The Devices and Machinations of Lisa Loud
is a The Loud House fanfic by Sesquipedalian Numeral, documenting the eponymous four-year-old genius's inventions.
Most chapters have the format where Lisa invents something for herself or one of her siblings, only to have it backfire and they need to get rid of it, but occasionally there is conflict that doesn't result in the invention backfiring.
This fic contains examples of:
- Air Quotes: When Lincoln berates Lisa for acting totally weird, Lisa makes air quotes on the phrase "acting totally weird" when she snappishly says it's nice for him that he only worries about that.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Lisa thinks that with Leni's hair sample, she could clone her, create a super-human race, or... find out why she's so dumb.
- Ass Kicks You: Lincoln beats some of the virtual zombies by attacking with his butt.
- Big "YES!": Lincoln says, "Yes!" while playing his virtual reality game.
- Body Horror: When Lynn injures herself with the obstacle course Lana made, she ends up bent in abnormal ways, disturbing all her siblings.
- Book Dumb: Initially, Jessica is very bad at calculus, but when Lisa gives her a push in the right direction, she becomes fine at it.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Lisa thinks over what she can do with the invisibility device and she imagines being able to get all the hair samples she wanted, observe her family in the bathroom, and dissect Lana's pets.
- Death Glare: Lori gives Lisa an angry stare upon finding her trying to get Leni's hair sample.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Lori is said to take "selfies of herself".
- The Diaper Change: Lisa changes Lily's diaper at the beginning of the emotion arc.
- Does Not Like Spam:
- Lisa cannot comprehend why people could like coffee.
- Darcy has "an aversion" to kelp leather.
- Dope Slap: Lisa slaps herself in the face when she forgets what "dictate" means.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: One of Lisa's siblings (probably Lana) notes that, "I don't make other people eat mud, that means more for me!"
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: Downplayed. While Lisa thinks calculus is wonderful, the college students groan when she gives a lecture about it and are eager to leave the lecture.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Lisa is thrown out of Lori and Leni's room, one of her siblings (Lucy probably) says, "I know I'm creepy but wouldn't sneak out at midnight to cut off a lock of someone's hair."
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Lisa gets bags under her eyes when her sleep deprivation in the teleportation arc becomes most extreme.
- Exhaustion-Induced Idiocy: When Lisa skips her nap to make more room in her schedule, she makes mistakes on Lincoln's homework and tries to lean back while sitting on a stool.
- Facepalm:
- Lisa puts her palm to her face when Luan interrupts her, asking to fix the freezer.
- When Lisa ignores Lori's request not to write on the wall, the latter facepalms.
- Good Samaritan: In the chapters about the thermal emotion detector, Leni enjoys helping people just for the heck of it.
- Groin Attack: Lincoln attacks one of the virtual zombies on its "frontal end".
- Hazmat Suit: A few of the people at Dr. Radetzky's lab wear hazmat suits.
- Healing Shiv: Lisa invents a healing gun, eventually needing to use it on Lynn Jr.
- Heavy Sleeper: Leni is the only Loud sibling who sleeps through Lisa's attempts to steal her hair.
- Idea Bulb: Alluded to when Lisa gets the idea to make the cloaking device and "the proverbial lightbulb" lights up above her head. It happens again when she gets an idea for how to help Leni.
- Invisibility Cloak: Lisa invents one (a device to make her invisible) in the first chapter, hoping to use it to get a strand of Leni's hair.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine:
- Dr. Radetzky and a few of his colleagues (all scientists) wear lab coats.
- Lisa is seen wearing a lab coat at one point.
- Lame Pun Reaction: In Vanzilla at the end of the virtual reality arc, Luan's siblings groan at her puns.
- Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded when Lisa wonders why Leni always wears the same dress despite buying many other outfits.
- Must Have Caffeine: when Lisa skips her nap to keep up on her tight schedule, she drinks coffee to keep herself awake.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Lynn Jr. injures herself on the obstacle course Lana built, Lisa feels guilty because the repair gun she made was what made Lynn act careless.
- Nobody Touches the Hair: Leni is outright afraid of the idea of having part of her hair taken.
- Noodle Incident:
- Apparently, someone (probably Luan) de-fanged Edwin to make a pun at some point in the past.
- Apparently, Lisa once made a monkey with four rear ends.
- Not So Stoic: Lisa, while usually stoic, occasionally gives mischievous smiles (such as when asked why she filmed someone in the shower) or expresses emotion in other ways (such as her single tear in chapter one).
- Obsessive Hobby Episode: In one story arc, Lincoln gets a new virtual reality device, but he becomes obsessed with it because he likes the feeling of invincibility it gives him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Lisa's siblings are stunned when she of all people doesn't know what to do. They then become even more stunned when she yells.
- When Lisa tutors Lincoln, he's concerned because she's speaking quietly, not using big words, making mistakes, being hard on herself when she does so, and appears tired. Later in the chapter, he's concerned that she's drinking coffee.
- Lisa is immediately concerned when she sees Leni of all people looking dejected.
- Out Sick: Apparently, Margo got the flu, so she wasn't able to join Lynn's team at softball.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: Lori says, "I love you!" to Carol at one point and she means it platonically.
- Pun:
- When Lisa is thrown out of Lori and Leni's room, someone (probably Luan) says, "Well, I'd say the noise was the Lisa her worries!".
- When Luan adds milk to her pie, she adds that she's "milking the ingredients". Then, she adds that Mr. Coconuts "inspieres" her.
- When Lori is late to pick up Leni, Luna, and Luan from high school, the latter says, "We almost thought you avandoned us!"
- Luan describes her handcuffs as "cuff to break through".
- When Luan sees Lincoln in drag, she says, "There are so many questions I need you to address."
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Lincoln says, "Nononononononono!" when he finds out that he can't log onto the simulator.
- Realism-Induced Horror: In-Universe, Lincoln finds his ultra-realistic virtual reality environment very scary because it's realistic, but isn't scared of the normal version of the same game.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: "Groan" is misspelled as "grown" at one point.
- Shaking the Rump: Lincoln shakes his butt a bit while playing his video game.
- Shout-Out:
- When Lori is reading minds, one classmate of hers thinks, "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down," which is a lyric from Mary Poppins.
- The virtual reality device is likened to the death star from Star Wars.
- Sickening "Crunch!": When Lynn falls off her obstacle course, her body produces a "series of cracks".
- Silence of Sadness: One story arc involves Lisa developing a tighter schedule due to her Teleportation device. She eventually has to miss sleep and starts speaking quieter and with fewer big words. While this is partly due to the Sleep Deprivation, it's also because she's sad and misses having more free time.
- Single Tear: Lisa cries one tear when her siblings teach her not to force her experiments on others and again when she's sleep deprived and Lincoln's talking to her.
- Sleep Deprivation:
- Defied when Lisa goes back to bed instead of inventing her cloaking device at night, because she knows sleep deprivation is bad for the brain.
- Played straight when Lisa's waking up of her siblings at night causes them to lose sleep.
- When Lisa has a very tight schedule due to her teleporting glove, she becomes very groggy, probably due to missing out on her nap.
- Tears of Joy: Lincoln cries happy tears when his sisters all hug him and reassure him that he can always say no to them.
- Telepathy: Lisa gives Lori a mind-reading device for her date with Bobby.
- Teleportation: Lisa invents a glove at one point that makes her teleport.
- Twitchy Eye: The "anger" variety ensues when Lisa's eye twitches out of annoyance at Jessica's delivery of her request for tutoring.
- Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: Lisa wakes up in the night and then tries to get a hair sample from her sister Leni. She ends up waking all her other siblings, and they complain, one of whom jokes, "I say that's the 'Lisa' her problems!".
