Back again with another AU this one of one of the most infamous recent episode that of course being "taunting hour"
Like most fans (I'm assuming) I hated this episode from the moment I saw it! In fact, I only saw about half of the episode when it first aired, I didn't see the rest of it till latter and heard that this one was bad and thoguht that I was lucky to have missed it.
Cause make no mistake this one was BAD, how bad is it? Its currently at number 3 of my all-time worst list for the entire show, I really am not joke here when I say it might be worse than "no such luck" or "Brawl in the family."
Yes it's THAT bad. The point of not letting criticism stop you from doing what you live is important but its delivered so horribly that most fans (me included) can only remember how terrible Lynn sr., Rita, Luna, Luan, Lynn jr. Lola and Lisa were. Thank goodness that Lori, Leni, Lucy, Lana and Lilly we're a part of it!
But a tear down of it isn't what I'm here for.
Now I know this isn't the first fanfic to do this (There a very good one called "A-Taunting-Hour-extended-ending" by "codywj68" go read it if you haven't already…after this if you wouldn't mind!) but still wanted to give it a go, especially cause compared to other bad episodes from the show this one seems to have a light amount of Au's… at least on this site.
Some of the dialogue is inspired by that great speech rocky gives to his son in "Rocky Balboa" ( Haven't seen most of it but know of the speech, those in the know will know what I'm talking about and where it is in this story.)
Note that I'm also going to post this on my Wattpad account so if you are having trouble reading here go there.
Also sorry for the non-imaginative title, I couldn't think of a better one, I am open to suggestions.
Anyway, with that said here's
"taunting hour AU"
"It's easy for you to say, don't have to deal with it" Luan through Mr. coconuts said
"You just go around running life's!" Lola shouted
"What a life-ruiner" added his father Lynn
"Ruiner!" added Rita.
As he heard his own family utter these horrible, near unforgivable words, Lincoln's face was shocked then sad, then sad, and finally outraged. While one is upset normally one burns with heat, as anger often burns hot, red hot. However, this was…different. This was not him just being upset, this was not frustration, this was a pure, cold, nearly unbridled fury. As he slowly began to rise from the floor in front the coach the rest of the family realized their errors they made and began to backpaddle.
"Wait Lincoln we didn't mean…" Rita started to say, her voice shaky.
But Lincoln continued to rise, far too angry to listen to her. The others were silent too full of fear to say or move.
He glared at Lynn jr. and said, "You know you're probably not gonna believe me but whenever I was in the audience for every time you scored a goal in soccer or hit a home run in baseball or did anything of the amazing sports stuff you have done, I would cheer like crazy for you!"
He glared at Luna you and said, "Whenever you and rest of the moon goats have a concert, If I can, I hop on my bike and ride to where you guys where just to listen to guys play."
He glared at Luan and continued, "I might groan a lot at the bad ones, but when you tell me a really good joke it always make my day so much better."
He glared at Lisa and Lola then continued, "Whenever you two succeed in pageants or in scientific endeavors I fell so proud of you."
He glared at Rita "I've read every article you've ever wrote," and Lynn sr. and went on "and your cooking is nothing short of delicious!"
He continued to glare at all them as he said, "And all of this made me proud to be related to you, it made me feel that you were amazing, that you were going to big names in your fields of interest and that nothing would stop you from doing so."
The family stood with proud expressions on their faces only to have them be shattered a minute later as Lincoln let out angry sigh.
"Until right now…because you're changing. You're not being yourselves. You're letting your critics stick their fingers in your faces and tell you you're no good. And when I brought up SIMPLY that you had critics you got mad at me, blamed me and called me a LIFE RUINER, even though I was only trying to help! Let me tell you all something all of you should already know. Some people in this world are mean, they will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let them! But that's the thing! You've got to NOT LET THEM! We've all got critics! But it's not about what them! It's about how you react to them and still do what you love, how you hear what they are saying but don't it let you stop from doing what you love! That's you win and that's how you succeed! That's shows how mature you are! Now if you want to do something go ahead and do that thing! But you got to be willing to take the criticism and not be pointing fingers saying you aren't where you want to be or doing what you want to do because what that person said, or this person said or what ANYBODY says! Cowards do that, and that's not ANY of you! You're all better than that!
The family stood in silence as their guilt began to overtake them.
Lincoln let out another sigh, this one full of sadness and disappointment. Then said "Look I'm always gonna love and support you all no matter what. No matter what happens. You are my family and I love you. But if you don't start to believe in yourselves no matter what your critics may say…then you're not are going to be successful or happy in life! Good night!
And with that Lincoln stomped up the stared and went into his room, the family could hear the door slam behind him. Lynn sr., Rita, Luna, Luan, Lynn jr. Lola and Lisa stood in the living room, silent and full of shame.
Luna let out a sigh "Man, dudes I fell awful."
The others agreed.
"...Yeah same here" Luan said.
"I fell so foolish." added Lisa.
"How could I tell my only son that he ruined my life?! Nothing could be further from the truth!" cried Lynn sr.
"That was really stupid of us" added Rita
"This is all MY fault, come on lets go fix this." said Lynn jr.
The group went to Lincoln's room and knocked on the door.
"Lincoln honey? Can we…talk to you?" Rita asked
"About what? Did you think of new ways in which I ruined your lives!" Lincoln said through the closed door
"We're sorry about that champ!" said Lynn sr.
"Yeah dude we have NO right to get mad at you for what our critics said about us." Luna said.
"Like you said, you were trying to help me get over what Scoots calling me emu legs at the soccer game, by showing me that the others also had critics, but when it didn't work I get mad and blamed you and I shouldn't have." Lynn Jr. added.
"We are so sorry linky." Lola chimed in.
"We understand if you don't want to forgive us" Luan said,
"Just know that we are sorry" Lisa finished.
Before the group could walk away they heard Lincoln move toward the door and open it. he stood for a few minutes before saying
"You know…reminding all of you what your critics said about you at the dinner table… was probably not the greatest idea….sorry about that."
Rita kneeled to his level
"That's ok Lincoln compared to what we said about you that's a not a big deal."
She then hugged him and was quickly joined by the others.
After the hug Lincon let out a sigh
"By the way I DO have a critic Chandler…well I guess he's more of a bully.. which now that I think of it, seems more like what all of you were REALLY dealing with."
"What's the difference?" Lola asked
"A bully just says mean things because they want to hurt you, a critic might say mean things to well… criticize you, but they support their criticism with at least some evidence to prove the validity of their criticism. In short, a critic, or at least good ones, criticizes you to improve you, while a bully criticizes you just to tear you down. "
The others nodded their heads in understanding and accepted this.
"How could we not realize that before!" Lisa said
"Well part of that is my fault cause I called them critics, when that's not really what they were being." Lincoln said
"Yeah but we were the ones who let them get in our heads." Lynn jr. said
Lincoln replied "True, next time you should just let their words wash over you, like a river over stones. (1) Lincoln replied
The group nodded in approval at his wisdom
Lynn Sr. then noticed the time "Well we all need to get some sleep, come on let's all get ready for bed."
While the other walked away Lynn jr stayed behind, Lincoln noted this and asked
"Lynn?"
Lynn then ran up and hugged Lincoln again
"Once again bro I am so sorry, you are one of the toughest kids I know, don't let that jerk Chandler tell you any different."
"I won't Lynn, I won't" Lincoln answered with a smile.
The two then bid each other a good night.
The next day Lynn had another soccer game, Lincoln and the rest of the family showed up to support and cheer for her. the game was very close, both play such great defense that no goals were scored for most of the regulation. Then, only with 2 minutes left in the game, the other team blocked Paula attempt at a goal and kicked the ball down the pitch almost to their own goal. Their goalie then picked up the ball and tossed it to margo who ran down the pitch with it and Lynn, the two passing the ball back and forth between them.
As they did so one of the opposing players attempted to trip her!, she avoided it and the referee blew her whistle and said "Foul, penalty shot!"
Lynn the thought "There's only one minute left, so this penalty shot is going to decide the game! Which means if I screw up and miss I'll have cost us the game…no don't think that way come on Lynn you can do this; you can do this!"
As she was stood in the Penalty area to taker her shoot, Scoots called out from the stands "Hey emu legs don't miss or you'll let your entire team and town down!"
Lynn glared at the older lady, then saw Lincoln giving her an encouraging smile.
She let out a nervous breath "Like a river over stones." she muttered.
Scoots was in her wheelchair shocked, then she let out a chuckle and chanted, "don't miss emu legs, don't' miss emu legs!"
Lincoln was just done with the old women's rudeness.
"Hey don't call my sisters emu legs!"
Scoots just laughed "What are you going to do about it, you white haired weird-o!"
"HEY!" Lola said, "Leave my brother alone you old bat!" Lola said
"What did you call me you little brat!" Scoots angrily replied
"Don't call my daughter a brat Scoots!" Rita said
"Yeah! And like my son said, stop mocking our daughter!" Lynn added
"I'll do and say whatever I want, it's a free country!" Scoots answered
Suddenly two security guards came up the group
"What's going here?" one asked
"She's being disruptive to the game and calling out to my sister, one of the players." Lincoln told them as he pointed at Scoots
"Yeah she's being really obnoxious and making harder to enjoy the game." said Rita
The two security guards look towards Scoots then realized who she was.
"Oh, not you again!" said one of them
"We've told you time and time again to not be a bother to the players or the fans, but you never seem to listen to us!' said the other
"Uh oh! Momma's gonna get out of here." Scoots said and began to rev up her scooter then shouted, "You'll never take me alive!"
The two guards then chased after her.
Lynn saw all of this and smiled, then shook her head to clear her thoughts. She lined up her shot, took another deep breath, and kicked her ball. The opening goalie tried to block but wasn't fast enough and…
"GOAL!" said one of the announcers. Then the buzzer sounded signaling the end of the game as Lynn did a celebration dance. The rest of her team came running to her.
"You did it Lynn!" said Margo.
"That was an amazing shot!" Paula added.
The team the hoisted her on their shoulders and carried her around the pitch.
As Lynn was being carried around she searched among the stand and saw Lincoln standing, cheering and applauding along with the rest of her family. She give him a thumbs up which he happily returned.
After the game Lynn reunited with the rest of the family.
"Man, this was a good game, we won, I got the only goal and Scoots has been given a lifetime ban on entering the pitch ever again!"
Then she turned to Lincoln "and I owe a lot of that to you little bro! thanks your advice about not listening to what Scoots was saying allowed me to concentrate enough to making the winning goal!
Lincoln smiled "I'm just glad it worked Lynn."
Lynn smiled back, "You know what little bro, you're coming with me and the rest of the team to burping burger to celebrate our victory!"
"But I'm not technically a member of the team" Lincoln said.
"I don't care, you helped me out and helped me win, the least I can do is let you celebrate with us!"
Lincoln smiled, "Well if you insist!"
The two then left the pitch together.
Lynn then thoguht "As long as I have you by my side Lincoln, I can handle what any heckler says about me."
End
1 this is a reference to the what splinter told Raphael (my favorite turtle of the four) in "Turtle Temper" in the 2012 version of show (never got into myself but as someone who used to, and still does to an extent, have some issues with my anger over taken me it spoke to me)
So that's it, I hope I delivered some better then….whatever the episode was trying to do.