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That was a long, annoying climb.  It was initially uneventful, too, after we strapped Lexi to Cindy's back.  Then, of course, someone decided to screw with us.  A couple of massive snake-critters showed up.  Bit one of the goonsquad in half, but he'll be back.  They weren't even really all that tough once they were pinned down and we put some fire into them.

Problem being, Lexi took a hit from a breath attack.  And she ain't as tough as the rest of us.  I did what I could, but it wasn't really much.  I'm not a mystic healer.  In the end, we had to keep moving.  The corpses would start to smell up the joint and draw more attention soon.  So with Lexi secured again, we kept moving down.  No real way to tell, but I'd put my wagers on a week or so lost to the climb.

And, waiting for us at the bottom?  Agents of fate.  The Norns, in this case.  We screwed things up a bit, it seems, and tangled up Fate's web when we stopped Ragnarok.  I really should've seen this coming, but I'm no seeress, either.  But....they aren't simply going to cut the threads and be done with it.  More damage, I think.  But we do get another idiotic quest to help repair the damage that's already done.  Joy.

Tactical Withdrawl

Should've figured things were going far too well.

Aphrodite showed up in Troy and pulled out the nuclear option.  While it makes me proud that some part of it probably means Zeus is having a panic attack, the bitch has cost us a great deal.  Or he's pissed, but if he was that mad, I'm inclined to believe he'd show up himself.  In a way it's a good sign, but given everything we took, and what was already stockpiled...

Lost access to Donny's band, too.  Didn't have time to get the ones that were in Troy out.  Not happy about that either, but there's little that can be done.  Hopefully the ones that weren't will have the sense to stay out of Dodge.  Have to admit though, Lexi did surprise me.  Given how keen the little dingbat has been to play along with Aphrodite's bullshit in the past, I expected her to go running to her mother's arms and sell us out.  She didn't.  She pulled some magic bullshit that's probably going to bite her in the ass later and somehow managed to summon Loki of all people.  He opened up a portal for us out into the ass-end of a forest farther north in Europe, near a temple to Artemis.  Diana, this far up north, but close enough.  And no doubt Lexi will be making a point that she 'helped us escape' or 'got us out of there'.  She did, but fate won't take kindly to her meddling, and I don't want -us- caught in the backlash.  Besides, a chopper would've gotten us out of there just the same.  She does, however, get credit for the try, and for actually not simply dropping in with her mother.

Does give me more incentive to head back to the Isle and talk to the powers that be amongst the Tuatha.  I hadn't wanted to bring them in, with previous bad blood between them and Olympus, but there's little choice now.  We nattered on some about where to set up shop.  Avalon is out - Greeks really aren't welcome there, yet.  Pretty much leaves Thuringia where we wouldn't have to start completely without resources.  Cindy and Lexi seemed to think the Bitch could walk in and do the same thing she did at Troy, but Loki had a point.  If she pulls it in someone else's territory there would be...consequences.  There are going to be consequences either way.  Once we've the strength, both in our own divine blood and militarily and Olympus is taken, with someone new on the throne...well.  I'd been willing, despite my distaste for her, to let the Aphrodite issue slide in favor of getting things stabilized.  No more.  Part of the price for handing the crown to whoever we can get to take it is going to be Aphrodite getting her bitch-ass smacked down so far into the dirt she's going to be spitting out chunks of Earth's core.  That....woman is not escaping this without justice being served.

Things weren't all bad, though.  Loki offered us an army.  An army of the dead, in fact.  The one that had been meant for Ragnarok itself, just waiting to be turned loose.  For a rather small price of heading down into Helheim to figure out what's wrong with Hal's mother and why she's closed it off to traditional ways.  Works for me.  And I know Hal has his Yazata-paranoia going....but if any harm had acutally come to his mother, I think it would've been a bit more obvious then just closing down shop.  You don't kill or incapacitate a god like that without major, major consequences to the fabric of reality.  And there don't seem to have been any major ripples.  Could be wrong, of course, but I don't believe I am.  And even if Hal's right, and Vayu is trying to get at him...it'd be easier to just come after Hal himself.  Assaulting a god in their own realm, especially a death goddess, is one of the most foolhardy things I can think of.  And I can think of a lot of stupid things.

We can't take the gods with us, though...so Artemis, Ares, and the Morrigan are staying behind.  I asked Artemis to find us a place beyond Thuringia to use if she could, or to shore up the castle if not.  Like I told her, a hunter's eye towards defense is the best way to go.  Asked Ares to see about gathering us up a more conventional army then the walking dead.  As for sister...I told her I'm going to need to talk to the High Court when we're done with this.  Hopefully she can put in a good word for me.

Ended up taking a day or so to get the supplies for our trip together.  The rest of us would be ok, but Lexi's relative frailness posed the biggest issue.  I'm leaving behind the metal salvaged for me from the birds, in Artemis' care.  I know I can trust her to keep it safe for me.  Maybe even make something for her from it.  Much as I already said thanks, words just don't seem like enough.  Maybe even Ares, too, given the help he's given us.  But mostly for her.

Spoke to her during the night while I had taken some time away from camp to think.  Not sure if she's impressed or bemused over the crap I've pulled in the past couple weeks.  Hopefully the former.  And she wandered out to find me after Ares started hitting on the Morrigan by trying to compare beheading techniques on zombies.  Artemis is right, the thought of those two doing anything together makes me ill.  Of course, I had been out here to practice a bit with some of my powers.  Like I said, much of it right now makes me feel a bit silly.

Told her I would weave her a chair or her own hammock with the starlight threads I can summon, but that they don't react well to others playing with them.  Bloody woman seemed to think I just wanted her in -mine-.  I'm forward but I'm not that bad.  ...most of the time, anyway.  Ugh.  I'm starting to think I need to reevaluate how I handle things of that nature.  In any case, we talked.  Some about Apollo...but she's not gonna give me a hand avoiding her murder-tendencies for people close to Artemis.  If it comes to it and I can't convince him otherwise, I'll just find a way to get him and Aphrodite together.  It would serve both of them right.

We talked a bit about my affinity for the night sky, too.  Showed her the other 'showy' trick I can do and called down starlight to settle on/around me.  Whole thing makes me feel rather silly, which is why I came out this far.  Artemis claimed it made me 'rather fetching'.  Which would imply I'm not normally, but I really can't bring myself to be even the slightest bit irritated.  And...given that I came out that far to relax, Artemis felt the need to throw a monkey wrench in that plan.  Or distract me further.  As much as I am comfortable and...relaxed around her, I'm starting to wonder what all I've got myself into.  Feeling a bit like the mouse a cat is just watching before it pounces.  Funnier thing is...don't even mind.  Have to wonder if I've realized this since Avalon, or if it's new.  Doesn't matter either way.

Unfortunately, the next day did show up.  We're going to be taking a climb down the World Tree to get to Helheim, one of the few ways left that might be open.  Got all the supplies.  But in the end, we needed a blood sacrifice to open the way.  Most of us gave our own...Hal gave enough for Lexi as well.  This is going to be a long, long climb down.  Probably getting harassed most of the way, too.  Lovely thought, but the cause is going to be worth it in the end.

The Game's Afoot

First shots of the war were fired tonight.

Clear night.  We began the final plans over a well-made meal.  No point in kicking it on an empty stomach, right?  It was a bit...surreal, to be honest.  And not even the fact that Ares and Artemis were sitting in full form with us.  Truth be told, I barely even noticed the usual shift in reality that comes from being in such close proximity to multiple gods and goddesses.  It was more, well, people were listening.  To me.  Offering suggestions and views, and ultimately listening and preparing to carry out my orders.  And just two nights ago, we were still in 'LOL, Claire, ignore that noob' territory.  

Had Hal on getting the earthworks ready as fast as we could, after he checked out an incoming and obviously supernatural storm headed straight for the harbor.  He ended up spotting three especially massive metal birds within the storm itself.  More confirmed their presence, actually, Andrew seemed to have discovered their presence.  Cindy and Andrew tended to the sacrifice Triton had come demanding for his master.  As Andrew had said, we'd need the lifeline shipping would bring, since the roads and rail networks wouldn't be enough.  Side note: Those need to be greatly expanded and guarded.  We didn't have all of Donny's band, unfortunately.  Hopefully they'll hurry up and get their asses here, we'll need the added firepower.  What we did have was Donny working his mojo on getting us the people we'd need to get our quick and dirty defenses dug.  And more militia volunteers.  

Put Kenny on rounding up the ones who showed and getting them armed, then into place.  Ares gave me a little speech as everyone was hopping to.  That 'first command is the worst' stuff you always see in the movies and books.  Couldn't say it's wrong, mind, but it helped.  I might even tell him that the speech helped.  Maybe.  Man has a big enough ego as is.  Besides, he did admit who was the better CoD player was.

Ended up putting Donnie and Harmonia on morale officer duty, keeping the folks who couldn't fight calm.  Seems to have done some good, we didn't even have much, if any, looting.  That's a surprise, to be honest.  I sent Cindy to the front after she and Andrew got back from taking care of the sacrifice.  We didn't get flooded, so maybe it did some good.  No way to tell then, and no new information now.  Kennedy found herself a place on the highest tower in the city, able to watch the harbor and the centaurs.  And ended up introduced to Munin, a raven messenger/representative of Odin.  Guess we're attracting a lot more attention to this corner of the world then I figured we would.  Good.  Should make it easier to get allies now that we've shown we can fight.

Hal moved to the front lines as well.  Best place for him, really.  Wasn't much left for it at that point, and moved to my place on the rooftops a bit behind the trenches.  Pulled a map of the battlefield out of thin air and got to work playing general.  The birds didn't have a leader, or strategy.  They were just set on us to wreck up the place.  The centaurs and their army, however, did.  And supplies enough for an extended siege.  Most of which now sit within Trojan supply warehouses.  Spoils of war, and all that.

I guess there's not much to say about the fighting that wasn't already in the papers by now.  Didn't do much directly, but didn't expect to.  Tagged their head honcho with a shot before Hal began to mix it up with him.  Cindy scattered a ton of them with some kind of shockwave from the impact of her axe.  Kennedy put a bullet right through the eye of one of those damnable birds...which, unable to see her, turned their ire on me. Took a nasty gash I was able to heal up quickly, but they ruined my favorite flannel shirt that Kenny had got me.  Seems like such an odd detail to fixate on, but...I liked that shirt.

And I was pissed, I admit.  Called in a mortar strike right on their general(And Hal.  But he got out of the way and got a bitchin' axe out of it, so he doesn't get to complain.) and turned our mobile air-defense on the birds.  The mortars did their work of decapitating the head of the beast, and the birds...that was a goddamn thing of beauty.  Kennedy used some of her mojo to force them into place over an empty building.  Gave the ground teams enough time to throw a wave of Stingers at them.  Blew one of them to hell right then and there, and grounded the other two.  Those gunners are getting medals.  The other two were finally finished by other Trojan ground units packing anti-tank weapons.  Looks like modern gear actually is a threat to these things...don't know how long the enemy is going to ignore it, but I can hope for one or two more battles.  Won't get it, but I can hope.

Had Artemis, Ares, and my sister-in-law pulling some Lord of the Rings kill-counting crap in the field.  Put them all to shame with the mortar strike, heh.  Battle didn't last too much longer after that.  Cindy put another general into the ground, and my own divine push broke the morale of the rest.  

Damn if Ares wasn't right.  Even without the magic map, I could see that we got kissed, too.  Not as bad as it could've been going in blind, but still.  Going to see the fallen get a proper memorial.  They deserve that much and more, but a memorial is all any of us can do for them now.  I hate it when Ares is right.

As the others tended to the dead, I kept giving orders.  Clearing the field, retrieving what supplies we could from the centaurs.  Clearing up the streets, salvaging the metal from the birds.  Most of it is going to rebuild damage done during the attack, but I had some set aside for me.  Might be able to do something with it.  Ran out of things to actually do then, so I just sat down.  Damn, I was tired.  And...Artemis shows up, then. Was actually happy for it, had to get some things off my chest.  Let her know what it meant that she's had my back since that business in Avalon.  Found out why she didn't say anything at the party.  Turns out it was because I had Annan on my shoulder at the time.  Guess it makes sense, with the Dodekathenoi barred from Tuatha soil.  Sure, Annan and Artemis might be allies now, but she didn't know that then.

We talked some more then just me thanking her.  Told her I intended to repair the rift between our pantheons, if I could.  Fully intend to, and hope settling things on Olympus will go a long ways toward it.  And in the end, I don't intend to ask a damn thing for it.  Even without a looming Titanic threat, I wouldn't.  I don't need a great deal, or debts to worry about people repaying in strange ways.  I'd just rather not have some stupid millenia-old feud ready to rear it's ugly head at a bad moment.  It's be counter-productive even on a good day.

Someone had to kick over the hornet's nest though, and nobody else seemed willing to step up to the plate.  Funny thing, I realized while I talked to Artemis that, in the end, what happens to me doesn't matter.  Not worried about death, or damnation, or any of that.  I'm sure I should be terrified.  Don't think I'll ever be able to properly explain why I'm not.  I suppose having actual allies might help, but...eh.  Doesn't matter much in the end if I've got the words or no.

Trust.  Too few I can trust implicitly these days.  There's Kennedy, of course, but family is family.  Same with the Morrigan.  Artemis, certainly.  Ares, of all people.  Probably Hal, in his way, even with his silly fixation on Goras.  The others....I don't know.  Andrew I can probably trust.  He's really done nothing to indicate I can't, even if he and Hal were part of the faffing about in Delphi.  Cindy....I've gone over.  When it comes to an actual fight, yeah, but past that....I really can't.  The non-combat trust will take a while to rebuild.  It may be silly to be so freaked out about it, but...hell, I went over how I felt last time.  Rambling on again about it won't do any good.

And I can't trust Lexi any farther then Speedy Gonzales can toss a semi-truck.  It's not even anything she's especially done directly, and she did help with Ares.  But I think if her mother put the pressure on, she'd buckle and do whatever she asked.  Regardless of what the cost to the rest of us, or the war effort, is.  She'll need watching.  Really wish I didn't have to worry, but that's a knife hovering behind me I can't afford to ignore.

Like I said, though...ultimately, I'm not worried about what happens to me.  Artemis...I wish I knew what her game was.  Not the war, that much is obvious.  Just with me.  She's been watching out for me especially, which makes me wonder.  Protecting, mind, not waiting for a moment to strike.  She might claim it's just because I'm effectively El Presidente of the forces trying to put a better goddess on the Olympian throne, but I'm not blind nor stupid.  She's been far too...touchy and intimate for it to be just concern for the commander.  If she's got interest beyond that, I would hope she just says it, soon.  It's...I just want to know where I stand.  I'm not stupid, I realize it's fairly likely, but I'd like to at least have the cards on the table.

Probably played right into her hands, though.  Given the barring of Greek from Tuathan soil, I told her if I was still breathing by the end of this damn fool crusade, I'd take her to Avalon myself.  Partly to do something nice for someone I consider a friend...and, ultimately, my presence and Kennedy's on this Olympian front might mend things on the Greek end.  I'd like to see a Greek pay some homage to not just one of the mightiest heroes produced by the blood of the Isles, but of Europe and the world.  Nothing fancy, even.  Perhaps just a simple memorial wreath laid on Arthur's tomb.

After she took off, Kennedy finally clambered her way down the tower to give me her report.  Well, before going into the Artemis situation.  'Taken quite a fancy to me'.  Must be bloody well obvious, or Kenny G up there was just being a snoop.  Was honest with her, though.  Told her Artemis has had my back since Avalon.  And that's the moment sister-dear started cawing her head off and hopped up on Kenny's shoulder to straighten her hair.  With a beak.  My family is so weird.  Love 'em to death, but weird.

Kennedy is worried, though.  The whole 'Rawr, me Apollo, me shank-a-bitch that goes near sister' business from myth.  Like I needed something else like that to worry about, but...I still appreciate Kennedy mentioning it.  Probably would've dismissed it for later without her reminder.  But I am a bit annoyed she assumes there's going to be a relationship.  I...

Hadn't even ended things with Cindy when Kennedy stopped by.  Yeah.  That's over.  It...ended amicably enough, I suppose.  Could've been far worse, and I'm not about to lose a soldier I need.  Is that strange?  To be more worried about losing a sword-arm then the hurt from having to end the relationship?  Or Cindy's hurt?  It probably is.  But there ain't much that can be done for it.  I think my brain may be defective.

I'm also starting to suspect there's another reason Kennedy brought all this up.  Kennedy and Annan are plotting against me.  They're trying to set me up with Artemis.  Like a pair of...drunken Irish busybodies.  For the love of Pete, it's not like the Avalon thing is going to even be a date.  Regardless of what Artemis might have quipped about(In a friendly manner.  Not a serious one.  Shut up.), or what those two jerkwads think.  Or that Kenny said it sounded like one.  ARGH.  If they weren't family, I'd light their underwear drawers on fire.  With thermite.  

Think everyone is starting to gather again.  Spent longer on this then I intended to.  Guess I should wrap this up and get ready to go.  Hopefully word will get back from Goras soon.  That's one loose end I'd like settled before it comes back to bite me.

Interesting Times

This is because I ordered that Chinese food the other week and the lady said she hoped I lived in interesting times.

Where do I begin?  Well, we were gathered outside the museum, when Triton, one of Poseidon's heralds, appeared(Admittedly, in a rather impressive fashion.  Style points, if nothing else.) and started making the 'sacrifice to me or I'll wreck your shit' speech.  Probably my first indication that things weren't going to go as I'd hoped when I'd been talking to Goras.  The rest showed up later.  Had to yell at Hal to bring Harmonia down to lay everything out - to her and the rest of these ingrates.  I can't believe he's really this paranoid about Goras.  Shmuck.

So I gave them the whole story.  My understanding of my fault in the Delphi mess(though calling them out for theirs,) my understanding of the simple fact that Donny has gotten a raw deal.  Just that he was the spark that led to things like a herald of a major god showing up out of a bloody fountain in the heart of a major city.  And then Lexi...god, I want to strangle her sometimes, tried to distract the issue by talking to the damn herald.  Instead of listening to me.  And trying to lead us to another six hours of faffing about, getting nothing done, and letting the world keep on fucking burning.  I know she means well, and that's the thing.  She means well, but she's clueless on everything else.  Christ, I hate being smarter then everyone around me sometimes.

So....I shut her down.  Hard.  And kept going with my explanation while Triton left.  She did back me up later though as I kept trying to talk Harmonia into helping us with Donny.  Then...well, Ares shows up.  He's just as much of a cockbiting assjackal in person as he is online.  Alot more style and understandable in person, but still.    Turns out he's Donny's divine sponsor...I should've accounted for something like this, too, it just never entered the calculations.  So, I tried convincing Ares to step aside and let us do this.

No dice, there.  He's pissed at Zeus, at least as much if not more then a lot of others.  The real bitch of it is...he had good points.  There's too much bad blood for the Sky King to take back the Olympian throne.  And he's too paranoid that one of his sons is going to whack him to listen to how things stood.  That's when the rest of it clicked.  Goras had been right, there was going to be blood.  It still had to be quick, and as clean as we could make it...but nonviolence isn't gonna work.  Some heads are going to have to be cracked.  So...I pulled out every stop I could.  Every thought, every little bit of divine birthright I could reach, Lexi's magic from earlier...everything.  And I pulled perhaps the biggest gamble I could....and told Ares to drop his shit and join me.

To keep Zeus from regaining the Olympian throne.  And since the menfolk had messed up everything, to plant a woman in the seat of power.  To be fair, it was Kennedy who really sparked the idea, too, but...I put it out there.  And...damn it all, it worked.  It worked.  Ares is in my corner, and he's got contacts.  This...is going to tweak Goras, but I suspect I can get him to at least stay neutral.  Probably the best any of us can really hope for at this rate.  So...we started getting everything into place to get things moving forward.  Like shoring up Troy's defenses....adjusting fire missions for my NATO strike force, that sort of thing.

Then Cindy asked who was going to go on the throne(Cindy...one of the big problems with today.  Later.)  We rattled off some possibilities...and I really tempted fate by just saying I'd do it myself if I had to.  I'm going to regret that later.

There are issues beyond simply Olympus.  There's some kind of...wave of apathy sweeping through other pantheons, according to Andrew.  We'll need a united Olympus, and the rest of the divine world as well, to stand against Ahriman.  Lovely.  Which is about when Artemis, having got my message, showed up.  And we learned we had a centaur herd headed right for us.  If it rains...

But...Cindy.  I think it's almost done.  She got so possessive and....I don't know.  Overbearing isn't the right word.  But it's just...acting like Delphi hadn't happened, or that it had all been meaningless, or whatever, just....set me off.  I talked to her in some quiet time after that.  Put all my cards on the table.  She...is not happy, to say the least.  And I feel like I'm getting blamed for not simply accepting her replies just because it's her.  That might've flown before Delphi, but you do not just hang someone you claim to love out to dry and treat them like a raving madwoman, then pretend she's the greatest thing since sliced bread.    It might have gone...differently, I might have even been able to talk it out more, figure out what to do, if Artemis hadn't walked in on the talk.  There's....some bad blood between her and Poseidon, and alot of that ends up catching Cindy too.  It...doesn't bear repeating here.

It's just as unfair as how Cindy treated me, and even Artemis seemed to realize it when I talked to her later.  Gods, this is all complicated.  I'm overthinking it again, and I promised not to do any of that before Troy was secured.  Just can't get a couple more thoughts out of my head.  Thing is...Artemis had another point.  She hadn't been truthful with me at the party, and I can understand why, given who all was around, and who was at my side at the time.  But it was her who appeared to me in Avalon.  Apperantly, my soul's vision summoned her directly.  But the point was...maybe there was a reason I thought of Artemis and not Cindy.  And if what she showed me about Cindy was correct...what does that say for Cindy?  Was any of this real? Does Fate just not want me to be happy with someone for more then a few months?

Fuck it.  I'm overthinking again.  I'm going to get our defenses tied in and see if the guard is back with Goras yet.  I don't have time for self-doubt right now.