Fanfic / Archetypal

Archetypes. Superpowers given to people at birth by words written on their soul.

Archetype Academy. An institution that helps Archetypes discover what their powers are, which more often than not defines their entire future.

Lincoln Loud is a member of the Loud family, who have a tendency of getting the strongest Archetypes. However, he never showed any powers beforehand, so he fears he'll end up a Bystander, meaning he'll be nothing but a normal person.

Luckily, when he gets Indexed, he discovers his Archetype! And it's not Bystander, but Harem King!

… Wait, come again?

Archetypal is a Loud House superhero fanfic, written by The Siege Perilous, alongside LoudAutomata16 (up until Chapter 28 after announcing his retirement)and UnderratedHero (Chapter 29 onwards), taking place in an alternate universe where everybody has an Archetype, and Lincoln just so happens to get the most bizarre Archetypes of all. Archetyplets is a collection of short-stories set in the same universe.

Also has a Character page in progress.

You can also find the story on Archive of Our Own here.

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This fanfic has examples of the next tropes:

A-L

• Abandoned Area: Luna and Sam take Lincoln to one of these in chapter 22: a night club filled with Husks.
• Action Girl: Any non-Bystander girl is bound to be this to some degree: Lori, Leni, Lynn, Sid, the list goes on.
• Action Prologue: The very beginning of the first chapter, and thus the beginning of the story, involves a fight at a coffee shop between some of the Loud sisters, namely Lori, Leni and Lynn, and Husks.
• Actionized Adaptation: The Loud House is primarily a comedy-driven Slice of Life show. Archetypal, while having Slice of Life elements, also has a much greater showcase of action as a Super Fic.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Lincoln's sisters while hardly 'bad sisters' in canon, are noticeably nicer to their brother than in the show.
  • Lori is not dating Bobby. Since his mother couldn't afford to send him to the Academy, they didn't get to know each other.
  • Carol has a much closer relationship with Lori, being essentially work partners, and by extension to her family, including Lincoln.
  • Whitney is an enemy of Lori, being a super-villain and all.
  • Leni and Fiona aren't coworkers at a store, but rivals. Seeing as Fiona is a Dark Magical Girl.
  • Chaz is Leni's driver.
  • Luna seems a bit estranged from her sisters because she has to go on tours. However she, and Sam, keep in touch with Lincoln via phone, and a Freudian Slip makes it perfectly clear she cares more about seeing her brother than her family.
  • Stella, who has a Dark Lord Archetype, is enemies with Girl Jordan, who in turn has a Hero Archetype, and wants to destroy her. She's not doing a very good job so far and Girl Jordan isn't taking her very seriously.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Lincoln. As if being the seemingly only normal member of the Loud family wasn't bad enough, he gets a unique Archetype that brings him only trouble, especially since its name alone makes him sound like a hopeless pervert.
  • Sid also gets this, to a lower extent, thanks to her Assassin Archetype.
• Adaptational Badass: Inverted by anybody who gets the Bystander Archetype, which is damn near everybody, but Played Straight by anybody who gets any other Archetype, who gain superpowers based on said Archetype.
• Adults Are Useless: Not only are most of the adults featured in this story Bystanders, but they're also either apathetic (Ms. Johnson), evil ( Tetherby), well-meaning but inefficient (the Loud parents), or straight-up dickish (the people who harass Lincoln during a patrol).
• Age Lift: While explicit ages aren't mentioned here, the fact everybody goes to an academy (brilliantly titled Archetype Academy) means they're slightly older than their canon counterparts. Mrs. Johnson is a bit more explicit, being middle aged when her canon counterpart looks to be in her 20s or 30s.
• Aloof Big Brother: Lincoln was always scared that Luna would become like this due to her status as a world-famous rock star who didn't need her boring old little brother. It's ultimately subverted as Luna absolutely adores her little brother.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Biggest difference compared to the show is that around 9% of the human population have powers based on what Archetype they possess.
• Always Female: Those that have the Amazon Archetype.
• Archetype: The story's bread and butter. Everybody's born with one of these, and although the majority are Bystanders, the minority who have a different Archetype gain several powers related to said archetype.
• Artistic License – Education: Mrs. Johnson says that in Archetype Academy, teachers have complete control over their classrooms, which is demonstrated when she cancels out Stella's fireball attack, and then uses her Archetype to punish Chandler. In real life, this kind of freedom would bring concerned parents at best, lawsuits at worst, especially considering the kind of Apathetic Teacher Mrs. Johnson is.
• As You Know: Double Subverted; Lincoln is ready to go over the Anatomy of the Soul and other important things, but Ronnie Anne slugs him to stop. Then the Principal plays it straight during his speech, going over The Soulless and the Archetypes, among other things.
• Badass Bystander: Averted. "Bystander" is one of the many Archetypes a person can get, but they're the Un-Sorcerer, meaning they're next to useless in a fight.
  • It's even worse if your it's sub-type, spectator. Which takes the unremarkably of a bystander up to eleven and effectively turns the person into part of the scenery and makes them all but unnoticed by anybody else.
• Battle Harem: All of the girls who find themselves falling for Lincoln are more than capable of defending themselves at the very least.
• Battle of the Bands: One of these happened before the series, and it also happens to be the event where Luna and Sam made it big.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Lincoln wanted more than anything in the world for his Archetype to be anything but Bystander. He got something other than that, alright…
• Beware the Superman: Lori might be one of the world's greatest heroes, but she's also painfully aware that people are afraid of her because of how powerful she is. After she moved the planet out of the way to avoid an oncoming asteroid ^note  albeit after a lot of wizards made the planet weightless, she's strong but not 'that' strong people became too scared to even approach her for a while.
• Blessed with Suck: Even if your one of the few who doesn't a Bystander archetype, that doesn't mean you're guaranteed an Archetype with any actual powers ^note Chandler for example is a Minion, whose power is that he has to do whatever anyone with a strong enough will tells him to do, or you can get an Archetype that defines what career you will have in the future even against your desires^note  Luan hates her Archetype and would much rather be a comedian, but because she's an exorcist she has to help people with hauntings instead of making them laugh. While Agnes Johnson implies that whatever she wanted to be as a kid, a teacher wasn't it.
  • Lincoln's very unfortunately named Archetype causes him the exact sort of grief you would expect. Almost everybody assumes he's either a little pervert trying to build a harem or that his power will brainwash their daughters into loving him. Turning him into a social pariah and almost gets him kicked out of the academy before he even attends.
  • Chandler's Archetype 'Minion' forces him to do whatever anybody with a stronger will tells him to do. When Lincoln orders him to say his actual name, Chandler says what he 'thinks' Lincoln's name is. The archetype can only force him to do things he's able to do, and since he genuinely doesn't know Lincoln's real name he can't tell him.
• Bullying a Dragon: Once Lincoln's Archetype becomes well known, just about everybody starts throwing shade at him, despite not only being part of a very protective Badass Family, but also he, unlike the Bystanders pestering him, has actual superpowers that make him infinitely more dangerous than them. They're lucky when Lori grabs and takes him with her, but not before chiding them for bullying a little boy for something beyond his control.
• Bystander Syndrome: Justified. While Everyone Is a Super, 91% of those people are Bystanders, who have no powers whatsoever, unlike every other Archetype. Therefore, when things get heated, the first thing they do is run for the hills while leaving the fighting to people who can actually fight.
• Cat Up a Tree: Part of Lori's patrol during chapter 3 involves helping a cat get down of a tree. The fact Cats Are Mean is right below this trope, it doesn't go smoothly.
• Cats Are Mean: The cat that Lori tries to save in chapter 3 gives her absolute hell when she's just doing her job, and it takes considerable effort on her part (and remembering she has telekinesis) to get it to safety.
• Combo Platter Powers: Typically, the only real rule regarding a specific Archetype's powerset is that it has to do what with generally agreed to be part of said Archetype. This can result in normal mixes, like Magical Girl, or a complete clusterfuck, like Superhero.
• The Corruption: The Soulless going through this causes them to turn into Tainted.
• Crystal Ball: The Index, which is what people use to find out what their Archetypes are, resemble crystal balls.
• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 5 focuses on Lori as she both goes through her day, and finds herself acting strangely after the last chapter's events.
• Differently Powered Individual: People who have Archetypes are known as, well, Archetypes.
• Dodge Ball Is Hell: When classes finally start at Archetype Academy, the first P.E. class involves a dodgeball match. And given Lincoln's soured reputation, and Ronnie Anne's newfound status as The Bully, with a little seasoning from this trope, it's amazing Lincoln can even stand at the beginning of the next chapter.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The scene where Lincoln powers Leni up so she can defeat a Tainted does not read like someone having their magical powers enhanced.
• Domain Holder: It is possible for someone with the Teacher archetype to build up so much mastery or authority in it that they become a mild Reality Warper while within their designated classroom, make their orders psychically compulsive to their students, and temporarily give themselves powers related to a lesson they are giving. Ms. Johnson openly admits it's the one perk of having it, and implies that most "job title" archetypes have similar potential.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Clyde, Zach, Polly Pain, among others, are name-dropped during chapter one before making their full debuts later.
• Fictional Field of Science: Someone who studies Archetypes is called an Archopsychologist, Lisa is one.
• Former Friends Photo: Ronnie Anne sees one of these at the beginning of chapter 13, the photo in question showing her, Sid, and Lincoln posing happily.
• Gender-Restricted Ability: Since Archetypes are based on popular character... well, archetypes and some archetypes are geared towards a specific gender, this trope inevitably comes into play. An example is the Amazon Archetype, whose members are all female.
• Hand Wave: In response to people asking where Clyde was for the entire story, the second chapter of Archetyplets explains that he was right there beside Lincoln the entire time, his 'Spectator' archetype makes him so ordinary that nobody even realizes he exists.
• Harem Genre: While the story as a whole is a superhero story, there are shades of this genre in it as well, especially when taking Lincoln's Archetype into account.
• Haunted House: As an Exorcist, Luan visits these type of buildings often, and her arc begins by visiting one of these. More often than not, ghosts haunt these places.
• Henchmen Race: Anyone with the Minion Archetype. As their 'power' is that they're forced to obey any order given to them by someone with enough will.
• The Hidden Hour: Chapter 25 reveals that this hour exists in this universe, and that at this time, spirits become more powerful.
• Instrumentof Murder: Sam's guitar is revealed to have a built-in sheath for a sword.
• Lady Land: Amazons are not just an Archetype. They are a sovereign nation that mostly produces that Archetype or similar. They also only produce females and require men to visit to continue their culture.
• Love Potion: The Stinger at the end of the Luan arc has this as Ronnie Anne asks her Abuela to help her make one.

M-Z

• Magical Girl / Magical Girl Warrior: This is one of the many Archetypes a person can get, Leni being an example of them, and it's a mix of both types: The former is what the Archetype is actually called and how members of said Archetype look, while the latter is how they function.
• Marshmallow Hell: Leni in this story is described as being very well endowed, and very 'huggy', especially when it comes to her brother.
• Meaningful Name: The crystal balls used during the entrance ceremony are known as Haqq and Kudra. The former means "truth" while the latter means "love.".
• Musical Assassin: Luna and Sam are revealed to have an Archetype named "Battle Idol". Their music draws in nearby Husks, they have superhuman combat capability as long as their weapons and attacks are incorporated into their instruments and routines, and Luna at least can make her guitar slam out a Power Chord.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After failing to exorcise the poltergeist in the Chang apartment and making a fool out of both himself and Sid (thus failing Luan's trust in him), Lincoln decided to take up Mr. Coconuts and don his incomplete Genre Shift to rid the spirit for good. When he arrives, he learns too late that the poltergeist (that Sid affectionately named Charlie) was far from hostile and the spirit of Diablo, within Mr. Coconuts, was manipulating him to create a situation that would set the demonic spirit out and then possess Lincoln for his Archetype. And while Lincoln managed to escape possession, ironically by Charlie, Diablo takes over Sid's body and brings about an end-times scenario that combines a Ghost Invasion with Hell on Earth.
• Not Hyperbole: The battle of the band's Luna and Sam competed in was a literal brawl as well as a music contest.
• Oh, Crap!: Lisa has an understated reaction when she tells Lynn about Lincoln's Archetype and the fighter realizes this means she could potentially have a sparring partner very soon.
• One-Word Title: The story's title is "Archetypal."
• Our Ghosts Are Different: They're not humanoid, instead resembling immaterial orbs, and they communicate by making sounds, typically moans or screeches.
• Our Humans Are Different: They have words written on their soul that correspond to a particular Archetype, like "Ninja" or "Superhero", and they need to take good care of their souls to not turn into either Tainted (if corrupted) or Husks (if lost).
• Our Souls Are Different: All souls have words corresponding to a particular Archetype that gives the Archetype said powers. They're also essential for the person, as if something happens to it, they'll become one of The Soulless.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Vampire is one of the many Archetypes featured in the story, and it just so happens to be Lucy's Archetype. Going by what she demonstrates, the Archetype gives you fangs, as well as the need to feed on blood, although it's implied they can still eat regular food.
• Our Zombies Are Different: The story has "Husks", which serve as a Technically-Living Zombie example, are said to walk slowly and emit low groans, but otherwise look like normal people.
• Out with a Bang:
  • Carol's dad died from a shattered pelvis at the hands of his Amazon wives when trying to give their daughter a little sister.
  • Lori worries about the same thing happening to any partner she might have because of her own super strength.
• Personality Powers: Lisa is developing a theory that Archetypes develop based on personalities, rather than the other way around.
  • While questioning Lori about the emergence of her 'superhero' archetype, she notes that her eldest seemed to develop her powers around the time Lincoln played superheroes with her when they were younger.
  • As Luan is explaining to her friends Lincoln used to scare himself with ghost stories when he was little so he couldn't go to bed. So she would go with him and tell jokes to make him laugh till she fell asleep. While it caused her to realize she loved making people laugh, banishing her brother's ghosts so he could rest easy, appear to have caused her to develop the exorcist archetype.
• Playing House: In a flashback, it's shown that Lincoln would frequently play this with Luna and Sam when they were younger, and they always insisted that he be the husband to both of them. In fact, the girls were a little more invested in the game than normal since the game also involved leaving the house to pretend to go house hunting or have him pretend to do joint tax forms with them.
• Polyamory: Is accepted and quite common in Amazon culture.
• Poor Communication Kills: The situation between Lincoln and Ronnie Anne serves as a Deconstruction. After Harem King is made known, Ronnie Anne refuses to associate with Lincoln, seeing him as an absolute pervert, while Lincoln is trying to explain himself. When they meet later, Lincoln has discovered Harem King is more than it seems, but when he tries to tell this to Ronnie Anne, not only does she refuse to listen, still thinking he's just a pervert, but Lincoln realizes the danger he could place himself in if his powers became known, primarily by people faking being Friends with him just to have power. However, not answering only leads Ronnie Anne to believe she's right, and things between them grow even worse after that.
• The Power of Love: For Lincoln's power to work with anyone he needs to have a suitably strong bond with them. If this requirement isn't met, either nothing would happen (as shown in his failed attempt to 'Genre Shift' with Stella) or just have a pastiche of the shared Archetype with none of the power (when he initially does with Luan to use her Exorcist abilities but only getting a fitting costume).
• Power Stereotype Flip: Invoked. Chandler is a Minion, so he's physically compelled to do anything anyone with a strong enough will orders him to. He's also a bullying blowhard that never lets anyone get a word in edge-wise as, in part to prevent anyone from figuring him out and taking him for a ride. He also comes from a high-status family, which increases the danger to him.
• Safe Zone Hope Spot: Deconstructed. It's eventually revealed that the Royal Woods Mall, one of the safe zones against the Husks, has become a breeding ground for them ever since it was declared as such. As Fiona points out, because it was declared safe zone, nobody bothered to run patrols in there, meaning that there was nobody to keep them at bay.
• Shout-Out: The initial premise, the main character going to a school to find out their destined role only for the protagonist to be given one that turns them into a pariah is similar to Demon King Daimao.
  • Carol's dad died from snu snu: the difference being that they were his wives and they weren't 'trying' to kill him when it happened.
  • When taking Lincoln on patrol, Lori mentions having a sidekick named "Jason" who's named after a certain Boy Wonder. Even getting kidnapped by a supervillain and having a voting poll to determine his fate is eerily similar.
  • The sound Lincoln's guitar makes when hitting someone on the head is KABONG.
  • Diablo is a blatant call-out to the titular antagonist of Diablo, though more with the possession aspect of the sequel.
• Sidekick: When Lori learns about Lincoln's 'Genre Shift' ability and realizes it would mean Lincoln could be a superhero like her if he 'Genre Shift's with her, she starts to like the idea of him side-kicking with her.
  • While helping Leni out Chandler mistakes him for Leni's sidekick.
• Shown Their Work: When Lisa was talking with Lori about what the "Harem King" Archetype meant, Lisa explains that the word "harem" has two definitions: One familial, and one sexual. "Harem" initially meant "the female members of the family" in Arabia. When the word arrived in Europe, the Orientalism at the time gave it the romantic and sexual meaning. Lisa explains that the word "harem" in the context of a "harem king" must be referring to the original meaning… unless Lori does have romantic feelings for her brother.
• Soul Jar: Instead of being a regular ventriloquist dummy, Mr. Coconuts is used as a storage/prison device for the more hostile supernatural/spiritual beings that Luan had exorcised and can't be allowed to roam free. The most dangerous one housed inside, Diablo, is capable of mimicking its operating system voice, invoking a Demonic Dummy moment.
• The Soulless: Name dropped during the Principal's speech in chapter one; these are people who don't care for their souls, ultimately either letting them corrupt, becoming Tainted, or losing them, becoming Husks.
• Super-Empowering: Lincoln's Archetype's primary usage is to let him power up others he shares a strong bond with.
• Thanks for the Mammary: Lincoln accidentally grabs ahold of something while trying to find out what happened after Sam has pinned him to the ground. From her reaction, it's safe to say she didn't mind him doing it.
• Toilet Humour: We get this gem courtesy of Lynn: "My stomach was so rumbly I had to drop brown babies at the swimming pool at least three times in one morning."
• Un-Sorcerer: The Bystander Archetype is basically this, as the people who have this Archetype don't have any powers whatsoever.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: This is how the narration describes Lori's Slap Yourself Awake, since while her punch is pretty tough, her body's close to indestructible.
• Zombie Apocalypse: This is what would happen if The Soulless weren't kept in check by heroes. A small scale version of this happens during the Mall arc when the Husks being created underneath the mall are released thanks to Fiona's plan.

Archetyplets

In General

• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Sid Gets Her First Hit focuses on, well, Sid.
  • The Amazing Super Lori and the Terrifying and Tumultuous Tumble with the Tyrannical Tetherby (featuring Wonder Carol) focuses on Lori and Carol.
  • An Order He Can't Refuse focuses on Chandler.
  • Caged Jordan focuses on Girl Jordan and Stella.

Sid Hets Her First Hit

• Loophole Abuse: The way Sid interprets her letter to ass-assassinate Lincoln, pelting his bum with BB bullets.
• Shot in the Ass: A BB-gun is still considered a weapon, and even if it was Archetype compulsion or no she still assaulted another student. Sid is given detention for shooting Lincoln in the butt.

The Amazing Super Lori and the Terrifying and Tumultuous Tumble with the Tyrannical Tetherby (featuring Wonder Carol)

• Mecha-Mooks: These are Tetherby's minions.

An Order He Can't Refuse

• Noodle Incident: It's thankfully not described how he tried to fulfill the command, only that he ended up in the hospital because of it.
• Screw Yourself: Thanks to his Archetype, Chandler ends up doing this to himself when a random passerby tells him to "go fuck himself."

Caged Jordan

• Birdcaged

Why Lori Wasn't Allowed to Play Tag

• Does Not Know His Own Strength: This story reveals how this trope affected Lori when she was younger; during a game of tag, she accidentally hit him hard enough to send him crashing into a satellite.