Ocean Song felt like he was lucky.
Seeing an angry god was frightening.
Clarification: seeing an angry god he couldn't win against was frightening.
Everyone knew that as a cultivator, you could only punch downwards. You must run away or kiss the feet of those that are stronger than you.
So, when he, rightfully, knew that something was amiss, he did the most intelligent thing.
He ran away.
He may or may not have done things to piss the god off even further, but who could even place blame?
The God could, but since Ocean Song escaped, that means he could act like it was a big misunderstanding and pretend everything was fine.
Yes, he pondered these philosophical questions as Nessie—the Great Void Sect protecting Divine Beast—swam through the void, holding him in her mouth.
If he weren't covered in saliva and held firmly in her jaw, he may have struck a heroic pose at his triumphant escape.
Alas, he could only settle for the angry shouts of the god as they slowly grew quieter and quieter.
One might think it was the skill and strength of the Great Sect Protection Void Divine Beast, but Ocean Song would argue that since he recruited the Great Divine Void Sect Protecting Divine Beast, that means that he can take the credit.
Truthfully, he didn't actually know what the god wanted or what he was summoned to be summoned for. Something about being called to Olympus, but that didn't bode well, so he made a tactical retreat.
He could ask his father later, maybe, probably.
Ocean Song was of the thought that if you ignore problems, they can go away.
He pat Nessie's nose. "Go Nessie, take us somewhere safe where the angry god can't find us."
The most obvious thought was to take them back to the sect. But that was probably the first place the god would check.
He could also go hide in the underworld, but Uncle Hades kicked him out.
The last option was to go hide behind his father, but that would be literally the second place the god would check.
Therefore, he only had one option!
To rely on Nessie because even Ocean Song doesn't know the depths in which Nessie has explored the world.
She made a muffled noise as she turned and shot through the void, penetrating it, popping out the other side where the bright sun shone down on them and saltwater tickled her face.
Bessie unceremoniously spat him out, and Ocean Song went face-first into a big pile of sand.
"Bawhooo~" Nessie happily hit her flippers against the ground.
Ocean Song recognized the taste of this sand.
They were most certainly at the ocean!
"Well done, Nessie. You are truly the most reliable sect member." He gave her well-deserved praise.
Ocean Song surveyed the surroundings. He was very clearly on an island of some sort; his Divine Sense swept out, and he could form an image of the island in his mind.
However, the strangest thing occurred.
When he tried to push his senses outwards to the horizon, he felt like his divine sense got caught in a maze.
No, that wasn't quite accurate either.
The Mists were just so thick that they were basically a barrier.
Ocean Song realized that this place was cut off from the world, a respite from an ancient era.
Even the taste of the salt on the air was different than normal. As the son of Poseidon, and with a connection to the sea, he could feel how old the ocean around here was.
Even when waves ebb and flow, a certain ancientness remains upon the tides of this place.
However, despite his divine sense covering the island, it didn't prepare him for what happened next.
A woman walked out of the tree line.
Someone he couldn't sense before.
Someone that evaded his divine sense.
"Visitors? It's been so long…"
Ocean Song realized immediately where he was.
It was so obvious.
"Greetings, Senior!" He quickly made the most polite greeting he could, for he now found himself in the home of a senior cultivator who had secluded themselves from the world!
It was the only possible explanation.
Other than, of course, that this is the mythical island of Ogygia that the Titaness Calypso was banished to after supporting the losing titans in the great war.
But that would be ridiculous.
Ocean Song was confident that he was right.
The woman was slightly taken back at the enthusiastic greeting but quickly recovered. "You washed up on my island; you must be injured, met–"
"No, I'm fine." Ocean Song clasped his hands behind his back. "I arrived here by accident; I apologize for the intrusion."
"...accident?" The word felt foreign to her, not because she didn't know the word itself, but because the context here wasn't applicable. "You can't…I mean, you can't just wander onto my island by accident like that."
Ocean Song looked at her, then at Nessie, who waved a flipper.
She furrowed her brow, confused at this turn of events.
Her island was cursed, or rather, she was.
Heroes would wash up onto her island, hurt; she would nurse them back to health, and she would fall in love with them, then they would eventually leave her.
That is always what happened; that was what she was cursed with.
"Are you a god?" She looked at him more closely, and something about him was exceedingly strange.
As a Titaness, she didn't know much about the gods, mostly since she was banished here after the war and didn't have many opportunities to interact with them.
She didn't know if there were changes or if there was something simply different about a new generation of gods that she wasn't used to.
"No, I'm a cultivator!"
It wasn't the answer she expected, but instead, she focused on something else. "Like a gardener? I like to garden too!"
Ocean Song realized that clearly this senior had been living in seclusion for so long that they didn't know basic common sense about the world.
"Do you live alone on this island, Senior? I apologize for trespassing; I was escaping a powerful foe and ended up on this island by chance." Ocean Song collapsed his hands and bowed politely again.
"You're not…hurt?"
"No, Senior."
"And…you're not a god?"
"No, I'm a Cultivator!"
Calypso furrowed her brow again because now she was just confused completely.
"Bawhooo!"
And she didn't know what kind of creature that was. Even if she had the urge to go over there and rub its head.
This was a peculiar situation she found herself in, the first in a very long time.
"Are you some kind of hero?" She tried again to make sense of the situation.
"I am a righteous cultivator!" Ocean Song declared happily.
That slightly made more sense to her now. If he were some kind of hero, then that could still somehow make the curse work the same.
Maybe the smaller details didn't matter.
Regardless, it was the first time in a long time that she had a visitor.
She gave him a once over. He was handsome, more than most others who washed up on her island.
If he was going to be staying here for awhile, she certainly didn't mind.
At this point, she knew how it would go.
She would fall in love, watch them leave, and be heartbroken. It was the same thing over and over again.
She lost count how many times it happened.
But at the very least, she could enjoy the time spent together.
"Why don't I show you to my house? I have a lot of nice things in my garden that I'm sure you wouldn't dislike." She looked at him, hopeful. "You could also tell me about the outside world, and we could share a nice meal together. I've been trying to ferment some fruit wine too; maybe you could give it a taste and tell me how I did?"
She stepped closer to him. "The sunset from my garden really is very beautiful." She gave a warm smile.
It all sounded innocent.
To most people, they wouldn't notice the evil that lurked beneath those words.
But Ocean Song was far from normal.
That is, he is the Jade Beauty, and his instincts as the Jade Beauty scream at him of the danger.
He knew that a situation like this would arise; he just didn't expect it so soon.
He prepared a secret technique just for this scenario.
Ocean Song abruptly did a back slip, landing dozens of feet away as he threw an altar onto the ground. "Help Hecate, I'm in danger!"
There wasn't an immediate reply, but Ocean Song didn't hesitate.
"I'm being seduced!"
The altar trembled, and the mists swirled abruptly.
Calypso squawked in surprise as she all but got blown off her feet as another appeared between them.
Titan stared at Titan.
"Hecate?" Calypso called out.
"Calypso." Hecate crossed her arms. "What do you think you're doing?"
"W-what?"
"That's the one." Ocean Song pointed over Hecate's shoulder. "She's trying to seduce me."
Hecate looked at him, then her gaze landed back on Calypso, who was utterly confused at what was happening.
"Bawhooo~"
"What Nessie said—she's a witness." Ocean Song nodded.
"I'm… I'm not…?" Calypso looked around at them. Well, technically, she maybe was. "Are you…together?" She hesitantly asked.
In addition to having an angry Hecate in front of her, she wasn't used to having so many people altogether with her.
Hecate paused.
There was a very easy answer to that question.
However, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the idiot Cyclops with her, a shit-eating grin on his face, as if he were waiting to hear the answer.
Her eye twitched slightly as he continued to stare at her like that.
With a growl, she turned around and kicked him, punting him off into the water about a hundred meters away, making a big splash far away in the water.
"He is mine." Hecate said in a low voice. "Don't get any funny ideas."
"Bawhooooo." Nessie spoke in a whisper, lowering her head as she looked at Hecate with a knowing smile herself.
Hecate's eye twitched again; she grabbed Nessie's flipper and tossed her off into the water as well.
Another large splash, indicating that she landed right on top of the other idiot.
With a huff, she crossed her arms, turning her attention back to the other Titan. "Sorry, those two are idiots."
"Help, I'm injured." Ocean Song washed back up to shore. "I need someone to nurse me back to health."
Hecate took a deep breath. "One moment." She spoke to the other Titaness.
Calypso said nothing as she watched Hecate turn around and walked towards him.
She grabbed him by his head, flipped him upside down, and proceeded to try and drown him.
[Line break]
Mercury returned to his Greek persona.
Hermes could still feel the lingering anger from his Roman side. Not that he wasn't rather pissed off either, but his Roman side—and by extension, the others—was much more uptight and strict.
They couldn't take 'losing' well.
Not that he could talk as a Greek god.
But for Romans, it was less personal pride and more professional pride.
He was still utterly bewildered as to how that lesser god was able to escape him. That shouldn't have been possible. Sure, he may have had some domain that let him trick someone else, but he, Hermes, was the god of thieves.
No one could sneak away under his eyes.
He even scoured the area for over an hour to try and find any traces, but he came up with nothing.
Under his Roman persona, he ordered a full search with the help of Camp Jupiter, but they found nothing either.
It was as if he just teleported away.
Which was possible, but Hermes – Mercury – would have noticed that. He wasn't of the domain of magic in the normal sense, but as the god of thieves and travel, he had a tiny bit of touch upon the mists and crossroads that were Hecate's domain.
Even if he himself had no direct connection with magic, he was good at sensing magic.
But that was even considering that he somehow missed the very obvious sensation of a god tearing a hole through the world to teleport away.
That was not something that was quiet.
The most obvious thing to do was go check the new god's home, which he did. That weird mountain with the weirdly strong barrier over it.
It was a nice mountain.
And he even knocked on the front door.
Apparently he wasn't home either.
He knew because the monster who answered couldn't lie for the life of him. Some newborn cyclops – almost cute with how young he was – told him very clearly that the new god wasn't home.
So that was a bust.
Then he went down to Atlantis, thinking that's probably the other place he would run to.
As one of Poseidon's kids, it made sense that the new god would run away down there.
But apparently his uncle hadn't seen his son either.
He had no idea where the kid was now.
He just up and disappeared without a trace, and he had no idea where he went.
With no other option, he flew back to Olympus.
Most gods generally kept a presence in the council, a part of them that was present at all times.
When he arrived, it was noticed.
So too was his expression.
"Hermes, did you deliver the summons?" Zeus looked at him from upon his high throne.
"I tried," Hermes spat out. "He didn't let me."
"What do you mean he didn't let you?" Apollo asked.
"As soon as I took it out, he ran away." Hermes threw his hands up.
"...and?" Dionysus was curious now too. "Did you just let him?
"Of course, I didn't just let him. I'm literally the Messenger of Olympus; it's my job to deliver messages." Hermes grumbled.
"Son, why did you not deliver the message?" Zeus frowned.
He couldn't recall the last time that Hermes failed at his duty.
It was usually rather immaterial or inconsequential to think about. A message given to Hermes to deliver would be delivered; it was common sense.
"Look, I chased after him, then he pulled some bullshit. Like, he used his voice and called my Roman name. It caught me off guard enough that I changed over accidentally."
"Oof, I bet that didn't feel good." Dionysus raised up his coke can.
"It didn't." Hermes intoned. "But he ran away again, and my Roman side was pissed and instead was going to beat him up a little, but he managed to run to Camp Jupiter."
"Intelligent," Athena mused.
"Yeah, that's what my Roman side thought too." Hermes hopped onto his own throne, slumping over. "So I can't deliver the message then because I couldn't shift into my Greek side in the middle of camp. And I was delivering a message as Hermes."
They all understood what he meant by that.
They all had their Roman sides, and the divine between them made things awkward sometimes.
An order by Jupiter wasn't an order by Zeus and vice versa.
It made things awkward sometimes.
"I would have loved to know ahead of time that your son was annoyingly smart like that, Poseidon." Hermes huffed. "He managed to sneak away, and I couldn't find him."
"What?" Poseidon blinked.
"Your son, I said I would have liked a warning."
"About what?"
"About how damn clever he is."
"Which son?"
"The one we're talking about!" Hermes was starting to lose his patience.
"Ocean Song?"
"Yeah, that one."
"But you said smart and clever; who are you referring to?" Poseidon was confused.
Hermes shook his head in exasperation and just decided to ignore him, thinking that Poseidon was just being annoying on purpose since he was going after his son.
However, Poseidon was confused.
He was confused by the words that Hermes used to describe Ocean Song.
Poseidon was absolutely sure that Hermes was going after the wrong person.
Because he knew for a fact that his son was neither smart nor clever.
"Do…you need help?" Apollo offered.
"No." Hermes scowled. "It's personal now. He's getting this message one way or another."
[Line Break]
a/N
The dastardly Calypso attempts to seduce Jade Beauty Ocean Song, so he calls for help from Hecate.
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