"What happened to Gabe?" Percy asked, looking at said smelly person on the ground, passed out. "Please tell me he got a pimp hand to the face."
"Percy!" His mom squawked again.
"….."
"Jesus, I was kidding, really?" He turned to his mom. "Is it actually my birthday today?"
Finally, she reached over and grabbed his cheek.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He quickly tried to apologize.
"Apologize to – " His mom paused, looking at me blankly.
"Ocean Song." The Cyclops filled in for her.
"…..Ocean Song." She seemed to hesitate to say it.
"That name is made up." Percy deadpanned.
"All names are made up." Ocean Song countered.
Percy opened his mouth as if to retort with something, but his eyes went wide, and he just stood there, his mind seemingly blown.
The strange silence was interrupted by the sound of the smelly man groaning and slowly climbing to his feet.
Ocean Song looked at him, then at Sally Jackson as he slowly raised his sword, which oddly looked like a pimp cane in this moment to Percy's eyes.
Sally Jackson met his eyes then looked away as if to say she didn't see anything.
The silence returned with Gabe having a few more lumps on his head and his body unmoving once more.
"I like him." Percy smiled happily. "If he's going to be your pimp mom, then at least..."
"Alright, where's the soap?" Sally grabbed his cheek, pulling him to the sink.
"It was a joke!"
"I don't know where you learned that kind of language, but I think it's time to clean your mouth out."
Ocean Song just whistled to himself as his junior brother dug his hole deeper with each passing moment.
A few minutes passed before Percy's head lay on the table, as if he were dead with his mom looking very pleased with herself.
Though the thing was, neither side knew where to go from here.
Ocean Song took this moment to manipulate the mists around Percy, to loop the surroundings around him, and to distort everything else in the room.
His mother frowned looking at him, like she was about to speak up but stopped herself once she realized it wasn't anything harmful. "You made it so he can't hear us?"
"More or less. I will iterate that it's nothing harmful if it puts you at ease." He wasn't naive to assume she trusted him just because he and Percy were related. "I believed you would like a moment to collect your thoughts before deciding how to move forward."
"Do I really have an option?" She dropped her head into her hands.
"If you don't want him to know yet, I will respect your decision and leave." Ocean Song said with a small smile.
"You…..really?" She looked at him in surprise.
"Is that strange?" He tilted his head. "The reason I came here was to simply meet my younger brother and check up on him."
Sally Jackson pursed her lips because, well, it was hard to believe that's all he came here for.
Percy's father had warned her about a great many things, especially when it came to trusting basically anything or anyone when it came to Percy's heritage.
"If I asked you to leave and never show up in front of me or my son again..."
"I would honor your wishes, Mistress." Ocean Song bowed his head.
Sally Jackson was once more taken aback, mostly due to the sincerity she felt in his words. She knew her bluntness was rather rude, but she wanted to test him, despite how disarming he had been so far.
"Not Mistress." Sally said softly. "If you're going to... be around, don't call me 'Mistress' anymore; it sounds weird and people will give me looks."
"…Madam?" Ocean Song blinks.
"That's….better."
It was still a little awkward, everything in general for her, but Sally found herself smiling lightly.
Finally, she took a deep breath. "I'll tell him that you're his brother, and we'll see where things go from there."
Knowing that was a cue for Ocean Song, he manipulated the Mists again, so Percy's head shot up.
"What the hell? I felt like I was listening to the barney song on repeat over and over. Seriously, I swear I saw the purple dinosaur doing the worm through the living room." Percy looked around, shaking slightly.
Sally Jackson looked at Percy, then at Ocean Song.
"… Do you think it's intentional that I look like this?" Ocean Song admitted awkwardly. "I'm not very good at manipulating the mists."
Yet.
He would need practice.
"Percy, we need to have a talk." Sally said.
"Mom." Percy said it with full sincerity. "Even if he looks like a pimp and is like 10 years younger than you, I would happily take him as your boyfriend over smelly Gabe."
Sally Jackson twitched slightly. "You're just sprinting towards the finish line in the race for a spanking, aren't you?"
"I'm being serious!"
"And that just makes me want to smack your behind even more, Percy." His mom deadpanned. "I swear, where did this side of you even come from? Since when do you even know what a 'pimp' is?"
"Mom, I go to school for delinquents; do you really think I don't know about things?"
"Don't talk about your school like that." She lightly smacked his shoulder. "It makes you sound like a delinquent."
"Well, according to my parole officer, the judge, and my last six schools..."
"Percy, it was two schools."
"Which proves I belong in delinquent school; I can't even count!"
Sally let out an exasperated sigh. "Percy, serious time."
"What's wrong?" His expression changed; the young man was able to read the room. He looked at his mom, who was looking at Ocean Song, then he himself looked at the cyclops with eyes narrowed.
Ocean Song was surprised because the Trident on the other side of the room trembled slightly, and it wasn't from him.
"I'm your brother." Ocean Song realized it was a good moment to assist the madam. She looked thankful that he just ripped the band-aid off. "Half-Brother, mind you. But we are siblings."
"Can you teach me how to pimp slap Smelly Gabe if we're brothers?"
"Percy, one more comment." Sally warned.
"Okay, okay, that was my last one. It was starting to feel like beating a dead horse anyway." Percy held up his hands.
Ocean Song, however, found himself liking his younger brother.
"I'm guessing he's not your long-lost son, mom."
"We share a father." Ocean Song smiled good-naturedly.
"Right." Percy pursed his lips. "The Father I've never met, but I've been assured is amazing and awesome, but there's a reason he can't help us, and you married someone like Smelly Gabe for reasons. That Father?"
Sally Jackson opened her mouth, but Ocean Song was the one to respond first.
"Yes, that Father." Ocean Song, despite his own feelings towards his father, wouldn't deny Percy's legitimate grievances.
"Alright." Percy nodded, pushing up out of his seat as it scrapped against the tiled floor. "I'm out of here; I don't want to hear whatever crap this is."
"Percy, sit down."
"Why do I have to care about someone who never bothered with us!?"
"That's not the main point. plicated."
"It's always complicated; that's all you've ever said. Whenever I asked you why he wasn't here, why he never met me, why we had to put up with... that –" He pointed at Gabe on the floor. "It's complicated."
"Percy, sit down and I'll explain it properly, alright?" His mom tried to calm him down.
"It's the same song and dance every time, mom!" Percy's emotions rose rather quickly, and with Ocean Song's connection to water, he felt the water in the pipes of the house vibrate.
Ocean Song held up his hand as the mother-son duo began to argue, and the Trident, disguised as a broom, shot across the room right in front of their faces and fell between his fingers, abruptly stopping anymore shouting.
Slowly, Percy sat back down. "I think I'd like to listen now."
"That's probably for the best." Sally said softly.
"My name is Ocean Song; I'm not human, and I'm your brother."
"An Alien?"
"Yes." Ocean Song replied without missing a beat.
"I knew it." Percy nodded.
"You both!" Sally let out another exasperated sigh. "He's not an alien, Percy! And You—" She pointed at Ocean Song. "Explain properly."
Ocean Song cleared his throat. "I'm a Cyclops."
"An Alien Cyclops?"
"No, just a regular one with Three Eyes."
"Don't they have one eye? I remember them from some games.
"Don't worry about the details." Ocean Song waved off. "The point is, I'm a Cyclops, and I'm your brother."
"Oh Jesus, am I half Cyclops?" He looked at Sally.
"Percy, that makes no-"
"It's why you have two eyes, like a weirdo." Ocean Song informed him.
"I knew it; I was a freak all along!"
Sally began to rub the bridge of her nose as she counted down from ten. "Your father wasn't human. But he wasn't' a…Cyclops. Your father is a god; you're a half-god."
"….neat"
"...not the reaction I expected." His mom admitted.
"I'm still on the part where my half-brother over there pimp slapped Gabe into a coma while apparently being a Cyclops with three eyes." Percy responded. "So, who's my dad?"
"Greek God of the Sea. Don't say his name. Names have power; don't speak the names of any gods or monsters." Ocean Song quickly delved into the important bits to avoid any unfortunate accidents. "The reason you never knew before is that Demi-Gods put out a certain smell that attracts monsters. The more you know, the stronger the scent. Gods can be far worse than monsters if you get their attention. If you call a god's name, as well as a monster, it's basically a big spotlight telling them to look over."
"There's a reason he couldn't be around, Percy. He literally couldn't." His mom said.
"There are... rules that he's forced to follow. Gods are not allowed to meddle in the affairs of mortals overtly. They stepped back from the world for a reason a millennium ago." Ocean Song finished.
"That sounds stupid." Percy settled on.
"It is." Ocean Song didn't disagree. "You're taking this very well."
"I want to punch something." Percy replied.
Well, that was a normal reaction for a kid to be confused and angry, especially with these kinds of bombs dropped on him.
"Wait, you said that it's bad for me to know, but you just told me everything." Percy blinked in realization. "Isn't this bad?"
"I'll tell you what I told your mother. While I am around, you will come to no harm." Ocean Song said firmly.
"The purple suit makes me skeptical."
Ocean Song waved his hand, dismissing the mist around him, so he returned to his normal looks.
"Less cartoonish." Percy blinked again. "Is that magic? Can I learn magic?"
"Yes to both counts."
"Okay. Okay." Percy nodded.
"Percy, are you alright?"
"I think it's just finally hitting me. Am I crazy? I think I'm going crazy. Magic, haha." Percy chuckled.
"Perhaps...you should take over this talk in privacy?" Ocean song offered, knowing his role came to an end here.
To him, it seemed like something intimate that they should speak about from mother to child, and he didn't want to intrude.
"Thank you." Sally spoke with clear gratitude in her tone. "But... if you're gone..."
"Don't worry, I anticipated this." Ocean Song said with pride.
Truthfully, he didn't anticipate this; he was playing everything by ear.
But he did have a solution, like a proper Cultivator!
He took out his Talisman writing supplies that he was gifted by the Goddess Hecate and rotated his cultivation base to begin drawing a Talisman.
It was his first attempt after breaking through to the Golden Core realm with knowledge of 'how' he was supposed to write it.
Frankly, it still took an obscene amount of Qi, but considering what he was doing, he didn't find it strange.
The Talisman was complete, imbued with his Qi and power from his Golden Core cultivation base, yet it was only a temporary measure.
It was a talisman to hide his'scent' so to speak. It also hid him on several other layers for extra protection, but the important thing was to hide Percy's newfound scent.
Ocean Song noticed it throughout the time he had been here; despite shedding of his mortal coil, he could still smell Demi-Gods. And Percy's scent had increased substantially over the course of his visit.
It just showed how powerful the 'curse' cast for all Greek Demi-gods truly was. To permanently hide such a thing was beyond even his Golden Core Realm, but a temporary measure was good enough.
"This will hide you from monsters for now." He handed it to Percy. "It should last a few days."
"A piece of paper, just what I wanted, Santa."
"Percy, we're going to have talk about your sarcasm after." Sally snorted. "Thank you." She looked at me.
"I'll return in a few days to check up on you, Junior Brother." Ocean Song smiled.
Percy didn't have a witty thing to say at this point; it seemed like all this newfound information was weighing on him.
Ocean Song noted this and didn't linger for goodbyes, opting to depart immediately after his role ended.
It was a good time to seek out another of his goals.
He was still at the beginning stages of the Golden Core realm, and while he knew the general path forward, there were many things missing.
Specifically, he was lacking in experience.
Cultivators fight against the Heavens.
He hadn't done much fighting.
Sure, he had corralled most monsters in the city, but he had only swung his blade a handful of times and never been pushed.
He needed someone to fight.
Someone strong.
He considered his senior brother but pushed that thought away. He didn't wish to ruin the budding relationship in case he overstepped.
And asking any of the gods of Olympus or minor gods around the area for sparring seemed... unwise, considering his familial connections.
Thus, he had to think outside of the proverbial Greek box.
He hopped on his sword and flew Northeast.
With his speed, it didn't take long for him to arrive at his destination, several states away. Nor did it take long to find his specific target in this large city that he had entered for the first time.
The way the mists surged and rolled, gathering in one area, he found it rather easily.
The closest he's felt this kind of usage of the Mists from so far was when he could view Mount Olympus from a distance in its hidden form.
He wanted to find someone to spar with, and what better place than those that claim a warrior culture?
He stopped and smiled as he looked at the sign out in front of him.
Hotel Valhalla.
(Line Break)
A/N
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