Lag 6.9

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

May 13, 2011

9:42 PM

"Not gonna lie, this is kinda nice."

Hand outstretched with the remote pointed towards the television, Greg Veder glanced back at his friend and raised a single eyebrow. "What is?"

Axel "Sparky" Ramos sighed as he leaned back on the couch, can of iced tea in hand. "This, dummy." He shook his head, lips arching upwards into a relaxed smirk as he took a sip of his drink. "Like, just chilling for no reason. Your place, my place, when was the last time we did anything like this, just hung out after school?"

As Greg turned around fully, his butt moving along the carpet in an undignified scoot, he couldn't really find it in him to disagree with Sparky's words. "Yeah, I guess it has been a bit. That's not really on us, though," he added roughly a second later, tossing the remote to his friend. "Here, you find something good to watch."

Sparky let out a scoff as he caught the launched device, placing his can softly on the coffee table a moment later. "You're supposed to make me comfortable. I'm the guest here, brah." Despite his words, he didn't hesitate in continuing to flip through the program guide still on the screen.

"Doubt," Greg retorted, looking almost offended as he flopped down on the couch next to him, air leaving the cushions with an audible noise. "Big doubt on that one."

"What?"

"You are not a guest," Greg clarified, arms going behind his head as he leaned back on the couch. "You've been over here like dozens of times, like, c'mon, dude."

"Counterpoint, I don't live here," his friend shot back immediately. "That makes me a guest."

"Okay, yeah, you're correct but you're not right." The blond's mouth fell open as he stared at Sparky incredulously. "Do you not remember the two of us dancing to Smooth Criminal in this living room last year, banging on pots and pans?" He gestured all around the space they were in, as if to emphasize his point. "At that point, you're not a guest."

Axel scoffed again, as he continued flipping through channels. "Yeah, whatever, that was freshman shit. Either way, I'm still right, brah."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. Open a dictionary, look up the word guest, and you'd see my face right there."

"Again, doubt" Greg turned over to face his friend. "Like they'd put your face in the dictionary."

Sparky shot Greg a half-offended look with a single raised eyebrow. "So, you think I'm ugly?"

"'Course not," the blond winked one bright blue eye at him, "you're the prettiest boy I know. They wouldn't put your face in the dictionary because no one would look at any other page"

Sparky couldn't fight the honest smile creeping across his face. "...Oh, fuck off."

Greg grinned back. "You first."

"Suck a dick."

"Isn't that more your thing?" he jabbed back, smile growing. After a moment, Greg stuck his tongue out and corrected himself. "Half your thing, whatever."

Sparky simply shot him a frown, before he let out a long, burdened sigh and spoke again. "You know, brah, I never thought I'd miss the day you let me punch you into a bloody pulp, but wow, you just make the impossible come true."

A slightly surprised gasp left the blond as he snapped his fingers, shaking his head with a smile at Sparky's words. "Woah, I almost forgot about that day. Talk about a deep dive. I mean, like, that was fun, though, huh?" he added with a laugh. "You and me, testing my limits."

Sparky's mouth dipped downwards. "Yeah, sure, fun."

"Come ooooooon, Sparky," Greg whined at him. "Don't be like that, bro. It was fun. Well," he paused at the blank look his friend gave him, "it was fun for me, okay, and… Well, honestly, if you hadn't done it, I probably wouldn't have survived Lung that first time. So, you…"

Sparky winced slightly as a single finger poked him in the heart.

"You saved my life, bro." Greg finished.

"Yeah…" Axel shook his head, seemingly giving in with a sigh only for his eyes to snap wide open as he glanced back at Greg, "wait… what? I did that?"

"You did, in fact, do that and now ya boi Greg is a pest exterminator," Greg crooned as he jumped up on the couch, arms up in a bodybuilder's flex. Unlike most of what he wore to school, most of his t-shirts were rather tight on his more developed body and his muscles visibly bulged with the movement. "All 'cause I took care of the city's l~l~lizaaaaaard proble~em."

"Were you really that close to dying?"

"H-huh?" Sparky's oddly unemotional voice cut into Greg's celebratory flexing, the blond's smile vanishing somewhat as he glanced down at his friend. Hopping down from the couch, Greg blinked and opened his mouth to reply, only for Sparky to beat him to it.

"Were. You. Gonna. Die?" Each word was punctuated with a flex of his hands, knuckles tight against his skin as he spoke. "That first time, y'know? Is that like, true, or are you fucking with me?"

"I… well… I mean," Greg bit his lip, words struggling to leave him. "I mean, I guess I was kinda bleeding out a bit. A bit more than a bit, yeah." Greg raised his hands a moment later, as he tried to downplay it before his friend could freak. "But before you say anythi-"

"Y'know, I saw the video and all, brah," Sparky began again, already speaking over Greg with his voice raised slightly, "and you told me about the fight a lil' bit but I… I just…" Sparky stuck his tongue in one side of his cheek, quiet for a few seconds as he seemed to work over the words in his mouth, "I don't know why you never mentioned that before."

"Well," Greg snorted, the sound leaving him with a shrug of his shoulders. "Yeah, I didn't cause… I mean, it just wasn't that big of a deal, y'know?"

"How?" Sparky bit back, shooting Greg a dirty look. "How is that not a big deal? Almost dying is like one of the biggest damn deals, brah."

"Okay, look, relax, dude," Greg began, palms still up. "It's what I do. It's how I fight. It's how ya boi Greg gets stronger. I got like eleven whole level ups from that fight. I might have been hurt, y'know, but it's part of the job"

At first, Sparky didn't reply, simply staring silently at Greg with a hard-to-read expression and the blond decided to take his friend's silence as a sign that things were alright. Leaning backward slightly in another shrug, he asked, "So, are we coooool or…"

"Stop talking about yourself in the third person."

"Ya boi Greg makes no promises," he answered honestly, fairly certain he was going to keep doing that till he got bored of it.

Sparky let out an annoyed grunt, simply staring at his smirking friend. After a moment, he spoke up again. "Just answer something else real quick. These level ups?" Sparky asked, mouth forming oddly around the words. "I never asked you before… but… what do they feel like?"

The blond teen blinked back, a hand suddenly rising to his chin. What kinda question, he mused to himself for a second, only to pause as he realized something else. Huh.

He chose to vocalize the thought in the same instant, unable to help himself. "Huh."

"What?"

Greg tapped the side of his head. "I've never… huh. I guess I've never thought about it. I usually get them in the heat of the moment, but still…" His face scrunched up in thought, the teenager let himself drift off as his friend simply looked on.

After a few seconds of near-silence, Sparky stood up from the couch to fix Greg with a serious look. Snapping his fingers, the other boy barked, "My question, blue-eyes. Pay attention."

"Oh, yeah. Uhhhh… Level Ups… they feel like, like tingly, a little. Like a real quick massage inside of me, I guess? Even my brainmeat, weird as that sounds," Greg added with a chuckle as his friend mouthed the word 'brainmeat' with an incredulous expression. "Especially when I get a bunch at once. Man, it's like someone just shot Gamer Juice right into my veins. My heart kinda beats faster and… I," he took in a slight breath of air, eyes closing for a moment before he stared down at his own curled palms, "…I just feel really good. Like, I can do anything."

As the last word left Greg's mouth in almost a whisper, he shook his head slightly and glanced up at his friend's face, expecting some sort of recognition or understanding for his explanation.

Instead of that, he was met with an odd look from Sparky, an odd look that the blond wasn't quite sure how to read, but felt nothing at all like understanding.

If he didn't know any better, he'd even say Sparky looked sad.

Ughhh. The teenager ignored the urge to shudder as he glanced away for a moment to stare at the television, feeling oddly uncomfortable with the held gaze for a reason he couldn't explain.

"... I need to use the bathroom."

Greg turned back as his long-haired friend already began to move past him. "What?" He reached a hand out to grab his friend's shoulder, and frowned a little as Sparky warded him off before he could even make contact. "Wait, Sparks. I know what I said might have sounded kinda weird, maybe, but you gott-"

"Whatever." Sparky shook his head, expression stiff as he turned his back on Greg's attempt to explain himself. "I don't care, okay. It's weird. You're weird. Whatever, brah. Just let me use the fuckin' bathroom."

Greg kept quiet as he watched his friend walk out of the living room, mouth clamped shut even as he caught the whispered hiss that were Sparky's final words.

"Fuckin' hell, man."

Several seconds passed before Greg finally let out a tired sigh of his own and fell backwards against the couch in a slump. "Jeeez…" he began to himself, stretching out both the 'e' and 'z' until it trailed away. "He asks me stuff. I answer what he asks. Why am I the bad guy now?"

He let his head loll to the side, releasing a long muffled groan into his mother's couch. Christ on a cracker, everything was cool up till now. What just happened?

Greg honestly didn't understand how things had changed up so quickly. Inviting Sparky to spend the weekend had been a spur of the moment thing, something he had done all the time before without even thinking about it.

He didn't even have to ask his mom, considering his best friend had been over so many weekends before without her even saying a word about it. Granted, Sparky did have to ask his parents, but that was pretty much a courtesy phone call, considering both he and Greg knew they'd say yes.

And they had.

The whole afternoon had been a mess of just random fun, starting with him and Sparky hitting up a Chinese place for some food to bring home after school. After bringing home enough food to feed like two dozen people (thanks, Inventory!) and playing a bunch of fighting games till Sparky got frustrated at losing almost fifty times in a row (it would have been more, but Greg decided to be nice), all they had done was chill and flip through random channels on the tv, watching whatever caught their interest.

It was…

Honestly, it was pretty chill.

Until, apparently, he had said something that set Sparky off.

"Ugggggghhhhhh," Greg groaned once more into the cushions.

To make things worse, he still wasn't exactly sure which part of what he said got to his friend so bad. It was like playing a game of Jenga talking to the guy sometimes. He wasn't sure what would get him a lecture, or a mean look. I mean, yeah, I poke at him 'cause it's fun, but….

He let out a sigh, pulling himself up until he was leaning forward on the couch, hands on his knees. Half the time, he rolls with it and other times, he goes off and lectures me or stops talking to me or whatever.

An annoyed scowl formed on Greg's face, a grimace below narrowed eyes. And it's not like I even did anything on purpose this time. I just told him the truth. And if that's gonna make him pissed at me, then...

He quickly hopped up from the couch, tight fist dropping into his open palm as he came to a decision. Then I'm just not gonna tell him anyth-

"Greg."

The blond teenager whipped around to face his friend, eyes wide from surprise. "H-hey, dude." The blond raised a hand in an uncertain wave toward the other boy on the edge of the hallway, Sparky's expression flat as he stood there with his phone in hand. Of course, he's still mad. Like I even did anything. Ugggghhh, let's just do this.

Thankful that he hadn't said any of his thoughts out loud, Greg took a few steps forward, a forced smile on his face as he spoke up again. "So, first off, I feel like you're mad at me and I don't know for sure why."

Sparky blinked.

"A-anywaaaay, to fix that, I made a list of everything I did in my head and I'm going to try not to do any of them again. 'Kay?" After a moment, he paused to screw up his face in thought before correcting himself. "Well, maybe not the third person thing, though. Ya boi Greg is thinking that might be his new thing."

A few seconds passed and a forced smile began to break, falling from strained and eager to nervous and unsure. All the while, Sparky refused to say anything back or even change the look on his face, his stare still unreadably blank as he remained in place where he was.

Frick on a stick, what did I do to this guy? Greg whined to himself.

With a nervous laugh, he began again. "Okay, no joke. Jokes are off the table. No prob. I'm just gonna say that… like… I know I might have said something we-"

"I don't care about that," Sparky finally interrupted, voice as tight as it was quiet.

"Huh?" was his only reply.

"This." Sparky raised his phone, allowing Greg to spot the familiar color scheme and mobile layout of the website everyone and their cousin knew as Parahumans Online. "I'm talking about this."

The blond boy's mouth opened slightly as he raised a finger, unsure exactly how to reply or exactly what all this was about. "... you're mad about PHO?" Greg finally managed to reply, his voice oddly high as the last word left his mouth. "I mean, I do have some issues with their draconian moderation policy, so I can see why."

"Don't fuck with me, brah," Sparky held the phone screen up. "What the hell is this?"

"The hell is what?" Greg let out an actual laugh despite not feeling much like it, hands raised in confusion. "I got good eyes, dude, but they're not that good. I can't see wh-"

His words were interrupted once more, Sparky deciding to forgo conversation in favor of launching his smartphone at the other boy's head with an annoyed grunt.

Tantrum, much?

With a mental sigh and a roll of his eyes, Greg Veder deftly caught the device with a single hand, the blond scooping it out of the air before it struck his face. Without missing a beat, he fixed his now-scowling friend with a raised eyebrow as his arm dropped back down to the side. "Really, dude?"

"Look at the fucking phone," Sparky growled irritably.

Letting out a slight sigh as he held eye contact, Greg decided to drop his smile. "Promise you'll chill out if I do?" he offered, unable to help himself from trying to ease the tension.

Instead of answering, Sparky simply crossed his arms over the smiley-face on his chest, the word 'Nirvana' still visible in bright yellow lettering over his thin limbs.

"Jeez man," the blond gave in, throwing up a hand in defeat. "I'll look at the fucking phone."

Not even wasting another moment with a sigh, Greg held the phone away from his face to stare at it.

A half-second later…

"Huh."

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Topic: HARDKOUR STAKES HIS CLAIM

In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay

Rakugaki (Original Poster) (Banned)

Posted On May 12th 2011:

Last month, Lung was beaten, Oni Lee was put in the hospital and Bakuda got what was coming to her.

Three weeks ago, the Azn Bad Boys died as a gang.

Two weeks ago, the Empire decided that meant they could do whatever they wanted to our people.

Today, we are making it clear that none of that means our territory is up for grabs.

Today, we are letting it be known that no one can attack us without retribution.

Today, our new boss has a message for Kaiser and the Empire 88.

Link: [VIDEO]

(Showing page 1 of 1)

►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)

Replied On May 12th 2011:

WHAT THE FUCK?

► Tin Mother (Moderator)

Replied On May 12th 2011:

This post has been locked and the original poster banned.

Using PHO's public threads to facilitate criminal activities in any way is considered a breach of the terms of service.

Here is a ban for your efforts, Rakugaki.

End of Page. 1

Greg Veder blinked a pair of large blue eyes, raising his gaze back to his friend.

"Huh."