Liam "Lanks" McCoy

"*I did it, guys!*"
―Lanks
Liam "Lanks" McCoy is one of three main party members and protagonists in LISA: The Hopeful. He is classified as a "Wuss", described as an honest to goodness dweeb who's just kind of there. He serves the role of a support character, focusing on healing, buffs and debuffs. Being physically weaker compared to his two friends, Beltboy and Cyclops, he constantly relies on them for guidance and protection.

## Background

Name: Liam "Lanks" McCoy

Fighting Art: Raw Emotion

Past Occupation: Burger Flipper

Likes: Sports cars

Favorite Food: Carrot sticks

Most Hated Thing: Conflict

## Appearance and Personality

As his name implies, he is a lanky man, donning a red shawl with a pale stripe, covering only his shoulders. He has a large, red nose and wears circular spectacles.

Lanks has a tendency to worry, as he questions what him and his friends are doing at various points throughout the game, showing concern when others don't. He comes off as very submissive, as he does not fight back when Cyclops tells him that he is not trying hard enough, instead opting to apologize to the sexually frustrated charger. He also shows concern over the topic of consent in regards to the girl.

## Overview

Lanks starts out as a rudimentary party member, capable of healing and delivering fire damage, but as he levels up he quickly gains increasingly more useful skills, such as his Irritating Poke ability, which has a chance of inducing Pissed or his Rousing Applause ability, which is a cheap, readily available move. Eventually, when he gains his Speech abilities, his Helping Hand, and his Fire Ball 3, he becomes one of the most useful party members in the game. He later becomes even more powerful on his respective route as he gains the ability Persevere (Which induces the Unstoppable status effect), his Emotional Overload (An enhanced version of Fireball 3 that can inflict Burning and Depression), and Triple Fireball (an enhanced Fireball skill that strikes 3 random enemies). Additionally, on the Rodriguez route, these stat-enhancing abilities are made even stronger with the inclusion of Rodriguez's Diligent-inflicting move, making the two cronies a strikingly good team.

## Quotes

"S-sir!" - Liam's first line.

"But... Clyde!" - Liam, upon being left behind by Clyde on his respective route.

## Battle

Lanks plays similarly to Terry Hintz from the source material LISA: the Painful, starting off relatively weak with nothing more than an underwhelming healing move and a hilariously weak basic attack. As the player progresses, Lanks will get many new skills, being able to induce Pissed, Poison, and a myriad of other status. He even obtains a stronger healing move to heal the entire team, and an inspiring speech to bolster attack power. He also obtains the ability to use fireballs, with the final level of fireballs targeting all enemies.

One of Lanks' biggest drawbacks is his low base health, having the lowest health of the main three and the second lowest health of any party member in the game, second only to Reginald. His skills also cost a lot of SP, and Cocola Colas are unfortunately uncommon outside of shops. Thus, it may become tough to maintain Lanks' SP without The Hottest Mag, especially later on when his skills start to cost SP in the 50 to 100 range.

In Lanks' Route he will get these following skills:

 Persevere (Replaces Speech skills)
 Triple Fireball | Unleash your pain.

Here's a bastardized summary of Lanks' Route because it's not really written down anywhere and I think many would appreciate reading an excerpt rather than experiencing it. It fucking sucks. Let him get sodomized, for your own sake.

In Lanks' Route, Beltboy takes the initiative to speak initially, and unfortunately, he sustains an injury to his eye from a gunshot. Cyclops volunteers to be taken in exchange, letting Lanks go free. Almost leaving alone, Lanks is alerted by Beltboy, who miraculously survives but is left severely injured and wearing an eyepatch. While recuperating, Beltboy and Lanks chat for a bit and decide to keep going for the girl . The journey continues to the Lovelies camp where some have settled down for a bit, where Beltboy and Lanks decide to just go around the mountain, fighting a Lovely, wolves and Yogurt Masters. And after going through the Joy Lab and fighting the lovelies that tried to kill Beltboy, and heading into a truck owned by the Lovelies. Beltboy's pace diminishes due to his wounds, prompting him to rest within the truck. He gives his last words of advice and Lanks Hotwires the truck they are in, unaware that Beltboy is dead.

Lanks decides to follow a convoy of lovely trucks and during the convoy's course, an accident occurs, culminating in beltboy’s body going missing and lanks never discovering beltboy’s body. Proceeding across the crash in pursuit of trying to find Leltboy, a gravely injured Cyclops briefly emerges, addressing Lanks with a message of apology and tells lanks that he let hart take him because he didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Cyclops tells lanks that beltboy is dead and that the Lovelies will kill him. Cyclops is buried by Lanks, and he swears to beltboy and Cyclops that he will find the girl. after lanks does some last minute shopping and being taken to where the girl and the Lovelies are.

Continuing the established pattern, the journey advances to the Lovelies camp, marked by the defeat of additional Lovelies and their mutated forms, culminating in an encounter with Hart. Following a brief exchange, Hart's men are quickly incinerated by Lanks. Hart himself is killed by Lanks shortly after. Although victorious, Lanks sustains grievous injuries. He stumbles into the building where the girl is located but collapses within the hallway. Unexpectedly, a living girl emerges from the room. Lanks tries to get her to come back but is ignored. Lanks asks himself what he did wrong before he dies from his wounds, concluding the Lanks Route.

## Battle Quotes

* It was all thanks to me!
* You're welcome!
* Stupendous...

## Default Equipment

* Weapon : Sweaty Wristbands
* Body : Dainty Shawl
* Accessory : N/A

## Notes

* Lanks will get injured on the head early in the game, earning a head wound that stays with him unless the player opts to take the Rodriguez route in Pain Mode. He will also be inflicted with depression until the player rests, making it favorable to rest at the rest site in Area 2 as soon as the player has the option.
* Because The Hottest Mag recovers SP, it is extremely useful to equip it on Lanks, as he has no other ways of recovering SP besides Cocola Colas and Rodriguez's Wake Up! move, if one is playing on the Rodriguez route.

## Trivia

* Liam, alongside his companion Beltboy, are around twenty one (21) to twenty nine (29) years old. Source.
* He's weak to Rough attacks, but resists Gentle and Loving attacks, reflecting how his home life before the Flash was much better than that of his friends, never suffering the sort of hardships his two friends did before the Flash.
* Lanks is the tallest out of all the party members in Lisa the Hopeful. Source.
* A dichotomy to Clyde's route, in order to enter the Lanks route, you must pick all upper dialogue options while talking to your friends in the Sportsdome.
* It's implied that during his encounter with Craig Fuchs, he suffered sexual assault at the Lovely's hands. This is further confirmed by how Liam mentions the Lovelies having 'done things to him' when he's spoken to in the Sportsdome during the last bracket when given the upper dialogue options.
* In his attacking sprites, his head wound erroneously isn't depicted.
* One of his drop quotes refers to finding mags after the battle, though ironically, this quote can appear even if no mags were obtained.
* Lanks is the only character to have two different Joy Mutant sprites.