Fanfic / What is a Person Worth?

What can you do, when you're seen as a possession, and not a human being?^note Cover art by Extricorez.

What is a Person Worth? is a The Loud House fanfic by That Engineer, who is also the author of another Loud House fanfiction titled Syngenesophobia. Artwork for the fic can be found here.

Much like how Syngenesophobia is with "Brawl in the Family", What is a Person Worth? is written as a more realistic take on "No Such Luck". Taking place after said episode, Lincoln starts to wonder if his family even loves him anymore after kicking him out of his own house and forcing him to wear a squirrel costume that they believe brings good luck.

The story has a sequel, Take It In Stride, that takes place two years after the first story and focuses on how the Loud family (and especially Lynn) are slowly recovering from the whole ordeal that took place in What is a Person Worth?. Find it here.

General trope examples:

• Cerebus Call Back
• Everyone Has Standards
• Take That

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The story provides examples of:

A-D

• Abusive Parents: Lynn Sr. and Rita certainly weren't any better than the girls, as they too chose to put following their own superstitions ahead of their own son's feelings. They get a real wake-up call in chapter 4 after getting called out for their actions by Lincoln and Luna soon after. Realizing what they've done, they vow to defy being this and earn Lincoln's forgiveness.
• Accidental Tickle Torture: When Ronnie Anne is applying bacterial ointment to the scratches Lincoln got on his belly while learning how to skateboard, she accidentally tickles him. This prompts her to start tickling him for real once she's done applying the ointment.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: While in the show, Lincoln was more annoyed than showing general outrage. Here Lincoln explodes in rage towards his family and questions if his family ever loved him in the first place. Forcing him in the suit for several days didn't help either.
• Adaptational Badass: Hank and Hawk are no longer Afraid of Blood due to them playing gory video games.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Despite how the fic is about the family regretting their actions and earning Lincoln's forgiveness. They still carried the Jerkass Ball and forced Lincoln in the suit, while never considering his well-being or mental state.
• Adaptational Name Change: Bobby and Ronnie Anne's father is named Marcus in this story, while Season 4 in the actual show reveals that his name is actually Arturo.
  • Also, in Chapter 8, Mr. Grouse is referred to as Henry rather than Bud like he was in the Christmas Special. Heck, even ‘Henry’ refers back to said special in the chapter.
• Adaptational Villainy: Chandler was a mild Jerkass in the show, but there were no indications that he was a bully who wouldn't hesitate to brutalize a younger child. ^note And as of "Jeers for Fears", he is actually on friendly terms with Lincoln, though that episode had not aired yet when the fic was first published. However, this was reversed after "Schooled" aired, in which the two don't appear to be friends.
• Adults Are Useless:
  • The Loud parents, who like their daughters chose to put following their own superstitions ahead of their own son's feelings. Though after their Heel Realization, they work hard to avoid this trope.
  • Averted with the Santiago parents.
• An Aesop: Several of them throughout the story
  • Real life has long term consequences for your actions and you can't pretend they don't matter. The show has Negative Continuity so most of the families mistakes are erased by the end of the episode, here they have to deal with their mistakes because they simply won't go away because they simply ignore them.
  • While it is natural to want your family and loved ones to support you at your own activities and events, you should never force them into doing it, because then the support is ingenuine and only hurts your relationship with others. Lynn forced Lincoln to come to her game under threat of beating him with her bat, causing this whole problem in the first place, while Lori threatened Lincoln with a nightstand to make him come on a double date to make things right with Ronnie Anne. While neither of them were going to actually hurt Lincoln least they get severely grounded for such terrible behavior, it ultimately hurt their relationships with Lincoln in the long run. All support has to given with consent, NO EXCEPTIONS, and don't take it too hard if people say they just can't come if they are too busy or too tired or even just don't want to come, they have a right to say no as much as you do.
  • Respect other peoples opinions, boundaries, and their rights for privacy. Lincoln explains to Lori in chapter 19 that its unfair to expect him to respect their privacy when no one does the same for him, barging into his room all the time or dragging him into their arguments for petty things without considering his place in the matter. Boy or Girl, everyone has the right to privacy, the right to their opinions, and the right for boundaries in conversations, don't get others involved if you don't really have to.
  • Don't ever take you family and loved ones for granted. The Louds realize this after Lincoln spells out how awful they have been towards him in the story, the episode, and many other episodes as well. Albert spells this out for Rita and Lynn Sr best in chapter 8. "Everyone is family and no talk of ghost or harpies or whatever is going to change that."
  • Don't bottle up your emotions. Lincoln typically puts his anger and frustrations away for the sake of his family, but here he lets them all out, causing them to finally realize their mistakes and become better people as a result. Best exemplified in chapter 20, when Lincoln lets his parents know how neglected, left out, and ostracized he always felt due to being the only boy and being so different from everyone. This leads to the Loud parents comforting him in letting him know that he can talk to them about his feelings and they would have helped him out, and his sisters would've too no matter how different he was from everybody.
  • NEVER value one thing about someone. This goes for everyone thinking Lincoln was bad luck without the suit and only good luck with it and start taking advantage of him as a good luck charm, rather than see him as their son/brother.
  • Don't let people walk all over you. Lincoln was used to being an Extreme Doormat towards his family in show due to always being outnumbered. Here he finally stands up for himself after realizing they were going way too far with thier unintentional abuse of him and that he has nothing left to lose. He also no longer tolerates Chandler being a huge bully towards him after he and his gang of bullies pick on Lana.
  • Don't act out of only anger. While Lincoln was right to speak up for himself, he feels terrible for hurting Lynn after seeing the full extent of the damage he caused with her unable to do sports for a month after biting her Achilles tendon. Also Lincoln almost called the cops and turned in his family for the crimes out of anger for their selfish, Jerkass behavior finally proving too much for him to handle, but decided that the consequences were too great after thinking it through and give them a second chance to prove they do love him and will never repeat their mistakes again.
  • Don't jump to conclusions. Ronnie Anne assumed Lincoln was cheating on her without thinking things through, leading to Lynn calling her out for not trusting Lincoln's word, as she didn't want her to repeat her family's mistakes that drove Lincoln away since they just assumed he was bad luck and good luck, treating him horribly as a result of their thoughtlessness.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: When complimenting and reassuring Lana after a group of boys beat her and Lincoln up, Lincoln rubs the back of her head and playfully ruffles her hair that had just been uncovered because she lost her hat in the struggle.
• Affectionate Nickname: Ronnie Anne abandons the term Lame-O in favor of Linky-Poo in Chapter 23 and uses just plain Linky in Chapter 25 (to Lynn's amusement).
• All for Nothing: As far as Lincoln is concerned, all the nice things he did and the sacrifices he made for his sisters are now meaningless. Lincoln makes it clear to Lucy in chapter 7 had he known how she wouldn't have hesitated to throw him under the bus like everyone else, even after everything he's done for her, not only would he have told their sisters the Princess Pony book was hers, he would have laughed at her with them. Even Lucy in chapter 14 admits that noble sacrifice Lincoln made for her is now meaningless because of her actions. Thankfully this is Subverted as the sisters gradually earn Lincoln's forgiveness and show they do care for him and all the nice things he did for them do matter to them as they promise not to take him for granted ever again.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: After the video comes out, Lincoln goes to school to find the boys avoiding him out of fear but more than a few girls try flirting with him.
• All of the Other Reindeer: After Chandler loses his fight to Lincoln where he tried to brutalize Lincoln's 6-year-old sister, his popularly goes down the drain.
• And This Is for...: In the final chapter, Ronnie Anne dedicates every kick she delivers to Chandler's groin to something he did.
• Anywhere but Their Lips: Because they are siblings, Lincoln and Lana don’t dare kiss each other lip-to-lip when showing affection. Instead, Lincoln kisses Lana on the forehead, and she kisses him on the cheek.
• Ascended Extra:
  • The Bratty Kid from "Cereal Offender", called Conner Pingrey here, is a one-shot character in the show. In the fanfic, he plays a relatively bigger role, as he becomes Chandler's accomplice in the latter's plan to get his revenge on Lincoln. His sister Carol Pingrey also qualifies to some extent.^note When she first appeared in this fanfic, she was only a One-Scene Wonder in the show, but has since received a larger role in the season 3 episode "Selfie Improvement"
  • Chandler, at the time of publication a one-episode character, becomes the closest thing to an antagonist this fanfic has.
  • Cristina, basically a silent Living Prop in the show, becomes a secondary character after befriending Conner.
• The Atoner: The Loud family as a whole want to make up with Lincoln for the way they treated him , ultimately succeeding by Chapter 25 which ends on a reconciliation Group Hug.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • While it's All Just a Dream, the opening of chapter 6 features Lynn having to witness a world where her mother miscarried Lincoln and it was all her fault. In chapter 4, she wished that Lincoln was never born...
  • In Chapter 8, Lucy finds she's gotten her wish for Lynn to become more like her so her older sister would be quiet for once. Not only is the situation that caused it something Lucy wouldn't have wished on her worst enemy but she also finds that Lynn acting like her is disturbing.
• Becoming the Mask: While Connor already had second thoughts, him actually falling in love with Cristina is one of the reasons why he doubled crosses Chandler.
• Berserk Button:
  • Lynn Jr. has two: mocking her skills and coming in a place other than first. Lincoln pressed both when he called her a sore loser.
  • When Ronnie Annie brings up the fact that Lincoln was lying to his family, Lynn angry calls her out.
• The Bet: Lincoln and Ronnie Anne have one in chapter 14 when they challenge each other to a fighting game; if Lincoln wins, Ronnie Anne will make him a full stack of waffles. If Ronnie Anne wins, Lincoln will have to learn how to ride a skateboard.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • The Loud family and later Chandler learn the hard way that if they push Lincoln too far, they'll regret it. Chapter 25 even has Lynn admitting that Lincoln's temper is a bomb with a very long fuse; it will take him a while to go off but once he does, oh boy... In fact, one of the reasons why Lincoln became The Dreaded at school once the video of him beating up Chandler came out is because everybody else realized that getting on Lincoln's bad side is actually a really bad idea.
  • Carol is a nice Cool Big Sis. She also nearly breaks someone's neck because they were trying to hurt Conner in Chapter 25.
• Big Bad: Chandler acts as the story's main antagonist.
• Big Sister Bully: Deconstructed. Lynn starts this whole mess when she forces Lincoln to go to her game, and when she loses, she blames him and calls him bad luck. And when Lincoln tries to reveal the truth that he was not bad luck, she convinces the family that he was lying because her pride could not take the fact she lost the game on her own. When Lincoln calls her out on this, she angrily hits him, starting a fight. Finally, she says that she wishes Lincoln was never born and she never loved him. This causes Lincoln to runaway and threaten to call the police on the family if they try to make him come back. When she realizes how badly she messed up and how much she hurt Lincoln, it's too late to make things right. And the guilt of causing this mess is destroying her.
• Blackmail: Although he can't bring himself to calling the police, Lincoln threatens that he will do so anyway if his family tries to force him to come back home before regaining his trust.
• The B Grade: Lola gets mad at Lincoln because she only got a B on a test instead of an A. Ronnie Anne, however, points out that she only got a B because she relied on her brother's supposed good luck rather than studying. Really, getting a B without studying is lucky enough as it is.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Downplayed. Lincoln is very angry about the situation, but even after everything that happened, he couldn't bare breaking his family apart by calling the police on them.
  • Played Straight in Chapter 10. When Chandler and his friends attack Lana, Lincoln loses it and beats them up. All five of them.
  • In chapter 12, Bobby makes it clear to Lori that he loves Lincoln like the little brother he never had. He was considering breaking up with Lori for contributing to the white-haired boy's suffering whether it was unintentional or not, but after seeing how Lori truly regrets everything she's done to Lincoln up until now, even tearfully saying she'll understand if her "Boo-Boo Bear" wants to end their relationship, he gives her a chance to atone for her mistakes. Until then, however, he won't be referring to her as "babe".
  • Both played straight and age-inverted in Chapter 16; Lincoln calls Luan out on her April Fool's Day antics primarily because he hated seeing Lucy, Lynn, Lola and Lana's states afterwards and when she reacts badly, he refuses to let Luan call herself a monster, even being somewhat angry at himself for driving her to tears and self-loathing.
  • Chapter 22 sees Lynn ripping into Ronnie for believing Lincoln would cheat on her and Carol is none too pleased that Conner is being blackmailed by Chandler.
  • When Lisa figures out that Chandler is behind all of Lincoln's trouble with the doctored photos and tells Lynn, the latter is immediately intent on making him pay and she's no happier when she finds out that Chandler's hired some thugs to pulverize her little brother.
  • Chapter 25 features a veritable cascade of this trope. Lynn fights to the point of literally being unable to move to protect Lincoln, Lori has a great showing against the bullies and Carol nearly murders one of the bullies via Neck Snap because they went after Conner.
• Bittersweet Ending: Lincoln returns home and has forgiven his family, Chandler is publicly humiliated and the teens he hired to beat up Lincoln and Connor are punished, while Hank and Hawk are sent to jail for hospitalizing Lynn. But Lynn is still not fully forgiven herself for her part in the whole bad luck debacle, Mr. Santiago is killed in a car crash thus forcing the Santiagos to move away from Royal Woods as they did in canon, and while Bobby forgave Lori, their relationship is still not the same as before.
• Break the Cutie: This is to be expected of Lincoln after his family effectively show him that they value him more as an object for their own personal benefits rather than see him as a human being with feelings like the rest of them. In chapter 4, he is finally driven to tears after Lynn Jr (in blind anger) says she wishes her brother was never born.
  • Some of the sisters, specifically the younger ones, experience this shortly after getting called out by Lincoln for treating him poorly. First Lucy; in chapter 7, she tries to apologize to her brother and plead him to come home so the family could try to work things out, but Lincoln responds by coldly reminding Lucy how she didn't hesitate to throw him under the bus like everyone else, even after everything he's done for her. Most notably, how he had to sacrifice his weekend because he took the fall for the Goth.
  • Next there's Lana who after the events of chapter 4, has been tormented by nightmares of how she failed to save Lincoln from the alligator that attacked him at the zoo. And when trying to protect Lincoln from bullies in Chapter 10, only to get beaten up herself, this goes From Bad to Worse for her, to the point that she cries hard.
  • Lynn Jr. is a wreck, despite everything she did to Lincoln. She's terrified of her little brother, hasn't been taking care of herself and is having nightmares that clearly scare her so thoroughly she can't be bothered to put up a facade of bravado. And then after she and Lincoln have made real progress, enough that he calls her of anyone else for help when being chased by Chandler's hired thugs, she ultimately fails to take them down and is instead rendered immobile and at very real risk for a Forced to Watch scenario.
  • Luan takes the realization that her pranks could have crippled or even killed her siblings extremely badly, spending lots of time crying in the bathroom both at school and at Jillian's and even calling herself a monster.
• Break the Haughty: Lynn, confident and arrogant, is broken over the course of this story.
• Breather Episode: Chapter 5, relatively speaking, has a more positive tone in comparison to the previous chapters with Lincoln being accepted into the Santiago household after finding him out and alone along with the sisters trying desperately to find Lincoln so late at night.
  • Despite Luan's breakdown after Lincoln calls her out on her April Fool's Day pranks, Chapter 16 counts as it's all about Luna, Luan, and Leni making peace with Lincoln and even ends with Lincoln going out of his way to talk Luan out of her breakdown and even laughing happily at her lame joke about her pasta.
• Broken Bird: The events of the story have caused Lynn Jr to become this, with her stopping taking care of herself despite her injuries because of the guilt of causing the conflict that led to Lincoln leaving the house and that can destroy the family.
• The Bully: Chandler, who takes great delight in humiliating Lincoln every time he has the opportunity and attempts to physically bully him in chapter 10, ultimately even hiring Hazelturkey athletes to pulverize Lincoln (with Conner getting caught up in the mess as well).
• Bystander Syndrome: The family is too shocked over Lincoln's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to stop Lincoln and Lynn Jr's fight. In chapter 20, Lynn Sr shamefully admits not stopping the fight was one of his and Rita's failures as parents.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Lincoln does this to Rita and Lynn Sr 3 times in the story
  • In chapter 4, during his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the family, Lincoln calls Rita and Lynn Sr out for lying to him about selling his furniture and and for caring more about the suit than him even when he was almost killed by an alligator (Rita and Lynn Sr, respectively), and basically acting like they care far more about the girls than him, acting like they didn't really want a son at all. The first calling out in chapter 4 gives the parents a Heel Realization, now knowing their parenting techniques were flawed and unfair to their only son, they vow to do better, learning from their mistakes.
  • In chapter 18, Lincoln does this again to Rita, calling her out for taking the girls side over his so often and letting the situation happen in the first place. In the second calling out to Rita in chapter 18, Lincoln recalls all his own short comings as well and feeling that he was to blame for the situation and being a terrible son, to which Rita reassures him that he did make up for his past mistakes, that she wouldn't give him up for anything, admitting that she and his father made the WORST mistake possible in trying to do so anyway for such a stupid reason, and only did the right thing in threatening to call the police, making him promise to do so if they ever try to lock him or his sisters outside for any illegitimate reason again.
  • In chapter 20, Lincoln calls Lynn Sr out for lying to him about the coffee mugs he made for his parents anniversary and for not taking him to take your CHILD to work day, an event his sisters always enjoyed, making him feel left out and unwanted. Lynn Sr admits that he didn't know take your daughter to work day was changed to take you child to work day in 2003 and didn't mean to make Lincoln feel left out as a result, he still hates himself for not showing nearly enough care when his son could have died from the gator incident, and reassures Lincoln that he is his son and will always love as much as his sisters, even if he wasn't that good at showing it, and did keep two of the first mugs he made for their anniversary presents, but admits they couldn't do the others due to having to go to a shady dealer to get them done, apologizing to him for finding out they way he did and not being honest with him.
  • These call outs ultimately make the Loud parents realize their mistakes with Lincoln and motivate them to change thier ways for the better, becoming Good Parents again over the course of the story.
• Calling the Young Man Out: In chapters 8 and 9, Albert gives Rita and Lynn Sr (respectively) an older example than most, showing some anger but mostly disappointment in their abusive behavior towards Lincoln, driving him away, and acting so stupid and childish for believing in luck so much that they completely stopped acting like parents altogether towards Lincoln. When they show their remorse, however, he calmly tells them both You Are Better Than You Think You Are, that there are worse parents out there who would abuse thier kids in unmentionable ways and they at least regret their actions, which shows they can learn from their mistakes and be Good Parents again, but that is something they have to figure out themselves, he can't do that for them. They both acknowledge his wisdom and go through with their efforts to redeem themselves in Lincolns eyes especially in chapters 18 and 20.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: In chapter 18 Rita is grateful that Lincoln hasn't started doing this, as it would mean he no longer sees her as his mother or himself as her son. She didn't want to imagine Lincoln calling his father "Sir" instead of dad either. After Calling the Old Man Out again to Rita out of anger for her being such an incompetent mother in allowing the situation to happen in the first place, he considers doing this and continuing to point out more of her shortcomings in raising the girls and being unfair to him in general, but he puts his anger away and decides against it, seeing that he hasn't been a perfect son either, owning up to his own mistakes in the past and his part of the blame for the situation. This ultimately gets Rita to comfort him, taking a massive step towards earning his forgiveness and trust again.
• Can't Believe I Said That: Quite a few times in the story, both comedic and dramatic
  • Lynn Jr told Lincoln she wished he was never even born out of hate after their brutal fight in chapter 4. She immediately comes to regret this after he runs away.
  • Lynn Sr has a few. saying "step further away from the house" in the episode really comes back to haunt him as he finally realizes what a horrible that was to say to his own son, and he said like he was talking to a stranger rather than his own flesh and blood no less.
  • Ronnie Anne gives a more comedic example in her Declaration of Protection, noting how cheesy that sounded.
• Character Development: Several characters in the story go through their own form of growth and development as the story progresses.
  • Lincoln: At the beginning of the story, Lincoln started out as an Extreme Doormat for his family as he was constantly forced by them to wear the squirrel suit for its supposed good luck, no matter how much he didn't want to, and any attempt he made to dissuade them out their superstitious beliefs always failed because he was outnumbered. But the story proves that there is only so much abuse Lincoln is willing to take. When his family takes advantage of his docile nature one time too many, he completely snaps and angrily lashes out at the family for their selfishness, disrespect towards him and utter disregard for his feelings and safety. Sure it took him having to reach his Rage Breaking Point after finding out Rita lied to him about what really happened to his furniture, but it still proved to be the key motivator Lincoln needed to stand his ground and make it clear to his family he's not going to put up with them treating him like an object instead of a person any longer, and that if they continue refusing to comply with his wishes, then he won't hesitate a second time to rat them out to the police for the crime they committed. Lincoln's newfound assertiveness proves to be effective as evident when Lola AND Lynn (the two sisters who usually threaten Lincoln with physical violence to have their way with him) become more cautious around him to avoid angering him further, and not even Rita and Lynn Sr dare to ignore his demands of not making him come back home to avoid bringing the attention of law enforcement. Even if a sister bold enough to approach Lincoln were to tell him the whole family was sorry and wanted him to come back home, Lincoln is so adamant in refusing to be persuaded to come back home in anyway and wants, no, DEMANDS, that if his family is truly sorry and earnestly want his forgiveness, they have to prove it by working for it instead of expecting him to hand them over forgiveness on a silver platter.
  • Lola: Being the bratty kid she is, Lola is used to intimidating and threatening Lincoln to have her way with him. But in chapter 4, she learned that her older brother isn't afraid to give the pageant princess a piece of his mind with anger that left her trembling. And beginning from chapter 8, Lola realized that being her usual bratty and demanding self was the absolute last thing the family needed, especially after hearing Lucy's news about Lincoln's ultimatum. When the family was getting broken up about Lincoln distancing himself from them, Lola's original plan was for her and Lana to somehow convince Lincoln to come back home so he could see the state the family was in, believing that if he saw for himself how much of a mess they were since he left, it would change his mind and decide to come back.
  • Luan: Being the kind of girl she is, Luan has a tendency to make puns and jokes (sometimes at the expense of others) even when someone's trying to have a serious conversation with her. Something Luna took note of in chapter 4. However after recent events from chapter 7, for the first time since the story started, Luan couldn't find a reason to make jokes about the dead-serious situation the family was in, and no amount of laughs was gonna fix it. In chapter 16, she learned that if she goes overboard with her pranks, she could hurt someone more than she realizes or even kill them, something that thoroughly horrifies and sickens her.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Ronnie to Lincoln. However, unlike many examples, Ronnie actually has a decent justification for why she doesn't want the other girls interested in Lincoln anywhere near him; prior to the whole insanity with Chandler in the park, these same girls were ignoring him at best and teasing him incessantly at worst so she knows they're only interested in his new rep, not him as a person.
• Cooldown Hug:
  • After beating up and driving away Chandler and his thugs who all had beaten up Lana, Lincoln goes over to Lana, who is sobbing hysterically. He gives her a big hug, which calms her down.
  • Rita also gives Lincoln one in Chapter 19.
• Cry into Chest: After Lincoln beats up the boys who just harassed Lana, he spots Lana down the hill crying her eyes out. Knowing that it would be awful to abandon her like that, he comes down to comfort her. When Lana pauses to notice her brother, he grabs her into a hug. She returns the favor, clinging to him as she cries into his shirt.
• Darker and Edgier: On one hand, the story deals with the thought of living with people who don't love you and treat you like you're nothing else to them. That's definitely something more serious and a tad mature for a show like The Loud House. Plus there's also some profanity in the more recent chapters...
  • Lighter and Softer: ... On the other hand, the story itself is this to other fanfics based on "No Such Luck", which all involve Lincoln dying or getting brutally hurt in some way after being kicked out of the house. Word of God has made it clear that he wants the story to go in a much more realistic direction that doesn't involve Lincoln's death. Okay, yeah, Lincoln did wind up indirectly killing a dog that was attacking him in chapter 3, but Lincoln is still alive, right?
• Dating What Daddy Hates: A sibling version. Ronnie Anne dislikes Lori, viewing her as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, and learning of the events of "No Such Luck" did not help her opinion of Lori. But seeing how Lori was regretful of her actions and her wanting to make up for them improves her opinion of Lori.
  • Interestingly, Chapter 22 reveals that Lynn has this towards Ronnie as she doesn't approve of the younger girl's Loving Bully behavior, even openly stating she's not sure Ronnie actually likes Lincoln or just his new reputation since the pair only started openly dating after the incident with Chandler. Like above, this is ultimately subverted when Lynn sees how much Ronnie cares for Lincoln.
• Declaration of Protection:
  • In Chapter 5, Ronnie Anne comforts Lincoln by saying that she will always be there to protect him (though she mentally sighs at how sappy she's sounding) and manages to make him stop crying.
  • In Chapter 10, Lincoln tells Chandler never to go after any of his sisters or his friends ever again or he will make sure Chandler regrets it after Chandler and his friends messed with Lana.
• Deconstruction Fic:
  • Like Syngenesophobia, the story deconstructs certain aspects of The Loud House. In the show, Lincoln is the resident Butt-Monkey to near-Cosmic Plaything level, to the point that some fans felt that he has become a Designated Monkey. However, in the show, Lincoln doesn't suffer from psychological traumas because of this treatment. The story, however, shows how much Lincoln suffers after the whole ordeal in "No Such Luck" when his sisters and parents treat him like a mere good luck charm, rather than a family member (or a human being, for that matter). To the point that he begins to wonder if his family even loves him anymore.
  • The story can also be seen as a deconstruction of the Reset Button and Negative Continuity. Indeed, thanks to it, the show can put Lincoln in embarrassing situations, but doesn't have to deal with the long-term consequences of it as all will be null and void in the next episode. "No Such Luck" is a prime example of it. Lincoln can be abused during the episode in the name of the Rule of Funny, to child-abuse level by real world's standards, but still be fine in the next episode, as if nothing happened. What is a Person Worth? reminds us that in reality, there is no Reset Button and that, if something happens, it will have long-term consequences. Long-term consequences as in depression and developing a strong resentment towards his family.
    • It similarly deconstructs the combination of Reset Button and Amusing Injuries from "Fool's Paradise". The pranks pulled by Luan in said episode here had lasting effects that while not permanent, didn't go away easily, with Lynn and Lana in particular actually being medical concerns, and were traumatizing.
  • Chapter 6 winds up acting as a deconstruction of a certain story trope of most other "No Such Luck" response fics: as much as Lincoln knows he should get the cops involved concerning his mistreatment, he cannot bring himself to do it.
    Was he really going to break his family apart, just to get back at them for their stupidity?...
    • Although Chapter 18 reconstructs it a bit by having Rita assuring Lincoln that he did the right thing in wanting to call the police, and even admit that had he called the police and if she and his father were arrested, they would have completely deserved it, even going as far as to have Lincoln promise to call the police if she and his father ever do something like that again.
  • Interestingly, Chapter 16 somewhat deconstructs the idea of a "Reason You Suck" Speech about Luan's April Fool's Day antics being a Catharsis Factor. Lincoln actually feels pretty guilty about blowing up at her, especially since she ran off to cry immediately afterwards and remains gloomy at the siblings' lunch date and is outright horrified when she starts to call herself a monster.
  • Chapter 22 features Lynn deconstructing both Big Sister Bully and Loving Bully as well as their specific brands of Hypocritical Heartwarming.
  • Chapter 25 deconstructs the way lots of people make Lynn easily able to curbstomp opponents regardless with her not fairing well against multiple opponents, especially since they're bigger than her and her injuries land her in the hospital. The chapter also features Stuffed into a Trashcan being deconstructed, with the experience making Ronnie extremely sick.
• Despair Speech: Lynn gives a big one to her grandfather about how she caused this mess in chapter 9:
  "Everything...it's my fault the family is like this...I made Lincoln come to my stupid game and blamed him for our loss just because I couldn't take any responsibility for my actions...I put all my faith in luck and look where it got us?...I lost my brother...my family is torn over it...and I'm nothing but a stupid, inconsiderate...bitch..." Lynn tugged her legs into her chest.
  Albert frowned at Lynn's choice of words, but he could see her point. "Well, Sweetie; I wouldn't say you're...that...you just needed time to realize your mistakes, and-"
  "Yes. I. AM!" Lynn shouted in defiance as she faced her grandfather. "I'm the one who initially blamed Lincoln as bad luck! I'm the one who helped spread the rumor about his luck! I'M THE ONE WHO TURNED THE WHOLE FAMILY AGAINST HIM WHEN HE ACTUALLY TOLD THE TRUTH! I COULDN'T EVEN HANDLE THE HARSH WORDS HE SAID WHEN HE TOLD ME I WAS A SORE LOSER!" Tears were streaming from her face now. She held her foot up. "See this Pop-Pop?! Lincoln bit me here and I fully deserved it! Last time I spoke to him, I told him I wished he was never born!..." The athlete's voice was now broken up as she began to cry harder. "I-I never meant to s-say that...if anything, I-I'm the one who shouldn't have been born..." She sniffled. "All of the times I treated him like a w-wuss...a-all the times I took advantage of him because h-he's not as athletic like me...I'm officially the worst sister in this family...Lincoln's gone because of me! A-And he's never coming back!..." Lynn finished, continuing to cry on the ground.
  • She gives another one during her breakdown in Chapter 21, this time in front of Lincoln.
  "Lincoln..." Lynn spoke quietly. Lincoln blinked, his mouth dropping a little. He could've swore for a second, her voice almost sounded like Lucy's. "I'm...I'm not sure if I should even be in front of you right now...as great as a brother you are, I've been nothing but a terrible-no...horrible sister to you. Everything that's happened, all the way back to when I lost that one game..." Lynn's eyes became glassy. When she blinked, small tears started to roll down her cheeks. "It's all my fault...I know you might be thinking you had a hand in everything, b-but if I hadn't let my superstitions get out of hand...if I hadn't called you bad luck..." The teen gritted her teeth as more tears pooled down her face. Her hands tightened into fists as the frustration with herself grew. "I-If I had just learned to shut my mouth for once, none of this would've happened!"..."I always loved you Lincoln...ever since we were babies..." Lynn brought a hand to her face to wipe off a few tear stains. "I couldn't have asked for a better brother than the one I have right now, and I was too stupid to see it..." The brunette sniffled a little. "I didn't mean anything I said that night about not wanting you around, but you were right Lincoln...not only am I a sore loser, I'm the worst sister ever..." She recalled the first nightmare she had following Lincoln's absence. "If you weren't born...I..." Lynn tried to form the words, but the memory of seeing her brother being killed before he even had a chance to be born pushed them down her throat, only letting choked sobs come through. The teen sank to her knees, her hands covering her watery eyes. Tears seeped out from the palms of her hands and between her fingers, running down the length of her arm until they finally dripped off her elbows.
• Disappointed in You:
  • Implied. When Chandler's mother Marriot first appears, she is focused on his well-being, but she also fully admits that he deserved what happened to him, and how lucky they are that the Loud family hasn't pressed charges on them.
  • Albert gives a mild one to Lynn Sr. and Rita.
  • Cristina to Conner when she learns he made a deal with Chandler, and Chandler used the pictures of them together to damage Lincoln's reputation.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • After getting fed up with being treated as a pushover by his own family, Lincoln snaps and stands up to them like never before and even puts the family in a position which threatens to break them apart permanently if they do anything to piss him off any more than they already have.
  • After having to put up with Chandler's bullying during weeks, Lincoln finally snaps and gives him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in Chapter 10.
• Double Take: When Leni shows Luna her designs for the new furniture she's making for Lincoln, Luna takes a moment to realize that he doesn't have a bed anymore.
  Luna: Wow dude, this is seriously rocking! How'd you — wait... did you say his bed was thrown out?
• Dramatic Irony:
  • In chapter 13, Rita notices to herself how she and her husband never pay attention to their kids' misadventures, resulting in the both of them always being too late to prevent them from getting out of hand, but the one time they did pay attention and could have prevented it, they ended up picking the stupidest choice and made things worse.
  • The same chapter reveals that after the video of Lincoln beating up Chandler and his friends in the park in retaliation for what they did to Lana came out, several of Rita's friends praised her as a good mother for raising a son who was willing to defend one of his sisters like that. Considering her current family situation, she felt like the exact opposite of a good mother.
• The Dreaded:
  • Ronnie Anne reveals in Chapter 11 that her classmates from elementary school were deathly afraid of her after she had beaten up a couple of students who were bothering her.
  • From the same chapter, Lincoln accidentally becomes one in the aftermath of Chandler's beating, in which most of the boys in his class fear that Lincoln would hurt them the same way. Not to mention chapter 13 ends with Lynn outright shaking when she bumps into Lincoln and Ronnie and then fleeing the moment she gets a chance.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: The epilogue mentions how Mr. Santiago was killed in a car crash.
• Double Standard: In chapter 19, Lincoln explains to Lori how he thinks Lori threatening him when he goes into her room but not any of their sisters when they do the same thing and how he can't go into her room without permission but she and the girls can barge into his room whenever they want is a blatant double standard about how because he's a boy, he doesn't get to have privacy but he has to give it to them or else. He also points out that said double standard caused the main conflict of the story because he just wanted some time to himself which he wasn't getting due to the double standard.

E-H

• Easily Forgiven: Averted; Lincoln is not going to forgive his family easily, even though he gives them a chance to redeem themselves. Played straight with Lincoln forgiving Ronnie Anne for her bullying and falling for Chandler's plot of revenge. While it took a long time, the family worked hard to earn Lincoln's forgiveness.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The family finally reconciled with Lincoln finally forgiving everyone and getting recognition and gratitude as their son and brother.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Nie Nie for Ronnie Anne.
• Fatal Flaw: The family's Skewed Priorities where they choose their superstitions over Lincoln's well-being is the spark that lit the powder keg of the fic. Lynn herself has three more flaws:
  • Her Pride, she refused to accept that she and her team lost the game just because the other team played better.
  • Her Never My Fault attitude when Lincoln confronted her about it, Lynn refuses to accept that she was wrong. However, this finally leads to...
  • Her constant remorse, Lynn's constant beating of herself drew concern for her family.
• Final Boss: The bullies, Hank and Hawk beat up Lincoln and Conner near the end of the story after an accidental meetup.
• Filler: The author admitted that chapter 14 was more filler than anything, hence why it was shorter compared to the other chapters.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Lincoln and Connor became this in Chapter 24, after the two discover how they're not that different from one another.
• Flowers of Romance / Chocolate of Romance: Conner uses the classic combination of these two when apologizing to Cristina in chapter 24.
• Food as Bribe: Technically Leni, Luna, and Luan taking Lincoln to Jillian's in Chapter 16 as part of their apology is this trope since the location is an eatery. However Lincoln's more interested in the arcade section.
• Foreign-Language Tirade: After Lincoln finally tells the Santiago parents the full story of why he's been staying at their house in Chapter 15, Marcus decides to angrily call Lynn Sr. to verbally rip him apart over his actions. He gets so mad at what had happened to Lincoln that he starts yelling in Spanish before catching himself and finishing the phone call in English.
  Lynn Sr.: [telling Rita about the incident] In short, Mr. Santiago threatened to pulverize me if we don't make it up to Lincoln... or at least I think he did. Half of what he said was in Spanish.
• Forgiveness: A big theme in this story. Lincoln is rightfully angry with his family because of their treatment and actions towards him. He runs away and wants nothing to do with them. He can barely remember the good moments they had and focuses a lot more on the bad memories. And any member of the family who has the balls to come within spitting distance of him after what happened would be on the receiving end of his cold hostility. But he also cannot bring himself to call the cops and destroy his family forever. So he gives his family a chance to earn back his love and trust, but at the same time warns them that if any of them try to force him to come back home before he's ready, then he will make good on his threat and call the cops on them. So far, Albert manages to convince Lincoln to consider why he should forgive them. Then Lincoln forgives Lana, Lily, and Lola (Though not as much as the former two since Lily is only a baby and Lana personally tried to help him when Chandler attacked him, getting beaten up for her trouble), and starts losing some of his anger to his sisters. And while he has not forgiven Lynn by the run-in mentioned under Everyone Has Standards, he could not bring himself to hurt her when he met her again. Chapter 16 has him forgiving Leni, Luna and Luan, even going out of his way to make Luan feel better when his (admittedly justified) "The Reason You Suck" Speech about her pranking antics drives her to tears and self-loathing. Chapter 19 sees Lori and Lincoln talking things out, not only making progress toward him forgiving her but also towards him and Lynn talking out their issues. Chapter 21 has Lucy earn her brother's forgiveness with a special poem and Lynn's breakdown marks the first steps in their reconciliation, a process continued in Chapter 22 when Lynn calls Ronnie out for believing that Lincoln would cheat on her. And Chapter 25 features both Lynn and Lori making full amends by saving Lincoln from Chandler's hired thugs. For the Loud family not only do they have to earn Lincoln's forgiveness, but also have to forgive themselves for their actions toward him. Out of the family, Lynn has the hardest time forgiving herself and feels even if Lincoln forgives the family, he will never forgive her. Ultimately, by Chapter 25, Lincoln has fully forgiven his family and their bond is stronger than ever.
• Friendly Tickle Torture:
  • One of the pictures in Luna and Luan's apology music video to Lincoln is of a young Luna tickling a baby Lincoln.
  • In Chapter 19, when Lincoln learning how to skateboard, he falls and gets some scratches on his stomach, and he's barely able to keep himself from laughing when Ronnie Anne is applying antibacterial ointment on the scratches. This leads to Ronnie Anne tickling him for real.
• Friendship Favoritism: Out of all his friends, Clyde and Ronnie Anne are the only ones Lincoln trusts to know his situation with his family, and he refuses to tell his other friends what's going on. Justified, as Lincoln points out that his other friends are quick to turn on him and show themselves as Fair Weather Friends. Lincoln even admits that out of all his friends, Clyde is the only one he trusts. Downplayed when Lincoln realizes he was a little hard to his other friends and apologizes and shares a few details of the situation, while still not trusting them with the full truth. To Lincoln's other friends' credit, they understand why he has a problem trusting them and they are trying to be more supportive of him.
• Good Luck Charm: The Louds treat Lincoln this way whenever he wears the squirrel suit, and boy does it come back to bite them in their asses later.
• Good Parents: The Santiago parents.
  • After unknowingly being a Abusive Parent in the beginning of the story, Rita steps back into being a good mother in chapter 18. After Lincoln breaks down about the guilt of his part in causing the situation, she comforts him, telling him that yes, he lied about the bad luck and did not try to tell them until it was too late, but that's where his blame ends. That most of the blame goes to her and his father. How they regret making such a horrible mistake. That Lincoln did the right thing by threatening to call the police. Finally, Rita asks Lincoln to promise her to call the police if she and his father ever do something like that again.
  • Lynn Sr goes back to being a good parent in chapter 20. He talks with Lincoln about their issues. About how he spends more time with his sisters than him. Lynn Sr assures Lincoln that he does not favor his sisters over him and apologizes to Lincoln for making him feel that he did. He works hard to make Lincoln happy. And finally protects him from bullies.
• Guilt Complex:
  • Lynn. Throughout the story, she blames herself for this situation, feeling that she destroyed her family forever, and even if Lincoln does forgive the family, he will never forgive her. She has stopped eating and taking care of herself, something that the other girls stop by Chapter 19 but her mental health is still awful and ultimately drives her to break down in front of Lincoln after he reconciles with Lucy in Chapter 21.
  • As the story progresses, we learn that Lincoln does not purely see himself as a victim of the Bad Luck rumor, but feels guilty for his hand in spreading the rumor and other times he acted like a jerk or was selfish.
  • Chapter 16 sees Luan develop one over how dangerous and hurtful her pranks are for her family. Unlike Lynn however, she gets over the worst of it because Lincoln actually sees how badly she's taking the revelation and can't bring himself to let her delve into self-hate.
• Hate Sink: In a story where a constant theme is that people aren't perfect and make mistakes, but that doesn't make them bad people, Chandler, the essential antagonist of the fic, is the only main character to be an exception. Portrayed as a smug and cruel bully, Chandler initially just picked on Lincoln over his situation, but later crosses a line when he physically attacks Lincoln's six-year-old sister Lana by throwing her into a pond. After this and Chandler's subsequent beatdown goes viral, rather than learn his lesson, Chandler's ego is so wounded he plans to ruin Lincoln's reputation and relationships by framing him for cheating on Ronnie Anne. Failing that, he simply hires a group of jocks to beat up Lincoln out of spite; he also hires them to attack his former partner Connor to tie up loose ends.
• Heal the Cutie: Lincoln starts out as a Broken Bird because of how his family's actions have made him feel so unloved and undervalued as a son/brother and even as a human being. Over the course of the story he gets help from Ronnie Anne becoming closer than ever, Clyde and eventual the rest of his friends prove to be a True Companions, Bobby being like a big brother to him, the Santiago parents being like god parents to Lincoln during his stay as a runaway, and every last one of them is understanding of his situation, respecting his wishes to not call the police and handle this situation on his own term, vowing to protect him no matter what. Over time the Loud family redeems themselves in Lincolns eyes, earning back the love and trust they lost, slowing getting him to forgive them and return home in chapter 25, each sister realizing their mistakes and working to fix them in his eye, his parents vowing to never let this situation happen again becoming Good Parents again, and Lynn especially putting her pride on the shelf and coming to terms with how much Lincoln really does mean to her as a brother. Ultimately all of Lincoln love from the entire series to this point returns back to him in full, with interest, showing that his family really does love him more than he could ever imagine, finally convincing him to come home in the end. Earn Your Happy Ending indeed.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Non-lethal variant. In chapter 4, Luna begins to realize how poorly the family is treating Lincoln and how it’s affecting him. Unfortunately, her realization comes too late for her to change anything before the situation escalates.
• Heel Realization: In chapter 19, Lori realizes how much of a bully she has been towards Carol Pingrey, and how misplaced her jealousy of the girl was.
  • By Chapter 22, Lynn has come to realize just how much of a Big Sister Bully she's been to Lincoln and how badly she and the other Loud girls have been treating him for a while.
• Heroes' Frontier Step: Rita in chapter 18 when she comforts Lincoln about his guilt over his part in the situation and assures Lincoln that he did the right thing by threatening to call the police. She admits she does not know how she can keep this situation from happening again, but has Lincoln promise to call the police if it ever does. Even Lincoln is shocked that she's gone from doing anything to avoid going to prison to now accepting whatever consequences she would face should she ever draw such a response from her son. This goes to the others earning Lincoln's forgiveness; case in point is Lynn standing up for Lincoln.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Two non-fatal examples; Ronnie Anne attempts to defend Lincoln against the bullies hired by Chandler and the two thugs from Dairyland, and for her troubles is shoved into a garbage can and sent rolling away. While not seriously hurt, she ends up having to stay home sick due to her ordeal. Lynn is much less fortunate, as she is overpowered by Hank and Hawk after dealing with Chandler's thugs and beaten so badly she suffers from multiple bone fractures and passes out. She eventually recovers but if it had not been for the timely intervention of Lori and Carol, the outcome could easily have been worse.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Pretty much everyone who wronged Lincoln is on the receiving end of this at one point or another in the story, and every single one of them is forced to come to terms with it after Lincoln has finally had enough.
• Humans Are Flawed: Essentially the theme of this fic is that while people can and will do bad things, it doesn't make them all bad people.
• Humiliation Conga: What Lincoln, his sisters, and their friends put Chandler through in the final chapter to pay him back for everything he did. Before they start their prank, Chandler's friends already abandoned him and Chandler himself is living in constant fear of being pinpointed as the real culprit behind the brutal attack on Lincoln and Connor, and what Lincoln might do to him. The prank itself consists of Chandler being kicked in the face by a spring-loaded boot, doused in water from the school sprinklers, covered in hay, being chased by 20 crows, tackled, and given several kicks in the groin by Ronnie Anne, and then assaulted by the crows again. And all of this in front of practically the whole school, with dozens of students snapping pictures or filming his misfortune.
• Hypocrisy Nod: In chapter 10, Luna admits that it's hypocritical of her when she called out the rest of the family on their behavior in chapter 4 since she's just as guilty as the rest of them. However...
• Hypocrite Has a Point:
  • That being said, she's not wrong to call the rest of the family out for showing no concern for Lincoln up until chapter 4.
  • As Rita thinks to herself that she'd never trade Lincoln for anything in the world, she admits that sounds hypocritical with the position her family is in, but points out they're at least trying to make amends.
  • Chapter 22 has Lynn admitting during her tirade at Ronnie for the Mistaken for Cheating fiasco that she and her sisters, but especially her, haven't treated Lincoln any better than Ronnie, especially of late. But like Luna, she's entirely in the right for saying that if you love someone, regardless of the kind of love, you treat them right and respect their wishes.

I-N

• I Am a Monster: Luan believes this after Lincoln calls out her April Fool's Day antics; Lincoln felt bad when he realizes this and is quick to talk her down.
• Idiot Ball: The whole Loud family takes this when they take extremely superstitious and lost some common sense, them acting out of fear that something would befall THEM. This is especially true for Lisa (who normally doesn't believe in the supernatural) and Rita (who is normally the sanest of the two parents). Lampshaded by Rita in chapter 13, when she remarks that she and Lynn Sr. made the stupidest choice in this situation.
  • The whole school pretty much snagged this ball in Chapter 22 when almost no one sees through Chandler's faked pictures of Lincoln and Cristina dating (really pictures of Cristina and Conner, several of which are doctored). While some people do eventually figure out the truth, most of them are friends of either Lincoln himself or one of the Loud sisters and Lincoln's reputation is still pretty shot. Heck; Cristina's friends all assume she's just embarrassed when she denies seeing Lincoln in any way resembling the photos and coo over how cute a couple they are and other kids openly discuss how Cristina deserves him more than "that troll Ronnie Anne".
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • In Chapter 16, Lincoln doesn't regret calling Luan out on how dangerous her April Fool's Day pranks could be because he doesn't want anybody to get seriously hurt because of them. However, he does regret making her cry and hate herself as a result, so he takes the time to comfort her and get her out of her self-loathing.
  • Inverted when Lincoln tells his mother he feels guilty for considering calling the police on her and his father. She assures him that he did the right thing, and even admits that had he called the police and if she and his father were arrested, they would have completely deserved it. Rita even goes as far as to have Lincoln promise to call the police if she and his father ever do something like that again.
  • In chapter 22 Lynn feels she had to be hard on Ronnie because she remembered the last time she and her sisters did not listen to Lincoln, and what it resulted in.
• I Gave My Word: True to his word, and even though Chandler ends up using Conner as an Unwitting Pawn to be sure he doesn't try to weasel out of their deal and the latter ultimately didn't contribute anything on their plan outside of accidentally dying his hair lighter, Chandler still gives Conner the $350 he promised him in exchange for his help, with an extra 10 to buy his silence.
• I Have No Son!: Downplayed and Inverted; for the latter side, the story has Lincoln no longer wanting anything to do with his family. But on the former, it also shows that Lincoln still wants to forgive them and be a family again, but wants to do it on his terms. Because Lily is a baby, Lincoln doesn't blame her for what happened since she wouldn't have had an understanding of the situation. Chapter 10 reveals Lincoln forgiving Lana after he saves her from bullying and Chapter 16 sees Leni, Luna, and Luan earning his forgiveness. Rita takes her first steps toward mending her relationship with Lincoln and Lori makes the first steps towards forgiveness in Chapter 19. And Lynn Sr. manages to make great progress during the Dairyland trip, even managing a Papa Wolf moment. Chapter 21 sees Lincoln forgiving Lucy and making the first steps with reconciling with Lynn, a process furthered in the following chapter when she stands up for him against a furious Ronnie, pointing out that Lincoln would never cheat on her and that Ronnie is a hypocrite since her Loving Bully antics aren't as different from the way Lynn has treated Lincoln as she likes to believe. Ultimately Lynn getting beaten to a bloody pulp and Lori pulling a Big Damn Heroes when Chandler's hired thugs go after Lincoln repairs their relationship with their brother and the story ends with the Loud family bond stronger than ever.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Lincoln mentions in Chapter 11 along the lines of how he doesn’t want to be feared or unloved, but he just wants to live a normal life.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Lana tries to defend Lincoln from Chandler and his goons. But they grab her and launch her down a hill, where she lands in the lake water soaking wet. Realizing that she was just thrown down like a rag doll, failed to protect her brother, and is in pain, Lana starts to have waterworks. The narration points out how she tries to hold it in, but being a 6-year old girl who can’t control her emotions like that, she is forced to let it out.
• In Spite of a Nail: The Santiagos still moved out nonetheless just like in canon, after Marcus dying.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In chapter 9, Lola and Lana discover that Lincoln is staying over at the Santiago's house, and proceed to tell Lori about this.
  • In chapter 15, Maria and Marcus Santiago get to hear the full story of what happened at the Louds and why Lincoln has been staying with them since Thursday. In the same chapter, Lincoln finds out that his family knows he's staying over at the Santiagos'.
  • Lincoln finally learns how guilty Lynn has been feeling about her part in this conflict in the story from Lori in chapter 19.
  • In chapter 21, the rest of Lincoln's friends learn parts of his home situation.
  • In chapter 22 Cristina learns of Chandler's plan from Conner.
• Irony: As Rita and Lynn Sr. explain in chapter 18 and chapter 20 — they don't truly favor the sisters over Lincoln, it's just that they are working hard not to play favorites, causing them to make a lot of questionable decisions like kicking Lincoln out of the house. Meaning that trying not to play favorites with their children has caused them to favor their daughters over Lincoln, and their unintentional abuse of Lincoln can destroy their family.
• It's All My Fault:
  • Lynn's sentiments as of Chapter 9, where she breaks down over how badly she's messed things up.
  • Chapter 18, we learn that Lincoln himself is also suffering from this, thanks to letting the bad luck rumor go too far. Underneath his anger towards his family he's suffering from a lot of self-loathing and depression.
• I Wished You Were Dead: Lynn, during her fight with Lincoln, wishes he was never born. She regrets saying that, but Lincoln runs away before she can apologize.
• Jerkass Ball: Deconstruction. In the show, the Loud Family would sometimes take a level in jerkass for an episode. Here, there are consequences, their mistreatment of Lincoln has caused him to develop a strong resentment towards his family, and their abuse of him could ruin the family forever if the police are called.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • All the Louds after Lincoln's "The Reason You Suck" Speech in chapter 4, especially Luna (who likewise calls her family out on their behavior and then leaves to try and find Lincoln).
  • Downplayed to a "Tsundere Realization" with Ronnie Anne, not so much with her being Lincoln's girlfriend, but watching the video of Lincoln beating the crap out of Chandler and his goons reminds her of her bullying Lincoln. Mostly because she feared about what would happen if she went too far had she not revealed her crush on him.
  • Chapter 16 has Lincoln force one on Luan about her April Fool's Day pranks; he technically has one later in the chapter though it is Downplayed to "Was Too Hard on Her Realization" as while he doesn't regret making her have the realization of her own nor calling her out for it, he does regret making her cry and when Luan starts talking herself down, he makes the point that she can't be a monster because she feels so bad about it.
  • Lincoln has a downplayed one; while rightfully angry at his family, he feels he went a little too far in calling them out, like with Lucy. He also feels guilty for how he treated his other friends by refusing to tell them his family issues; this leads him to tell them enough details so they wouldn't ask too many questions but not the full story because he doesn't want the full story to spread any farther.
  • After Lincoln calls out Liam, Rusty, and Zach for being Fair Weather Friends, they're initially hurt, but in Chapter 21 they acknowledge that they really haven't given Lincoln much reason to trust them in the past.
  • Ronnie Anne in chapter 22 when she realizes she was quick to believe Lincoln was cheating on her, with little evidence aside from the photograph Chandler sent her.
  • Cristina has a subtle one where she realizes Lincoln was not a creep; he just had a crush on her.
  • Conner has this when he interacts with Lincoln in chapter 24; when Lincoln apologizes to Conner for what happened in the store, and the two bond over their difficulties with their sisters, Conner realizes Lincoln's not a bad guy and feels guilty for his part in Chandler's plan.
• The Jinx: Ironically, because bad things tend to happen to him when he wears it, Lincoln starts to wonder if the Squirrel Suit isn't cursed to bring bad luck to him.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Lincoln gives his family an ultimatum (delivered via Lucy). Either they somehow try to convince him to give them another chance to be a normal family again and drop the superstitious beliefs they've been obsessing over lately, or he completely cuts all ties with them and has the police arrest his parents, the older sisters sent to juvie (or possibly get tried as an adult in Lori's case since she's close to being eighteen years old), and the younger sisters put into foster care, separating the family forever. Obviously, they don't take it well.
  • Lynn guilt over causing the situation is destroying her and has caused her to stop taking care of herself. She even lampshades the trope itself in Chapter 24, when she notes that she was now scared of him, instead of vice versa.
  • Chandler loses his reputation in school after Lincoln beats him up in retaliation for hurting Lana and the whole incident is filmed.
  • Conner took the deal with Chandler, which results in his new relationship with Cristina getting damaged.
  • It can be seen as karma that the pictures Chandler took damaged Cristina's reputation. While it's understandable she feels the need to switch classes to get away from Lincoln, and when some boys bullied Lincoln to keep him away from her, she was not a part of that, but she had the nerve to be interested in Lincoln when he became popular.
  • The epilogue features Luan helping Lincoln prank the hell out of Chandler; couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
• Licked by the Dog: Fangs, Lucy's pet bat, perches peacefully on Lynn's shoulder while she's breaking down in Chapter 8.
• Mama Bear: Rita when she protects Lincoln against Hank and Hawk while visiting Dairyland.
• Missing Mom: Rita's mother is revealed to have died of a heart attack while Rita was in middle school.
• Mistaken for Cheating: When Conner accidentally dyes his hair white and ends up getting friendly with Christina, Chandler decides to invoke this trope. In chapter 21 he finally goes through with this plan by taking several pictures of the two together, photoshops Lincoln's face in the ones where it would otherwise be obvious it's Conner, and then sends the pictures to everybody in the school. It has mixed results, with the people closest to Lincoln (and his sisters) seeing through it but a lot of the rank and file of the school buying it hook, line and sinker.
• Moral Myopia: Chandler's father Brandon wanted to arrest Lincoln for beating his son, not caring that Chandler attacked him with four other boys, and that Chandler also brutalized Lincoln's 6-year-old sister. Averted with his wife Marriott, who, while concerned about her son's injuries after the incident, acknowledged he had it coming, was against calling the police, and pointed out to her husband how lucky they were the Loud family was not pressing charges against them.
• Moment of Weakness:
  • The Loud Family themselves where they let their superstitions take over their better judgment.
  • Lynn herself when she lets her Pride control her, causing her to fight with and hurt Lincoln, causing him to run away.
  • Ronnie Anne when she was quick to believe Lincoln was cheating on her in chapter 22.
• Mood Whiplash: Chapter 21's heartwarming reconciliation between Lincoln, Lucy, and Lynn is interrupted by Chandler's doctored photos turning up on everyone's phones and a furious Ronnie who wants to know why Lincoln's seeing Cristina behind her back.
• Must Make Amends: The whole Loud family wants to make up to Lincoln and prove they love him.
• My Hair Came Out Green: In chapter 17, Conner accidentally uses Carol's shampoo, which turns his hair white, just like Lincoln's.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • In chapter 4, Luna eventually realizes that she and the rest of the family have gone too far with their treatment of Lincoln. Leni does too after Luna talks with her. The whole Loud family realizes at the end of chapter 4 and in chapter 5.
  • Chapter 8 has the twins have back-to-back ones: Lola for accusing Lana of not caring if Lincoln had died during the gator attack and Lana for nearly choking Lola to death for that remark.
  • Downplayed to "My God, Why Haven't I Done It Sooner?" in chapter 11 by Lincoln himself, for not believing in Lana's apology and rescuing her on time. That being said, he doesn't feel remorse for beating up Chandler and his friends badly.
  • Played With to "My God, What Was I Thinking?" in the same chapter with Ronnie Anne, since her watching the video of Lincoln beating up Chandler reminds her bullying Lincoln, since she's afraid that she might've ended up like Chandler if she pushed too far."
  • Lynn appears to have a similar reaction to Ronnie after seeing how much worse Lincoln could have hurt her than he did, and now seems totally afraid of her little brother.
  • Luan has this realization when Lincoln tells her how some of her pranks in "Fool's Paradise" caused lasting damage (even stating outright that Lana's reaction to the rhubarb scared him). While Lincoln didn't regret calling her out for her actions in itself (especially since his main reason for doing so was because he hated the states Lynn, Lucy, and the twins were in after that mess), he still thought he went too far upon realizing how badly Luan took the speech he gave her.
  • Chapter 22 sees Conner have this realization when Chandler uses him to make Lincoln look like he's cheating on Ronnie; he knew Chandler was bad news but was confident in his ability to screw him over. Unfortunately for him, Chandler pulled one over on him and enacted the Mistaken for Cheating plan, damaging his new relationship with Cristina and Lincoln's reputation. The same chapter has Ronnie Anne realize how quickly she believed Lincoln was cheating on her and how little it shows she thinks of him.
• Mystical White Hair: We find out in chapter 20 that Lincoln inherited Poliosis from Pop-Pop, which means his hair lacks pigment. It skipped every girl in his family including his mother and affected only him.
• Named by the Adaptation: The Bratty Kid in "Cereal Offender" is named Conner Pringy.
• Nasal Trauma: Lincoln ends up with a broken nose as a result of Hank and Hawk in Chapter 25. A broken nose also ends up becoming one of Lynn's many injuries after the fight.
• Never My Fault:
  • Lynn Jr adamantly refuses to even consider that maybe she lost her game because her skills weren't good enough. Though she later regrets it later on when she begins experiencing a nightmare in Chapter 6. It's finally averted by Chapter 9, where she insists the whole mess is her fault and ends up in hysterical tears on Pop-Pop's shoulder.
  • Averted with Lincoln. He fully admits to his part in the mess and admits he should not have let the bad luck rumor drag on for so long, but he rightfully points out that the family took it too far by kicking him out of the house, treating him like a good luck charm, and not caring about his feelings and safely. And Lincoln admits he spread the rumor and apologizes. Inverted and Reconstruction in chapter 18 and 20. Because Lincoln takes full responsibility for his actions, he was able to see both sides to the problem and reconnect with his parents. In chapter 18, when Lincoln breaks down because of his part in causing the situation and all the times he has been selfish and caused problems, Rita hugs him and ensures him that, even if he shares some responsibility for the situation, most of the blame is on her and his father. In chapter 20, he is angry at his father, but does not want to be. He admits that he was hurt that he never sees Lynn Sr and Rita use his homemade mugs like they use his sisters' presents, but acknowledges they were poorly made. Lincoln is happy to learn that his parents brought the first pair to a local pottery maker to have them redone, and actually still use those 2, but couldn't afford to have the others remade as well.
  • Played straight with Chandler who wants to take revenge on Lincoln for his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown even though Lincoln only did that because Chandler and his goons went after Lana and probably would have left Chandler alone if Lana's distraction had worked properly.
• Nightmare Sequence:
  • Lynn has one at the start of chapter 6, in which she is confronted by an evil version of herself, who shows her a reality in which Rita lost Lincoln in a miscarriage caused by Lynn hitting her with a ball when she was two.
  • She has another in chapter 15, in which she finds Lincoln sneaking back into the house in the middle of the night, and when she confronts him he tells her he forgave his entire family except her, and he never will, before leaving again, this time for good.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Chandler and his group are on the receiving end of one in chapter 10, courtesy of Lincoln after the bullies hurt Lana.
  • Lynn suffers one trying to save Lincoln from Chandler's hired thugs. While she manages a Heroic Second Wind, she still ends up motionless on the ground and helpless to defend anybody. Then Lori and Carol show up and deliver one of these to the remaining thugs on their siblings' behalf.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In Chapter 22, Lynn points out that Ronnie's Loving Bully behavior isn't as different from Lynn's mistreatment of Lincoln, both within this story and prior, as the younger girl wants to believe since both of them ignored Lincoln's wishes in favor of doing what they wanted.

O-Z

• The Oath-Breaker: As Lincoln pointed out, Mr. and Mrs. Loud stated that they would never kick any of their children out of the house in the episode "Ties That Bind". However, in "No Such Luck", this is exactly what they do to Lincoln when everybody starts seeing him as nothing but The Jinx. The Loud parents realize this and now have to make up to Lincoln for breaking that promise to him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Lola noted in chapter 4 and 9 that Lincoln was so angry, even she was terrified of him, especially when he hoisted her up by her collar in the same manner as Ronnie Anne in chapter 3.
  • As of chapter 13, Lucy, Lisa, Luna, Lynn Sr. and Rita all have noticed that Lynn isn't eating or sleeping well and has severely slowed down, even more than could be explained by her broken leg, not to mention she's having nightmares bad enough to strip away her bravado. Chapter 16 shows that all the sisters have noticed, and then the following chapter has her having a panic attack at the idea of going to sleep because she doesn't want to see Lincoln hating her again.
  • To emphasize the seriousness of her condition, Lucy sees Lynn becoming more and more like herself......She is openly scared of what is happening to her elder sister and doing her damnedest to snap her out of it.
  • In Chapter 21, Lynn responds to Lucy and Lincoln reconciling by bursting into tears and babbling apologies; Lincoln is shocked and driven to hug her consolingly.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • At the end of Chapter 8, Lisa discovers that Lincoln is staying with the Santiagos... and is hinted to want to use this information, which, given the fragile state of the family's relationships, won't end well if she chooses poorly.
  • Chapter 9 ends with the twins telling the rest of the family where Lincoln is, and Lori doesn't appear to be too happy about it...
  • Chapter 11 has the Loud siblings watching a recording of their brother's vicious beatdown of Chandler after the latter made the mistake of attacking Lana right in front of him. Lynn's reaction to this is pure awe on one side and eleven levels of this on the other; having watched her kid brother completely demolish five bullies almost singlehandedly out of pure rage, she realizes that he could've done far worse to her than what he did to her leg. Chapter 13 confirms this, as when she accidentally bumps into him she's actually terrified of him, and is careful not to provoke him before rushing home as fast as she could.
  • Chapter 16 has Luan reacting very badly to the realization of how badly her pranks upset her family and how wrong they could have gone. Later on, Lincoln has this reaction when he realizes his "The Reason You Suck" Speech has caused her to think of herself as a monster, prompting him to apologize since while he didn't regret the calling out itself, he didn't mean to make her cry.
  • Chapter 17 has Conner's reaction to turning his hair white with his sister's shampoo. It's Played for Laughs up until Chandler decides to use this turn of events to set Lincoln up to look like he's cheating on Ronnie with Christina, at which the readers likely get this kind of moment. He later has another moment of this trope when he realizes how deeply mired in Chandler's manipulations he is and how he's severely damaged his budding relationship with Cristina.
  • Ronnie has a downplayed moment when she realizes she jumped to conclusions because of the doctored photos and scared Lincoln with her unjustified anger over his supposed cheating.
  • Ronnie only has time for this trope before being Stuffed into a Trashcan to take her out of the fight in Chapter 25.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: During Lincoln and Lynn's fight, Lynn told him that he never was her ideal brother, she never loved him, and that she wished that he was never even born. She immediately realizes that it was a horrible thing to say, but it was too late to apologize.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Lynn Sr. when he protects Lincoln against Hank and Hawk when they start bullying the younger boy while visiting Dairyland.
  • When the Santiago parents learn the full story of what happened at the Louds and why Lincoln has been staying with them, Marcus furiously calls Lynn Sr. to verbally shred him apart. Marcus even states that if he did know what was going on since the beginning, he would have immediately called the cops on the Loud parents. Later on, when Ronnie Anne wants to go to Dairyland with Lincoln him emotional support when he meets up with both of his parents, Marcus refuses to let her go in case Rita and Lynn Sr. are planning to kidnap their son back.
  Marcus: No daughter of mine is gonna be kidnapped. Cause if you do, I'm gonna have to go to jail since by the end of it, someone is gonna be dead and it won't be me.
• Parental Betrayal: The Loud parents kicking Lincoln out of the house for following their own superstitions ahead of their own son's feelings. They are horrified when they realize this and want to regain his love and trust again.
• Parental Favouritism: Rita and Lynn Sr. realize that everything that's happened led Lincoln to believe that they preferred their daughters to their only son.
  • Rita says that they tried not to play favorites, but admits that resulted in a lot of questionable decisions, like kicking Lincoln out in the first place.
  • Lincoln discovered that "Take Your Daughters To Work Day" was really "Take Your Child To Work Day", which he takes as further proof that his dad prefers his sisters to him. In Chapter 20, it's revealed that Lynn Sr. didn't know that it was changed to include sons back in 2003 and that he wasn't trying to exclude Lincoln on purpose.
  • A case of sibling favoritism when Lincoln reveals to a stunned Lori that she is Lincoln's favorite sister, not Luna like everybody thinks.
• Parental Substitute:
  • The Santiago parents become this for Lincoln while he's staying with them.
  • Lori claims she's had to be this for her brother and sisters for most of her life given the size of her family and how busy their parents are. She actually resents this a little since while Lincoln does know what it's like to look after younger siblings, he's also gotten to be the baby of the family and he's always had someone there to help him. She hasn't.
• Parents as People: Played for Drama and Deconstruction. Lynn Sr and Rita are not trying to be malicious to Lincoln or play favorites with their children. It's just that the stress of having 11 children, 10 girls and 1 son, while trying not to play favorites has caused Lynn Sr and Rita to make a lot of questionable decisions that unfortunately have hurt the family, led Lincoln to believe that they preferred their daughters to their only son, and led to them kicking Lincoln out of the house, an action that could destroy the family. Reconstruction when Lynn and Rita realize their actions hurt their family and are working on learning from their mistakes and repairing their relationship with Lincoln.
• Pet the Dog: Lynn's calling out of Ronnie in Chapter 22 turns out to be this trope as she doesn't want the younger girl to wreck her relationship with Lincoln like the Loud sisters did with theirs.
• Platonic Kissing: After rescuing and re-bonding with Lana, he shows his love by parting her bangs and kissing her on the forehead. This causes Lana to happily do a Luminescent Blush. Later, when briefly parting ways near the Loud residence, she is on a piggyback with Lincoln and she kisses him on the cheek.
• Poor Communication Kills: Lola realizes that it was her fault the family ended up deaf since she never told Lisa they were pranking Lincoln.
  • More downplayed but it's clear that not telling Luan how upset everyone was over her pranks on April Fool's Day has just let their resentment fester without fixing the problem as once Lincoln confronts her about it, she's extremely regretful about the whole mess.
  • Another downplayed example in chapter 20. Lynn Sr had no idea that they changed Take Your Daughter To Work Day to include boys in 2003, so he has been excluding his son from an activity his sisters enjoyed for years for no reason and making the boy think the worst because of it.
• The Power of Hate: In a way. Lincoln's anger gives him enough adrenaline to be able to fight Lynn to a standstill and to defeat Chandler and his 4 friends almost by himself^note Clyde helped him by attacking Chandler when the latter tried to attack Lincoln from behind. But, at that point, Lincoln already defeated three of them and was beating up the fourth.
• Precision F-Strike: Lincoln in chapter 3.
  Lincoln: All I wanted was some time to myself, AND MY ENTIRE FAMILY FLIPS OUT OVER SOME SUPERSTITIOUS BULLSHIT!
  • He continues this with his "The Reason You Suck" Speech the next chapter, but admits that he regrets using such words later on.
• The Promise: Rita tries to assure Lincoln that a situation like this would never happen again; when Lincoln asks how she can be sure, she admits she doesn't know, so she has Lincoln promise that if his parents even do something like that again, not to hesitate to call the police.
• The Punishment Is the Crime: After the whole incident at the park in chapter 10, Chandler's parents decided that between his injuries and the ostracization he was getting, he was already being punished enough so they let him off with nothing more than a stern warning to stay out of further trouble.
• Rage Breaking Point: Lincoln does this about three times in the story
  • The First time was a bit of a build up in chapters 3, with him being chased by Lynn's rival team into a junkyard for being sore about thier loss, followed by being attacked by three vicious guard dogs attacking him until he kill one (albeit accidently) in self defense, he starts swearing at this point, ending with seeing his own bed in a pile a BURNING debris. He understandly feels worthless after this and goes home to stand up to his family like never before, leading to his "Reason You Suck" Speech.
  • The Second time was in chapter 4 after his "Reason You Suck" Speech to his family, ending with calling Lynn a sore loser for causing the whole mess in the first place. After punching him in defense of her pride, Lincoln becomes absolutely furious, fighting her to a standstill until biting her ankle (which rupture her Achilles tendon) while she bit his hand. This and Lynn saying she wishes he was never born, ultimately makes Lincoln run away from home, leaving the loud house completely in shame and guilt for all they put him through.
  • The Third time was when Chandler and his friends were bullying him and Clyde at the park. Lana came to his rescue, only to end up being bullied and thrown down a hill herself. Seeing this happen ultimately brought out Lincolns Big Brother Instinct to full drive as he beats up Chandlers whole gang ( 5 V.S. 1, by the way, with some help from Clyde) armed with nothing but a tree branch (which breaks from sheer force of blows) and ending with Lincoln beating the living shit out of Chandler for treating Lana like that and all his past bully behavior to Lincoln in general. Beware the Nice Ones indeed
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Lincoln gives a pretty massive one to his family in chapter 4, calling them out on their selfishness and Jerkass behavior.
  • He whips out another one in Chapter 7, delivered to Lucy but directed at all his sisters, calling them out for their repeated trampling of his rights and saying that they'll have to earn any right to have any positive relationship with him (with him hinting that at the moment, him not hating them is positive) and that he doesn't want to spend any more time in any of their presences than he has to.
  • He gives a lighter one to all of his friends except for Clyde, pointing out that due to the fact that they've shown themselves to be Fair-Weather Friends, he has no intention of letting them know potentially dangerous secrets.
  • Chandler's father gets a brief one from his wife about how lucky they are that Lincoln and Lana aren't pressing charges and that he was neither arrested nor fired for Chandler's party at the sewage treatment plant.
  • Mr. Santiago shreds Lynn Sr. when he finds out exactly why Lincoln is staying with his family instead of going home.
  • Chapter 16 features another downplayed one. While Lincoln felt the speech he gave Luan about her April Fool's Day antics was justified, he never wanted to drive her to tears or self-loathing.
  • Chapter 22 sees Lynn giving one to Ronnie for both believing Lincoln would cheat on her without even a single second thought on her part and her Loving Bully behavior; she also ends up making part of it into one for herself as she finally comes to the realization of how badly she's mangled her relationship with her brother, even before the "No Such Luck" fallout fiasco.
• Red Is Heroic: Subverted with Lynn up until the fight, for which she accepts full guilt for having triggered the events that drove Lincoln away from home. Played straight in Chapter 25 when a pack of bullies hired by Chandler arrives to beat down Lincoln and Conner, during which Lynn squares off against no less than seven opponents before she herself is beaten into submission.
• Related in the Adaptation: The "Bratty Kid" from "Cereal Offender" (called Conner Pingrey here) is Carol Pingrey's brother in this story. One of the teens present at Maggie's party in "Funny Business", the one with similar hair color to him, is also his sister. She's called Cassandra (nicknamed Cassy).
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mrs. Johnson is this towards Lincoln, in that no matter what happens, she'll be on his side.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: Slowly but surely the Louds are regaining Lincoln's trust in them and proving they do care about him. Chapter 25 features them finally completely succeeding, with Lincoln thinking to himself that he wouldn't trade his family for anything during a Group Hug with his sisters.
• Rejected Apology:
  • Downplayed, Lincoln points out to Lucy that considering everything she and the rest of the family put him through since the whole bad luck fiasco started, a mere "sorry" isn't good enough. To specify, he refuses to just hand over his family forgiveness on a silver platter and wants to have them earn his forgiveness, and must be to his satisfaction, not theirs. Chapter ten reveals he's forgiving Lana and in Chapter sixteen, he finally forgives Leni, Luna, and Luan. Chapter 19 sees Lori making progress and as of Chapter 20, both the Loud parents have made big strides, though Rita's first steps were in chapter 18.
  • Lynn's nightmare in Chapter 15 plays this to an extreme where she's the only person Lincoln will never forgive. She takes it badly, even after she realizes it was just a bad dream. And despite standing up for Lincoln in Chapter 22 when Ronnie believes Lincoln's cheating on her, Lynn seems to fully believe Lincoln's never going to forgive her.
• Revenge: This becomes Chandler's main motivation after the beating Lincoln gives him. First, he gets Conner to help him make fake photo's of "Lincoln" and Cristina dating, but this fails since most people don't fall for them. As of chapter 24, he has a new plan that involves hiring some older kids to beat up Lincoln.
• The Scrooge: Chandler's father Brandon had his son's birthday at the sewage treatment plant because he refused to pay fifty dollars an hour to have it at Gus' Arcade. Ironically, this ended up costing him more in the long run when he had to take a pay cut to avoid being fired for doing so.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • As Lincoln doesn't want to go to the police to address the abuse, in fear that it would separate his family forever, he only trusts the Santiagos and Clyde of the bad luck incident.
  • On the other Louds' end, Pop-Pop becomes this after Rita tearfully calls him to tell him what happened since she's somebody she can trust with the details without wanting to get the cops involved.
• Self-Harm: Lynn's guilt over her fight with Lincoln pushes her to this, as she has become so withdrawn and so plagued by nightmares about Lincoln that she stops sleeping altogether, and eventually stops eating. Her appearance becomes so disheveled that this coupled with her behavior has everyone comparing her to Lucy, even by Lucy herself. After a week of watching her waste away in her sorrows, the girls are desperate to mount some kind of intervention before it comes to a point where she's too sick to stand. By the time Lori takes action, Lynn is suffering from malnourishment and dehydration, and Lisa notes that her leg would not heal if nothing was done. It takes some stern words from Lori and the rest of the sisters to make Lynn understand how serious things actually were, and they plead with her to act on it as they could no longer bear to watch her suffer. Thankfully, Lynn starts listening to her sisters in spite of the guilt she's wrestling with.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Leni and Luan have their goofiness somewhat toned down after Lincoln gives his "The Reason You Suck" speech at his family and his subsequent fight with Lynn in Chapter 4.
• Shout-Out: Deviantart artist CoyoteRom gets one in Chapter 6, where Ronnie Anne and Lincoln use a skateboard going at very fast speeds to get to school.
• Side Bet: In Chapter 22, Rusty begrudgingly gives Zach ten bucks when Lincoln is being accused by Ronnie Anne of dating Christina behind her back.
• Skewed Priorities: Deconstruction of the trope. In chapter 2, Lincoln gets attacked by an alligator, but Lana and Lynn Sr. are more worried about his costume getting damaged. Adding this and discovering that his possessions are burned finally leads Lincoln reaching his Rage Breaking Point.
• Smug Snake:
  • Chandler acts all high and mighty whenever he's with his buddies, but his façade immediately crumbles once Lincoln actually fights back. Also, while he seems very proud of his plan of framing Lincoln and making look like he's cheating on Ronnie Anne via fake pictures; not only did he simply take advantage of dumb luck^note Had Conner not accidentally dyed his hair when he mistook his sister's shampoo for his own AND gotten friendly with Cristina right after that, Chandler wouldn't even have had a plan., but several people also immediately or almost immediately see through the deception (including, with only a little convincing, Ronnie Anne herself, the main target of the trickery).
  • Conner thinks he's clever enough to screw Chandler over in the end of their deal, but Chandler easily outsmarts him by simply using him as an Unwitting Pawn.
• Starter Villain: Two groups of them only appear in Chapter 4. The baseball rival team that chase Lincoln into the junkyard and the junkyard dogs that attack him.
• So Proud of You: In chapter 14, Lynn tells Lucy that, while she wishes it was under entirely different circumstances, she's proud to see Lincoln finally stand up for himself.
• Sore Loser: Lincoln calls Lynn this right to her face when he verbally decimates his family for the hell they've put him through with the squirrel suit, among so many other things. She reacts to this about as well as you'd guess, and it quickly proves to be a costly mistake...
• Spoiled Brat: Chandler is this, getting a $700 allowance, and is used to getting what he wants.
• Spotting the Thread: When Clyde and Ronnie examine the photos of Lincoln with Cristina, Clyde notes that several of them are taken in locations Lincoln never goes, meaning they're clearly faked.
• Stress Vomit: Lincoln throws up after he kills one of the junkyard dogs attacking him in self-defense.
• Stuffed into a Trashcan: Used to take Ronnie out of the fight in Chapter 25. She swallows garbage and becomes ill.
• Sudden Downer Ending: Or, more precisely, Sudden Bittersweet Ending. The fanfic ends with Lincoln and his family earning their happy ending with a reconciliation, Chandler receiving his comeuppance, but also Mr. Santiago dying from his injuries after a car accident in the last chapter, forcing the other Santiagos to move in with the rest of the family (as in canon) as Maria and Bobby couldn't win enough money to support the family.
• Tar and Feathers: Luan's intended prank for Lincoln in "Fool's Paradise". While they don't go into how painful the end results would have been for him, Lincoln does call her out on it.
• That Came Out Wrong: When Leni brightly suggests taking Lincoln on a date as part of the sisters' planning session for apology ideas, the other girls look at her like she suddenly has two heads. When she realizes what they think she's implied, she freaks out in disgust.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Lincoln becomes a lot more jaded and cynical over the course of the first chapters of the story, though, given everything that's happened so far, one can hardly blame him. It gets inverted to Took a Level in Idealism as Lincoln reconciles with his family.
• Took a Level in Kindness: The Loud family in their attempt to make amends with Lincoln, take a good look at there behavior and what caused them to drive away Lincoln and try to fix it.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: At the beginning of the story, the delusional Loud family became so obsessed with preserving their so-called luck, they began forcing Lincoln to wear the squirrel suit on a daily basis, to the point that they completely ignored his feelings and how it was affecting his health because they were only thinking about themselves. Thankfully in chapter 4-5 onwards, they finally get a reality check and try to make up for the abuse they unknowingly gave Lincoln.
• Tough Love: Part of the reason that Lynn was so hard on Ronnie Anne is that she does not want her to repeat her mistake of not listening to Lincoln, and hopes she learns from this.
• Trauma Conga Line: Throughout the story, Lynn Jr gets called out for her actions by Lincoln. When she gets angry and hits him, Lincoln fights back and she loses to him. She realizes how horrible she acted but it is too late to apologize to Lincoln because he ran away because of her words. Her injuries from the fight are so bad that she can't do her favorite sports, and the guilt when she realizes she drove Lincoln away and her actions could destroy her family has caused her to stop taking care of herself and the guilt is destroying her, culminating in a sobbing fit reaction to Lucy and Lincoln's reconciliation combined with babbled apologies which, whether Lincoln was ready to forgive her at that point or not, so freaked him out that he immediately gave her a consoling hug. Then her attempt to save Lincoln from Chandler's hired thugs is unsuccessful as said thugs manage to beat her so badly she ultimately just collapses on the ground in front of Lincoln, completely unable to move.
• True Companions: Clyde and Ronnie Anne are this to Lincoln throughout this story.
• Underestimating Badassery: A variant where the underestimating is not for the target of violent attempts but their back up. The Hazelturkey thugs Chandler hires at the end of Chapter 24 think beating up Lincoln and Conner will be easy money and normally they'd be right...except Lynn is in full protective sister mode and even if she weren't, she'd likely be both willing and able to totally wipe the floor with all of them. Unfortunately for Lynn, Lincoln, Ronnie and Conner, their sheer numbers ultimately prevents her from beating them all...at which point Lori and Carol show up and trash them.
• Unstopable Rage: Done twice in the story, both times by Lincoln.
  • The First time was when Lynn punched after he called her a sore loser at the end of his "Reason You Suck" Speech, pushing his patience to its absolute end and he gets into a terrible fight with her ending with him biting her ankle to the point of not only drawing blood but also rupturing her Achilles tendon, injuring her out of all sports for a month, while she bit his hand.
  • The Second time was when he was being bullied by Chandler and his gang of bullies at the park, Lana stood up for him but ended up being bullied herself and thrown down the hill. seeing this brought out Lincolns Big Brother Instinct into full drive as he took on five kids armed with nothing but a tree branch (which breaks from sheer force) and only minimum help from Clyde, ending with him beating Chandlers face so hard he knocks out some of his teeth and raptures his jawline, he had to get his moth wired shut for this.
• Villain Team-Up: In Chapter 13, Chandler convinces Conner Pingrey^note The unnamed "Bratty Kid" from "Cereal Offender". to help him get his revenge on Lincoln in exchange for money. However, Conner's inner monologues later reveal that he's thinking of double-crossing Chandler once he gets the money. Chandler knows that and plans accordingly.
• Violence Really Is the Answer:
  • To Ronnie Anne, at least, who thinks that a little bit of "persuasion" will help bring Lincoln's family to their senses, even threatening to pulverize the twins when she thinks they've threatened Lincoln, to his clear discomfort. Oddly, when Chandler mocks Lincoln in his typical fashion, she doesn't display this trope, saying Chandler isn't worth it. Then again, she knows how that Lincoln is being put through a lot, so she would rather just have Lincoln ignore Chandler than to get him even more upset.
  • Lincoln is starting to get sorely tempted to live this trope out with Chandler. In chapter 10, he finally gives in.
  • Chapter 25 features Lynn and Ronnie living out this trope against Chandler's hired Hazelturkey thugs, as well as Hawk and Hank when they randomly show up and decide to have "fun" with Lincoln. It goes very badly for them until Lori and Carol show up and finish the bullies off.
• Warts and All: This is basically what the Loud Family are to Lincoln, despite all of them (Exception being Lily, who is only a baby) done horrible things to Lincoln and to each other, are still good people at their core.
• Was Too Hard on Him: Lucy feels that Lynn was too hard on Ronnie Anne in chapter 22. Lynn disagrees, feeling she needed to hear what Lynn had to say.
• We Really Do Care: The Loud family wants to prove they do care for Lincoln after their actions drive him away. While the various efforts have varying effects, one of the unintentional ones, Luan's breakdown over how badly she's hurt her family with her April Fool's Day antics, has the effect of making Lincoln want to comfort her instead of leaving her to cry and helps him forgive her.
• What If?: What if there was no Reset Button after the events of "No Suck Luck" and Lincoln's family would continue to make him wear the Squirrel Suit to bring them good luck?
• We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future: Zig Zagged when it comes to Chandler's fake photo's that show Lincoln (actually Conner) with Cristina. Some people believe they are real and call both him and Cristina out on it, but others, most importantly Lincoln's sisters and closest friends, are more skeptical. Lincoln's friends even point out that the pictures can't be real since Lincoln and Cristina are in different classes and hardly ever interact during school hours, plus some of the photos are taken in locations that Lincoln never goes to anyway.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Besides Lincoln himself, there isn't anyone who haven't called out the Louds out.
  • Luna gave the rest of the family this as well in chapter 4 for not showing any concern for Lincoln.
  • Albert gave his daughter Rita, a gentle one in chapter 8. Yet at the same time gives her a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech, by telling her that despite her bad actions, doesn't make her a bad mother.
  • Mr. Grouse, on the other hand, isn't as gentle while giving one to Lynn Sr. in the same chapter. He even threatens to call the police if another of the Loud children get thrown out.
  • Lori and the rest of the older sisters aren't exactly happy at Lisa, Lola, and Lana in chapter 10 for not revealing where Lincoln is hiding.
  • Chapter 15, Marcus Santiago gives Lynn Sr. a piece of his mind over the phone.
  • Lincoln calls Luan out in Chapter 16, outlining the consequences of her antics in "Fool's Paradise" and even outlining some ways they could have gone wrong that would never have been able to be fixed.
  • Lynn calls Ronnie out in Chapter 22 for her easy belief that Lincoln would cheat on her and for her Loving Bully ways, even pointing out that while she and her sisters didn't always treat Lincoln the best even before the "No Such Luck" fiasco, said behavior denies Ronnie the moral high ground she wants to believe she has.
• White-and-Grey Morality: A dark shade of Grey in the Louds' case, considering what they've done to Lincoln. Though later chapters show that grey becoming lighter with Lincoln's family earning their hardest to earn his forgiveness. The true dark ones are Chandler and the Hazeltucky bullies he hired.
• With Friends Like These...:
  • Part of the reason Lincoln was unwilling to trust his other friends with the truth about his situation was that they tend to turn on him when things start to look bad. This trope is however Subverted with Lincoln realizing he was a little hard on them and apologizes for it, and even giving them a few details but still not the whole story. At the same time, Liam, Zach, and Rusty acknowledge that they haven't given him good reasons to trust them and they are trying to be more supportive of him.
  • Cristina's friends in chapter 22. Instead of being concerned that she was stalked, they were happy to think that she was dating Lincoln and refuse to listen to her when she told them it's not true.
• Women Are Wiser: The trope gets ZigZagged throughout the fic.
  • Chandler's mother Marriott, while she was focused on his well-being, knows that Chandler deserved what happened to him, and warns her husband about pressing charges against Lincoln and to punish Chandler for his actions.
  • Averted with Rita, who like the rest of the family gets extremely superstitious and lost some common sense over the well-being of her son. Later played straight as she shows to have a better understanding of the situation and how she can make things right with Lincoln than her husband has.
  • Conner's Cool Big Sis Carol is nicer than her brother and he seeks her advice during chapter 14.
  • Another aversion with Cristina's friends in Chapter 22, as they buy into the faked photos just like everyone else at school.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • In Chapter 4, when Lincoln finally has had enough of his family's mistreatment, he gets into a very brutal fight with Lynn before running off. Though considering how she was the main person responsible for his suffering over the past few weeks, it's really hard to blame him.
  • When Lana tries to defend Lincoln and Clyde from Chandler and his gang in Chapter 10, they retaliate by grabbing her and launching her down a hill and in the pond using her overalls, which results in her getting bruised and covered in scratches. When she starts crying over what they did to her, the boys just laugh even harder at her, which is what pushes Lincoln to beat them all up in retaliation.
  • In the penultimate chapter, Hank, Hawk, and the other thugs Chandler hired to beat up Lincoln and Conner have no issue fighting Lynn, Ronnie Anne, Lori, and Carol once they catch wind of their little brothers/boyfriend being in danger. Lynn was injured so badly she ended up bedridden in the hospital for a month, Ronnie Anne got sick after she was forced to eat garbage after getting Stuffed In A Trashcan, and Lori and Carol ended up with some pretty bad bruising before the cops interviened with the whole situation.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A recurring theme throughout the story:
  • Albert tells a combination of this and a minor What the Hell, Hero? speech to his daughter in Chapter 8. That while he is disappointed with Rita, he also tells her that she's a better person than that.
  • Played With in chapter 11 as more of a "They Are Better Than You Think They Are" when Albert said this to Lincoln as a reason why he should forgive his family.
  • In Chapter 11 again, Lincoln tells Ronnie Anne this to get her guilt out for her times of bullying him.
  • Lucy gives Lynn a variant, "You're No Worse Than The Rest Of Us" when she finally gets sick of watching her roommate hating herself, pointing out that yes; Lynn started the whole mess but the rest of the family get caught up in it and didn't do any better in the long run. It works briefly but a nasty nightmare sends Lynn spiraling again.
  • Chapter 16 sees Lincoln giving Luan one of these speeches when she's delving into self-loathing after he makes her realize how hurtful and potentially dangerous her April Fool's Day antics have been, pointing out that the fact that she's this upset means she's not a monster.
  • When Lincoln breaks down about his guilt for his part in causing the situation, Rita assures him that he's a great son and he always tries to fix his mistakes, and while it's true he has some blame for this situation, most of the blame is on her and his father.
  • In Chapter 19, Carol gives one to Lori after Lori confesses to her what happened to her family, and apologizes for all the times she was jealous at Carol.
  • In Chapter 25, Ronnie admits to Lynn that she wonders if she deserves Lincoln; Lynn punches her and tells her to not be ridiculous because A) she's trying to be a better person and B) Lincoln's opinion is the one that matters here and he definitely wants Ronnie as his girlfriend.

Take It In Stride

• The Bet: Lincoln and Ronnie Anne made one when they went to see It Chapter One, with the conditions being that Lincoln is not allowed to scream and Ronnie Anne is not allowed to admit she finds the movie scary. They both end up losing, because Stephen King is that good.
• Best Friends: Lori and Carol have evolved into this by the time this story starts, to the point where they go to the same university and got an apartment as roommates at the Casagrande building in Great Lakes City together.
• By the Hair: When Carol nearly tripped down the stairs at Fairway University, Lori prevented her from fully falling down by attempting to grab her by the back of her shirt but accidentally grabbed her hair instead.
• Character Development: Lynn Sr. and Rita have started to pay more attention to what goes on in their kids' lives. For example, Lincoln never went to Canada during the events of schooled because his parents were furious over him being forced into the foreign-exchange student program and threatened Principal Rameriz with getting the superintendent involved in the whole situation if she didn't take Lincoln off the program.
• Friendly Tickle Torture:
  • In the first chapter, Lynn wrestles Lincoln to the ground and tickles him in retaliation for some playful teasing on his part.
  • Two chapters later, Ronnie Anne tickles Carlitos' stomach.
• Growing Up Sucks: Ronnie Anne is not enjoying growing into a teenager. She doesn't like being forced to wear a bra, and as her friends point out she is starting to develop some serious Hartman Hips, which are getting her some unwanted attention from boys that aren't her boyfriend.
• I Got Bigger: Two years later and Lincoln has hit a growth spurt, to the point that despite only being thirteen he's slightly taller than the fifteen-year-old Lynn Jr.^note  Though she'd only admit to that internally. Which either means he's very tall for his age, or Lynn Jr. isn't as tall as she'd like to be.
• I Hate Past Me: One of the conflicts of the sequel is about Lynn's self-loathing for her actions.
• Long-Distance Relationship: Lincoln and Ronnie Anne are still a couple after two years, even after she moved away. Lincoln was pining for Ronnie Anne to move back but is distraught when she tells him it won't happen any time soon.
  • Ronnie Anne doesn't like it any more than he does. As she's worried about all the problems such a relationship can have before her family can move back to Royal Woods in three years.
• Not Under the Parents' Roof: When Maria caught Lori and Bobby having sex in his bedroom, she complained that she didn't want any grandkids until they both had full-time jobs and a down payment on a house. The two lovebirds respond by having their sex sessions solely in Lori and Carol's apartment.
• Parental Substitute: Rosa allowed her grandson's girlfriend Lori and her friend Carol to live in one of the Casagrande apartments during college and charges them a lower rent than any of the other tenants, and she also prepares meals for the two girls alongside her own family.
• Scars Are Forever: Chapter 7 reveals that Sid has a thin scar below her right knee. It was caused by her trying to pull off a skateboarding trick with a faulty flea-market skateboard.
• Security Cling: In a flashback, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne do this to each other when they find It (2017) to be scarier than expected.
• There Are No Therapists: Downplayed; Rita and Lynn Sr. believe Lynn should see an actual therapist because she's still suffering from inner turmoil after the Bad Luck incident, but she instead prefers to talk with Clyde (likely because the Dr. Lopez angle was already used in Syngenesophobia).
• Time Skip: The story is set 2 years after it's predecessor.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: In chapter 1, Lincoln tells Lynn that the reason why he never called the police after the Bad Luck incident was that he believed his family should be given the chance to right their wrongs. Lampshaded when she tells him he sounds more like Lori (who is 19 by now) than a 13-year-old, to which Lincoln admits he grew up faster than anyone thought.

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