Hey guys,
Wow. Thank you all for the support so far, it's really amazing to see it!
I'm just going to take a bit of time to go through two critiques about OOC from my last chapter and explain a couple of things. Skip if you want.
To the guest that talked about the gods and Percy and Annabeth being OOC- I have to agree with you on this. I think I took it a bit too OOC, but to be fair, this is an OOC fanfiction. With the Aphrodite seduction towards Percy, If I'm honest, I just wanted a bit of conflict, but don't worry, there will be no more advances towards Percy from Aphrodite unless I deem it absolutely necessary (which I think is highly unlikely). Her children though... there will be a bit of OOC, but that is for the purposes of the storyline. I will also try and fix my portrayal of Percy and Annabeth's relations, as well as the gods and goddesses personalities and have been reading up on them as research for this chapter. I must say however, that Aphrodite as well as the Aphrodite cabinmates (aside from a few) and some other cabins will be OOC for the next couple of chapters, if not the entire story (I haven't decided) as it is necessary for the plot I'm trying to craft. There will be a revert back to canon however. Thanks for leaving that review, its extremely helpful.
I welcome all critiques of my work, so long as its reasonable i.e. not unjust hate or harassment.
Well, now that's over.
Chapter 3.
Previously...
The mist soon surrounded me, enveloping me in endless purple, before disappearing all at once. Hecate opened her eyes. The gods and goddesses around the room leaned in closer, watching in anticipation about who my parent was. Even Artemis couldn't help but peer closer as a symbol started to appear above my head.
It had wings.
And a beak.
And looked sort of like a dove.
And was pink...
Oh no.
It was the symbol of Aphrodite.
Sam PoV:
There was no noise. No movement. Only shock at the newfound discovery of who my godly parent was. Everyone seemed to be frozen; looking at the sign above my head- many doing a double take.
Then the throne-room erupted into chaos.
Percy and Annabeth stood there, motionless as they turned to one another before looking at myself, a hint of concern drawn on their faces as they watched on at the chaos around them.
Ares was torn between laughing or looking concerned for his girlfriend, a mixed reaction catching on his face.
Hermes clearly had no problem in deciding, with him rolling on the floor- having shrunk down to human size first -and laughing so hard his face was turning a plum colour.
Apollo sat there with a glazed expression, a light smile forming on his pursed lips, but otherwise seemingly off in his own little world.
Artemis didn't care. Or if she did, she hid it well as she twiddled with an arrow in her forefingers.
Hestia chuckled to herself while looking on at the booming Hades and Poseidon, their explosive laughs rattling the throne-room.
Athena and Demeter had quickly gotten over their shock, laughter overcoming them as they looked at their sister and niece respectively with mocking expressions.
Zeus was trying to calm the gods down, retake control of the situation and remove the ire of the gods humour from his daughter, not even noticing that Hera was taking part in the mocking of Aphrodite.
Hephaestus tried to remain emotionless, but his eyes were terrible liars as proved that he was taking great pleasure in his Wife's discomfort.
But Aphrodite held the strongest expression of all. Her mouth hung agape. Staring at me with a tone of maliciousness in her eyes.
I tried to avoid eye contact with my mother but found it difficult. Somehow, I could just not resist at looking at the woman who had abandoned me for years, who my fathe- he had constantly gone on and on and on about to no end. I thought that meeting my godly mother would help me; rebuild me. But no. This woman, even when knowing I was her son, bullied and mocked me from the moment I stood in this room. I didn't care before, knowing that I couldn't come from the goddess of love and beauty, and had secretly hoped I'd been either from Athena or Demeter or Hecate or anyone who might've seen something beyond the superficial. I chuckled to myself. 'Just my luck' I thought to myself before turning to Zeus as he rose from his throne.
"Quiet!" he thundered, raising his master bolt as he gave the gods stares so intense that a mortal would have imploded from them, and immediately the Pantheon settled down. He sighed and shook his head before continuing to speak. "Well, this has been a...shocking revelation" He turned to Aphrodite. "Well daughter, it seems that the demigod without a parent is yours, care to explain why you didn't claim him considering Percy's wish? It's not as if the ancient laws that once restricted us are holding you back now."
Aphrodite shifted uncomfortably in her chair, fiddling with the hem of her dress as she tried to avoid eye contact with the other gods. Aphrodite started to stutter out some kind of excuse before she was interrupted.
"It's okay. We know now, that's all that matters." I, a previously godly parent-less demigod, said. I took pity somewhat on my mother. I also hoped that this might act as a way to show an approach to a new relationship between the two of us.
The gods peered at me, before resigning to accepting my answer. Aphrodite still continued to not look at me, a mix of shock, embarrassment and anger flashing across her face as I stood up for her. Zeus looked uncomfortable at being overruled, but decided that he would keep his pride in check today if it meant his daughter would keep what little was left of hers.
"Well then, if that is all I propose we leave the newly united mother and son be and let them catch up on everything. Once you two are done, just flash the young demigod to Camp Aphrodite and Percy and Annabeth here can give him directions to the your cabin.
Percy and Annabeth moved closer to me and gave me sympathetic looks which I could only return with a weak smile.
"Dionysus please flash Percy and Annabeth here back to Camp."
Dionysus did a teenage-like moan before stomping his way over to the two. Percy and Annabeth gave me a thumbs up and looks of encouragement before they flashed away. I tried to look hopeful towards them, but like most things in my short life, I was anticipating the worse.
The remaining gods flashed out with Hephaestus giving me a sad look as he left, and I shuffled over to my mother who was nervously looking around on her throne, as if waiting for an opportunity to escape. She realised she could not get away from this conversation however and so, with a sigh, put on a serious expression as she looked me up and down. I ran my arm anxiously up and down my arm. "Hi mom" I timidly introduced myself, trying to grab her eye contact, but found that her kaleidoscopic eyes were looking far away from mine.
"You will refer to me as Lady Aphrodite" she remarked viciously.
I was slightly taken aback by this cold response from my mother, but sighed and decided to let it go. "Sorry, Lady Aphrodite."
She kept quiet, still not looking at me. I decided that I would have to be the one to break the ice.
"So how are you?" I asked, a sliver of hope evident in my voice as I wished for her to at least acknowledge me.
"I was good." she replied coldly, adding an extra emphasis on the second word of the three word answer.
I furrowed my eyebrows at this. "Oh? What's wrong?" I asked, completely innocent, to which Aphrodite scoffed.
I fiddled nervously with my long sleeved shirt that hid my cuts. "Well, umm-"
"I think we've caught up enough." Aphrodite stated before touching me on the shoulder. A blaring light overcame my eyes, forcing me to shut them. When I opened them, I was back at Camp Half-Blood, a golden colour present in the sky signifying that night was approaching.
A nauseating feeling ran over me. 'Why didn't she talk to me? Does she not love me?' I pessimistically thought before shaking my head. 'No, she was just having a bad day, that's all. I'll talk to her some other time'
I kept running through what happened at Olympus in my head, tossing and turning every possible answer I could think of to try and give some sort of explanation as to why she barely spoke to me.
"Hey Sam. How was it?" I heard a voice say. I turned and saw it was Percy and Annabeth walking over to me, smiles on their faces.
"Yeah, it was... good thanks." I responded, a hint of sadness evident in my voice.
Percy and Annabeth looked at each other, muddled. "So, what was interacting with your mother like for the first time?" Annabeth asked
"Yeah, she was...charismatic" I said sarcastically, although I don't think the two asking me caught onto it.
"Well that's good!" Percy exclaimed. "Now you can go settle into your cabin and meet your half brothers and sisters!"
Panic overcame me as I thought back to the previous three days. Out of all the cabins that called me names, the Aphrodite cabin was the worse. They were so mean with their bullying, obviously finding it easy due to my looks. Although I paled at the thought, I quickly pushed it to the back of my head. I let a grin come across my face. 'No, they're my family, of course they'll be nice to me now'
"Sure, lead the way"
Percy, Annabeth and I headed over to the Aphrodite cabin, the heavy stench of the sickly sweet perfume and the pink colour easily identifying it in the darkening level of light. As we approached, I could hear loud gossiping going on inside. We got to the door and Percy knocked as I stood behind him, somewhat terrified at what interaction might occur. If it was anything to go off the meeting with my mom, I knew it wouldn't be the warmest. A few seconds went by before a tall, dark haired Asian girl opened the door. To say she was beautiful would be an understatement. She was drop dead gorgeous. I suddenly became self-conscious because of my appearance, but steeled myself as I knew that once they knew I was family, we'd quickly grow bonds- much like I had done with Percy and Annabeth. Her warm brown eyes flittered to Percy, the pink eyeliner around them, accentuating them heavily as she leaned against the door frame, obviously annoyed that someone had disturbed her Cabin's gossiping at such late an hour. As soon as she saw it was Percy she immediately stood up and pumped out her chest, trying to appear more presentable to the most popular man at camp.
"Well Percy, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist." she spoke seductively, a lustful look in her eyes. Percy didn't seem fazed. "How about we go to the back wh-" she was suddenly cut off by the appearance of Annabeth clutching her knife and giving her a death stare. The girl recoiled at this, before regaining her composure and turning to speak to Percy again, instead this time a terrified look was present across her face, although she tried her best to mask it.
"Hey Drew, we have a new child of Aphrodite we wanted to introduce to you." Percy said.
"Oh really? Well, where are they? Let me have a look!" Drew said, searching desperately for the new addition. From the looks of it, she wanted to size them up and see if they would be a threat to her power within the Cabin.
Percy sidestepped and revealed me as I gave a weak smile, once again anxiously scratching my arm, but being careful not to pull up the long sleeved shirt, revealing the scars that lay hidden underneath. Drew looked somewhat alarmed, before bursting out laughing. The other Aphrodite campers seemed to have heard this as they appeared at the door to see what was so hilarious. When they immediately saw me, some started laughing, while others looked on in pity or others didn't even look at all, seemingly bored at what the commotion was all about. They all gathered outside to allow all of them to see me in all my misery. There appeared to be about eleven Aphrodite campers, not including myself. 'That would make me the twelfth' I thought, trying to distract myself as the group continued to laugh.
"ENOUGH!" Percy shouted, making everyone-including myself, but not Annabeth- jump at the volume of his voice. "Do not mock your half-brother."
Drew seemed to recover the quickest from the sudden outburst. "Are you sure he is our half-brother? Surely he'd fit better in with the Hephaestus Cabin." That seemed to garner a lot of laughs.
"Or better yet, Tartarus!" a blonde haired boy taunted. I shrunk back upon hearing this, my face down to hide the tears that were coming to my eyes as even more laughter was heard from my supposed family.
"Besides, if he is our half-brother, why weren't we told by mom? Or why wasn't he claimed when he arrived?" Drew rolled her eyes, obviously still disbelieving Percy.
"I can't answer speak for Aphrodite's actions, but I assure you he is your half-brother. So quit being dicks." Annabeth scoffed at the campers.
A small girl, no more than twelve, pushed to the front. "Stop being mean Drew, Piper wouldn't like that." she spoke in an almost scolding manner. Drew flinched at these words as the girl continued speaking. "How about we just pray to mom and she can tell us now". Her eyes closed, obviously deep in thought. Suddenly, a very faint symbol of Aphrodite appeared above my head. Most of the Aphrodite campers gasped in shock.
"Wh-What? But he's-" Drew stuttered, seemingly unable to finish her sentence.
"There. That proof enough for you Drew?". It was Annabeth's turn to taunt at the girl this time. She seemingly found a sweet release in taking a minor revenge against the spiteful camper as her face curled into a devious smile.
Drew couldn't find any words to combat her mother's official, yet faint, decree, so she unwillingly relented and stepped back slightly.
"Well, it's getting late so we'll leave you to get acquainted with your half brothers and sisters" Percy turned and said to me. I nodded, lifting up my head and giving him a fake smile which both he and Annabeth seemed to accept. We said a short good night and they walked off into the night. I watched them walk off before turning back to my new family.
"Hi, my name's Sam" I said timidly.
"Did we ask?" the girl named Drew replied, giving rise to a few chuckles from the (only momentarily shocked) Campers.
I was slightly taken aback, but resolved to push on. "Well, I'm really excited to meet you gu-"
"Come on, let's go inside. It's chilly" a blonde girl spoke, before promptly turning around and walking inside.
The rest of the cabinmates turned to go in. The young girl smiled at me before getting just inside and looking back. Drew was in front of me as we al shuffled in, but just as I reached the door Drew spun around to face me, an obviously fake look on her painted face.
"I'm sorry sweetie, animals and monsters sleep outside". The door slammed shut in my face, a locking noise filling the air. I could hear a loud laughter erupting from inside the cabin. I also heard some muffled cries of protest, but they were quickly silenced and replaced by even more laughing.
I didn't know what to do. I was so shocked. So hurt. I stared at the door as tears flowed freely down my face. I quickly recovered from my shock and sighed, wiping the tears off my face as I contemplated what to do next. 'I could go to Percy?' I thought, but I quickly shoved that to the back of my head, thinking that I had already caused him enough trouble with my stay. Although pained, I decided I would just find a bush nearby. I spotted one fairly quickly and lay down in it, trying to get as much cover as possible to stop myself from being tackled by the night's cold elements. 'Maybe it was just an initiation' I thought sadly, trying to find even the smallest silver lining in the dark storm that was my life. As I tried to fall asleep, the wind of the night like ice knives dug into my face as the thorny bush I had chosen poked into my back. I tossed and turned hoping for day to come. Hoping for some sort of sign that my life was about to turn around.
'Maybe I'll wake up and be happy'
Sorry that was a short chapter, but I'm swamped with schoolwork and wanted to upload something. I'll try to upload every Friday.
Also, to the Spanish speaking reviewer- I understand your point. I do have reasoning for why Aphrodite is acting this way. I'm afraid you will have to wait for the next chapter to discover that.
See you guys in a bit!
-the unknown terrier