Unwinding the Immortal Coil

"I lost my poison supplies a few hundred years ago," Rare offered, then tilted her head thoughtfully. "Honestly, that sounds like a hassle to wake from. They at least had the decency to clean you, I hope, so you didn't wake covered in your own vomit?"

Utterly unphased, the woman began to lead the way from the kitchen. She ate her meat with her fingers, the bite-sized cuts dry enough not to leave a mess.

Absently, Rare reflected on Feng's immortality, and how similar it was to someone she'd last seen too long ago. It felt painful to remember.

Still, there were other things to do in the current moment than mope. "Kina will wake in a few hours, and there are lots of entertainments here, so I can show you that either before or after the trip to one of the bars here. We have a variety, so, what do you like in a bar?"
 
"The less I say about my hygiene at the time, the better." Feng replied. It had been a different time, and not having any living relatives that could pay things oftentimes meant a rushed and rough burial, if they even got a proper burial at all. At times it happened people were just thrown into messy mass graves because of the amount of bodies or simply because no one payed for the dead. It all depended on the time and the place.

"I've never really bothered remembering any names of the drinks. I just tell the staff to give me something strong that they would highly recommend. Nine out of ten times I get something drinkable." He shrugged. "Though I guess we should take a look at those.. Entertainments first I suppose. I don't tend to stay around people for too long after they get drunk. Being the only sober person is rather boring." He was so used to be the last man standing after a night out that he forgot he wasn't around normal people.
 
Rare offered a brief wince of empathy at the comment of hygiene, but let the subject drop.

"Entertainments, it is. We have several recreational rooms and a few courtyards. I'm sure you'll find something that holds your interest for a time."

The rest of the tour took him first to a few of those courtyards: gardens where he could see the evening sky. A few quiet Hunters chattered together in one. Two were empty. The last, Rare didn't seem to care or notice the amorous couple embracing against a willow tree's trunk.

From there, she led him to a place called the 'game room'.

It was no small room. There were rows of arcade games, a few table-based games like pool and air hockey, and finally, there were two cushy nest-like areas with massive black rectangles propped against the wall, angled to aim directly at the comfiest seat before them. One of these stations was occupied by a young man surrounded by young ladies.

On the screen, one hand hald a sword, and the other held a ball of magic.

"See, just like—" the young man started, then leaned to one side, and the point-of-view character rolled to that same side. "Keep dodging until—RIGHT THERE!" He charged forward and the sword flailed at the side of the dragon's face as it spewed fire from its mouth.

Then, both the speakers and the young man shouted together, "Fus ro DAH!" and the dragon flew away, as though impacted by a strong wind.
 
Bet he couldn't hunt any rabbits in the courtyard either. Feng followed the woman without much expectations of finding something he would deem fun. Not that he had ever found the bars he visited especially fun, but it was better than not doing anything at all.

First they visited a few of the courtyards. Nothing of interest there if he wasn't going to start spying on people. He didn't even bother paying any attention to the people showing intimacy in the open.

Once that was done, they entered a room filled with metal boxes that seemed to be having pictures painted at them, except they were moving? The table games were more recognizable to Feng as some were similar to games he had seen in the past, though not completely the same for most of them as they had changed over the years.

"I have to say, this is a rather... Different room." Interesting might have been a good word for it, but on the other hand, he wasn't certain this would interest him. Odd was another word that came to mind. Confusing was probably the best word for it. "Why are those kids so nosy and jumpy over those moving pictures?" He asked. The noise level was something he was used to from the bars he visited, so it didn't disturb him much, even the kid's reaction seemed recognizable from drunks telling their stories that might or might not have been true. It was the moving pictures that was the strange and perplexing thing here. "Have witches enchanted these paintings to make them move?" He mumbled, trying to figure it out.
 
Rare covered her mouth to keep from laughing. "No, nothing of that sort. These are all powered by electricity. When it runs through certain materials, it can make a variety of colors, to my knowledge. It is not something I understand very well."

His comment about witches, though? It made it hard to resist. "If you want to see witchcraft, I could indulge you."

She pushed one of her fingers into her mouth, then ripped off some skin, enough to form a drop of blood when she withdrew the finger. The drop began to glow brightly, and she began to write in the air—the letters floated in place, connected to each other by a glowing line.


Spooky!


The young man playing Skyrim healed himself with his spell, then resumed dodging as the girls gasped at the simulated danger.
 
Electricity? As in lightning? How could anyone tame such a force? Feng couldn't understand any of it. It was still too early in history for him, the light bulb was only now starting to last for longer periods of time, and the public wouldn't get to know of the wonders of electricity for another few years.

"I'll just pretend to understand what you're talking about." Feng sighed, realizing it was far out of his league. Making colors was one thing, but these pictures were moving. Her explanation didn't answer what that was about at all.

Feng raised an eyebrow as the woman started to speak about witchcraft. He waited patiently for her to finish whatever she was doing. Upon seeing her little trick, Feng blinked a couple of times before yawning.

"Was that supposed to impress me?" He asked, sounding bored on the tone. "I've already met my fair share of witches, you'd have to do more than a party trick if you want to indulge me." Feng continued with a slightly challenging grin, though it fast disappeared.

"So, what are you supposed to use these things for? Is it some kind of tactical training?" After having observed the young man playing the game, he had now figured out that you could move the person on the screen, and since it seemed as if he was fighting on the screen, it might have to do with a tactic training program. That seemed like a rather intriguing idea if it was true, as that would certainly make it easier to train and find potential future army generals and such. Not that he would need anything like that.
 
Rare shook her head. He was easy to convince something was witchcraft, but he didn't honestly care, nor was he at all impressed by her blatant use of magic, even if it was a small and simple application.

Disappointingly, he was nothing but a hick who lived too long. Not even a bit of curiosity to him. One of her eyelids twitched, but she kept her expression neutral as she turned from him to look at the game. "These are for fun, actually. The advantages of learning tactics and increased coordination are secondary, in our leader's mind, to not being miserable or bored. These engage our minds, which normally would not receive much attention, back before she took control of the organization."

"Would you like to try one of the games? Perhaps a simple one." for a simple man.

Another man came to mind, not a true immortal like Feng, but someone else who transcended time and whose curiosity ensured he was never bored or boring.

None of her annoyance showed in either expression or posture. "If not, we also have a computer room, a gym, and several media rooms. I don't think you'll find much of interest in the computer room, though." Computers were best enjoyed by curious people, after all.
 
"Simple?" Feng snorted. "I thought you said these things were supposed to be fun. Simplicity takes away the fun in anything." He wasn't much interested in doing anything, but when he did, he tended to not start at the bottom. A challenge wasn't necessarily fun, but at least it kept him occupied.

"And why wouldn't I be interested in that computer room? I used to work on them all nigh.." He stopped himself. What had he just said? He shouldn't even know what a computer was, but suddenly it was there in his mind clear as day, a memory of a screen, text and pictures being scrolled through, excitement as something new was being introduced to him. This... Couldn't be. Earth had never had such technology as far as he could remember, but even so, he could clearly remember it. Had it existed and then disappeared? No... It was a complicated machine in his mind. For it to just disappear without a trace, for humanity to go back in their knowledge to such a degree world wide... How was that possible.

"That's impossible.. This memory.. It can't exist." If he had lived in a world with technology greater than that of man in his current time period, did that mean that he originally came from somewhere else? The future? It seemed so absurd, but then again, so did these dimension travelers. "What are you researching." Reality seemed to have disappeared around the man, all he saw was the screen that he easily manipulated with the touch of his fingers. The text was like that in a dream, unreadable, but maybe he could see it.. Maybe..

'Y̶̓͜ô̸͚ü̶̢ ̶̜͗ș̶̉h̴͇͝ó̸̼ų̶̓l̴̙̑ḏ̴́ ̶̣̇ẖ̸̌a̷̯͌v̴̱̎ḛ̵́ ̶͇͝b̸̫͝ę̴͂e̷̜̕n̸͖͆ ̷̨̍í̷̘n̵̟͘ ̵̨̚b̶͖͋e̶̛̦d̴̪̆ ̴͎͆a̷̡͗ ̵̺͘l̸̗̋o̴͉͗n̵̈͜g̷̜͗ ̶̟̓t̷̝̓ḭ̴̊m̸͈̓e̷̪͒ ̶̧́a̷̐͜g̸̟̎o̶̻͛!̶̤̀'

"What?" He suddenly jolted and stared at Rare as if she was the one who had disturbed him. It had certainly been a female voice, though now when he thought about it, it had sounded differently. "I'm.. Sorry, what were we talking about?" These memories were too intrusive, popping up out of nowhere and then disappearing without giving him answers.
 
Rare watched him as he delved into memory, and her eyebrows shot upward. Computers prompted a memory, did they?

He must have been to an advanced world at some point, or perhaps was from one.

She waited patiently until he emerged.

"You're clearly not from the same world we found you," Rare murmured. "I'll show you to the computer room. Maybe it will bring you some answers."

A few people were staring at Feng, now, including the boy at the controls for Skyrim, who had paused the game and was craning his neck.

"Miss Rare, is that Kina's friend?" he asked.

Rare looked toward the young-looking Hunter and answered him, "Yes, but leave him be for the moment."

The young man nodded, then watched from his seat, and so did the girls.
 
"Not from..." He looked at her questioning, but didn't ask any further. What other world would he possibly have come from? That was the only world he knew. At least he thought it was. It should be.

The stares was slightly uncomfortable. Feng had always been a man that effortlessly blended into the environment he currently visited. No one noticed him before he spoke to them, or did something that made them curious. There had certainly been times when he made sure people would notice him because it had been fun, but that had been a younger more adventurous Feng. Now a days he'd rather stay out of peoples eyesight. Apparently he wasn't doing a too good job right now.

"Any particular reason they were staring at me as if I was the bearded lady at the carnival?" He eventually asked once he was certain they shouldn't be able to hear him. Of course his measurements was in human hearing.
 
"Um, I can still hear you," the young man muttered. "Rude."

Rare simply sighed. "Sorry about him, Alfie."

With that, she shook her head. "To the computer room, then," she decided, and began to lead Feng away.

Finally, after several minutes, she sighed. "Hunters have much better hearing than humans," she informed in a quiet tone. "Also, they were staring because they were worried. People don't often space out like that here, unless something's wrong."

The walk to the computer room was over in the next moment, and she led him into a room where multiple rows of computers rested on long tables, with chairs of plastic and upholstery. One young girl spun in her chair beside an older girl, impatient while the other checked her email at a painfully slow rate—double-clicking each title to read each email, and then reloading the page to return to the inbox.

The younger looked ready to rip her own hair out.

"I don't like checking my email. It's such a hassle," the elder replied.

"You're doing it wrong!" The younger groaned.

"No, I'm not."
 
"And I can still feel your stares penetrating my soul." Feng muttered not caring at this point if they heard him or not. Yeah, he was the rude one pointing out people were looking at him as if he was a monkey at the zoo. How come everyone surrounding that annoying woman was equally or even more annoying than her?

Then the explanation came. "Worried?" There was a slight laugh in his voice, as if the thought was utterly ridiculous. "Sounds like a waste of energy worrying for a stranger. Even if I died on the spot right here right now, no one knows me well enough to actually care. People close out the suffering of those outside of their own circles, race or class because if they cared about everyone, they wouldn't be able to continue living while knowing of all the suffering in this world. People die on the street everyday because no one is willing to help even though they are walking right past them. It's perfectly normal not to care for someone like me, a stranger who doesn't give anyone a reason to care."

Oh all the times he remembered having cried over the death of the unknown. Now a days he could only ask himself why. Why had he cared for those he had barely spoken to? After a few wars, those feelings slowly disappeared. Eventually he became like most others, ignored the suffering if it came from anyone other than close family and friend, then he just shut the world out.

"Hmm..." Feng stood in the doorway, just looking at the computers for a while, as if solving a puzzle. "These are quiet... Different." He said walking forward. There were many screens, which he did recognize from his vision, though in his vision it hadn't been as... Compact? Somehow what he had seen in his vision had been more of a illusion screen that couldn't be touched. Looking down on the keyboard he could remember there being something similar but not the same. Something like a glass surface would have been where this keyboard was, and that was used to write or more around on the screen. There was some kind of half round object as well, which Feng had no idea what it was actually meant for, but the girls seemed to use it the most.

"Well, these things doesn't look like what I remember. Ours was only a flat screen, like this one, but just hovering in the air as if it was made up of nothing but light, while a flat surface was keeping it up. The size could be changed, it could even cover the whole room if one wished. There weren't any buttons like these, but you could press the glass and it did things. I don't think I used that part so much though... I think I was talking to it more to make it do things. If I wanted to write I could just tell it exactly what it should write, though there was the option to write it down either by hand or by making the glass displaying the letters of the alphabet and then it was just to push them. I could search for... Pretty much anything that was known to man." Things were coming back to him far more clearer all of a sudden, but still there were pieces that was missing. Lots and lots of pieces. These things weren't close enough to what he was used to for him to remember more about it.

"It barely looks anything like what I used to know and still it triggered this many memories effortlessly." It felt strange that it just came to him now instead of intruding on him as it had last time. Though maybe it had to do with that this expanded on an already established memory rather than being a completely new one.

It was anyone's guess whether Feng was talking to himself the whole time or if he actually addressed Rare directly, as him talking to himself usually manifested in the same way as when he spoke to others. Either way, he didn't necessarily have to look at people. "The gaming room wasn't technology that triggered the memories, which means it either hadn't been invented or wasn't something that was part of our culture at the time." He mumbled to himself. "Do you have any other technology that earth hasn't seen at this point? There might be a chance I could find something else that triggers it, since we seem to share some aspects of our technology even though they differ somewhat." The man hadn't even noticed it himself, but he was smiling, quite brightly even, when he finally addressed the woman directly. It was something no one had seen for at least 300 years, a genuine smile from the bored to death immortal.
 
"Mm. Not everyone is as broken as you, Feng." Rare murmured before arrival. When they arrived, Feng appeared entranced by the computers. They had large screens, but certainly, they were much smaller than a television.

She rested a hand on her face and watched him as he went on about the differences.

In his eyes, in his mannerisms, she could tell he was changing, even just with what was likely relatively few memories. Now, he was beginning to become interesting, and so much less annoying.

When he finally addressed her, she thought for a few moments. "We have mobile phones, but I've no doubt you've seen those—that may have been before you went to that world, though."

She tilted her head briefly at his smile, then fished her phone from her pocket and unlocked it, then held it for him to look. The screen was five inches tall, and the device was cradled in a rubber and plastic protective case. She unlocked it by running her finger across the screen, and it came to show the weather, date, time, and several icons.

The background image was a dark-skinned man who blushed as he wore a beautiful blue costume that looked like a nobleman's garb for a casual day—mostly undecorated, but very finely-made, and it emphasized his naturally wide shoulders and muscular arms. He reached for the camera, as though trying to hide himself with the hand, but his smile betrayed his fondness for the person taking the photo.

The bored younger girl from the computer looked toward Rare and Feng, then gaped openly. "Miss Rare!" She reddened, eyes wide, and rapidly closed her legs as she straightened her posture.

"Hello, Nicole," Rare greeted, then raised an eyebrow. "Faida's writing again?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Nicole squeaked.

Rare covered her mouth and shook her head, a smile teasing the corners of her lips.
 
"Mobile phone?" It did sound slightly familiar, but didn't quite ring a bell. Maybe they had another name for it, but it was similar enough for him to recognize? Or maybe they had the same word for it formally but called it something else generally, thus the nickname for that thing became more engraved in ones memory.

Feng sat down as he received the device, just in case he would get dizzy again.The appearance itself did not ring a bell either. Quite a disappointment, but even so he did seem to know how to use it, as if it was engraved in his muscle memory. The screen itself did feel eerily familiar and it didn't take long for him to realize that the glass of the computer he remembered had the same kind of feel to it as this screen. Their phones seemed to have more in common with Feng's version of a computer than the actual computer did.

Sweeping through a few icons, completely ignoring the background image, Feng fast learned how to get back to the main screen, but it wasn't before he clicked the phone book icon that the cogs really started turning. Phone numbers, names, a button saying call, he had seen that before.

The memory of him adding a number to his 'phone' showed quite clearly how different their devices were. A chip had been inserted into his arm and with a command a holographic image showed up right above the chip.

"C.2" Feng said in his memory and the screen turned to an address book. "Add Fel Wimal, number 5502156. Nickname Cutest girl in town."

"Stop it, you're so freaking cheesy, what if your parents see that when I'm calling you." A girl next to him giggled, though Feng wasn't looking at her so he had no idea what she looked like.

"Fel Wimal has now been added to your contacts. Do you wish to have the information repeated?" A stiff voice came out of nowhere. Somehow he knew that the chip did the noise, but it seemed to come from closer to his ear rather than from his arm.

"Are you even listening to me Cal?" The sudden voice within his own memory surprised Feng and he immediately found himself back in the now.

Blinking rapidly for a few moments, he tried to figure out where he was. The phone in his hand did help him figure that out rather quickly. "It seems our phones was very different as well. More integrated with our own bodies." That wasn't the interesting part of his memory though. What did take his attention was the end. Had that been in his original name?

Feng handed the phone back to rare before standing up, which immediately led him to falling right back down on the chair. "Maybe we should wait with pushing forth memories for a bit. My brain seems to be a bit pissed at me." He murmured, feeling the headache coming back. Would it continue like that, or would it be easier to get memories back later once he had rested from the year he spent at that place?
 
Rare took the phone, then watched him fall, eyebrows raised. "Fair, we can wait on further triggering." She took a seat next to him. "If you'd like, I can ask someone to get you some tea for your headache."

"Right now, your mind is struggling to overcompensate for your year in that other world. It can be painful, but that painkiller should be helping—" she cut off as she remembered something. "Right. You could probably take another. With your physiology, the one Kina gave you might be wearing off already."

She slipped her phone into a pocket, then pulled a pill bottle and small bottle of water from her pocket and offered him the bottle as she quickly began to open the bottle. Her hands moved deftly, though a chip of plastic flew off as she pressed the top too hard.

"Oh." Her ears, and then her face reddened.
 
"No need to hold back. It's not like I'd die if I overdosed." Feng joked halfheartedly. He couldn't even remember when he had a headache last. They didn't occur naturally to him. Usually it only happened if he either got a head trauma or got poisoned by something ridiculously strong, in either case, it always disappeared once he healed up.

"I'd rather get a drink. When you feel like shit you should just let alcohol fix all your problems." Feng then said. It was a great philosophy for someone who couldn't get any bi-effects from it, for a human to join in on his habits though? That usually ended with them feeling worse than when they first started drinking. Feng might have had a slightly sadistic hobby of manipulating people into getting themselves so drunk they couldn't even walk once. The next day used to be even more entertaining when they were in so much pain while he who generally drank more than them was totally fine. The younger, 'funnier', him also had his douchey sides.

"Maybe you should get some tea to calm yourself, your blood seems to have gotten stuck in your head." Feng noted casually, not understanding why people became embarrassed over small matters all the time.
 
"I have limited supplies, and... do hush." Rare swatted the air between them as he referenced her blush. Still, she put away the bottles and offered her arm subtly. "This way, then."

She let him take her arm, if he wished, and led the way to the nearest bar. They stepped through a portal to get there, and found it filled primarily with Hunters. Some were tipsy, some were totally sober. Most were in good spirits, and some even played cards together.

The place was clean. The hardwood floor was polished to high shine, the counter was level and shining black marble, and the stools had leather seats and came out of the floor itself on single, gleaming steel legs. Instead of tables, there were booths that matched the bar. Hanging tiffany lamps gave a warm glow above each table and several places over the bar.
 
Of course, Feng didn't take her arm. Getting help willingly without very good reasons wasn't one of his strong points, and some nausea was not a good reason.

Following Rare into the bar, he was rather disappointed. It wasn't anything unusual compared to the rest of the facility, the only noticeable thing was that it was rather clean. Of course it did look much different from the bars he had visited, but it was built on the exact same stones. Shares, tables and a bar. The booths were a bit too luxury for a bar, but whatever. It looked like most bars during an early evening before people had really gotten themselves drunk, but he already knew it was late, which meant it probably wouldn't get much worse than this. Oh well, at the very least he wouldn't have to bother with someone picking a fight then.

"This looks more like a fancy restaurant than a bar." Feng commented as he looked around. It was mainly the atmosphere and the booths that gave that impression.

"Should we perhaps play a game of cards to pass the time? It's one of the few things we seem to have in common when it comes to free time entertainments." Well, that was if one didn't count his younger self who seemed to have lived in a world more similar to this one. "Perhaps spoil five or black jack? A drinking game wouldn't be completely wrong either. That's always a good excuse for over-consumption" Not that he needed an excuse other than that he wanted to drink.

They sat down at one of the booths and played some games. Feng just let Rare decide what drinks to order as he rarely found anything he disliked when it came to alcohol. Well, beer wasn't his forte, which he did point out, but for wine he could go for pretty much anything.
 
Perhaps surprisingly, Rare ordered a small meal for the pair, along with two bottles of port. The meal, though she ordered a small, took up a plate a foot and a half in diameter, and involved a hot rock beneath a square bowl of sauce. Around the rest of the plate, a variety of finger foods for dipping included. When she played, she had few tells, and some of those seemed like she struggled to remember to make them.

She drank her port slowly, sipping it only between bites. Her mood visibly improved after a short amount of time, despite her care.

By the time Kina arrived, ten hours later, she looked much better rested, but her mood wasn't quite so chipper. Her hair, in its unusual bun, was hidden under a red cloth, and she took a seat with the pair with a yawn, then glared halfheartedly at Rare before she spoke in Chinese.

"{You suck.}"

"Is there a problem, Kina?" Rare responded in English.

"{I hate to sleep.}"

"Hardly my problem. You needed it." Rare smiled at Kina, then looked to Feng. "Feng, would you like to tell her about what you've remembered? Also, Go Fish."
 
As he had suspected, it was more of a restaurant. The woman even ordered food for them. Though to be fair, he had been to at least one pub that actually had food as well as drinks, but it wasn't the norm in most places as far as he knew. The food was okay, but he didn't eat much of it. He was more concentrated on his cards. He had never been anywhere where it was custom to eat while doing other things. You either ate or played a game, never both.

Feng, who couldn't keep track of time even if his sanity depended on it, of course had no clue how long they had sat there playing, drinking and eating before Kina showed up. Maybe it had been twenty minutes, maybe twenty hours, but either way, she finally returned from her nap.

Even though Kina spoke in another language, Rare's comments in English did give him an idea of what she was saying. She was annoyed over something, Rare's comment wasn't necessary to understand that though, and it was something she needed, obviously sleep.

"Guess it wouldn't be appropriate to ask if you slept well." Feng commented as he picked up a new card. "Not much have come back. Computers and phones are what I have so far." He said, not really caring to go into detail of how different they were from this world's. "Oh, and I found out what my birth name is." Once again he did not tell her the details. He figured she was too used with calling him Feng by now that it would be hard to just change like that. It didn't matter what he was called anyways. "Want in on a game?" He then asked since their current round soon would end, and he was still behind. He'd need all the cards to win, but considering it was her turn and only one card still in the pond, he would most definitely loose.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back