What is this? An update? In this economy?
The outcome of Percy's summoning. I'm just playing in Uncle Rick's sandbox and making things up about ascension here lol. I'm trying to mirror Percy's healing with his growing divinity, and his biggest difficulty is yet to come.
.
The voices had been A Thing for a while now. Percy, stupidly, had thought it was the fish his dad had encouraged to take up residence in the corral frame of his wonderfully soft bed. Moments when he was muzzy with sleep, defenses lowered and limbs heavy, gentle whispers would crest in his ears. They asked for advice or fortitude or peace. Morpheus would always pull him under before he could do much more than think about helping them.
Fish pestering him was pretty common, so he hadn't thought to bother his family with it. He'd helped marine life in the past, and it always filled him with warmth and a sense of strength to quietly ease their woes. Nothing new there.
Feeling like his blood had turned to fire and melting into brine while a child's desperate voice shrieked for help? That was a first for him, though.
Fighting through agony he'd only felt twice before, Percy could feel Triton's currents running along his arms, cooling the flames and asking softly for the direction in which to point their might. His brother's sturdy hand came to rest on the back of his neck in a grounding gesture.
"Where to, little sea star?"
Lord Aestivus, save me!
There. That was the plea that wretched apart his very Being with the need to help. A small, sobbing thing on the banks of a tributary in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota.
Traveling was shockingly easy- similar to the many times his godly family had dematerialized him. The only difference came in who was captain of the ship. Triton's power carried them, but he was in control. In seemingly no time, he was breaching the surface of the river, his brother in a more subdued form of his Roman visage with wickedly pointed armor standing knee-deep in the water like the overprotective weirdo he'd proven to be.
A tiny boy, hardly more than a toddler, stared up at him with wide, teary blue eyes, before his gaze slid to Triton and he promptly shrieked. Tri looked disgruntled as the kid wheezed out something about snake monsters and dress-up.
"Shh… don't worry about my big brother- he's secretly a softie. What's wrong, kiddo? How did you call me here?" he asked as he settled into a kneeling position to be level with the boy.
"My name's Eddie, Mr. Lord Aestivus, sir. Wilson said I should pray to you if we got separated."
He winced a little at the name before his skin seemed to settle right over his bones correctly for the first time since Eddie first cried out to him. Aestivus- yes, that did seem right. The circlet on his brow thickened, his shaggy hair lengthened, and the comfortable house shoes he'd been wearing melted away to leave him barefoot in the river.
His cloak, made from seafoam and delicately lined with purple, floated lazily on the water's surface as he shifted forward. The silver fringe of his tunic brushed along his arms and shoulders as he reached up to wipe away the child's wretched tears.
Perseus Aestivus did not fight as hard as he had to see babes weep before him.
"Who is Wilson?" he kept his voice soft and low, murmuring like a stream in its bed.
More tears welled up. "He was my goat-friend that was taking me somewhere safe 'cause the chicken-monster got my papa an' my mama's a river lady. 'Cept, the chicken got Wilson too an' now I don't have anyone!"
Triton made a wounded noise and the sea melted from him as he surged to kneel before the child at Aestivus' side. He was pink and fleshy and wearing the garb of a Roman naval commander, the tunic complimenting his own. His brother could never deny a child, least of all his more impulsive, wild Roman self. The cuddle attacks after yet another nightmare of Tartarus was a testament to that.
"Shh, tiny one," Aestivus hushed. "You asked for help, and help is what I'll give you."
Yes, this was right. Aiding people, protecting them in his gentle waters while heapping storms upon those with ill intent, this was his duty.
Most Roman deities would demand a show of strength to prove their supplicant's worthiness before helping them. But, well, the sea has always been unpredictable, just as her masters. Aestivus remembered being twelve and feeling helpless as the minotaur killed his mother. Eduardo Rivera surviving was proof enough of his fortitude.
But… how to help the child? He, admittedly, found himself a little lost.
"Come, child," Triton rumbled, reaching out a hand for Eddie to take even as his other came to rest on Aestivus' shoulder. "We will take you somewhere safe."
He smiled warmly as itty bitty fingers wrapped around two of his brother's larger ones. So like his big brother to help those in distress, even if he denied it. Libya had confided that his tender heart is what initially won her over.
There was a twist and a flash and they were gone, Aestivus blindly guiding his brother's power in a direction that felt right.
Aestivus remembers the first time he'd seen his father's shrine. It had been a ramshackle thing of driftwood and shell fragments, smelling more like dust and decay than seabreeze. He's been so angry, wounded at the lack of respect his father got while his uncle's temple gleamed like a castle on a hill. Having spent time cleaning and adorning the shrine to the best of his abilities, Aestivus had become intimately familiar with the warped wood and shallow pool of water.
Wherever Triton had taken them was similar, but not the shrine of Neptune.
The space was a little larger, and open to let in light. A soft breeze made strings of pearls softly clack together. The walls were covered in frescos of, he realized distantly, his own triumphs. A simple yet elegant altar sat with an assortment of blue candy and allium flowers in the middle of the room. In the floor, a small trench had been dug, splitting around the altar, that hosted a lazily flowing stream of salt water.
"The Romans never did buy the story you were just a demigod," Triton mused. "They whispered stories of a great god in disguise, coming to aid them in their darkest hour, since you first breached the Little Tiber."
For the sake of his sanity, Aestivus decided dissecting all of this could wait. Getting Eddie settled was his priority at the moment. Speaking of the child…
Eddie had migrated to the little stream, giggling haltingly and poking at a small cluster of the vibrant fish Aestivus now noticed in the little stream. They looked like smaller versions of the poisonous fish that had taken up residence in his quarters. He would have pulled the child away from them, but they were quietly murmuring compliments and greetings, extolling the virtues of the 'big-little lord' and how he had brought them a new visitor.
There was a clanging sound, like a sword on a shield, and Riptide was in his hand in an instant as he whirled to face the commotion. A young woman, pale faced, stood in the doorway, an overturned metal bowl of more flowers the source of the noise.
She gasped when she registered that his eyes were on her, sinking to her knees and averting her eyes with a soft, joyous call of 'Lord Aestivus'. He moved to have her stand, shocked she would greet him before his godly brother, but the viciously pleased look on his older brother's face stopped him. Above all but his mortal mother, Aestivus trusted his big brother.
If Triton was not displeased with the situation, everything was probably fine.
Eddie, seemingly bored of the little fish, bounded forward to hide behind his legs, clutching at the hem of his tunic as he looked up with wide, shiny eyes. "Mr. Lord Aestivus?"
He hummed in acknowledgement. Right. The child needed fostering.
"Rise," he bid the woman in a soft, firm tone. Once she was on her feet and carefully not meeting his eyes, Aestivus continued, "I have brought a child to be fostered. Eduaro Rivera, son of the Roman naiad Appias, is to be homed and cared for. He will not know pain in these times of peace, lest his tormentors face my wrath."
The woman's gaze softened as it landed on Eddie. "As you command, my lord. My brother and his wife were looking to adopt anyway, maybe this was fate. Or perhaps you heard their hearts' wants."
He hummed and brushed a hand through Eddie's dark hair. Did the god's control a mortal's fate, or were they simply the tools that fate moved through? Either way, it filled him with warmth to do as he had. Eddie was as safe as he could be, and that was enough for now.
His devotee (Genevieve Boroughs) held out a hand and Aestivus prodded the poor child toward her. Eddie turned back to look at him once he reached the woman's side. Seeing him stand there, Aestivus came to a conclusion.
From his own inky locs, he removed one of the pearls his mother had lovingly woven in. It was a simple matter to tear several lengths of silver from his tasseled tunic and fashion an over-large chain necklace to host his gift. Aestivus laid it gently against Eddie's chest.
"Tiny one, if ever you are in mortal peril, crush this pearl beneath your feet. What is of the sea will always return to it."
Eddie nodded in a very serious manner before rushing forward to hug his legs. "I will Mr. Lord Aestivus. Thanks for everything."
Once he let go and returned to Gen's side, the two gave him one last bow before retreating from his shrine. He felt empty and adrift as the mortals left and took their warmth with them.
Who- what- why- a pit formed in his stomach. Perseus or Aestivus? Who was he?
His utter confusion and oncoming panic at the whole situation must have shown on his face, because Triton was quick to smother him with a hug, resting his forehead against the younger's. He had no clue what was going on or who he was, but he did know that his older brother was here. Triton would help make it better. He worked to match his racing heart to his brother's calm tempo.
"Just breathe, little one," a warm, calm voice that was not his brother's called from the steps of- his?- Aestivus'?- temple.
He turned his head to see a man with golden hair, licked by gentle flame, and eyes as bright as the sun. He was in a white tunic and toga, birkenstocks looking slightly out of place. It was Apollo, but Apollo as he hadn't seen before. The Roman Apollo.
"In these lands," his cousin continued soothingly, "you are known as Perseus Aestivus, lord of the Summer Seas and all the bounty and peace they bring."
Being Proclaimed settled him once more, and Aestivus allowed Apollo to enter his domain.
If differentiating between Greek and Roman always led to that state of confused nothingness, Aestivus understood why the gods kept the camps apart as they had.
Apollo grinned brightly and ruffled his hair, skewing his crown. Triton, oddly, didn't hiss at the intrusion, nor did he tighten his possessive hold on Aestivus. It was kind of surprising that Triton allowed someone other than his immediate family near when he was this vulnerable, but then he remembered that Apollo had spent a good portion of his adolescence under the sea, learning the secrets of prophecy at Neptune's feet. Triton had been young himself at the time, so maybe they'd grown up together.
Aestivus ignored the sour feeling he got when he realized he hadn't gotten to grow up with his brother.
"You did admirably, little one. Protecting the youth is my duty, yet I find myself in your debt."
Aestivus blushed at the praise. Even after months and months of soaking up the loving words of his family, kindness flustered him. The sun god cooed and fixed his crown and swept his hands across Aestivus' shoulders to smooth his cape. Absurdly, the gentle green of the fabric shifted to a buttery yellow.
He looked up at his, unfairly tall, cousin in question.
"You're as much my family as Triton's, sunshine. Just staking my claim so nobody gets any silly ideas of stealing you away." Again, went unspoken.
He awkwardly shifted his weight in his brother's hold. Stealing away on a mission to save Diana and a few short meetings here and there shouldn't leave Apollo comfortable enough with him to lay such a claim, yet him did all the same.
"Thanks," he let out quietly.
Apollo nodded as if that decided something, an amused, scheming smile playing at his lips. "My dear Cousin Triton, I find myself weary of the petty squabbles of the surface and missing my oceanic family. What are the odd that Uncle never revoked my open invitation into his domain?"
Aestivus Perseus did not need the prophetic nightmares of his mortal childhood to know that this day was a crossroads in more than one way, and that Apollo had just cast his die in his younger cousin's lot.