AN: Some people have been very patiently waiting for an update to this story while I was trying to wrap up Aces. So I took a shot. Feels a little rough, but I think I'm getting back into the write mindset (geddit? This is a Luan chapter btw). Not sure how fast I'll get through it, Gigant tends to be feast or famine when I'm writing it, with not much in between, but I'm expecting this story arc to run 3, maybe 4 chapters.
Lincoln awoke with a gasp, his chest constricting as an intense, bone crushing pressure around his body made it very difficult for the boy to draw breath. Blinking away the last vestiges of sleep, Lincoln managed to focus on what appeared to be the cause. A familiar looking, yellow pajama sleeved arm wrapped around his torso. Lincoln followed the limb with his eyes and let out a second, somewhat more strangled gasp as he took in the sight before him.
There, but scant inches from him, was his big sister Luan, her limbs carelessly splayed about her, save for the arm currently constraining him, and a content smile upon her snoring face. That wasn't surprising, Luan had a tendency to toss and turn in her sleep. Had he not been anchoring her to this spot, it would have been just as likely to find her in an entirely different orientation, or off the bed entirely. What stood out on this particular occasion was that Luan's pajama sleeve ran the length of her arm and then stopped short at her midsection. The pajama top it would normally be connected to having been shredded, presumably due to the two, rather large new additions protruding from Luan's formerly petite chest. Lincoln's vision was filled with soft, pillowy flesh, each mound topped with a tantalizing pink nipple, hardened from its exposure to the elements.
It took every ounce of willpower for Lincoln to resist the urge to close the last few centimeters, and dive headfirst into the vast expanse of Luan that lay invitingly before him. Still, he managed to restrain himself, and slowly began to pull his head back, fearful of the gravitational pull of those celestial bodies. In doing so, he managed to catch a glimpse of the space beyond Luan. Her other arm, lazily flung out beside her, and the still crumbling hole in the wall that she had effortlessly put it through. He also noticed the relative smallness of the bed around her. The way the remains of her previously loose fitting pajamas now clung so very tightly to her nubile teenage form.
It's about time you woke up, Seven grumbled as Lincoln frantically wracked his sleep addled memory for details about the previous night.
Lincoln let out a soft gasp of surprise as he crossed into Luna and Luan's shared room. It wasn't drastically different from the last time he'd been there, though that had been some time ago. Notebooks full of prospective song lyrics, discarded instruments, and musical paraphernalia clearly signified the former's presence. Comedy props, baking supplies, and a unicycle, somehow stuck to the ceiling, identifying the remaining occupant. Par for the course, more or less, though Lincoln noted a distressing absence of the blueprints Luan had been working on during his previous visit some kind of combination electric handshaker and pie thrower.
What stood out on this particular occasion was a poster hung against the far wall. A high quality, extremely stylized, colored image depicting a very attractive girl clad in green spandex. Her long blonde hair billowing dramatically behind her as she looked down, protectively, upon a comparatively tiny city. It was far too familiar looking for Lincoln's tastes.
"What's the hold up, Linc?" Luan called out, giving him a puzzled look from across the room. She followed his gaze. "Oh." And let out an embarrassed chuckle.
"Sorry..." Lincoln cleared his throat as he tried to regain his composure. "I-I just couldn't help but notice that...poster."
"Isn't is great?" Luan asked, puffing up her chest with pride. "I had it special ordered."
"Ah." Lincoln replied, stalling for time as he figured out how to address the elephant in the room. "Yeah, it looks great. That's, uh, that's one of those super heroes that have been showing up lately, right? I didn't realize they had...merchandise?"
"They don't." Luan grumbled, rolling her eyes. "There's practically no information publicly available about them. Companies are probably fighting tooth and nail to secure distribution rights to their likenesses. That..." She gestured to the poster. "Is a commission."
"Really?" Lincoln took another look at the piece. The artwork was quite good. It looked...expensive. "I'm surprised there's a demand for that sort of thing."
"Are you kidding?" Luan looked at him in surprise. "Where have you been? Those girls are HUGE!" Several heartbeats passed, and then Luan's face broke out into a grin. "Get it?"
"Good one, Luan." Lincoln replied, chuckling in spite of himself. Luan took a seat at her and Luna's communal table, motioning for Lincoln to join her and she powered up her laptop. Not long after, Lincoln was surprised to find himself looking at one of those social media sites that people mostly just use to complain about the things they love. Only this one happened to be about...
"The GR Troopers?" Lincoln asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.
Luan shrugged. "They haven't exactly announced a name for themselves. Half the discourse right now is people fighting over what to call them. 'Powered Rangers' is also gaining a lot of traction." She absentmindedly drummed her fingers on the table "I'm not really fond of either. They're kinda clunky, you know? A name needs a bit more...I dunno, art, put into it. Panache. Something like..."
"Gigant." Lincoln reflexively supplied. He realized his mistake immediately, and clamped his hands over his mouth. Luan didn't seem to notice, lost as she was in thought.
"Gigant..." She repeated, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Referring to the giants of Greek mythology, the gigantes?" She nodded slowly in approval. "Not bad, Linc." She then turned to look at him, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Why do you look so surprised."
He was surprised. But he hadn't meant to show it. "N-n o reason." He stammered. She didn't look convinced. "I just wasn't expecting you to casually reference something like that." He admitted, sheepishly.
"I could say the same about you." She replied, poking him in the shoulder. "When was the last time you picked up something thicker than a comic book?"
Lincoln shrugged, defeated. Fortunately, Luan seemed to take it in good humor.
"I'll have you know that there's more to the art of pun making than stringing funny sounding words together." She continued, smirking. "Etymology is what separates the pundits from the punishers."
"Alright, alright, my bad." Lincoln said, focusing intently on the screen in the hopes that it would dissuade Luan from continuing. To his surprise, Luan was right, there was quite a bit of discussing concerning Lori and Leni's recent exploits. Who they were and where they came from, the nature of their powers and whether or not they'd prove to be friend or foe in the long run. There were also grainy videos and blurred photos of the girls exploits, oodles of fan art, and...seedier things.
"This guy..." Lincoln coughed, embarrassed, "This guy seems really obsessed with figuring out their shoe size."
"Yeah." Luan shrugged noncommittally. "You get weirdos like that in every fandom."
"But there's just so much of that stuff." Lincoln gestured emphatically at the screen. "So many people fixating on the tiniest details. Hair, feet, legs. Other..." He swallowed. "Other stuff." He winced as an especially graphic, not to mention extremely out character drawing of Leni scrolled past. "Jeeze, this place needs a filter."
"Are you really surprised that people are obsessing over a couple of cute girls in skintight clothing?"
"I guess not?" Lincoln replied, eying a thread catering to people who wanted to be stepped on the girls, with distaste. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. "You...uh..." He began, trying to figure out how to phrase this as delicately as possible. "You're not..."
"No, Lincoln, I don't swing that way." Luan rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Typical boy logic."
"Sorry." He laughed nervously. "I just don't really get why you're into this stuff." He indicated Luan's possessions, much more characteristic of the jokester. "Seems kinda removed from your normally into."
"Because I can only like comedy? Just like Luna can only like music, and Lynn can only like sports?" Luan asked, dryly.
Lincoln had been about to reply with an emphatic yes, due to the strangely single-minded nature of his family, but he felt like this wasn't the answer he was supposed to give, so he kept his mouth shut.
"It's toku." Luan supplied, as if that explained everything.
"...what?" Which couldn't be farther from the truth.
"Toku." Luan repeated, gesturing for emphasis. "Tokusatsu."
"Are you saying words, or did you just sneeze?"
"Ugh." Luan flung out her hangs in exasperation. "Freaking normies."
She minimized her web browser, and with a few swift clicks, opened up a video. The screen was suddenly filled with clearly aged footage of a man in a brightly colored costume fighting another person dressed as some kind of lizard in the middle of a very tiny, and very fake looking city. There was something strangely familiar about this set up, but Lincoln couldn't quite put his finger on what that was, specifically.
"Toku is basically Japan's take on super heroes." Luan explained. "People who transform into masked heroes and fight bad guys."
"Oh!" Lincoln's eyes lit up with recognition."Right. Clyde's dads bought him some of this stuff on one of their trips to Japan, he got really into it for a while." He chewed his lip thoughtfully. "I didn't really get it. There was a lot of posing, and yelling. And any time anybody does anything, sparks just explode everywhere." Right on cue, the lizard pointed at his opponent and the hero threw himself backwards in an overly dramatic fashion, sparks exploding from every corner of the set.
"It's pageantry, Lincoln!" Luan insisted, bringing up another video. This one was more along the lines of that show Clyde had been into. Large Ornery Scorpion Cyborgs, or something to that effect. "Performance art! It's theater! "
"It's certainly something." Lincoln replied neutrally, watching a wolf man, a mummy, and Frankeinstein's Monster being chased around by a screaming little girl barely half their size. He was about to remark on how the effects in this show looked especially cheap, but then he noticed the hurt look on Luan's face.
"Sorry, Luan." He apologized. "That...came out wrong."
"Everybody I've shown this to thinks its weird." She said glumly, sighing softly. "But I like it. I think it's...I dunno, inspiring, I guess. Good versus evil. Regular people defending the innocent against monsters and stuff, because its the right thing to do."
"I get that." Lincoln gave his sister a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "I like super heroes for pretty much the same reason. And..." He winced. "I also know what its like for people to think that the stuff you like is dumb. But you've gotta admit, it doesn't make a very strong impression." Now the monsters were being scolded by some kind of ghost with a huge nose and chin.
"But!" He continued. "I think I'm kind of getting it. You kind of have to lean into the absurdity, right? Enjoy the spectacle for what it is."
"Exactly!" Luan shouted in delight. She grabbed the younger boy and held him close, giggling at his sputtered protests. But eventually Lincoln settled down and returned the embrace. They sat there for a while, basking in each others company as the trio of brightly colored heroes once again defeated their equally terribly dressed enemies. It was very...comfortable.
"It's getting kind of late..." Lincoln began, haltingly. "But...maybe sometime we could watch more of this stuff? Together?"
Luan felt a strange flutter in her heart. "I'd like that." The pair shared a small smile, and, acting purely on impulse, Luan leaned forward to give her little brother a kiss on the cheek.
This, however, just so happened to coincide with Lincoln turning to address the older girl. The end result was that she missed her mark by quite a bit, and the space that had previously been occupied by the younger boy's cheek now contained a pair of waiting lips. It all happened so fast that Luan was only aware of the faux pas in the instants that immediately proceeded the innocent kiss she had planned, becoming significantly less so.
Their lips met for only a moment, but it seemed to stretch on significantly longer than that. Luan could feel her little brother stiffening in surprise, as they joined together, flesh meeting flesh, but that stiffness swiftly melted away. It was...pleasant. Sweet, and warm. Comfortable. And strangely natural feeling. There was an urge. An impulse to press things further, to explore where this bit of inadvertence might lead. Before she could act on that urge, however, her body was wracked with a jolt of...something. Almost like electricity. The sensation caused her body to jerk back reflexively, and just like that, the moment was passed. The connection was gone, and she and Lincoln were left sitting there in each other's arms, two pairs of eyes wide with surprise.
"Whoops." Luan said, lamely, trying to cover up her growing embarrassment.
If you're finished with your reminiscing, could we get back to the rather large problem we have on our hands? Seven asked irritably.
There was a short pause. Oh dear, he said, sounding uncharacteristically worried. I think your sister's humor might be infectious.