The 4th Gate

There really isn't much to say.

We've reached the fourth gate.  I suspect this place is beginning to grind down on Hal, he's not normally this doom and gloom.  As long as we can keep it together for the rest of the trip, we'll be fine once we're free of Duat.  Looking around, I keep half-suspecting that R'lyeh is going to rise from the black waters and Cthulu is going to jump out and yell surprise at us before we're devoured.  I certainly wouldn't be surprised at this point, given the bloody snake in Helheim.

But we're here.  Hurt but unbroken.

I've...well, taken my spot at this point as the stand in for Isis.  As I've said, I'm not happy about it, but it is what it is.  Fate is going to keep pushing me this way, then fine, let it.  I'm not going to be the McKenzie who decided to go home when things got a bit dicey.  When we're free of Duat and Imhotep has whatever his plans are in place, then we can get back on track.  I'm starting to understand a bit more just how big the stakes are, too.  If Zeus is so desperate as to go through a titan to get what he regards as his, he'll make mistakes.

I just need to play my own cards right.  Which means finding a way to keep Aphrodite from just snapping her fingers, given her absurd levels of being able to twist people to her will.  I need to figure out where Athena stands as well.  The most I'm going to hope for there is neutrality, though.  With her out of the war, Zeus loses the last of the bulk of his military thinking.  Sure, there will be his children and other Dodek scions who side with Olympus, but I'm confident enough that without Ares or Athena, he can't, in the end, win through force of arms.

I just hope he has the bloody sense to see it himself.

Boat's moving again.  Need to cut this short so I can help guide us through.

Fallen

What else is there to say?

I suppose technically Rufus isn't dead.  His soul is perfectly preserved.  But none of this would've happened without me screwing up.  I expected to lose people in this war.  I'd be a bigger fool to think we'd all get through unscathed.  But to lose Rufus to such an incredibly idiotic mistake...damn it.  I really should have known better.  Wasn't even getting outmaneuvered in the field.  It was just stupid.

It's times like this my talents had leaned towards death.  Then maybe I could do something about it.  I don't know what, mind.  But there could have been something to set this right.  Now?  I don't know.  And I don't even have time to start working on it.  I can turn ideas over in my head, sure, but we've got the rest of the mission.  It's probably what he'd want too.  Doesn't mean I wouldn't rather be looking for a way to set things right, though.

And to think, this isn't even the worst of what we were told to expect.  All because the Egyptians couldn't be fucking bothered to send their own people down here.  I should have held on to that point.  An entire band of their own would be better served down here then a mishmash with only one Pesedjet.  The real objective of Egypt should have been left to us, not this...busywork.  I suppose it's my fault for letting the planning get away from me.  Just one more on the pile.  If it were at all possible to simply leave this to the Pesedjet I'd do it.  Get back topside, actually cut the Greek lines home, and force Goras to lay down his weapons.  Guess that's objective two, because I don't see us getting out of here any time soon.

I can't wait to get out of this fucking hole.  I'm getting tired of all this underworld bullshit.  I've got my own things to answer for since opening my mouth in Troy.  But the Dodekatheon and the Pesedjet now have more.  At least the High Court is shaken out of it's funk.  As soon as we're out of here I need to speak to dad or the Morrigan.  Get a feel for how the wind is blowing now.  Soon as the Greeks are stopped here, we need to talk to the Yazata.  I know full well what happened the last time the Persians tried to take Greece, and that's what I need now.  A long, drawn out, knock-down fight.  I want Olympus bled dry before it's time to move directly on it.

Damn it.

I'm sorry, Rufus.  I'm so goddamn sorry.  I'll make this right.

Overboard

Shit.

I really should have known better.  I recognize that.  I didn't need Hal commenting on it.  But we were going to be jumped either way, damnit.  I...damnit.  Most of our overboard can be retrieved.  Rufus, though...damnit.  If I have to turn this fucking boat around to go find him, I will.  We can deal with Olympus without the Egyptians if we have to.  I am not abandoning one of our own because I was an idiot.  Anyone else who doesn't like it can have Hal carry them to Ra's boat.

This whole trip was a bad idea anyway.  I know where it went wrong, though.  This bloody insistence on shoring up Egypt's defenses.  That wasn't the goddamn plan.  The entire point of fighting in Egypt was to make sure Goras couldn't fight.  Not to face him on the open field.  I don't think anyone else knows or cares why I'm trying to make sure Greeks are the spearhead.  Anyone else's banner in front and it's another pantheon meddling.  Olympians in the vanguard?  It's their fight with foreign aid.  Ok, Fate might say this is my gig.  But that just means I get to fight that my way, and that starts with turning as many Greek loyalists against Zeus as I can.  And Goras would make one hell of an asset.  If I convinced Ares, I can convince him. But this bloody insistence on an open fight is madness.

And if it comes to an open fight, I won't be able to get him to switch sides.  It's not just him we need, but his people too.  The more we kill, the less likely anyone else is going to want to join us.  Oh, no doubt others will argue we wouldn't take the blame, or that we don't need Goras' troops, or him.  Or that hey, it's the Pesedjet that would be the focus of their ire.  But that's because they aren't, or haven't been, paying attention to Fate at all.  Andrew maybe, but he's going to be focused on his homeland.

But the rest of it doesn't matter.  The whole bloody mess is my doing anyway.  First from even letting the plan break from what I was trying to do, then with that stupid crap on the boat.  There may not be time to fix the first one - and no military campaign can be run perfectly.  But the second was fixable.  It was just a matter of getting the damn boat turned around.

Another day, another underworld

One day, we're going to go somewhere nice.  Maybe a beach.  For all it's issues, Troy was nice.  And then...two underworld's in a row, an argument with the High Court...I knew I was cursed.  This is what I get for opening my mouth so many times.  Fate has it in for me.  What am I supposed to do about it?  I could curse Fate, but that's just piss her off.  So, I'll continue as is - grumbling to myself and occasionally ranting about it.  But no direct attacks.  I'm not -stupid-, after all.

Andrew guided us along the thread to the first dock on Duat's river.  Once we had our boots on the ground, we headed towards the first actual gate.  Something is wrong down here.  Which is not a surprise, really.  We only had to fight and bind a giant snake in Hel's own house, why would anything ever go simply?  Lexi, the little mook, tried to get us to go faffing about.  Put my foot down on that, and Andrew backed me up.  Anyway.  What was wrong was that there weren't Pesedjet spirits down here.  Not just them.  A ton of the Abrahamic religion followers had their spirits lined up.  Given what we saw in Helheim, I'm starting to suspect there's similar trouble down here.  Especially given that the bloody Dodekatheon is mucking around with Nyx.  I'm starting to understand why the Dagda wants to kick Zeus' sorry ass so hard, now.  They're all idiots, save a remarkable few.

A sphinx had the temerity to growl at Rufus.  Rufus.  The most suave and debonair wolf to ever live.  I gave him the bloody tophat and monocle to prove it!  What do I need to do, get the man a pipe?  He is a gentleman.  Unless I was right and they did think he was cute.  I probably was.  It is Rufus, after all.  Any talks with the sphinx or it's other half?  Mate?  Fellow guard?  Whatever.  Those talks never had to happen.  Kebauet prevented that.  The band talked to her for a time before she pointed us on.  Imhotep himself...well.    Took some talking to, but we did convince him to come with us.  Of course, while we were debating, Apep's assassin's started infiltrating and getting in close to us.  In the spirit of not faffing about when we're all about to be murdered, made the call to just get our asses in gear.  We're headed up.  There could be more...temporal issues, but it's better then having to pick our way through a metric ton of traps.

This ferry doesn't lead to Skara Brae, Avatar

Suppose I can't blame them.

The spirits, I mean.  Not having a death-tuned godling at the helm, much less one not of the Pesedjet, was something to bitch over.  Mind, I was irritated at the time.  However, it does make sense.  And I figured out where they really wanted me - at the rails watching for trouble.  Very little really happened.  Saw another barge with some of the Pesedjet on them.

Everything else is really covered in the official report.  I'm still not comfortable with this Isis business, though. 'She of the Throne'?  Really?  I can see about a thousand different places Fate could be steering me on this, and none of them are anything I really want to deal with.  Guess we'll just have to see how it goes, though.  Still haven't had time to really talk to Artemis after everything.  Dad's stupid horses took us straight to Egypt. But...given how long she's actually been a goddess, it's probably nothing to fret over.  Pity I can't get them to hit Goras' troops from behind.  Slow them up even more, but...I think this fight is going to be settled under the Sphinx's gaze.  Proverbially.  Hopefully not literally.

Not really much else to get into.  Not without this degenerating into brainless rambling about random crap.  Shouldn't take too long to finish up here...of course, I fully expect there to be a fight or five.  We got down here far too easily.  But nothing for it yet.  Just have to wait for Fate to turn around and bite us square in the ass on it.

World 2-1

Well, Egypt got off to an absolutely smashing start.  Everyone else seems to have pulled their stuff off but me and Kenny.  Which is good.  Don't get me wrong.  It's just frustrating as hell that we were the only ones to run into someone being as pigheaded as Nuada.  It's going to make my life easier in the end, especially the apperant reasonableness of the Yazata.  If they'd tried to bunker up too...ugh.  Doesn't bear thinking on.

And I may have vented off some of my frustrations on the Pesedjet liason.  Probably shouldn't have, but anyone who had to deal with the politics of the High Court probably would've felt the same.  This is why I wish I hadn't stuck my foot in my mouth and got Fate's attention.  She's being a royal bitch and a half, and I've nobody to blame but myself.

I do, however, still think the Egyptians are giving us the job we have now as a way to A) Get us out of their way, and B) Get the Greeks amongst us killed.  I highly doubt they're going to sell us out unless Aphrodite shows up and mind-whammies them anyway.  I do see where they're coming from...but for fuck's sake, a little honesty would be preferable to the hooplah about 'not having the resources'.  Bullshit on that.  The Greeks only have so many approaches they can take, and all the Egyptians have to do is hold until the head of the snake can be cut off.  Even with one of those approaches being through Nyx herself.  The other option is something else I mentioned - the Pesedjet and their mortal allies dropped the ball on their defenses so catastrophically they actually don't have the numbers to hold the walls and sent a sallying party out to deal with the nonsense we got fobbed off on us.

And while I freely admit I shouldn't have called Kahi out on that so openly.  Should've been handled quietly while the others are getting ready.  Even if she's one of the ones who completely disregard anything the mortals can possibly do.  And, yes, I fully intend to render an apology to the woman once we're done with the job.  But for the love of Pete, a bit more honesty wouldn't have killed them either.  If we're going to win this, we have to be honest with each other.  Sometimes the bloody truth hurts.

The task.  We're escorting some nublets out with us to go make contact with the guardians of Imhotep's tomb.  They want their best architect on the job of building more defenses against the Dodeks.  Makes sense.  Tricky bit...each of the ladies in the band has to take the 'place' of one the defending goddesses in a ritual to summon Imhotep's soul from the underworld.  And to go back to something above...guess how I know Fate's been fucking with me personally?

After all of this, I am, as Andrew suggested, to emboy Isis.  She of the Throne.  Yeah, Fate.  I'm looking right at you, you colossal bitch.

Kicking the Hornet's Nest

Well.  Three years.  Tch.  With orders given and tasks passed out, we split to take care of business before meeting up again in Egypt.  Me and Kennedy headed to the High Court.  Apperantly, Nuada was none too happy with what I've been up to of late.  Which is no surprise.  Fucking jackass.

No, no.  I've been bitter enough.  It's not going to help things when the situation smooths itself out.  Pops is right about that, at least, even if he is still a dingbat.  So.  The skinny version is it didn't go well.  Not how I wanted, anyway, but I may have achieved a victory just as important as full Tuatha backing.  Thing is, Fimbulvinter had been affecting the Tuatha as well - by the time I reached Tir na nOg, Nuada's heart had been hardened by the coming storm.  None of my words reached him, and all he had to spare was anger at some 'young upstart'.

But the saving grace was others jumped in on my team.  While last I heard, Ogma was still at the King's side, I know for certain that the Dagda, the Morrigan, and my father and sister stood with me.  I suspect there were others, but the final scene before me and Kennedy had to flee the Court was a massive brawl.  Better then the long, drawn out fighting going on for Olympus.  Get everyone's issues sorted out now.  Hopefully it will mean that by the time all is said and done, Nuada will have been shaken from his stupor and recall what I said.  And hopefully that will be before the last march on Olympus comes.  We don't need an army yet.  Once Goras is dealt with, Zeus' primary spearhead will be broken.  And with luck, he comes to our side.  Like I'd been trying to do in the first place.

I just hope Hal and the others were a bit more successful.