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nelllraiser · 5 years ago

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it’s greg. | bea & nell

LOCATION: the vural house. TIMING: the same day vashti, nell, and bea had their internet fight. PARTIES:@beatrice-blaze, @nelllraiser. SUMMARY BELOW:

walmart dentist: what did you guys want to say greg is like? i was trying to pitch an idea of him being like a dog and a toddler. combined. the power of greg. walmart dentist: greg has human intelligence but he chooses to speak like the hulk. GREG WANT SNACKS. radiohanoi: actually can he have human like hands despite looking like a dog, and he slaps around on all fours

After the whole mom debacle, Nell had rushed home from Alain’s after realizing that a demon could be on their way to the house, a house her sister was in. She’d burst through the door, pointedly ignoring Bea as she had no desire to speak with her sister after their online interactions. Instead, she got to work drawing cryptic circles wherever she could in the house, ones that would trap a demon the moment they stepped into it and she sealed it off. It would just need a drop of her blood to activate it, and then it would close, rendering them useless and stuck within its confines. Of course...the tricky part was getting the demon into the circle. After all, it’s not like they would want to be trapped. No doubt Bea would have plenty of questions about this, though. Nell certainly didn’t want her sister finding out about her work with demons, but it was either set up the circles or go into this without even a sliver of precaution, and she wouldn’t gamble with Bea’s safety. But now it had been hours, and no demon had appeared. Still, Nell had been sat stubbornly by the door, staring at it as if it would burst open any moment with varied weapons strapped to her and within her reach.

Bea didn’t mean to just shut down after her talk with her sister, but she did. Her mother had screamed at her over the phone and even came to the house, forcing her to get out of the house, leaving Nellie to do as she pleased and alone. She had barely spoken to Nisa as she forced her daughter to sit in the family home for hours. Bea walked back into her home, heart thumping her chest as she worried that Vashti had been there already and Nellie had gone after her alone. She stared at her sister, as she asked,“Did she come?” Her voice sounded softer than usual, she didn’t like it.

Nell didn’t hesitate to rocket up as soon as the door knob turned, her breath already spiking as she prepared for whatever it was that might come through the door. “Oh,” she said with some vague surprise, unsure how to react to the sight of her sister after their blowout. “It’s you.” She still felt guilty about calling their mom, but she wouldn’t regret it. Bea’s safety was more important. “Um- no. She hasn’t.” But she still might. She didn’t say the words, but they were enough to think about calling their mom up again. Nell had gotten a good brunt of the heat, seeing as she was the instigator for someone dangerous coming to their house, and that had put her in a downtrodden mood. Now seeing Bea...it only made things worse.

Oh, It’s you. Bea wondered if that’s what Nellie thought every time she saw her, like she was disappointed that Bea was there instead of someone else. She looked away from her sister, refusing to see the disappointment there. She stepped further into the house, carefully taking off her shoes, she hated when she tracked dirt in. Her eyes took in the circles and this time she did turn to Nell. “What are these?” She wasn’t well versed in summoning, the theories had never interested her, but she had to assume that it was summoning with Nell. She didn’t stay in the front hall waiting for an answer, instead making her way to the kitchen to make some more coffee. She had a cup already, but her spirit felt down and she wanted anything to make her feel better.

Nell waited with baited breath for her to ask about the circles, and thanked whoever might be listening that Bea had never taken much interest in summoning. Hopefully her lackluster answer would be enough to sate Bea’s question. “Just binding circles. In case- well she showed up or whatever.” Or still shows up. “You should have stayed at mom and dad’s.” Her words weren’t heated, more just defeated as she watched Bea move into the kitchen. She knew it’d be easier to let it go, but she couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d never forgive herself if Vashti showed up, and Bea got hurt because of her. Penelope didn’t bother with following her sister into the kitchen, still sitting vigilant by the door should anything try and attack.

Bea stared at her little sister with a flat expression. She wanted to push and ask for more information. She wanted to know exactly what the spell was and if her sister was lying to her. Instead she busied herself making the coffee and didn’t reply. She placed the mug down harder than she meant to when Nell told her she should have stayed. “Do not bring that up right now,” Her voice was tense and angry, but she was trying not to start another fight with her sister. She didn’t have the energy for that anymore.

Nell’s own expression was one of worry mixed with guilt, though she did her best not to show too much of it. She doubted Bea cared enough in this moment that she wished the day could have gone any other way. “When am I supposed to bring it up, then?” she asked, a bit of desperation coming into her voice. “I just don’t want my sister to be hurt because—” Her words cut off, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end as she could have sworn she heard something...scratch against the side of the house. “Did you hear that?”

“What if you didn’t bring it up ever?” Bea spoke over her, trying to ignore how her little sister was ‘trying to protect her’. It made all of the bitter feelings she already swirling just get worse and she had no desire to be even more angry than she was. She shrugged at Nell’s question, having not heard anything. She pressed the button on the coffee machine to start brewing her cup. “Maybe it was a cat or the machine or something,” She replied back, not believing that something that dangerous was coming to the house, if anything was at this point.

In a move similar to one of their more recent fights, Nell’s jaw set into a line. But this time it was less out of stubborness, and more of an attempt to stop her lower lip from trembling. Fuck, it’d been such a long day. Between helping Remmy with the bracelet, yelling at Alain, what had happened with Vashti and Bea...but she wouldn’t cry. She refused to. “Fine,” she said simply, her voice shaking over the single word, Nell hating the way it did. “Fine, whatever- then I’m just gonna-” But her words wouldn’t finish as the glass window to their living room burst, shattering as something the size of a large dog barreled through it, growling all the way in a sound that was very not human.

Bea’s already very tense shoulders tensed further as she heard her sister’s voice shake. Usually, she would have dropped it and done something to change the subject. She would have tried to make it better, but she couldn’t bring herself too. She was just opening the door to the fridge when she heard the crash and growls. Whatever was in her living room, just really messed up, no one destroyed her house. Without even thinking about the consequences of her actions, Bea sent a fireball towards the animal. Thank god her mother had made her set up wards against fire spreading. “What is that!”

As soon as the glass shattered, Nell ducked, not wanting to get impaled by the falling shards of window that most likely would hurt if they caught her. Immediately, she was trying to assess the situation, crouched to the ground as the...thing raged about the house. But it was so damn fast she could barely even figure out what it looked like, let alone what it was. “It’s too fast!” she simply yelled out, magic gathering at her fingertips as she prepared to cast. Thankfully, the whatever it was seemed to see fit to introduce itself in a loud and booming voice. “AM GREG. YOU DINNER. GREG HUNGRY. STAND STILL NOW.” It seemed the thing paused long enough just to open its mouth to an unholy width, not hesitating to swallow Bea’s fireball whole. “MMM. NO FIRE. WANT HUMAN.”

It had been a really long day. Bea was at the end of her rope and now she had a thing screaming at her that it wanted to eat her and it had eaten her fireball. She let out a shrill shriek as she threw her mug full of hot coffee at the monster. “I am not dinner! If you eat me I will freaking explode you from the inside! Do you hear me you little freaking slug?!” She could feel herself shaking as she stared down the whatever was in her house. “Well, find human somewhere else!” She shrieked as she flung another fireball its way.

The coffee hit Greg in the shoulder and he didn’t so much as flinch. He’d finally paused for a moment, seemingly deciding which of the sisters he wanted to eat first. The little one seemed easier perhaps, not making as much noise as the other one, but he didn’t like being called a slug. Such disrespect. “NO SLUG. AM GREGGGGG. FRIEND BRING GREG HERE. SAY GOOD FOOD. YOU FOOD.” He zipped around the perimeter of the rooms in a flash, tearing down cabinets and wall art alike as he went. Meanwhile, Nell was going over where she’d left her circles. Having gotten a good look at...Greg— she couldn’t say she’d met him before, but he certainly looked relatively...demon-esque. “Greg!” she yelled out, waving her arms. I’ve got lots of tasty human bits for you! Just follow me!”

There were a few things that happened when Bea got really angry: she turns bright red and typically seems like she’s steaming. At this point, the woman looked like a cartoon with her complexion and the vapor coming off of her skin. “Well, your friend sucks!” She shrieked back, pulling a dirty plate out of the skin to hurl at the demon. As she watched her home get ruined, she felt a deep sadness underneath all her anger. She had worked really hard to make this house feel like a home and now it was being ruined. “Those cabinets were CUSTOM MADE, YOU SHITHEAD!” She screamed as she stormed closer to Nell. If her little sister was going to try to make this thing follow her, Bea was coming with. If only so she can hurl more things at it.

Nell knew that all demons had a human level of intelligence, which meant that Greg was simply...choosing to talk like the Hulk. What the fuck was that about? Whatever. She didn’t have time to muse over it now as he did his best at destroying their house. Thankfully, he seemed rather enticed by the two human girls lumped together, advancing on them and destroying even more of the house while he worked his way there. “Bea can you please stop throwing things at him!” Nell said, not wanting Greg to get upset. “Yes- yes that’s good, Greg,” she said as he got closer, pulling a knife from her boot and make a little cut down the side of her arm. “You see? Nice tasty, human blood just for you. Come and get it!” She made sure she was centered in one of the circles she’s drawn earlier. But Greg stopped just outside it, though his eyes were locked on Nell’s arm and dripping blood. “GREG NO STUPID. GREG NO GET BIND. COME OUT OF TASTY CIRCLE, SAD HUMANS.”

“Why should I? He’s an asshole!” Bea raged, her jaw clenched as she stared at the stupid ugly freaking demon standing in her home. Where was she even going to sleep tonight? Her house had a hole in it. “Well, Greg isn’t getting his dinner unless he gets in the circle,” She said a bit smugly, before looking over at Nell realizing that this meant her little sister knew how to bind. She hadn’t know about that. Thankfully, Greg had made her rather tunnel visioned and her thoughts on Nell’s magic were interrupted by him destroying more of the house.

“You’re gonna upset him!” Nell said, somewhat exasperated. “Do you want him to try and turn you into a toothpick?” Greg seemed to be nothing but frustrated, pacing outside the circle, trying to decide whether he was more hungry or less wanting to be bound. As he went, he only ruined more of the furnishings, proceeding to firmly sit himself on the couch that cracked under his weight. Further under her breath, she tried to make it so Bea could only hear her. “We’re just gonna have to trick him into a circle in a more..elaborate way. Or shove him into one. I’m not picky.”

“Do I look like a care about upsetting him? He’s upsetting me.” Bea hissed at her sister. “If he swallowed me, I’d blow up in him,” She told her sister her tone angry. However, she didn’t want to be stuck in a circle for the rest of her goddamn life. She was going to need a new freaking couch. She didn’t know if magic could fix all this. “Well, since you seem to know more about this whole situation, why don’t you tell me what we should do?”

“Obviously not or I wouldn’t have to tell you not to!” Nell growled back, frustration still mounting. “Yeah- ‘cause it went so well with the fireball.” Trying to trick Greg would most likely take longer than simply forcing him into a circle, so Nell decided to go with the push method. “If we can just thrust him into one, and then you hold him there- I’ll bind him.”

Bea shot her sister a glare. She wasn’t sure why Nellie was pissed off at her when this entire freaking thing was her fault. She thought she was reacting like a normal person would considering her house that she had spent years lovingly making perfect was being destroyed. “How do you suggest I hold him there?”

It truly wasn’t Bea that Nell was angry with this time around, high adrenaline situations generally just taking away from Nell’s already limited amount of patience. But the spellcaster gave Bea one of the most incredulous looks she’d ever managed to muster in her entire life before saying, “Are you a witch or not?! Just hold him there!”

Bea wanted to shake Nell. Not everyone was good at other types of magic. She was a master of fire because she never really studied other forms of magic until just a few years ago. She wasn’t as good at holding things, but she couldn’t just tell Nell that. “You could not be an ass for a second!” She shot at her. She bit her tongue before she yelled at her sister for not remembering she wasn’t good at this.Turning her attention back to Greg, she raised her hands, starting a spell that she hadn’t cast in years.

Nell didn’t have time to care about her sister’s opinion at a moment like this. “I’ll stop being an ass later! When a certain demon is bound and not plotting to eat us!” Nevertheless, she didn’t hesitate to join Bea in her magic, their two energies coming together as easily as two magnets. She couldn’t remember the first time she’d cast a spell with Bea, she’d been so young, and it was always easier to come together with her sisters. Meanwhile, Greg tried his best to push against the magic, his strange dog and toddler legs trying their best to keep him from entering the circle. “NO. NO. GREG EAT YOU BOTH. GREG USE TINY HUMANS AS THRONE. GREG WIN.” But Greg did not win as he was thrust into the center of a circle, and Nell yelled out, “Hold him!” Breaking off her magic, she darted forwards, inches from Greg as she sliced open an arm and poured it over the last unfinished bit of the circle, chanting a few last words.

When Nell’s magic joined Bea’s, she couldn’t help the bitter feeling in her stomach. She didn’t want to need Nell’s help when it came to magic, but here she was, struggling without her sister, while using a simple push spell. She had become a master in fire knowing it would put her behind with her other magics, she just had never realized how far her sister had surpassed her in those fields. As Greg entered the circle, Bea’s fists clenched as her forearms drew together as she forced the demon to stay in one spot, her voice a steady rhythm as she chanted the holding spell. As he fought against the spell, her arms shook and she glanced at her sister worried that she would release him before Nell was able to bind him.

It didn’t take Nell all that long to finish the binding. After all, most of the heavy lifting had been done already apart from the final steps. And finally, Greg was trapped in his little circle, already trying to throw himself out of it as he yelled incoherently, not at all please with no longer being able to destroy the house. “Greg!” Nell began in her best, commanding voice. “No more yelling! I will give you human bits- if you stop yelling.” Greg seemed to consider this for a moment, his tone perhaps growing the slightest bit quieter, though it was still rather brash. “MMMM. GREG GET HUMAN BITS?” Nell turned to her sister, her shoulders finally sagging with relief. “I got us a new friend.”

Bea spared a single glance at the demon before walking into her destroyed kitchen. Stepping over the debris that Hurricane Greg caused, she pulled out two beers. She contemplated taking a bottle of tequila out to the porch with her, but figured that could wait until after she stopped feeling like she was going to scream for six hours. Walking past her sister, she handed Nell one. “Mom doesn’t find out about this ever.” Pointing at Greg,“What’s the plan with him?”

Nell accepted beer gratefully, glad that her sister was at least asking questions she felt she could answer, and not ones about her knowing how to bind a demon in the first place. After she’d popped open the top of the beer, and taken a long draw, she considered Greg for a moment. “Well, I have to give him some human bits. I can’t promise him that and not give them to him. He’ll never trust me if I don’t.” She had some hiding in the greenhouse, but she didn’t want to explain that to Bea, either. “And mom definitely doesn’t find out about this. But I think- it’d be kinda nice for Taki and Dia to have a playmate, don’t you?”

#wickedswriting #chatzy #ch:bea #it's greg

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swipestream · 6 years ago

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An Excerpt from Soda Pop Soldier

Call of Duty meets Diablo in this fast-paced, action-packed LitRPG novel from the author of GALAXY’S EDGE.

Gamer PerfectQuestion fights for ColaCorp in WarWorld, an online combat sport arena where mega-corporations field entire armies in the battle for real world global advertising-space dominance. Within the immense virtual battlefield, players and bots are high-tech grunts, using drop-ships and state-of-the-art weaponry to wipe each other out.

But times are tough and the rent is due, and when players need extra dough, there’s always the Black, an illegal open source tournament where the sick and twisted desires of the future are given free rein in the Wastehavens, a gothic dungeon fantasy world.

And all too soon, the real and virtual worlds collide when PerfectQuestion refuses to become the tool of a mad man intent on hacking the global economy for himself.

SODA POP SOLDIER by Nick Cole is available in paperback from Castalia Direct for $19.99. It is also available via Kindle and Kindle Unlimited on Amazon.

The war starts at 6 A.M., in-game time. By 6:45 we’re losing Hamburger Hamlet as our entire line begins to disintegrate.

It isn’t a total collapse. Pockets of resistance hold out in key positions, buying ColaCorp time, expensive time, to fall back and reorganize. On my right flank, Kiwi holds a high hill overlooking the Song Hua river basin. We call that hill WonderSoft Garage because of the small power station and vehicle spawn depot located there. WonderSoft had made the capture of that hill and power station a primary objective in the last three battles we’d fought at this end of the basin.

And it looked like they were gonna try for it again today.

Over BattleChat, Kiwi swears as he burns through the ammo that an air resupply Albatross barely managed to get through. In my mind, I can see empty lager cans parading around the workspace that is Kiwi’s keyboard and monitor, as ambient in-game sound resounds in a metallic symphony of ammo brass expended in adult-sized doses. If the sound of auto rifles and explosions is a kind of music, and to some of us it is, then Kiwi is Beethoven.

Through graphically rendered feathery willow trees and the game-supposed heat waves of the day, I can barely make out what’s going on up at the top of the hill in brief glimpses. Three fast-attack WonderSoft Goats, their version of a jeep, and a Thrasher light mech are burning. Thick oily smoke belches from the mech, and a moment later it explodes in a shower of sparks. More WonderSoft Goats and Thrashers climb the road to the bridge that leads to our side of the river.

WonderSoft infantry scramble from cover, racing to other cover, as Kiwi fights hard to keep them from crossing the choke point at the bridge and capturing WonderSoft Garage. It’s about to get real intimate, real quick.

“Command, we’re gettin’ killed up here,” shouts Kiwi over BattleChat. His transmission is broken and distorted by automatic weapons fire in the background. “I’m down to three grunts,” he continues. “Request reinforcements or evac, A-S-A-P! If you’ve got fire support, I’ll take it now, but you’d better drop it right on top of my position, your choice, Command.”

Minutes earlier I’d requested Command point two transports of grunts our way as reinforcements. One of our dropships got jumped by a flight of WonderSoft Vampires as they’d approached the LZ. The other, piloted by RiotGuurl, had gotten away.

I hope.

RiotGuurl is as good a pilot as I’ve ever worked with. Losing the first transport hadn’t been an easy choice for her, but when a WonderSoft Vampire caught your electronic scent, there weren’t many options left for a transport squadron other than to split up and run like hell to get away from that wicked ground attack jet.

Since then RiotGuurl was maintaining radio silence. I know she’s chasing every nook and cranny in the jungle-clad hills that surround the basin on all sides, flying her gunship way too close to the computer’s representation of the ground, looking for a route back into Hamburger Hamlet so we can resupply and reinforce the river crossing. Maybe even help Kiwi.

“Be advised, Command, it’s just me now. All my grunts are KIA.” Kiwi again. “Two ammo packs left and multiple Softs inside the wire.” Kiwi never gives up. Even when he’s being overrun. Maybe it’s an Australian thing. Once this war is over, I plan on taking some of my winnings and heading down under to spend some time in Gigaboo Flats at the Wonky Boomerang, Kiwi’s favorite post-battle watering hole. But hopefully the Cola Wars will never end, or else how will I get paid?

“Kiwi, evac not possible at this time. Sorry about that, son.” It’s RangerSix, ColaCorp’s tactical commander. The fact that he’s overseeing our little firefight reinforces how crucial this battle really is for ColaCorp.

Using my targeting monocular, I scan the sloping hills and tall grass behind and above Hamburger Hamlet for our commander’s avatar. RangerSix is the kind of guy who can change a battle with a basic rifle kit and some explosives. As usual I can’t find his hiding place.

Across the river, WonderSoft artillery begins throwing everything they’ve got at us. Head down inside my command post, I crank my speakers to full ambient in-game sound, cutting off Catherine Wheel’s seminal late-twentieth-century album Ferment. I’m waiting to hear RiotGuurl’s turbines. She’s Kiwi’s only hope now.

“Sixty rounds left. How about fire support, RangerSix?” It’s Kiwi.

“Negative at this time.” I hear the quiet frustration in RangerSix’s smoke-stained voice.

“Die in place again, huh?” grunts Kiwi.

Behind me, in the detailed squat bamboo and stone village that is the game designers’ representation of a fictional Southeast Asian river basin village, a place we call Hamburger Hamlet as a nod to the often bloody struggles for online supremacy that take place there, our armor rolls through, retreating farther to the east. We’ve been holding this side of the river, waiting for our massive Charger IV battle tanks to cross the muddy brown shallows under heavy mortar fire. Now, it’s time to bug out.

WonderSoft Garage has always been the key to control of the river crossing at Hamburger Hamlet. There’s no bridge, but the river’s shallow enough to get most vehicles across. Now that the overwatch Kiwi was providing at the garage is on the verge of being taken, the battle, at least here alongside the river, is lost for ColaCorp. Any of our units on the far side of the river aren’t getting back to our lines without an airlift. The game day still promises more fighting. It’s Saturday, and the network goes big on coverage for the weekend. But to lose good armor this early would spell disaster for whatever Command has in mind for us to do next. We’ve gotten the Chargers back to this side of the river. That’s enough for now. We’ll have to fight another battle somewhere else.

“Afraid so, son,” says RangerSix to Kiwi over BattleChat regarding any kind of assistance. Or to be more specific, the complete lack thereof. “Sorry.”

Kiwi doesn’t reply.

An Excerpt from Soda Pop Soldier published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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