Unwinding the Immortal Coil

"Oh, I heard about that!" Kina giggled. "Many weird rumors. They might die down."

She shrugged. "But I did arrive before you."

The woman's smile widened, forcing her eyes to shut partway.

Drake kept his head between his knees, but grunted quietly. After a moment, he shifted his head to look up. "I said it isn't fun." He spoke slowly, then put his head back down and placed both hands on the back of his neck. Pulling down with them, he pushed up with his neck until he began to feel better.

"What are you on about?" the male asked after a few moments.

"Feng-Feng started more fun stories."
 
"Many?" Feng mumbled, he could only think of two. His drunken adventure and his sexuality. Oh well, the less he knew about the rest, the better.

"I started one more... As far as I know." Feng corrected her as she spoke to Drake. "I was correcting some brats on certain misunderstandings and they ended up believing I was homosexual. Honestly, just because I'm not interested in taking a woman to bed doesn't mean I would prefer a man. Though in my experience, men have been less emotional and clingy afterward so I guess I have a small percentage higher tolerance for men in general." His tastes did seem to be ever changing as sometimes he only seemed to have interest in women, while other times his interest laid with men, sometimes it was a mix and now it was neither. It might have had more to do with the areas and time periods he had been in rather than his own sexuality though. If you met the right person, there would be an attraction, if there were many night open places in a city, there would be more opportunities for a short lived sex encounter.

"I guess it's a better rumor than the drinking disaster, thanks a ton woman." He was definitely still a bit bitter about that one. "As long as you won't throw me into an asylum or execute me for it, I suppose such rumors won't disturb me too much." So far, Feng had not been thrown into any insane asylum, he had only heard of homosexuals being put into such places together with other mentally ill people. He had however been executed a few times when someone slipped up about their nightly encounters. There had also been time periods where it had been accepted on some level or kept in the dark but not strictly illegal. He had met many different cultures with different rules and he was not one to tell people if their rules were right or wrong, if he lived there, he would simply follow them, or at least take the punishment if he decided not to follow them and they caught him doing something they thought was wrong.
 
"So, with giants dead, what is next?" Kina asked. "I did not listen in earlier because it bored me."

Drake lifted his head slightly, only to lower it again. "Roads," he grunted, then glanced toward Feng. "Something about roads?"

Kina giggled.

"He is so dain bramaged," she chirped. "Sometimes he is cuter this way."

"Eat a rock."
 
Bored her? How professional of her.

"Trust me, darling, you would be much cuter brain-damaged, though maybe brain-dead would suit you a little bit better." Feng told the Asian woman with a quite innocent tone as if he was truly complimenting her. Ah, how nice it would be to have her brain-dead for a few hours, it would certainly shut her up.

"The people can't get away from the city in case of an emergency because the rodes are all blocked by something. The route big enough for carriers are filled with raiders, another has a risk for Terragona attacks.

One is not large enough for carriers and they can only send small parties or one family at a time. Two routes are blocked by the state, no one knows why so we are unsure if they are unusable or not. The last route is one that isn't finished, they were building a bridge there but people kept disappearing so they had to stop. I went there to check it out, but I didn't find what caused the disappearances, though I did find a cavern with quite an interesting figure and his 'adorable' pets. The opening to the cavern around the bridge should probably be closed up just in case if they are able to continue the construction, but I didn't really find any serious threats." Feng filled her in. This newfound super memory of his was quite useful, he had never cared to memories all those routes otherwise. The two closed by the government especially would have been easily forgotten.

"Even if we get rid of the raiders, there is a risk that there will come more if this is a hotspot for such activities. It would only be a temporary solution at best and only viable at the moment the whole city decides to leave for good. The same goes for the road with the Terragona. Right now the easiest routes seem to be the two blocked routes and the unfinished bridge route, though since we have no idea what to expect from them they might be even more dangerous than anything else."
 
"Ah, FengFeng is so cruel," Kina joked, then giggled as she covered her mouth, eyes lit with merriment. "I will snoop on the closed roads, though. You two can... Hmm..."

The woman tilted her head as she tapped her chin with one finger, then grinned. "You two worry about helping with some rebuilding here. FengFeng is bad at sneaking, and Drake loves to help children anyway." She grinned. "Or you two can go home and try to find another mission to attempt going on without me while I am busy here."
 
Feng glared at the woman. "I am not bad at sneaking!" He protested. "I've just been very unlucky since I met you."

"I think we need to let his brain recover a bit more before escaping to another death trap." Feng then pointed out. Glancing down at the floor, he noticed the clothes he wore were quite torn after his adventure in the cave. "Maybe I should get back to earth soon and pack a bag of clothes. It seems like it will be needed." Not that he had that much clothes. He had a few spares lying around in case something happened, but usually when things happened to him, they happened years apart, not right after one another. Now it happened so quickly it felt as if he'd have to buy a new wardrobe just to get through the year. There should be some money lying around his small house to fix some extra if needed.
 
"Fengfeng should wear more red and try some good luck charms!" Kina chirped as she clapped her hands together, then tilted the joined hands to one side while her head tilted to the other.

"And for clothes, Drake has extras in his pockets he can lend, or you can use some of his funds to buy clothing here, blend in a little bit!"

Drake sighed heavily. "I don... have local...?"

"Gold should be fine."

He grunted and flipped up the collar of his coat.
 
"Don't bother, I have no reason to blend in at a place I know I'll be leaving soon. Blending in is done to avert suspicion from you and, or to make people warm up to you more. They are already aware that we came from somewhere else so if they're suspicious, my clothes won't change that, and I have no reason to wish for them to warm up to me." Feng said. Even without that reason, he wasn't too fond of just accepting money from people without having worked for it. Last time he had accepted the clothes because he didn't have much choice, except if he wanted to run around naked of course, and people sharing food with one another had been such a common thing when he traveled a few hundred years ago that he still didn't have much against it if people wished to give him some.

"And there's no rush anyway. These will probably hold up until we're done here. Now go and be a bit productive. His brain is already damaged enough, you'll just slow down the recovery process by talking nonsense." Feng waved his hands dismissively. "Those roads won't check themselves, and though I'd love to check it out myself, we all should know at this point that I suck at not getting into trouble." Well, some trouble was his own fault for actively seeking them out, like the gassants, but most of it were things he had tried to avoid, like when he drowned in the cave escaping enemies that he shouldn't even have gotten involved with.
 
"It would be more convenient than going back to your original world, yes?" Kina shrugged. "Besides, you may like the clothing here better, Fengfeng!" She clapped again, once, and nodded as though it was settled.

With that, she reached into a pocket and handed Feng at least two dozen fingernail-sized rough gold coins. "Here. Should be more than enough!"

"Now, you can babysit Dlake, and I will go investigate the roads, if you do not want to."

Drake groaned. "I'm... I'm fine. Just," another pause, "Dizzy."
 
"Original world." Feng snorted, before realizing he had actually seen it as his original world up until... Well, this very second... It wasn't though. He came from somewhere else. Shouldn't he have realized that when he remembered his first life? But it had looked like humans, earth. Now he remembered it wasn't. Earth was just a planet they were observing at the time. Experimenting with. It was funny how the memory just was there, completely obvious, with a feeling that it had been there all along, that he had known it all along, but at the same time, this was the first time in a very long time he had actually remembered it.

"Sure, I'll babysit him, but I won't promise he won't end up in a dumpster somewhere. Kids are the worst." He said jokingly. At least they were the worst if they weren't your own. Feng could remember having cared for quite a few kids before, but only of his own flesh and blood.

Once the woman was gone, Feng returned to the thought of his original world. "Hey, how well do you guys know of planets that haven't been in much contact... Or any contact with other places in the universe? If they for example locked the world out so no one could easily visit... Would it still be possible to teleport there with your... uhm.. Transport devices..?" It was a long shot. Feng had a nagging feeling he should be getting back there, but he wasn't sure why. There was so many memories in his mind, all trying to come up to the surface, if he didn't get something that pushed the right memories up, they didn't seem to appear too easily.

As far as he could remember at this very moment, they had been observing earth, Feng had been sent there at some point, it was the only planet they were in contact with, though probably very reluctantly, they kept people out, they had greater technology than that of the time period he had left on earth. Maybe his memories would come back faster if he met someone whom had also lived on that planet... Though to do that he would either have to go there or find that woman whom kept reappearing, being incarnated over and over again. His sister.... And many times his wife and stalker psychopath. But could she help him with his memories if she didn't remember their home planet? She had never shown any signs of knowing anything other than the life she was living at that very time.... Maybe he just needed to be patient and the memories would come on their own.
 
Drake raised an eyebrow, then tilted his head, curious. After a moment, he pulled out his portable portal and toyed with the beads a few moments. He raised an eyebrow at Feng, then exhaled. "Do you have the multidimensional coordinates? Otherwise, you're out of luck."

He felt a bit more himself now as he stood and looked around. "Alternatively, we could ask Lady Jade."
 
Feng tried to search his memories for something like that, but either it wasn't there or he couldn't remember it. Sure, he could remember some numbers when he tried to figure out where earth was in relation to his own home, but those weren't called interdimensional coordinates. Their own system seemed to have the starting point at their own planet and putting everything in relation to it.

"I know where earth is in relation to that planet, with earth's coordinates and a few others as examples I could probably backtrack the numbers and figure out the position, but it would probably take a few months if not years... Yeah, let's just ask, not that I have anything against math, but I prefer the easier route if I can take it. Let's just hope she won't hold that drunken episode against me." Well, he had apologized already, but that didn't always matter to some people, and he didn't know her nearly enough to figure out if it was enough with a simple apology or if he needed to buy her half a jewelry store to get her forgiveness.
 
"Do you want to borrow my phone?" Drake reached into a pocket and drew out a rectangle, only to pause. "Do you know how to work a phone? Probably not..."

The man sighed and shook his head.

"I'll show you how at the inn, out of the sun..."

Kina watched them a few moments, then departed. Already, she would know all that happened to the pair in the town, and that was enough for her. She couldn't stand not knowing, after all...
 
"Don't insult me, of course I know how to use a phone." Feng said offended, putting his arms across his chest defensively. "But that is definitely not a phone. Looks like a stone-age device. I should know, I lived during that era. Is it really that you don't have anything more modern or does your workplace just hate new technology that much that they can't make a hard light holographic device that can be put in a bracelet or even implanted into the skin? You'd never lose your phone that way. In your line of work that seems like it could be pretty important."

Well, to be fair, Feng didn't remember ever having a phone transplanted into his arm, but he did remember his sister using one like that. He had the feeling that he actually had wanted one like his sister, but for some reason, he had always been told no by his parents. He couldn't remember why though. Maybe they never told him the reason. It took him a few seconds to even notice that these new memories just had come to him and a few minutes earlier he had not had any idea what a phone actually was. Just the mention of it had triggered his memories in a way that it felt like they had always been there.

"Your computers aren't much better. They aren't even portable. You have it rough." Said the man who hadn't even seen a computer for thousands upon thousands of years before meeting these two.
 
Drake stared a few moments, then sighed. "It's a money issue."

He left it at that, though in his mind he was recounting all the money troubles the organization had from when he was on the team of administrators.

What a nightmare, always in the red.

He began walking towards the inn, slightly unsteady from his bout with brain damage, and when they arrived, he fell into a seat and unlocked his phone. A bit of scrolling and tapping, and he handed it over to Feng.

"Just hold the speaker at the top up next to your ear and talk normally."
 
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