supernatural cliché. Here we can see Lucy rethinking and questioning concepts like life and death. We'll also see a more irascible Lucy, as everything that happened was too much for her. Get ready for the beating.

Enjoy!


Chapter 01:
Synergy

"How can you cry so much for him?"
She remains seated, not moving.

The boy places a rose on the grave, next to her marigold.

"Did he have to die for you and your sisters learn to love him?"
With his hands in his jacket pockets, the boy leaves the cemetery.

She doesn't bother to identify him. Maybe he was a classmate of her brother.

Right now, she is fully absorbed in beholding her dear brother.

Lincoln Loud
B. 2005
D. 2016

A ray of white light
Falling really strong
So short but so bright
to impact long

The poem on tombstone could only have been written by her, the family poet.

Lucy Loud, in her 8 years, performs a peculiar ritual every day: at 5 pm, she picks a beautiful flower from her showy garden ("the best offers go to the one we love the most") and takes it to her brother Lincoln's grave at Royal Woods Municipal Cemetery. And she spends a few minutes there, sitting, silently reflecting on herself, her brother, her family, life and death.

Alone.

Without Lynn Jr.

Without Haiku.

Without Lincoln.

Just her and God, wherever He is.

Lucy gets up from the lawn, cleans her dress and starts to walk back to the house.

Only then does she answer for herself to hear:
"You are wrong. He had to die for us to find out how much we loved him."


Lynn Jr., outside the bathroom door, waits her turn:
"Come on, Lucy! You're not planning on soaking in the bathtub forever, are you?!"

Lucy is always irritated by stupid questions like that. Just because she is an admirer of death (or was) doesn't mean she has suicidal impulses.

Well, if she were a little more pessimistic, it wouldn't be hard for her to think about slipping to her death in order to find Lincoln again and be with him forever in the afterlife.

But after Lincoln's early death from neurofibromatosis ("an absurd and arbitrary ending"), the very concept of death already sounds somewhat offensive to her, so that she continually refrains from thinking about it.

Death, which once seemed friendly and seductive, suddenly turned out to be toxic and abusive, taking her brother away without her consent.

Lucy, once wracked with grief, pain, anger, and resignation, emerged from the whole process somewhat confused about herself.

Is she the dark-goth girl who always considered death and supernatural to be more logical than life and natural? Or has she now reduced herself to a caricature of what she once was?

There is no answer.

She turns on the shower and rinses herself off one last time, washing away the accumulated blues of the day. After turning off, she steps out of the tub, leaving the water available for Lynn Jr. shower afterwards.

Then she realizes that she forgot her towel and sees that there is only one sky blue towel hanging there. While she isn't superstitious as Lynn Jr., her towels always had to be black or white, but it's like colors no longer define who she is.

As she dries off, Lucy sees herself in the mirror. She contemplates her bangs, the ultimate symbol of her counterculture.

Her hooded eyes always gave her a mysterious aura. A kind of gothic charm.

Now, however, she feels a little hampered.

The more she cries, the more the long strands stick to her eyes. And who knows how long she will continue to cry?

She caress her bangs gently.
"Hmm... My darling threads... You've seen better days..."

She hugs herself in the towel and leaves the bathroom, making no eye contact with Lynn Jr.
"Hey Lucy, did you forget your black towel?"


Lucy, in her black dress, uses Lincoln's room to read one of her books of macabre tales.

On the floor, as she still doesn't feel worthy of lying on his bed.

Lincoln's room has remained untouched since he died, and she prefers that way.

She always expects to feel some positive energy inside the room, some special warmth that envelops her from top to bottom.

But she never feels anything.

Suddenly, someone babbles behind the door.
"Lily?"

Lucy gets up and opens the door.
There's her 1-year-old sister, kneeling on the floor, in her lilac overalls.
"Oh, you clever girl. You crawled from Lisa's room straight here again."
Lily laughs, as she loves Lucy's monotone voice.

Lucy picks up her smiling sister and returns to sit on the floor, depositing the baby beside her.
"Let me read you a dark tale."

She flips through the pages until she finds the ideal story:

"Once upon a time there was a bat girl named Patty. She was 7 years old, hunchbacked, with disheveled hair and a deformed face. She led a lonely life, as no child agreed to make friends with her. It's like she's too weird for humanity's taste. She might sound a little menacing with those huge claws between her teeth, but she was a pure soul, who always tried to see the best in everyone and..."

But Lucy couldn't go on. Her little sister sleeping with the head resting on her leg is more contagious than any ordinary spell.

"Aaahhh…" Lucy naturally sighs and also smiles as she lies down on the floor, with the open book covering her face.

Three things, in particular, tend to fill Lucy with peace: being alone, Lincoln's room and her little sister Lily. And putting it all together makes the occasion super special.

Lucy, despite her icy facade, is not a misanthrope. She never found necessary to lavish affection to prove her love and respect for humanity. In fact, she was always bothered by the preconceived idea that serious people are morally worse than the rest.

She loves each of her parents and siblings and would do anything to defend them, especially her (not so) fragile little sister Lily. No wonder, Lucy's favorite Smurf is Grouchy: he complains about everything all the time, but he has a heart of gold. So much so that he voluntarily assumed the role of Baby Smurf's guardian, so that the little boy would not be taken away from the village.

Lucy would do the same for Lily.

Lucy regularly thinks about how much she failed to defend and protect her brother Lincoln, and she could swear not to repeat the same mistakes with Lily. She just could, because even Lucy doesn't seem willing to put her hand in the fire for Lucy.

"Who am I to condemn my sisters? We were all made of the same flawed clay."

Lucy fantasizes about the idea of Lily becoming a new Lincoln: a geek and cool girl, and lover of comics and video games. Although the idea sounds attractive to her ("an unofficial reincarnation"), you can't wish to turn one person into a simulacrum of another: let Lily go her own way and become whatever she wants.

Like Lucy.


"A room just for Lily?" Rita asks, sitting on the sofa from living room, with Lily in her lap. "But why in Lincoln's room?"

"It makes perfect sense, Mom," Lucy argues, standing with Lola, Lana and Lisa around her. "Who was... who is the King of the house? Lincoln. Who is the Queen of the house? Lily. When the king passes the crown, whoever succeeds him takes his throne in the Palace. Lincoln's room is our Royal Palace. The one who deserves to occupy it is Lily."

"Your argument sounds a bit playful and fanciful, but your proposition is entirely acceptable," Lisa agrees. "In case you hadn't noticed, Mom, our baby sister always gets out of her crib and crawls toward our dead brother's room."
"I know, she misses him too," Rita reflects. "Like all of us."
"Additionally, we would both benefit from exclusive rooms: she doesn't get hurt by my experiments and I don't force myself to interrupt my work over and over again to change diapers."

Lola intervenes:
"Well, I agree that only Lily would have the right to occupy Lincoln's room, but are we not going to mess everything?"

Lana is reticent:
"That is a holy place. Disfigure it would be to attack his memory."

"Don't worry, I don't want to change anything either," Lucy assures. "We just have to put the crib next to his bed. Thus, we will create an interesting synergy between the twilight of death and the dawn of life."
"Yes, that's a great idea!" Lola gets excited. "Although I don't know what synergy is, it would represent a continuity of our mission."
"Continuity?" Lucy snorts, hands on her waist. "It's a second chance. We all failed in our mission."
Lola loses her smile.

Lana insists:
"But why should anyone occupy his room? Wouldn't leaving it empty be more honorable?"
"Nothing is permanent, Lana," Lucy rebut. "Our rooms have changed owners several times as we were born."
"I see your point, Lucy," Lisa follow the reasoning. "Inserting Lily into Lincoln's room is also a symbolic act that we need to let go of the past and move forward. A small step, but a very significant one."
Lucy scratches her head. Not that she would have reasoned with that so quickly.

Lisa adds:
"And about 5 years from now, when Lynn Jr. move to college, everyone here will have their own room."
"Exactly," Rita confirms, smiling. "And Lucy will rule all of you."
"Oh great," Lola quips, crossing her arms. "And will we be forced to paint our rooms black?"
"Mom, don't say those things," Lucy complains. "Nobody likes me in this house..."
"Don't ever think that, daughter," Rita refute. "Anyway, you should put this to a vote. But for me, that's fine."
Lucy, Lola and Lisa smile. Lana taps her fingers against her leg in disgust.

The vote was close: 5 votes to 5. Lynn Jr., Lucy, Lola, Lisa and Baby Lily were in favor. Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan and Lana were against. Parent approval ties the game.

The sisters move Baby Lily's crib and stuffed animals into Lincoln's room.

Everything ready, Lucy takes Lily to the crib:
"It's time to show off your new room."

SMAC!

Lucy shivers, under the smiles of her sisters.
"Huh?! Lily? You... You kissed me."
Lily continues to smile as Lucy inserts her into the crib.
Under the tender gaze of her sisters, Lily slowly closes her eyes until she surrenders to sleep.

Lucy, stroking her right cheek, whispers:
"You're welcome, sis."

TO BE CONTINUED...