Act 3, Scene 1

Well.  We've made new friends already.

Why does it seem like every time we go somewhere new, and meet new demi/full on gods, they have to be stuffed up assholes?  Seriously.  And then, when they are that way, it's my fault for treating them like they're assholes.  It's...mrgh.  I know I have a temper.  I know my reflexes tell me to kick anyone in the teeth if they're being twats.  I just need to sharpen that edge a bit.  I know I can't really go on with my first reflex in any situation being to be a snarky little jackass.

But, Rome.  We're not going to be here long.  Made a deal with the man in charge not to stuff this place into my plans.  Makes sense.  There's enough history here, divine and mortal, that I have no great desire to wreck up the joint.  I'm not sure where we're going to set up, but I imagine it'll be somewhere just as close to Olympus itself.  In a way, it makes sense.  We can set up ways for our Pesedjet allies to get in, all I have to do is blow the horn Hel gave me and the million-strong Aesir army springs up.  And a small band will have a much easier time staying under the radar.  Thuringia is a possibility, but I'd rather not put Kenny's folk on the spot if I don't have to.  I'll see what everyone else can come up with.

Speaking of - it seems Hera pulled Kenny aside after our jump through the warp pipe.  Something about our intentions for Olympus and history between Hera and Kennedy's half of the family.  And Rufus...damnit.  I can hope he'll slowly learn to lean back towards his old self.  But I don't know.  Damnit.  I really should've known better, the old boy's like that because of my fuck up.  And while logic might dictate Kennedy and him saying they knew the risks, that doesn't make it easier.  It's different when the ones that get hurt aren't the faceless masses.

Which just makes me think.  I've no problem with throwing this massed army of Aesir and Pesedjet at Olympus if I have to.  And while I wouldn't want to waste them...it'd be harder to mourn.  I don't know them, not in the slighest.  I guess it might be a blessing the High Court hasn't sent aid yet.  I'm sure it'd be harder throwing Tuatha-born at the front lines.

Is this really going to be my test, Fate?  Make sure I can wear some stupid bloody crown and not break by dropping me into a situation like this?  Is there a point, or are you just doing this for kicks?

Chalk up another one for the good guys

Looks like we won this round, too.

And at least we're out of Duat.  Hopefully the next trip through an underworld is many, many centuries off.  We had finally reached the scales of Ma'at.  Judgement time, yay?  What happened with the others is theirs to tell, or not, as they please.  No need to rat on them for it.  Myself, though?  Got dropped into the waters up to chest level.  On the bad side, I'm probably glad I don't have Andrew or Kennedy's perceptions into the machinations of Fate.  On the good side...I think I amused Ma'at.  Something about being defiant to the end, regardless.  I can't say that having amused a goddess is a bad thing in most cases.  And she let me go.  So who am I to complain?  Of course....dad actually spoke up for me too.  He reminded her that even 'tricksters and rebels' have their place.  And then he made a pass at her.  Seriously.  I wish that was a joke.  That man is impossible.

That's when Anubis made his appearance.  He addressed us all as one, then me specifically.  The Pesedjet have pledged their support in the push for Olympus when the time comes.  Not a bad lookin' army so far.  A million dead Aesir and the Pesedjet.  I'd like to be sure the Tuatha would be there as well beyond myself and Kennedy.  And I would have loved to be able to bring the eastern pantheons in.  But I suspect the Bureaucracy would have simply laughed, and I doubt that the Amatsukami would even have deigned to acknowledge some whelp from the west.  We're going to need them after, so maybe finally drop-kicking Zeus to the curb will get us some notice.

There were...other events, but they also aren't for me to go into.  As things stand now...I need to find a way to discuss things with Hera.  She's the obvious choice for what I intend to do.  I also need to find a way to get ahold of Athena.  Anubis said he was bringing us to Rome.  Quite a bit closer than I imagined, but given everything, it should leave Goras out of the picture, which is how I wanted him in the first place.  I'd like to arrange the same thing for Athena.  It'd be great to have her on our side, but I don't expect it.  All I seek now is to convince her not to fight for Zeus.  Stepping aside would probably be best anyway.  If the plan for Hera falls through, Athena is the next candidate I'd put on the throne.

Always with the Snakes

Well.  Guess I'm going to be without my shadow for a while.

We ran into a giant snake while we were trying to guide this bloody boat through the rocks.  It's...made of shadows.  And if I fire off the Sun mojo again, just causes all the old issues again.  Then...Cindy, in her infinite wisdom, decides to attack and leave her charge unguarded.  So when the snake turns our shadows against us, there's nobody to help.  My shadow was dispatched easily enough by a simple shot straight to the heart.  I think Kennedy simply turned her god mojo on her own shadow.  

Of course, when Cindy finally got back to it, she just tried to -grab- the damn thing.  Which worked about as well as one can expect.  Simple grabs ain't gonna work, hopefully she figured that out.  This...is going to be tough.  There's really only one of us who can't fully cut loose to deal with the damn critter.  Hal is good at his work, but it took all of us to deal with Kur, and I haven't seen a bone golem to distract this snake.

I've got a few ideas if it comes to it.  I need to start charging up my own mojo.  If Hal can't outfight it on his own, maybe...damn it.  She of the Throne my ass, Fate.  It's walk into it openly or risk everything isn't it?  

You know what kids?

Being a demigod kinda sucks.

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.