The Age-up Challenge

It was your typical day at the Loud House. Lincoln was browsing his favourite art-sharing website when he came across something that caught his eye. It was a 'call to action' if you could call it that, regarding the Loud House. He examined it, his curiosity piqued. It seems the artist behind this 'revolution' was against the idea of Lincoln and his siblings aging in the next season, so much so that he has 'rallied', and he used that term very loosely because, judging from the comment section, no-one else that saw it was on board with the idea, like-minded people to join his cause. Regardless, this was something he wanted to show his sisters, so he called them all downstairs to have a look. Sam and Benny were with Luna and Luan respectively, discussing ideas for double dates, so they joined in too.

"What is this about, Lincoln? I have my daily 4:00 pm phone chat with Bobby coming up, so make it quick," Lori urged.

"Have you seen this?" Lincoln asked. He showed the sisters, Sam, and Benny the meme he found.

"So what, it's a meme. They're all over the web, dude, nothing special," Luna dismissed.

"Not the meme itself, look at the description. What is this guy trying to accomplish with this?" Lincoln probed.

"What about it?" Leni inquired.

"I'll read it out loud and we'll see if you can contain your laughter. I found it pretty hilarious," Lincoln suggested.

"This is going to be fun," Luan interjected.

"OK, here we go. Aging up the Louds is an insult to the original series, blah blah blah, biggest disaster in TV animation, blah blah blah, ah here we are. This is what we can do, and down the list, we go, prepare yourselves," Lincoln briefed.

"Bring it on. I can keep a stoic face no matter what jokes you tell," Lucy braced herself.

"Yeah, hold that thought, Luce. Here's the first one, write protest letters to staff and Nickelodeon," Lincoln started off the list.

"Please, if that didn't work when I tried it, what makes this guy think it'll work now?" Lucy asked rhetorically.

"What's that supposed to do anyway? Clog up their email inbox? Ooooooo, real scary," Lynn mocked.

"While history has shown that mail campaigns have worked in the past, those were for genuine, pressing issues, not….whatever this is meant to be," Lisa observed.

"Next course of action, make protest art," Lincoln stated.

"Creative. I wish I'd thought of that," Lucy replied.

"If this guy can get people behind him that can make somewhat decent protest art, I'll quit pageantry and take up creative writing," Lola responded.

"What would you write about?" Lana asked.

"The chronicles of a beautiful princess forced to live in the slums until she's whisked away by a handsome knight in shining armour, of course," Lola answered.

"Oh, so you're going to write about your fantasies, are you? It should be interesting to see," Lana replied.

"Moving on, spread use of the hashtag #DoNotAgeUpTheLouds on social media," Lincoln listed. Lori let out a small snicker.

"Clearly, he doesn't get it. Hashtags are meant to be short and catchy if you want them to trend. Try putting in a rhyme, that usually helps, though nothing will save this lost cause, I assure you," Lori said.

"Plus, it's not even funny. This is just venting. Put a little humour into it," Luan added.

"This is a good one, protest outside Nickelodeon Animation Studio," Lincoln carried on. A few more of the Louds had to suppress their laughter at this point.

"I get that our reality doesn't follow real-world events, but aren't they in the middle of a pandemic right now? So much for social distancing," Lisa remarked.

"Also, I doubt he can get enough followers to go there, wave some signs around, and chant," Leni added.

"Assuming he even knows where the studio is," Benny rebuffed.

"Now this will break you. He had the gall, the temerity, the audacity, to suggest that people sue Nickelodeon in a court of law to stop us aging," Lincoln finished the list of suggested actions. At that point, everyone started laughing hysterically.

"G-g-g-good *ha* luck with that one, dude, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Luna struggled to get out in between giggles.

"If *ha* you weren't so *ha* insane, I'd g-g-g-give you a job at Funny Business," Luan giggled. The siblings, Sam, and Benny all laughed for a good few minutes before they calmed down long enough to talk again.

"If the aim of this game was not to laugh, then this is one challenge I don't feel bad about losing. This is too much," Lynn chuckled. Once everyone took deep breaths and stopped getting the giggles, a task that took almost half an hour, Lincoln then proceeded to read out the list of demands the artist made of the show going forward.

"It says here he wants Lori to stay in high school," Lincoln started the second list the artist made.

"WHAT! And be away from my Boo Boo Bear for all time?! If I ever find you, I'll turn you into a human pretzel!" Lori threatened.

"Geez, Lori, don't get salty. Hahahahaha, get it? But seriously, Lori leaving for college has been built up since Season 2, that's not changing anytime soon, pal," Luan punned.

"If I can stomach the thought of my room-mate and sister leaving for college, so can you," Leni advised.

"I doubt he'll listen. The next demand is to send Luan and Benny back to middle school," Lincoln read further.

"Our grades aren't that bad," Luan and Benny said together.

"Dude, why do you care what school my sis is in? It's not like there's a big difference between middle and high school anyway," Luna pointed out.

"Besides, Benny and I hope to be the funniest couple in Royal Woods High," Luan shared.

"And Sam and I want to be the most rocking," Luna added. The two couplings then shared small pecks on the lips after sharing their aspirations.

"We all have dreams. The next item on the list is to revert Benny back to his original design," Lincoln stated.

"A: what's wrong with my current design? B: what's the difference?" Benny asked in genuine perplexity.

"Awwwww, don't be like that. You look good to me no matter what design the artists make for you," Luan assured. The two then hugged. Luan then whispered something in Benny's ear which made him glow bright red. "Although, if we're being honest, I've always wanted to see you in swim trunks," Luan flirted. To Luan's surprise, Benny had a response to this.

"Only if I get to see you in a two-piece bikini," Benny bargained.

"Can we move on, please?" Lisa requested.

"With great pleasure. The next one, surprisingly enough, is actually pretty reasonable. He wants the studio to bring back Chaz, Francisco, Rocky, Winston, Skippy, and David," Lincoln read aloud.

"Yeah, where did they go? Lynnsanity needs some loving too, you know," Lynn asked.

"Two words, Lynn. 'Singled Out'," Lincoln responded.

"What, I'm hoping my feelings will change as I get older, something this jerk doesn't want us to do," Lynn responded.

"Plus, it's not fair that Rocky was written out when his older brother is still in the show, albeit as a side character. Without him, the only compatible match for me is Haiku, and I don't go that way," Lucy said.

"Yeah, I'm the only bi girl in this family, and I like the unique position that entails," Luna added.

"To finish off, the last demand is to use JaviSuzumiya's design for Simon Sharp," Lincoln concluded. Sam took real offense to this one.

"Please point out to me what is wrong with my brother's design. I beg you. Insult my family's look again, and I will come after you," Sam promised.

"Calm, love. Simon looks fine to me. He reminds me of Lincoln, in a way, minus the planning skills. But I'm sure we'll see more of him in Season 5," Luna hoped.

"I could go into great detail as to how this can't be met, but I will keep it short and sweet. The design of the artist he mentions cannot be used because it leaves the studio open to lawsuits by said artist," Lisa summarised.

"It goes even further. He also says that if the writers are short on ideas, they can use a list he's prepared," Lincoln notified.

"Again, they can't use that material because of what I said earlier," Lisa replied.

"If you want to write your own stories with these ideas, be my guest. No-one's stopping you. But that's all they'll be, fan stories. Besides, even if, by some overwhelming twist of fate, that you make it as a writer, do you really think Nickelodeon would hire you once they find this? You're inciting people, rather unsuccessfully, I might add, to sue a company for doing their job. There is no way in heck that Nickelodeon would take you in once they find this," Lincoln broke it to the artist as gently as he could.

"Besides, you need a large enough following for these kind of campaigns to work. From what I've seen here, you've got nothing," Lori added.

"Well, that's that, then. Luan and Benny are still in high school, Lori's going to college, and Simon stays as is. Deal with it," Lincoln finished off. He closed the laptop and everyone went about their day, safe in the knowledge that the writers won't screw up their future.

Author's note: This is not, repeat, not, part of my Cipherverse. I just found this meme on dA and I found the description good for a laugh and that's about it. If anyone's interested, I'll send a link, but I pretty much summarised the key points here in this piece. This is also my submission for what I'm calling the 'Age-up Challenge'. The rules are simple, you read the list of suggestions/demands the artist makes and try not to laugh. The current record is no-one can make it past 'sue Nickelodeon' without busting their guts. You also need to submit a short fic, like this one, detailing how you think the Louds, and anyone else you see fit to include, would react to this ridiculous list. Anyone wanting to take part can challenge three other people. I challenge the following authors; a regular reviewer of mine, Angelwings2002, Your Saving Grace Is Here, and JMbuilder. The usual disclaimers, I own nothing. Nickelodeon owns the Loud House. Enjoy, and don't worry, more parts of 'Beneath the Waves' are coming.