The next day was one of highs and lows. The high was breakfast which was pretty much the best one I have had in several days and I was considering having a second one. I decided on another coffee and merely pondered the events of yesterday. The trip was not a concern, the new job awaiting me was not a concern either, but a nice change of steps. What was a concern was whatever was in California. I was aware of Perses, but only in a limiting way. He was with Asteria the parents of Hecate, but that was about all I knew. Hesiod had written something, but I had forgotten it, I needed to reread those works, or ask someone I knew. But that did not seem like a good idea at present. I went back to Iraklion airport and flew to Paris, it was the earliest flight I could get. De Gaulle to LAX was simple enough and I only had to wait 4 hours. The nice part was that I had a first class ticket, which meant that the lounges were open to me.
As expected, these French were proud of their culinary achievements, and Air France was willing to share that experience. If breakfast in Crete was great, the snacks and drinks in De Gaulle were nothing short of amazing. The 4 hours and being armed with a few magazines went rather fast. There was an announcement and I walked to the gate to get on the plane. Getting there and on board was easy enough. The smiling flight attendant was a nice bonus and as I went into first class, the idea of sinking into my seat and getting some more sleep was a rather nice idea. I was certain that I wouldn’t be getting any in California.
Part 1 The arrival t LAX was interesting. It was my first time and as I was about to seek a taxi when I noticed a man with an EIB plate. I walked up to the man, he was holding an iPhone and looking like he was comparing it. He showed the image, a picture 3-4 years old. I nodded. His hand gestured to follow him. He walked in a stern stride, not too fast, not too slow. We walked out and towards a large dark Lincoln. He opened the back door for me, I got in. He pointed to the left side “Ouzo and raki”, he pointed to the right of the door “Ice water and orange juice”. He slowly and cautiously closed the door. I grabbed a glass of ice water. The car drove off into the late morning, towards wherever I was going to go.
It was almost 2 hours later when we stopped at a gate, the gate opened and we entered the driveway. The house was amazing, like nothing I had ever seen before. There was a man waiting at the door. “Good morning Sir, I am the Major Domo. I hope you will keep me on?” I nodded. “Very well sir.” He went on explaining the house and showing the spaces. The office took me by surprise, very spartan, just the way I like it. There was some art on the walls, not really my kind of stuff, but still decent. The nude n the master bedroom however was exquisite. It was an oil painting of a girl standing in front of a window. Her transparent gown down to her hip and her back was turned to the observer. It made me stare at the sea she was staring at through a white window. It was lovely. I could not decipher the autograph. I wonder if the previous owner ever knew the woman.
I walked back into the living room and into the kitchen. I checked the fridge. “More fruit-juices and ice water please” Patrick the major domo nodded. I looked at the rest, it as all predictable and it was all I had seen before. “I am resting in the office” “Very well Sir” I walked away. There were things to consider. The fires were on the news, but they were all over the place. More than 30,000 fires over millions of acres. It would take time to figure out where to go next, but there was time for that, the TV in the office was big and very sharp. I watched CBS2 and KCAL9 most of the time, they gave me more of the fire information. I had to look into the fire brigade. To find one place in over 30,000 was going to take some time and a lot of effort. But that was for later. I had to learn a lot more on Perses and more important, how he was fuelling the fires in the first place.
The stage was not a good one, I was in a place I did not know too well, one of the fates, fates, who are outside of control of the gods was in front of me and I just moved something through time. It was not looking good. She observed me and seemingly liked what she saw. “You are cautious in acting, you do not act hasty. This is good.” “We were a little concerned when we saw the mess you made in the Platia Rimini, but we saw your approach, we do not disapprove.” She looked at him. “You have a weird future ahead of you, we cannot help, but we can leave hints, like the letter you got. Like a few other things you will see, but it is not the right time yet. There is a much larger problem. These people are now more than a nuisance, they are an actual threat to the force of Gaia and that cannot be allowed. You will have the option to do something and the road you take will decide how many will survive, but a lot of them will have to go. Pollution is damaging the minds of Poseidon and Zeus. The realm of Hades remains intact, but it has its own problems and they must be resolved. Your grandfather is messaging you but it costs him more effort every time he does and that is now at a turning point.” “Summon your bident, now!” He looked at her and complied He whispered ‘psychofágos’ and the bident appeared. Radiant white silver and steel with a core that was not from this earth, it obeyed him and stood strong and with its appearance he felt stronger, he felt more alive and interestingly enough Lachesis suddenly looked like a very old woman, white hairs, but with the body of a 30 year old woman, firm breasts seeping through the thin silk robes. She looked good. “Men will be men”, Lachesis smiled. Obviously happy that she still had appeal to men millennia younger than she was. She took the bident from him and fitted some kind of collar to the base of the two tines and around the socket of the bident. She held a cloth over it that had a weird impact, like welding without heat. She handed the bident back, it felt a little different, but the applied collar was beautiful, it had olympian writing on it, he could not read it, it was small, really really small and the writing curved with the gemstones in the collar. A sapphire, an emerald, a ruby and something white, but not diamond, he did not recognise the stone. There were several sockets not filled. He looked at Lachesis. Where are your two sisters? He looked at her. “They know a little, but not everything, none of us know the entire stage and they are weaving the life lines, life lines that are smudged more and more over the ages and we are concerned. When the lines can not longer be weaved, we become obsolete. We would not know what to do, but to sit in front of an empty loom, with no where to go and no one to talk to. Something must be done.”
But there is no time, learn the new abilities of ‘psychofágos’, “I will guide you to your first testing ground in the very near future. I have also arranged a new employment. You are now the new investigator of the Piraeus Bank in Athens. You will not be bothered and your income will grow by 400%, you might need money soon. We have also arranged for someone to live 5 years longer, the price was his estate in California, it will be close to the test of flames. It is not merely pollution and environment that is causing the fires. It is the breath of Perses, a titan, it is still captive, but some things are seeping through and the gods ned to be restored to their power of chaos will overrun this world. If you survive that test we will talk about the next step.”
I was right, I was in trouble. Lachesis continued. “You could die, Hades cannot help, there is no Olympian cure for the embrace of your mother or grandfather, this world will be lost to you and soon thereafter for the billions of souls that will follow.” I looked at the bident, the ruby seemed a little more threatening now. “Go back to London and there you will receive the papers of the address of your new home. Do not move too much, if Perses succeeds the 5 years we gave the previous owner will have been a good deal for him, the breath of Perses will make short work of that place in seconds.”
I nodded. “Good travels, grand son of Hades. If the tests go well, you will be worthy of an Olympian name” I looked around, well no one for miles. The church was still there, the windows were still there and he walked towards the scooter and drive back to the rental place. He filled up the gas tank, waived at the woman behind the counter and handed in the key to the scooter. She took it, walked towards the scooter, checked it and nodded in my direction, she signed off the paper and handed me a copy. I went back to the hotel, drank a sip from the fruit juice in the fridge.
Tomorrow would be a new day and with that idea I went to bed and fell asleep.
There is a building, it is one of the few that ca be seen from space and it is new. In this year 2029 it is 90% finished. Yet there is not a soul in the building, not one you might want to see. The building is overrun with Cobra’s, millions of them. The aggressive invasive species came, overran and took control. At some point people came, they started to clean out the snakes, but for every one killed, 5 took its place, it was an uneven battle and the people lost. It is now known as the building of a million serpents. But there is still something odd about the building. If a person was a ghost and looked at the place, they would see that the snakes all started at an empty space in the sky, or it only seemed empty. If we could stare into the void of darkness, no wait. We do not need to, dawn approaches. And it was no more than an hour later that the sun came up. Even as the glass panels minimised the sun, it was not all done and now high in the air we see a rope with a basket. In it was the star of 10,000 eyes. A relic much older than the building, and many centuries older than any building nearby.
It was a dodecicosacron if a person had a name for it. The object was peculiar to say the least. You see it was near perfect black, but the moment it was held by anyone, the object showed its eyes, thousands of it and they all stared at you and something else happened. It drew in every cobra for miles around. It was a cursed object to say the least and the person who found it was not granted a long life, because the eyes held you and soon there after the cobra’s would hold that person.
The object was so old that it defied description. To cut it short, it was non-human object. It was a tool ordained by Jibreel. When he was sent to do the bidding of the one, he went and did what was required. Yet the hunt was almost uneven, for he was sent to fight the king of Marid and this Marid had taken the shape of a cobra. It was huge and after the initial fight which was decades long, Jibreel knew that this fight would go on forever, so he thought his way into a pause and reconsidered. He created from a star the dodecicosacron and it was of such glass that the eyes of Marid would be captured by it and he would be swallowed by the object. And after the next fight which laster 60 years he threw the dodecicosacron between them both. The Jibreel paused for he had never seen such a magnificent shiny object before and that was the trap, as he saw the object his sight went into the dodecicosacron, and it took days before he realised that he was now within the dodecicosacron. And Jibreel took the dodecicosacron and buried it deep in a pit with black water, thick and non-reflective. The dodecicosacron sank to the bottom to never been seen again, or was it?
It was 2025 when a simple man was working the Shaybah fields. He was doing his normal work and he would be working on a new project the next day, a building huge and magnificent. He would be working on pipes for water and he was grateful, because the smell of oil would be gone from his nose for a long time to come. He never minded the smell, it gave him a decent amount of money, it allowed him to get a nice house where his wife looked over his two children, life was good. It was then that he heard a weird rattle, it came from the pipe and stopped at a fall pipe. He opened the valve and a blob fell through the first valve, he then closed the first valve and opened the second one. The blob fell as well as a decent amount of oil. The sand slowly took the oil and he was left with some blob. He pushed blob with a stick, it was more profound now, like some star object with many points. He put a big rag around the star and started to carry it to the shed to report what he had found when he saw a Cobra. It was coming for him. This was odd, Cobra’s stayed away, the smell drove them off, not this one, so he ran to a jeep. His boss was already at that new building, so he drove off. He was unsure, but he felt lie there was more than one Cobra. So he drove off fast towards the building. He arrived at the building, when he heard that his boss was on the roof, to inspect a dozen water pumps. He went up with one of the elevators. When he was on the roof, he saw people in the far distant, perhaps half a mile away. He saw a rope and used it to tie the rag to the star, the rag was now pitch black from the oil. He walked as fast as he could towards the group of men. He noticed his boss and nodded to his boss. The boss looked surprised. “Abbas?” He looked perplexed. You are not coming until tomorrow. Abbas nodded and started to explain the events. His boss looked perplexed and saw the black rag tied with rope. The walked towards the middle where the roof was not yet complete. And as they were talking Abbas suddenly noticed a Cobra, it was coming towards them, he shouted at his boss and pointed at the cobra, they both walked away towards the opening, but the Cobra followed. And Abbas who tried to run away slipped on something and he stumbled into the hole, holding at a ledge with all his might. The rope slipped through his fingers and got stuck on a beam below him, he tried to climb out, but the Cobra was there and it bit him, he let go instinctively and fell down, he fell for seconds and was killed immediately, there was no surviving that height and the rag with the rope was high in the air. It was still covered in oil, but it was now out in the open and every Cobra for many miles around heard the star and they all came. Within days the building was overrun and the most deadly of places in the Kingdom. And no matter how deadly the building was now, it was nothing compared to what the building was holding now. Marid was back among men, Marid was soon to be free.
We all face it at times. It is not as negative as it sounds, for some it is a mere form of awareness. I am facing mine at present. A small defence, I damaged my left shoulder so I am best friends (sort of) with Codeine. Not enough to be dopey the dwarf, enough to not drive a tank through the streets of Sydney, so there is manoeuvring space (for me that is). My downward spiral has nothing to do with the shoulder, but with my IP. You see I am in an iterative mood. I see improvements all around me. Games that could be better, movies that are substandard, music that could be different and lets be clear, I have absolutely no idea on music. As such my mind became the ultimate critic. Now, when it comes to my own IP, especially the 5G one, it makes perfect sense to be in an iterative mode, the innovation was version 0.9 (or 1.0), I am now on version 1.3, 1.4 is a bigger adjustment for real estate, but I am trying to find a way to either include it, or consider a cheaper version just for real estate. I have not made up my mind on that yet.
I have been on an iterative setting for a few other things too. Now for the most I have an intense hatred for iterative thinking. It never goes anywhere fast and focussing on innovation is more rewarding as well. But the person who thinks that they can come up with innovation is utterly nuts. Just like the business people that consider that true business is profit without costs, one needs the other or it is pointless ambulance chasing.
All this started when I saw a Chinese add on android regarding a Chinese mobile game, It was not the first one I saw and then the thoughts hit me more profoundly. If I am correct, I (at that moment) figured out what Tencent is planning, if I am correct than it implies that there is a lot more coming in 2023/2024 than anyone ever suspected. I feel certain that it was a fluke, but the cogs started to connect and if it is correct it is Epic Games that opened the door. That Fortnite case is having a much larger impact. If I am correct (which is not a given) that it might set a case where Tencent is setting a new foundation towards gambling and it is all perfectly legal, yet with the Apple and Android setting of buying goods via third party providers, there will be a new case of white washing funds all over the world. I will have to find the advertisement again, but it was a rare case that I suddenly get a Chinese ad (in Chinese) and the image that flashed by gave me a worry, and weirdly enough it took me back to March 15th when I wrote ‘When is a slot machine not one?’ (At https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/15/when-is-a-slot-machine-not-one/), and I as the dreamer focussed on the 5G side of things, all whilst I should have looked in the other direction and more importantly, it puts the FBI and their peers pretty much out of business. I wrote at that time “And those not in Las Vegas will have the option to massively deal and handle in crypto currency. An outlet outside of the bank stage. An outlet that circulates currency unmonitored” my mind was with the slot machine, whilst the mention of “The slot machine was a laundromat for crypto currency” which is not something I focussed on, merely the technology, but now consider that these systems traffic between wide area networks and transfer bitcoins all over the planet, and the watching eyes of governments were blind to it. The padlocks are suddenly more than a lock, more than the stage of presentation, they are phones to other nations and they merely deal in digital data. So what does it take NOW to transfer 3,000 bitcoins unseen? Think of it, the internet is monitored, the dark-web is not to be trusted (unless you control it) but a slot machine, from a reputable vendor? There was an underlying story in Casino Royale (yes, the Bond movie) I reckon that there is a whole range of devices coming out and the nice part is that they could connect to a padlock on a slot machine. And that is merely a starting point. What happens when this takes a sharp turn to the right? I can guarantee you now that there is no government with proper protection or rules in place to stop any of this, and with a fully deployed 5G it becomes pretty much impossible to monitor it all.
Yup, it is a nice one, but that is not how I am starting this. You see, I doubt everything, even myself. And It was in that setting I had doubts, doubt on me. You see, even as I see things left right and centre proving me right, I always understand that this is not always given, I could be wrong.
As such I also doubted my IP abilities as I was too focussed on a few matters (Augmented reality being one) so when I saw a sketch on Twitter I knew that I was not alone in the stage that we have had enough of the media crucifying Elon Musk, not just that, I came up with a new piece of IP. I gave it to my boss, I could not find anyone that had turned this summer thought into IP, and so I handed over that IP and if he registers it, he’ll have well over a year of advertisement bonuses (I already have three bundles of IP) and I am nowhere near done. So that is enough about me, now lets go back to Greece and lets see what is going on there.
Part 1 The trip to Crete was simple and decently fast. There were no delays in London, the trip to Heathrow was simple, checking in was a breeze and I saw none of the traces of anyone that was either in Paris or Rhodes. The purchase in Crete was done via a dummy corporation so my lawyer earned his keep and I was on a bus towards Rethimno. I got there a little over two hours later and it was starting to get dark. The hotel Porto Enetiko Suites was close to the Venetian harbour so I got there and there was a room available (high end hotels usually have rooms for people with credit cards), and this place was no exception. I got a simple room with two levels, the bed was on the upper level and the room was simple but decent. There was a full kitchen with an excellent fridge. It was early evening, so I went out seeking a supermarket which was less than 10 minutes away with the surprising name ‘7 days supermarket’ I got a few bottles of fruit juice and some bottled water. I did not bother with food, this city had more restaurants and eat places than London had bankers. I got back to my room another 10 minutes later and dropped the bottles in the fridge. I left again for some food, which would likely include a glass of Ouzo. I turned left and about 100 metres further was Makan a nice restaurant with the promise of greek dishes. The dishes were really nice and I had my fill of Greek food (and loving it) and yes the bill came with a glass of Ouzo. I paid the bill with the 20% tip and drunk the Ouzo. I greeted the girl and walked back to the hotel. It would be a nice sleep, the weather was lovely, a little warm but that is to be expected when you are used to British summers. It was the next morning that I checked with the lawyer and he told me that everything is in order and the property was now mine. I checked my clock, a little late in the morning, so I found a place that rented out scooters and drove to my destination, which was still 2 hours away. The instructions from the lawyers were clear precise and correct. It was the middle of nowhere, there was nothing around and there was no one around. I walked into the ruined church and yes, if it was even a little more a ruin it would not be a ruin, but mere rubble.
I leaned against the wall after I checked that it was sturdy and I looked around. Not sure what to do here. I walked around the church on the outside and saw a stone. It stated 1423-1427, from that point I reckoned that it took the builders 4 years to make the church. This made sense as it was in the middle of nowhere and it was not some prime location. But I recalled from the writings that there was a link between the clock and the oil lamp, so I took them out of the safe, which I created in the sturdiest wall and studied the lamp now more intense. As I turned the lid around I noticed that the inside of the lid was exactly the shape of the clock. I put the clock in the lid and held it in my hand, the clock fell out of the lid into my hand. It was then I noticed the small hole in the lid. What if I turned the lid upside down? I then considered the clock, I set it 2:31PM and placed it on the lid and set the lid on the lamp. I saw the liquid pore into the lid but no more than that and I ignited the oil lamp. That did more than something, the light even in the day was bright as the sun, and in addition to that the lamp suddenly felt sluggish and very heavy. But it was nothing compared to what my eyes saw. Not only did I see the church as it was in those days when it was new. As I illuminated the wall and the window opening, the walls and windows repaired themselves, or that was what I initially thought. The lamp did more than project the church as it was in 1431, It pushed that stage into today. Within 2 minutes the walls and windows were like they were in the original days. The church was in part renewed, and as the light hit the door opening the doors restated themselves. They were gorgeous, chiseled olive planks with metal reinforcement. I quickly shut off the light and separated clock and oil lamp. I quickly placed them back in my personal vault. I also noticed that time had past rather fast. I checked my clock, It still stated that it was 15:17, but outside was a lot darker, so time was definitely moving at different speed.
I quickly walked out of the church and I used the torch on my phone to look one more time at the window then I turned around and saw something I had not expected. It was a woman, seemingly late 40’s and she had one eye. “γεια σου εγγονέ του Άδη, είμαι η Λάχεσις, πρέπει να μιλήσουμε” (Hello grandson of Hades, I am Lachesis, we need to talk) and with that it became clear that my problems were merely at a start and all the time until tomorrow evening would become a lot more problematic.
I am still missing a few parts, but I forgot where I left them. As such a recap becomes pretty essential and a more complete version is coming up.
Part 0 He was walking the streets of London. It gave him time to think as he casually walked around his neighbourhood and Hyde Park. He had been walking for a few hours, it had been a nice warm day and as he got to one end of the park, he noticed an ice cream vendor. He walked in that direction when he felt the tap on his leg, he looked down to see a child, the child offered an envelope. He looked at the boy who clearly looked nervous. He took the envelope and gave him a £5 bill, the child smiled and ran off. He looked at the envelope for a second, put it in his inside pocket and he got himself a nice chocolate ice cream. He turned around and walked back in the park. It took about 5 minutes to devour the ice-cream. It made him feel good. He grabbed the envelope and he noticed that there were coins in there. He carefully opened one side. There was a note too. He let the two coins drop in his hand. They were authentic Drachma’s two of them, pure gold.
He then looked in the envelope, only the note remained, he took it out the paper smelled but was empty, that was until he decided to use his Olympian view. The paper was something entirely different. It was like there was a maelstrom within the paper, the letters started to shape. “Αγοράστε ένα ερείπιο στην Ελλάδα και πηγαίνετε εκεί. Ο χρόνος δεν είναι ένας παράγοντας, απλώς η ακρίβεια του” So he had to buy ruins in Greece? That made no sense, but the message seemed clear as the origin of it. Was this his grandfather? It did not seem his style, but there was an Olympian link and the two drachma’s were an indication of Charon, or something Charon related. He went back home. He made himself some tea and sat down behind his trusty laptop. It took an hour to find something nice, and for £5,000,000 he became the owner of a derelict piece of real estate as well as a nice piece of land. The place was out in the open and not too close to any neighbour of village, which seemed essential.
Now he merely had to find a flight to Crete. But that was for tomorrow. He had done enough for now and as he looked at his bank account he suddenly noticed that his bank account was not as empty as he thought it was. He had enough for the Greek event, but now he noticed that a deposit was made by Up Stairs Enterprises, not a small amount either. A deposit of £15,000,000 was added to his account only hours ago, he wondered what that was, but there was every indication that the answer would be handed to him sooner than he thought. For now he thought the best of it and decided to take a walk to Great Marlborough St in Carnaby where the Shakespeares Head would treat him to a nice drink downstairs and after that a nice Bambi dish upstairs, one must not forget good food at times.
He arrived a little past 20:30 at de Gaulle, he went straight to the counter to get a ticket to Rhodes. There was one in an hour, it was Italian airways via Milan, he took it and went pst boarding to the gate. It was all a repetition of something he had done dozens of times. The airport was almost new, he had been in this airport once as he had to change flights, he never went through the departure lounge though. There was nothing significant here. And there was nothing really interesting at the gate. He got on board and sat down. His mind started to wander as they took off.
The map showed Rhodes, but nothing stood out there. The documents and the drawings were different, the drawing was what seemed like an old oil lamp, the text was in French and referred to the sight of Helios. Yet how the lamp fitted into this was unknown to him. The writing gave that there was a shrine, a shrine to Helios. The lamp of illumination would shine on the places it reached and it could reach more if the items were united. That part did make even less sense to him. Jacques III Thuret came 2 millennia after ancient Greece and likely the same time when the shrine of Helios was lost to the world. There was a cult to Helios, but he knew nothing of it. As such he would be going in blind, but what was more important, someone knew a lot more and that was never a good thing. Even as he knew that his ancestors had created some items or relics, the ones that survived are a lot more powerful now, then they were in those days. As such when he arrived on Rhodes 6 hours later he would be considering his options. He took a taxi from the International airport to Rhodes and asked the driver to take him to the Rodos Park Suites hotel. He got there 15 minutes later, paid and tipped the taxi and booked a room. His credit card could take that hit because it did not look cheap. He got a nice suite a double room, it was not large but looked comfortable. The bed felt nice and the TV was clear. He switched the TV off and as he walked into Rhodes he looked his Olympian sight it was almost dark, almost, there was a small spot that was seemingly illuminated. He walked in that direction. It took almost half an hour to get there. He looked again, the place looked a lot more illuminated, when he switched back to his normal sight, he saw that no one would notice it, but that might not be for much longer.
There was something at play here. He looked around, he was at the Platia Rimini. The hotel mentioned this place, they called it the “Sound and Light Garden”, it was beautiful, nicely arranged and quite peaceful. But it made no sense, he was now close to the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, which was somewhere in the 7th century. He needed answers and none were coming forth. He walked into the garden and looked. The garden were alight in Olympic views and normally nicely lit in normal view. He tried to focus but the light was way too illuminating for that. So he sat down on the bench that stretched the sides of the path in the park and suddenly he saw it, it was as small as a flicker, but it was there. So he walked to the well in the middle, it was dry but there it was, a little out of the middle, the circle of discolouration. He looked around. Too many people here now. He looked deeper and closed his eyes as fast as he could. Whatever was there was bright, really really bright. He had closed his eyes. As fast as he could, but he was seeing blurbs of white all over and he saw them everywhere he looked. He closed his eyes for a minute whilst sitting on the bench again. Most had dissipated, but there was still a few spots, they would subside soon enough. He was thinking of the vault he had. So what happened if he created another portal? With a hole that led to the hole under the well? The problem was that he did not control it as well as he wanted to, so he might have to resort to brute strength. He hated that because he would leave a mark, but he saw no other way, he did not know where the others were and how soon they would be here. So he walked across the street to the Dromos Street Food where he had the Satay Chicken and nachos with Greek Salsa, both were really nice, and the coffee was good, nothing to write home about but still good. He sat at his table with his back to the wall and his view on the park entrance. He looked at the people, but the two in Paris were not showing up and the people seemed uninterested it specifics of the park. For a moment he thought there was a catch, but it seemed that the couple there were remembering the park and what they did there. They were still in love and softly speaking in each other ear on what they did there. He smiled, to be young and still this much in desire for one another, these two had no idea how lucky they were. It was almost dark when he finished the Papara Beef which made him more hungry. Odd, but that was the result of a really nice beef, better than anything he had had in London. He ordered another coffee and paid, he took the coffee with him as he scoped out the area. There were no people in the direct area. He got rid of the coffee and walked into the park again, but now keeping a close eye on the entrances and who was around, he stepped into the empty well and stood as far away from the lighted spot, there was no one so he summoned his bident and focussed he tabbed the well once and pushed hard, harder then anything he pushed before and slowly the ground and the well gave way. There was not much sound, but too much to his liking, the hole was large enough, he jumped in and ended in a well lit room. He quickly put some shades to protect his eyes, but it was not needed. This light was strong, almost a strong as a LED torch, but not too strong as long as he did not look into the flame. The oil lamp was on top of a golden hand, he got the lamp, blew out the flame and looked around, it was an empty room, there was a path going north and down, he saw that the corridor had collapsed a little further down. He got out of the well and he got away as fast as he could. At the wall of the park he summoned the vault and placed the lamp, closed the vault and walked off. He left the golden hand, it would add to the puzzle and it would leave him unexposed. He went back to the hotel, enjoyed a nice hot shower and he went to sleep. The next morning he had his breakfast and he bought some clothes and a nice duffel-bag. He made a point of of buying postcards and posted them with names he remembered from London. He kept them around for most of the day as he walked the streets of Rhodes, it was late in the afternoon when he noticed the orthodox priest, he asked for the postbox, the priest pointed down the road and he went there to mail the cards. He returned to the Dromos Street Food, he had another Papara Beef with a coffee and smiled at the woman who helped him the day before. He was happy that he got the pink shades, it did put the woman on the wrong food, alas, the waiter liked them a whole lot better. He asked if I asked pink and my solemn response was “υπήρχε μόνο αυτό”, he sighed and walked away, something she really liked. She started the conversation “Have you heard?” I shook my head, “heard what?” The well in the park collapsed there was a golden hand under the well. I tried to look shocked “Really?” Yes she responded, the hand was large it took several man to get it out, the police have closed the police have closed the Sound and Light Garden for now. There were reporters, so he backed off, he did not want to give the wrong people a shine on him. He looked at the commotion, and noticed that all the camera’s were pointing at the park. He nodded to the woman and paid for the coffee and sandwich. He was about to walk off when she handed him another coffee in a takeaway cup with the smiling “for the walk”, he nodded and smiled. He gave here the customary ‘Antio’ and walked away from the scene in the general direction of the hotel, walking and shopping most of the day. When he got back he made a point of keeping eye on the people going in and out of the hotel for at least 10 minutes. His Olympian sight saw that there was nothing watching the place or him, yet he had the feeling that someone was staring at him, he had that feeling in Paris but not as strong. He saw nothing, so he went to his room and packed the bag, he signed out and knowing that he could get the 22:45 from Rhodes to Gatwick with Easy-jet was his sign to leave Rhodes and the parts they were looking for were not on him, more important, they were in a place where no one could ever find them, so the relics were safe, but he was really curious on what was going on.
End of episode.
This was part two and the parts over the last day would be the two parts of a three parter. The third will not be tomorrow, because I have a few more parts to figure out, but consider I had all this in under an hour, what more could I get done? I reckon that I might be one of the never published 30,000 wannabe’s in Hollywood, but it is not about selling this, it is about the story and you will get more soon enough.
He woke up the next day nice and refreshed. He had breakfast, read the paper and was considering what to do next. He knew he had the watch, but the watch was dangerous, even the trip into the past of Rotterdam was a lucky but dangerous setting, he realised that. He basically survived a bombing that might not have killed that many, but it made 20,000 homeless, even if knocked down the impact could have been severe, so he was happy that the watch was in his vault. He was about to walk away when the paper caught his eye. He had looked at the International news, the business news but it was a corner that he usually ignored that was the eye catcher. Vandalism in Paris, there was a photo of a place he recognised, it was an image from the Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis Church he visited the day before. He looked over the article, someone broke in broke several of the tombstones, the ones on the side of the one he visited. These people were less subtle. The authorities were investigating the senseless act of vandalism, they were pursuing leads.
He put the paper aside. Apparently he got there in time, but who else was looking for the clock? There were several thoughts, but none of them made sense. Too specific for tomb robbers, too violent for thieves and in that the surrounding stones were damaged, not the most subtle of ‘explorers’, there was more to this. He checked out and walked back to the train station and boarded the train to return to Paris, this needed to be investigated.
CROSS Architecture. Wir sind ein junges, international tätiges Architekturbüro mit Standorten in Aachen und Amsterdam.
He needed to learn who else wanted to stake a claim on that watch. Getting the ticket and getting to the train was relatively simple, he got off where he needed to board. There would be a train in 35 minutes. He saw a shop, bought the Guardian and got to the platform. It was 10 minutes later when the train arrived and he got to the seat assigned to him. He didn’t feel like looking at the environment he was travelling through, he did that yesterday. He decided to read the paper, even if the information was pointless and in some cases useless. It kept him occupied. Some of the information was interesting, but for the most it was the proverbial waste of time, reading it was as useful a passing of time as watching paint dry. It took a little over 157 minutes to get where he needed to go and from there he walked the same path towards the church. When he got close to the church he saw the abundance of police cars. Too many to be useful, this was a presentation to the people. He kept his distance and looked around. It was then that he saw the Imperial House just next door. He walked on the other side of the street until he was directly opposite the Imperial house and crossed straight to the restaurant. He saw that one of the tables was free and sat down. He waited to be served. He ordered the spring rolls and noodles. He ate slowly taking in all the traffic, all the people and memorised it all. He switched between his normal and Olympian vision and nothing sprang out to him, it was about 20 minutes later, just as he was ordering more tea when he noticed it. A man and woman, passing by a third time. His Olympian vision saw nothing stand out. They were human, nothing special. Yet they were observing the church they were taking turns at looking around and they had each others back. They were a near perfect team, observing and checking all the elements they could see. He felt decently safe, as he was eating and drinking tea. He was done, he saw them walk off and they would be back in minutes. They were very good. He got up and took a turn to the left. He saw the crossing and crossed the Rue de Rivoli. He walked into the small street and looked around, there was not that much traffic, there was none looking at him. He stood in a corner and waited, the couple walked past the crossing focussing on the church. He focussed his Olympic vision on the couple, he would now be able to find them anywhere fast. He walked away and left the area of the church. It took 20 minutes before he passed a nice cafe. He walked in, ordered a beer and took a small table. The beer was served, it was a Stella Artois, he took his time, savouring every sip and let time pass by. Every now and then he looked out and focussed on the two he needed to investigate and it was not before 7 PM when their direction changed. He waited another 10 minutes and he moved in the direction the couple had vanished towards. It was a small trip, a mere 15 minutes. When he got close he saw where they were. They had taken shelter in the Cour Des Vosges, what seemed to look like a suite on the second floor. Very convenient for him, so he slowly walked around until he had enough privacy to get up and he did as fast as he could. At every moment looking around for prying eyes. When he got to the upper floor he saw that one of the windows was open, it was one that led to the corridor where they were staying. He waited in a corner, he saw the couple leave the room, they were talking to each other, speaking softly, but for him it was not a problem, they were discussing diner and the excellent quality of food that the Cour Des Vosges served. That was a nice surprise, it meant that he had time to investigate the room. He waited around 10 seconds and walked into the corridor, walked to the door and slowly gained entrance to the room. He was cautious not to leave any prints, not to leave any footprints or any kind of disturbance. The drawers and lockers were all filled with clothes and all kind of stuff, so far they looked like perfectly ordinary tourists. It was then that he noticed the small safe. It was easy to get entrance and there was what he hoped for. Hopefully a clue, images, documents and maps. The maps were of Paris and Rhodes. He memorised the documents as fast as he could and he memorised the maps, the Paris one was useless, he had been there, but the post-it on the map stated that the watch was most likely in the tomb of Jacques III Thuret. He looked at the other map. It was Rhodes, there was no post-it, but the documents gave the information he needed. He carefully put everything back in exactly the same order and left the room. He left the hotel in the same way he came in, as he left the hotel he saw a window with the restaurant, in the corner he saw the two enjoy whatever they were eating. It seemed to be a lamb dish. He walked off. Whatever came next, it would be in Rhodes. So he signalled a taxi and asked the driver to take him to Charles de Gaulle airport. Time to see what Rhodes brought to the equation.
Part 4
Still to be continued (remaining as evil as I can)
I still have to add parts 3 and 4 here, but I forgot where I left them. As such a recap becomes pretty essential.
The story starts with a message, a message in an envelope under the door of an apartment in London. The envelope had no stamp, no address merely the text “μελλοντικός κυβερνήτης του ταρτάρου” (future ruler of Tartarus), the back stated “Αιών” (Aion). The letter was actually in English and gave him a notion that something was about to be wrong, things are out of order and he was requested to fix what was wrong. The letter ended with “I will owe you a great deal if you succeed”. There was nothing to go on, but then he looked at the letter deeper and the letters reshaped in another way, the text gave him “Το παλιό μου ηλιακό ρολόι μεταμορφώθηκε από τον Jacques III Thuret σε ένα ρολόι, ένα ρολόι τσέπης που δημιουργήθηκε το 1712, έχει μια κρυφή ισχύ που είναι πολύ επικίνδυνη. Μπορείτε να δείτε το ρολόι αν κοιτάξετε αρκετά βαθιά, είναι κάπου στο Παρίσι, κάπου εμφανές.” He considered the text ‘somewhere obvious’, it seemed like a clue, a hidden clue, but for now, he had no idea where that was. He took the taxi to St Pancras International and got a ticket to Paris. The train would leave in a little under an hour, so he went into the station and got a Lamb shepherds pie and a coffee. As he was eating the pie, he was pondering the note, the idea that he was being played, but the note seemed sincere and only an Olympian could read it, so he was a little lost. And he knew very little about Aion. He was a master of time, but he had no idea how it all fitted towards Jacques III Thuret. He had to Google the name and it as a famous clockmaker, not a watchmaker. So the facts were all over the place, but it seemed to him that Aion was not the type to be careless with words. So there was a lot more to be done.
This concludes part one of a few parts and it is part of a two or three parter (still in doubt on this and it is not a cliff hanger).
Intro of the sequel There is a lamp, it is old, very old. It is like the ancient greek oil lamps. It looks like a teapot with an elongated flame holder, but that would not be the largest issue, the issue was that the light was stronger than a modern 50,000 Lum LED torch, and it has been lighting the little room it was in for thousands of years. The room was out of sight and out of mind, it was forgotten by everyone who every knew it existed and forgotten by the relatives of those who once knew. And if you listened as careful as possible, you would still hear nothing. It was a sunny day, and the people were walking around, enjoying the sunshine, enjoying the view. It was Platia Rimini, and if someone had been watching, they would have noticed that the bottom of the well near the centre was bleaching ever so slowly, and the bleach patch was increasing, very very slowly. These are the two intros and they are related. I will write more soon. The idea came to me on the train on the way home and I see the entire episodes in my mind, but the ideas are still erratic and chaotic, so I need to make sense of it all. And add it here. With a movie, a mini series and a TV series in the bag (designed), as such this series is becoming (to some degree) public domain fodder. Anyway, it was an idea that united items that have divinity in use, a setting that the divine is not a static setting, it is a setting that is malleable and it could reflect in massive ways, but that is part of the story, what was benign and almost innocent 2500 years ago, becomes a weird setting in today’s environment. Like TNT, like several other inventions, they suddenly made sense. But the inventions of then, the relics of then were not invented with the same setting, with the same idea in place. As such we can create a new environment, one that I am about to create.
It is there where I set the stage for the third episode in that event. Optionally it is merely at the end of the first season, not a cliffhanger. I personally believe that season 1 should not end in a cliffhanger. I have nothing against cliffhangers, but to rely on them for a second season seems wrong, as a storyteller, the story should keep people vested, not the need of ‘How does it end?’ And as such I have some personal issues with cliffhangers.
And for now I need to set a few central issues in motion, I also need to find a few facts (to make the story easier to swallow). So I hope to tell you more about it soon.
We all have. Place of choice, in some cases we have many. For horror it is the Nostromo, for Fantasy it is Lothlorien, for action it is whereever the action is you watched in a game or in a movie. So when I saw ‘How Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Franchise Subverts the Sci-Fi Genre’ I was puzzled. This translates to ‘undermine the power and authority of fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes’ from these we see that Guerrilla did more than the right thing. They offered a side of sci-fi that was new, unique and appreciated by millions of fans. The Gamerant article also gives us “Most notably, it blends futuristic elements with primitive ones to produce a unique new aesthetic. Additionally, instead of looking to the stars and imagining a future where the problems of humanity are solved by taking to the stars, it instead plants its feet firmly on Earth and imagines a future where humans instead try to solve the planet’s ecological problems.” It is a view, one that is shining with science fiction, in addition we see “The appeal of this dream is easy to understand, as Earth, as beautiful as it is, has finite resources which would seem to be incapable of continuously supporting a growing population. Furthermore, humankind’s time on Earth has resulted in ecological disasters from deforestation, warfare, commercial farming, and mining, to name but a few harmful human activities.” It is true and it also gives us a new setting, science fiction not as a setting of the future we desire, but as a setting it show us the flaws of realism. We can look at so many other games, but the larger stage is that we are destroying the world we live in and whilst we see President Biden play the Khashoggi card (as that would guarantee cheaper oil), the reality is that squandering oil will be the death of millions, and we did it to ourselves. Instead of embracing a future where we could exist better and longer, we seem to adhere to the Twitter vibe attacking Elon Musk and the setting of Fake accounts was never and is never properly addressed and the media is every bit as guilty on that part.
We see media subverting reality whilst politicians, trolls, fake prophets buy clicks to forward their agenda. Kwork made millions on this, and consider that a firm offers 100.000 visits visitors for $20. OK, they offer more access, so it is not more twitter alone. But this setting shows that there is more and Twenvy offers 5,000 Twitter Followers Every Month for a mere $69 a week unless you want the ‘200 Twitter Accounts Sending You Traffic’ it will be more then, and that doesn’t require fake accounts, so where do these +6487 accounts come from? Explain please. I found a simple one in under a minute and there are thousands out there. Al making a buck out of Twitter. How do these connect? It fits the bill of major social changes, pretentious social changes that affect us all. We are given “Social media bots and Russian trolls promoted discord and spread false information about vaccines on Twitter to sow division and distribute malicious content, according to new research led by the George Washington University. Using tactics similar to those at work during the 2016 United States presidential election, these Twitter accounts entered into vaccine debates months before U.S. election season was underway.” What no one is considering, which accounts wee used and how long they remained active, there are no time lines and here we get back to the Horizons series. The story is all about a time line. From Zero Dark to Forbidden West we are shown a world consumed by greed, technology driven and pushed beyond its limits. In the games (both) Ted Faro, his greed, recklessness and lack of foresight led to the extinction of all life on Earth via an advanced military platform, also known as the Faro Plague, whose design and development he personally conceived and oversaw. A stage that was part of the story and never dug in too deep (it was not needed for the story) yet it is a reality that I shown in our world today, greed overarches common sense. Self-repudiation is ignored for what some call the comfort of the people, it does not give us the the part where self-repudiation halts automated revenue and slows down greed. A similar side is seen in security and as such we are given one part that is ignored. Science fiction tend to push outward, Guerrilla took it into a new direction and pushed it within us, pushed it towards the reality of today. It is science fiction and it could be seen as a new direction of science fiction. There was a reason Soylent Green was so good. I remember creating a prequel 3-5 years ago. In that version Chris Hemsworth played William R. Simonson when he was still young. The prequel still based on Make Room! Make Room! (By Harry Harrison) but the premise also looks at where we are almost now and that is the part, not realism but near realism and that is the part that Guerrilla got right. Not the technology of the old ones, but the mindset of the old ones and there we have a much larger stage. Guerrilla never subverted the science fiction genre, they added a branch, a branch that already existed and is now becoming a major branch in that tree of representation. The realisation how our dystopian future is based on our flawed screwed up self. I would call it a version that is true and real, but has enough fiction to make it a wondrous trip, fiction that is based on science. Star Trek might have preceded the mobile phone and the iPad, but the reality was that it was the people that drive it and as such we should ask the hard questions. Why is the media avoiding the fake accounts of Twitter, why are politicians using click farms to proceed their own agenda’s? Because they can and that is the premise of any dystopian future, it comes because nothing was done to prevent it. Perhaps Guerrilla is one of the best teachers of all, showing our flaws and showing that there is a price for everything. They aren’t alone, but their following is one of the largest at present and in that world size matters, it always has.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 