The Name Game

With the distraction of the Reaper now gone, it was time to get back to business.

The System's words brought her back to the situation at hand.

"Oh, that's right. The game!" she said enthusiastically. She loved playing games. Even though she never won any. But she was always so happy when her friends won.

the System replied.

"You said my friends can play with me, right?" She wanted to be sure she'd heard it correctly.

the System repeated its earlier statement. She didn't catch the disdainful way it said 'friends' nor the ominous tone of the entire statement. She was too sweet and gullible to catch the nuances of language.

"What are the rules of this game?"

"Okay" she said unsure. "Sounds easy enough, I guess."

the System said.

"Wait!" she interrupted.

The System asked impatiently.

"What is your name?"

"Name. What do I call you?"

it said proudly.

"I can't call you that." She said firmly.

"Everyone should have a name. Even a System."

"But I can't call you that." She repeated.

"Well, it's long and cumbersome. And…it's not very nice."

She thought she heard the System snort derisively.

"I need a way to contact you, right? A name makes it easier. Especially if I'm in a hurry."

the System replied sounding not entirely convinced.

"Great!" she clapped her hands excitedly. "Since you don't have one of your own, can I name you?"

The System didn't sound too pleased. it warned.

"Alright. Deal. We'll decide on one together, okay?"

"First, are you a boy or a girl?"

"Well, you sound like a boy so…" she began. Then she suddenly thought of something that disturbed her. "Oh! I'm not sure I like a boy being my head. It seems…improper." She mused.

it practically yelled at her.

"Okay. Okay. No need to be so touchy. I didn't mean to imply that you were perverted or anything.

A chuckle echoed through her head. it said mischievously.

"Yes, there is!" she cried horrified.

"Now, let's see what would be an appropriate name?" She was having a very difficult time thinking of one.

suggested the System.

"Oh, no!"

"Never!"

"Absolutely not!"

She seemed to consider that for a moment, then realized it was frequently used as the name of the Antichrist in popular fiction.

"No. I'm not going to call you anything that means 'child of the devil.'"

"Of course! I can't call you that."

"Isn't that a serial killer's name?"

the System admitted.

"Yikes!" she replied. "We might as well call you the Nightstalker or the Strangler."

"That was not a suggestion!"

"Let's try something else." She said resolutely, refusing to answer its question.

"No mass murderers of any type."

She was so guileless that she didn't even realize It was teasing her.

"Why? Because they're human monsters!"

"No humanoid monsters." She scolded.

The System was enjoying teasing her. It had no intention of offering serious name choices. It knew she would reject all of its suggestions.

"No inhuman monsters either." She scolded.

"Hmm. Let's try something else."

"No pagan deities."

"No supervillains."

"No names for that…place" she couldn't bring herself to say the actual word.

It teased.

"Yes, that – opposite of Heaven – place."

"Can't you think of anything less…evil?" She sighed.

it replied honestly.

"Well, I'm not going to call you anything like that." She said decidedly. "What about Michael? Or Gabriel? Or Rafael?" She ventured hopefully.

She heard retching noises from the System. < I WILL NOT ACCEPT BEING NAMED AFTER AN ANGEL> it declared so strongly it made her head hurt.

"Okay. Calm down." The pressure in her brain seemed to let up when she agreed not to use angelic names.

She pondered further names. "There must be something we can both be happy with."

the System muttered.

The Name Game continued for another hour with each rejecting the names suggested by the other.

"It's not nice to use others." Grace replied.

"Oh, yeah. That's right."

At an impasse, they were both silent for about 30 more minutes. Suddenly, inspiration struck.

The System offered hopefully. It was ready to be done with this farce and move on to more important things.

"I know! I'll call you 'Devon.' Would you like that?" she said nearly simultaneously with his suggestion of Devlin.

The System thought about it for a few seconds before agreeing.

It sounded a little bit like 'devil', which was why he'd suggested 'Devlin' in the first place. Most importantly, it finally stopped this useless back and forth. Now they could proceed with her learning and using the System as it was designed.

"Yay!" she clapper her hands and giggled excitedly like a little girl.

"Yes. You have my full attention."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Imp slipped into an abandoned building as the rain poured harder. For some reason, the Mortal Realm seemed familiar to him. He didn't understand as imps didn't normally travel the Realms.

In fact, imps typically remained in the lower circles of Hell and were tasked with aiding the Demons that tortured the Souls imprisoned there. They were also the target of higher-level Demons who tormented them for amusement and used them to practice new tortures on. Imps were little more than messengers and menial servants to more powerful infernal entities.

Yet, he was here now, and he needed a new form and a name. For some reason, the name 'Ian' spoke to him. It just seemed right.

However, changing form was a considerably more difficult task.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Nicodemus arrived in the Mortal Realm. He could sense the System was nearby. He didn't know why, but he felt a strange connection to it. Almost as if he were drawn to it.

'It surely must have found a host by now' he thought.

He felt certain that if he met the person who now possessed it, he would know in an instant. So, the next thing he needed to do was to think of a persona and disguise himself as a human.