Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter
The Unrelenting Frozen Seas: Symphony of Tempering
Chapter Nineteen: End of School Rescue
Beta: ShadowofAxios
"Creator, Creator Two, they are still coming!" Penny shouted to her parents as she used the laser built into her right arm to roast yet another of the 3 feet long and 2.5 feet tall creatures that resembled a cross between an ant and a centaur and which were invading her family's apartment in Campbell, California.
Or as Creator Two claimed, the super duper creepy ant things.
"They're Myrmidons! They won't stop coming until either their whole hive is dead or we are." Creator shouted back as she fired the Tesla Cannon that she'd built into her prosthetic arm and raked electricity over a trio of the giant ant monsters that were swarming them.
"Gross, gross, gross, gross!" Creator Two chanted as her Celestial Bronze whip sliced through the air and took the head off two of the closest soldier ants. "Gaige, did you get the call off to Camp?"
"Yeah!" Creator shouted back as they killed another eight Myrmidons between them even as they were forced to slowly give ground by backing into a circle inside their living room, or what was left of it. The majority of it having been wrecked by the fight.
"I hate that mountain so much!" Creator grunted as she fired off another blast of electricity from her Tesla cannon.
"I don't think the Myrmidons came from Mount Othrys, Creator." Penny corrected as she lanced three of the monsters with her laser, causing them to crumble into gold dust.
"Not caring! Just need an outlet for all this rage!" Creator said. Oh, she was in her more incoherent state then. Good to know. Best not let her make any decisions for the moment.
"We are so not getting our deposit back on this apartment." Creator Two said with a sigh as she changed the settings on her weapon and had its single thong transform into nine different ones, allowing her to decapitate nine of the closing Myrmidons in one swing.
"And I put so much sweat and love into this apartment! Urgh, eat my hate and angst you freaks!" Creator proclaimed as she lobbed incendiary grenades at several clustered groups of their foes. "All my cool shit was here!"
Penny made a mental note to order replacements for the bulk of her Creators' things from Amazon once they were safe.
"At least we're graduated now and we can just say we're moving on?" Creator Two suggested. "Maybe that'll convince the landlord to give us a break and not eat our deposit?"
Penny almost frowned at the mention of her Creators having graduated from school already. They'd done so in preparation to fight in the Titanomachy. As a result they'd rushed through their university education. Still passing with flying colors but nowhere as good as they could have if they'd just taken their time. And that greatly displeased the automaton.
Something she gave vent to by dropping her right arm, ostensibly to let her laser cooldown a bit, and raising her left instead as it transformed into a rapid fire rotary plasma cannon that she proceeded to unleash on the hapless Myrmidons in front of her.
Stupid power hungry Titans making my Creators' lives difficult! Penny gumbled as she mowed the monsters down in vindictive glee.
"I say just Mist him dumb and get it back." Creator suggested whilst she used her Tesla cannon to take out another half dozen Myrmidons.
"That's abusing the Mist, Sweetie." Creator Two scolded as she used her whip to cut the remaining trio of ant monsters into pieces.
"But Emmy, my cares are zero at the moment. Anyway, Penny, perimeter scanner sweep."
"Another three dozen Myrmidons have just exited the manholes outside the building and are climbing up the sides." Penny reported dutifully. "They'll be through the windows soon."
"Move move move!" Creator yelped as they hurried along, fiddling with some device in her prosthetic arm that caused it to toggle from the Tesla cannon she'd been using into a copy of Penny's own rotary plasma cannon. "I've activated Deathtrap! He'll distract them and give us some time to get out of here."
The sounds of weapons fire from the direction of their garage and other data from her sensors informed Penny that her brother automaton had indeed been activated and was currently carving a bloody swathe through the Myrmidon ranks as he did his duty and served as a distraction.
"Alright, but where are we heading?" Creator Two asked Creator as they followed the daughter of Hephaestus out of the living room and through their ruined entrance hall, where she kicked their splintered front door open.
"Main street." Creator replied as she filled the Myrmidon lurking outside their door with plasma. "We can hotwire a car and make an escape."
"Sounds like a plan." Creator Two agreed as she tossed her whip at a landing above them in the stairwell that dominated the area outside their door. "Grab hold. And Penny activate the anti-grav!"
"Yes, Creator Two." Penny replied as she obeyed, activating her anti-gravity systems just as she and Creator wrapped their arms around Creator Two who in an act of remarkable skill used her whip to swing them down the three stories to the ground floor of their apartment building.
"Rhode, that's the building!" Rhode heard Su shout from the passenger seat of the SUV that she was driving for the extraction that Gaige had requested for her and her family. "It's the one swarming with Myrmidons."
"I see it." Rhode said. It was hard to miss, what with the dozens of monstrous centuaroid ants crowding around it and the bolts of plasma and swings of a Celestial Bronze whip that punctuated the fight that Emily and her family was putting up.
"Percy! Spray them down!"
"Is that a giant robot?" Percy asked, pointing at a giant Deathtrap blasting away at the Myrmidons with various exotic weapons from what looked to be the apartment building's garage. Gleefully so if his enthusiastic cries of "I'm giving you an assripping!" and "Eat plasma!" were anything to go by.
"Not now Percy!"
"Sorry, Rhode!" Her brother shouted back, sounding chastised even as he ripped open the water mains along the street with his hydrokinesis, and sent a torrent of water surging over the Myrmidons. The ribbons of water crashed into the swarm of insectoid monsters, scattering them even as some parts of the water branched off to punch or cut into them.
"I've got the rest of them!" Thalia shouted from outside the SUV as she gunned her rented motorcycle and used it to bodycheck one of the few Myrmidons still standing, sending it crashing to the ground before she zapped it into gold dust with her lightning. An action that undoubtedly wrecked her machine.
"Thalia! Don't be reckless!" Rhode shouted as she pulled the SUV to a stop to allow Percy and Su to leap out, just shy of Emily and her family.
Damn Thalia's stupid penchant for recklessness. The daughter of Poseidon couldn't help but curse as she saw the daughter of Zeus run another Myrmidon through with her spear whilst using her Aegis to scare away another three of them who tried to gang up on her from behind.
Honestly, Thalia's recklessness was getting on her nerves lately. And it all started with her having gone for a bike license instead of a more standard driver's one. All because in her words "bikes are so much more cool!" Nothing Rhode said could convince her otherwise. Nor could she convince her to even get a proper driver's license!
She could totally empathise with the frustration she gave her various mentors with her rebelliousness now. It was annoying as the Pit!
"Emily, Gaige, Penny, get into the van!" Su shouted as she had a set of Helel's vines peek out from her tee and fire a spray of Manticore quills with deadly accuracy at the still recovering Myrmidons. The poison in the barbs seeped through the wounds they caused, disorientating some and outright reducing others straight into gold dust.
"Rhode, they'll just keep coming!" Emily warned as she and her family ran towards the van. "You need to freeze the sewers. It's where they're coming from!"
"Gotcha," Rhode replied as they piled into the van whilst Percy, Su and Thalia played rearguard and she herself reached out with her powers to the water in the sewers. With an application of will, she flooded them with water from the mains Percy had burst and froze them shut.
"That should hold for a while." Rhode thought with some satisfaction. "Su, Percy, Thalia, let's go!"
Percy and Su obeyed immediately, turning and running back inside the van under covering fire from Gaige and Penny's rotary plasma cannons but Thalia pretended she didn't hear her. Because of course she did!
"Thalia!" Rhode shouted in frustration as she watched her sister ignore her and continued with massacring the Myrmidons with spear and lightning.
Su, the brilliant woman she was, acted before Rhode could even ask and had Helel stretch his vines out to wrap around Thalia's waist and pull her in. The petite Asain even pointedly shut the van door the moment Thalia was clear of them even as she glared at the younger girl. Acting just as in sync with her wife as she was with her, the moment the door was closed, Rhode floored the gas pedal and had them racing away from the battlefield, dozens of still standing Myrmidons futilely trying to chase after them and held at bay by Deathtrap.
"Thalia, what the fuck was that!?" Rhode scolded as she glared at her sister via the rearview mirror whilst they made good their escape.
"I was giving us more cover."
"Deathtrap had that covered. You were keeping us from making good our escape." Rhode countered irritably. "What's gotten into you?"
Thalia looked away and mumbled something too soft for Rhode to hear.
She was about to ask her to repeat herself when Su, helpful as always, provided the answer.
"She said she wanted a fix." Her wife said with a sigh. "I told you she was getting bored at Camp, Rhode. You know how much of an adrenaline junkie your sister is. One week without some kind of epic battle with a monster and she'd wither."
"I'm not that bad!" Thalia shouted in her own defense.
"Sorry, Thalia, but yes you are." Percy said, backing Su up. "Or don't you keep picking fights with Clarisse and Cabin Five just to scratch your itch?"
"I'm not that bad!" Thalia insisted again.
"Rhode, I recommend sending her on extermination missions." Emily suggested with a worn out expression. "Maybe work something out with the Hunters?"
"Hell no." Thalia sharply said. "If I wanted to join, I would have. I'll just head into the woods if I need a scrap."
"I could talk to Chuck and have him build some training automatons for her?" Gaige suggested. "I'm sure Cabin Five, at least, could make use of them so I think Chiron would be okay with it."
"Works for me. And it's safer too." Rhode said as she turned a sharp right and made a beeline for the nearest Wizarding floo terminal.
It seemed that unlike the mess of a floo network in Britain, the American wizards had set up their network such that they had things akin to train stations in almost every city. Exceptions for residential floos were only allowed for either folks whose connections were grandfathered in from before the modern setup or for small towns which didn't warrant a whole station.
Thalia grumbled at that, but a sharp look from Su had her holding her tongue.
"Creator, Creator Two, how is Deathtrap gonna meet up with us?"
"He'll make his own way back to Camp. It's what he's programmed to do." Gaige sighed out, fiddling with her prosthetic in what Rhode recognised as a sign of her anxiety. "Either he'll use his storage pod as a rocket or he'll transform into his car form and drive himself there."
"You guys used a killer robot as a car!?" Percy asked incredulously.
"He has the best upholstery." Emily replied, shooting him a teasing grin.
"Leather all the way, bitches."
Rhode and Su chuckled at that as they pulled up outside the unremarkable warehouse that was the Campbell Floo Station.
"You've gotta let me have a test drive when he reaches Camp." Rhode told Gaige as they all trooped out of the van.
"Girl, after this? You can take DT for a spin as many times as you want."
"We'll hold you to that." Su said with a chuckle. "In the meantime, you guys use the floo and head back to Camp ahead of us. We need to return the keys to the SUV and explain away Thalia's wrecked bike to the rental company. Percy and Thalia can show you how it works."
Thalia flinched at the reminder of what she'd done to her rental bike.
"Sorry, Rhode, I-"
"You'll be paying me back." Rhode hissed, shooting her sister a glare as she walked off towards the rental company's office, Su trailing behind. "In the meantime, just get Emily, Gaige and Penny back to Camp!"
"Got it, come on ladies. Your ride is right over here." Percy, being the perfect gentleman he is, said as he began leading the others towards the nearest available hearth and its bright green flames.
"Whatever am I going to do with Thalia?" Rhode asked rhetorically as she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.
"We'll figure something out." Su reassured her, wrapping one arm over her shoulders and giving her a comforting squeeze. "For now, let's just focus on getting things done with the rental company ASAP. We might not be the Myrmidons' targets but you know how persistent they are when they go after enemies."
"Yeah," Rhode said, dismissing her worries for later and focusing on the matter at hand. "Focus on the now. Thanks for the reminder Su."
"No problem," Su said, giving her shoulders another squeeze. "I'll always be here for you."
"I still think this is a little excessive, Percy." Rhode told her brother, gesturing to the party that was in full swing in the yard between the various Cabins of Camp Half-Blood courtesy of her aforementioned brother, Annabeth and Thalia.
"Hey, at least we expanded it to celebrate all those who graduated high school and college too." Percy countered. "So it's not a private thing."
"And as one of those who this party now covers, I thank you for it." Su said from where she was sitting next to her whilst she wrapped herself around one of Rhode's arms. "As I am sure are Charlie, Emily and Gaige."
"Silena and Charlie certainly seem to like it," Thalia commented, making gagging noises as she gestured to where the aforementioned couple were being all lovey dovey by Camp's central hearth. That was halfway literal too since Silena was a harpy now.
"You're just saying that because you're single. Right, Percy?" Annabeth teased as she pointedly pecked Percy on his cheek.
Thalia grimaced. "Annie, must you?"
"Hey, it's not Annabeth's fault that you're the only single here." Grover said with his own tease as he held up his joined hands with his new girlfriend, a dryad named Juniper.
"It's not my fault that there aren't any guys worth my time here in Camp." Thalia said with a huff that had everyone in their little group seated on the grass in front of Cabin Three laughing at her expense.
"You'll find someone." Rhode told her with a smile, pulling Su a little closer.
"Yeah, yeah." Thalia said hurriedly and hastily changed the topic. "So Rhode, how's it feel to finally get your High School Diploma and Su, any feelings on your GED (General Educational Diploma)?"
Rhode had a knowing smile at Thalia's deflection but let it slide and just shrugged.
"Fulfilling? Awaiting the next great journey of cramming and microwave meals of college? Getting very drunk?" Su said, mockingly questioning the stereotypes of college itself.
"I somehow doubt Dad's gonna allow you two to eat microwave meals. Or get smashed." Percy said, arching an eyebrow. "Aren't you two going to college in Atlantis?"
"I will certainly try though." Su said with mock seriousness. "It's part of the college experience."
Everyone chuckled at the joke.
"What's so funny?" Fergus said, as with Atlanta on his arm, he walked over. "The stereotype is real."
"Really?" Bethy asked the Scotsman curiously.
"You shoulda seen the last kegger we went to. I still hold that crown on my campus." Fergus said with pride.
"And I had to drag you back to our apartment after you won it." Atlanta said with a sigh.
"Wha? Not like I'm that bad when drunk. I could be worse. I mean, the last time ya got shitfaced, you were really-"
"Please don't finish that!" Atlanta said with a mortified look. Her face nearly as red as her red highlights.
Again everyone burst into a laugh. This time at Atlanta's expense.
"Oh man! I really missed you guys, you know that?" Rhode said honestly as they all calmed down. "Even if Fergus here has gotten even taller. Seriously! A few more inches and we'd be starting to mistake you for a giant."
Just like Rhode expected, the son of Ares just rolled with the tease.
"Lanta ain't complaining about it though."
"Fergus~!" The daughter of Apollo hissed, batting his arm lightly as she blushed atomic red in embarrassment.
"Yo, Fergus," Percy said, his eyes comically narrowed as he looked up at the Scot. "You know you look uncannily like Ares? Like more than an average half-blood looks like their divine parent? If I met you on the street, I'd totally mistake you for him."
"My pretty mug doesn't look that mangled, does it?" Fergus asked his girlfriend with a tilt of his head.
"Well, you do have a few more scars than average, but it's part of your charm I guess."
"Only part?! Lanta my dear, ye insult my honor! I ooze charm from every part of me. Some more than others of course."
"If that's a segway to an innuendo, it needs work." The child of the sun shot back with a roll of her eyes.
"It's still better than Ares," Percy said supportively. "Yo, Fergus. You know what? You're cool. Cooler than your dad and the rest of Cabin Five, anyways."
"Glad that I meet your approval, Percy." Fergus said with a chuckle.
"I think I see Emily and Penny bringing out the cake." Annabeth said, pointing in the direction of Cabin Ten where just like she said Emily and her automaton daughter were making their way out of the Cabin with the former's latest patisserie delight.
"Oh freaking yes, I missed that lass' food." Fergus whooped with glee. "Let's go!"
"She made us all cookies just yesterday." Atlanta reminded him with exasperation as she allowed her boyfriend to lead her towards the table set up in front of the central hearth where the cake would be served.
"Come on Juniper. You're gotta try Emily's cake." Grover said as he stood and followed Fergus' lead in walking his girlfriend towards the cake.
"I hope it's organic." The dryad mentioned to him as they made their way to the dessert table.
"It is." Thalia assured her as she trailed after the two nature spirits. "And it's delicious to boot. I helped her sample it when she cooked it up, so I can vouch for it."
That just left Rhode, Su, Percy and Annabeth at their spot and Rhode sighed in exasperation as she turned to her brother and sister.
"Percy, Bethy," she addressed them in a chiding tone. "Honestly, can you two cut it with the whole bodyguard bullshit?"
"We can't help it." Percy insisted.
"We're still shaken up by your kidnapping last year." His girlfriend loyally added.
Rhode rolled her eyes even as Su giggled at her expense.
"Seriously? One little kidnapping and now I have my baby brother and sister babying me instead? Su, help me out here!"
"Sure, dear." The daughter of Demeter said, sounding thoroughly amused. "Now, Percy, Annabeth, if anyone should be Rhode's bodyguard it's me, alright? I am her wife after all. Got it?"
The daughter of the sea let out a giggle and left a chaste kiss on her wife's cheek. "Yes, Honey."
"We can help too." Annabeth said with Percy nodding in agreement.
Rhode exchanged a look with Su, who nodded in agreement.
As one, the two witches pulled out their wands and leveled them at the other couple. "Rictusempra!"
Twin silver beams shot from their wands and soon had the son of the seas and the daughter of wisdom in the grips of the Tickling Charm. Seeing their tearing eye laughter as they rolled about, Rhode couldn't help but smile.
"Come on, Rhode. Whilst they're incapcitated." Su said with a laugh as she leapt to her feet, gently pulling Rhode along in the process.
"Right behind you, Honey." Rhode said with a laugh of her own as she and Su made their escape from her overprotective younger siblings.
A cake cutting and a round of the sweet treat later, Rhode with Su still on her arm managed to catch up with Emily and her family as they stood around a water cooler filled for the occasion with fruit punch.
"So, Emily, I heard you gave Honey here tips for our relationship." Rhode said, gesturing with the hand holding her cup of punch in her wife's direction, causing the pretty Chinese girl to blush. "What exactly did you tell her?"
"Oh, lots of things. You'll have to be more specific if you want detailed information~" Emily replied with a wink in Su's direction.
"I, uh, you see, we spoke of-! W-What about the cake? Wasn't it grand?" Su said quickly and desperately, clearly trying to change the topic.
It was adorable.
That said, Rhode wasn't about to let this matter go just yet. She genuinely wanted some answers.
"Why did you do it though?" Rhode asked curiously. "I have an idea and I'm not angry that you did, I just want to hear it from you."
"I wanted you with Su." Emily said with a sigh. "Jack wasn't right for you. He was poisoned goods. And I was right about that. Just look at how messed up he became at the end."
"Emily that's-" Rhode began only to be cut off as the daughter of love continued.
"I love you like a little sister, Rhode. Maybe even like a daughter." Emily confessed. "And I didn't want you to be saddled with a relationship like that. Ever."
Rhode was a little thrown. She'd known Emily cared for her a great deal, but to hear it was something else.
Smiling at Rhode, Emily kept going.
"Those two facts combined are why I felt so hurt when you seemed to reject my advice repeatedly with sticking to Jack and to a lesser extent about dying your hair. By the Pit, part of me is honestly glad Jack died, even if most of me pities him and applauds his noble sacrifice."
Rhode didn't know what to say to that, the topic of Jack was still an opened wound for her, and so she hastened to change the topic.
"Um, right. So, uh, what kind of tips, generally speaking, did you give Su?"
"Oh, Gaige, are you two planning to help with this year's Fourth of July fireworks? I have ideas!" Su cut in desperately, clearing trying to change the topic again.
Gaige wasn't playing ball though and just smirked, refusing to even acknowledge she'd been addressed. Rhode couldn't blame her. Watching Su squirm was great fun.
"Take a guess, Rhode." Gaige said, smiling mischievously. "Here's a hint. Emily got your missus practicing using anatomically correct mannequins that she had me build. Ones which moaned if you did things right. All so she could perfect her moves."
"That explains a lot." Rhode said, turning to look at an atomic red Su at this and raising an eyebrow. "So that's why you're such a good kisser."
Not that Rhode actually liked the kissing much. Which was strange as hell. She could feel the emotional validation of the act, but the kissing itself just wasn't doing it for her nowadays.
"Oh, it didn't end there." Emily said with a giggle. "Even after we left Camp, Su and I continued exchanging ideas through letters on the topic over the years."
"They averaged about three such letters a month." Penny supplied helpfully.
"Su, you've gotta show me what you've learned."
Su's blush just got even more intense at this even as she nodded.
"L-Later." She said, sputtering in embarrassment. "W-When we're in p-private."
Rhode blinked in confusion at this for a moment before the realization hit her.
"Oh! So some of it is about how to make sex better?" Rhode asked, sounding surprisingly blasé about what she was saying even to her own ears. "Yeah, I think we'll need to save that for later. But anything else you can share?"
Su nodded, shifting nervously. "I'll show you after the party."
Emily, Gaige, and even Penny broke into a laugh at their interaction.
"Maybe you two should get a room and then Su can start showing you what she's learned, eh Rhode?" Gaige teased elbowing her with a manic grin.
Blushing harder than ever, if that was possible, Su began dragging Rhode away even as the latter giggled at her expense.
"I feel like my soul is dying. You are all the worst." Su said, voice devoid of emotion as she made her desperate escape from the source of her teasing.
"No, I'm not." Rhode shot back with a smirk. "Otherwise you wouldn't love me so much."
"Point." Su conceded with a pout. "Just please stop teasing me already!"
"Okay, okay~!" Rhode agreed with a giggle. "I'll cut it out."
"You better," Su huffed adorably. "Or I'm sleeping in Cabin Four tonight."
"Now that's an empty threat if I ever heard one," the familiar but unexpected voice of Triton said and Rhode spun to see not just him but Dad and Mum standing there looking at her with welcoming smiles.
Su felt like a doe caught in headlights.
Meeting the parents? I'm not ready for this yet! Su screamed internally. She couldn't deal with this now! Not when she was still recovering from the brutal teasing her Rhode and their friends had just put her through. Oh she'd get her back for that. If she survived this of course.
A prospect she honestly had doubts about. After all, when your in-laws were Poseidon and Amphitrite, things naturally got dicey. Add in an overprotective brother-in-law in the form of Triton, god of the navy, and things just got ten times worse.
I am so gonna get smited.
Oblivious to her panic attack, Rhode greeted her divine family as if them suddenly popping into Camp was nothing new at all.
"Dad, Mum, Triton, hi!" She said, pulling away from Su to exchange hugs with each of the gods. "I'm so glad you came."
"Of course we'd come," Amphitrite said as she kissed Rhode's forehead. "This is a celebration of you finishing high school. A major milestone in any person's life. Why wouldn't we come to celebrate as our daughter marked the occasion?"
"Exactly," Triton agreed as he pulled Rhode into a one armed hug.
Su watched as Rhode looked tickled pink by that, her radiant smile growing all the brighter.
"Breathe," Poseidon said suddenly from Su's right, causing her to start in shock.
"L-Lord Poseidon!?" Su gasped in shock.
The god of the seas offered her a reassuring smile. "Just Poseidon, or even Dad, Su. And you should probably take a deep breath. You looked like you were hyperventilating."
"I-I was?" Su squeaked, horrified. She was making an absolutely terrible first impression on her in-laws.
"A little, little sunflower." Mum said as she teleported in and put her hands on Su's shoulders to give them a comforting squeeze.
Seeing her golden haired, radiant mother just show up seemed to jumpstart something in Su as she stammered out a greeting, "Mother, s-so lovely to see you here."
"Come now, there's nothing to be nervous about." Mum told her encouragingly. "Your in-laws won't smite you. It would make your wife upset and they love her too much to do that."
"We don't go around smiting people on principle, Demeter." Amphitrite said with a sigh. "Honestly, we're not trigger happy barbarians!"
"At least in the modern age." Triton quipped with a chuckle.
"And if they ever did smite you, I won't talk to them for a year!" Rhode said with a teasing smile.
"See nothing to worry about. Your wife will protect you." Mum said with all seriousness, Rhode's joke sailing right over her head.
"You'll have to pardon your mother," Poseidon leaned down to whisper in her ear. "She doesn't really understand how people work a lot of the time. She spends too much time with her cereals."
Su could see that, it made a scary amount of sense in a way.
"Demeter," Amphitrite said, rolling her eyes at Mum. "Aren't you going to congratulate your daughter on her GED?"
"Ah, I forgot." Mum said, before smiling at Su. "Congratulations, my little sunflower. And you too, Rhode."
"Thanks, Mum/Lady Demeter." Su and Rhode replied together, though her wife just had to be all fancy and offer Mum a curtsy.
"Oh, just call me Demeter, Rhode. We're doubly family now."
"Right." Rhode said with a nod. "Thank you for the honour, Demeter."
"If you want to thank me then give me more grandbabies! You two have consummated your marriage already, correct?" The question was like a blow to Su's gut as she felt her face grow red at the very question! "I know Hera is planning the big wedding, but practice makes perfect, my little sunflower, Rhode."
Su blushed hard and even Rhode's face was blushing lightly, making her sun-kissed skin glow like bronze.
"Demeter!" Poseidon, Amphitrite, Triton and even a newly arrived Mr. D said in exasperation.
Mum blinked at them in confusion. "What?"
"You don't go asking your children things like that." Amphitrite said, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"Well, I want grandbabies." Mum said insistently. "And I won't get any unless Su and Rhode get busy. So, dearies, have you? As for the problems with you two being girls, no worries! Thanks to Hera's blessing you both can fertilize each other using your ejaculate. Though I recommend Su carry your babies. I am a fertility goddess, so that means Su is perfect for having children with near zero complications."
Mum! Too much information! Su wanted to say but didn't. She had to say something though before Mum could come out with any more embarrassing facts.
"Not y-yet," Su said urgently. "We're still, uh, working up to it."
"I see," Mum said with a disappointed frown. "Well, when you two feel ready you can use Hera's Cabin."
"They can?" Mr. D said, sounding flabbergasted.
"Yes," Demeter said with a nod. "She's the goddess of marriage. Of course, she'd allow married couples to use her Cabin. It's not like it would see use otherwise. And since sex is part of marital relations, it's allowed in her Cabin."
"Since when?" The Camp Director asked, one of his eyebrows twitching in agitation. Clearly unhappy that there was a rule in his Camp that he was unaware of.
"Since always. It's a bit low key since there aren't many married couples in Camp. Which is a shame in itself, but the dangers of a half-blood's life and all that."
"I think Rhode and Su are the first since we moved to the Americas actually," Chiron said, cluing Su in onto the fact that they'd gathered a crowd. In fact it seemed all of Camp had gathered around to see the gods and were now witness to her utter humiliation!
Someone kill me now! Su begged. This can't get any worse!
Unfortunately, Mum proceeded to prove her wrong.
"Then you can try for a record, my little sunflower." Mum said, looking excited. "I'm sure Rhode has inherited my brother's virility-"
Poseidon made a noise in the back of his throat and closed his eyes in pain, whilst Rhode just looked mortified. Sadly, Mum didn't notice their reactions and just kept going!
"-and that means she'll surely be able to make you pregnant over and over again! So aim high, my little sunflower, and give birth to as many children as you can and set an unbreakable record. I'm hoping for at least eleven grandbabies. It would be nice for them to fill out a football team."
Su shot her Mum a disbelieving look. Eleven! She wanted her to have eleven children!? Even if they included her stepchild currently gestating back in Atlantis, that meant another ten children! How, by Olympus, would she and Rhode manage that!?
"Uh, Demeter, we'll try?" Rhode said, uncertainly as she came over and put a steadying arm around Su's shoulders, helping her keep standing despite increasingly weak knees.
"That's all I ask." Mum said with a smile. "Now, I have to get going. Have a nice party, everyone."
With that and a burst of cereal grains, Mum teleported away.
"If it's any consolation, you probably don't need to take your mother too seriously." Amphitrite offered with a reassuring smile. "It was just a suggestion."
Su could only shakily nod.
"A divine suggestion." Triton said, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "You know what she'll do if the girls disappoint her."
"She didn't give a timeframe?" Poseidon offered tentatively.
"You two should start with the baby making ASAP." Mr. D advised even as he palmed his face in exasperation and began muttering under his breath some very uncharitable things about Mum.
Su and Rhode exchanged a look and came to the same conclusion. We're so screwed.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless and Axios as always!
The rescue mission was a fun treat, just going out and saving some friends. But dang, that lease for the apartment, I feel bad for the happy family. Though all the reunions and the fun times shared by the characters were as always, fun to do.
Nameless: For the issue of the lease… That's what the Mist is for, bro. And yeah, Rhode and co. deserve a break after the madness they've had to endure in recent years. And what better way to do that than to catch up with old friends?
Can I say, writing Demeter was an odd treat. As an out of touch goddess, she really just says what's on her mind or her opinion on things. Like holy cow, if Su hasn't died from mortification, I think she's legit immortal by this point. Still, everyone got some Demeter jabs in, the Grainzilla is still the queen it seems when it comes to being a mom.
Nameless: Poor Su. As for Demeter's little 'suggestion'... Well, like Poseidon said, there's no timeframe to it. So don't expect the couple to start popping kids out left, right and center. That said, like Triton said, she will expect it to be followed. Eventually. The worst part about it? Demeter thinks she's being nice by offering the 'suggestion'. Plants, of which she is most familiar, have many, many seeds after all. For example, a single head of wheat usually has 35-50 grains. Considering that, you could almost say she was being generous for giving Su and Rhode such a low goal to work towards. [evil smirk]
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!