A Life in Decline

And Mistakes Were Made

Author's Notes (Prefix Edition): The response to this story has already been extraordinary. Even Rotten Apple didn't start off this strong way back when. Either I'm doing something right, or the Loud House + NSL is still a very hot commodity. I'm not just saying that to humble-brag either: the fate of this entire story hinged on the response I got for it. You see, I initially intended for this to be a relatively short, straightforward Lincoln/Lucy drama fic to replace Rotten Apple (see the Suffix Edition A/N for the tell-all as to why we're getting this story and not that one). Maybe 10 chapters. And unlike Rotten Apple, this time I would do it on a chapter-by-chapter basis. I started writing on a whim, intended to prewrite the entire thing, and could quickly tell that 10 wasn't going to be enough, so I figured "Maybe 15-20."

But after three chapters I had so much fun writing this tale that another thought occurred to me: if people really want it, I could hunker down and transform this fic into a much longer one.

I figured that I'd publish the first six chapters, and then just the first four once I finished them and realized where the plot was going, and gauge people's response to the story.

So went my plan: get to chapter four and ask readers if they wanted an extended fic.

However, the response to the FIRST chapter was so much better than I expected out of four of them that I decided to go ahead and plot out some trajectories for the story past a hypothetical chapter 20.

There's still enough time for me to crash and burn and for everyone to hate this fic. I could still reach a new low.

But enough faffing about. Let's get on with the story, my droogies.

The best kinds of days are spent reading comic books in your 2,000-thread count underwear. Lincoln's latest infatuation: an ultraviolent Japanese manga called Ninja Jack, which bizarrely he'd been introduced to by Lana. Since when had she ever been into manga? Ever since the Bad Luck Incident. This proved perhaps the single best side-effect of the Incident— at long last, at least some of his sisters had finally adopted his interests after giving them a chance and realizing, 'Hey, Lincoln's stuff isn't so bad.' Where this would lead, he didn't know. Even if his sisters did what they always did and wound up being better at his own interests than he was, at the very least he'd be into it. Either way, he won.

On the page, Ninja Jack did bloody battle with his latest enemy, the Shinobi of Shadows, the dirty traitor and former closest ally of our hero. In the last arc, Jack had been defeated by the evil Brushogun who manipulated all his friends into turning on him and was left hanging on for dear life, hoping to be rescued by the Shinobi, whom he had a powerfully strong relationship with— only to be let go and fall into Akumatsu Ravine where he faced his greatest challenges ever. While Jack had fought all his friends into painfully understanding they had been duped and altogether they defeated Brushogun, he vowed mortal revenge upon the Shinobi. Now that the battle had come, the Shinobi did not attempt to fight back in some lame attempt at convincing Jack he knew he had done wrong. He turned the page and saw the obvious outcome: Jack refused his apology, making the snow-haired boy gasp and go, "Oh boy, he's in for it now!" Ninja Jack may have been violent, but he was normally so forgiving, even to his mortal enemies!

The manga concluded with Jack demanding the Shinobi achieve penance through pain and threw him into the Akumatsu Ravine, shedding a single manly tear over the trials he knew his friend was to suffer in his desperate attempt to atone.

Lincoln had been obsessed with this plotline for weeks and couldn't wait to see if and how the two could possibly reconcile or why Jack drew the line at him. But he knew that the Shinobi of Shadows wasn't going to have an easy time. There was such a sense of tragedy to it, like despite his justified anger, Jack had made a mistake he himself would soon regret. And that was the sort of storytelling you only found in Japanese manga. He loved the stuff and was so glad Lana saw the same thing he did.