Who: Rhode & Poseidon What: Daddy says hello When: Sunday afternoon Where: Down by the pier, New York Harbor Warnings: Language, Poseidon (it amuses me that he's his own warning XD), TBD
Rhode had been in the city for quite a while, she'd just been rather skilled at hiding herself. She knew there were other members of her family about, and she'd certainly felt it when her father had died. But she didn't go to them. She honestly didn't know how they would react to seeing her again.
But now she knew that her father was back on the surface, and her aunt was about. So, no time like the present, she supposed. The only problem was, she didn't have the slightest clue where to start looking. So if she couldn't start her search in the city, she'd start by the ocean. Which was what had brought her to sitting on a pier at the New York Harbor, shoes next to her, dangling her feet in the chilly Atlantic. The cold didn't bother her, she'd certainly felt much worse seas, both colder and rougher.
Gazing out at the waves, she thought about asking her aunt where they might be. If anyone knew, it would probably be her.
Poseidon pulled the lapels of his coat around his neck as that winter breeze set in. It was much more comfortable today than most, the air wasn't nearly as dry and the sun was out.
As he approached the pier, the sight ahead made the old sea dog's head spin. Twice. The image of Amphitrite stood right in front of him. The closer he came he found that image shattered as another of his children made their appearance. This one however, peaked his interest.
"You fucking kids pop up like daisies," he said in a low baritone with an amused kick of a laugh. His eyes were already fixated on the newest edition.
Rhode felt the presence of her father like she'd been punched in the stomach. He was all things home and the sea, and she hadn't even had to look very hard to find him.
"It's because it's so hard to get rid of us," she said confidently, finally turning to look at him. Her eyes weren't quite the sea-blue of his, they were closer to the blue-grey of the Atlantic stretched out in front of them. But there was no denying she was his child.
"Mother and the others are here too, I can feel them," she said, turning to face the water again. "Are they well?"
"Apparently. I'm going to have to use different methods to keeping you under." He grinned with a half cocked smirk. She was more willowy than her mother but just as attractive.
"Ah your mother is playing hide and seek," he placed his hands in his pockets. "One of you half-breed brats reared her head and your mom fled." It was the first time he let her go without sending out a search party. His way of giving in a little. For Amphitrite, Poseidon went soft.
She raised an eyebrow. "I don't get drowned, Dad. I do the drowning. And here I thought you might actually be pleased."
She sighed. "Half-breed, hmm? No wonder Mom's pulled a vanishing act, she sounds pissed. What's she like? If she's another Ky, the world is doomed."
Then she re-wound his words. "Wait, why aren't you laying the country to waste looking for her? Any other time, you would've gone after her and dragged her home. What changed?"
"What's your body count these days? Then I'll tell you if I'm pleased or not." He stood up beside her, probably closer than was comfortable for an unaffectionate father. She easily wrapped him into that strange circle where the women in his life, those he loved and hated the most were tightly wound into one woman. With Amphitrite gone he gravitated toward what reminded him of her the most.
"Quite the opposite," he sighed. "She's a spawn of fucking sunshine, I still swear she's not mine. A half Japanese brat."
He pondered that next question before finding an answer. "My island paradise with Hades," it was the most he would openly say right now about his time spent dead.
"As of the turning of the decade...maybe a dozen or so," she replied. "No one that would be missed, or even if they were, they deserved it. The last lesson they learned in this life was to not insult a goddess and expect to get away with it." She fought the urge to slide down the pier. He'd been doing this for so long, because she looked so much like her mother. But her skin was thicker than that, and she was pretty much used to it by now. So she remained where she was.
She finally stood and faced him, eyebrows raised. "What the fuck?" she asked, both amused and incredulous. "Oh, now I must meet her. She sounds so fun." She laughed a little, tossing her dark hair back over her shoulder.
"Yeah, I felt that when you died," she replied. "Hurt like a son of a bitch, thank you so much for that. Can you please not do that again? The sea was all but screaming at me, and I couldn't do anything to stop it. It sucked."
He gave her a nod, though whether or not it was of appraisal was up to her own discretion. Poseidon had only recently pushed through the walls of what would be parental, and even then he was still just riding the line. Those dark brows motioned a little higher as he leaned against the pier wall as he looked down to that hungry ocean beating against the beams.
Poseidon gave her a snort. "Careful now, she may break." In truth Poseidon was incredibly curious about the girl as well, but she was almost too darling to take seriously. She mocked everything he was about and it threw him back. He was waiting for the opportunity to pounce, to bend her backwards and see how long it would take before she curled into a puddle of tears. Apparently, breaking the skinny little sunbeam was about as difficult as prying his way out of the Underworld.
His back twitched against the memory, and he rolled his shoulders to get out the nonexistent kink. He would never say that trip didn't hurt like hell, but he sure wasn't going to admit it freely. It send a chill down his back. It would take time before his body adjusted to the fact that his soul had been twisted and wrung out before uniting again.
"Stung just a little," his facial features moving as if the ordeal had been nothing, his eyes indicating the opposite. He leaned back up, stretching slowly as if to shake it off.
Whether or not he approved did matter a little to Rhode, but not overly much. She had survived for so long on her own, without someone to be looking over her shoulder and judging her choices, that she just did as pleased anymore. It seemed that strength ran in Poseidon's line, whatever else you might say about it.
Rhode laughed. "Please. Like you even care. If she's as bubbly as you say she is, you're working on breaking her as we speak. You don't hold with cheery. The more violent and moody your kids turn out, the better. I am shocked daily that I turned out as well as I did."
Rhode's eyebrows were now making a bid for her hairline. "Sounds fun," she deadpanned. "But you were gone for over a month, and all of us felt it every single day. The sea went insane. The fish died. And don't get me started on the drama queenesque storm that broke over the Harbor the night you came back." She was ranting a little now, but she knew it had to be through Poseidon's own doing that he wound up enjoying Hades' hospitality in the first place. "So can you pretty please not die again? Because that would be super awesome."
"What me?" he asked pressing a hand to his chest in a feigned shock. "That would make me one mean sonuvabitch. I'm waiting for the right time to pounce." Just like he had her mother and ruined every bit of normalcy any woman in his life (or past for that matter) would ever have. "Well, at least a few of you have something going for you," he smirked.
"A month, really? Felt a little longer," his voice tapered off at the end, the roll of the ocean waves crashing against he shore covering up that weak spot in his own explanation. He held out his arms with a chuckle. "What can I say, sweat pea, I like making a grand entrance."
"Ding ding ding, we have a winner," Rhode replied dryly. "Of course you are. Although let me guess. She's already met the rest of the family-except Mom, since I'm pretty sure she'd claw her eyes out-and she and Triton are BFF. How much did I get right?" she finished with a smirk. She honestly did love her brother, but sometimes he was a bit too soft for her taste. In her experience, being soft only meant that people walked all over you.
"That's because we're awesome," she said with a smirk. "We learned to survive any way we could. Sometimes to make an omelet, you gotta crack a few eggs."
"A month and some change," she said, shrugging. "Felt like fucking forever, however long it was. The world felt wrong." Her voice was flat as she finished, because even though her father wasn't a lovey-dovey person, he was still her dad, and knowing that he was dead and she hadn't even seen him, it hurt.
She rolled her eyes. "And I repeat, drama queen. You could've slipped back into the world, but nooooo. Epic thunderstorm instead."
"You're brother is on the welcome wagon when he's not doing flips at seaworld. Someone shows up and he's putting out his hand." Poseidon gave a snort. "The girl's thick as a damn wall though, she's got some stubbornness in her." He laughed then, waving his fingers and watching the waves climb a few feet higher as they skirted around a mini whirlpool.
"You can thank Zeus for his shiny execution style via impalement." He rubbed his stomach. If he hadn't reared his ugly head, Poseidon wouldn't have needed to see Hades' red light hotel. "What's the fun in just taking a stroll back into the world if you don't take a few innocents down with you? Can't let Zeus have all the fireworks."
Rhode rolled her eyes again. Those were piling up rather quickly, she noticed. "That's what Triton does, he's a one-man tourist information center, complete with actually being the tour guide."
"We've all got that, that's nothing special," she said dismissively, watching as he made the waves dance. She knew he could make grander displays if he wanted, and she'd managed to hang on to a little power too, although she hadn't used it for a while. Mostly because there hadn't been anyone around to impress. She knelt down again, touching her fingers to the water and watching as it shaped itself into a column about three inches high. Her domain had never been specifically over the ocean, but she'd picked up a few small tricks over the centuries. There wasn't much else to do when you were living on an island for hundreds of years.
"Bah, Zeus," she said, withdrawing her hand. "Although you can't exactly write yourself as the innocent party here, I know how much you like provoking him. What'd you do this time?"
She rolled onto her back, looking up at him and tilting her head as she thought about it a little. "Hmm. You may have a point. But still, you might as well have put up a flashing neon sign saying 'This storm is not natural'. I'm just saying."
She was easy to watch when even the angle of her face resembled the only woman to take his heart and keep it. He found himself with a steady glance from her face and to the water she very casually attempted to manipulate. Small in comparison to that of himself, but it was a pinch at least. The tactic did not go unnoticed, which was perhaps her plan in the first place. He gave her a small and very snide smirk.
"She's got her head filled with ridiculous notions that I'm some fucking Percy Jackson, Disney dad." It seemed even when he was particularly nasty, she wouldn't crash. Not yet, he'd have to dig really deep.
Poseidon's face turned sour, "Near killed his brat for fucking your mother. That's reason enough." Amphitrite had been fairly untouched until the Greece episode, and then Mr. shining hero had to ride in months later when she was very much separated from Poseidon and under Eros' love drunk spell.
His throat felt a little tight, like he was drowning under his own water. That's how it had been that night swimming to the surface not able to take the ocean's forceful embrace. He'd been away from her for too long them. He rubbed the skin clearing his throat. "It was just tinge flashy. I could have staged more earth-shattering effects, but," he weaved his fingers together for a good crack, "thought I'd hang on to that one for another occasion." As if him dying was just another holiday to throw on the calender. It was a big deal, for all of them, and while on the outside it may have seemed he'd learned not a damn thing, he was stunted, that was for sure.
OK, she knew when she was busted. She'd never have anywhere near the power over water that he had, or even that most of her siblings had. But if you ever needed a tangible show of the fact that they were blood, that was it. Maybe it was her own way of looking for approval, not that she'd ever admit to it.
"Then she needs to be disabused of those notions quickly, or things are going to go to Hades faster than you can say 'Percy Jackson'," she said, idly trailing her fingers through the air.
She sat up quickly at his words. "Wait, Mom slept with one of Zeus' kids? What the actual fuck? Fuck, what else have I missed?"
"Yes, because there are going to be so many other occasions for you to make stupidly large thunderstorms," she said, standing up and brushing off her clothes. She could sense something had changed since she'd seen him last, but also that he didn't want to talk about it. And despite her being a bit of a smart mouth, she knew when to back off. "Maybe next time you can sink an island for a big finish."
"She's got a crack somewhere, I've got to find it," his eyes thinned as he thought about it. The surest way would be to get through to her from her mother, the root of those ghastly stories to begin with. Clingy little bitch.
His own water ministrations came to a halt as his tone was far more serious than it had been just moments before. Call it the curse of the children of the sea to be temperamental, closing up like a clam when things hit a little below the belt. Pride was a very hard thing to overcome. "I blame that on the winged fairy of Aphrodite's." Eros was a little beast who also had come under Poseidon's wrath. Poseidon didn't take kindly to the fact that his wife was plucked from his control and into the arms of someone else. Not only that, but this brush with death had him realize the value she held for him. Amphitrite was but like the wooden columns that held this pier up. If they were struck or blown aside then the entire piece would come falling down. Poseidon would do the same and he'd never come back with an ounce of good left in him if that happened. Thus, his reasoning for letting Amphitrite do as she wanted now. Which was something he would not have been able to tolerate before death.
"Letting another Bermuda Triangle rear her head sounds more fun."
"Well if anyone can find it, it's you," she said, the patting of his shoulder only slightly mocking. "Go get 'em, tiger."
She watched as he all but shut down right in front of her. This was obviously a touchy subject for him, but it sounded like there was at least someone to blame. "Eros, hmm? He matched up Mom with someone else? Seriously, someone just needs to cut off his wings and mail them to Aphrodite. Maybe then she'll take the hint and reign him in."
"OK, that would be pretty cool," she admitted, cracking a little smile. "If only because you know the humans would freak the fuck out."
"Cut is much too humane, ripping them out by each feather is more exciting. And if his wings are not intact I'll go for ripping off his limbs. He's too coddled." His words were not nearly as vile as he wished. Poseidon missed his wife more than his loathe for past transgressions.
"Humans are pitiful."
She shrugged. "Then go for it, maybe it'll help. Or it'll get some of your rage out. Although you know that if you lay hands on him, she'll send Ares after you. Your call either way. But I agree, he really is too coddled. Probably because he's her favorite."
She snorted. "They are that. Some of them aren't so bad, they can be useful, but on the whole, they don't stir a whole lot of sympathy from me."
"I played that role already, Ares hits like a girl." At least he'd had a few un-cracked ribs after that. Poseidon was stubborn, and both he and Ares liked throwing punches, that fight had kept Poseidon laughing for days, even if it did burn a little. "She needs to find a new favorite, or that runt won't live much longer."
Poseidon laughed. "Where have you been hiding?" he gave her a once over that pushed a little on the boundaries, "You're the one I don't get sick of."
She snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure the god of war hits like a girl," she said, not believing it for a minute. "Although with the way he keeps firing off those arrows of his, I don't doubt that. Someone needs to break his bow in half."
She shrugged. "Brighton Beach," she said, combing her fingers idly through her hair, not caring about the fact that it tended to make her look like a mermaid on dry land. "I've been here about 60 years, just quiet." Then she smirked. "Aww, lucky me. I take it Triton and Ky aren't the best of company?"
"Of course he does, its kind of pitiful." Ares had obviously made a blow or two to Poseidon's adoled brain. His vacation underground hadn't been that much more pleasant.
"They get tiresome," he said "you're much more appealing," his voice dropped to a heavy roll, advancing in its tone.
She sighed, waving her hands in the air like she could brush this whole conversation away. Her father was a stubborn bastard, and sometimes, even just listening to him go on made her tired. "As you say, then."
She held her ground, for all that his voice slithered into her brain and wrapped itself tight around it. "I'll just bet," she said, muttering a few curses under her breath in Gaelic. She'd picked it up from the neighborhood she'd lived in when she first landed in America, fresh off the boat with salt still in her hair, wondering about this new land and her place in it.
But it seemed like he hadn't changed at all. He still saw more of her mother in her than any of his children, called her the spitting image of Amphitrite, albeit a bit more slender and with redder hair.
"Well good for me, then," she said with a smile.
He always walked the line with Rhode but never crossed it. See how much she panics if he pressed as far as he could without Amphitrite stalking out for good. He favored her and that was obvious, like he did few of his children. Or maybe, just maybe the old god was actually making an unseen effort with his children that were present.
"Have any plans or are you just enjoying the scenery?" He leaned his elbows over the pier railing, soaking in that salt water smell. He didn't come near the ocean nearly as often as he used to since his return. The ocean and him, they still had some exploring to do again, much like it had been the first time he was granted the waters for his kingdom.
It wasn't panic that made her tense her shoulders and curl her fingers. It was more of a combination of 'Oh, please' and 'Get away before I slap you'. She knew he tended to favor her, and she also knew he did these things to get a rise out of her. After centuries of this, she was used to it, even if the tightening of her shoulders was involuntary.
She shrugged. "Might take a few classes. Maybe get a job. I don't know. I came down here because it's as close as I'll ever get to going back home." She missed her island, missed her Colossus, missed everything about it. She'd always resent the Gestapo for forcing her to flee.
"So what are you doing with yourself, now that Mom's not here?" she asked.
His eyes scanned the ocean, the water now but a feathering touch against the beams. She called him in her angelic whisper, soothing, not at all seductive, she missed him. The ocean waters missed him, he was still too far away for her to touch.
He closed his eyes for a moment, listening to that hum as it whistled through his ears. "Hawaii's much better," he insisted, but the last time he'd been there was after Amphitrite's encounter with those Greek goons. Something about the cold, hard city attracted him though, perhaps it was that constant rush of energy. It was the city that never slept.
His hands clapped against the railing. "A job you say." Well, he'd never managed to reel in Triton to the family business. "What do you say, want to work for dear old dad?"
She tilted her head, listening to both him and the breezes rolling in off the ocean. "I've never been," she admitted. "It's warmer there, right? I miss the warmer waters."
She looked at him, interest peaked. "That depends on the job, I guess. If it's something I'd be good at, sure."
"Your mother likes the scenery." It was warmer, calm, much more the atmosphere that they used to live in. Since moving to New York ten years ago, the spark had died down. It was part of what changed Poseidon in a way that was unpleasant to Amphitrite. "It is warm. Clear air and oceans." The sea below whistled again as he spoke, this time with a more melodic voice.
His arm wrapped around her shoulder, "I'm sure you'd fit in just fine. Slaughtering people with money is a fun gig." Zeus had gotten into business so Poseidon had followed suit. It was all about the competition.
"No wonder she does, it's pretty, from the pictures I've seen," she replied. "I'd like to go sometime. I miss the cleaner ocean, this one's gray and cold and dying. They don't treat it like they should."
"So, what, I'd be a hit girl?" she asked, an impish light dancing in her eyes. "Because no lie, that would be kind of fun."
He kept bringing up Amphitrite subconsciously. Her attachment to him was as strong as a jelly-fishes strike. Poseidon was a god above her, apart from his siblings, but she was every bit a part of himself, especially in her absence. It was when he felt it the most. His finger trailed against the wooden beam, a fingernail scraped on a wet spot. "It chokes her, this city." He spoke of the ocean as if she were flesh and blood, like he would a woman, his eternal mistress.
"That depends on how well you take orders," he said deeply in her ear and a squeeze against her shoulders.
She could tell how much he missed Amphitrite. Gods, she missed her too, but probably never in the way he did. Still, she couldn't wait for her mother to be back, it had been years and years since she'd seen her last.
"It was never supposed to be so grey," she said softly. "The waters look sick, like they're dying. It's not right."
"I don't take orders from anyone but you and Mom," she said, raising her chin a little in defiance.
Poseidon wouldn't verbally announce how he longed for that woman, but the obviousness of it was in the way he spoke to the way he carried himself. They'd been together so long, a team of the ocean and what was a King without a Queen? Nothing but an empty, lonely kingdom.
His eyes rolled back slightly, listening to the ocean's cries. She was as ecstatic as the rest of the sea clan that he was around. The ocean was lost without her captain, and now he wasn't sure how to steer her. Her gray and dull heart made his just the same. "They're listless," he tilted his head, sliding his arm from around her. "She needs more." When mortals disrespected the ocean it affected him, this time of the year it made things frigged.
"Good, because I'll be the one giving you orders," he gave her a wide grin.
She nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. Grey was never a good color for waters, unless they were being whipped into a tempest. "Sometimes I wonder if it's too late, if they've fucked everything up beyond repair. They had to know this would catch up to them in the end."
She rolled her eyes, grinning a little herself. "And we all know how much you love giving orders."
The water itself always reflected Poseidon's inner feelings, but perhaps he was letting this cold city turn him again. It's the price he paid without Amphitrite. If the damned woman didn't show her face soon he would be forced to find her. He'd given her plenty of time to herself, this was thinning his patience, considering he had none, he was being very generous. "Mortals ruin themselves, I kind of enjoy watching."
"I presume that is a yes, because I'll hardly take no for an answer."