An Undertow of Sand (Percy Jackson and the Cthulhu Mythos)

[Kalstorm22]

Great chapter!

 

[Oxymoron]

Once again the only reason the even visit the sfw side of QQ has updated.

Huzzah!!!!

Also damn mans really gassed himself up trying to low-key finesse the lotus eaters, L moment there fr.

 

[Aaron_04]

And percy gets in a but of a pickle, again, percy mah boi you seriously have to stop with the wonderfull ideas, they clearly don't work.
Though I think something more happened in that reunion with the manager but we will see.
Also, yes luke, Dorian not only bedded that eldritch god. He went crazt, got out of the mental hospital an decided he was going to put a ring in that finger, tentacje, wing, claw.... thing.
What you just saw in the horizon was not a hallucination, ot was you gainning enough insigt to see the two neutron stars this man is packing

 

[Medvelelet]

Percy's Oedipus story was fun.

 

[Shujin]

Percy's Oedipus story was fun.

Click to shrink...

I'm glad! I was worried it was going to come across as awkward cringe instead of funny!

 

[ArcanaVitae]

I'm glad! I was worried it was going to come across as awkward cringe instead of funny!

Click to shrink...

It was hilarious in a really messed up way, which means it was great. It was also a bit dark and messed up since it shows just how screwed up his family relationship used, and to some level still is.

 

[Cosmic Dream]

"She didn't think I'd need it." So many layers and none of them good.

I'm not usually one for the misery conga and lately it seems that we're only ever going down and things only get worse, but it's still weirdly compelling. I think that means you're doing an awesome job as a writer.

 

[Dafuro]

I've been reading this for the last 24 hours and each minute spent was entirely worth it, thank you author.

 

[Shujin]

"She didn't think I'd need it." So many layers and none of them good.

I'm not usually one for the misery conga and lately it seems that we're only ever going down and things only get worse, but it's still weirdly compelling. I think that means you're doing an awesome job as a writer.

Click to shrink...

I've been reading this for the last 24 hours and each minute spent was entirely worth it, thank you author.

Click to shrink...

Thank you both for the kind words!

 

[SmokeRichards]

Oh. I didn't realize you were on QQ. I know you from AO3. One of the only PJO fics I have bookmarked. The other is Broken Bow. Well, lets follow this thread then.

 

[Shujin]

Oh. I didn't realize you were on QQ. I know you from AO3. One of the only PJO fics I have bookmarked. The other is Broken Bow. Well, lets follow this thread then.

Click to shrink...

Glad you like the story!

 

[Shujin]

An Undertow of Sand
A PJO Fanfiction​

Have you ever had someone tell you about a game or a movie or something and you're just like 'I have no idea what that is.' Then they tell you the name of it and you still don't know what it is. But as soon as they sit you down in front of it for five seconds, you realize you do know what it is, your brain just farted and refused to put the pieces together for no actual reason?

Yeah?

That was my brain with Crazy Eights.

Pretty sure that's happened to everyone at least once. To be honest, I was slowly becoming convinced that whoever made humans had been drunk off their ass the entire time. That someone was probably my mother.

She was never going to admit it.

Nico squinted at me from over his hand of cards suspiciously. "Are you sure you've never played before?"

"It's like Uno," I admitted.

"What's Uno?"

"Like this," I said dryly. "Just with special cards. Switch is like this too, but with fewer rules and you just play until you run out of cards or get bored." Which means it's another game Artemis will fail at somehow, I thought with a smile. Then I had to blink, hard, through a dizzy spell. I took a sip of my soda to cover up my confused frown.

Where had that come from?

I got the mental image of a small, cute bunny rabbit with reddish fur.

Oh okay, so not Apollo's sister, just named after her. Someone's pet? That sounded right, but also felt really wrong like I really should know whose pet the rabbit was. I went through the pets of everyone I knew. Neighbors had two small dogs, a fucking tarantula, Eva had a snake and Apollo had a cat he swore wasn't his, but no rabbits. It also did nothing to explain why I thought a bunny would be bad at cards.

Besides the obvious.

I put down seven of diamonds and waited for Nico's shadow to take its turn.

I watched as the black tendril put down four of diamonds only for Nico to play a four of spades. Damn. I picked up cards from the deck fully aware of the hole Bianca di Angelo was boring into the side of my head with her eyes. Nico's older sibling was just as olive skinned as he was half the time with longish black hair, brown eyes so dark, they looked black and a button nose.

"Yeah?" I asked, a little annoyed at being stared at. "You said you didn't want to play."

"Not… that," she said slowly.

Her dark eyes darted across the small round table we were sitting at. It was in the middle of the Lotus Hotel and Casino's food court. Walking all around us, hungry hotel residents and eager kids were stopping for a bite to eat or a sugary drink between games. The delicious smells had me constantly a little hungry, so we parked here so Bianca could make snack runs when she finished off her drink. The latest run had been sushi for her and sticky, sugary crispy pastries filled with nuts and a sweet paste for us.

So.

Okay.

I could have sworn a baklava was a ski mask?

I was apparently wrong? I felt a bit betrayed honestly. I had to be at least a little right. Clearly, some wires had been crossed in my brain somewhere and I don't think it's my dyslexia?

It's probably my fucking dyslexia.

"You really don't have a problem with that?" Bianca jerked her chin across the table where Nico's shadow had taken a seat.

You heard me.

It was mostly a blob of darkness just…sitting in a chair like the rest of us. When I say blob, I mean it. A roundish blob of pitch black night. It compacted and gained definition the closer to the floor it was. Or maybe I should say, the closer it was to Nico? Kind of? Nico himself didn't have a shadow of his own, really.

He had Dark Link, from Ocarina of Time.

A perfect silhouette branching off his feet into its own being that just pretended to be Nico's shadow sometimes. It was holding its hand of cards in front of it with dark tendrils. It didn't have a face or eyes, but was still doing a pretty good job of giving off the impression of a blank stare into space with peak 'no thoughts, head empty' energy.

It didn't have a head, but you get what I mean.

"Most people here can't even see it, and when they do…"

"They forget," Nico said.

He and his sister shared a look as his shadow played a card.

"I was…expecting you would forget too," Nico admitted uneasily. "But you didn't even blink."

"You can't even see if I blinked," I said snobbily, pushing my sunglasses up my nose with my pointer finger. Bianca's lips twitched as Nico got his big smile back. "Why would I? It's not dangerous, right?"

"It saved us," Nico said earnestly.

"And only us." There was something hard in Bianca's voice. I caught a flicker of her eyes towards her brother, but then she relaxed so I don't know if that meant anything. "You really are different from most people here."

"In a good way," I said with a cheeky grin and raised eyebrows.

Bianca rolled her eyes and started to get up from her seat. "Yes, in a good way, you - "

An excited kid chose the wrong moment to run past and our table jolted when his foot caught on the chair that had just been pushed into his path.

"Woah!"

We all cried out as Bianca tipped and he fell over, his drink going flying and without thinking, I grabbed for it.

I missed.

There was a tugging sensation in my gut as the glass shattered all over the floor.

"Woah," the kid said, softer as I stared at my hand.

The glass had obeyed gravity, but his lemonade didn't. An arc of spilling pink lemonade hung in the air like it was frozen in time and the only clue was my outstretched hand and the weird feeling in my stomach.

"How - "

"Accidents happen!" We all jumped as one of the waitresses cut Bianca off.

I hadn't seen her arrive, but the loud sound the glass shattering made must have gotten her attention. She was dressed like an airplane attendant in a pale blue uniform, blonde hair pulled back neatly under the blue cap and bland smile. Her eyes were closed.

She had a new empty glass in her hand that she extended towards me. "Good catch, prince."

"Um." I said.

"How?" Bianca demanded again.

Nico raised his hands when I looked at him. "I didn't do it!"

"It was not I!" The new kid said, eyes wide and taking several panicked steps backwards.

Okay.

So I guess everyone just agreed that I was the one doing this.

I raised my hand.

I half-expected nothing to happen. There were literal VR suits and technology with working laser guns just across the lobby. Who knows what is and isn't possible here? Maybe localized time stops were just so no one had to mop up messes and keep the floor from getting sticky. I was also hoping it really wasn't me. I've always loved water, but I never thought about controlling it. Mom never - I had no idea what it meant if I could now.

Or maybe I always could have.

The feeling in my stomach seemed to shift and I…did something? My stomach felt like it was reverse-cramping. Instead of twisting up, it felt like it was a loosening rubber band. That weird ache you get when you hold a stretch that doesn't actually hurt but it's definitely not comfortable either. Whatever it was, the lemonade followed my hand and poured itself into its new cup.

"Well done, prince," the waitress said. For a second, I thought she was going to open her closed eyes (what's with that anyway?), but there was just movement like snakes slithering through sand under her eyelids. "You can let go now."

I dropped my hand, but my stomach was still weird and I knew that I still had a hold on the lemonade.

"Um," I said again.

I didn't even know where to begin. So far my demigod powers have come in two categories: I Have No Idea How It Works or It Didn't Fucking Work. I've never been able to consciously start using one of my powers, so I didn't have even the slightest clue on how to consciously stop.

"I see." The waitress nodded slowly and there was a pinch to her face as she slowly, warily raised her empty hand. "May I?"

I nodded slowly. "Sure?"

The waitress poked my shoulder like she was investigating a bear trap. Then she let out a small sigh, relaxing, like she thought something was going to happen to her before laying her full hand on me.

I could feel the difference immediately as the stretched pull in my gut faded.

"There we are." She removed her hand not quite fast enough to seem rude and handed the glass to the new kid. "Watch your step now."

"Nanty narking!" He breathed and then he trotted off happily like nothing had happened.

"So," I began. "Thanks? What about - " I stopped talking when I turned back to the floor where the glass had broken and saw that the mess was already gone. "Never mind."

"We live to serve!"

It was said cheerfully, but I got the feeling that the waitress with the bright smile actually meant it the one way you don't want to hear anyone mean that phrase.

"Every one of us is at your beck and call, prince."

There was a flicker of something in the back of my mind that echoed 'We have no intention of crossing your father' as she beamed and threw her arms out wide. "Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any concerns. We give only the best of service at the Lotus Hotel and Casino!"

"I'll keep that in mind," I promised, a little uneasy.

With a final smile, the waitress walked back to her food booth that was decorated with a flag that…might have been Germany? Or Belgium? I don't know. The red, yellow and black flags are a lot of European countries copying each other's homework and I had the honor of being taught by the American education system. The hungry customers loitering around seamlessly shifted into a new line in front of her like they were just waiting for her to get back without actually waiting.

Not gonna lie. It was kind of creepy.

I sat down again and picked up my hand of cards. I also registered the very awkward silence that was going on.

I decided to keep my mouth shut.

There was no good way to say 'I don't know what the hell is going on' so I wasn't even going to try.

"So…" Nico started. His face was scrunched up. I mentally bumped my age estimate down a year or two from ten to more like an eight and a half. Kid was smaller than me, so that was saying something and had lots of baby fat on his cheeks. "You can control lemonade?"

"Water, I think." I tried to smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace of 'please don't ask.'

"You control water," Bianca said flatly because I never get what I want.

I shrugged one shoulder and tried, "Your brother has a sentient shadow?"

Nico glanced at said shadow.

It didn't even twitch. Just sitting there holding its cards mutely as it stared into space.

So maybe 'sentient' was a bit too generous.

"I mean," he said eventually as he played a card. "He's right?"

"We don't even know how you do that," Bianca snapped. Her eyes narrowed at me. "But I have a feeling he knows how he did that."

"I…really don't know," I said, completely honest. "How. I did."

She crossed her arms, unconvinced. "The why then."

"Um." I thought about how I was going to find the words to explain this for a couple of seconds while I picked out a card from my hand. Then I thought: Fuck it. "My mother is a river goddess. Technically."

Bianca's dark eyebrows flew up as Nico's eyes widened.

It was the obvious answer, but it felt like putting on a sock that was a little too small. I knew somewhere in my head that it was perfectly reasonable to suspect that I actually did inherit something from The Morrigan instead of Ananke.

I just couldn't remember why or when I figured that out.

"Technically," Bianca said faintly, arms dropping slightly.

"I'm a demigod." I shrugged. "It's complicated." Boy was it ever. "But there are like, three surviving rivers in Ireland that Mom made way back in the day. I never really tried checking if I had water powers before but I'm - I'm not that surprised, you know?"

Bianca looked like she very much did not know.

"Look, Nico's probably a demi-something too? Some kind of spook gave him that shadow." We all watched said shadow play its turn silently. "He's not adopted, right?"

"No!" Nico's cheeks puffed, offended. "Same mom," he said at the same time Bianca said,

"Same dad."

They looked at each other.

"Same father," Bianca stressed with the same 'don't argue with me' look Apollo got when I was being an annoying little shit on her face. "Different mother." That hard note in her voice was back for a second. "We're half-siblings."

Nico chewed on his lip, but stayed quiet as he drew cards.

"Okay," I said before it got uncomfortable. "Nico's mom is not human, like mine so…"

"I'm half-Martian?" Nico wondered.

"What?" I said intelligently as my brain struggled with the whiplash. Where the fuck did he get half-Martian from? Was there something I missed?

"You said she wasn't human, so she's an alien and aliens are from Mars," he reasoned out loud with the bizarre and slightly concerning little kid logic we all know and love.

Glad I grew out of that!

"Not human doesn't automatically mean alien," I tried to explain. "She could be - uh." My ADHD dove down the rabbit hole of exactly how many gods, Elder, Old and Young were technically 'aliens' from outer space. I mentally flailed around before blurting out, "She could be a spirit!"

Nico gasped. "I'm half-ghost?"

"You - I don't think you're a halfa, but that's not what - "

Bianca stared blankly like she couldn't believe this conversation was happening. "Dead people can't have kids."

The train of my thought patterns blew its fucking whistle as it mutli-track drifted from Danny Phantom to explaining what a spirit was to answering the dead person kid question.

"Well, I mean - "

"Dead people can have kids," she whispered in horror.

"No!" Crap. "Kind of," I corrected myself. "They're only mostly dead or like after they died, but they came back because a god said so so they aren't dead anymore."

"She's an angel!?" Nico yelled.

I hate that I completely understood how he got there from what I said.

"Let's go with aliens."

"So Martian," Nico said, disappointed.

This fucking kid.

"I - look, what do you think this is, Biker Mice from Mars?"

"There are biker mice on Mars!?"

I should not have said anything.

"Wha - no."

"You just said - "

"...not all aliens are from Mars," I said desperately. Nico squinted at me. "Some are from Jupiter," I lied through my teeth and his black eyes got round. "Some just stopped by for a visit from the next star over and some just stayed on Earth because they…got work permits to build the pyramids and stuff."

I can't.

Work permits.

Part of me wanted to ask Mom for her green card just to see the look on her face, but most of me just wanted this stupid to stop.

"My mom made some rivers so I have water powers, your mom worked on something…uh."

"Dark," Nico said helpfully, waving at his shadow.

"Right."

"And scary."

I blew out a breath. "Sure."

"...your mother made rivers in Ireland?" Bianca asked the question like it was a drowning man grabbing onto a brick in verbal form. Or someone digging through mud and shit for the tiniest glimmer of sanity.

I sighed. "Yup."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "...why?"

"...it's what she does?" I offered tiredly.

Thanks to Mom's complete lack of a mouth filter, I knew the story behind at least one of those rivers was nowhere close to PG-13. Nico and Bianca di Angelo really didn't need to know about The Dagda's love life. I didn't need to know, but for some god forsaken reason, Mom had no issue with telling a nine year old all about it. Don't ask me why I asked. I don't know why I asked.

I immediately regretted asking.

"Irish river goddess makes Irish rivers…"

There was another awkward silence as they stared at me.

I was just on a roll today.

"Are you serious?" Bianca finally broke, incredulous. I gave her an incredulous look right back. What did she think I was trying to say? "A goddess?"

Nico eyed me from behind his cards. "You're Irish?"

"I - what." I say my mother is a goddess and it's the Irish part that gets him? I raised both eyebrows. "Is there a problem with that?"

I could strangle this kid, I swear to God.

I don't care if he's basically six years old.

If there was a problem with me being Irish, then there was a problem with Mom being Irish and if anyone had a problem with Mom then I had a problem with them.

It wasn't rocket science.

Bianca winced. "Nico…we talked about this." She blindly reached out to pat her little brother on the head while keeping her eyes on me. "Forget everything Mrs. Lancashire told you."

"But - "

"No buts. She was English," she said. "And English people don't like anything."

"Well, that's straight up not true," I said. "They like tea and… the Queen. Sometimes."

Bianca conceded the point with a tilt of her head.

"That's it though. They hate everything else," I said, mostly joking.

Mostly.

Maybe it's because I'm American, but to me, it looked like British humor is all about all the things they don't like (which is everything, including themselves) and why they don't like it. You've got a dead end trading company that barely makes rent and based in an old yellow supervan, your brother is an idiot and your best friend is enough of a moron chasing get rich quick schemes that it's honestly surprising he's still alive?

That's not depressing.

That's British comedy gold.

"Like a-the-ists," Nico singsonged and Bianca's face twisted in pain. "And Catholics and loose women and ho-mo-sex - "

His sister covered his mouth with her hand. "Yes. That." She waved her other hand at me. "Besides, does he look drunk to you?"

What.

"Mrs. Lancashire sounds like a fucking asshole," I said bluntly.

Bianca choked as Nico's monochrome eyes lit up white in glee and I rolled my eyes.

Right. Profanity.

Gotta watch out for those young virgin ears. The reminder just increased the respect I had for -

For…?

Weird.

"She was…" If Bianca di Angelo was looking for an excuse, she didn't find it as she slumped a little. "Better than her husband," she said weakly. So that sounds terrible. She let out a shriek. "You're disgusting," she said, wiping her hand on her pants as Nico stuck his tongue out at her. Rolling her eyes, she turned back to me. "You know, because of the mob. And then when the war started and Italy…"

"Oh."

It didn't make it right, but I vaguely remembered that happening a lot on the TV and in my school about people from the Middle East after the Twin Towers -

Hold up.

"What does Italy have to do with the war?"

Nico and Bianca stared at me.

I stared back.

"You don't know about the war?" Nico blurted out.

"Well," Bianca cut in. "It's over now, right? And I don't think Mussolini did a lot?"

Mussolini?

I frowned as a sudden feeling of wrong curled in my chest. "Lancashire is an old bat, right?"

"Ancient," Nico said solemnly.

Bianca swatted at him.

"Oh okay," I said as the feeling faded. "My grandparents have a neighbor like that, super butthurt Germany lost."

I didn't understand why hearing that flooded Bianca's face with alarm. "Tell me they turned him in or at least told someone about a sympathizer?"

A little harsh. I couldn't blame her though.

"They called the police on him once?" I reassured her. "Noise complaint. He's not anyone important, just a really old jerk."

"Oh," she said. "That's good then."

"That he's a jerk?" I asked, bewildered.

"What?" Bianca startled. "No, that your folks called the authorities anyway, even if the war's over, you never know what someone like him could do."

"It was a noise complaint."

"Funny, isn't it?" She cracked a smile. "Sometimes that's how you get them. Like how Al Capone was convicted for tax evasion."

I was so fucking confused.

"Our father's from Greece," Nico said suddenly, filling me with dread. Bianca and I looked at him and his face was scrunched up like he was about to cry. "If my mom's from Jupiter, does that mean I'm not an American?"

His shadow stared.

I put down my cards.

"So who wants to go bungee jumping!?"

---

There was nothing like throwing yourself off a sixty foot drop at the end of a rope for your anxiety. You'd either forget your worries for a while or if you really can't forget, try it without the rope!

Sorry.

Celtic humor.

I must have bungee-jumped the lobby four or five times, dragged Bianca into playing virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter with Nico and I, climbed the rock-climbing wall, taught Nico how to snowboard on the artificial ski slope because they already knew how to ski and just generally goofed around. It really reminded me of some of the vacations I went on with Mom and Dad. It was a bit of Six Flags, a bit of Disney World in Florida, a bit of the YMCA, a bit of the Boy Scouts and a little of the vacations abroad for Dad's job or when we went to see my great-grandmother one time in Athens, Greece.

Which meant sooner or later, I was going to gravitate to the pools and the waterslide.

"Let me get changed," I said, tugging on my jacket and looking down at my sneakers. The light beach wear Nico and Bianca wore was fine for taking a swim, but I knew from experience that wet jeans chafed like hell. "I'll be quick, go on without me."

"I'll get towels!" Nico exclaimed before he rushed off, his shadow right beside him.

Bianca lingered. "If there is anything else you want to do instead…"

"I love water," I said honestly. "Really, don't wait up. You might be okay letting a four year old walk around on his own - "

"He's almost ten," Bianca said with a wry smile.

I ignored her. "But I for one am not okay with unsupervised toddlers."

Her smile faded. "Unsupervised." It almost sounded bitter, but it was gone from her voice when she spoke again. "You're right, who knows what trouble he could get into?" She gave me a half-smile and a nod. "See you by the waterslide."

"Yeah," I said, trying not to frown.

I won't claim to be the most observant guy on the planet, but I was starting to get the feeling that Nico's sister really needed a break. The first month of Mom's absence had been rough. Dad didn't want to give up on me, but that didn't keep him from thinking that maybe he should.

That kind of thing comes out sometimes no matter how hard you try.

Maybe at knife point is when I finally started taking him seriously as my father. As someone Mom chose for a reason. Because he was capable of scaring me that badly.

I'm not sure what it said that he scared himself more.

Bianca wasn't anywhere near as bad as Dad was when he was working through therapy and single parenting, but I knew the Hot - Cold dynamic towards her little brother meant there was a problem.

Nico's birth mother was a Ghost-Angel-Kryptonian from Jupiter, so she wasn't around, but it sounded like they were growing up with mortal parents. Maybe it wasn't any of my business, but I liked them and wanted to help. I wasn't going to shake my friends down for where their folks were, but maybe if I stuck around long enough until dinner, I could get some answers. I could figure out where to go from there.

I approached one of the bellhops on the main floor. "Hey, question."

He grinned at me with a smile big enough to turn his eyes into a bunch of wrinkles. He was wearing a bright yellow tank top with a necklace of lotus flowers and fire engine red shorts. "What's up, prince?"

"I checked in, but I completely forgot what my room number is," I told him, a little embarrassed. "Should I go back to ask at the front desk?"

"No need!" He laughed. "There's only a limited number of royal suites at this location and I - " He dug into the pocket of his red shirt and held up a black key card triumphantly. "Have got a master key. Come on, I'll show you up."

I followed him towards a group of elevators. I heard the soft 'ding' as one of them opened and a beach goer wheeled out a cart full of bedsheets and towels. I thought we were going to take the vacant carriage but as we got closer, my stomach made a funny swooping feeling.

"We'll take the stairs," the bellhop said, smoothly changing his stride.

"So, how do you all see with your eyes closed?" I asked as we climbed the empty stairwell.

He almost missed a step. "Huh," he said, tilting his head up. "It's been a while since anyone was aware enough to ask."

"That was rude, sorry," I apologized.

He shook his head. "I was just surprised!" He held the door on the next floor open for me. "The short answer is that you really don't need eyes to see, right?" He said it like that was a reasonable conclusion to make. "And if you don't need them to see, well, no use letting all that space go to waste."

"Makes sense," I said, suddenly no longer curious about their closed eyelids. "Can't say I see the appeal." He chuckled at the pun. "I like my eyes."

"Your eyes are great!" He reassured me, completely genuine even though his were closed and I was still wearing my sunglasses that no one could see through. "It's not a popular school of thought on this side of the cosmos, that's for sure, but that doesn't mean it's not still valid!"

"If it works, then it works." I could understand that.

"Exactly!" He led me to a door and with a swipe of the keycard introduced me to the 'royal' suite. With a name like that I shouldn't have been surprised, but I still was shocked to see that it was a full penthouse suite. "Here we are, prince."

"This is too much," I protested.

"Not at all!" The bellhop grinned at me. "Trust me, we are nothing but honored by your patronage."

"Thanks," I said helplessly.

The bellhop's eyebrows knit together in a puzzled look.

"For what? You deserve this, prince. And it's all paid for." He waved towards the full length coffee table in front of the clustered group of love seats, half-sofas and recliners in front of the big screen television. "There's your keycard." I blinked and he was right. "If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, room service or whatever, call the front desk. We'll send it right up."

I took in a big breath and stepped into the room. In my dirty sneakers and worn jeans, I felt like a hobo being mistaken for royalty.

I knew what five star hotel rooms looked like. It wasn't as if my family was hurting for cash. We liked having nice things, but that didn't mean we had to go overboard. I assumed 'royal' were just King or Queen sized rooms with beds, couches and amenities, but instead I was faced with a full three bedroom suite with a balcony view over the Las Vegas Strip. The hot tub on the balcony reminded me a little of the penthouse I called home with our pool, but I definitely wasn't the kind of person who took baths out in the open. I expected the stocked bar, high quality towels and linens, not so much the skeet-shooting machine by the balcony sliding glass doors and shotgun for blasting clay pigeons out of the Nevada sky.

That's a little excessive.

And probably illegal.

I picked out one of the bedrooms and shuffled out of my jacket. After I folded it up, I reached for my backpack. It was the canvas under my fingertips that made the wrong feeling come back. If I was staying at a high class hotel like this, why was all my stuff in the Bag of Holding?

That was for tests.

And how many times did I just want to sleep in a real bed without anything trying to kill me during a test, I thought.

I could easily afford one night, even in a place like this. What was it, three, four thousand dollars? Maybe I was wasting time staying here, but Mom hasn't given me a hard time limit since that time when I was seven.

If one day was going to screw everything up, that was on her, not me.

…what was even the test, though?

I stared at my backpack, feeling unbalanced.

I wanted to say that if I couldn't remember it, then it must not be important. I couldn't say that though, because I was getting the feeling that it was really important. I tried to think back to how I got here.

By bus?

…one of my cousins gave me a ticket, I remembered. I was supposed to be here.

I changed out of my clothes, threw my dirty jeans, socks and tunic into the laundry basket and found some swimming trunks and a plain white T-shirt in the closet that was just my size. There were new sneakers too. I thought about it for a moment, then threw my old ones into the trash and fished out new socks from my bag. I wasn't going to jump into the pool with socks on, but after I dried off, I'd want some footwear.

I hung the key to my room around my neck and left my backpack on my bed. I took the stairs back down, feeling a little claustrophobic at the thought of the elevator. I was hurrying a little, so I ended up bumping into someone headed for the elevators.

"Sorry." I spun around the blond guy to keep my balance. "My bad, wasn't looking."

"It's fine," he said, cradling a small sleepy rabbit against his chest. He looked me over with an eye color I haven't seen on a human before. They were blue, but it was like he had fog or clouds in his irises. He frowned. "Do I know you?"

"Nope," I said. I grinned. "I just have that kind of face."

He huffed, rolling his eyes and turned away. "Whatever, Perce."

I spun back around, but he was already getting into an elevator. Did he just - I shook my head. I wasn't even sure why I turned around. It wasn't even a matter of mishearing, because that wasn't my name.

I always introduce myself as Percy.

I found Bianca and Nico by the biggest pool, the same one that the huge water slide winding around the main elevator emptied into.

"Go, Nico," Bianca pushed him lightly, exasperated. "You don't have to stop because I'm taking a break."

He took a couple steps towards the line in front of the ladder, then looked back. There was no trace of her irritation when she nodded, waved and made a show of collapsing into one of the many pool chairs around.

"So what's that about?" I asked as he dashed off.

"What's what about?" Bianca raised an eyebrow.

"That." I crossed my arms. "I can watch him if he's what you need a break from." She froze in her seat and then her bottom lip started to wobble. I swore under my breath. "Look, I really don't mind helping if you don't want - "

"I do want him around!" She sat up in her pool chair, aghast. "He's my little brother."

"But?" I prompted.

She didn't answer. We both watched Nico reach the front of the line by the water slide ladder and start climbing. I saw him glance over his shoulder. When he saw we were both watching, a megawatt grin lit his face and he climbed faster.

"Where's your parents?"

She shot me a look. "Where's yours?"

"Upper West Side Manhattan," I said easily. "Though I just came from visiting a cousin in - " My brain hiccuped. "Los Angeles," I finished slowly.

Bianca blinked. "Oh. We're…moving from Washington D.C to L.A too. House isn't ready yet, but." Her face darkened. "Soon."

I opened my mouth, then I closed it. I wasn't sure what to say.

She sighed. "I'm not perfect, but I'm keeping it where he won't notice."

"Uh huh."

She slumped in her chair. "Alright, so obviously I'm not doing as great as I thought I was."

"You're, what? Thirteen?"

"Twelve," she said.

"Same." I shrugged. "You're a kid. Even parents need a minute to themselves someti - "

"That's not it," she said quietly. "She said I have to look after him." She? "I'm his older sister and father is busy and that's fine." It didn't sound fine. "Half the time I just want to wrap him up in a blanket and never let him go, but then the other half I just can't help wishing…"

"Take ten," I said gently. "We'll be here for a while."

"His shadow saved us," she said instead. 'And only us,' I remembered her saying earlier and suddenly, I had a really bad feeling about how their dad was the one that was busy. "We were in a hotel and there was an explosion." Her eyes were glued to her brother on the ladder. "It saved us, but only because I was close to him. Me living? That was an accident."

"You can't know - "

"I know that, because he - his shadow didn't save my mother," Bianca cut me off. "She was in the next room. I saw her through the door."

Yikes.

"Then the building collapsed." She dragged her eyes away from Nico and back to me. "I don't know how long we were trapped there in the dark, maybe a minute?" She pursed her lips, like not knowing how long she was under the rubble was her fault.

My stomach sank as I thought of a possible reason why. Her mother had been close enough to see.

Maybe she didn't die right away.

"The whole thing was unstable," Bianca said dully, almost clinically. "Whatever blew up was on our floor, so the top was coming down. If our father hadn't gotten us - me out, if he hadn't come as fast as he did…"

"He can't control it," I pointed out as gently as I could.

"I know." She looked down at her hands where she had them clenched in her lap. "I know," she repeated. "And if he's really like you? I don't want him to be able to control it," Bianca confessed. I could almost see the infection drain from the abscess as her shoulders slumped and she laid back on the chair. "I owe him my life and I don't want him to be able to control what let him save me."

She didn't have to say it, but I knew why she didn't want Nico to learn about his powers. Because if he could control it, then instead of her life being an accident, she'd be wondering about the what ifs. If someone had been around to teach him earlier, like whoever he inherited the ability from. If she had known he could do that from the beginning. If he had just figured it out sooner.

What if her mom didn't have to die?

"I'll get over it," she insisted. "It was…a long time ago, I think. A few years. I'm getting over it, I'm just a little stressed, moving across the country and all."

"I get that," I said. "Still, offer stands. I can watch a two year old, no problem."

"Thanks," she said with a weak smile. "I needed - I needed to get that off my chest."

Nico shrieked happily as he came down the twisting slide.

"I love him. He's my little brother," Bianca said. "But he has a mother."

Basically, emotions suck is what I was getting out of this.

I plastered a big smile on my face as Nico splashed out of the pool. "My turn," I said. "Coming with?"

"Yeah!" Nico beamed.

"So, do you remember anything about your mom?" I tried to ask as casually as I could while we waited in line.

Nico blinked up at me. "No?"

"Nothing?" I felt stupid as soon as I asked. If he did, he wouldn't have been confused on which parent he shared with his sister earlier.

Nico shrugged.

I bit my lip as the line moved forwards. I started to have some loud second guesses when I realized the ladder to the top of the water slide was even taller than the bungee-jumping bridge. Wasn't there safety concerns about slides literally a hundred feet long? "I'm in room 4001," I said. "If I die, you can have my stuff."

"No one's gonna die." I could tell from the tone of his voice that Nico was rolling his eyes at me.

"You can't know that."

"Yes, I can."

"Can not."

"Can too!"

He was giggling by the time we got up to the top and I felt a bit better. I let him go first and heard him whoop with joy all the way down. A hotel lifeguard with a whistle around her neck and dark hair bound up under her baseball cap flashed me a thumbs up. I got in the tube and pushed off.

I laughed all the way down. Spinning and spinning and spinning around the spiral with the water splashing up around and under me in the dark tunnel where every sound echoed.

It was the longest water slide I'd ever gone on, but it still ended too soon. The tunnel abruptly ended in favor of an open slide the last twenty feet and then I was catapulted into the pool.

…!

I launched myself out of the water, feeling like I was about to explode. My heart was beating in my ears and I felt like I was about to throw up all over the pool chairs as my head throbbed. I was vaguely aware that there were people around, but I squeezed my eyes shut. There was a painful lump in my throat as I tried to breathe. I hunched over, clutching at my stomach and it felt like my bellybutton was moving around under my hands. Was I -

I'm having a panic attack, I thought dimly.

"Percy - "

"Don't touch him!"

I didn't look up as someone scrambled away from me and my skin crawled. There was - a monster in the pool? That wasn't right. There had been a monster in the pool. It - I -

'You need only to turn off the spigot,' rang out in the back of my mind.

"What's wrong with him? Is he going to be okay?"

"My prince, you need to calm down. Please breathe."

I was trying.

"What year is it?" I gasped out. I needed to know.

"2005," The voice from earlier said very quietly. "You have not been here long, prince. Please, do not be concerned."

I was supposed to be here, because -

'Go in, get them, get out.' A black haired woman with no eyes said with a quirked smile in my memory. 'Simple.'

I forgot.

Before I could think better of it, I threw myself back into the water and let myself sink even though my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest in fear. I could feel it. I remembered the weight pulling me down. I looked up and I remembered the hundreds of thin tendrils covered in toothy suckers creeping over the edge of the pool towards me.

I looked down and remembered the jaws prying my stomach open -

I climbed out of the pool.

Water clung to me like armor. My wet T-shirt made it obvious that my bellybutton was gaping, a sunken hole the size of a watermelon. There was a small crowd nearby. I could see Bianca and Nico staring with wide eyes. The lifeguard from the top of the slide was there too, a hand on her whistle and tense like she wanted to run.

"Hi," I said. "I need to speak to the manager? I've got an overcharge complaint."

"Overcharge?" She asked faintly.

"Overcharge," I confirmed.

The toll was time.

Not my fucking memories.

She flinched when I walked towards her.

"Don't worry, I don't bite."

I smiled my wide, toothy grin.

"Much."

 

[Mandoanon]

Good thing he decided to eat the leviathan thing in the dream lands. That's where his water powers are coming from right? Plus the divinity boost should be enough to really make this complaint heard.

 

[Dafuro]

Young eldritch godling runs through mind fuck hotel, management have the worst customer service moment of their lives. More news at 11!

 

[ArcanaVitae]

Good thing he decided to eat the leviathan thing in the dream lands. That's where his water powers are coming from right? Plus the divinity boost should be enough to really make this complaint heard.

Click to shrink...

Yeah Percy is in so much denial that it's both sad and a little hilarious.

Young eldritch godling runs through mind fuck hotel, management have the worst customer service moment of their lives. More news at 11!

Click to shrink...

Nico and Percy seem to just get each other which makes sense given that they are both torn between Eldritch nature and human nature. Percy seems to be a bit better at acting human compared to Nico though. It is still pretty obvious they are both pretty much baby Eldritch Abominations though.

 

[Oxymoron]

Ahh good food

 

[Kalstorm22]

Awesome chapter!

 

[Blackgutter]

WTF happened with his belly button? Some sort of vore thing?

 

[ArcanaVitae]

WTF happened with his belly button? Some sort of vore thing?

Click to shrink...

It's his Hunger thing that he got from his grandpa.

 

[Newborn_Cretin]

Shujin wow, woooow.

Okay so this is probably the best and most elegantly melded crossover I have seen in a very very long time. You've obviously taken great care in writing this up picking the best fits for how the universes should fit together and overlap.

I will be honest I am a humanity fuck yeah dude cause I believe in my bones that we as a species are going to make it. So I will openly admit to being biased against Gods in any setting were they don't get their shit kicked in by humanity eventually. I am biased enough that Active gods in settings usually make me roll my eyes and skip through a story to see if it deals with them in a manner I prefer and drop it if it does not. I am basically racist against Gods.

But this story you've crafted and I've had the absolute pleasure to binge for the past 2 days completely made me ignore my great distaste for the PJ setting.

I love the growth you've had the 3 questors obtain through the journey. Percy learning his mother is fallible and experience the whole my parents are not what I think they are, Luke learning not everything is at seems with his whole situation and Artemis learning humility and self reflection through Greek irony.

My only complaint that's got better as the story progressed was how heavy exposition is at times but it's a consequence of having to explain things why the way they are but you inject it masterfully by having Percy teach us the things his mother taught him and having it run as his thoughts or him teaching others. It makes perfect sense with the Storys internal logic.

I will be saving this to my favorites list.
Again this is such an amazingly well written story. Keep up the fantastic work.

 

[Shujin]

Shujin wow, woooow.

Okay so this is probably the best and most elegantly melded crossover I have seen in a very very long time. You've obviously taken great care in writing this up picking the best fits for how the universes should fit together and overlap.

I will be honest I am a humanity fuck yeah dude cause I believe in my bones that we as a species are going to make it. So I will openly admit to being biased against Gods in any setting were they don't get their shit kicked in by humanity eventually. I am biased enough that Active gods in settings usually make me roll my eyes and skip through a story to see if it deals with them in a manner I prefer and drop it if it does not. I am basically racist against Gods.

But this story you've crafted and I've had the absolute pleasure to binge for the past 2 days completely made me ignore my great distaste for the PJ setting.

I love the growth you've had the 3 questors obtain through the journey. Percy learning his mother is fallible and experience the whole my parents are not what I think they are, Luke learning not everything is at seems with his whole situation and Artemis learning humility and self reflection through Greek irony.

My only complaint that's got better as the story progressed was how heavy exposition is at times but it's a consequence of having to explain things why the way they are but you inject it masterfully by having Percy teach us the things his mother taught him and having it run as his thoughts or him teaching others. It makes perfect sense with the Storys internal logic.

I will be saving this to my favorites list.
Again this is such an amazingly well written story. Keep up the fantastic work.

Click to shrink...

Wow thank you for the kind words! A lot of research went into and is still going into this work. I'm glad it paid off! And yeah, I really couldn't see a good way to avoid the starting info dumps and did the best I could with that :/ Percy's ADHD has really been coming in clutch in handing out information lol. Thank you so much for giving my story a try even though it's not what you usually enjoy

 

[ArcanaVitae]

Once again I love the character development and growth Percy's gone through.

He's more comfortable with himself and both of his eldritch and human morals and thought processes. He's also starting to acknowledge that his childhood was kind of a mess. His mom has been hiding a lot from him and as designs for him. Then him thinking about the whole Hot-Cold dynamics he and his father had.


"Maybe at knife point is when I finally started taking him seriously as my father. As someone Mom chose for a reason. Because he was capable of scaring me that badly."

This is the line I think describes his childhood problems the best, messed up as it is. Percy has come a long way from the Son of Fate who tired to be just like his mother and over the course of the quest has grown a lot.

 

[Cosmic Dream]

Oh yeah, time to bring down the house.

 

[NounNoun]

Oh yeah, time to bring down the house.

Click to shrink...

and kill everyone inside. except for your buddies. maybe

 

[Speedshot]

This really deserves more praise than it's getting

 

[ArcanaVitae]

This really deserves more praise than it's getting

Click to shrink...

It's really popular on Spacebattles, it's available on multiple platforms this is just the one that gets the least attention.

 

[NounNoun]

It's really popular on Spacebattles, it's available on multiple platforms this is just the one that gets the least attention.

Click to shrink...

when shujin makes a book that goes in the nsfw section theres almost certainly gonna be a rush of back-readers who come over to see book 1.

 

[Shujin]

This really deserves more praise than it's getting

Click to shrink...

Thank you!

I think it's just a matter of people not wanting to click on a Cthulhu Mythos cross and then braving the first few chapters of 'what' to find out what's going on and where the story is going...

It's really popular on Spacebattles, it's available on multiple platforms this is just the one that gets the least attention.

Click to shrink...

I have no illusions that another chapter of E.L.F the Worm/WH40k cross wouldn't get a lot more attention than UoS, but I don't mind. I chat a lot and like writing this and it is doin' alright on SB, so that's all I need to be happy with it

 

[Shujin]

An Undertow of Sand
A PJO Fanfiction​

I don't think I've ever been this angry before.

I have a temper and a lot of things to get mad about, especially this past week, but this? I felt violated, like I could still feel the slimy lingering stench of tendrils rifling through my memories. Suppressing some, pruning others, all to make sure I wouldn't want to leave.

I accepted that I would have to pay the toll. I knew what the Price was and I accepted it.

I felt betrayed. I felt like I had just seen Dylan again.

Right where Mom said he would be.

It wasn't quite the same, because my anger then had been made up of a lot of different pieces. Shame and guilt and a desperate need to do something to make Eva's missing arm right and knowing there was nothing I could do. It had been a done deal. Everyone in the Celtic pantheon of the Tuatha de respected Eva's Price.

Even Mom.

I had been a bit scared too, because Dylan was so much older and better than me with the spear. I had been worried that his dad, Donn of the Dead would intervene even with what his son did to the daughter of his King.I had still been lost, drowning because Mom had just come back after a year of being gone and I didn't know how to feel or what to do about it. All of those feelings mixed into a toxic cocktail of rage so black, I almost couldn't even see. I moved to attack him with my new unnamed sword immediately. He deflected it with the pitch black and silver javelin and maybe he looked sorry.

Maybe he even said he was sorry.

I can't remember. It had been really hard for me to think.

My next attack he had parried, reached for the sword he dual wielded and it was the exact same movement he had made when he parried Evangeline's long dagger when she realized he had given us up -

And I had stopped thinking at all.

I was on the edge of that. I could feel it. I could imagine the fluttering of the blinds in my apartment in the Dreamlands, glimpses of the black beach of razor fossils and the dark tower on the horizon behind the drapes. On the part of me that I locked away.

As I leisurely walked behind the lifeguard (heh, lifeguard, get it?) my back rippled under the coating of pool water on my skin as everyone stared. No one got in my way. I didn't know what I would have done if anyone did. I was still smiling when we came to the front desk and the receptionist was back between one blink and the next.

She looked worried. "So, you wanted to see the manager again, right?"

"Yup."

She fidgeted and shared an unseeing closed eye look with the lifeguard. "...do you mind waiting? He's in a meeting right now."

"I think," I said very slowly as I leaned in. "That he has taken enough of my Time. Don't you agree?"

She obligingly bobbed her head as the lifeguard grimaced and backed away from the desk. "Wholeheartedly," the receptionist said. "Unfortunately, I just don't have the clearance to interrupt him like this."

"Just bring up the elevator," I said. "I can take it from there."

"...is there anything you would take in recompense instead?" She frowned. "I can't call the elevator right now."

"You can't," I repeated blandly.

She shook her head and bit her lip.

I considered this blankly, like I was thinking without really thinking. It felt familiar. A vague sense of

'Going, going, going….'

I looked around the lobby and felt the world tilt.

That kid again. Black hair and sea green eyes dragged what looked a lot like Annabeth and Grover past me towards the hotel exit, sparing me a confused, alarmed glance. He opened his mouth, thought better of it and kept moving. One of the bellhops broke off from the crowd and I couldn't tell if he was here with me or there with him.

Well now, are you ready for your platinum cards? He asked the kid.

We're leaving, was the reply as the Annabeth look-a-like snatched the Grover-look-a-like's hand back from the card. I watched as he vanished out the door, a heavy backpack warping its way onto his back as they spilled out into the Las Vegas street.

He cast one last look back through the Lotus Hotel and Casino doors at me and the vision broke.

I could do that. All of the servants were scared of me. They would let me leave. They probably wanted me too and this wasn't an offense that caught Mom's attention. We would all know if it did.

Luke and Artemis were here too, I remembered distractedly. I should go find them before too much time has passed. Then I should grab Nico and his sister, Bianca and leave.

I should leave.

Run away, like the little mortal I am. My stomach twisted. I was going to have to face my cousin, Persephone again after this. I didn't want to do that, still afraid. Part of me acknowledged that being afraid of the Priestess of the Endless Abyss was the sane response, but most of me didn't care right now. Aren't you supposed to face your fears?

'Fear' didn't feel like it meant the same thing I thought it meant just minutes ago. Like the definition had changed to something just two dimensions to the left. I felt like my thoughts were floating on the surface of a reflective pool, but I didn't know what it would take to drown them.

No time like the present.

I made myself approach the wall behind the front desk. The elevator had been right here. I thought about the doorman when he pointed me towards the front desk.

There's no one there?

There will be.

It was just a wall now. I stared at the smiling poster of the beach goer with a pina colada in their hand taped to the blank white plaster. I couldn't help thinking, I choose my own destiny. To this day, I still don't know why I thought that. It had nothing to do with this. The Lotus Hotel and Casino were just beside reality and I already knew the elevator was there. I paused for a second, thinking again that I should just leave, but it was like my brain was running on a parallel track to my actions. I raised my right hand.

There was nothing there.

There will be.

I reached out and pushed the button.

The elevator made a dinging noise as it opened.

"It's fine," I said as the receptionist choked. I looked back and her eyebrows were so high up her forehead, her eyes were even open a little. Just enough for gossamer thin white legs to fold out and curl up to the top and bottom like eyelashes. "I got it. By the way." I got in the elevator. "Do you want his job?"

"What?" She said faintly.

"His job. Want it?" I waved a hand as the doors started to close. "You have a better business sense."

That freebie would have saved us all so much trouble.

I hummed along with the elevator music as it screeched like cold metal shearing under the twist of the vice. Down and down and down I went. When the doors finally opened again, I felt my smile wilt a little.

Lining the hallway in front of me were faceless men in suits wielding batons, walkie talkies and sunglasses all with identical haircuts. By faceless I meant faceless, like moving mannequins directed to block the corridor.

Hotel security.

"You really don't want to do this," I said slowly. They advanced, all taking the same exact step forward.

Guess we're doing this.

I leapt right into them, pulling Damocles from its necklace while in the air and the first guy went down with the bone blade through his forehead. I was immediately smashed over the head with a baton as all their radios screeched with static. I fell with the blow, letting my weight help me free my sword as I fell right into the middle of them.

"Hi," I said, head pounding, then I lashed out with Damocles aiming for their ankles.

I wasn't interested in killing them. I just had to get through.

The entire slog through the corridor was like that, exchanging blunt hits with more permanent bladed solutions. They were built to deal with the average hotel enjoyer. They were trying to restrain me. My water reflexively surged up when I was caught around the neck and lifted off the ground, churning until it was a pressure hose and then lashing back.

More blood mixed in with the water I was wearing as armor, turning it pink. I was under no obligation to hold back. My Spidey Sense was silent, so I knew I was perfectly safe.

'No one can die in the Lotus Casino.'

I swung my hand and my water extended my reach, crushing a few guys against the walls. I was knocked into the wall myself from a vicious kick to my side from my blind spot and I swung Damocles blindly in the direction it pulled in, water coming off the edge just as sharp, cutting through limbs.

My sword sang.

I pushed off the wall, blinking the eyes that had opened in my shadow. No more blind spots. I launched myself back at them like a human blender. I just swung and swung with absolutely no skill, because everything I touched came apart. My water started gaining shape, lifting off my body as crude battering rams, to sharp tendrils moving like I had a second mind I wasn't consciously aware of.

I took a sharp punch to the face, flooding my mouth with an iron taste that turned to saltwater, washing the pain away as my water took the offending arm off. I turned, seeing another approaching behind me and Damocles hit air as he suddenly backed off when his radio crackled.

They all did, standing still like statues in an art museum.

I blinked and realized I had made it to the other side of them, my back to the rest of the hallway and it was empty.

I let out a long breath. "Are we good?"

They didn't respond.

"O…kay then." I felt like nothing had happened at all. I knew I'd been hit. A lot. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or maybe I just healed a bit faster than I thought I did.

I spared them one last wary look and then turned away to get out of the foyer. Right on the other side of the narrow opening into the mural filled hallway was a familiar face.

Kind of.

"Oof, that's rough, buddy." I had kind of been wondering where he went.

The doorman wheezed through his open chest cavity from where he had been impaled to the wall. His face was shredded to the bone and so was most of his torso. One of his arms was straight up gone, sluggishly bleeding from where it had been bit off above the elbow and the other had a flayed forearm. His uniform was just barely holding together. He looked like he had tried to hug a wood chipper and it hadn't appreciated the violation of personal space.

No wonder the servants all seemed wary of touching me.

I gave awful haircuts.

…the manager… The quivering black barb through his guts was one that I recognized because it was mine. …will see you now.

"I bet," I snorted as I called more of the water to me and it rose from the ground. "I gave you a hard time, huh?"

The man nodded weakly.

"I'd apologize, but you know how it is."

The hallway I was standing in was really different from the room right outside the elevator. They were scoured like a sandstorm had blown through for hours. It had completely wiped the murals clean until all that was left was pitted sandblasted stone and seeping pockets of brackish water. I pulled on the barb. The doorman fell to the floor with a silent groan as the inky viscous material of the spine sunk back under my skin.

An echoing whale song roared up the hallway as I started walking.

It took no effort at all to dig into the well of nothingness in my stomach. "You speak to Perseus of the B̸l̴o̸o̶d̶y̵ ̴T̷o̵n̷g̴u̶e̷."

The walls vibrated loud enough to hum with the second call.

What was up with the misgendering? I did not have the time nor the inclination for a Tolerance and Diversity session.

"You did not cross my parent," I admitted as my voice resonated with a dark whooshing howling. "You should have been more concerned with crossing M̵̨͒E̷̙͑."

The next call was louder. The floor shook.

"Your Price was Time, amadán," I refuted, the Irish just slipping out. "I do not care that you 'only' nibbled on my memories. I did not agree to that."

The manager wailed.

I trailed a hand along the wall and the rock crumbled before the churning water on my fingers. "But do you have the receipt?"

The walls shook and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I came to the glass corridor at the bottom of an alien ocean.

'No one can die at the Lotus Casino.'

My Spidey Sense was for what would kill me.

I stopped politely at the opening and slowly, a giant sickly pale finger emerged from the dark water to gently rest on the glass. It reminded me of the finger of a frog, or maybe a Roswell Gray with an enlarged pad and a bony triple joint before the rest of the finger extended out of sight. Just that single joint dwarfed me by at least fifteen feet. I could feel the water beyond the glass somehow. The impression of vague movement, of hundreds of tentacles waving through the water and a greedy, grinning snout filled with shark teeth.

Then came the silent touch to my mind.

Oh.

The manager, duh.

Middle management was always incompetent. As Mom always said, if you want something done right, sometimes you just gotta do it yourself.

If you really wanted to make yourself heard, take it to the owner.

"Sorry for interrupting your meeting with your employee." I told the Lotus Eater as I opened my mind further and felt the sickly sweet smell of lotus flowers worming their way through my perspective of what happened. "But this really couldn't wait? I am o̶w̷e̷d̵."

The finger dragged on the glass. The impression of the grinning shark-like snout flickered again in the dark water as a far, far off ghostly light drifted into view.

I crossed the corridor of glass, aware of death screaming at the back of my neck. I opened the door on the other side and saw that it looked like the aftermath of Woodstock. Everything was smashed and broken and sandblasted clean. The basin that had been in the center looked like a bomb had gone off in it, scattering pebbles all around the room still etched with the geometric designs.

The statue holding the gem was untouched, but it wasn't smiling anymore.

There was a squeal of fear.

An astonishingly small ugly grub-like creature in fluorescent yellow robes and a flowery straw hat made a break for it out from under the statue's shadow, wriggling for the far corner. I don't remember even taking a step before I was suddenly just there behind it. My own hand was too small to fit around its sunken, misshapen skull, but the water surged up from the pool to ensnare it. It looked like it had gone through a meat grinder, with one side of its body bandaged up in seaweed under the robes.

"I'd ask for a refund, but your boss is actually a pretty cool dude, from one big eater to another," I said. "And really, Time was the actual payment. It's what you skimmed off the top that I have a problem with. You had all the Time in the world to tell me you wanted a tip."

The water dragged the manager backwards as it futilely struggled, scrabbling at the floor with all six of its backwards limbs.

My stomach opened wide.

"So I'll just have to settle for a little charge back."

I left the room, burping.

Why did everything always taste like pork or calamari?

Or both.

"No hard feelings?" I asked the Lotus Eater, just to make sure. I smelled lotus blossoms. "Sweet. If it helps, your receptionist is A tier, just a bit unpolished."

The acknowledgment brushed the inside of my skull and then the pale finger slowly fell out of view.

I backtracked through the halls and to the elevator. I felt a little bad for having ruined most of the murals on the walls. It wasn't really my fault and I didn't have the memories anymore, but it was the principle of the thing. Tens of thousands of years of history, gone just like that.

Everything ends eventually, I thought. A stray half-thought/feeling/impression made me pause before entering the now empty and clean foyer. "Hey, has there ever been another boy that looked like me, staying here?"

The doorman wheezed a dubious negative.

"There could have been?" I clarified and he nodded weakly from the floor.

"Huh," I said. "Thanks."

I got into the elevator. I wondered for a moment at the two buttons, because I clearly remembered there only being one when I first came to the Hotel. I shrugged it off and pressed to go back up. At least this time, there was better music playing.

When the elevator opened again, Luke was there, holding my backpack in one hand and my jacket in the other with Artemis still out of it in his vest.

"I hate…" he began slowly. "...everything about this Quest."

"We didn't know you were a prince," the receptionist insisted with the air of having already said it multiple times and was now wondering if his IQ surpassed the room temperature. Her closed eyelids scrunched further like she was squinting. "Or half of one…? Semi - demi…?"

There was blood leaking down his face from his shattered eye.

The left looked the normal cloudy blue. The right looked broken. It resembled one of those perspective puzzles. Looking at it head on made it similar to the left, but as soon as you paid any actual attention, you could see the half-dozen blearily staring blue irises reflecting off each other making the eye gleam in the bright Hotel lighting.

"Huh," I said again. I turned to the staring Nico and his looking-like-she-was-going-to-pass-out sister. "Hi, I'm Percy and was actually here to rescue you."

Bianca flinched, clinging to her brother tighter like she was seconds from snatching him away and forgetting I ever existed. "Rescue…?"

"Something came up," I said. "Your stepmother sent me on your dad's behalf." Her mouth fell open into a little 'o.' "Yeah, I got turned around."

"Stepmother?" Nico said quietly, eyes black as he mournfully gazed between his sister and me.

"Not yours," I said gently. "Because we're going to see your mom too."

His eyes lit up. Literally.

"Please?" He turned to his sister. "We can always come back."

"We're not supposed to - " Bianca was hyperventilating. "We can't just walk off with anyone that says they know our parents - !"

"He's not a stranger!" Nico protested. "He's nice - '' He winced when Bianca swayed on her feet. I then realized that maybe the dark spines poking out from my shoulder blades, the blood on my T-shirt, my shadow full of burning green eyes and all the tentacles made of water waving around me was not the greatest impression I could have made if I wanted the 'Come with me if you want to live' thing to work.

My bad.

"Change of plans," I said. "Luke - "

He was already gone, appearing behind Bianca in a blur of motion, picking her up and cutting off her scream by turning on his heel and fading away. Nico gaped.

"Trust me?"

He nodded slowly.

"Then let's go." I retraced the steps of the other boy through the Lotus Hotel and Casino lobby, holding Nico's hand. I felt the weirdest sense of deja vu when one of the bellhops plucked up the courage to call out before we hit the door.

"You sure you don't want to say a little longer?" He said plaintively. "We just added a new floor of games for platinum card members and VIPs."

"We're leaving," I echoed. "But I'll probably come back, it was fun without the whole…" I circled my head with my free hand vaguely.

He nodded sadly and then we were out.

I had barely taken two steps into the humid Nevada air when a newspaper was shoved into my face. When I finally managed to pin the floating numbers down, my heart sank.

June 19th.

Forget only being in there for twelve hours or my limit of two days. I was there for four.

"Two days left," Luke snarled.

"So that's bad," I agreed. The water I was holding splashed onto the ground. "But, look, I am about to fucking pass out - "

I woke up mid sentence.

" - so I would appreciate it if you could get us someplace…" I peered around dizzily at the blobs of color, finally recognizing that I was in a completely different location. And laying down on something soft. "Oh, come on!"

I was annoyed at myself for interrupting myself by fainting. I had been in the middle of a fucking conversation -

I blinked as my vision cleared up and I realized the monochrome blob I was staring at was actually a very annoyed looking Bianca di Angelo. I wasn't sure if her irritation was because she had just been kidnapped, because I had keeled over or because she had duct tape over her mouth.

It was probably the kidnapping. What kid would want to be pulled away from all those awesome games and food?

"Luke," I sighed. "You could have just stolen her voice?"

"Did that." Luke came into view then too. I was lying down on…a restaurant booth? There was a table low enough to nearly brush my nose when I turned my head. "Turns out, it makes me sound like a little girl so I gave it back." Bianca's left eyebrow twitched as her dark eyes pinned a glare on him. He ignored her. "How are you feeling?"

I rolled over onto my side and threw up all over his sneakers.

"Oh," Luke said.

I passed out again.

I woke up into the middle of a conversation over my head.

" - can't be, gods aren't real!" That was Bianca.

"You know what, I think I agree with you," my mouth said and she blinked down at me. "What?"

"What?" Artemis said, a fuzzy face peering over the table at me too.

"What?" I said. "Where are we?"

"Still in Las Vegas," Luke's voice said slowly. "Las Vegas is Spanish for 'The Meadows' in case you were curious."

"That's cool," I said, vaguely remembering what he was even talking about. Hecate's riddle. "So we just need to find the sunlight and new construction and shit?"

"...you gonna explain that god thing?" Luke asked as Nico loudly slurped up his soda from a can. "And yes."

"Sure," I said. "So the thing is, gods are like, a political term - "

And I was out like a light.

" - almost eight thousand years ago so Mom doesn't really pay attention to things like that anymore." I woke up to finish my thesis and then noticed that everyone but Nico had left.

Jerks.

"I am sure that was very interesting," the little shit said as he munched on a twinkie in the restaurant booth across the aisle from me. "In your head."

"Shut up," I rasped. I had a fever blazing out of control again making my head feel like it was a radiator on max settings and a bone deep cold pain in my shins. "Gimme a twinkie."

Nico hesitated as he pulled Luke's backpack closer to himself. "Are you going to sick up again?"

"Probably," I admitted, feeling my stomach gurgle unhappily. I waved a hand. "Help me up."

My head swam a little, but all in all, I could tell that I was doing much better than I had been at Rhea's. Like instead of being knocked out with pneumonia, I was getting over a cold or the annual flu and was just tired, achy and a little nauseous.

Progress!

"Where is everybody?"

"Bianca is talking with the…rabbit," Nico said with his face scrunched up. "You didn't tell me there were rabbits on the moon," he accused.

"The hotel manager took my memories." I gave up before I even started. "Couldn't exactly tell you what I couldn't remember."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I…wasn't really paying attention earlier, but…" He looked at me with sad black eyes. "We were in that hotel for a very long time, weren't we?"

"I - yeah." There was a lump in my throat as I considered what it would be like going to sleep for a bit and waking up to find out that everyone I knew and loved had died ages ago. Mom solved that problem by rarely loving anyone that wouldn't last.

"World War 2 against Hitler ended about sixty years ago."

He blinked rapidly and then looked away, sniffling. "I'm an old man now," he tried to joke. His eyes shined wetly. "Nonno always used to say I'd know everything about everything when I got to his…age…" He sniffled again and rubbed his nose on the sleeve of his bright yellow shirt. "...we missed Mama's funeral. It was only supposed to be for three weeks…"

"Sorry," I said helplessly.

"...not your fault," Nico said almost thoughtfully with a dark whisper and tears in his voice. "Not your fault." He buried his head in his hands as it had finally all sunk in. His shadow spoke up for him instead.

it is Zeus' fault

---

"Is he lucid?" Was the first thing out of Luke's mouth when he came back inside the restaurant.

"Uh, excuse me?" I'd been lucid this entire time!

"English!" He exclaimed as he shuffled over to my table. The place we were stashed in was a brand new building, so new it wasn't even open yet with appliances in the kitchen still missing and everything but the plumbing turned off. Rhea's torch was providing the light, wedged in the design of the chandelier above us by someone who was too tall for his own good.

"You were talking in your sleep."

I shrugged. Honestly, not the first time someone told me that and it probably wasn't going to be the last. "What'd I say?"

"No idea!" Luke said with mock cheer. His right eye was still shattered and looked almost bloodshot. I opened my mouth to ask about that, because what the fuck but Luke kept going. "I heard Egyptian, some kind of Gaelic, Persian, something my brain only registered as Aboriginal Australian, Sumerian - "

"I understood that one," Nico spoke up from where he fiddled with my Gameboy. Don't judge me. Nico was practically a baby. That was the only thing I knew what to do with miserable little kids: throw some video games at them. His cheeks were still puffy and red from crying. "You still didn't make any sense."

"Greek - "

"And I understood that," Bianca admitted miserably, clutching Artemis to her chest from where she stood behind Luke.

"And fffff - " Luke cast a glance at Nico. "Freaking Chinese."

I really didn't know what to say to that other than, "So… what Name gives Hermes god of Diplomacy again?"

He flicked my forehead. I nearly threw up again. He looked a bit ashamed. "You've been out for about three hours, I just had to kill this…thing sniffing around four demigods and a rabbit in a bar so I am a little on edge," he explained in a Not Apology.

"I get that," I gasped as I tried to make sure whatever was trying to crawl up from my stomach didn't make its way out. Demigod scent. Hera's Curse was stil a thing. "Let me just - " I closed my eyes as I tried to beat the nausea back down. I Called out in Ancient Greek, "Persephoneia?"

I was a bit disappointed that nothing seemed to happen. When I was sure I wasn't going to spew, I opened my eyes to see Luke eyeing me in concern. "Is that…all it takes?"

"Yeah," I said. "But they've got to be - "

"Listening," Persephone finished from beside me and I nearly jumped an entire foot out of my skin when her cold hand rubbed my back. My Spidey Sense screamed. "Oh, you are adorable."

"You couldn't have…given a warning, cuz?" She let out a small, musical laugh as my heart tried to beat out of my chest and Luke did jump nearly a foot in the air with a yell when he registered the goddess sitting next to me.

"You Called me. Why weren't you prepared?" She looked the same as before, with long dark hair strung with rolling eyeballs in glass cages, but with a black and white dress and her pomegranate flower broach on her collar already withered and dry. She turned her face to 'look' across the table when Bianca gasped, taking a short step forward before she faltered and her face fell.

"Let me guess," Persephone said. "I look like your mother?" Bianca nodded hesitantly, like she wasn't sure if the woman would take offense to that. "Honestly, that man," the dark goddess sighed fondly. "And you," she said a lot less fondly as her face turned to Nico. He stiffened in his seat as all of the eyes in her hair focused on him. "You look like your mother," Persephone offered gently, but the skin where her eyes should have been was tight. "Hello, nephew."

Nico slowly relaxed. "Hello," he said shyly. "Aunt Persephone?"

The woman inclined her head.

Luke opened his mouth, blanched and closed it again, backing up a few panicked steps when Persephone stood up, ghosting right through the table like she was just an illusion. I pressed back into my seat.

My stomach hurt.

"Bianca," she said and the girl jumped. "I already prepared your rooms. Don't worry about missing anything, trust me. I missed nothing." She raised her hand, fingers pressed together like she was about to snap them. "Ah, please put down the rabbit," she said dryly.

"Oh!" Bianca rushed to put the shivering Artemis down on the nearest table and then paused. "What about - "

"Your half-brother?" Persephone flashed a charming smile as the siblings stared at each other. "He is no longer your concern."

Bianca bit her lip. "I…I don't understand any of this - "

"Can you not feel it?" The goddess interrupted her. "The comfort in stillness, the ease with the cold, how I feel safe to you?"

Hades' demigod daughter stared with wide eyes. I didn't blame her. My demigod sense was constantly shrieking that I was looking at Death.

Then again, Hades was the God of the Dead.

"It means 'welcome home,' girl. Your father and I will teach you what you need to know, I promise." Everyone ignored Artemis' small gasp of surprise. "Now, are you ready to go?"

Bianca nervously brushed some of her long hair back behind her ear. Nico hugged himself when she nodded, not sparing him a glance. "I am."

She was gone in a snap of the goddess' fingers.

"Well done, Perseus," Persephone mused and a shiver went down my spine hearing my name when she turned back to me. "It will take her, hmm, perhaps a few months to reconstitute from perishing so suddenly - "

What!

"You killed her!?" Nico burst out.

"Technically," the goddess said. Nico jumped to his feet, but he only made it two steps before suddenly falling into a dead faint right into her arms. "You are definitely your mother's child."

I found my voice. "You killed her? You said - "

"Exactly what I meant," Persephone said coolly. "Oh, don't give me that, I adopted her, silly boy."

"You - " My mind went blank. "You adopted her," I said slowly. Persephone's dad was Tartarus, an Elder God. I would bet money that she was like Hypnos, an Elder God as well. They adopt? That happens? "And for that she had to - "

"There is only so much her gifts from my husband will do for her in the Underworld," the Priestess of the Endless Abyss said easily as she cradled Nico on her hip with his head against her shoulder like she was just taking him to bed. "The human condition is a hindrance."

Artemis scoffed tightly. "You would say that."

"Because it is true," Persephone said just as tightly. "The same way Nyx will have to put in a bit more work into this one to make sure he doesn't drive himself mad - well," she corrected herself, looking down at Nico's sleeping face dubiously. "She might not have to, but to be on the safe side - the safe…"

She trailed off with dawning horror on her face.

"The safe - I'm turning into my mother!"

Persephone quickly turned around and headed straight for the back door of the restaurant without another word.

I looked at Artemis. Artemis looked at Luke. Luke looked at me.

We all bolted for the door after her.

Outside in the empty parking lot, the Night sky overhead felt low and oppressive. Like the darkness was just a few feet over our head instead of hundreds of miles away. Even the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip in the distance seemed muted and hollow. Persephone stood against the darkness with her head tilted up, the white diamond patterns on her long dress glowing like the sun.

"She suspects," Persephone said as we approached, turning her head just enough to show the curve of her cheek. "She will recognize him, but does not truly know who the boy is, so you will let me do the talking, understand?"

"Yeah," I croaked as pitch black shadows started to gather in the center of the lot.

I heard Luke whimper as a figure rose from the black as the void closed in until we were standing in a small patch of tar and pavement, just like when I had Called Apate. At first glance, the feminine figure looked like Deception too with stars in her eyes and a dress splattered with the colors of a cold nebula and developing stars. A pressure was building behind my eyes and pounding in my head as the shadow at her feet got bigger and bigger, at twenty feet tall and then fifty and then a hundred before the mouths sprouted.

Too close, my brain gibbered. Too close.

"Sister," Persephone said. Her voice was very, very even in that way people who are spitting mad and determined not to show it sounded. She stepped forward. "This is the boy you forced my husband to sire. Do you recognize him?"

The star eyes blinked slowly.

Mine​

The darkness whispered with all of her thousand mouths, scraping at my ribs.

"It is within my right as my Father's Priestess to Claim him - '' She broke into an eerie multi-toned gurgling rasp of grinding bones and the Night pulled back from where She had moved. "Do not be rude. Our cousin went through the trouble of retrieving him for you. You owe him."

The weight of Night's attention fell on me.

My knees buckled as I choked. It was nothing like and exactly the same as when I was Dreaming. I didn't know how much of it was Hypnos shielding me or if my Sleeping Soul was just more resilient, but I could swear I heard my entire skeleton creak. The unrelenting pressure was like I was falling into the center of a star, endlessly on the verge of swallowing me whole, but satisfying itself with simply tasting my soul.

After a few deep breaths, I was able to stand through it again.

Nyx projected something like affection and something like pride at me before letting Persephone command her attention again.

Favor​

"Remove yourself from this plane of existence for a Gaian cycle," Persephone said sharply before softening. "You have a demigod to take care of, sister. Just like you wanted."

Joy glittered in the shadows as the pale woman with dark hair finished taking shape.

Nico did look like her.

He and Bianca shared a chin and ears, but it was something about how his features were spaced and the shape of his face that really made me think he was Night's son.

Persephone woke Nico up, setting him on the ground. Before he could yell, she knelt in front of him with her hands on his shoulders.

"Your mother is right there," she said and his mouth snapped shut as he whipped his head around, his monochrome eyes white and surprised. "Go to her."

Nico looked at me with wide black eyes.

I tried to smile confidently. "Auntie's great."

He stared for an uncomfortably long time. His eyes flashed between white and black before he eventually smiled a trembling smile back. "I'll see you again?"

"Definitely," I said. "We're friends and family." Some fucking how? "Count on it."

The other child of Prophecy took in a deep breath, then before his courage broke he ran to his Mom who gathered him up in her arms. The void retreated from around us, sinking back into the sky and the ground and the spaces in between as he babbled to Her, crying.

My​

The entire Night sky sighed.

Baby​

Nyx's toothy shadow collapsed over top of them and then they too were gone.

In the silence that followed, Artemis' whispered from the ground,

"He is Hades' demigod."

"My husband made a deal," Persephone replied. She folded her hands in front of her and they were trembling. "That boy was his payment for this millennia and he is no more capable of resisting than any random human on this planet." She smiled coldly. "Wonder what it is like to have a child you know is yours and at the same time you know they aren't. You can feel it. You can see it!"

The eyeballs spinning in their glass cages swept over me.

"I would have said nothing. I did say nothing when he chose to pass the boy off as his own. He would have made sure the Night in him was buried, even if it meant dipping the boy in the Lethe."

I felt a chill that had nothing to do with Persephone's presence.

The Lethe.

The Lethe was a river in the Underworld, the one where souls that wanted to be reincarnated took a bath in so that they forgot everything about who they used to be. To do that to someone still alive by force was dangerously close to what 'being unmade' meant. To have everything that made you you stripped away, not just exposed.

Scoured clean.

And you remembered it happening. At least the Lethe would make you forget.

"Anger no longer means the same to me," Persephone said almost airily. "But if there is one thing that still infuriates me is someone - "

Her body split apart like a 3D puzzle and there in the center were her eyes.

"F̷u̸c̸k̴i̸n̷g̷ ̷w̶i̸t̴h̴ ̸m̶y̷ ̷h̷u̶s̴b̵a̵n̸d̵!̵"​

There was blood in my mouth and dark spots in my vision as I reeled back from her, unable to recall what exactly I just saw. My head was pounding. I felt like I had just taken a rusty spoon through my ear to scoop out a few tablespoons of my brain. There was a thud as Luke hit the ground with a groan, a hand over his shattered eye as blood streamed from it. Artemis convulsed on the ground, teeth clattering.

"Competent demigods are so rare these days and all so weak. I will remember this. Your mother must be proud." Persephone clicked back together primly.

"She is," I slurred, dead on my feet. "Really proud."

"The Night is retreating, but it will take some time for the natural order to reassert itself." That old Hollywood movie star smile and chuckle from the daughter of my uncle, the Priestess of the Endless Abyss and the Goddess of Murder. "Three villages, one plague! A pleasure doing business with you, cousin."

As I wondered what exactly she got from this, grasping bony fingers erupted from the ground and dragged her under.

I wasn't sure when I passed out again, but when I woke up this time it was to a skinny black dog draped over my legs back in the restaurant we broke into. I was leaning against someone that I assumed was Luke and I grunted as my head throbbed like I'd taken a brick to the face.

Maybe I did take a brick to the face.

Or at least a parking lot.

"And so the prodigal son awakes," Hecate murmured.

"Shit," I said.

I had been sleeping on her.

"Wait - "

"I said that you will not be late," the goddess of the Crossroad said softly. "And what is sunlight, but that which banishes the darkness? You are where you should be."

My mouth hung open.

Really?

That was it?

I looked around the new restaurant to see a Luke curled up in that minimized space kind of way in Hecate's white cloak on the floor and her polecat was cuddling an auburn bunny rabbit on the table.

"What do you want?" I asked warily, feeling exhausted.

It's been a long fucking day.

"A key," she replied. "But not right now. Go back to sleep."

I eyed her.

What I could see of the goddess' chin and mouth under her white cowl looked amused as she pulled me back against her. She started humming and against my will, I felt my eyes droop. Has she ever done this for Alabaster or any of her other kids? I was vaguely aware of her handing me a Mythomagic card.

"She knows where it is."

Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon.

"Now, sleep."

I could have cried in relief.

Hypnos was finally there to carry me away.

 

[ArcanaVitae]

Okay so lots of things happened and we learned lot's of stuff.

Percy's hatred of Oathbreaking and Betrayal comes from this Dylan guy who is the Son of Donn, Celtic God of the Dead. We also see Cannon Percy.

Shujin said:
It was just a wall now. I stared at the smiling poster of the beach goer with a pina colada in their hand taped to the blank white plaster. I couldn't help thinking, I choose my own destiny. To this day, I still don't know why I thought that. It had nothing to do with this. The Lotus Hotel and Casino were just beside reality and I already knew the elevator was there. I paused for a second, thinking again that I should just leave, but it was like my brain was running on a parallel track to my actions. I raised my right hand.

There was nothing there.

There will be.​

Percy has his dare to be badass moment, where he embraces who he is and does a bit of reality warping. I'm so proud of him.

Shujin said:
I pushed off the wall, blinking the eyes that had opened in my shadow. No more blind spots. I launched myself back at them like a human blender. I just swung and swung with absolutely no skill, because everything I touched came apart. My water started gaining shape, lifting off my body as crude battering rams, to sharp tendrils moving like I had a second mind I wasn't consciously aware of.​

Looks like Percy is using his inside eyes as well as the eyes in his eldritch shadow. Also damn he's really good with his water given he's only been using it for a bit.

Shujin said:
It took no effort at all to dig into the well of nothingness in my stomach. "You speak to Perseus of the B̸l̴o̸o̶d̶y̵ ̴T̷o̵n̷g̴u̶e̷."​

Look at Percy go, using his eldritch power to announce who he is, he's come so far. Also something tells me he's unlocked the mental block he had on his powers.

Shujin said:
"...not your fault," Nico said almost thoughtfully with a dark whisper and tears in his voice. "Not your fault." He buried his head in his hands as it had finally all sunk in. His shadow spoke up for him instead.

it is Zeus' fault​

Welp looks like Zeus is on Nico's shit list.

Shujin said:
"No idea!" Luke said with mock cheer. His right eye was still shattered and looked almost bloodshot. I opened my mouth to ask about that, because what the fuck but Luke kept going. "I heard Egyptian, some kind of Gaelic, Persian, something my brain only registered as Aboriginal Australian, Sumerian - "
Shujin said:
"And fffff - " Luke cast a glance at Nico. "Freaking Chinese."​

Okay a list of what Percy is guaranteed to have inherited probably in order or prominence.

Shujin said:
"You - " My mind went blank. "You adopted her," I said slowly. Persephone's dad was Tartarus, an Elder God. I would bet money that she was like Hypnos, an Elder God as well. They adopt? That happens? "And for that she had to - "

"There is only so much her gifts from my husband will do for her in the Underworld," the Priestess of the Endless Abyss said easily as she cradled Nico on her hip with his head against her shoulder like she was just taking him to bed. "The human condition is a hindrance."

Artemis scoffed tightly. "You would say that."

"Because it is true," Persephone said just as tightly. "The same way Nyx will have to put in a bit more work into this one to make sure he doesn't drive himself mad - well," she corrected herself, looking down at Nico's sleeping face dubiously. "She might not have to, but to be on the safe side - the safe…"

She trailed off with dawning horror on her face.

"The safe - I'm turning into my mother!"
Click to expand...​

Percy freaking out about Elder God adoption while Persephone is having a crisis about turning into her mom, is a vibe I didn't think I would like but I do.

Shujin said:
I heard Luke whimper as a figure rose from the black as the void closed in until we were standing in a small patch of tar and pavement, just like when I had Called Apate. At first glance, the feminine figure looked like Deception too with stars in her eyes and a dress splattered with the colors of a cold nebula and developing stars. A pressure was building behind my eyes and pounding in my head as the shadow at her feet got bigger and bigger, at twenty feet tall and then fifty and then a hundred before the mouths sprouted.​

Nyx casually roaming the earth and breaking reality with her mere presence as you do.

Shujin said:
Nyx projected something like affection and something like pride at me before letting Persephone command her attention again.​

Nyx seems to like Percy which is good.

Shujin said:
The other child of Prophecy took in a deep breath, then before his courage broke he ran to his Mom who gathered him up in her arms. The void retreated from around us, sinking back into the sky and the ground and the spaces in between as he babbled to Her, crying.

My
The entire Night sky sighed.

Baby​

That is surprisingly heartwarming, I was a little worried about returning Nico to Nyx but now I'm not nearly as concerned. Still really concerned but not as much.

Shujin said:
"My husband made a deal," Persephone replied. She folded her hands in front of her and they were trembling. "That boy was his payment for this millennia and he is no more capable of resisting than any random human on this planet." She smiled coldly. "Wonder what it is like to have a child you know is yours and at the same time you know they aren't. You can feel it. You can see it!"​

So confirmation that Nico was born from Hades but the Night kinda highjacked the birth. Through her deal with Hades. Apparently it's a millennia favor thing, wonder what other millennia payments where.

Shujin said:
I had been sleeping on her.

"Wait - "

"I said that you will not be late," the goddess of the Crossroad said softly. "And what is sunlight, but that which banishes the darkness? You are where you should be."​

Hecate "All According To Keikaku" as she gives Percy a lap pillow.