Unwinding the Immortal Coil

Feng made a match, and had two cards left. She had one card, which surely had a match in his hand. The last card on the table would match his other. Given she could read his scent even with a good pokerface, he was disadvantaged in most card games, except for War.

Still, he wasn't a sore loser, and she was a graceful winner. She didn't make bets, nor did she gloat, and she enjoyed the past few hours, despite her earlier annoyance with the man. She called, took her card, and set the pair down.

"Yes, Kina, would you like to play?"

Kina stared a few moments between them, then grinned and scooted into the seat Feng had, forcibly sharing it. "Alright." She looked at Feng. "So? Tell me?" Her eyes shone with curiosity as she watched him, lips curled into an eager smile as she woke more fully. "What's your name, Feng-Feng?"
 
After having lost, Feng started collecting the cards to shuffle them. In every other game they had played, Feng had lost every time, in this one though he did have a chance it seemed. He wasn't sure if she was just a good player or if she had some hidden technique which wouldn't work in such a randomized game. Either way, he didn't care much if he lost.

"Hm?" Feng raised an eyebrow at Kina's question, never stopping shuffling the cards. "Now where is the fun in just giving you the answer? We have 99 years left together, it's just to start guessing." He teased. She would probably give up guessing in a few hours or maybe days, if she would do it at all, and at that point he might give her the answer. Might. Or maybe he would in 99 years.
 
Kina tilted her head, then her grin grew. "Bob? William? I bet you've got some white name like that, huh? Maybe Heinrich or Elwyn." Her yes narrowed, like a cat who'd cornered a mouse. She didn't even care if she was wrong, at this point. She had a way to bug him, and she was sure she had more patience than he did.

As he shuffled the cards and prepared to deal, she slowly stretched, then leaned forward on the table with a lazy smile. "This bar smells nicer than the others. Nice choice, Rare."

Rare simply smiled. "Thank you."

"Is it Charlotte?"
 
As expected, she started guessing immediately. Typical. A few hours of guessing then boredom would set in and after a few days there would be no drive left to continue the game.

"Nee, Non, Nein and Iie." Feng replied to the first batch of names, all answers being no in different languages. Some he didn't even speak himself, but when you had been around as long as him, yes, no and hello was something you just knew in every languages imaginable. From the way she looked at him, he was certain she believed that she could annoy him with this, but he was sure his patience would outlive hers.

Feng started throwing out the cards, but stopped for a second as Kina's next suggestion came. "Haha very funny. I'll give you one hint, if it's a girly name, I'm definitely not named that." He told her. If she decided to go the girl name route, it probably would bug him after a while. He continued throwing out the last cards before putting the rest of the deck in the middle, spreading them out to a little fishing pond.
 
The two women gathered their cards, and though Kina could have asked Rare—not that she had the answer—she opted not to bother. He wanted to play the guessing game? He'd get the guessing game.

"George, Emily, Emiko, Keiichi, Kintak, Farnam." She looked over her cards as she spoke, then motioned for Rare to start them off as she laid down two matches.

The game started slow, but Rare soon gained a lead, with Kina only a handful of matches behind, though as they went, Feng found it easier to memorize what cards the two asked for or reacted to. More and more, he discovered he could recall with clarity every glance and shift, as though reliving the moment.

Rare handed her last card over to him, then rolled her shoulders. "I need to stand for a bit, since I'm out of the game, anyway. Do you two want anything from the bar, since I'm up?" Her ears and cheeks held a hint of a flush, and the woman wobbled slightly, but didn't stumble.

She brought back whatever the pair asked for, and while she was at it, she took the dishes and cups back to the bar's kitchen, only to giggle as she was shooed out.

While she was gone, Kina made a few more incorrect guesses, and once the taller woman wandered away to socialize with someone seated at the bar, Kina leaned toward Feng.

"So, how are you liking it here so far?" Completely sober despite drinking more heavily than Rare, her gaze on her charge was speculative and curious. Alert brown eyes took in every aspect of his face, and as she rested her forearm on the table in front of them, he had her full attention.
 
"Still not a girl." Feng reminded her, though he figured it wouldn't matter. She seemed rather keen on just doing any random guesses no matter the culture or gender the name was meant for.

Oddly enough, his memory seemed much better than usual. When picking up cards, he immediately remembered if someone else had asked for those cards even if it was many turns earlier, and he could remember if someone else had gotten that card during a later rond. It was quite an odd feeling. His memory had never been bad, but he couldn't say he was more than average. Some things stuck others didn't, now it all just seemed to stick. Was it an after effect of his little journey?

"Get something strong, I haven't had a single kick yet tonight. It would be disapointing if I left this place without having gotten drunk for even a few seconds." Feng told Rare as she asked what they'd want. Sometimes he did wish he could get properly drunk, just forget himself in whatever emotion he had at the moment like everyone around him, but then he remembered how annoying those drunken idiots were and he instantly became happy over only getting that moment of ruse before sobering up instantly.
A few minutes past with Rare going back and forth with drinks and dishes before finally leaving them completely to socialize with others. That was the moment Kina became more talkative above the guessing game.

"It's an unusual place, but then again, that's the feeling I've gotten in every new culture I've visited over the years. I do not particularly like it, but neither do I dislike it. I am rather indifferent when it comes to the place itself. For the inhabitants on the other hand, you are quite the annoying bunch, too emotional, too irrational. So far I've met one person whom I can spend a day with without rolling my eyes a single time, but I'm certain if a few days more were spent, I would find something there as well." Blunt was a very nice word to describe Feng's brutal honesty.

"Last time I was this honest when someone asked me such a question at a bar, I was slapped no less than three times, but I figured you're mature enough to accept that I don't sugarcoat my feelings. Not that I would hold back even if you weren't." Feng knew exactly how much he sounded like a jerk when he was honest, but he had been calling her an annoying woman since minute one, so she was probably used to his honesty by now.
 
Instead of a slap, Kina only laughed. "Do not worry, someday you will grow out of the 'bored and annoyed' phase," she teased, "Especially now that you are starting to remember. It is easy to have no care for others if you have no ties to what it feels like to be loved."

Optimistic as hell, but she already annoyed him, may as well go all out. "Don't you think so, Alan? Beverly? Charlemagne?"

Absently, she stretched. Her shirt lifted to reveal firm abs as she let her hands drop over the back of the seat. Her belly formed a little pudge as she sighed. "Serious, though. Learn anything cool about yourself while I was napping? Maybe a favorite color?"
 
Phase. As if. This wasn't going to change. He was going to be suicidal and bored for an eternity. Suddenly he remembered something. Just a few flashes, nothing that made him loose track of reality this time. He had been this bored and suicidal before. Many times actually. Then he forgot about it sometime after those phases ended. Fuck. Well, that didn't mean this time was a phase, and his memories could make it worse. How could life keep having meaning if he could remember all the horrors of the world? Sure, there would be good, but what was the point of life if death never entered? What was the point in living if everyone around you died? No, this was definitely not a phase like the other times, Feng tried to reason with himself, and even if it was, what was the point in continuing through all these endless loops? Non.

"A phase for a human can keep going for up to ten years, that would equal to somewhere between a few hundred to a thousand years in my time, and you only have 99 years left." Feng reminded her, not thinking his memories would change anything about his life view, at least not in such a short time period. A hundred years was a blink of an eye, nothing would change within such a short span, and he had no desire of waiting above that, not even for his memories."Memories won't change anything, and my expiring date is long overdue. At some point you should just accept that you're too old and let go of life."

"And no, absolutely not and I refuse to believe that's an actual name." Feng then responded to the name guesses.

"Favorite colors change with time, few actually keep their favorite colors throughout their whole life. If I've ever cared about colors, I bet every single one of them has been a favorite at some point." He pointed out. "But I did find out that our computers are much cooler than yours and it seems like I had a girlfriend during my teenage years. Apparently I was a big looser as well. Who the heck nicknames their girlfriend the cutest girl in town on their contact list? What did she ever see in me?" Not even Feng was safe from his harsh criticism.
 
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Kina laughed. "Females are attracted to males that make them laugh, you know, and if you put her in with that sort of nickname, you must have been very, very cute." She let drop the other subjects as she pondered. "I bet you did silly things, too, the sort of things that made females mad with lust!"

Her grin only grew. "I bet you gave her flowers or made playlists for her of songs that made you think of her." Though it may have been mocking, her tone lacked ridicule. Instead, her eyes shone brightly with curiosity. "And maybe she called you 'woogie'." Now, a hint of teasing entered her voice. "Are you a 'Woogie'?"

"Maybe a 'cuddle bug'?"
 
"Most males wouldn't appreciate being called cute." Feng reminded Kina, though he didn't seem very bothered by it himself. Not that he liked being called cute, but knowing this woman, she would just continue teasing him if he let himself get bothered.

"Playlists?" The man raised an eyebrow, clearly having no idea what that even was. No memories were triggered either, so it might not have been a thing in his world. "Woogie? First fake names, now fake words." He shook his head. Of course he didn't believe it was fake, but making jokes that wasn't about death and despair seemed to become more natural to him as his memories came back.

"Nothing rings a bell from your suggestions, though considering how I've treated other women in my life, I probably did give her gifts of some sort if I had the money for it. Flowers have always been low on my list though. Maybe it wasn't even in my culture before I came to earth." He rationalized the absence of memory flashes.

"You are awfully interested in my love life. Are you trying to figure out if I'm worthy of marrying or if you'd rather kill me so you can escape that horrible fate?" He grinned, wondering if she even remembered him seeing her hair before she went to sleep. "I'd vote for option two."
 
Kina took a few moments, but as she realized what Rare must have told him, she laughed. "That would only be an issue if you saw my hair unbound. My romantic interests lie elsewhere, but I do like playing matchmaker." The grin she shot him was almost vicious. "I'm very good at it. Excessively good at it."

She absently swung her hands as her arms rested on the back of the seat. "I've even managed to help people find their life mates on accident."

The woman giggled. "And I even have my ways to ensure that mortal mates don't grow old." Now, she was just poking at him. She knew what happened at the bar, when that woman found him and he attacked her—intel was easy to gather, after all, especially for someone like her, and she'd needed something to do while she waited for him.
 
"If you're thinking what I know you're thinking, stop it. I don't need a mate nor a matchmaker. My only partner is going to be my drink." Feng said before sweeping his glass in one go. "Don't think I'll want to live just because you make someone who shouldn't even be alive immortal. I've been in enough relationships to know they can be the reason of unhappiness."

He was rather confident over which person Kina was thinking of, as he had mentioned her at some occasion in the past. His relationship with that girl was probably more complicated than this woman could ever understand. She wasn't just being reborn over and over, always searching him up, she got obsessed once she got to know him. If he played the perfect husband for her, their relationship was always great, but if he decided in some reincarnation that the family life was not for him or he had stronger feelings for someone else, because that happened sometimes funnily enough, she stabbed, kicked,shouted, killed, anything that gave her what she wanted.

Soulmate my ass, Feng thought, but that was a part he wouldn't bring up to this woman, because even though he should know better, he did remember always loving that woman. Not quite in the same sense as he had done with other people he had gotten into relationships with, but there was a connection there, something he couldn't explain. It was one of his greatest shames, he was like an abused wife who kept coming back for more. Oh how he hated his former self for even allowing himself to feel those things, and even so, he probably would feel the same pain again if he gave her the chance to creep back into his heart. An eternity together with someone he hated to love? No thanks.

Remembering the past times, as annoying as it was, seemed to trigger his memories again. More reincarnations of the same woman, many many more than he could ever have imagined over the course of hundreds of thousands of years, until finally the flashes ended on someone who definitely wasn't from earth from the way she dressed. It wasn't the girl he had seen in a previous flashback, this one looked a bit older, but not with much. Her features seemed to resemble Feng slightly, the same nose, same eye color, same hair color.

"Promise you'll come back for me Cal." The woman said. "Don't you dare die."

"Don't worry, once this mission is over, we'll be together forever. You're my sister, I would never leave you behind."

The empty glass crashed into the floor. Feng sat silently, completely still for a while before finally leaning his face into his palms. "No no no no no no no." Of course, it just had to be the most fucked up answer, didn't it? Fucking great.

"I think I've fucked my reincarnated sister on numerous occasions. That's just splendid." Feng leaned back in the seat covering his eyes with his right hand. "Why does the universe hate me?"
 
Kina blinked at the sound of a glass bouncing first off the table, then the seat, and then crashing to the floor. Others stared as well, as the unmistakable stink of shock and self-loathing began to emanate from the unfortunate soul who just discovered who his sister was.

The Hunter's eyebrows lifted, and her mouth formed a small 'o' of surprise as he admitted the cause of his shock and fell into the most stereotypical posture of despair Kina knew.

Part of her wanted to laugh, but another part of her, a less vicious part, felt she should comfort him. "At least the Multiverse does not."

Ooh, probably not the right words, but people were watching, now.

"Jokes aside, that is... a difficult realization to make. My condolences," she tried, her voice gentle as she reached out and patted his thigh, since his arm was in the way of his shoulder.

Awkward.

"Shall we move on to a different topic? Maybe—" she couldn't think of one. Shit. "Maybe your thoughts on your mother?"

Fuck!

"Kina, you're so bad at this!" came a voice just behind the pair, accompanied by a snicker.
 
Oh God, this woman was horrible at comforting people. Not that it was an easy situation, and no matter what she said it wouldn't really help.

"You're not just bad, you're worse than me, and that's saying a lot." Feng pointed out after someone behind them had spoken. "At least when they hit me for being so un-thoughtful they forget why they were miserable to begin with for a while." Or they would start shouting everything that was the problem while hitting him and afterwards they felt better.

"When changing the topic when someone's upset, you should always bring up something you know the other person likes, something that you know won't cause them bad memories. This is just common sense. Now, since you have no clue what I like and what will cause bad or good memories, changing the topic is a very bad idea for you. Instead you should go get a drink and say 'at least you'll be dead soon enough, that's always something, right?' while handing me said drink. Do I have to explain everything?"

Feng paused from his explanation and then said, "and now I've changed the topic effortlessly from incest to your incredibly bad people skill. see, not hard at all." The distaste from the revelation still stuck with him, but outwardly he just moved on. No reason to dwell on stuff. No reason to mope. Just let it go.
 
The Chinese woman rolled her eyes, but smiled. He was distracted from the topic, at least. "I will take the credit for that, since I am the subject, with my horrible people skills." She patted his thigh, then brought her hand up and rested her elbows on the table. "You are right, though. It is easy when you know what someone likes."

A sidelong glance accompanied her final comment on that subject. "And you like to pick at people for perceived weakness."

Where the tea came from, it was impossible to say, but she sipped at it as she cradled the steaming cup in both hands contentedly. The other glass at the table, one that stank strongly of alcohol, was similarly mysterious as it sat in front of Feng.

Rare returned to the table, face empty of her prior rosiness as she fixed her hair. "Sorry for wandering off. Did I miss anything?"

Kina turned to look toward Rare, her grin beaming with a sense of danger. "Feng remembered the first incarnation of his mate."

"Oh?" Rare's eyebrows lifted as she looked toward Feng, curious. She overheard part of the discussion moments prior, but she couldn't be sure that she heard correctly.

"His mate is his sister!" Kina clapped her hands in front of herself, then tilted them and her head to one side gleefully as Rare's ears grew pink, and the grey-clad woman choked briefly.

Rare remained quiet as she glanced between the pair. She tried to keep a neutral face, and successfully avoided both laughter and disgust as she processed Kina's words. "That is... unusual. It sounds almost too strange to be true, but," she paused, "Honestly, with what I know of you, Feng, it seems just the sort of luck to which you are prone." The woman shook her head. "I am curious, though, how you are so certain. I have never experienced the feeling of being mated, so..."

She closed her eyes. "I hope you'll forgive me if I am prying."
 
"Don't be ridiculous. I don't like to pick on people, I just say what's on my mind. It has absolutely nothing to do with enjoyment." Feng corrected her.

The man could have sworn that the glass of alcohol in front of him had not been there before his breakdown, but who cared, he needed a drink, and so it was gone in the blink of an eye.

Then Rare showed up, and God how he wished she hadn't. "Shut it woman." Feng murmured, almost certain where she was about to go as she started to speak to Rare. Of course that didn't help, and Feng's face once again found his palms. He probably mumbled swearwords in every language he knew.

"I swear I will kill you one day if you keep being this annoying for 99 years." The man glared daggers into Kina, before returning his attention to Rare whom really had nothing to apologize for in comparison to other people in that same room.

"Don't be so easily fooled by this deceiving woman. I have never said anything about her being my mate, that is something she has made up all on her own. I've just told her about how she is reincarnated and always find me somehow and we've ended up in multiple relationships. If she's my sister it does explain why there were feelings between us, as family relations also creates certain obscure emotions, and when not knowing that they are family, those emotions could very well be confused for love." That rationalization did feel true, but it did not make the fact that he had sex with his own sister easier.

"Geez, how could a promise of being together forever turn out like this?" He mumbled, too low for normal human ears to hear, but once again, he did forget he wasn't really around normal humans.
 
"Easily," Kina chimed in answer, unphased by Feng's venom directed at her. Well-rested as she was, her skin was so much thicker. "And if she was not your mate, why call her your fated one before?"

Kina didn't actually think that he was mated to his sister—being mated, it was impossible to resist. There was a pull—the burning need to wrap oneself tight with their mate, and never letting go, and to be torn from them was a pain that destroyed the urge to live. Feng hadn't found it, or had found it in an era he couldn't yet remember, and the pain was manifested so deep he didn't realize it.

Plus, he'd feel horrifically ill if he ever 'cheated' on his mate.

"He is right, she is not his mate, their souls are likely just entwined, and mistake sibling devotion for romance," the Chinese woman grinned, "If he was mated, he would not have been able to try and kill her back at that bar in the town we found him!"

Stares came toward the table at Kina's words.

Rare ignored the stares, then sighed and shook her head. "Relax, Kina's just exaggerating."

The other Hunters began to return to their own drinks, conversation, and other activities.

"This discussion might be better held in private," Rare suggested.

Around that moment, the mysterious drink entered Feng's system like a blow to the head and stuck.
 
"Maybe I called her my fated one cause fate literally was pushing her at me no matter where I went. You don't get more fated than that. Doesn't mean I like it." Feng replied snarky.

Kina seemed to really enjoy pushing every conversation so close to the edge they almost fell over. Feng didn't need to turn around to feel the eyes staring their way. "Well, she really isn't exaggerating. But considering she would just be reborn again, can it really count as murder?" Feng shrugged. "And to my defense, I only strangled her for five seconds before being dragged away. She didn't even get a scratch." As if he cared if they were in a private setting or not. One hate mob more or less wouldn't do much of a difference.

Suddenly everything changed. The slightest movement made the world spin. The feeling was familiar, but a hundred times longer lasting apparently. "wow, wat waas cit I just drank?" He asked, noticing immediately how hard it was to pronounce things properly. Was he actually drunk? Well, that was a first. The question was just for how long it would last. Human drinks, if they gave an effect usually only gave him a couple of seconds ruse.
 
"A very high concentration," Kina informed with a smile. "Many times lethal to a human. I thought you might appreciate it."

Never mind that the woman never left to get it for him, nor did she order the drink, nor did anyone come to deliver it—same as her steaming cup of tea.

"Kina!" Rare started in a scolding tone, hands on the table as she leaned forward. "Kina, you can't just slip someone a drink and—" She sat back down, then rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You should have asked him if he wanted to drink something that strong." The woman shook her head, then looked away and lifted a hand.

"Water, please! Bring the pitcher!" She returned her attention to the two seated opposite her, then looked at Feng. "Incredible healing or not, you are going to want to drink a lot of water. Dehydration to the extent a drink that strong brings is... painful."

Her lips twitched into a stretched frown—she'd experienced such dehydration before.

The pitcher arrived, and ice clinked about in the plastic. Rare poured a half-filled glass and placed it in front of Feng. "Here. Start with this."
 
For the first time ever, this annoying woman actually did something good that he could appreciate. "Dun be sut a buschkill, this isch the greatest thin I've ever drunk." Feng told Rare. "Can I juss stai drunk for a hundrered yeas? I might evn tolerate yu half the time if I do." The man giggled throughout half the words. A sound probably no one had heard the man do ever during his long life. Maybe it had been good that he hadn't been able to get drunk earlier, he would certainly not approve of this behavior once he sobered up. But right now he was happy in a fluffy world.

"I dun need no wata. Is she aways actin like a mom?" Feng slurred. If his brain hadn't been in snooze mode, he would definitely have taken the advice. Now though, he just didn't care about what would happen in a few hours as long as he had fun now. "U gut moe of tha stuff?" His mood was on top for once, but that only meant the fall would be so much harder later.
 
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