WOW, okay... So I've been gone for a bit. Sorry for the wait, but it seemed like everything that could have happened to delay my writing happened.
Seriously, my computer broke... Then work piled up... Then I lost motivation... THEN I got hacked on Discord. This last month or so has been such a mess... But I'm hopefully back now!
Also, I decided to read some of the reviews:
Mr. Haziq on Chapter 1 = You'll just have to wait and see.
Unity123 on Chapter 1 = Maybe...
boygenius2020 on Chapter 1 = Thanks!
Decade2009 on Chapter 1 = I've been thinking about it!
Enjoy this chapter, sorry it's so short.
To say things were awkward for the next day or so in Loud Castle would be an understatement.
Morag nearly had an aneurysm when she saw the messes in the halls ("How in God's given name did you manage to stain the CELIING?!" she had shouted many a time). But despite her reluctance to do so, Morag buckled down and had gotten the castle back to it's clean state rather quickly.
When the evening had come, she was allowed to go rest at the hovel in town that used to belong to Angus. The new caretaker now lived in the castle, his own room having been set up by the past and present Loud family in one of the empty chambers.
The next morning, Rita and Lynn Sr. announced that they'd be taking a trip back to Royal Woods to begin moving the family's things from there to the castle. Lana had decided to go with them to make sure the pets had company during the journey back.
The rest of the family had decided to take it easy for the day, and were either relaxing around town, or in their rooms at the castle. Lincoln in particular was relaxing on his room's balcony, looking out at the lake that connected to the vast ocean. The boy had grown to enjoy the view. It was both relaxing to watch the waves, and it helped him brainstorm.
He had been thinking to himself when he heard the balcony doors open, and turned to see Angus with Lochland coming through them.
"Afternoon lad." Angus greeted.
"What are you doing out here?" Lochland questioned.
"Oh, just thinking about stuff." Lincoln simply replied, as the two joined him by the railing.
"And what stuff might that be, lad?" Angus also questioned.
"I mean, now that everything in town is pretty much back to normal... I was thinking that we could maybe expand?" Lincoln explained.
"Expand?" Lochland questioned, interested in the idea.
"Yeah! We could have new buildings constructed, and generally just improve the state of the town even more!" Lincoln grinned.
Angus smiled at the idea. "Well, as the the castle caretaker, I advise that-"
"...You put a cork in it. Since that is not going to be possible at the moment, sire."
Lincoln, Angus, and even Lochland yelped a bit as they turned to see the source of the interruption... To see an irritated Morag leaning against one of the balcony pillars.
"Geez Morag, how long have you been standing there?!" Lincoln asked, "We never heard you even come out here!"
"Oh, have you been learning from Lucy?" Angus asked, a twinge of genuine curiosity in his tone.
"I've picked up a habit or two the last couple weeks." Morag shrugged.
"And what do you mean by 'it's not going to be possible at the moment'?" Lochland questioned, a hint of offense in his tone. "What's wrong with the idea?"
"Oh, nothing." Morag put her hands up defensively, "Just the fact we can't afford it right now."
The three were taken aback by the claim.
"What are you talking about? The town has been financially stable for over 50 years!" Angus pointed out.
"Well that streak is over now, Angus." Morag explained, "We're officially broke. The treasury barely has a cent left in it."
"...Sorry, what?" Lincoln blinked, shocked.
"I'm afraid so." Morag clicked her tongue.
"That's impossible! Even with the cost of repairs on the town, we still had plenty of money stored away in case of something like this happening again!" Lochland exclaimed.
"Yeah, HAD." Morag deadpanned, pointing at Lincoln. "Your little sister spent all of it to get herself various gold statues of herself. Life sized ones."
"...What?!" The three yelled in shock.
Lincoln didn't know what he was expecting when Morag led them to the throne room... But it certainly wasn't rows upon rows of golden statues of Lola.
"Blow my bagpipes! Where did all of these statues even come from?!" Angus exclaimed, just as shocked by the sight.
"From the town's money, I thought we covered this." Morag flatly replied.
Lincoln knocked on one of the gold statues. They weren't hollow. "Oh my god..." Lincoln groaned under his breath.
"So yes... Due to your 'wonderful' sister's choices, Loch Loud is bankrupt." Morag flatly announced.
"M-Maybe Lola wasn't the one who drained the vault's cash? Surely she could have gotten the money elsewhere..." Lincoln reasoned, trying to think positive and not immediately pin the blame on Lola. He was better than that, he thought to himself.
"Those statues are made of solid gold... Where ELSE in hell's name do you imagine she got the money for all of them from?" Morag asked.
"Okay... But hear me out here: Magic." Lincoln theorized, smiling a bit for effect, hoping very faintly Morag would consider it.
It was pretty clear she didn't. Morag's eye twitched, before she wringed her hands in exasperation.
"WE. ARE. OUT OF. MONEY." She repeated firmly. "Thus, this idea of expanding the town, and even the simple idea of keeping it afloat... Are pretty much nonexistent at the moment."
"Hm, this is not good at all..." Lochland murmured.
"Can't we just melt the statues down into gold again?" Lincoln suggested.
"That is a choice... Course, this whole debacle will still have drained a lot of the town's money even if we did melt down the gold and pawned it off." Morag reasoned.
"But it's gold!" Lincoln pointed out. "Isn't gold a valuable metal?"
"Yes, but it's not the 1600s anymore, Loud." Morag flatly replied, "Gold is pretty easy to find these days. Unless you're me, who wasted 4 years looking for gold in the hills around Loch Loud."
Lincoln blinked, "Wait, wha-"
His surprise was cut off when footsteps were heard coming down the stairs. Footsteps from someone wearing pink heels.
"Oh, I see you've seen my amazing statues!" Lola beamed as she walked up to the four, looking at her reflection in one of the statues' shining metal.
"Yes, your very expensive and unnecessary statues..." Morag deadpanned, mumbling under her breath.
"Beautiful, aren't they? Just like me!" Lola added, her ego lacing her tone.
"Yeah, about that..." Lincoln began, "We sorta need to get rid of them. The town needs the money-"
"WHAT?! No! We aren't getting rid of my statues!" Lola exclaimed, offended at the mere idea.
"Lass, we have to. If we don't, the town won't have enough money to repair any damages from storms or other incidents that could happen!" Angus explained.
Lola scoffed. "Oh please, what are the chances of that happening?" She rhetorically asked.
"Thirty percent every day." Morag answered, barely having to think.
"Lola, lass, come on-" Angus tried again, but was cut off.
"No! I waited a whole day for these to be made! ("Oh, the statue molder's shop is back open! That's nice." Lochland murmured in the background.) I am not letting you melt them down and ruin them!" Lola exclaimed in a huff.
"But we need the money! We're completely out!" Lincoln pointed out.
"No!" Lola repeated shortly.
"Come on Lols... Please?" Lincoln asked, almost pleadingly at this point. "For me?"
Lola paused, before finally giving in. "...Fine. We're only melting down two." She claimed.
"All of them." Lincoln corrected.
"Six!" Lola negotiated.
"Half of them." Lincoln replied, lowering the bargain.
"Eight." Lola narrowed her eyes, getting fed up.
"...Deal." Lincoln accepted. "Now, go get Lynn... She can help us carry them out of here."
Lola reluctantly nodded, and walked off to go fetch her older sister.
"Well, that's settled!" Lincoln smiled contently.
"...Aren't you going to punish her for this?" Morag blinked, questioningly.
"Let's go handle this, cousin. We should make sure Lola follows through with this." Lochland replied to Lincoln, ignoring Morag entirely.
"She drained the vault's money for this... Surely you're going to at least reprimand her, right?" Morag questioned again, feeling her annoyance grow.
"Aye, that'd probably be a wise idea." Angus agreed with Lochland, also ignoring the Groundskeeper.
"The town might be doomed by this mistake, and you're just going to ignore!-" Morag exclaimed, but stopped mid-sentence as she noticed that Lincoln, Lochland, and Angus had already wandered off down the same hall Lola had gone into.
Morag groaned, before exhaling to calm herself down.
"Well, at least this day can't possibly get anymore aggravating..." Morag reasoned, as she followed behind the three.
Lori literally loved the fact she could find a place to sunbathe anywhere in the town. Whenever the weather was actually clear, the sun would beam down perfectly on the shores and cliff-sides.
She had chosen to set up a towel on one of the beaches near the docks, which gave an amazing view of the lake in front of her.
Lori had just gotten comfortable when the sun was blocked by something large. She groaned, and took off her glasses to see what was causing her to lose her sun... And saw a large submarine had beached itself in front of her.
"What the...?" Lori mumbled out, confused from the turn of events.
The hatch on the top of the sub opened, to reveal a familiar boy in a plaid green jacket... Looking like he hadn't slept in days, with his hair an absolute mess.
"BOBBY?!" Lori exclaimed, shocked to see her boyfriend, especially in such a state.
"Hey babe..." Bobby managed to utter out, before collapsing onto the sand from exhaustion.
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