Demiurge (a Poseidon self-insert in Percy Jackson)

He had been on his boat in the ocean when he had felt approaching his pirate boat another deity. It wasn't as if it was the first time a stronger or a prideful god had tried to battle him. They hated his existence because of his parentage, because, he was the child of one of the strongest and most hated gods of their pantheon and of a minor goddess turned monster. Just because of his parentage, he had been deformed, and imperfect when he was a god. There wasn't a worse humiliation than this. Pegasus, Hephaestus and he were the only ones that could be said that came wrong amongst gods. Well, it had been the case.

Arion had been born stuck as a winged horse, the first one and he had inherited the monstrous traits of their mother. Gods that couldn't break their own curses, gods that couldn't shapeshift. Could such beings really be called gods?

After all, if they had been proper gods and not steins in Poseidon's eyes, he would have cared for them.

He had in youth almost believed all the lies, all of the mockeries. What had made him finally sure of his nature was when he had tried in the past to use the golden sword that he had been born with to end his life and instead of the presence of scarlet blood and the appearance of his soul in the underworld found golden Ichor, the blood of the gods spewing like a fountain from his wrist.

He still remembered the scream pushed out of the throats of his aunts when they saw his state. They had after that became overprotective of him until they found him to be strong and mature enough to venture into the world. He would find later that they chose to fade the day after he had left.

Immortality was the highest thing that somebody could be blessed to be born with. That’s what was thought. It was seen as a blessing when in reality, it was a curse masquerading as one. Living forever meant living forever with your mistakes and your guilt. Worse, they could be immortalised by mortals, and become a never-ending reminder of things wished and lost.

When he left the island of his family and ventured into the world, he had been full of innocence and curiosity. Even though he was raised by what a lot would call monsters, those monsters had taught him to be kind.

The thing is how can you be kind when it feels like the world is against you? How can you be kind when your existence is seen as an insult and a defilement of the natural order?

He was born with his brother from the union of Medusa and Poseidon in Athena temple and the war goddess was one to which cruelty came easily. She was after all the daughter of her father. She had sent heroes and monsters against Pegasus and chrysaor.

They said that Pegasus accepted to be the mount of Bellerophon. It was nothing more than a lie. True Consent doesn’t equal mind-controlling magical artefact. Chrysaor had waited until Bellerophon was old and not under the attention of Athena and from the sky, he made him fall to his death freeing his brother. No myths recounted that fact. After all, it’s not as if the most known ones weren’t written by spawns of the war goddess.

He fought dangerous beasts, monsters, and gods saved cities and brought water to places where existed drought. He made exploits worthy of worship but none of that satisfied him, none of that made him content, made him happy.

What had made him happy had been her. She was still in his heart the most beautiful thing in the world, his Callirhoe. He had once thought himself alone at the sea and had removed his mask hiding the features he had inherited from his cursed mother. He had heard a gasp of shock coming from the sea itself.

The one that had seen him was a child of Oceanus. He had expected disgust to well up on her beautiful face. What had instead bloomed on her face had been fascination and innocent curiosity.

“Aren’t you scared” he had asked her this day. “Aren’t you disgusted?”

“No my lord”, she had replied.

They didn’t fall in love like in a fairytale where at first sight, the two protagonists proclaim their unadulterated love to each other.

It took time. Chrysaor had never known kindness from somebody coming from outside his family. He was also a child of Poseidon whether he wanted it or not, the one that had usurped the control of all of the oceans over the brother of Kronos that was her father.

Each week, they’d meet at a secret and precise spot and talk about everything they could think of. They had talked of their hopes, of their dreams, of how the stupidity and hatred of immortals and mortals created unneeded suffering. They debated on what made things right or wrong. “Power” had Chrysaor declared to her. Power was the reason the kronides were able to dethrone their father and shape the world as they saw fit.

Power had been the reason why Athena was able to curse others, transform them into monsters, send so-called heroes to slay them and still be called a just and kind goddess. Power had been the reason that defined all his life.

After answering, he had asked her what was for her the root of what made things as they were, that classified them as right and wrong. She had boldly said kindness. She had told him that if the first sky father had been kind, he wouldn’t have been usurped from his throne by his children.

The same wouldn’t have happened to the Titans if their king had chosen kindness over fear and hate. If the titan king had shown kindness to his progeny, his golden age would have maybe been still continuing to this day.

Here he had been with someone that repeated to him the words of his now-faded aunts. Kindness they had said. Maybe if the world had been kinder, chrysaor would have had a happy family.

He had asked her 5 years after their first meeting to be his wife and she accepted. He had almost gone mad because of the joy he felt. They married on the island of his childhood and lived for decades a blessed filled life.

Alas, it was in the nature of the world to crush hopes, dreams and happiness. Athena had learnt by a way that he didn’t know that Callirhoe had married him, had made him the son of ex priestess that she had cursed and planned the death happy.

She went to her grandfather, the titan of the sea that didn’t know, Oceanus and informed him of this. Oceanus's ire exploded when he learnt that one of his daughters married a monstrous child of Poseidon. The titan gave a choice to his daughter, being forever cut for the sea or breaking her marriage.

No one even him had expected her to do such folly, such defying act. No one expected her to rupture by herself her link to the sea. She had told Chrysaor that the sea may have been her home, an essential part of her being but it could never compare to him that was her everything.

The both of them left the ocean to live on an island where the inhabitants had been saved by Chrysaor and he was worshipped because of it by them. He made her his queen and in return, she bore him a child they named Geryon, she gave him what he had always longed for, a family of his own.

They ruled for centuries together. They built a kingdom named Erytheia that all of the other city-states wished they could be. They built a haven where no one had to fear being excluded, shunned or killed because of their differences. When they had been tired of the ruling, they gave the kingship to their child Geryon and retired to the secluded mountains of their kingdom to live just the two of them.

Chrysaor wished that it had never stopped. He wished that the fates, cruel daughters of Ananke had been kinder. Callirhoe had been an immortal linked to the oceans. She wasn’t like him from the sea but not completely dependent on it. He had been born with a domain unique to himself. his control of bodies of water that He had been born with, that he inherited from his father hadn’t been removed as it had been with his wife.

He had watched the one he loved the most in the world suffer because she had removed an essential part of her because of her love for him. He had done everything that could be done to stop her from fading.

He stole golden apples from Hera’s garden that could make mortals become immortals. It only gave him more time. He went to his brother Khrysomallos mostly known today as the Golden Fleece to beg him to help with his healing powers before his mind was turned into the ram constellation by Zeus. He was so desperate that he had begged his father and when he didn’t answer, begged Athena herself. Nothing worked.

The last resort that he had found was a ritual, more precisely a ritual that turned mortals into gods. To do such, gods would have to permanently give a part of their divine power, of themselves to ascend the chosen mortal. It’s what had been done with Asclepius and Apollo.

In his case, he would give up his birthright, and his authority over the seas to his wife to replace what she had lost. She was more important than everything to him. Alas, his sweet Callirhoe discovered what he had planned and chose to end her existence before he could make Himself lower.

He had come back ready to save his wife to find instead an empty home. He had gone mad from grief. He had raged against the world. His emotions and despair created worldwide floods and led hundreds of thousands of mortals to the realm of Hades.

The one that had brought him from the madness had been his father, Poseidon himself. He had become such a threat that only an Olympian had a chance to stop his rampage. He had woken up in Atlantis where his fractured mind would be consolidated.

Poseidon had asked to stay underwater but how could he stay with the one that could have helped him but didn’t, that could have made sure that Callirhoe would still be alive. On the first occasion he had, where he was healed enough, he left the home of his father.

He had sworn to himself to never put foot again on the earth as long as he didn’t find a way to resurrect Callirhoe. It was probably foolish but a part of him hoped that sailing through the oceans, he could find a way to bring his wife back.

The oceans had at their surface and in their abyss secrets that could even make Gods like Nereus lose their minds. It meant that it probably existed a way to bring her back.

For millenniums, he sailed tirelessly. He fought against deep sea abominations, raided mundane and supernatural boats, and killed or beat everyone be they gods, mortals or monsters that tried to put themselves on his path.

While he had been sailing days ago, something happened. He had felt light, burning light on his face. It’s as if his face had been melted. The pain had made his vision go white and made him grind his teeth against each other. It would have probably made other beings go mad or kill them because of shock. For him, it did none of those things. It may have been painful but how could such physical pain compare itself to what he felt since Callirhoe's disappearance? He had wondered if what was happening to him was another way found by Athena to torment him or if an enemy he had made in his quest had found a way to curse him.

When he had come back to his senses and had checked his face to see what could have been done to him, he had been shaken by the reflection of himself in the mirror. Where was once a monster was now an undeniably attractive person that looked like a beautiful female version of his father with softer features.

He had been called the same day later by his twin through the service of the rainbow goddess and had found instead of a winged horse a young attractive looking man with long black wavy hair, ocean blue eyes and wearing a long purple ribbon tied to the waist, white pants leaving his feets bare on the grass where he stood. From his back displayed proudly were wings of the colours of an eagle's - gold, white, brown and rust - which made him look like a divine creature straight from Christian mythology.

Both of them had gone through the same harrowing experience and came out of it changed. The curse that they had inherited at birth from their mother by Athena had been dispelled. What they had wished for since the beginning had been all of sudden given to them. The curse could have only been broken by its original caster, a powerful witch or a stronger god than the original caster. Thinking about Athena breaking the curse made them laugh hysterically.

The day the goddess would repair a prejudice caused by her pride would be the day the gods of the Greek pantheon would begin to act as a functional, caring and happy family, something that would never happen.

It left only two options that were either a powerful witch the Like of Pasiphaë or Circe that never did anything without expecting something in return or having a hidden motive behind the act. Plus, they hated men, so it was most likely not them. The only option left was a god but which one had been the question?

Doing such a thing even for an immortal stronger or equal to Athena would have been difficult. The curse only became stronger with time and they had been cursed for millenniums since the belly of their mother before they came to the world.

They had ended their communication with promises to talk to each other about what they had found one month later. The breaking of the curse had made him happy. It’s just that he would have wanted her to be there, to show this joy with her. If he could have switched blessings and luck, he would have instead made sure that she would come back.

He left his mind and went back to the real world. The sea was churning before him. The divinity that was coming was strong and just by its presence changed the pattern of the body of water around Chrysaor.

Chrysaor grabbed the handle of his golden sword. Stronger god or not, he would not back down.

The other god came out of the sea rising from it. His green sea eyes made sure of revealing his identity. Chrysaor left the handle of his sword and let himself lower his guard. The god’s presence has been different, had felt like an abyss full of horrors waiting to be unleashed at any moment. It had reminded him of when he had felt the presence of Varuna, a flicker of his attention when he had sailed on the Indian Ocean. His father was in his essence a wild god. He had under his portfolio not only the sea but also most of the primary domains of his siblings that he shared with them. What had made him unrecognisable was that he felt like none of those things.

His father was now feet planted in the sea, standing over it as if it was solid. “May I come on your ship?” his father said.

He stopped himself from automatically denying the request of the older God. Poseidon could be called many ignominious things that would probably pale to what he really was but one of the things that everyone could agree with is that Poseidon had and will never hurt directly his children.

“You can” he replied to the son of Rhea. The god turned into drops of water that flickered green dispersing themselves before reappearing on the boat on the side of Chrysaor before taking the shape of his father. The god could have just walked or breached the distance with a jump but instead had chosen to be theatrical.

He turned his uncursed face towards the god” “What do you want” he asked him.

“Maybe see the result of my work” the older god replied cheekily.

“You’re the one that did that? You, Poseidon?” He asked shocked. Why did he act now when since Pegasus and Chrysaor's birth, since all of this time, he could have acted, done something.

“ Is that really surprising? You’re my child after all” the older gold told him looking at him in the eyes.

“Maybe it is Oh benevolent god because when I called for you in the past of the island where I was born, when my wife, Callirhoe was fading, you didn’t answer any of them so sorry for seeing that you, my lord care!” Chrysaor screamed with mockery at the end of his sentence at the other god.

The god sighed and turned his head towards the sea.” You’re right” the god said. “I could have done something but I didn’t and now I’m here before you expecting thanks and praise for something that should have been done”.

Chrysaor listened dumbfounded. Poseidon was as if not more prideful than Athena herself and here he was admitting a wrong. He had expected the god to get angry, not to act like that.

“Why weren’t you there for Pegasus and me? Why didn’t you help Mother before Athena sent Perseus after her? All gods living outside Mother’s island knew you knew. Did you ever have a modicum of love for her” Chrysaor questioned his father.

“I did and a big part of me still loves her Chrysaor but sometimes, love and care aren’t enough. Oceanus hated me and his deep hatred still run hot for me. He learnt of your mother and me. He could not directly affect me but he could for your mothers. Do you remember who she was the priestess?”He asked.

“Yeah,” Chrysaor” answered,” of Athena”.

“Oceanus is Athena’s grandfather. Athena didn’t know what was happening between your mother and me. She was also raised by Triton and my wife Amphitrite. She saw it as a personal slight.”

Chrysaor had known the parentage of the war goddess but had never thought about how it could have factored in the tragic things that had happened to him and his maternal family.

Poseidon continued” She waited until I wasn’t there. I was called in Atlantis by an attack on my territories by Oceanus forces. I easily rooted them out. I should have known that it was a distraction. While I wasn’t there, Athena cursed your mother twisting her divinity to create the source of her torment. It affected your brother and you, my children, that were in her stomach.”

“Then why didn’t you come after,” The son asked his father.

“Because of Amphitrite.” He said.

“Amphitrite?”.

“Yeah, Athena even it pains me to say it isn’t dumb. She had made contingencies. She knew that sooner or later, I would know. She couldn’t stop that but what she could stop was me helping your mother and she used Amphitrite”.

“How does Amphitrite factor in this. You’re stronger than her, she’s just your queen. You’re lying”. Chrysaor said.

The older god turned towards him fixing him dead in the eyes” It’s not the truth Chrysaor. Amphitrite inherited everything from her parents and grandparents, everything Chrysaor. She’s exactly like it” Poseidon said while pointing at the sea.

Chrysaor didn’t need him to explain more. He understood. Names had power, names gave attention and attention even for Gods could be dangerous.

“She told Amphitrite that more than having cheated, that I had fallen in love, that your mother worked towards the goal of me leaving Amphitrite. Your mother hadn’t been the first one I truly loved. She had been the second. The first one that I loved that even adjectives like romantics wouldn’t be enough was Scylla.”

“Scylla, the giant sea abomination? You had a bad taste.” Chrysaor answered shocked.

“She wasn’t always like that. She had been fierce, more Beautiful than the stars and strong even amongst god. Unfortunately, she wasn’t strong enough. Amphitrite would have sent her back to the nothing if I hadn’t begged for her life. Amphitrite had instead turned her into the monster she is known today so when she learned about your mother, I had to prove to her that I didn’t care. I left Medusa to her fate because know Chrysaor that it exists worse things than death in this cruel world” the older god told him.”

“I thought that with your strength, nothing could stop you from doing what you wished” Chrysaor spoke.

“We’re gods to mortals, supernova they could only envy the splendour and shine but there’s always someone stronger. This world is one founded on Power”.

It was ironic Chrysaor thought. He had hated his father, he had thought he hadn’t cared when he did. Poseidon was like him. He had been someone that had lost what he had held dear because he wasn’t powerful enough. He had lost two Callirhoe and was stuck for all eternity with the one that took them from him. They stayed in silence listening to the sound of the waves.

“You weren’t the only one that I helped. I had been in New York two days ago and met your mother.”

“You truly helped? What about Amphitrite?”

“I don’t care anymore about the consequences. What I did was probably foolish but it was something I was proud of doing” Poseidon said.” For once, I want to live without regrets.

“ without regrets? Yeah, it sounds good” Chrysaor said wistfully.

“Did you hear about the stealing of my brother’s glow sticks of doom? Poseidon asked Chrysaor.

“Yeah, through the winds and the waves.
Apparently, you’re the one that did it through a new demigod you sired. Did you?”

“I didn’t but I think that maybe I should have. At least this way, I’d be accused of something that I actually did” the kronide replied.” “Zeus wants it back before the solstice or it’ll be war.”

“Are you scared, wary of this future clash? Do you think you could lose?”

“Lose?” The god laughed as if he heard the funniest joke. “I wouldn’t lose. I would crush them Chrysaor and I’m in case of war, I want you on my side”. The voice of the god had become wild. It reverberated as if echoing.

“Even though I hate your family as much as you do, I promise myself to never go back on land except it was with Callirhoe. “ Chrysaor shook his head. ”I can’t”.

“Then, what if I could give her back to you. I know how to bring immortals from the beyond”. Chrysaor turned his head so fast towards his father that it would give whiplash to mortals if they had seen it.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s do it now!” Chrysaor exclaimed.

“I would like to but I need all my names reunited in the same place and a place where I wouldn’t be disturbed but with the war coming, I can’t allow myself to not multitask but if you helped me, if you helped your brother Percy that is supposed to go on a quest soon for the lightning bolt to give it back to its master stopping the threat of a war, I’ll bring her back.”

Chrysaor began to think. He could see Callirhoe if he accepted the proposal of the god but how could he be sure that the God wasn’t only using him while he needed him and that he will discard him after?

“Swear on the Styx Father and I’ll help, swear and I will know that I can trust you,” Chrysaor said to his father.

“Alright,” the kronide said. “ I Poseidon, lord of the oceans, of Atlantis, son of Kronos and Rhea swear before the heavens, the earth and the Styx that if Chrysaor helps me, I will bring back the naiad named Callirhoe.” Lightning tore the sky. Tremors began to make themselves known as if an undersea volcano had erupted. More than that, Chrysaor could feel himself being watched as a prey before a predator stalking its prey.

“What was that,” Chrysaor asked while holding his hand over his heart”.

“That my son was the correct way to bind any Greek being to its promises. The Styx wait for mortals having broken their promises in the underworld to push retribution and punishment. Except for my brother and some of his cronies, few immortals live in the underworld but we all whether we want it or not descendants of the sky and the earth and blood got power Chrysaor.”

“What do you want me to do father?

“Soon, your brother will go on a quest and be confronted by a servant of Hades. It will happen soon at the exit of the Lincoln Tunnel. ” His father said his eyes peering into things Chrysaor couldn’t.

“There’s just a little problem, Father, I don’t got any ideas of where it is. You forgot where I lived all this time”.

The older god put his hands over his eyes “How could I have been so stupid?” The god of the oceans opened his palm. In it, a green ball of energy materialised before flying into chrysaor.

Chrysaor had not expected nothing to happen.” What was This for?”

“Tell me Chrysaor”, his father told him. “Where is New York?”

“New York is a state on the northeast side of the United States and is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to its south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to its east; it shares a maritime border with Rhode Island and an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to its north and Ontario to its northwest,” Chrysaor said automatically without thinking before realising.

“I put all the maps of the United States in your mind. It would be impossible for you to not know now geographically where you are as long you are in the US. You’re the first God gps.” Poseidon said proudly.

“ I won’t even ask old man. I’ll help on the little quest of your new child and after that, you’ll bring back Callirhoe” Chrysaor said. “Deal?” He asked his father

“It’s a Deal” his father answered with a nod of the head.” You also got in the map in your mind all the locations of the things that I own or that I don’t own that I think could help you. Goodbye Chrysaor, I count on you”. A wave swept on the deck of the ship where they were. When the water receded, Poseidon was gone.