"Long before the White Flash killed civility, and long before Brad tasted Joy, he had grown disturbingly used to the taste of blood on his tongue. He and his friends were far too young for the lessons they'd learned, but they could never anticipate how much worse things would become."
— LISA: The Faithful
LISA: The Faithful
is a LISA fanfic by Iron Vow.
Taking place before the events of "LISA: The First," the lives of the young Brad and Lisa Armstrong are set on a different path due to the actions of Joan Chambers, a girl in Brad's class who has seen Olathe's dystopian future and wants to prevent it.
Joan knows exactly what's going on in the Armstrong household and does everything in her power to help, but there's only so much one person can do, especially when they're stuck in the body of a child. Meanwhile, Brad and his childhood friends struggle in the uncaring world they live in.
(Cover art is by tourniiquett on DeviantArt.)
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Considering the source material, a given.
- Marty Armstrong, Brad and Lisa's father, beats both of his children and sexually abuses Lisa.
- Edwin Armstrong, Marty's father, is introduced as one in the prologue. They have an incredibly strained relationship when Marty is an adult and his treatment of Lisa when she's under his care is less than stellar. However, this is somewhat subverted, as it's revealed that young Marty had similar... personality quirks to his adult self. In the present, he comes to realize his own faults as a caretaker and genuinely tries to do right by his grandchildren.
- Mr. Angoneli, Sticky's father, is abusive towards his family and a generally awful person. His wife ran away, leaving Sticky behind.
- Joan's parents in her previous life were very religious, putting a lot of pressure on her. This caused a lot of her underlying mental health issues which eventually culminated in her taking her own life.
- The Alcoholic: Marty, and Brad in Part Two.
- Bad Boss: Dr. Yado is this to Joan in Part Three.
- Bad Future: How Joan views the events of canon, and what she'll do anything to prevent.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Armstrongs, in spades.
- Call-Forward: Several lines and plot-points are direct references to the games.
- The Cameo: Several characters from the games make minor appearances throughout the fic.
- The father of the Hernandez brothers shows up as a bus-driver throughout Part 2.
- Bolo attempts to kidnap Lisa after she runs away from home.
- Olan helps Lisa escape Bolo by getting the police involved.
- Dice Mahone and Rex Thunderstorm are members of the real-life organization Bikers Against Child Abuse. Dice and his crew support Lisa after Marty is arrested for sexually abusing her.
- Mr. Beautiful is Lisa's therapist.
- Queen Roger is thrown in the same cell as Brad after the former's place of work (a gay bar) is raided and the latter beats up a man who was sexually harassing a woman at a club.
- Hart is Joan's younger brother.
- Dead Guy Junior: Lisa was named after her grandmother who died before she was born.
- Driven to Suicide: How Joan died in her past life.
- This is also the cause of death for both Brad's mother and paternal grandmother. The latter of which may be Joan.
- At the end of Part Two, this is the fate of Marty.
- Fix Fic: The overarching premise.
- For Want Of A Nail: Joan's involvement changes things, to say the least.
- Framing the Guilty Party: With the help of Dr. Yado, Joan plants illegal drugs throughout Marty's home in order to ensure he's arrested in Part One. Unfortunately, this doesn't manage to stop him for good.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite Joan's best efforts, Lisa still ends up sexually abused at the hands of Marty, though the circumstances are a bit different.
- Parental Incest: Marty and Lisa. This applies to both his daughter and his mother.
- Reincarnation: Joan is reborn as a baby with all of the memories and mental capabilities of her past adult-self, as well as memories of the events that transpired in the games. Interestingly, said events aren't her own memories, as she would've been absent and/or dead for all of them, especially post-Flash Olathe. She didn't even die in the Flash, having taken her own life before that point. There are several hints that she was Lisa the first, Marty's mother, in her past life.
- The Runaway: Lisa runs away from home several times in order to escape Marty's abuse. Dusty often runs away from the orphanage to get away from it all, though he usually ends up back after awhile.
- Time Skip: Between each "Part" of the story, a substantial amount of time passes.
