Tear Jerker / Syngenesophobia

All spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!

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Considering what happens in Syngenesophobia, you are likely to cry.

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General

• The story in general is a big Tear Jerker for Lincoln, as he develops an intense fear of his sisters after one of the sibling fights ended really badly for him.
• His sisters despite what they've done, are nonetheless horrified by what they did, and now have to deal with the fact that their brother fears them so much that he now can't even be in the same room with them without thinking they want to kill him. Their emotions are detailed several times in the fic, and you can tell that the whole ordeal hits them hard. The second chapter in particular gives their reactions of self-hatred in great details. Plus, since word about what they did gets around quickly, all the girls find themselves ostracized by their friends and classmates, starting with Bobby breaking up with Lori for the atrocities she committed, although it's been later revealed in chapter 35 that Lori broke up with Bobby, not the other way around, and followed by the other Loud girls having their friends abandoning them (even though the readers never actually see the abandonment), including Polly Pain, Haiku, Tabby, and Maggie.
• The very real possibility that Lily, who is pissed with her sisters, might grow up resenting her sisters, especially if Lincoln attempts suicide. Subverted as of Chapter 22, as while she's still upset, she's also realized how broken up the other girls are and wants to help them reconcile with Lincoln, which unfortunately isn't going to be easy.

Chapter by chapter

Chapter 1 An Angry House

• The entire fight scene. The girls all let their petty squabbling come to a boiling point as they blame Lincoln for all their fighting, as he had interfered with a protocol that only served to worsen the tension among the girls. When Lincoln works up the nerve to call them out on their selfish actions, he is subjected to a brutal beating against which he had no defense, and by the time it is over the terrified child is absolutely shattered both physically and mentally. Rita and Lynn Sr. work up the nerve to take charge of the situation, but only after their only son has paid the price for it. While they were used to their children fighting, they had never seen it escalate to something as vicious as this. Rita's reaction when she steps into the living room pretty much sums up the horror of the entire incident.
  • The girls' horrified reactions once they see what they've done. By the time they've snapped out of their rage, they know absolutely nothing they say or do could even begin to make up for what they've done to their brother.

Chapter 2 Stages of Grief

• He never went through with it, and would obviously have taken no pleasure if he actually did so, but Lynn Sr. actually considered the idea of disowning his daughters.

Chapter 3 A Living Nightmare

• After a horrible nightmare in which demonic versions of his sisters kill him for being at fault for every dispute, Lincoln wakes up in the hospital, just as visitor hours are over. Afraid to be left alone, he begs his mother to stay with him.
• Lynn Sr.'s punishment of his daughters, by forbidding them to indulge in any of their usual hobbies and interests, selling their possessions, and ripping each of them a new one for the grievous injuries they had inflicted on Lincoln. Even the younger sisters are not spared from his wrath. And finally, Lynn Sr. actually goes so far as to threaten to beat the girls with his belt if any of them dare step out of line again or sneak past their punishments. He hates resorting to such tactic, but he's been pushed so far past the breaking point that he doesn't know how else to get through to them.

Chapter 6 The Fear Is Real

• When Lynn tries to apologize to Lincoln, the boy panics and hits her with a food tray. What makes it worse is that Lynn mistakes Lincoln's fear for anger, and thinks he hates her now, so she storms out of the room crying.

Chapter 8 Worse Than Expected

• While the reader never actually sees the fallout themselves, word spreads out fast and the Loud sisters' friends dump them.
• We get to see just how messed up Lincoln has become. When his sisters come to visit, he falls on the floor, apologizing and begging them not to hurt him, and starts sobbing to the point that he starts to have trouble breathing due to his bruised ribs not being able to expand to accommodate his lungs, before Lisa puts an oxygen mask on him.
• It's easy to pity the sisters here, as well. They arrive to apologize and make amends with their brother, with Luna in particular pouring her heart out to him, talking about the happy moments they shared and her genuine remorse for what she's done to him. But Lincoln is so overcome with terror that their words don't even register to him and he instead believes they're there to beat him again, or worse. As the realization that their brother now views them as monsters sinks in, they all begin to sob, fearing they've lost him for good.

Chapter 9 In A Medical Opinion

• Lincoln is officially diagnosed with syngenesophobia (fear of relatives), and not surprisingly, no one in his family takes it well. Rita breaks down crying in front of Dr. Richard, Lynn Sr. has a nervous breakdown at work when his wife calls him about it, and the sisters' guilt increases even more.

Chapter 10 Getting Down To Business

• Lynn voices her concern about the possibility that therapy won't help, and Lincoln will never get over his syngenesophobia. It makes all the girls realize that there is a serious risk that they could lose Lincoln for good. And they're fully aware that if they did, it would be entirely their fault.
• The Loud parents, after telling Dr. Lopez everything that led up to Lincoln's hospitalization, begin to fear that they're bad parents for never taking any action towards the sister protocol.

Chapter 11 Parental Advice

• Lori begins to wonder if her parents always leave her in charge of her siblings because they're afraid of her.

Chapter 12 The Thoughts of an Adolescent

• Lori reveals that she hates being seen as the tyrannical older sister, but the pressures of looking after her siblings got to her, and now she wishes that she could be the sister she wanted to be when she was younger but can't find a way to bring that relationship back.

Chapter 14 Not As Dumb As She Looks

• Lincoln has another nightmare, despite receiving pills to prevent them, and it's his worst dream yet. He ends up wetting himself and getting afraid of Bun-Bun as well as his sisters.
• Leni turns out not to be stupid, but suffers from a condition that makes her seem as such when she hasn't taken her medication. However, she hates taking the medicine, as it makes her aware of how she was acting without it and how her family treats her like an idiot, and also allows her to feel totally humiliated because of it.

Chapter 15 Memoirs From The Joker

• Luan turns out to have received vicious bullying from her classmates, including being shut into a locker for hours, futilely calling for help until being discovered by a teacher. She was so traumatized that she repressed all of her anger over it and proceeded to take all of it out on her family every April Fool's Day, something she deeply regrets once Dr. Lopez helps her realize it.

Chapter 19 Bad Reputation

• Lynn turns out to be devastated that her brother, who she's always prided herself on protecting, is now terrified of her and additionally misses how close she and Lincoln were as kids, with her attempts at rough play being her way of trying to rekindle it and her being extremely hurt whenever he rebuffed her.

Chapter 20 Twinsanity

• The Reveal that Lola knows she's a total bitch, but that she has to be that way to get ahead in pageants, something she discovered in her first pageant, where Lindsey deliberately set Lola up to fail while putting on a nice face. Lana is horrified to find out her twin has resigned herself to being hated and alone for the rest of her life.
• At the end of the chapter, the twins tell Dr. Lopez that they believe Lucy to be clinically depressed. Let us repeat that; an 8-year-old might be so thoroughly depressed that 6-year-olds have picked up on it, but the Loud parents apparently never considered the possibility.

Chapter 21 My Inner Demons

• The brief Hope Spot of Lucy not being depressed is quickly shattered when we find out that she feels utterly ignored by her family (and was once abandoned in the house when the family left for a trip, a fact no one noticed until they were 30 miles away), misses Lincoln like crazy and is on the verge of a breakdown without her journal.

Chapter 22 A Long Road Ahead

• The outright statement that Lily was so furious with her sisters that she didn't want them to touch her. And even though Lincoln's out of the hospital, the nightmares show no signs of stopping and in fact, are getting worse.
• This chapter also implies that Luna and Lana, the "normal" ones of the sisters (a title gained from not having any form of mental issue other than guilt over what they helped do to Lincoln), are guilty that they couldn't identify or fix their sisters' issues and the parents aren't feeling any better about it given that they completely missed how screwed up their daughters ended up.

Chapter 25 Bumps In The Road

• This chapter continues to see the Loud girls miserable about the situation with Lincoln, with Lucy being driven to open tears repeatedly.
• Also heartbreaking is Lincoln's Ace Savvy themed nightmare which features the Full House Gang, the avatars Lincoln created for his sisters, pulling a mutiny on Ace for his recent incompetence as leader and trying to beat him to death. This is horrible on several levels: A) the characters Lincoln created out of love and trust have been turned into heartless monsters, B) Lincoln-as-Ace tries to end the whole mess by saying that his real team would never hurt or betray him, meaning on at least a subconscious level, Lincoln remains aware that his sisters still love him but his own fear keeps that truth from ever entering his conscious mind, as demonstrated when the Royal Flush girls all sneer at his "stupidity" and mock his hope before moving in to kill it and him and C) Deuce/Lily starts having a break down at the end of the dream because she got there too late to save Ace from the beating, which is all but stated to have been fatal in the nightmare (unsurprising considering that the Royal Flush versions of the girls have superpowers).

Chapter 26 The Middle Child

• A revisit of the Ace Savvy dream world in Chapter 26 reveals that Ace/Lincoln survived and will recover but Deuce/Lily hates their sisters' guts, which is even worse in the dream world because Lynn Sr. and Rita are dead.
• Chapter 26 revealed why Lincoln kept trying to help his sisters despite them telling him to stay out of it. The boy feels like being of use to his sisters is the only thing he's good at, and felt like they were trying to replace him with their protocol, leaving him with nobody to need him. The boy even outright admits he feels like him being born was a mistake since he has none of the accomplishments his sisters do.

Chapter 27 Attempting To Move On

• Both parents are depressed about how life at home is, with Lincoln living in fear of his siblings and the girls in no better shape. They also grow fearful that the restrictions their daughters have might be doing more harm than good, seeing as Lucy was a complete mess without her journal to write with.
• In spite of their attempt to lighten the girls' mood by lifting some of their punishments, the sisters are indifferent about it. The parents discover the girls' reason is because their social lives are almost nonexistent because of their poor actions, with a few of them such as Lynn and Lola refusing to continue with their passions since people hate them anyway now. The girls pretty much accepted their actions destroyed their social lives, only caring about Lincoln recovering but even they don't know if Lincoln ever will.
• Lincoln considers actually calling his sisters, but is nearly prevented from doing so after imagining them reaching through the phone to forcefully bringing him home.

Chapter 28 Mixed Results

• Even though Lincoln is reaching out to his sisters it is clear that all the love he has for them is gone, even thinking of Lori as a monster in his head. In that while Lincoln is slowly losing his fear, but is beginning to be replaced with resentment and distrust.
• Chapter 28 sees Lana breaking down because, after Lucy tempts fate by implying her pets are likely dead, to the younger girl's clear dismay, she finds out that most of her pets were given away and El Diablo was put down for eating other animals; Hops and Izzy are the only ones left. Lana screams at her father that she hates him, but she's well-aware it's her own fault her pets ended up in the animal shelter to begin with. Lucy is also ashamed of herself for making the comments and heartbroken over what her little sister is going through.

Chapter 29 A Second Chance

• The girls are going to test if one of them can talk to Lincoln in person. The only two candidates are Lynn and Luan due to prior contact with him, but even then, Lincoln would still have reason to fear them and there's a high chance the meeting could fail.

Chapter 33 Emotional Shift

• Lynn has a breakdown when, during a meeting between them and Lincoln at Dr. Lopez's office, she hears Lincoln tell about his last dream, in which Lynn's Full House Gang counterpart came close to beating Lincoln to death, and actually enjoyed it.
• Why are Lincoln's parents dead in his dreams? It's a reflection of how little he feels they are involved in his life, and how little they control their daughters.
• As Lincoln finally hears the full details about how the Sister Fight Protocol came to be, and why he was left out, his fear for his sisters is slowly replaced by anger.

Chapter 34 Changing Tunes

• As Lynn Sr. explains to Rita, he's buying Lana a Two-Stripped Water Monitor to make it up to her because they learned that most of her pets were given away and her snake El Diablo was put down for eating other animals. While he meant to punish Lana for her actions, he never meant for one of her pets to be killed; what worse is that he suspects Lana is still angry at him. As he points out, Lana hardly talks to him or look at him unless she needs something, and last night when he heard the twins talking through the ceiling, Lola asked her something about him, and Lana tried to skip the question. It is heartbreaking to think that Lynn Sr. damaged his relationship with Lana to the point where it's implied she does not consider him her father anymore.

Chapter 38 Overcast

• After Lincoln leaves the restroom, Leni asks Lori if they're bad sisters.
• Lincoln's resentment towards his sisters is given further detail when he spoke to Clyde. Despite acknowledging his sisters' remorse, he feels conflicted about actually forgiving them mostly because the girls often forgot and ignore their lessons, and is afraid of what will happen if his sisters lose their tempers again.
• When Leni confronts Becky and Mandee, ends up with Both Sides Have a Point. Leni is correct that Becky and Mandee are lying and making up flimsy excuses in avoiding her, but Becky and Mandee also have every right in avoiding Leni for not only what she did to Lincoln, but believing Leni is only acting stupid. Leni's fallout with her friends show that despite feeling sympathy for her, neither Becky nor Mandee wishes to hang out with her until Lincoln forgives her. The thing is Leni doesn't know if Lincoln wants to forgive.

Chapter 41 The Truth Hurts

• It's subtle, but Lori basically says she resents her parents for having so many children as it's forced her to go from a loving and nurturing big sister to a harsh authoritarian to keep her ever-expanding number of siblings under control.
• When Lori tells Carol about the time Lincoln discovers that his parents are not using the coffee mugs because they were poorly made, and the time she tries to sabotage Leni passing her driving test. It's very clear how guilty Lori feels for how unhelpful and insensitive they were in not helping Lincoln take a family picture, and Lori especially feels guilty for the mean comments she said that were hurtful, that Lincoln will probably now realize how hurtful her words were. Lori also feels great guilt for the fact that she tries to sabotage Leni passing her driving test and unintentionally endanger her sister. Lori admits that she could not give Carol a straight answer even if she wanted to why she did it and was horrified that she could have killed Leni. Even Carol, who is both sympathetic and open-minded when listening to Lori's story, feels shocked and angry towards Lori and her sibling for the way they acted. Though Carol keeps calm and reminds sympathetic towards Lori.
• We see a flashback from Carol's view of the fall out of how Lori dealt with Lincoln's beating. In the bathroom, Carol hears Lori crying being hug by her friend Whitney; however, when Whitney heard what Lori and her sisters did to her brother, she was rightfully outraged, called her out for doing such a thing and for not even trying to talk out their problems. Whitney leaves Lori crying in the bathroom in disgust. During the flashback, Carol also sees what is implied to be Luna being angrily confronted by her friends for her role in the beating that sends her brother to the hospital.
• Also, we go into details on how the Loud sisters were bullied for their actions, with their former friends being the bullying ringleaders. One random student nearly provoked Luna into a fight, and when Leni tries to stop the fight so Luna will not get in trouble, the random student and his friends mocked Leni for her supposed low intelligence. Whitney made it clear to Lori that she wanted nothing to do with her. A week after Lincoln has hospitalized, Whitney and the rest of Lori's former friends started to bully her by shoving books out of her hands, shooting spitballs at her during class, painting graffiti on her locker and sometimes her bag, and occasionally getting her blamed for stuff she didn't do and getting her detention. Thankfully the principal had a school-wide assembly that stops most of the harassment the Loud sisters were suffering, with the teachers being more proactive at putting an end to any bullying they saw. Whitney was even called out for harassment, with Lori accusing her and two students of defacing her locker, with security footage pulled as proof. Sadly while Lori is gratefully the bullying stopped, she considers it only a marginal victory, for the main problem still slapped her in the face every time she came home.
• As Lori explains to Carol, she started her relationship with Bobby to compete with Carol. Lori admits that Bobby was not her first choice for a boyfriend because he was a bit dense, even though he seemed like a nice guy and viewed the relationship as short. While she eventually fell in love with him because he was so devoted to her, Lori clarifies that she feels guilty for starting the relationship that way, and part of the reason she broke up with him was she felt guilty for using him. And when Carol says that it was short-sighted to break up with him because he may have supported her, Lori doubts that, pointing out he broke up with her when her brother insulted his sister.
• Following Carol's advice, Lori decides to talk to Lincoln and let him vent all the frustrations he has kept bottled up towards her. She takes it in strides until Lincoln implies Lori doesn't actually love Bobby; then her own anger gets the better of her, and she retaliates (fortunately only with words), to the point that Lincoln has a relapse and backs away from her. Lori leaves, knowing she screwed up and could have possibly undone any progress Lincoln made so far.

Chapter 42 Shuffling The Deck

• Lori's siblings confronting her about losing her temper and yelling at Lincoln. Yes, Lori knows that she had messed up, and her sisters have a right to be angry with her for both possibly have undone any progress Lincoln made so far and making Lincoln too afraid to talk with them again. But it is still heartbreaking to see them chew Lori out for her mistake. And when Lynn implied that she and the rest of their sisters would disown her if Lori action ruined their changes to make up with Lincoln, the fact that Lynn would disown Lori, and the other sisters did not disagree with her (Leni was too shocked to disagree with Lynn) was heartbreaking. Despite her anger towards Lori, Leni was shocked that Lynn would imply that, and she noticed that Lynn did not make a hollow threat. What makes it worse while the sisters fears Lori may have undone Lincoln's progress, the truth is that Lincoln is actually willing to consider forgiving Lori, which means that Lynn threatened to disown Lori for nothing.
• As Lincoln and Ronnie Anne discuss Lori's past and the reason she was so bossy and selfish. Lincoln noted that Lori used to be a lot nicer when she was younger. Looking up a picture of Lori using his phone, he sees that Lori, at 13 years old, was wearing glasses, still having braces, and a face with some blemishes here and there. Lincoln concluded that a mix of being bullied by her peers for her looks and the stress of having to look over her siblings changed her from the kind sister she used to be to the mean and bossy sister she is now. Lori herself backed this up in the previous chapter, noting that 7th grade was hell for her to Carol and the stress she was under because she had to take care of her sibling.
• The ending of the chapter for Lori. Still dealing with being chewed out by her siblings for her mistake, she discovers that she has to do a school project with Carol and Bobby. Lori notes that she is not ready to face Bobby after their break-up.

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