KOYAANISQATSI | DIONYSUS | WC: 1,078

"Oh, dad, glad you stopped by!" Dionysus' eldest daughter greeted, corners of her eyes wrinkling with her smile. "You look good like this, less run down. What's up with picking the— ah, the beer belly in camp? 30-year-old hedonist seems more your style, it looks good."

Dionysus looked through the fruit she was selling— strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. He picked out the largest box she had, sorting through his wallet for the right amount. "Ariadne prefers 30-year-old hedonist," he admitted. "But, as our dear family has grown so used to my typical form, they hardly look for me like this anymore."

"An honest day today, I see," Clementine teased. "Is Apollo an exception? No need to answer, Helene can't seem to get over her hero-worship of her father, and I'm not mean enough to tear it down. And he did get us a nice wedding gift… which speaking of, dad, I didn't see anything from you?"

"Ah, I see the value I have to you," Dionysus rolled his eyes. "I gave you a gift. You won't notice for a while, though. And unfortunately yes, when he wants to be."

"You did neglect me for half of my life," his daughter pointed out, and Dionysus quickly busied himself doing anything but looking at her. "Did you bless my harvest or something? You did, didn't you? Oh, thank you, dad. Genuinely. Is Ariadne here today?"

"No, unfortunately. Has Felix been by yet? I've been meaning to visit him, but it's a bit more difficult than stopping by a farmer's market for fruit and just happening upon you, Clementine."

"Gods, it's still so weird to hear you call me by my name," Clementine shook her head in disbelief. "I mean, I know you always knew it, but I'm surprised you dropped 'Clarence.' And last I heard he wasn't coming today. He did recently start working on a pumpkin trebuchet with his kids if you want to drop by that harvest festival. Harvest is sort of under your purview, right?"

"Sort of. Pumpkin trebuchet?"

"Oh they're so fun, dad," Clementine paused their conversation to help her next customer, and Dionysus wandered behind the counter to slouch on her extra chair, setting the box of fruit carefully on his lap. Her wife wasn't there to harangue him to be a better person and be better at supervising the dumb little brats at camp, so Dionysus counted it as good day, only improved if Ariadne was with him. "I'm not nearly good enough at physics or engineering to understand how to make a trebuchet," Clementine resumed. "Neither is Felix, really, being a therapist does not translate to engineering talent. But his wife, now she's good at trebuchet making —she's got it down to a form of art. Totally mortal, but so incredible. Speaking of incredible total mortals, Sally!"

Dionysos followed her excited gaze and rapidly waved hand to a young woman with familiar eyes and happy smile. He sighed, looking across the aisle at another vendor selling coffee, idly tossing fruit into his mouth. He debated momentarily switching out of his "30-year-old hedonist" form, quickly deciding against it. Sometimes it felt good to feel young again.

"Sally, hi, lovely to see you! You look good. I was worried when you disappeared last summer, though dad filled me in —I can't believe you didn't tell me Percy was the son of—" Clementine glanced back at Dionysus when he stiffened and changed track. "You know. You've known who my dad is this whole time."

"Clementine, lovely to see you too," the sea brat's mother returned, hugging Clementine tightly. "Sorry I didn't stop by at all this past year. I wound up moving! Gabe, I'm not sure if you ever heard this, but he had a, ah, an accident. I got some money and Percy and I moved out to a new apartment that's so much better! Makes it a bit hard to get to the farmer's market every weekend, though. But now that Percy's at camp all summer, I'm taking the chance to go a little further than I normally would! How have you been?"

"I've been great! Helene and I are looking to adopt, but it's a bit rough. Same-sex couple and all, you know, I'm not sure how soon we'll be successful. Neither of us is a big fan of going the surrogacy route, either, so we'll see. Oh, Sally, I should mention —oh, this is going to be awkward," Clementine half-turned, gesturing with both hands at Sally, and then gesturing towards Dionysus. "Sally, this is my dad. Dad, this is Sally, who's son I'm sure you know well."

"Lord Dionysus?" she realized, startled. "You don't —Percy described you a lot differently. It's good to see you visiting Clementine."

"Oh, he's not visiting me," Clementine was quick to contradict, a glint of mischief in her eyes. "He's supporting local farmers and buying fruit. You know how it is."

"Oh, that's clever!" Sally praised, though it sounded somewhat forced. "I'm curious, Lord Dionysus, what you think of my son."

"Oh, maybe you shouldn't—"

"Peter is an annoying little brat with no respect for his betters," Dionysus grouched, biting through a strawberry a moment later. They really were good fruit.

"Ah, Percy did mention you weren't good with names," Sally said. Dionysus looked at her in disbelief. Did she really just insult—

"He used to call me Clarence," Clementine interrupted before Dionysus worked up the will to smite the woman. "I think it's a term of endearment. Isn't that right, dad? You wouldn't forget your favorite daughter's name?"

Dionysus had opened his mouth to disagree, but he faltered for a moment. "I would never," Dionysus muttered, getting to his feet and carefully tucking the box of berries under one arm. "Clementine. Sarah."

"Sarah," Sally echoed mutely, a faint smile on her face as Dionysus kissed Clementine's cheeks, not quite subtly hiding extra money near her cash box. He glared at her halfheartedly at best as he left, resuming his exploration of the farmer's market.

Dionysus could have done without meeting the sea brat's mother. After all the fuss he'd put up when he'd first shown up, Dionysus didn't have that great an opinion of her. And he didn't want to have a good opinion of her. But Dionysus had a hard time disliking anyone who made his children smile quite like Clementine had. He just had to meet her at his daughter's gods-damned farmers market.