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       #Post#: 1091--------------------------------------------------
       Omen War
       By: Jenn B. Date: April 12, 2025, 5:12 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Geoffrey Wodeward
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       max=45%][img]
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       [br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]To all things housed in her
       silence[/font][br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Nature offers a violence[/font][br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif][/font]
       [hr]
       The Carpathian hills and the forest were ablaze. A smoldering
       red line on the horizon that may or may not have stirred
       something in Yorick, dream or no. Fear or familiarity. [br]
       Just over the rise from his lookout point, he could see what
       looked like an awful sight - the stone chantry of Cathedral's
       Reach was on fire and under assault. Transferred from the
       dimension it had fallen into by dream logic into this ancient
       and alien locale. [br]
       A huge shadow loomed against the flames; a warped monster easily
       the size of a school bus with a giant maw of teeth and multiple
       limbs ripped at the stones. From the top of the Reach, a
       gargoyle came to life, stretching its stone wings nd diving down
       towards the fleshy creation. The latter almost like a larger
       version of his own familiar, Medea. Larger and stronger and
       currently locked in a pitched battle of life and death.[br]
       A battle it lost with a swipe of the monster's powerful limbs.
       Pulverized to ash in the air.[br]
       Behind him was a man who looked similar to him, like a sibling
       or cousin. He was dressed in a heavy cloak against the chill and
       held the reins of three horses still as if to make a quick
       getaway.[br]
       A pair of eerie red lights pierced the darkness of the forest.
       As if from eyes about his own height. Hard to see until Geoffrey
       broke into the clearing, gaze blaring red. He was dressed
       similarly to how he'd first appeared, much-mended wool garments,
       a cloak, a quiver of arrows at the hip. In one hand, he carried
       a large warbow easily almost as tall as he was.[br]
       In the other, he held a wooden box with a latch carried over one
       shoulder like it weighed nothing. It looked heavy. Things
       shifted inside weightily when he turned towards Yorick. A
       private smile there in the darkness, just for him.[br]
       "I got it." He declared. "What you were looking for. Made it
       right past the voivode's people. I don't think they noticed."
       #Post#: 1092--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Omen War
       By: MAT Date: April 13, 2025, 12:15 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Yorick Tsipras
  HTML https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F3tCmvXqFTlAT1j9JHc8k280TMxJzRNNPcuFY1Mi33Q/edit?usp=drive_link
       [float=right
       max=45%]
  HTML https://splatomat.com/personal/images/DH/yorick/yurik.jpg[/float]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and weep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not sleep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and cry[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not die[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Euthanatos | Notoriety 2 | Medium[/font]
       [hr]
       He was lying on a futon in his cheap studio apartment with a
       book in his hands. Theogony. Then his vision blurred and his
       eyes fluttered shut for just a moment. When he opened them
       again, he was lying in the grass. It was cold and wet; a sharp
       contrast to the dry warmth from the previous moment. The late
       morning light was gone in a single blink. It was so dark. How
       many hours had passed?
       Yorick pushed up on his elbows, trying to likewise push away the
       grogginess in his mind. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t real. He
       grasped at liquid threads of thought and memory, trying to grasp
       something familiar. When he took hold of one of them, he was
       suddenly standing. He was six paces behind another man; a man
       with his height, build, and even the same colored hair.
       Grabbing the man’s shoulder, he turned him about, and felt like
       he was looking into a mirror. Like a twisted carnival funhouse.
       Like one of the mirrors that showed alternate versions of
       himself. This one clad in a deep crimson cloak and wool
       breeches, with dark leather boots and a short bow in his hands
       and a quiver at his back.
       “Wh-wh-wh-what.” The word fell out of his mouth like water
       tumbling roughly over stones. He didn’t know what he was looking
       at - or who - and yet also somehow did know. The man he looked
       at was hale and healthy. Had a quality that almost seemed
       cherubic. It was astonishing and bizarre. It made him anxious.
       The man with the horses got a casual glance, and a name came to
       Yorick’s lips. Sebastian. A brother in name only. A servant, a
       friend, a thrall. The one who walked in the day and handled the
       household affairs. Beloved, but also property. An unsettling
       dichotomy.
       Then He looked over at the horizon, recognizing Cathedral Reach.
       The chantry. He instinctively knew that it was out of place. It
       had been overlaid atop something else. Another chantry. Foul
       wizards. Profane. A dark irony. Or the twisted strands of fate.
       When Yorick turned his gaze back, the cloaked man was gone.
       Because it was him. Now he was clad in the soft wool and cotton
       clothing from an age long past. He pushed the brick-colored hood
       back and squinted at the bow in his hands. An archaic weapon.
       One he’d only learned - or rather, the other man had learned -
       from his friend.
       Geoffrey approached, as if on cue, looking very pleased. It was
       a strange expression; one Yorick really hadn’t seen before.
       “Wh-wh-what I was looking f-for.” He drew in a deep breath and
       pinched his eyes shut. He refused to be a slave to his
       impediment. His strength of will sort of bent the space around
       him and then radiated outwards. It was only a momentary flicker.
       But he suddenly felt a lot more confident. Able to control what
       was happening.
       “What now?”
       #Post#: 1095--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Omen War
       By: Jenn B. Date: April 13, 2025, 8:16 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Geoffrey Wodeward
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  HTML https://sharedalbums.b-cdn.net/8deb3d78-e3fd-4c5c-baf9-c72705ec7da4.png?rotate=0&width=800&height=800&optimizer=image[/img][/float]
       [br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]To all things housed in her
       silence[/font][br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Nature offers a violence[/font][br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif][/font]
       [hr]
       At the  what now, a grin broke across the vampire's face. He
       took a moment to free a hand - slinging the strung bow over one
       shoulder, so he could reach out to clasp Yorick's shoulder
       fondly. [br]
       "Let's go back to your haven and look it over."He jostled the
       chest on his  own shoulder to indicate what he meant: whatever
       was inside it.  "I'll read it to you."[br]
       There was a note of pride in his tone at that last statement,
       and a note of something else. The context might filter easy
       enough: like the archery, Geoffrey could read because the man in
       the red cloak had patiently taught him. And perhaps a little bit
       of a joke as well: whatever was contained within might be beyond
       his education to understand or even pronounce.[br]
       He leaned in impulsivly to touch his cold lips to Yorick's
       temple. A tender and affectionate gesture that was almost out of
       place with the monster delivering it.[br]
       Then, he hesitated. Close enough that the other man could
       register the lack of breath on his cheek. He turned his face
       away quietly. Fingers on Yorick's shoulder curling with a touch
       of awkwardness before pulling away. He took a step back and
       turned towards Sebastian and the horses.[br]
       "Can you ride?" He asked a question a little out of place. Of
       course the man he'd been addressing a moment ago would have.
       That wasn't who has was asking.
       #Post#: 1115--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Omen War
       By: MAT Date: April 20, 2025, 12:01 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Yorick Tsipras
  HTML https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F3tCmvXqFTlAT1j9JHc8k280TMxJzRNNPcuFY1Mi33Q/edit?usp=drive_link
       [float=right
       max=45%]
  HTML https://splatomat.com/personal/images/DH/yorick/yurik.jpg[/float]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and weep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not sleep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and cry[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not die[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Euthanatos | Notoriety 2 | Medium[/font]
       [hr]
       There was something profound in Geoffrey’s offer, and for a
       second, Yorick couldn’t figure out what it was. Then it struck
       him, though; some kind of echo in the dream that carried with it
       thought and emotion. It was gratification. The kiss that
       followed gave him equal pause, but only because he wasn’t
       expecting it. It was another piece in a puzzle he already knew
       the picture of. For a moment, he actually even felt bad, as if
       he was violating someone else's privacy and stepping on
       something precious.
       But then the tenor changed again. The vampire seemed to realize
       where he was, and who he was talking to.
       “Yes,” Yorick replied. He felt very strong in this dream. So
       strong he thought that he could possibly shape it. He didn’t
       want to, though. Geoffrey’s memories were driving the narrative
       flow. It was possible that there were nuggets of knowledge to be
       mined here in this time and place. Something that might be a
       clue; something that could point them in a direction back in the
       waking world.
       He got onto one of the horses with a smoothness that suggested a
       long history of riding, even though no such history existed.
       With a nudge of his heel and the reins, he guided the horse
       forward from Sebastian’s control.
       “Lead the way,” he said, following as they set off from the
       mountain foothills.
       “You infiltrated that chantry. But the physical structure…that’s
       from my memories. What was it actually?” he asked, falling into
       line alongside Geoffrey’s mount as the horses trotted away.
       “Whose stronghold? What were those flying creatures?” He didn’t
       really think the answers to the questions would be meaningful
       for their shared mission, but he wasn’t entirely sure.
       Besides, he was curious. Was probably going to get him killed
       eventually.
       #Post#: 1122--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Omen War
       By: Jenn B. Date: April 22, 2025, 8:49 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Geoffrey Wodeward
       [float=right
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  HTML https://sharedalbums.b-cdn.net/c0885f09-5d09-426b-8312-77b688531fa9.png?rotate=0&width=800&height=800&optimizer=imagerotate=0&width=800&height=800&optimizer=imagee[/img][/float]
       [br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]To all things housed in her
       silence[/font][br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Nature offers a violence[/font][br]
       [hr]
       Satisfied with Yorick's answer, Geoffrey took the reins of the
       horse from Sebastian. He settled the crate he'd purloined behind
       him on the saddle so they could carry it back. For someone who
       exuded such obvious predatory energy in his dreams, the horse
       didn't seem too bothered by his presence.[br]
       He went to lead the way through the forst back to what he
       assumed would be the village, and Yurik's haven. He didn't know
       anymore. The horse moved fowards as though it had no other
       destination, no path other than this one he'd already traveled .
       He looked over his shoulder at Yorick's question, regarding the
       carnage they were leaving. The stone building on fire. That
       satisfaction on his face that warmed him as surely as the fire
       might.[br]
       "A chantry of Tremere. Are you familiar with them?" Why he'd
       would be seeing something from his own memories was beyond him
       otherwise. "They used to be sorcerers. Mortals who practiced
       magic. Then, they stole the Embrace and have been trying to claw
       their way into our courts." Whether or not that was entirely or
       just partially accurate didn't seem to concern him. A real kind
       of heat that turned to acid, to poison when Yorick asked about
       the stone creatures. [br]
       "The Gargoyles." He stared forward in stonelike silence. His
       hands gripping the reins more tightly. Whatever the answer was
       pissed him off before he could speak it.[br]
       "They're created from Cainites the Tremere didn't think anyone
       would miss."  He found his voice enough to half-growl out some
       kind of explanation.
       #Post#: 1123--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Omen War
       By: MAT Date: April 22, 2025, 10:22 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Yorick Tsipras
  HTML https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F3tCmvXqFTlAT1j9JHc8k280TMxJzRNNPcuFY1Mi33Q/edit?usp=drive_link
       [float=right
       max=45%]
  HTML https://splatomat.com/personal/images/DH/yorick/yurik.jpg[/float]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and weep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not sleep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and cry[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not die[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Euthanatos | Notoriety 2 | Medium[/font]
       [hr]
       Geoffrey threw a lot of proper nouns at him that he wasn’t
       familiar with: Tremere, Gargoyles, Cainites.
       “I...am familiar with the word chantry,” he said with a
       self-effacing laugh. “It’s a word the Order of Hermes uses to
       describe a...I dunno. Part clubhouse, part sacred site, I guess;
       a place where consensus can be suspended and the laws of nature
       can be bent or broken. We call them ‘marabouts’, but I haven’t
       been to one in a while. Not since the last one blew up. I’m kind
       of a bad luck charm to have around.”
       He squinted. “I’m intuiting that Cainites is another word for
       vampire, the Tremere are like, a faction or flavor of Cainite,
       and they…what, used magic to turn themselves into vampires, and
       then more magic to build those monsters out of other vampires?
       Uhhh, yikes. That’s some fucked up Weird Science, Temple of Doom
       shit. When I was younger I used to be sent to hunt mages who
       were deep into dark magics like that.”
       Yorick shook his head. “Come to think of it, I remember hearing
       about some war the Hermetics were waging against vampires back
       around 2000. Maybe they were your Tremere. I don’t know how it
       turned out, but the Order’s still around being anal-retentive
       twats so it can’t have gone too badly for them.”
       He didn’t seem to be picking up on the emotional subtext. He
       could feel some resentment bleeding off Geoffrey into the
       emotional currents of the dream, but didn’t understand the
       reason. Honestly the psychic resonance of this memory-dream was
       kind of heady and distracting.
       “Why are they called Cainites? You, I mean. If the word applies,
       I mean.”
       #Post#: 1126--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Omen War
       By: Jenn B. Date: April 24, 2025, 11:36 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Geoffrey Wodeward
       [float=right
       max=45%][img]
  HTML https://sharedalbums.b-cdn.net/c0885f09-5d09-426b-8312-77b688531fa9.png?rotate=0&width=800&height=800&optimizer=imagerotate=0&width=800&height=800&optimizer=imagee[/img][/float]
       [br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]To all things housed in her
       silence[/font][br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Nature offers a violence[/font][br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif][/font]
       [hr]
       Likewise, Yorick was throwing around some things Geoffrey had
       never heard about. Wars the Tremere had gotten into beyond the
       upheval they'd caused when they'd first begun weasling their way
       into vampiric society.[br]
       "So did I. When I was younger." A quiet laugh left his throat as
       he gestured behind them at the carnage. He was grinning when he
       looked back, teeth a little too sharp "Is that something you
       still do? Your friends?" [br]
       It seemed a prudent question to ask. He'd enough experience with
       groups of humans out to kill what they called evil (however
       rightly).[br]
       "Did they? It's almost a miracle the Tremere survived at all."
       Despite the darkness in his tone and mood, he could grudgingly
       admit some kind of respect for that tenacity. The audacity of
       it. [br]
       "Did they?" The Order of Hermes wasn't anything he immediately
       recognized or thought he'd encounter, but noted it anyways. The
       expressiono on his face picked up, from the moroseness of
       following a fate that had already happened to something more
       wistful. [br]
       "I'd always known the world contained many things beyond my
       understanding." He settled as much as a creature like him seemed
       to be able to. "Wonderous and terrible. But I wasn't sure any of
       it existed anymore. The world seems to have grown so small."[br]
       He said this as he lay in a city on a continent that hadn't
       existed on maps of his youth. Surrounded by technology he hadn't
       imagined could be possible, but looking out at the dark and
       forboding forest of another time. Here and there, a few
       flickering lights appeared ahead of them. The shadows of a
       closed town gate, buildings beyond. Wherever they were headed
       was drawing near. [br]
       "Dominus Cain signum ut non eum interficeret omnis qui
       invenisset eum." The explanation came in a Latin that sounded
       like he'd learned it by having it repeated to him.
       Unintelligible, if this wasn't also the realm of the
       subconscious. The meaning parsed well enough. [br]
       The Lord set a mark upon Cain, that whosoever found him should
       not kill him.
       #Post#: 1127--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Omen War
       By: MAT Date: April 25, 2025, 1:36 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Yorick Tsipras
  HTML https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F3tCmvXqFTlAT1j9JHc8k280TMxJzRNNPcuFY1Mi33Q/edit?usp=drive_link
       [float=right
       max=45%]
  HTML https://splatomat.com/personal/images/DH/yorick/yurik.jpg[/float]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and weep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not sleep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and cry[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not die[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Euthanatos | Notoriety 2 | Medium[/font]
       [hr]
       When asked if hunting was something he still did, Yorick fell
       silent for a moment. ‘Younger’ meant very different things to
       each of them. It was a matter of different time periods and
       societal expectations; a span of years instead of centuries. In
       terms of distance it was closer to him. Hotter. Like a spectre
       chasing at his heels.
       The intensity of thought, memory, and emotion in the dreamstate
       rose sharply in that moment. Geoffrey's supernatural perception
       allowed him to perceive the subtle furrowing of the younger
       man's brow and twisting of his lips. It was a mask of grief,
       fury, and trauma tightly controlled by a strength of will beyond
       his years.
       In that moment they rode past a thick wall of trees, but nestled
       amongst them was clearing. The clearing served as a stage of
       sorts, revealing a vignette of concepts. Somewhere sweltering
       and humid near a distant ocean. A dark, cramped space
       underground. Overwhelming entropy and decay. Blood and
       blasphemous arts. A vicious battle of blade and willwork that
       left a still-teenaged Yorick victorious but profoundly hurt. A
       hurt of the soul, something the Gangrel might recognize as a
       loss of humanity. And encapsulating it all, the sense that it
       was just one example of many.
       “No. I don't.”
       He swallowed down bile, resentment, and self-loathing, and
       listened.  He could only imagine the depths of change the world
       had seen during Geoffrey's lifetime.
       “The gods do not abide hubris. So my kind exists within the
       margins of man; the awakened amidst the sleeping masses.”  It
       was an interpretation of consensus and paradox. It was also an
       explanation of how modern mages survived - by keeping to the
       shadows. By recontextualizing themselves to be anything other
       than what they actually were. Relatable, maybe.
       “That's the curse, then,” he replied to Geoffrey's bit of Latin.
       He didn't make the connection between Cain the biblical figure
       and the word ‘Cainite’, but he did understand the intention. “A
       divine suspension of Tamas reaching through time for eternity.”
       Yorick shook his head. “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot
       forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own
       despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace
       of God,” he quoted the father of tragedy, struck by the enormity
       of it. Despite the danger involved in associating with the other
       man, he still felt a great swell of sympathy.
       Then they reached the city gate. “You're English.” How he'd
       arrived at that particular assertion was unclear. He said it as
       if it had just come to him like a bolt. “But you lived here.
       Romania's pretty far from England, especially in a time before
       airplanes.”
       #Post#: 1141--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Omen War
       By: Jenn B. Date: April 29, 2025, 5:04 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Geoffrey Wodeward
       [float=right
       max=45%][img]
  HTML https://sharedalbums.b-cdn.net/c0885f09-5d09-426b-8312-77b688531fa9.png?rotate=0&width=800&height=800&optimizer=imagerotate=0&width=800&height=800&optimizer=imagee[/img][/float]
       [br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]To all things housed in her
       silence[/font][br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Nature offers a violence[/font][br]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif][/font]
       [hr]
       Geoffrey turned his head to watch the scene with a flinty look
       on his face. It wasn't quite anger or outrage, but something
       that stirred him anyways.[br]
       "In my warmer days, our lord was called to war and took his
       household with him." On the opposite side of the dark forest,
       the faint shadows of whatever conflict of the time. A castle
       under prolonged siege; an archer aiming an arrow through a
       narrow slat at an enemy beyond; getting him straight through the
       visor of his helmet and through the eye. Returning to a field
       camp with a few rabbits and other small game animals strung
       together. Picking up a sword off a corpse in a field of corpses
       and walking away with it slung over his shoulder. The scenes
       weren't as brilliant and charged; eroded around the edges from
       time, far more distant in memory.[br]
       "My younger brother, Henry, wanted very much to go with me, but
       he was too young. We left him behind with our father to watch
       the land." He turned his head to look. Half at Yorick, half over
       his shoulder. [br]
       "You seem to be about his age, there."[br]
       The shadow that followed them on the road didn't take full
       shape. A ghostly outline of a memory: a younger brother who'd
       idolized an elder one, who'd wanted to emulate him, follow in
       his footsteps. It followed at a pace for awhile, then stopped to
       watch them go ahead without him. Faded into the distance as they
       gort closer to the town until he finally disappeared.[br]
       "So did we." Another easy parallel; whatever his people were
       observed their own Masquerade, their own secrecy.  "Easiest to
       survive that way, not being known." Perhaps human wizards had
       learned the same bitter lessons as vampires had. Perhaps it was
       something else. [br]
       "You get used to it." He hunched forward on the horse, looking
       forward again. "You can get used to anything. Certainly, it's a
       curse, but it's not all misery. It doesn't have to be." He
       didn't elaborate, but the dreamscape took on the qualities of
       his thoughts to some degree. The stars shining just slightly
       brighter, the forest dark and terrifying, but full of adventure
       and potential to the daring.[br]
       "Tis. A month's travel over land once you get across the Channel
       by boat. Longer if you can't go by day." " He confirmed; the
       distance from his corner in the west of England where he'd lived
       and expected to die to the primeval forest on the opposite side
       of the continent. In a time when many people didn't go so far
       from their homes at all. [br]
       The gates opened for them. The scene in front of them flickered
       and warped, as if it couldn't decide which of two things it
       wanted to be. A bustling medieval castle town, mostly asleep by
       night save a few watchmen and the light from a tavern. Or a
       burned-out ruin of what was once a bustling medieval castle
       town. Ashes and cinders on the breeze, the smell of burned flesh
       and char and smoke in the air.[br]
       "Did you still think you might need something of his?" Geoffrey
       asked. Surveying the town a moment before urging the horse
       forward.
       #Post#: 1142--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Omen War
       By: MAT Date: May 4, 2025, 6:56 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Yorick Tsipras
  HTML https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F3tCmvXqFTlAT1j9JHc8k280TMxJzRNNPcuFY1Mi33Q/edit?usp=drive_link
       [float=right
       max=45%]
  HTML https://splatomat.com/personal/images/DH/yorick/yurik.jpg[/float]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and weep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not sleep[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Do not stand at my grave and cry[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]I am not there, I do not die[/font]
       [font=Arial, sans-serif]Euthanatos | Notoriety 2 | Medium[/font]
       [hr]
       The resentment and self-loathing Yorick was emotionally spewing
       into the dreamspace subsided a little at Geoffrey’s story.
       Suddenly he felt a little embarrassed or childish. Something
       that had been such a traumatic and formative part of his life
       seemed rather commonplace to someone who had grown up near the
       start of the high middle ages.
       “I guess it must seem strange to you. If I’d been raised
       alongside your brother I might have been married with kids by
       the time I should have been in high school nowadays.”
       Yorick turned back to watch the shadowy figure. He turned his
       hand as if he was turning a valve, trying to bring the figure
       into more clarity. Trying to lift the memories up from the silt
       of Geoffrey’s mind; trying to pull them forward. It was barely
       successful, but he thought he might have seen the young man’s
       features for just a moment.
       “May I ask what happened to him?” he said with as much calm
       dignity as he could manage. “Your brother Henry. Did you…watch
       over him? Did he have children of his own? Do you have living
       relatives even now?” Maybe it wasn’t even something Geoffrey had
       ever considered. Maybe it was. If such relatives did exist,
       finding them might be as difficult as finding his wayward love.
       He made a mental note to give it some thought, too, and to try.
       Deciding not to belabor the nature of the curse, Yorick focused
       on the town they’d arrived at. The dichotomy of the presentation
       was easy to intuit; they were the same place simply at different
       times. Since he’d never been to the Carpathian mountains - only
       to Bucharest, and only in the modern age - that meant Geoffrey
       was the one wallpapering the environment with this divided
       vision.
       “Well. Like I said before,” he prefaced with a pause, as if to
       reiterate the absolute uncertainties involved, “I think it would
       help. You might be able to serve as a guide to identity, but you
       might not like how it works. It would probably be a bit
       invasive. But I also know that it's a big ask for some object
       that he touched, held, created, thought, or felt about to have
       somehow survived the past 800-900 years.”
       He slid off the horse and deftly landed on the gravel, walking
       forward. Stretching out his hand, he caused the dreamscape to
       solidify, and the bustling town disappeared. Only the scorched
       ruins remained. Ashes mixed with the snow. “Both would be even
       better. Something he touched to anchor thought, and you to
       anchor feeling. A baited hook cast out through time and space to
       try and catch something.”
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