AN: Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
...Assuming there were any such rumors to begin with. Which...would be pretty morbid, now that I think about it...
Anyway, I'm back, after a fashion. Finals are coming up in less than a month, so I'll be putting time aside to prepare for those. I'd intended to write other stuff in the meantime, but after midterms my work ethic went to shit and I couldn't get anything written. Well, I write a little here and there, but I couldn't get excited about writing anything, and that's a pretty important part of my process, so it was pretty slow going and I didn't make much headway. I think I just needed a longer break than I'd anticipated.
Fortunately, I eventually came up with this one-shot, and developing the idea allowed me to slowly, but surely shake off some of the rust and get back into something of a regular-ish writing routine.
After I finished Aces, a lot of people told me that they enjoyed the story, but they were disappointed that Becky didn't end up playing a bigger role in things. And I agreed with that, because I felt the same way, but my decision to throw her into the story came long after I'd already had most of the story set in stone, so it was hard to find a way to work her into the main plot, and she just ended up with a few self-indulgent cameos. So, among other things, one of the goals of this story was to try and make up for lost time vis-à-vis the Becky. Hope you guys enjoy it.
I don't know how to end this tirade, so I'm just going to stop here and put the story text underneath this sentence.
"I GIVE UP!" Lincoln shouted, shaking the sketch pad clutched between his fingers so tightly that it was beginning to warp in his grip. "I'VE...GOT...NOTHING!"
With a snarl of frustration, the Loud boy hurled his pad to the ground with such force and it bounced back upward, coming within a hairsbreadth of beaning him in the face. A moment later, he threw his pencil as well, which, mercifully, merely hit the ground with a disappointing clatter before lying still. Having run out of things to throw, he settled on hurling himself backward, aimed in the general direction of the couch that lay behind him.
So it came as a bit of a surprise when, instead of landing atop the worn, but more than serviceable cushions of the Loud family couch, he instead felt his head sinking into a soft, pillow-like lap, that he was almost certain had not been there when he'd begun his flight. He attempted to rise, only to find his movement arrested as a slender arm snaked out and pushed against his chest with surprising strength, forcing him prone once more. As he lay there, momentarily stunned by the unexpected counterattack, the softness beneath him trembled as pleasant, melodic laughter filled the air, and suddenly his vision was fully occupied by a pair of gorgeous, green eyes, framed by hair as crimson as the blood that was quickly rushing to his cheeks.
"Calm down, Linc," Becky gently admonished him, as she peered down at the boy who was now being gently, but firmly detained in her lap. "And remember to breathe. Sometimes you forget to do that when you get worked up."
Dutifully, Lincoln inhaled, then exhaled, and as he did so, he felt the tightness that had been building in his chest abate, ever so slightly.
"Atta-boy," Said Becky, allowing her grip on Lincoln to slacken, but leaving her hand in place, which began to rise and fall with the increasingly rhythmic breathing of the Loud boy. She favored him with a warm smile, and it wasn't long before Lincoln's lips began to quirk upward, seemingly intent on returning the favor.
A short distance away, on the far end of the couch, Sam sat with her arms folded across her chest, directing a decidedly unhappy frown at the pair. Which, frustratingly, seemed to go completely unnoticed.
In the months that had followed the resolution of Lincoln's...familial issues, Sam had taken it upon herself to manage his affairs. Which sounds much worse than it actually was, since all she really did was set up blocks of time where Lincoln could have private, romantic escapades with the various women in his life without fear of being intruded upon by any of the girls he wasn't currently spending time with. Which was totally fine within the confines of an ad-hoc, polyamorous relationship mostly comprised of family members.
Naturally, she took great pains to ensure that Luna got a disproportionately greater amount of her brother's time, and went to equally great lengths to conceal that fact from the other girls, but only because Sam personally reaped the benefits of being able to intrude upon the duo whenever she pleased. It wasn't nefarious, it was just plain and simple greed, which, Sam, at least, felt was an important distinction. What was important was that everyone involved in this bold experiment in relationships was under the impression that the system was fair, equal, and above all else, functional. Because it was that barely substantiated belief that allowed the system to remain as functional as it was. Naturally, things would get more complicated in the future, but that was future Sam's problem. Unlike the Becky Problem, which was, unfortunately, present Sam's problem.
Since the day she'd arrived at the Loud House with a profoundly embarrassed Lincoln tucked in her arm, and smugly announced that she was Lincoln's newest girlfriend, Becky had seemingly made it her business to be a thorn in Sam's side. In general, she'd found the non-Loud girls in Lincoln's menagerie (Luna had begged her to stop calling it a "harem", so Sam was exploring other options) to be trying at the best of times. The Louds had cultivated an ecosystem within their family that provided checks and balances for each member of the family, and for Sam, maintaining harmony within the group was a relatively simple matter of ensuring the right pieces were in the right places. Lori could cow most of her sisters through the sheer force of her presence, and Lynn could accomplish the same through brute force, if necessary. When opposed, the two tended to stalemate each other, and both of them were utterly helpless against Leni, who herself was vulnerable to the machinations of the less dominant sisters. The non-Louds existed outside that system and were consequently more difficult to deal with in general, but none more so than Becky.
While Sam had initially been more than willing to welcome the leggy redhead into the fold, she'd quickly proven to be more trouble than she was worth. For one thing, she was always keeping Sam at arm's length. Literally. Her stupid arms were so long that it was child's play for her to simply hold Sam back whenever Sam got anywhere near her. Which was the reason Sam was currently sequestered on this side of the couch instead of bringing relief to her distraught boyfriend. And even on the occasions when Sam had managed to work around that initial hurdle, the redhead's stupidly long legs allowed her to easily make a speedy getaway, often absconding with Lincoln in the process, seemingly just because she could. Sam had come up with a countermeasure that she'd felt would handily put the upstart in her place, but she needed Lisa's help to implement it, and much to her dismay, the family scientist had taken to siccing her Pain Bots on Sam whenever she tried to bring it up. Which was ludicrous, because Project: Samzilla was easily the best idea she'd ever had.
"Becky! Quit it!"
Lincoln's shout brought Sam back to the present. Back on the other side of the couch, Lincoln was attempting to grab something out of Becky's hands. Which was, of course, beyond impossible due to the height difference between the two. Even with Becky sitting down, and Lincoln standing on the couch cushions, the redhead was easily to keep her prize out of the boy's reach. Which, Sam realized, was the sketch pad Lincoln had angrily discarded.
"Give it...BACK!" Lincoln shouted, leaping upward with a ferocity that would leave Lynn beaming with pride (and more than a little weak in the knees). She was silently rooting for Lincoln as his hands crept ever closer to his sketchpad—!
Only to be denied as Becky simply rose out of her seat ever so slightly, causing Lincoln's hands to fall just short of his goal. Sam's heart went out to her boyfriend.
...Right up until Lincoln's descent resulted in him planting his face firmly in the taller girl's cleavage. It was at this point that her sympathy quickly turned to envy. Though, at that moment, Sam honestly couldn't say which of the pair she was envious of. Later, when reflecting upon the incident, she would conclude that the truth had likely lain somewhere in between. Much like how Lincoln was currently wedged between Becky's fantastic funbags.
"I said no, Linc!" Becky admonished the boy, seemingly unperturbed at the way he'd skipped right over first base, and slid straight into second. This was confirmed when she took her free arm and snaked it around the lad, firmly holding him in place. A maneuver that Sam had taken to calling, "The Leni."
"I've got to work on my comic!" Lincoln protested, his voice slightly muffled.
"I know that," Becky acknowledged, her features softening. "But Linc? You've been hitting your head against this wall for hours, and you've got nothing to show for it.
"I just need to work harder! Something will come to me!"
"What you need, is to take a break." Said Becky, finally releasing the boy. As Lincoln wobbled unsteadily, trying to regain his footing, the redhead leaned close, her statuesque frame serving as a tantalizing barrier that barred Lincoln from his goal.
"How about we put this away…" She said, waggling the sketch pad for emphasis, "And then we do something to help you vent some of that stress?"
"...Like what?" Lincoln asked, suspiciously.
"Well…" Becky purred, her voice growing husky. "For starters, I could run upstairs and grab your stepladder."
And that was when Sam decided that this had gone far enough.
"Lincoln?" Sam gently interjected. "Sweetie?"
The pair turned their attention to her, and Sam wasn't afraid to admit that the scowl that now adorned Becky's face brought her tremendous satisfaction.
"What have you been trying to write all day?" She asked him.
Lincoln's face scrunched up in confusion. "The...next issue of Aces Wild? You know that Sam, you've been here all day. It's supposed to have that big fight scene that everyone's been waiting for, the one between—"
"Right, right," Sam interrupted him, waving dismissively. "I know, I'm doing a thing here. The answer I was looking for was that you were working on your superhero comic."
"Ooookay," Lincoln nodded uncertainly.
"What comic did you work on before that?" Sam prompted.
"S...superhero comic?" Lincoln ventured.
"And the one before that?"
"Su—"
"Sam? Where are you going with this?" Becky interrupted irritably,.
"My point," Sam replied, taking advantage of the momentary distraction she'd created, and sliding herself next to Lincoln, "Is that Linc's been making a lot of these, for a very long time."
"He likes doing them!" Becky protested, before looking uncertainly at the pale-haired boy. "...Right, Linc?"
"Of course I do," He replied without any hesitation.
"Oh, good," Becky let out a sigh of relief. "Because I really want to know what happens in the next issue."
"After all," Sitting up straight in her seat, Becky placed one hand atop Lincoln's head in an overly exaggerated manner which clearly highlighted the height different between the two.
"I am your biggest fan," She concluded, winking at the Loud boy. Lincoln rolled his eyes in response, but his smile betrayed his own amusement at the well-worn joke.
"...What I'm trying to get at," Sam continued, sliding her arm along Lincoln's back and pulling him into a side hug, "Is that you've been cranking these things out pretty consistently for a while now. Seems pretty obvious that you're just suffering from burnout, that's all."
"...Huh," Said Lincoln, frowning thoughtfully.
"WHAT? NO!" Becky shouted, reaching for Lincoln with the obvious intent of pulling him close. Unfortunately for her, Sam had secured her own hold on Lincoln, rendering the redhead incapable of leveraging her height advantage to free Lincoln Sam's grip. A short altercation ensued, each girl tugging on the bewildered boy until it became clear that they were at a stalemate.
"How do we fix him?" Becky growled, shooting a dirty look at the smaller girl.
"I'm still here!" Lincoln objected, loudly. "And my arms are going numb!"
In unison, both girls peered down, and noticed the vice-like grips they were maintaining on the boy's noodle-like arms (and more importantly, the flesh underneath their hands, which were beginning to turn purple due to a lack of blood circulation), and released their respective holds on Lincoln. Each self-aware enough to look at least a little abashed.
"How do we...help, Lincoln...with his problem?" Becky asked, shooting an apologetic look at her snow-haired beau. Lincoln nodded in acceptance as he attempted to massage some life back into his limbs.
"It's really not that big of a deal," Sam replied, giving Lincoln a reassuring pat on the back. "You make something long enough and you're bound to find yourself in a rut eventually. It happens to me and Luna all the time with our songwriting. Usually, we get over it by switching gears for a while. Try writing different songs, you know? Stuff like that."
"So that's why Luna went through that Polka phase?" Lincoln asked, a violent shudder running through his small frame. "Also...so, what? I should...try coming up with a whole new comic?"
"No!"
Lincoln and Sam both turned to look at Becky. Who, under their combined gazes, wilted slightly.
"...No?" She said again, this time framing the response as more of a suggestion. "That just sounds drastic. People are really invested in this storyline."
"And also, you were going to introduce The Big Stack in the next arc," She added, pouting slightly.
"Becky's self-insert nonsense aside—" Sam began.
"You really gonna go there? Card Sharp?"
"...That aside," Sam continued, "No, I think that's a bit drastic. Unless you really wanted to start with a clean slate, obviously. But otherwise, you already have all these characters and relationships to work with. What if you just took them all and put them in a different setting? You know, mix things up a bit?"
"Like that story, the girls and I came up with when the power was out?" Lincoln asked.
"Exactly like that." Sam agreed. "But also, not that, because Shelter in the Storm is my intellectual property."
"But...we all came up with it together," Lincoln replied, blinking in confusion.
"And then I made it better by centering it around the romance between Triton and Rock God, and didn't tell my publisher about that first part."
"...You have a publisher?"
"But, getting back to Aces Wild," Sam said, tittering nervously, "There's a lot of stuff you can do with those characters! You could make them...ninjas! Or pirates! Or—"
"Slice of life AU?" Lincoln interjected, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"...Well, that seems like...a bit of a regression from a superhero story," Sam replied, haltingly. "But...I guess if you really wanted to—"
"Sketchpad," Lincoln said, cutting her off as he held one hand out towards Becky. The redhead picked it up from where it had fallen nearby and placed it in his hand.
"Now I just need my…" Lincoln started in surprise as Sam shoved a pencil in his face. "Where did you…?"
"It's part of my feminine mystique," Sam said dismissively. "Now draw!"
She needn't have said anything. Immediately after taking the pencil from Sam, Lincoln put lead to paper and began drawing furiously. Becky and Sam exchanged glances, uncertain what, if any further contribution they should provide, but both girls settled on simply sitting there, silently encouraging the young artist. Finally, after an indeterminate period of time, Lincoln ceased his activity.
"What do you think?" He asked, leaning back and allowing both girls an unobstructed view of his work.
"Love it," Sam said immediately, nodding in approval. "A polo shirt is a great look for Ace."
"Kind of weird that you left the domino mask on him if this is supposed to be a slice-of-life thing," Becky opined, frowning thoughtfully. "Also...I feel like I've seen this somewhere…"
Silence filled the room.
"Really?" Lincoln asked, turning to the redhead uncertainly.
"I...think…" Becky began, looking intently at the page, before shaking her head. "Never mind, I must have imagined it."
"Oh, good," Lincoln said, sighing in relief before going back to his drawing, clicking his tongue thoughtfully as he began to flesh out the sketch with additional details.
"You gonna have the girls in this one?" Sam asked, peering over Lincoln's shoulder.
"Of course," Said Lincoln. "They're everyone's favorites. I figured they'd all be living together with Ace. Going to school, getting into hijinx—"
"Wait," Becky interjected. "But, if that's the case, are you still going to have him dating all of them? I mean, they'd basically be family then, right? Wouldn't that make their existing relationship...kinda weird?"
A second, more thoughtful silence fell upon the room.
"Pfft, no!" Sam snorted in amusement, before turning her attention back to Lincoln. "Oh! Do High Card next! I bet she'd look great in a tank top..."