Who: Kenny and Liu Ying Where: At the Park When: Sunday What: Liu Ying has a lot of questions. Status: Complete, Closed
After her conversation with one of the new arrivals, Carmilla had gone up to Kenny's room. There had been a party last night and it was no surprise that he was still sleeping. Though he always came home late from work, so he always slept in late anyway. Either way, she woke him up and told him the situation - that one of the new arrivals wanted to meet him.
So Kenny, still half sleep, text Liu Ying and they made plans to meet at the park. After getting ready and grabbing a quick bite on the way, he headed over to the park. He found an empty bench and sat down, eating his slice of pizza while he waited.
***
Liu Ying arrived in a puff of black smoke. In most cases, when meeting a stranger, she would have approached in the conventional method they were accustomed to, but she was still navigating this strange world, with its great metal beasts on the streets, and she felt more comfortable in her natural form.
Besides, an immortal who had seen death many times would not be alarmed by some smoke, she would hope.
“Mr Kenny,” she greeted when she found the young man on the bench. Whatever magic had brought her here was also translating her native tongue to the language most used here. “You are well?”
*** Nah, Kenny wasn't too bothered by it. Death and Delirium always just appeared beside him and he was pretty much used to it. He barely flinched when there was a sudden puff of smoke next to him.
"Just Kenny," he told her. "And sure. Got my pizza, so I'm all good." He had been a bit hungry before he arrived, but now he had something to eat. "So my roommate said you wanted to meet me?"
***
If this Kenny was an immortal, he was unlike any she had ever met. Perhaps he was a different type of immortal; Liu Ying could not sense any great amount of qi in him. Even the lowest-ranked immortals had a significant amount of cultivation in him.
Or, perhaps, his roommate had not been truthful about his immortality. It was a possibility, but Liu Ying chose to believe the people here were willing to be truthful and helpful until she had evidence otherwise.
“She said you were an immortal,” Liu Ying explained. “I was interested in meeting another immortal here.”
*** Kenny was the only immortal back in his world, but after being in Madison Valley for a couple years and meeting many different kinds of people, he'd come to realize there were all kinds of immortals. Though he seemed to be one of the few who came back, most seem to be the kind that lived a long, long time. Even Carmilla could be considered somewhat immortal. Thanks to her being a vampire, she never aged and lived for at least 300 years now.
So he wasn't too surprised when Liu Ying told him she was an immortal. "I am. And you are too? Cool. Are you the 'live a long fucking time' kind of immortal? Or the 'die and come back' kind like I am?"
***
Liu Ying blinked. While she understood the words he spoke, he put them together in a way she was not familiar with.
“Compared to mortals, I live a long time,” she said slowly. “But when we die, do we not all come back in one form or another?”
*** Kenny nodded. "Okay, cool. So how old are you then?" Which apparently was rude to ask, especially to a woman, but he was never one for manners. He cussed and said some offensive shit, so he never really thought about being rude. Besides, he was kind of curious and how could he know if he didn't ask?
"I'm the latter. Whenever I die, I just keep coming back," he shrugged. "But not like a zombie or some shit. I just come back normal." Though he had been a zombie once before and a ghost as well, but that was only a couple times.
***
“I am only twenty-five thousand years old,” Liu Ying said. For an immortal, she was quite young. There would be some who argued she had not yet reached the age of maturity.
She looked at him curiously. “How many times have you come back? And what is a...zombie?” She said the word carefully, the sounds unfamiliar on her tongue.
*** "Huh. You're probably like one of the oldest here then. I mean, besides Death and Dream and Delirium." Also Lucifer and probably some of the angels and demons here. But some of them were here since the beginning of time, so of course they were old.
"I don't really keep track, but maybe around five hundred times," he shrugged. He had died up to a hundred when he was eight and nine. His deaths had decreased since, but they still happened quite often. "And a zombie is basically a reanimated corpse that likes to eat human flesh and brains."
***
Liu Ying looked taken aback. “How monstrous. You appear very normal now.”
She took a step closer, hands clasped behind her back, and studied him from various angles. Yes, very normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary about his qi, and yet…
“What happens in between your lives? Do you return to your native realm?”
*** "It is what it is," Kenny shrugged. He didn't feel either way about his deaths. Sometimes he was annoyed, but that was pretty much it. "And yeah, everything turns back to normal once I come back. No injuries or scars or anything." It was one of the few perks about it, he supposed.
He had no idea what a qi was and while he knew she was checking him out, he did wink at her while she was studying him just because.
"This is my realm," he told her. "But sometimes I go to Heaven or Hell. And Death let's me chill out in her realm too." Not lately, of course. She was still a bit upset with him and was kind of keeping her distance.
***
This was indeed a very different type of immortal. Liu Ying found it easier to accept than she had expected, however. Perhaps it was because she was being exposed to so many new and different things, this was a small change compared to everything else.
Done with her study of him - and not knowing what the wink meant - she took a seat next to him. “You have visited death realm? What is it like?”
*** So she either didn't notice the wink or she ignored it. From what Carmilla told him, it was possible she didn't even know what it meant. Either way, he just shrugged it off and took a sip of his coke as she sat beside him.
He paused for a moment. "It's nice, I guess." Actually, it was kind of comforting in a way. He was probably one of the few people who considered death comforting. "Pretty sure she can alter it too if she wants, so it's probably different for each person. For me, it's just like this," he gestured around him, "but it's night time and I'm out of my physical body."
*** Liu Ying frowned, trying to envision such a thing. “Do you mean your spirit leaves your body?”
She supposed that made sense. Death, after all, was the soul departing the mortal body and moving into its next incarnation.
“And have you always reincarnated as an immortal?”
*** "Yeah. Spirit, soul, whatever," he shrugged. Either one, though he refer to it as his soul more often than the other.
He shook his head. "No. I've never been reincarnated. Or hell, maybe I have and I've had some previous life before this one or some shit. But I'm pretty sure this is the only life I've ever had."
***
How odd that dying brought him back to the same life. Was that truly dying? Perhaps even death was different in this realm. More than ever, Liu Ying felt adrift in this strange place. She liked new experiences, but when even the foundations of life and death were changed, what could she rely upon?
She was quiet for a moment as she attempted to process this all this information.
Then, quite curiously, she asked, “What would happen if I kill you at this moment?”
*** Probably not. Kenny always figured truly dying would be if he didn't come back, that it was final. He wasn't too sure, maybe he'd ask Death sometime. All he knew was that he had died physically. He stopped breathing, his heart stopped beating, he basically expired.
He didn't think too much about it, though. He died, came back, repeated the process.
At her question, he just shrugged. "I'll just come back," he replied.
***
Very carefully, aware that she was making a great request, Liu Ying asked, “May I?”
*** Usually, Kenny would just say sure, go ahead. But he was bored and didn't want to just be killed. So turned to her.
"Sure, if you give me money or a kiss," he replied, although he didn't really care if he got either. He'd still let her kill him because it wasn't a big deal. He just wanted to see if she would give him either or nothing.
***
Liu Ying leapt out of her chair, outraged. “You-!”
She pointed a finger at him, then got a hold of herself and fisted her hands on her hips again. “I will not do either,” she told him. “I thought you were an honourable man.”
*** Kenny just snickered at her reaction, looking at her with amusement as he sipped his coke. "Really? You just met me. How could you know I'm honorable if you only just met me?" That was pretty stupid in his opinion. Besides, no one was like that. Or maybe it was his cynicism talking.
"And you're the one who wants to kill me. How is kissing or giving me money worse that that?"
***
“You would return,” Liu Ying argued. “I thought immortals had some measure of honour, but it seems in this world there is no such thing.”
She let out a huff. “I no longer wish to kill you. Nor do I wish to talk to you.”
*** "It would hurt like hell." Not that Kenny really cared about that. "And maybe they are in your world or whatever, but some people here are assholes." Apparently, he was one of them, as Ella and other people have told him numerous times.
"Whatever," he shrugged, not really caring. "I got to get to work anyway and you were kind of asking too many damn questions. It was getting kinda annoying." He got up, putting his coke bottle and the rest of his pizza in the nearest trash can. "Later," he waved before he headed off.
***
Speechless, Liu Ying stared after him. Immortals here were very different. She was going to have to remember that.