Tales of Past Glories. Very Past.

Who am I?

Where to begin...really it's been awhile, and I find myself having trouble keeping my thoughts together. It's really, kind of like diablerie, but without the advanced generation.

I suppose some catching up is in order. Going back in time twice doesn't happen every day, after all. I mean I'm me, but I'm also a member of the Syndicate circa 1933 (Commodore 64 days.. Man I coulda been something.) and a Turkish trick rider in the current year of 1094.

Things seem different, frankly. Like...the group isn't so much a group. The ones I remember as Brian-Eadwulf and Brenda-Godiva...frankly scare me. Like there's a whole level of creepy where they live, and I'm not sure we can accomplish goals with them. Cassandra is...somehow my sister, Songul, and I'm oddly protective. Call it the older brother complex. Having been an older brother at least once, and even some dim memories of being mad because her husband...took a concubine without permission? Something. Either way, I was rather put out when Rambert tried to put moves on her and I surprised all of us by finding my sword in my hand and having it pointed rather pointedly as his manly bits.

Anyway. My name, or at least the name I have now, is Cengiz. Pretty common where I was born in...Denver, 990 years in the future. Okay, maybe not. But in this day and age, Cengiz is somewhat common because Ghengis Khan is still 100 years from becoming the shit-wrecking Mongol on the steppes. This is difficult, remembering historical touchstones that haven't happened yet. Shit, we're still a year and a half from the first crusade. Which makes my advanced science a rather difficult thing, even my 1933 hyperscience is very difficult to perform due to the vagaries of the collective will making such things an impossibility, despite them being Science.

Curiously, I've been in the pageant as a rider for 40 years; something about having been sold to them to erase a debt. Thanks for nothing (again) Pop. My sister reads fortunes, I shoot arrows and do backflips and such from the back of my horse Malik-Adham (The Black King). When I'm not doing that, I'm helping with the animals in the pageant, since I can talk to them. Or at least I can make them understand me. It's not exactly genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, but it pays the bills.

The pageant is taking on a few new people when we leave, like always. Eadwulf, his wife, and Godiva and her, well, boytoy, I guess. I mean, really it's probably the only chance they'll ever have in their lives to travel, and since they're going to live for awhile, it's pretty much a good idea. Plus, I mean how exactly are you going to change the world by living in a peasant village of 150? But to the interesting stuff. Apparently Goodwife Eadwulf (Sunnigfu) was defiled as a young lady, and other ladies of her age kept it hidden because the defiling one was the local priest, who promised good husbands in exchange for their silence on the matter. Sunnigfu didn't think that was exactly right, so she came to the Pageant for an object to exact revenge. Annnnd she did. Boy howdy did she. Somehow she turned into a wolf as big as my horse, and then made an example of the ladies by kinnnnda sorta shredding them from the waist down. Really gory, and there were a few times during the adventure when my Toreadors' soul was enthralled by the spectacle. If revenge could be an art, what an artisan she would be. That said, I think I'm going to avoid her for a month or so, given that I shot 4 arrows at her and hit twice. The whole thing was a weirdness, since Godiva did something she never does and saved peoples' lives. I approve, but when an act of kindness is something out of place, is this someone you can really trust?

But enough of that for now, I suppose. I'll expand on this more as we travel to our next destination, and I find myself looking for answers to some of the simplest philosophical questions; who am I, what next. And are we in that old Ben Bova novel Orion, going back in time to prevent future horrors? Too many questions and not enough Guinness. Note to self, invent Guinness.

We Three Kings

I hereby call this meeting of the three jokers to order. Myself, Cengiz, and Seppel. Sepp, you're the one with the punchable face, you take the minutes. Cengiz, I'd kinda like to apologize for moving in, but it's a weird trick of, well, magic. Sepp can tell you more about it when he's done whining about how I shot him in the ass.

Think nothing of it. As I recall, I was dying.

Herr...Jason. I must protest; you are and were a Reality Deviant. Despite this mockery, the path is clear; the Precepts of Damian clearly state that Reality Deviants must be destroyed. We were simply going to take you off the street, vivisect you, see what knowledge of temporal mechanics we could learn and then destroy you. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Reality Deviant, says the guy with the titanium legs. First, I know what you were planning to do, even before I shot you. One does not bring a T-1000 to extend an engraved invitation to tea. Second, we have a lot of time ahead of us to bitch and snipe at each other, you're just gonna have to deal. Third, we're kinda in a little peril, so if you could stow it for a bit we gotta figure out what's up with Paderborn.

I'm back!

So, not gonna lie. It's been hectic of late. Traveling in the 11th century is what we could politely call 'a stone cold bitch', but that doesn't quite encapsulate the utter misery of it. The logistics are simple, but with the pageant it's a problem. Generally. Anyway, currently we're in Nuremberg - and all hell has broken loose. Short version, multi-faction war to decide who's gonna lead this place, the merchant class is finally waking up to the fact that the nobility sees them as well-dressed peasants, and did I mention there's a couple Methuselahs in town for Round gods-only-know in a pissing match that's gone unabated for millennia?

Right then. Best thing about Nuremberg? Cold beer. They had it. Legit cold beer. I couldn't even bitch about it being a wheat beer, it was beer and it was cold. Me and Songul had a couple, and then some other things happened, I think we were getting drafted into some merchant mages guild - but events intervened and that's a no-go. So after that, I bought some things with my hard-earned coinage, and we went to a joust.

It wasn't the worst thing in the world, and I made a few gold with the bookies, and things were going pretty well, and then I saw Eadwulf head over to a guy who was, well...apparently a handsome lad. Upon further inspection, it was Prius. Aka Helena-the-toreador-methuselah's ghoul. (yes I have his game card showing all his wins, losses, kills-before-weapon-break averages, army K/D ratios but I am not a fanboy. We all get them. I just memorized mine.) If he's in town, that means Helena's in town. Oh sweet happy day, I am gonna get a shortcut to the big time. After dusk, me and the rest of the Four Horsemen chirping the jousters left and right, because their horses are crap, and I see Helena. Because I've been looking for her and hell yes. Trying to locate Arikel through Helena was not happening, so I had to get closer.

In retrospect, it wasn't the worst Embrace I've ever had. It's awkward that I can say that, but true. But I walked up to Helena and after a longass moment of staring into the face of a goddess, spit some Shakespearean sonnet action. I mean, okay, it wasn't the best recitation, but damn I was a little flat-footed. Which I suppose she approved, as when I was done I was trying very hard to think to her that I'd like to have a bit more time to discuss things, but it earned me a grab and rush into darkness.

I woke up with a dozen other guys, and a few other things for breakfast. I was tame, as it were, but my new brothers weren't as cautious. So with that out of the way, Helena arrived and told us to follow. So we did, I mean who wouldn't right? We went forth to a stormy night, with what almost sounded like a young war in the distance. We were told to advance, and I got a sinking feeling hadn't had for some time. We were a mass embrace of newly minted 5th generation Toreador. Theoretically we have no idea what's coming and the blood we were given was pitiful compared to what we needed. Shit is about to go sideways, and whoever we're going up against is probably enough to take out at least half of us without breathing hard. Yeah Helena, not my first rodeo. Now looking forward is some guy and Songul, and yeah, all hell broke loose. Job one was to get Songul the hell out of the way, because I heard her heart beating. Fast. So I kicked in the afterburners for the first time in awhile as a cloud of obtenebration blanketed the area and while I was cool, Songul was choking to death.

Oh look. Shit has gone sideways. I tried to snag Songul before she died, but there was some scary shit standing next to Songul and my feet carried me right the hell out of the cloud. It was about to get messy, with obtenebration cloaking vampiric chaos...and then Astarte had apparently had enough of the undead bullshit. She literally buried all of us. Part of me wishes I could have gotten to know her, but...maybe I'll get another chance to apologize for my part in the ruckus.

Anyway, I woke up the next night, Nuremberg is a fighting zone, Helena's nowhere to be found, and I've got a pretty good number of brand-spanking-new powerfulass vampires on my hands. No idea where anyone other than me is, and my Auspex is not beefy enough to find out. One would think that after spitting love verse that won't be invented for 6 centuries, I'd at least get some dancing before I got a kiss followed by dinner and the shaft. But anyway, back to more important things. My new brothers got Abbreviated Vampire 101, and well...they're gonna have to deal with their conditions as best they can. Hopefully the devil looks after his own, because I sure as hell can't in the middle of all this. Hopefully I'll be able to link up with some of my compatriots and head south, because in theory the pageant was heading to Rome, and I'm gonna have to steal, beg, borrow and get there rapidly. I need clean underwear.