So, Donny's stupid little museum just imploded...sort of. I've figured out why. I'm mad, and I intend to talk with the one responsible, but I understand it. Especially given everything I've learned about how Fate sees some of us, and why I seem to have been given Odysseus' role.
And I've done the one thing none of them ever dreamed of doing, because it was far easier to believe Donny was simply some poor, persecuted soul, and Aphrodite wasn't playing petty games with her children. I actually went out and talked to Goras. Myself, and Kennedy, ventured to the Palace of Knossus itself to speak to him. A nice place, truely. Might have to get one of my own like it some day. But...talking to Goras. It's something we should've done ages ago, even before Nikky got pinched by his troops. Then again, why would we? It wouldn't fit with the perfect little image we've dredged up for Lexi and her mother.
He certainly isn't an evil man. He's not even after territory or conquest, something I'm certain the others would never accept, nor understand, as it would require actually challenging their own beliefs on everything that's been going on. And to do that would require moral fortitude most of them have now quite clearly displayed they don't have. We had a month, and what did most of us do? Nothing of ultimate import to the matter at hand. Nobody came back with plans to end this successfully without bloodshed, or methods to simply break the compulsion to make Donny and Harmonia more pliable to talking it out. Nothing. Myself and Kennedy are the only ones who actually spent time working our tails off to stop this insanity barreling down on us.
Goras is also big on Tuatha-style hospitality. Good booze and good food for meetings that can change the world. We toasted as we sat down. His, to civilization. Mine, to saving what we could in the times to come. Seemed to approve of it. Kennedy, as always, did not say much. She never does, really, so it's easier to tell when something is important with her when she acutally does open her trap. Goras even apologized for the night Nikolas was grabbed. Nikky was to be under supervision in case the Donny situation went out of control(which it has.) He hadn't realized until after the fact we were supposed to be looking out for him. Which we obviously didn't, because they spent more time pissing and moaning over my business in getting them a prophecy which led us more fully to Troy and possible consequences after.
I began to simply lay out my larger plans, and the consequences I foresaw. What I, Kennedy, and Goras now know is that there is a substantial NATO air mission fueling and arming for a strike against Troy. With the obvious defensive emplacements Donny put into place, it was incredibly easy to mark them as part of a terrorist/anti-governmental group taking control of the city, with 'poor' Donny and Harmonia as hostage-figureheads. And stated that I'd need help with getting the other pieces into play and actually kickstarting the mission. That's when Goras began to lay out his end of the deal on the table. I must say...it certainly was an enlightening tale, and I could sense no falsehood with him. As far as Goras knows, it all was truth.
The Dodekathenoi are just as close, if not closer, to war as the rest of the world. It shouldn't take many words to state what an incredibly bad prospect a God-war on Olympus would be. The place would be lost. Because each of the gods has their own private armies, and any one of those armies could, with the aid of a god that didn't understand or just didn't care, smuggle a nuclear device onto Olympus itself. No doubt some of the gods who might be there when such a device went off would survive...but precious few. Too few, with all the demi-gods and heroes at each other's throats on the slopes all vaporized, to defend against a certainly inevitable Titan onslaught. And with the Greek gods dead, Olympus a smoldering ruin, the real enemy has a massive stronghold in the heart of Europe.
Lovely thought. But, he said, if we do this properly and quickly, all of this will be remembered as a minor tiff. He has people in place to help assure it doesn't devolve into a massive mortal war as well. I wish I could have faith in that working, but...I have to plan for the worst case. Easier to adapt. If I do nothing, as the others would...someone might get it wrong.
The possibility he floated of my and Kennedy's aid in settling this healing the long-standing feud between Greek and Tuatha would be buried, perhaps for good, is one I have fondness for. At this point...I laid out my three possibilities. There's no real need to go in-depth here...the parties that need to know the details, know them. Essentially, though, the first is to simply erase Troy, and everyone in it, from exsistence. Not an option I like. Too much room for things to still explode in our faces, though the odds of it are low with the Greek social chameleons in place. The second, and my preferred method, given everything I knew then and certainly know now, is what I have NATO in place for. With the 'Walls of Troy' knocked down, Goras can march his people in and collect Donny(and Harmonia. Hal can't take them all, if I can't talk him down), and take him back to Olympus to settle all of this. The third is the least likely, especially now, and the only thing resembling what the rest of the band had planned for - talking Donny and Harmonia into laying down their arms and returning to Olympus to settle this mess like reasonable adults.
I still think Donny could be convinced to see it that way...if we can convince Harmonia. He can get back at his mother by joining with Zeus. Zeus gets his prestige and right to rule back after centuries of mortal mythologists treating him and most of the Greeks as a running joke, and Aphrodite can get her meddling ass knocked down a few hundred pegs for almost sending the world into nuclear fire. Unfortunately, Goras said there can't be any direct action against the Bitch. It makes sense, given everything, it's just...I have no words for how frustrating it is.
Which is going to surprise people to learn. I can see Donny's point - he's tired of being pushed around by overstuffed jackasses, and is finally putting his foot down and saying 'No more.' Zeus has spent centuries getting the same treatment from mortals, and now some little assjackal comes along and says 'Fuck all y'all'? Pushing back against a fate and a world hellbent on terrorizing and hurting you makes sense. But...damnit. There's no good way out of this. So I have to take the option with the best chance for, if not success, then a result that not only saves the most lives we can, but will solve the largest issues behind all of this. That's the stupid thing about all of this...Donny and Zeus working together would end the whole shebang in an instant.
But...damn if I know how to get him to Olympus outside of chains. And if Goras can't get to him on his own, Zeus may well take to the field himself. It would bring about his objectives, but...the thought still worries me. I'm not sure if the general populace is ready to realize exactly what's going on behind the veil. It may end up necessary...especially given what else Goras spoke of. He had...very good points on the fact that the mortals have driven themselves straight into the ground and keep on digging. One only has to look at Greece as it was before Goras stepped in and cleaned house. Now? It's the premiere economic powerhouse in Europe. We could do the same for the US, the same for Ireland...if the divine-blooded were in place to do so.
But he's right. Sometimes there's too much dead brush clogging the way for new growth, it's why farmers have to burn fields sometimes. Unfortunately...that dead brush is everything Donny has built in Troy. He has to be removed, one way or the other. He can't win a war against the heavens. He can't be allowed to drag one out. If it has to be done, I'll deliver his body to Zeus myself. I really don't want to. I don't enjoy killing, even if I recognize the reality that it has to be done. It's something mom always tried to make sure I knew. And something MIST, the Tuatha I've met, even the Greeks like Goras. Sometimes, it needs to be done, to create a better future.
If Fate wants her blood price, she'll have it, spilled or no.
Sometimes there has to be a sacrifice.
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