Lyra and Lemy Loud are sent by their rockstar mother to spend a few weeks in Michigan with their Uncle Lincoln. What should be a few weeks of fun is instead turned into something far different when a terrible secret is discovered.
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Family Matters provides examples of:
- Adapted Out: In this Sin Kids AU, Leia, Lizy, and Lulu don't exist.
- Age Lift: Loan, who's usually depicted as the oldest of the bunch, is actually the third-oldest behind Liena and Lyra.
- Berserk Button: Lori apparently developed one regarding Lincoln and the insinuation that Loan is not his daughter. According to Luna, Lori broke a full wine bottle and tried to shank her with it when she did so sometime in the past.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Downplayed in that tensions have cooled to more of a "cold war" scenario, but the Loud family has become this in the years since the next generation's birth, with most of the family estranged from one another over the constant pregnancies of the older siblings from Lori to Lucy due to Lincoln. Given a bit of lampshading when Bobby calls Lincoln and reveals he got his number from Lori, who he hasn't had any contact with in over a decade.Lori had suggested him? Lori had his number? She knew he lived back in Royal Woods? She knew he was even alive?
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Loan is a recluse who would rather sit inside and play videogames than engage in social interaction and has a rude personality and messy appearance on top of it, but Lyra notes that she's enrolled in a prestigious private academy that has certain minimum requirements for entry, so she's very intelligent. She surmises at least part of Loan's behavior is due to built-up resentment of her mother and just a way to spite her.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Luna has been this for Lyra for a long time, which hurts all the more since there was a time she idolized her as much as Lemy does currently and she worries about what will happen when the day comes Lemy realizes Luna's not as perfect as he's always seen her as. And that's before she learns about the whole incest deal.
- Lincoln's greatest fear is becoming this nieces/nephew and his younger sisters once the truth gets out, though he's resolved to let them decide for themselves if they want to forgive and reconcile with him or cut him out of their lives completely. Current results are...mixed, as Lemy's more confused by it all while Lyra and Lily are constantly wavering on their feelings since they can't deny Lincoln, for his faults, has been a good man trying to make up for what he's done.
- Christianity is Catholic: Averted. Lyra mentions that she's Protestant (contrary how she's usually depicted) while Lincoln mentions the main family is Catholic, even though they stop going to church after so many of them were born.
- Chick Magnet: Lincoln. How else would he have been able to sleep with six of his sisters and still able to get Ronnie Anne's eye after years of separation?
- Cool Uncle: Lincoln is this, to the point Lacy, Liby, and Lupa all view him as the father they never had (of course, not realizing he is said father), while Lyra grows to see him as a trusted person and even Lemy (despite his initial doubts) thinks he's pretty awesome. Liena seems to see him in a similar light, though it's harder to tell since they can only communicate long-distance due to Leni's work. The only exception is Loan, and that's due to Loan's distrusting nature of strangers and the fact they hadn't seen each other since she was a baby. And even she admits he's Not Bad.
- Daddy's Girl: Gender inverted with Luna and her son Lemy; Unlike his sister Lyra, who loves her mother, but doesn't agree with her lifestyle, Lemy has nothing but admiration for their mother and seeks to emulate her rocker lifestyle, at least partially to impress her.
- Disappeared Dad: Nearly all of the new generation of Louds' dads are missing, with the exception of Bobby for Loan. Of course, their dads have been there all along, as they're all the same guy: their uncle Lincoln.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Lyra slowly starts to develop signs of this as she learns about her barely-remembered past and the happy times the Loud family once had before it all fell apart, as she can't help but envy the fact she can't remember that and that there was a big reason why it all came crashing down and led to her many of her own struggles. It hits its boiling point when she realizes Lincoln lied to her about how her grandparents had apparently moved away, when she sees Lori and Lincoln reminiscing, and finally when she meets Lily and realizes she's just as hungry for the truth of the family's separation. It leads her to eavesdropping on Lincoln and Lily's conversation and overhearing Lincoln's confession about the sin kids' origins.
- Half-Sibling Angst: Played with. Lyra and Lemy are half-siblings, but while Lyra unconditionally loves her baby brother, Lemy doesn't show any signs of angst until he overhears Lyra talking about them being half-siblings to their uncle Lincoln and briefly worries if this somehow makes him not "her brother", as this is the first time he's ever heard her use that word and always assumed they had the same dad. She quickly reassures him that's not the case, even if they have different fathers. Of course, they are in fact full-blooded siblings since they have the same father, but Lyra always believed otherwise since she couldn't rightly believe that Luna managed to get knocked up twice by the same "mystery guy".
- Mood-Swinger: Lola has turned into one, and according to Lana it's because of all the fake acting for pageants in her youth plus the stress of her modelling career. When Lincoln calls her for the first time in years, her mood whips between joyous crying and screaming bloody murder about what she's gonna do to him for being gone so long.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Rita admits to Lyra that she's glad Lincoln ran away from home once the truth about the incest came out, because if he had stayed she and Lynn Sr. in the heat of the moment would have called the police and likely would have ended up with half their children in jail with their grandchildren forcibly separated from their parents, and that's an outcome neither of them could have been able to live with once things calmed down regardless of what else they felt.
- No Periods, Period: Averted in Chapter 13 where Lyra hits her most recent one. Lemy was always told she just gets sick every few weeks, and when he tells Lincoln he gets taught a few tips to make her feel better which Lincoln learned growing up with eleven sisters.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lyra immediately notices that Lucy and Lupa act far more animated and more..."normal" when Lincoln is around.
- Parental Substitute:
- "Uncle" Lincoln tries to invoke this trope with all his nieces and nephew. Then averted when it's revealed that he is their real father. note
- As Loan is actually Lincoln's daughter with Lori, this makes Bobby being Loan's "father" this by default.
- Sam, while being Amicable Exes with Luna, is in many ways a second mom to Lemy. Lyra less so, as there has always been tension between them.
- Parents as People: Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, and Lucy do love their children, but their own personal preferences combined with the issues they feel towards each other and the rest of the Loud family does put a hamper on their relationship with their children, some more than others. Luna and Lori have it the worst with Lyra and Loan respectively.
- Promotion to Parent: Lyra is more like a second mother than a sister to Lemy, Lampshaded by Lyra in chapter 8.
- Selective Obliviousness: Lincoln seems utterly determined to only see Loan as Lori's daughter with Bobby, rather than with him, out of guilt. He repeatedly tries to assure himself with the fact that he only had one fling with Lori, she was on the pill at the time, so the chances that Loan was his rather than Bobby's is incredibly slim. Everyone else in the know, from the other sisters to even Lori herself, are under no such delusions.
- Shared Family Quirks: As noted by Lyra, Lily as an adult has a lot of similar mannerisms and speaking habits to Lincoln. She also picked up his habit of relaxing in her room in just her underwear. It makes sense, given her case of Big Brother Worship for him.
- Slice of Life: Many chapters are this, simply showing how Lyra and Lemy interact with "Uncle Lincoln", their cousins, and their aunts.
- Switching P.O.V.: While the main focus is primarily on Lyra and Lemy's POV, it also switches to Lincoln's as well as Lacy's, Liby's, Lupa's, and Loan's. There are also bonus chapters where it switches to Luna's POV.
Word of God is that this is intentional, as each point of view is meant to show each character's way of interpreting events, as well as how their own personalities and knowledge color their perception of interpreting said events. - Tempting Fate: Lincoln is feeling on top of the world after not only reconciling with Lori, but finally talking to Lola and Lana over the phone for the first time in years, legitimately thinking things are really going right. Cut to Lyra and Lemy at the arcade where Lyra encounters Lily for the first time in years.
- Tragic Keepsake: Bun bun has been this for Lily ever since Lincoln ran away, having kept it in the decade since.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, something Loan is able to pick up on pretty easily.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Luna is the same easy going rocker she was in her teens, despite now being around thirty and a mother of two, except now old enough to enjoy alcohol and other vices that come with her profession and lifestyle. Meanwhile her daughter Lyra is straghtlaced and responsible type who often has to serve as parental figure to her younger brother and take care of her mom when she comes back drunk.
- Wham Episode: Multiple in Chapters 18 through 21, such as Lyra learning where her grandparents live, Lori reconciling with Lincoln and giving him Lana and Lola's phone numbers, Lyra and Lemy meeting Lily, and Lyra inadvertently overhearing the truth about herself and the rest of the sin kids' origins from Lincoln talking to Lily.
