Tag Archives: Athens

Me, myself and I make 4

It is the setting that started with ‘Two Stories’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/10/28/two-things/) the setting is given, but it was a mere top-line. 

Which I last ended with “I looked at the table. The glass was there and so was a text, in the glass ‘Ελάτε στην Ακρόπολη, πρέπει να μιλήσουμε’. I got that message loud and clear. So this was my grandfather? Time to learn more about the other branch of the family. I send a mental note to grandpa Hades. “Zeus summoned me, will update you later” I looked at Lucia “It seems I have to make a business trip”, she nodded. She did not understand what was going on, but I got the impression that she was eager to go into denial. “Break the table into small parts, keep the cat away and be careful. Get a new table please.” I walked into the bedroom and got a small bag and from the living room fruit bowl I got my keys, wallet and some small stuff. Time to see Athens again.

The journey to Athens was quite positive, Air France definitely knows what it is doing. It was late in the evening when I got to Athens. I made way to the Acropolis Luxury Apartments and the key was already waiting. My assistant was quite resourceful. I walked into the room and decided to take a walk. The Acropolis was nearby, so the walk was not that long. When I got to the Beulé Gate I saw a guard nodding at me and gesturing I come to him. I walked over and the man spoke to me “My apologies, lord. Please follow me” And I did, we walked towards the Acropolis, by a road the tourists did not normally walk. And he looked around slightly nervous. When we got to the Acropolis, we were at the rear of the temple. Just outside of it. He gestured me to wait and I decided to comply. Clearly the man was nervous and he was aware of me, although I had no way of knowing how much he knew. It was a minute later when the man with the white beard appeared again. Still in a Victorian style suit. He looked at me and observed me. “Well, Well. So you are my grandson.” I looked at him and did not speak, confirming it seemed so trivial and to be honest, he never introduced himself. “My name is Zeus, or better stated I am what was once Zeus. I took the heavens and it made me strong, but pollution has diminished my powers. Yet we will get to that later. I see that Hades is regaining strength at a phenomenal rate. Yet Poseidon and I are not that lucky. Pollution has tempered our powers and that needs to be resolved. I saw how you chained Perses again and that was a lot more epic than you thought it was. I am surprised you lived this long, you also got powered by the Kraken and you got the attention of Oceanus. It is time to reveal a few facts. In the early days the fates came to me and Hades. They told me that unless your abilities were bound and cursed you would end like us and we would end. To completely sever you from the physical sides of the Olympians would be our salvation. And as such we did. Your powers would return to some degree. It was out intent for this to have happened a long time ago, but the fates stopped us, specifically it was Atropos who stopped us. She was right it took another 4 centuries when our powers started to unravel, except the powers of Hades, but Hades was also affected, we just did not know how.” I looked at Zeus, The fountains of Tartarus were never designed to take on that many souls, they were clogged. Heaphestus had a solution, but it needed a person to do this and I did. Hades is still recovering, but in the near future he will be the most powerful of all Olympians. Still we need to find balance, it is the only way to make this work. Zeus smiled. You learned the lessons of balance? I understand it to a larger degree, most people do, but the greed driven do not care. Zeus nodded, he looked at me and pondered what he had heard. I looked at Zeus. We need to wait for Hades to be more and more restored. Heaphestus needs to upgrade the fountains, that I essential and at that point we need to make harsh choices. Zeus looked at me. We will need the son of Apollo Asclepius to do the opposite, we need to indue sickness in the human population. Enough for over 90% of them to pass into the next passage. This planet is dying and thy are in denial, Poseidon lost over two thirds of his power and it will not return, the oceans are more and more lifeless. The worlds of Gaia needs restoration and the absence of people allows for that, but it will take centuries. Zeus nodded. I do not like it, we are their custodians, not their rulers. I nodded, but these children have lost view of reality, greed has consumed them. It is a lot worse then the rulers prying for carnage in the temple of Ares. In the age of christianity it only got worse, greed was rampant and this world suffered greatly. We need harsh actions, it is too late to be subtle. Still the oceans will repair to some degree, the fish that are now extinct will never return, as such part of the powers of Poseidon and Oceanus are gone forever. As the pollution in the air is restored, so will your powers. You will not get all the powers back, but a lot more than Poseidon has. Zeus nodded again, but not as much a Hades? No, Hades as he was pushed into Tartarus became the custodian of souls and they renew him, in the old days it was thousands of souls, now it is a million times more and soon that will set the balance of scales in a different stage. It is the result of short sighted human greed. Zeus pondered what I had told him. But we are their custodians, it is not right. Is it? I asked. What do you do to a child who runs through the house with a burning torch? Now it is not one child, it is a a group of hundreds of children, all running the same stupid route in houses all over cities, cities are burning down and time is now no longer a option we have. The christians have gone overboard. The Jews and Muslims made the same mistakes, but to a much lesser degree, the Hindu in the east are making the same mistake. They are now well over one fourth of the population. This is the only option, a disease that hits them all, it evolves over time and it will kill more and more all whilst their option of aging is removed, but we have time for that and when the population is diminished by 90% we can halt and see what they do next, all; whilst the seas can repair to some degree. Over the decades that follow we can take aim at the rest and see what is required, but for most it is now too late, it is them or the world, which still gets them killed in the end, but then the loss is 100%. 

Zeus looked at me, he saw the logic, even in the complete madness, the almost frantic levels of insanity, there was a logic that was undeniable. Zeus nodded. How will you progress? First I will need to wait for Hades to regain much more of his strength. Then I will need to talk to Asclepius and see what he can do and perhaps what he can brew, but I do not know if he will accept my thoughts. His focus is healing, not taking lives, but he could do it much more…ehh humane than any of our other solutions. Zeus nodded, he knew what was next, but he did not speak his mind. I continued, Lord Hades will accept my thoughts. Better to go on with less people then not go on at all. He still wins in the end and we will have to accept that the seats of power will move to Tartarus with Hades at the head of that table. Zeus nodded again. You come a long way in the longest travel possible, you see what needs to be done. Clotho told me, but I did not believe her. Yet you prove to be true to the Olympian mindset and that will be acknowledged. When will this start? I cannot start this in the next 5 years, tomorrow would be best, but the larger settings are not ready and the only thing we will unleash is chaos, chaos that will get too many killed. This must be done carefully and not before Asclepius is back with us. Zeus looked at me. He waived me away. I must think on this. No final actions are allowed until I agree to this. I bowed to him. He suddenly turned his hand around, I felt a piecing discomfort in my arm and suddenly Psychofagos was in his hand. He looked at the weapon and nodded approvingly.  His hand went over the bident and he handed it back to me. Psychofagos hd changed ever so slightly, there was a yellow gleam coming from the metal. I stared at the meta and it was like there was a Layer under the layer showing lightning rods. Like a fractal weave under the weave. Zeus looked at me and pointed at the bident. It now has the power of teleportation. Do not use it rash as it relies on your energy levels to do so. I nodded. The power can be used as long as you have energy and any energy lost will take a little time to restore. Jut be aware of that. I nodded, bowed and walked away. 

I walked back to the hotel I was staying at. I would fly back, no reason to alert the authorities regarding a ticket not used. I had to contemplate a lot more today and over the next few days, more important to see where ever Asclepius was now, because that was one element I had not found an answer too, but I would report to Hades and he could have some answers there.

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In Crete we trust

The trip to Crete was simple and interestingly enough lacking all comforts. Rhea and Demeter did not like luxuries, as such we first had the trip to Piraeus, then the ferry to Crete which would take us to Iraklion and from there 45 kilometres SSE was Gortyn, it was in the municipality of Agioi Deka. The archeological site was clear and easy enough. The problem is that no one had a clear clue where to go from there. And in this the fact that Rhea was Mother to Hades and as such my great grandmother did seemingly not help any. So as we were exploring the archeological places we saw all kinds of old things, but nothing that would aid us. It was hours later when we were near another building that I noticed something. There was a black hole, a pit that is darker than anything I had ever seen before. There was nothing there. I walked to the pit and asked Demeter what “Agesilaos” meant. They quickly looked towards me, almost shouting “Watch out” but it was too late, the pit swallowed me and it seemed that neither saw me go and that was the larger problem, the hole swallowed me and dragged me down. My instincts called forth Psychofagos, it shone and it cast waves of energy whilst setting an aura of protection around me. I then saw a lot more, the hole was a sea of arms dragging me down, dragging me to the bottom of wherever this was and about a minute or two thereafter the arms were gone and I was in free-fall towards the bottom. The bident slowed me and gave me a little light, but this darkness was nothing like the ocean, it was a much deeper dark and my eyes could not penetrate it with any kind of light. I went down and down and ended finally at the bottom of where ever I expected to be.  I reckon I had arrived in Tartarus. 

Even as Tartarus was dark, there was a lot more light here, or at least a lot more light for the likes of me. I could see a decent distance and I was amazed how this cave could go unnoticed by geological people up above. I started to notice a lot more. There were millions of bodies in all forms of disappearance, disappearance was the best word I could muster. The bodies were black, sooted black and some bodies moved, crawled over the ground, unable to stand. It was a view that called forth all kinds of pity, but I felt none of it. A little further the red glow of lava became clear. The bodies seem to avoid the lava, as should I I reckoned, but there was what could be seen as a path, close to the lava, where there were no bodies. I made for that strip and I was able to travel a decent amount further. The bodies were piling up higher and as I saw the lava stream split up, I also saw something that represented some ancient Greek fountain. I walked towards the fountain, but cautiously as it was a little away from the lava and now the bodies as I saw them were numerous. It was not one fountain, there were three fountains. They were empty, bodies all around them and in them, but no water. These fountains did seem to have had a function at some point. It took some minutes when I noticed that the three fountains were set around some symbol, it was in the ground, but I could not make it out, it was too dirty. I called for a shockwave and as the shock revealed the plaque, which was a silver plaque of a bident, the bodies started to move, there was a sound, like a hungry moan and they were set on me, and they were less then 5 metres away. The plaque bothered me, there was no reason for a bident to be shown here. I then remembered the work Hephaestus had done on my bident and the plaque made a lot more sense now, I turned it around and hit the plaque hard, very hard and the shockwave, pushed all the bodies away from me and blew whatever was in the fountains away as well and now there was a visible act. The fountains came to live. There was a blue stream coming from the three fountains all outwardly and it had a miraculous effect, the bodies hundreds of them were devoured and the bodies went to ash and vanished. The fountain now had something in them, but it was not water. It had a blue glow but was not liquid, it was gaseous and as the fountains filled up the higher part of fountain became some kind of faucet, sending the blue stream towards a higher place, but that was all I could see. Now with the knowledge I had gained, I cautiously touched the blue gas and it surrounded me, it went into me and revived me. I pulled my hand away. I started to comprehend the fountains and with that I went into the direction of where the stream went. It took almost 30 minutes to get to the next stage. This fountain was a lot larger and there were merely two of them there. Between the two was the same plaque and I repeated the exercise. These fountains had almost half a dozen faucets in each fountain, but not towards each other. And as I hit them the same thing happened, but now there was a much stronger effect. The one who got the stream from the one I had just cleaned was filling up, the other was not. I looked around and saw down the hill in the other direction three fountains, not working. Sliding on the air I got there in under 5 minutes and I hit this plaque as well and the effect was the same as the first one bodies all over the place, the fountain cleaning up and they all three started to work, the bodies disintegrating and the sounds of moans were clearly heard, but it mattered not, the blue waves came and devoured all in its path. I returned to the two large fountains and saw that the second one was filling up as well. I now started to see a stream that was a little below the surface. My Olympian sight saw what was or seemed to be a pipe that went up the hill and as I followed this path, I saw a third fountain, even larger than the second ones, more resembling the first fountain, but larger and slowly filling up. I also noticed that this fountain had two more holes, two more pipes I assumed and my plan started to take shape. I followed the first hole and it went in another direction, I followed that path and yes, there were two fountains a little over an hour from the largest fountain. And they too linked to two groups of three fountains. And as I cleaned the fountains, the bodies vanished and they too became the blue streams of gas. It was the third branch that was a different one, the two fountains were simple and clean, but when I went down, I noticed that there were larger creatures at the base of these fountains and there was a sound, not moans but growls. I readied my bident and moved forward. The power of my bident was not to be trifled with, the creature growled and snarled, there was a much louder growl, almost a scream and it was ready to attack me. It then hit me that it might have the same weakness and I slammed the plaque and yes that definitely had an impact, not a disastrous one for the creature, but it was howling. And it was now keeping its distance, and there was the rub for them, they were all attracted to the blue gleam like moths to the flame and the flame would consume them. The creature took minutes to devour, pulling back whenever it could, but the gleam was too attractive for it and minutes later it was also devoured, all whilst Mose cadavers had mere seconds to be devoured. And as I moved back to the highest fountain I started to see the waves of bodies, all attracted to the blue waves and I saw that the fountains were filling up more and more. As I came back to the largest fountain, I saw it was well over half full and it was pointing a new stream from the top of its pinnacle to the top of a hill and there I saw a building, not a large one, but a building none the less. I went up that hill and saw the doors, they were huge copper doors with the symbol of Hades. I entered, in there was a huge statue, a statue of Hades but as I looked at the stature, it was a statue made from one block of marble, solid and with an unrelenting gaze. And as I observed the statue, I noticed small details that were part of him and then I noticed his penis, which was decently huge, but much too detailed for any mason to carve. Then I looked back to the head, this was not a statue, this was Hades. I then noticed how only one bowl was filling up. I took notice of the second bowl and looked towards the other direction, the side I had not seen and there too I cleaned out all the fountains. Here two places had larger creatures, but they too were no match for me and no match for Psychofagos or the fountains. It was a few hours later when I returned and I saw that both bowls were now filling up and that is where they stayed. I noticed the overflow onto the floor and some went into me, but not into hades and it was then that I took a different step, I focused on the green stone and slammed my bident into his calf. It went into the marble and the green stone went from dormant to bright green. I kept the bident there and then I noticed the blue gleam entering his leg and the marble faded to show flesh. It was then that I removed the bident. I took a step back and saw how the body was slowly changing to flesh and the body showed the smallest movement. It was almost two hours later when the head moved and looked towards me. Another hour before he spoke. Hello grandson, I am Hades. It was not the family reunion I ever considered, but who is ready to meet family you never knew you had?

End of Season 1

Yes, yesterday I wrote article/story number 2500, now I have completed part of this journey. What I wrote today was the nightmare I had months ago, it drove me to write the stories that led to this story, the nightmare of months ago now in writing and we all have our moment when we think that we are the channel of gods, but to be honest, I never considered something like that and to be chosen by Hades himself is laughable, but it led me to the story you have read over the past few months. What comes next? I cannot tell, perhaps another nightmare (I hope not), and if it needs to be one, let it be one where I am the joy-toy of Laura Vandervoort (we are all allowed our delusional moments, aren’t we). But that is an optional story for an other day.

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Not cordially invited

It had been days since the gift was bestowed on me. I slept but it was not a normal sleep. I was somehow aware of anything happening around me, and some was weird. It was like the dreamworld and the waking world had mixed. So it was not strange that I was dazed and confused for at least two days. I got the impression that Demeter and Rhea were amused, but they made no fun of me. At times one of them came to me with a cup of after or a cup of broth and aided me in drinking it. At day three I was decently aware of everything, I still kept to myself and there was a tree-trunk I had confiscated, claimed it as mine, to sit on and let the sun caress me. The day after I was decently normal again. Till a bit dazed and confused but it was more like a feeling like “Where did I leave my keys”, the day after life had turned to normal for me. I still felt weird, but it was a strange feeling, like something was missing. It was then that Demeter and Rhea approached me, both holding two cups ad a chair. First Rhea sat down and handed me a cup. This is tea, your body actually needs this. It has valerian and aniseed. I slowly sipped the cup. It was nice. The cup was half empty when Demeter sat down on my other side. She handed me a cup too. It was some kind of broth. Here is some chicken soup. You kinda need it, you have been all over the place for close to a week. We will make you some light foods to eat later on. Your body took a hell of a shock. We imbued the bident with the power of creation, fertility is largely about creation, but it is not that simple. So we imbued you with that too. The bident is now stronger connected to you, but it is merely the start. You are the first man in eternity to be given the powers of fertility and creation. We actually did this against out better wills, but others made us promise to hand that to you. ‘The fates?” I asked. Not just them, this is much bigger than you think, but we cannot tell you that yet, it is not our place. Things must go according to a line of numbers, a plan needs to formulate. We do not know it all, but we know some of it and we are not happy. But we agreed. Rhea then looked and me and gave me the ‘bad’ news. Fertility is also a larger burden, I had become a one pump chump. Any woman I enter would make me come in seconds with 100% chance of pregnancy. I looked at Rhea and casually stated that Lachesis might get a nice surprise that day. Rhea and Demeter looked at each other and laughed louder than anyone else had on months. Yes Rhea stated and her two sisters will not be nice about it either. We all giggled for some time. Then Rhea stood up, we will make you some sort of feast, but it will be light food, it has to be, after tomorrow you will be back to normal and a little more then normal, there is every indication that the mix of Kraken and our powers will have larger consequences, but we cannot predict what. This had never be done before. I nodded and relaxed on my trunk. 

It was later in the evening when the feast had arrived and it was indeed quite a feast. There were the fried rice plates with pieces of lamb and some broth stew over it, there were the rice pies with honey, There was a very thick broth that was so thick it could be eaten with a fork, but it had all kinds of stuff in it. Mostly vegetables and herbs, it was lovely. Then there were some kind of pies, on round breads, in there was a mix of lentils and beef, I definitely liked those. It was a meal that lasted several hours and both women were please to see me, I was changing a little, I was not getting fatter, but more sturdy. This was shown that I hardly fitted into my jeans anymore and more important I was almost an inch longer than I had been a week ago. Both grabbed an arm and beckoned me to the house, the put me on the bed and took the sides of the bed. They were naked and they kissed my head, sleep now, you will feel better in the morning.

It was early morning. Both women were still asleep, named looking perfectly amazing. I slowly and quietly got out on the Demeter side as she was smaller. I quietly climbed over her and went to find my clothes. I put on my jeans and t-shirt and noticed something odd, the inch was gone, the jeans now fit as perfectly as they did days ago. There was no mirror, so I just looked down and wondered what had happened. I shrugged and got a bucket the women used and got some water. It was whilst getting the water that I noticed things, things I never aw before. I saw more animals, they seemed illuminated, the trees were more distinct, the land seemed softer and in the distance there was more grey. I looked and could not make anything of it yet, and I wondered if they would tell me. I added the water to the copper pot by the fire and turned the handle so the pot was over the fire. I the went out and god one piece of wood and placed it on the fire. It then struck me that my hearing was a lot stronger too, I heard a pig snorting so I looked around, I did not see anything. The pig snorted again and now I focussed. It was about 200 meters away. That was a lot further than I imagined. My hearing was stronger. Not sure why, but it seemingly mattered. It was an hour later when the women got out. They saw what I had done and thanked me. They looked at each other as I gave a list of all the things I noticed happening from yesterday onward. They looked at each other. Rhea quickly got up. Demeter told me that it was most likely the influence of the Kraken power that was in me now. Then I heard a bang,  massively loud one. Rhea was 50 meters further banging two rods together. She walked back, OK, you can hear more, but not louder, so that is good. Hermes hears everything louder, it is not a nice feeling. You do not have that. We need to start prepping you for the next part, you need to be well fed and well hydrated for what happens next. We cannot tell you yet what, but it makes sense when we get there. Tomorrow we move to Crete, to a place called Gortyn. 

To be continued 

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Green is for

The day was easy enough. I was taking the day off and walking the streets of Athens. It was busy, not merely with tourists. Athens had seemingly always been a magnet for travellers, tourists and Greeks. Over the day I heard several Greek dialects. I could not place them as I knew too little of Greece and my Olympian setting did not suddenly make me an expert on all matters Greek. I walked past the taverna’s, I watched the people talk, laugh, smile and some more serious and a little less happy. I walked into some tourist shop and got myself a few T-Shirts. I also bought myself a new set of Oakley’s. I preferred the day to be less bright. It as after a few hours later when I spotted a taverna with a few empty tables. The view was nice and I sat down. A woman approached me. I nodded to her and asked for an Ouzo. She nodded and walked off. She brought the ouzo and a small can of water and ice. I added a little water and slowly sipped it, it was nice, merely nice. But that had been the case a few times. Things tasted a lot more bland than ever before. I was decently certain that it was not where I ate, it was me, but I was not troubled by it. It merely seemed like such a shame that my Olympian side had some optional disadvantages. It was almost three hours later as well as half a dozen Ouzo’s when a young man walked to me and gave me an envelope. I nodded and he ran off. I opened the envelope to find a small note. It merely stated “Greetings Olympian” with an address “Epar.Od. Inois-Magoulas”, no number. So this would be interesting. I went back to the hotel and looked the street up on the map of Athens, it was not there, it was on the second map with the larger Athenian area where it was, and yes, it was not going to be simple. This road went from Skliri to past Skourta. One hell of a road. I looked out for a scooter shop and there were plenty of those in Athens, I had passed several in the morning. There was one decently close to the hotel. As such I went there, asked for a scooter, made sure it was insured and paid the lady at the counter. A simple beige scooter, but it would do. I drove directly to Magoula where I stopped at the Avin store to fill up the tank. It needed little but better be safe than sorry. A few minutes later I got to the Epar.Od. Inois-Magoulas, now there was merely the need to follow the road. I kept my Olympian view on everything, but even after 20 minutes there was no sign of anything looking up to me, I was almost at the end when I noticed a small farm, there were some chestnut trees there, weirdly enough the fields, not very large looked more colourful, the wheat more intense.

I saw this as a sign and drove to the farm. I parked the scooter and walked to the farm. I saw nothing stand out and I was about to walk back to the scooter when a voice stated “Geia sou Olympioníki”, it was a hello. I looked at the woman, she looked in her 40’s, she looked gorgeous, healthy and was wearing some robed dress. A moment later another woman came out, she was some sight to behold. First of all this was a big woman. Almost 7 feet tall, short blonde hairs and a pleasant face. I had no idea how to describe her, she was pretty but not too pretty, she had an intense personality and she walked silent, not something you expect from anyone 2 meters tall. I stared at her. She stared back. She had clearly seen this situation before. The other woman spoke. Hello Olympian, I am Demeter. This is my friend Rhea. Those names I knew, but to see a titan in person, a little taller than me, was weirdly unsettling. I realised that she could rip me asunder without a moments hesitation made me a lot more cautious. Demeter walked up to me. How are you Olympian? I nodded I am OK, just a little taken aback by Rhea I said. Rhea laughed. A directly honest Olympian, who knew? Then I remembered what I had and I grabbed the package and handed it to Demeter. “From Hephaestus” I said. Demeter’s eyes lighted up. “He remembered” she stated and opened the package. She was clearly happy with the gift. Rhea looked at it as well. My old one broke last year. It was a little over 900 years old. This will do nicely. She looked at the handle and she smiled even more. She examined the handle, Rhea was standing next to her looking at it as well. But I got one from town she offered, is it not OK? Demeter looked at her. Comparing a Hephaestus blade to some local smithy? You must be joking. His last blade pruned all the trees for 900 years. There is a reason his blades last longer than anything else. Rhea shrugged, fine, be that way. Demeter laughed. Come Olympian. The pushed me into the small house. The house overwhelmed me with scents. “Sit!” and I did just that. She served me some stew, it smelled amazing and handed me a small bread and that was also overwhelming my nose with more scents. I broke off a piece of bread, it was nothing less than divine. The second bite was the bread dipped in the stew and I nearly fainted. The fullness of tastes, from the bread and the stew was a miracle all by itself. The fullness of the bread, the completeness of the stew, it took my breath away. It hd been a really long time when I ate anything this good. It was clear that Demeter and Rhea knew the impact their food tended to have. But they still enjoyed the impact. I could not place the meat directly, it was not beef. I looked at Demeter and pointed at the stew. Venison she said. I nodded. Yes, I did like Venison, but I had not had any for quite some time and even then it was nowhere near as good as this was. 

It took me almost 15 minutes to eat the bowl and bread. I was savouring every bite and until the final part was gone this dish did not disappoint. They led me to the bed. I wondered what they had in mind. “Where is your bident?” Demeter asked. Rhea shook her head. “Yes, Rhea, it must be done. We all agreed” Rhea was clearly not happy about it. I called forth the bident and it came to my hand. I handed it over to Demeter. “Rhea!” She stated and they both put there hands on the Bident. I could see the green stone light up a little, but just a little, then Rhea pushed me down on the bad and placed Psychofagos in my hand. Hold on tight little Olympian, she then placed her her hands on my testicles and Demeter held both sides of my head in her hand and suddenly the world exploded in colours, scents, sounds and music. I saw the writing on the walls, quite literally and my body felt like it was on fire. “Enjoy the ride Olympian” they let go of my body. Then I heard Rhea say “Keep Aphrodite away from here. He is now so fertile that she could give birth to an entire army of love lovers” that was all I remembered, the world grew dark and it seemed that I was falling asleep, and off I went.

To be continued

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Wheels of a scribe

It has been 6 months since I saw Poseidon and Oceanus. 6 months and a bit since the Kraken gave me additional powers and now I am reflecting on what was, what I was and what I am becoming. I could feel elements of my body, but not much. The moment the Kraken flooded me something happened, something the powers of Perses did not achieve. The power within me started modifying me and repairing me, even issues I was never aware of were repairing through the powers of the kraken. I reckon that this was in the first month when I started to feel whole, not Olympian, not a mere mortal but something in between. I still believe I can be killed, but it would take maximum effort (was that a quote Deadpool had?) to bring it about. The speed at which I healed was uncanny, that much I have experienced. In all this there was a shift in Psychofagos as well, it was a bit more than a bident now, and even if I looked at it, I felt fear within me and I wielded this bloody thing. But in 6 months a lot happened. My eye sight upgraded over time even more. It is hard to describe,  I saw the old way, the olympic way and now I see even more, but is it my Olympian part? The views seamlessly overlapped and at a moments notice I saw one, the other or all. Like a simple switch in my brain, which gets me to the next part of it all, the thoughts from birth came flooding in, my brain now recollected ANYTHING that I had seen and the Olympic side could enhance it, like watching 3d TV in front of me, allowing me to reexamine the past as I saw fit. It was about three weeks after the initial event with Poseidon that I was walking the streets of Athens. There were all kind of people out there and some tried me but others held them back, almost like they knew that it was the worst idea ever. I walked down Faonos away from the park when my mind picked up on something. It was mild at first, then louder, almost like a shriek. I looked at the sky and made 360, there it was, it was the sign of Hades in the sky. A clear sign if there ever was one. I walked into its direction, a walk that took close to an hour. I ended up in front of a hotel named A for Athens. I walked in and asked for a room. The man looked sceptically at me. Another room sir? Is something wrong with your room? I slapped my head. Sorry, Raki. It was the best excuse I could find on short notice. The man smiled. He gave me my key and a letter. I made a puzzled look. The man smiled and pointed towards the corridor. Would you like som coffee brought to your room? Yes, please I responded and gave him a 20 euro bill, the man nodded. Right way sir. I went down the corridor and found the door that represented the number on the key and walked in. The room was empty, the bed was made and there was nothing that stood out. I wondered what this was about. I checked the room and saw nothing out of place in any view I took. I looked at the letter and I was about to open it when there was a knock on the door. The man had brought me a coffeepot filled with coffee, he poured a cup, placed it on the table and placed sugar and cream. There is enough for two more cups sir, enjoy the evening and he quickly left. I opened the letter. Hello, we have not met, we should. I will be at the Temple of Hephaestus at 10:00, I heard breakfast is at 07:00, the Sfakianopita is amazing in this place.  See you at 10:00, please do not be late.

I took the message for what it was, an invitation, but an invitation by who? I set my phone alarm for 06:30 and I decided to sit in the chair and drink some coffee. It was better then I expected, always a nice surprise. And after that I laid on the bed and took a restful stance. I had learned that  even as I did not sleep any longer, laying and relaxing still had a soothing influence on me. Even now I felt the energy of the Kraken drown every cell in my body and when that was done the energy reverted every cell in a combined powerpoint. There were thousands of PowerPoints within me at this time and they all screamed energy. A feeling that was relatively new to me and I rested. When I opened my eyes I looked at my phone. It was 06:29 and a few seconds the alarm went off. I switched off the alarm and I was getting pretty good at not breaking things. I got up and had a nice hot shower. And I was about to dry myself when I looked down and noticed something odd. It was bigger? That as definitely new. I looked at myself in the mirror and I looked better, stronger, more muscled. I was still no Schwarzenegger (thank you very much), but I was decently on par with any highly trained gymnast or athlete. I got down as the tables were still being set. Sir, breakfast will be ready in minutes. I nodded. He gestured me to the side where the tables were set and I nodded again and set at the table pointed out to me. What will you be having sir? I looked at him and voiced “I heard good things about your Sfakianopita, I will have that please. With coffee.” Yes sir was the response and the waiter walked to the kitchens. 

The meal was served and it was indeed outstanding. I had a second coffee and it was close to 07:45 when I was done. I walked by the front desk and asked for a tourist map. I wanted to see the Temple of Hephaestus. Was it far away? As it turned out it was a mere 10 minute walk. I went back to my room and contemplated who I would meet and why there? I left the room a little over an hour later and walked to the Temple, it was 13 minutes later but I did stop twice so I was still half an hour early. As such I scoped out the place by walking around the temple. I saw nothing out of sorts and I also did not see anything Olympian, and so I walked into the temple.

Part 2
The Temple was like all the Greek temples. Empty and a little too elaborate. I walked through it in _under a minute. I stared at the building again, just to see if there was something hidden, but I could not spot anything. I was about to walk around the building again when a voice stopped me.

No matter Olympian, you cannot see what is there. You see Zeus decreed a long time ago that our temples are ours and ours alone. We can be near another temple, but until the person who it is for invites us, we cannot see or do anything. It is even more so that the invited person can only see what we allow that person to see. I looked at the man, he seemed to have similarities with Hesiod, his sculpture. His short silver and black hair, the style and the slim golden band around his head was different, but that was about it. He gestured me to follow. I had walked this empty corridor before. He then gestured to one of the columns. Follow me fast, you will drop a little but nothing an Olympian cannot handle. He walked into the column, I hesitated for a mere fracture of a second then I walked in. I fell and fell for about 10 seconds and landed on my feet. It was OK, there was no pain or anything but my mortal side would be quite dead, or at least with both legs shattered. The room was nicely lit, there were workbenches, a forge and troughs of liquid. There was some Roman style chair with a small table with fruits and I reckoned that it was a up with wine, that was what it smelled like, but a little stronger and more overwhelming. He grabbed another cup, he filled up his and a second one and handed me the second one. The drink smelled sweetening, a strong grape sense and I took a sip. It was like clusters of grapes exploded in my mouth. It had some fermentation, but it was strongly fruity and the overwhelming need to take another sip grabbed me hard. I took the second sip. I then looked at Hephaestus, he was sizing me up and grinning. Never had a bottle of Dionysus finest did you? I shook my head. Don’t worry it happened to all of us, the man is a wine marvel. Give me your bident! It was not a question. I summoned Psychofagos and handed him over. He looked at the bident and saw the shoulder part. Nicely done, not you though was it? Again I shook. I would think not, still it is a decent piece of work, even If I say so myself. He felt the shaft and started to examine it, he then looked at the end of the shaft. And the part attached to the tines of the bident. He then started to measure it with his fingers, like a carpenter of old times. He then started again and grabbed a piece of chalk. He put markers on the shaft and grabbed some kind of pruning knife and carved a path in the shaft, three paths about 7 inches long. He then grabbed some kind of gutter and took a little out of the middle of the shaft. He did this three times. He then walked to his workbench, looking all over the place, a second and third workbench were scrutinised and at the third He seemingly found what he was looking for. They were like beads of metal, he grabbed a small hand from one jar and a second hand from another jar, he then walked around looking for something. It was a much smaller jar and had some fine powder silver in colour and covered the beads with them. He walked to the forge and grabbed some stone jar. He threw the mix into it and placed it into the fire. The fire seemingly worked itself because the jar was glowing red in seconds. As that was happening, he walked back to the first workbench and grabbed some small pot, he took of the lid and grabbed a small piece of wood and placed them on  small table. He grabbed the red hot jar with his hand and moved his hand in circular motion and placed it back on the fire. He then grabbed some clay tablet and the gutted and made a small line on it roughly 8 inches. He then put the tablet on a small cork and let it drift in the trough with water. He looked at it for a second and seemed satisfied. He then grabbed the jar and slowly poured the red hot liquid on the clay line. The clay tablet sank just ever so little. He put the jar back where it was in the beginning, by the forge. He then looked at the clay tablet and waited for a few seconds. He then grabbed his wine cup drank the wine, filled it with water and threw the water on the metal rod. The water sizzled and he stared at the result. He grabbed the newly created rod and measured it next to his pinky. He measured two parts of the phalanges and grabbed the end of that measurement and broke it with the nail of his thumb. He did that twice more and grabbed the three pieces. They fit the small guttered parts exactly. He then went to the table and dipped the piece of wood in whatever that was. He slowly dripped it into the wedge he had created, grabbed a piece of some kind of leather from his belt and tightened it as much as he could. He did that for all three parts. He then cautiously placed the bident on two support parts. He looked at me, do not touch it for now. He went back to the second bench and looked trough some baskets. He had found something. He also went to the third table and grabbed some sort of nail and then another one. He walked back and tried whatever he had found on the end of the bident, it did not fit. He threw the  piece on the fire and in seconds it was hot, red hot. He used both pinky’s to widen the object. He looked at it and seemed pleased. He then fitted it on the shaft end and grabbed it with his hand to tighten the object. He was pleased and grabbed the nail. I now noticed that the second one was a fraction thicker. He pushed it into the shaft and removed it. The other nail was slimmer, but had small thickenings on it. He grabbed the branch again and smeared the liquid on the nail where the nail was thinner and then cautiously pushed the nail in, he then seemed to focus on the nail as he pushed harder, or so it seemed. He looked at me again, leave it for now, he walked into another room and got a chair out and placed it next to the other chair. He gestured I sat down. I did and got a large filling of Dionysus finest. He looked at me. The bident is now different. What it was it remains, I added an element that allows you to send shockwaves when the shaft end hits the ground. You will likely need it and more important, it can be used anywhere. I was not in favour of this, but you have proven yourself to be honourable, that was what Poseidon said to me, and that man does not ever talk much, not even before the issue with Oceanus started. But his word has value, as does the word of Zeus and Hades. Those two have been unheard of for much longer than Poseidon’s silence. “What happened?” I asked and he shook his head. Not my concern and not my interest. They leave me alone and that suits me just fine. I know where you are headed next, give them this from me. And he handed me a small package. I looked puzzled, how did he know? Do not worry, the action strands of Olympians are easily seen, you have centuries to learn that part. I put the parcel away. We spoke about all kinds of issues over the next few hours and it was at that point Hephaestus looked at the bident. He walked over and felt the shaft. He nodded and handed it over to me. “Do not put it away, examine it first and try it first” I did and he was right, something was different, not off, but out of balance, or better stated it was more balanced now, the metal parts had repaired the imbalance that the shoulder part had added. 

I tried a few more movements and on a mere notion I hit the shaft end to the ground, something I still regret, the shockwave was enormous. Hephaestus was thrown straight through the room, I was untouched, but everything else was all over the place. “Put it away” he ordered. Now clean the mess you made, he was not a happy chappie. I had made a mess and I cleaned up the place as well as I could and then he gestured to the other side of the room which I ordered as well. He looked at me and said, well that improvement works. I nodded. He took me back how I got in and going up was no hassle at all, it was like gravity stopped for most of the trip. And it was not long thereafter that I was back where I started. He walked me to my hotel and gestured the manager. They obviously knew one another. I went back to my room with a cup of coffee, it was late in the evening, or so I thought, it was not until the next morning that I saw the papers, I had been away for three days. 

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Peek a boo

The Days that followed were lacking any kind of excitement. The trip was a little over 10,000 Kilometres and it would take a little over two weeks to get there. There were enough provisions and if push came to shove, catching fish was now a simple tasks. The first week was odd for me, I spend most time in the master bedroom, alone mind you. The gift of the kraken was weird. Even as the powers of Perses reinvigorated me and had plenty of external sides. The powers of the kraken was internal. It reenforced my body. The first thing I noticed was my eyesight. It was sharper, more direct and my human sight had almost gone. I could still see like people, but I also saw dozens of things that people could not see. If my old sight was 20:10, my new sight was well over 70:10 in the sunshine and closer to 150:10 at night. My eyes were able to sort of zoom in to any object in my line of sight. The third day was awful. I started to pick up the thoughts of people, so I was able to pick up on too much noise. The chief purser, a woman named Catherine and 24 years old kept on thinking of me bending her over the bar and fuck her as hard as I could, there was one of the deck hands who was a little more interested in my body than I was comfortable with. And the list went on. I started to enjoy the company of one of the waitresses who had no interest in me, but had the most interesting ideas what she wanted to do to hr new husband, as well as things she hoped he would do to her. In the end I kept close to Lachesis and Clotho who had no thoughts, or perhaps they had them but could shield them. Clotho told me on the 4th day that I would erect barriers soon enough, all the Olympians went through them, but normally they went through them before 15, making me the oldest new brain issue. At times I summoned Psychofagos and focussed on the stones. Only the green one was now untouched, but that would happen at some point and the  thinking stone was a new dilemma, I had no idea what that thing did and as the Fates were unaware of the powers of a black stone, I was once again in the dark. It was almost at the end of the first week when I suddenly heard nothing. I felt happy, and when I focussed on the Chief purser, I could feel her thoughts and her wishes giving me a decent erection from the word go. So at least there is still some human sides in me, or something people and Olympians shared. 

It was at that point Lachesis came to me. The knock was a surprise, I was usually left alone. How are you? OK, I guess. I was not giving her the full rundown. The Davey Jones locker issue was still in my mind and even as they told me they were not aware, I had no way of knowing what was true and what was not. She was there to talk and we talked, then she stated that she wanted to test my ability of control and she had a nice new game for that. It was then that she opened the door and in came the chief purser. Wearing her uniform, but as she showed it was lacking lingerie. She took her top of and showed were pristine breasts, Lachesis was slowly kissing her shoulder and massaging her body. Catherine reacted to that, they kissed each other and I noticed her body shiver in delight. I heard her mind scream “Yes, yes, oh god yes” and as Lachesis lay down on the bed I was sitting on, she pulled my arm and I fell on my back, my erection now fully ready. Catherine saw that as an invitation and she opened my pants.

[Erotic scene removed to avoid Facebook issues]

It was in the early morning of day 18 when the engines stopped. We had made a detour to Lima to refuel, we till had enough, but it seemed that the captain did not like to be in the ocean with a lack of fuel. So as day 18 started, Clotho told me that Oceanus and Poseidon were somewhere below in the trench. She also cautioned me not to rely on violence as there was every chance that both Oceanus and Poseidon would see me as an enemy and even as I had little chance of defeating either of them, should they combine forces I would be done for. It made sense and I looked around for one more second and jumped into the water. The water was light, or so it now seemed, and as I made a speedy descent into the trench two things became clear. The first was that the bident was not protecting me as it once did, it must have felt that I was able to take what was coming and as I raced towards the bottom, I saw nothing out of the ordinary, yet that changed when I passed the six mile depth mark. The bottom was simple and I could see some parts, but it was ahead where there was a lot more light, or it seemed like light, but I was not clear what it was. It took another 30 seconds to get there and the scene was weird. In the centre of what seemed light was a dry patch of land and Poseidon was there. Around him there were glass spikes, like an inverted sea urchin. It looked like water, water that was solid as glass and it was pulling water and moist out of the patch. It seemed to weaken Poseidon, around the inverted urchin were layers of spiked shields keeping whatever help he could get at bay, so Poseidon was at the bottom of the trench on a dry patch of land what might be regarded as the least humid piece of earth on this planet. 

I looked around and it took a while, because I didn’t know what to look for and there he was Oceanus, this titan was the size of the Chrysler building without the spiky top. He was sitting there observing Poseidon and optionally focussing on the prison he had made for Poseidon. Something had angered him alright, but how do you talk to a titan that does not even notice you? It was then that I considered a rather foolish idea. It had all the marks of that it might to work, but there was no going back if it went wrong. I looked at the setting, I would have to hit the ground between the prison and Oceanus, I mustered whatever strength I had and I head towards the ground like a torpedo, and as I slammed into the ground, my mind shouted as hard as it could “Listen!” It seemed a little too much like a peek a boo, but there was every chance it was an unknown tactic to these two. There was no denying it had an effect. Oceanus looked in my direction, as did Poseidon and as his prison collapsed, he created some kind of shell around him, but he did not act. I thought again “The oceans are dying, life is leaving the oceans” and after that I summoned all the images of dead fish and pollution I could push in both directions. Oceanus looked at me and he then looked up and he started to notice that he missed a few things, as did Poseidon. I honestly am unsure what they were thinking, but then I heard the voice of Oceanus. You speak like my Kraken. “He taught me this, to warn you that the waters are in danger and he cannot act” Both Poseidon and Oceanus looked up and looked around themselves. It as clear that they now clearly saw that things were wrong and as such they both beheld me. Who are you? Oceanus asked. I am the grandson of Hades and Zeus. Child to Ares and Makaria. Oceanus saw the bident and summoned it out of my hands. I could not hold on, the power was too great and this also told me that my body could withstand the pressures on their own, the gift from the Kraken was a good gift. Oceanus saw the bident, saw the stones. I heard the word “Atropos”, the one fate I had not met yet. He grabbed each tine with one hand and seemingly focused. He threw the bident back to me which landed perfectly in my hand. I now noticed that the thinking stone was now pitch black and shone with darkness. He then said “Get the final part from Demeter, now leave me” I did not wait for Poseidon to say anything and I got out of there as fast as I could. It took close to two minutes to get back to the surface. It was clear that Clotho and Lachesis noticed something in me. What happened? They both asked. I think they stopped fighting. Oceanus implied I need to see Demeter next. Both fates nodded and it was time to change travel directions. Next stop Athens via the Panama Canal.

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Crimes pay better

Yes, it is the old axiom again and for a long time there was an expression it was “Crime does not pay”, we saw the old remedy in this and we saw it repeated in movies, in TV. The simple given truth that crime does not pay. 

But the world evolved, capital crime left us, judges (or as some call them lobotomised lawyers) became pussies all whilst police and politicians became even less useful. So in the last 2 decades crime became massively rewarding. Not small crimes though, the bigger the crime the larger the chance of running away and for the few that did get caught places like Netflix offer large sums of money for the movie rights. You think I am kidding? Consider the BBC giving us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61966824) ‘Missing crypto queen: Is Dr Ruja Ignatova the biggest Bitcoin holder?’ There we see “The scammer disappeared in 2017 as her cryptocurrency OneCoin was at its height – attracting billions from investors. Fraud and money-laundering charges in the US have led to her becoming one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives. The Oxford-educated entrepreneur told investors she had created the “Bitcoin killer”, but the files suggest she secretly amassed billions in her rival currency before she disappeared.” With the added “Details first surfaced in 2021 in leaked documents from Dubai’s courts, posted online by a lawyer who crowned Dr Ruja – as she’s known – the “most successful criminal in history”” so what gives rise to this article? Well that is the nice part. I first crossed virtual paths with her in ‘The citizen model’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/11/03/the-citizen-model/) it was November 2021. And there I wrote “apart from the stage of Fraud and scamming, she broke no laws, she was extremely careful not to break any. Then on 25 October that year she boarded a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens, and vanished off the face of the Earth.” We got to the fact that a lease was signed in 2016 and we were in addition given “the lease was signed in August 2016, financial regulators in at least one European country had already issued a warning about OneCoin. A few months earlier, Dr Ruja had pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges in a German court, after bankrupting a metal factory she’d bought and leaving 150 people jobless in 2011” as such there were issues going back to 2011. And in 2022 (7 hours ago) we see she is now FBI’s top 10 people. The law required 6 years, 6 years where she lived as the queen she was labeled to be. Optionally having a high-rise floor in Dubai with views like this

As her ‘personal’ retirement place. Reading books, watching movies, drinking and having whatever she needs delivered to her floor, or the office of her personal assistant. 6 years and optionally 6 more years, or perhaps even 16 more years. Now you might want to go that way and try to become the next whatever it is you think you’ll be. Yet like quarterbacks, Nobel winners and Stanley cup holders, very few get there and those who do not will be made an example of, that is the only direction the law can go now. They need to rectify 6 years of blunders on one case alone. The UK (London) will have to adjust their secrecy policy on housing and there is a lot more that needs to happen. In the end there is no way telling where this goes, but the one criminal who got away with well over 5 billion might be the last one in generations to do so.

The simple truth is now becoming that either they make sure that the story of ‘Crime does not pay’ becomes a reality or chaos will be the next hurdle they face and as far as I can tell, there is no western government that can properly deal with any kind of chaos. They fear it more than crime. It is one of the hard lessons the UK learned last year, and a few other governments learned this lesson the hard way too. The pandemic made that crystal clear. And in a world where some freedom of movement remains, these criminals will be hard pushed to get to any place where they are not wanted, where they can hide in luxury like hermits, their houses beyond large, beyond well equipped and beyond reproach and that is where they will spend the next two decades as the world goes under through war, poverty and lack of resources. They got out in time and Dr Ruja Ignatova might be the last one to do so. In the mean time the FBI is looking for her in places where they have no jurisdiction, where they get no cooperation and they can look and state “She is not in the US”, which might have been the one mistake Ghislaine Maxwell had made. For some people crime paid better and it is still the foundation of their lavish lifestyle until 2050. After that people like Dr Ruja Ignatova will offer their life story for immunity and money to Netflix and some will treasure that approach because in a world of revenue cash is king, and most likely always will be.

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God, the sequel

Yup, it all started two days ago. I left you all with some impressions, yet the stage was larger. We cannot set omnipotence without foundation , well we can because I am here, but I am that one exception to the rule (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk). The others (Hades, Poseidon and Zeus) they grew their powers. We tend to make fun and call some settings ‘fabrications’, there we see “Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon the waters, and Hades the world of the dead (the underworld)” The gods got a decent role in Homer’s illiad, and more wrote about them in all kinds of ways, yet when you dig down and dig to the past several people, people who had never had contact had similar writings. It is trivialised by people who have internet and mobile phones, yet in the old days they had no contact, in no way were groups of people with no levels of contact ever stating the same believes and adhering to the same rules. Perhaps there is something to be said in “he was appalled by human sacrifice and other signs of human decadence. He decided to wipe out mankind and flooded the world with the help of his brother Poseidon. After the flood, only Deucalion and Pyrrha remained” and it is not the only time, even the first time that floods were a larger stage of cleansing. So why? Consider that power grows and power is gotten from somewhere. If Aristaeus got his powers from bees, what happens if people abuse bees? A stage we might not consider, but in a stage where power was important, the abuse of sky (Zeus) and waters (Poseidon) would inflict the wrath of these two. That is the stage we seek!

If we can create a god (ourselves) it needs a power foundation, the smaller the creature, the more simplistic their needs, the easier their power is milked. Hence the 6 animals I gave two days ago. So when we get to “both nectar and ambrosia were kinds of honey, in which case their power of conferring immortality would be due to the supposed healing and cleansing powers of honey, and because fermented honey (mead) preceded wine as an entheogen in the Aegean world; on some Minoan seals, goddesses were represented with bee faces”, with this I personally reckon that the German Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (1845) was a lot closer to the truth with his view on it and it is important that any game has some handle on the past. Anchors in how power is distributed, how it is gained. If not, then Zeus, Poseidon and Hades could never have defeated Cronos, their father. 

Now consider the paths that Ezio Auditore and Bayek of Siwa undertook (two actual masterpieces), how they grew their powers and abilities. Would it be any different for deities? No matter how the had the ability to do so, they still needed to grow their powers, we all do and now we have a handle on us and on the character we play. Yet if we want something that is larger than life as such some sandbox trip is needed, choices are to be offered. Whether a person has the bee, the wasp or the termite. It starts with a foundation and that foundation grows towards a power base and a weakness, we all tend to look towards Athens for inspiration, but those who do tend to forget to look towards Poseidonia, a ‘village’ on Siros. When we see the elements shown we need to wonder how it was possible and there we have a setting towards the power base of a deity. If Ambrosia is food for the gods, or is it the food that creates gods? One might fuel the other. These thoughts are below the creation of a game, as we set the stage to a larger stage, we need to consider what gives foundation to that stage. A brilliant example is Horizon Zero Dawn, and soon its sequel. We chase in the first game what created the game, we see that there was a machine that creates larger than life events, but there is always a shoe in the cog (Hades). Any stage needs checks and balances or it becomes a fuelled stage of disbelief, even whilst you play it. That was the brilliance that led to Ezio Auditore, a stage we understood (historically speaking). As such, when you figure out that the events in Ancient Greece and ancient Iran (Mesopotamia) are not unrelated, how long until the cogs connect? 

As such we see can see out minds evolve the new god game, but is it a god game or forging a deity? There is a difference and even as the Atari ST, Playstation one, two and three needed us to make mental jumps, the Playstation 5 is now advanced enough to make us see the difference and play accordingly, the specifics are now in our grasp making for a much larger stage of handling evolution. And I reckon that over time cloud gaming will take it to the next level. And in all this Ubisoft was not alone, consider the path that the God of War took, and even he was not alone. It was a path and we forgot about that part in god gaming. We merely have the maker of the games (Peter Molyneux) and his examples Populous and Black and White as examples, but what if growth is a stage that encompasses both? Setting a different sandbox environment might be the way to go and we finally have hardware that can take us there. 

How it done? That is up to the game makers, you can’t expect me to do everything. You need to get creative and make the next stage of excellent gaming, because if we leave it up to Ubisoft it will be anyones guess what excellent gaming looks like and it will end up being below par and we have seen enough games like that. 

So get to work, get to the drawing board and consider the stage we play (entire Greece), what we can do short of everything and start considering what makes power grow. If you are done with that hold it against the deities of Egypt, Aztec and Inca deities and see how you hold up. You see checks and balances is where it is at. That is what makes people choose and it will make them come back for a second and third time. A game played three times over, that is the stage of a legendary game in the making.

Hesiod

As such in this story I left two clues. They were Deucalion and Pyrrha. Why were only those two spared? If you look at the historic writings (Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, Apollodorus) some things add up and some do not. Now, we can allow for creative views and that would be OK, yet Homer (Ionia, 900 BC), Hesiod (Cyme, 725 BC), Ovid (Sulmona, 43 BC) and Apollodorus (Athens, 180 BC). People that can never have been connected in time, also consider that with our options of preservation, we do not have books that last 300 years and that is whilst we have all kinds of machines that allow for mass replication, that did not exist before the 14th century. A whole range of places most of them more than a life time of travelling away, yet the similarities are almost astounding. When you consider those elements, consider what more there I and what is making these sotries survive, now consider what you need to make a game of THAT magnitude survive the onslaught of players and their increased need of perfection, have a great day.

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Genuinely puzzled

Yup it happens, the news at time makes little sense, it makes little sense for several reasons and that is fair, even for me. Consider the BBC headline ‘Saudi Arabia: Authorities defend mosque speaker restriction’,  which in itself outside of any Islamic nation might be treated with a simple ‘Meh!’ This would not be a negative response, merely a response that approaches the sentiment of ‘Whatever!’, so as I read “The country’s Islamic Affairs Ministry announced last week that all loudspeakers should be set at only a third of their maximum volume. Islamic Affairs Minister Abdullatif al-Sheikh said the measure was in response to complaints from the public. But the move in the conservative Muslim nation sparked a backlash on social media”, I initially wondered why the BBC even took time to give notice to the event, for the most, what does it inform us about? Is it to give visibility to Abdullatif al-Sheikh? Perhaps it was to alarm us to “the move in the conservative Muslim nation sparked a backlash on social media”? I actually do not know, but this news also gives us that there was no space for ‘WHO to start COVID-19 vaccination in Houthi-run north Yemen’ with “Houthi authorities in control have played down the impact of the pandemic, largely denying any outbreak there”, or perhaps it is ‘UAE shows last minute unity to host Asian Qualifiers as China baulks at covid outbreaks’ with “The remaining seven matches in Group A – which will qualify teams for both the next round of the AFC’s World Cup 2022 qualifying and directly into the Asian Cup China 2023 – will be now held at the Sharjah Stadium”, neither news is seen at the BBC, so whilst we accept that speaker settings for announcements are important to the people in the KSA, the western population would all like to know the impact of Football decisions (people in the UK are weird that way), oh I reckon that the people in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Italy would react in a similar fashion.

So whilst it is nice to read “the measure was in response to complaints from the public”, I personally would reckon that the rules of Islam have been clear in many Arabic nations, and as these speakers tend to be set, why would there be complaints now? So whilst some might know that the 5 moments are “Fajr (sunrise prayer), Dhuhr (noon prayer), Asr (afternoon prayer), Maghrib (sunset prayer), and Isha (night prayer). Each prayer has a specific window of time in which it must be completed”, the internet also shows us “In a mosque, the muezzin broadcasts the call to prayer at the beginning of each interval. Because the start and end times for prayers are related to the solar diurnal motion, they vary throughout the year and depend on the local latitude and longitude when expressed in local time”, when we see that, some (including me) might wonder why the speaker settings are suddenly cause for concern. The sound of a person calling to prayer the islamic people is part of Islamic heritage, I wonder who the complaining people would be. I would go as far as stating that unless these calls are lately a lot louder, who would complain on speaker settings and the part we read “the move in the conservative Muslim nation sparked a backlash on social media” gives rise to my puzzlement. It is fair that this news would be (and is) seen in Al Jazeera, but I saw no mention in Arab News, so Islamic news made it to the BBC and not to Arab News? What is going on? 

And when we see “Mr Sheikh said that those who want to pray do not need to wait for the Imam’s call to prayer” the wondering does not top and here I found that the news also made it to Radio Athens, they give us on their website with the added “In a country where there are tens of thousands of mosques, the decision was generally welcomed. However, it also provoked reactions on social networking sites, with the appearance of a hashtag calling for a ban on loud music in restaurants and cafes”, I could not rely on the radio as I haven’t spoken proper Greek since 3575BC. And more important the information on Athens Radio is seemingly the same as the BBC, but the paragraph comes across different due to “with the appearance of a hashtag calling for a ban on loud music in restaurants and cafes”, all whilst both sides give us the one side that is seemingly strange “The restrictions come as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues attempts to make Saudi Arabia more liberal and lessen the role religion plays in public life”, I am not sure how to react, optionally, I see in part a reason to disagree. I get that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants to make liberal moves and as we can see on YouTube, several tourists are showing the world just how pretty and how amazing Saudi Arabia looks. I have seen a few of these video’s and the view we see from the Sky Bridge Kingdom Tower is amazing. It was the first time I saw this and I wonder why other media have never given a clear view of an architectural marvel like that and what it offers. Yet even if I were to go to Riyadh, I personally feel that I would miss out on the call of prayer, not that I am Islamic, but it is part of Islamic life. As a visitor we would not want to see changes that are part of the foundation of a nation. Yet, I admit that this might merely be me. And in all this I am personally more stricken by “those who want to pray do not need to wait for the Imam’s call to prayer” I have no idea what to make of that, but I understand that as I am not Muslim, I might not get that part. Another source gives us “The decision has angered ultra-conservatives in the country”, it is fair that there are those in favour and those opposing any decision, yet the BBC (Radio Athens neither) gives us anything on the ultra-conservatives and who they are. This sparked a revisit to the Washington Post who gave us in 2018 ‘Saudi Arabia’s once-powerful conservatives silenced by reforms and repression’ with the addition of “these conservatives now tiptoe on social media outlets like Twitter. In mosques and at community gatherings, they reluctantly criticise recent changes they stridently oppose, such as the easing of social boundaries between men and women”, with that in sight we see certain patterns emerge and the BBC was not informing us of that, or perhaps they assumed we knew that, which in light of the Martin Bashir caper is massively silly on several levels. In all this the one part some people overlooked. If the speakers are to be set to 33%, what stops them from upgrading the sound equipment in Mosques from 100 Watt to 300 Watt? It is merely a thought. All parts the BBC is overlooking and I know for a fact that they have faced the ‘hardware upgrade’ in the past. So the lack of information in their article is calling for a few questions. In the end, the only useful information I got from the article was the existence of Islamic Affairs Minister Abdullatif al-Sheikh. From my personal point of view the BBC article was a blunder, one that the BBC should not have made. 

As such my genuinely puzzled setting is quite complete.

A new starts and breakfast is approximately 3 hours and 32 minutes away. Have a great Wednesday!

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That’s the way the money flows

The Independent had an interesting article 2 hours ago. The article (at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/china-drones-spy-us-dhs-security-data-alert-a8922706.html). The title leaves little to the imagination with: ‘Chinese drones may be stealing sensitive information, DHS warns‘, after the Trump google play, after his refusal to submit to subpoena’s, after the anti Huawei activities that so far has never yielded any active evidence (the 8 year old case was settled within months are done with). Now we see: “Chinese-made drones in America may be sending sensitive data to their manufacturers back home where it can be accessed by the government, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has warned“, which might be a nightmare if it was not so hilarious. You see the next quote: “CNN, which obtained the internal alert, reported that the DHS fears drones will offer Chinese intelligence unfettered access to American data“, it comes across like we have a case where a CNN reporter has been hit by a silly stick and never recovered. Consider the drones we see, there is no space to have a dedicated hack system on board. Yes some can be done with a mobile, and there is plenty of space in that device, now consider the ‘sensitive’ data that needs to be found, the data needs to be connected to (and with all these faulty Cisco routers that is relatively easy at present), then a selection needs to be downloaded and that is merely for one place, one device. All this stops when any person uses common cyber sense. It is the revelation that we see next, that is the one that matters. With: “Though the alert didn’t name specific companies, the vast majority of drones used in the US and Canada are made by the Shenzen based Company, DJI, CNN reported” we see the part that matters. As drone services are up on an almost exponential growth as we see the push that got there. The news from November 2016 gave us: “Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited (Domino’s) and drone delivery partner Flirtey delivered the first order, a Peri-Peri Chicken Pizza, and a Chicken and Cranberry Pizza“. Consider the option to avoid traffic in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Pittsburgh, all places with massive congestion. Drones are the optionally the newest quick way to deliver food, Amazon needs, Walmart needs, all in growing need due to the events where retailers and shippers combine forces to avoid a few items, and with congestion set to zero, people will flock to that consideration. Now the operational part, it seems that DJI is ahead of the curve, another Chinese company decided to truly innovate and now that the push is there and America is bankrupt (as I personally see it) anything possible to avoid money going to China, America is taking a pot shot at that. So when we are also treated to: “A spokesman for DJI denied that any information was being transmitted to it from its drones, adding that the security of its technology has been independently verified by the US government.” I start wondering if DHS was able to do its job properly. Now let’s be clear, there is no doubt that ANY drone can be used for espionage, especially if it is quiet enough. Yet is that the issue for DJI, or is that an issue with the spy that utilises drone technology? Yet that is actually not the only side, on the other side we see mentioned: “Those concerns apply with equal force to certain Chinese-made (unmanned aircraft systems)-connected devices capable of collecting and transferring potentially revealing data about their operations and the individuals and entities operating them, as China imposes unusually stringent obligations on its citizens to support national intelligence activities,” Now, this part does make sense. It is the same as the Apple Fitbit, that due to its global nature started to hand out the jogging patterns of Special forces in the Middle East, so within 3 days several members of the two dozen operatives had a check on their calorie burning and health, whilst the mapping data showed the world where the CIA black site was (oh apologies, I meant to say a military specialist endeavouring location of an undetermined nature). The question becomes how was the ‘the security of its technology has been independently verified by the US government‘ achieved? Was that verification process competent, or perhaps slightly less so?

I am not stating my verdict in either direction; yet the entire Huawei mess, as well as the DJI setting implies that the growth industries are shunned from America, mainly because it is not an American industry. Yet in all this, the forget that places like the EU and India are large enough to go forward with both players and truly grow further, whilst the downturn and the economic lag that the US is creating will merely grow the loss of momentum and the recession it will fuel in other ways. I would consider that the setback that Google is trying to create will have larger repercussions down the road. As larger Data vendors will now optionally choose the Chinese side, they will grow market share. You see no matter how it is sliced, all this is data based and data can only grow if there is usage. So when people remain with Huawei as their phone keeps on working, we see that there is a larger concern soon enough. At some point people will stop trusting Samsung, Google and Apple phones, which works out nicely for several players (Microsoft actually more than most), what do you think happens when the larger share of 14.7% of a global market changes to player three and not use Google apps to some degree? Google momentum relies on non-stop data and usage, when a third of the 60% that these three cover stops, do you think that this has no impact for Google?

The same applies to drones. You see intelligence makes the drone and as it grows its market share and the collected data of drone usage is set, the innovation of DJI grows faster. It is the difference between generation now and generation 2022, DJI will grow and can grow in several directions, yet the entire the setting of ‘data theft’ we see that there is a lack of ‘what’ data. What data is collected, the flight path? Well, I think we all need to know in 2023 what flight path was taken for the delivery of 342,450 pizza’s delivered per hour, is it not? It is not that Google Map has that data, and within a building in New York, is there truly a clear sign in the drone itself who exactly the merchandise was for, or was that on the box (instead of the drone). Now, there is no denying that some of that data would optionally be accessible to the Chinese government? Yet what data, what level of data? Do you think that they have time for the hundreds of drones and the data whilst they can monitor 20,000 times that data with a spy satellite (and an additional truckload of data that the drone never had in the first place?

It is when I see ‘unfettered access to American data‘ where the questions become pressing. It is like watching Colin Powell coming into a non-disclosed location with his silver briefcase and in the end the lack of WMD’s, are we going in that direction again? when I see ‘unfettered access to American data‘, it is at that moment I see the optional comparison (an extreme lose comparison mind you) with the innocent preachers daughter who did the naughty thing to 30% of the boys coming to Sunday sermon, having attempted things I cannot even rent on adult video. It is the CNN article (at https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/20/politics/dhs-chinese-drone-warning/index.html) that gives additional rise to concerns. When you see: “Users are warned to “be cautious when purchasing” drones from China, and to take precautionary steps like turning off the device’s internet connection and removing secure digital cards. The alert also warns users to “understand how to properly operate and limit your device’s access to networks” to avoid “theft of information.”” It seems to me that there are dozens of ways to get this data, a drone seems like an expensive long way round-trip to get to that data, whilst more can be accessed in several other ways and it is the speculation through ‘device’s internet connection‘, so when we see one of these devices (at https://www.dji.com/au/phantom-4-pro-v2/info#specs), we are treated to: “The new Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 features an OcuSync HD transmission system, which supports automatic dual-frequency band switching and connects to DJI Goggles wirelessly“, where did the internet come in? Yes there is an app, to get a live view from the drone, so what ‘unfettered access to American data‘ could there be that Google Maps at present does not have in more detail?

It is the next part that is the actual ace. When we see: “DJI, which reported $2.7 billion in revenue in 2017, is best known for its popular Phantom drone. Introduced in 2013, the drone is the top-selling commercial drone on the market“, information the Independent did not give us, that is the actual stage as I personally see it. It was $2.7 billion in 2017, there is no doubt that when drone delivery truly takes off, at that point revenue that sits between $15 and $27 billion is not unrealistic, the dire need to avoid congestion on a global scale will drive it and that is before you realise the non-US benefits in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Athens, Moscow. At that point you will see stronger growth and I haven’t even looked at the opportunities in a place like Mumbai, Tokyo, Delhi, Bangkok, Rio, Buenos Aires and Sydney yet. Everything leaves me with the impression that this is not about security, it is about money. That fact can be proven when you realise that everyone remains silent on the 29 new vulnerabilities that Cisco reported merely a month ago. How many Cisco router stories have come from that non-technologically refined White House, where they are currently optionally limited by “Cisco routers, including ones that can be found in malls, large companies or government institutions, are flawed in a way that allows hackers to steal all of the data flowing through them“, the cybersecurity company Red Baron handed out that issue to the media last week, so who picked up on that danger to ‘unfettered access to American data‘? And when you consider ‘it allows potential malicious actors to bypass the router’s security feature, Trust Anchor. This feature has been standard in Cisco’s routers since 2013‘, when we realise that Cisco is a household name on a global scale (especially when connected to the internet), the entire Cisco matter seems to be at least 15,000 times worse than any DJI drone ever could be, and the fact that DHS remains silent on that gives (again, as I personally see it) is added proof that this is merely about the money and the fact that US companies are losing markets on a global scale.

I could set the stage by singing ‘All ‘Bout the money‘ by Meja and ‘That’s the way the money goes‘ by M, but then, I realise that people would most likely pay me serious money not to sing (my voice is actually that bad).

That’s the way the money flows, specifically at present in a direction that the US is for the foreseeable future most displeased about.

 

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