Ocean Song was happy.
Why wouldn't he be?
As a Jade beauty, it was important that he meet the family. He met Goddess Hecate's kids, and they seemed to like him.
He could consider today a success.
And of course, it was important to bribe—give gifts—to his future family members.
And he certainly gave many gifts.
Yes, earning the favor of her children was the first step in his master plan. The second was to do his best to romance her with the fury that only a cultivator could accomplish.
What that actually meant, he didn't know.
But it sounded impressive.
Unfortunately, his Uncle Hades kicked him out of the Underworld before he could properly obtain the full wisdom of romance from him.
Such a Dao was one closely guarded, it seems.
But it didn't matter.
He was happy.
That was basically what he came to the camp to do. Make sure Percy and Malcolm are doing well and help with their training. And then come to introduce himself to Hecate's children and leave a good impression.
Overall, he'd say it was a good day.
He was about to head on home until something caught his attention.
Something fast came soaring through the sky. And with his divine sense, Ocean Song realized it was coming right for him.
Winged Sandals.
A winged helmet.
A staff with two snakes on it.
Hermes, the messenger god.
"Hey, are you uh…" He looked at a parchment he was holding. "Right, Ocean Song?"
"That is me." Ocean Song clasped his hands behind his back. "What can I do for you, fellow Daoist?"
Hermes cleared his throat. "As Decreed by Zeus, King of Olympus, you are hereby sum—"
"Wait!" Ocean Song held a hand up, suddenly shouting.
The god blinked, looking at him. "What's wrong?"
Ocean Song was a Cultivator.
As such, he has a very good instinct.
And right now, Ocean Song realized that something was wrong.
"Wanna see something cool?" He asked.
The God of Messengers didn't really expect that answer. But just as well, he was kind of curious now. "Alright."
Ocean Song threw his sword out, letting it grow in size; he then stepped on it and shot into the air.
Hermes watched as Ocean Song flew away. "You know, that is pretty cool." He sat there for several moments as Ocean Song's figures disappeared from view. "...he's not coming back, is he?"
Hermes never actually had someone pull a fast one on him like that. Sure, as the God of Thieves, he's had plenty of people try to cheat and trick him before.
It came with the job.
But right now, he felt rather stupid.
And a god, while he had himself to blame, could only, therefore, blame someone else.
Gracefully, Hermes knelt down, pushing his feet into the ground, and with his other hand, he steadied himself before he shot up into the sky.
Hermes recognized that Ocean Song was fast.
But he was faster.
The God of Messengers shot through the clouds, overlooking the horizon in all directions. He found his target a few miles away at this point and was still going.
He snorted, and with a single step forward, the sound barrier shattered multiple times, and he chased after.
Ocean Song's Divine Sense swept out, and it immediately pinged the threat approach.
Ocean Song did his best to speed up, and his speed was impressive, but he realized that he was perhaps competing against the fastest god.
No sooner did the flying god catch up to him. "You're pretty good, kid, but you're far from my match!"
He zipped right past Ocean Song, nearly coming to a stop, but seeing as Ocean Song just turned and tried to fly in a different direction, Hermes just decided to keep pace.
"Nice try, anyways— " He unfurled the parchment again. "In accordance –"
Ocean Song deployed his secret technique.
He plugged both ears with his fingers. "Lalalalalala, I can't hear you."
"..."
Hermes would admit he did underestimate the new god's willingness to act like an idiot.
And, admittedly, his job was to make sure the new god heard the summons. That was part of it; they had to be presented with the summons, and Hermes' job was to make sure it was given.
He couldn't just toss it at him and wipe his hands clean.
Otherwise, Ocean Song could just claim he never received it in the future and not show up. Then, who would be the one getting in trouble?
Hermes.
"Alright, if that's how you want to place it." Hermes threw the parchment out, and it grew in size. It hung in the air, utterly massive in big glowing letters. "What now?"
As long as the message was given, verbal or written, did it matter?
He could make an oath on the Styx that he presented the message.
"Secret technique!" Ocean shouted.
He just closed his eyes before it could be read.
Hermes' eye twitched.
"Well played."
"Thank you!" Ocean Song responded politely.
Hermes paused for a moment, noticing the thing that was wrong here.
"...if you're covering your ears, then how did you hear me?" he asked.
"You heard wrong."
"Uh huh." Hermes held his hand out, and the massive parchment shrunk back down into his hand. "Ahem. As I was saying, in accordance—"
Ocean Song let out a squawk and then dive-bombed downwards.
Hermes watched as he went headfirst into a large lake. "Clever dick."
Though after several moments, it did earn an eye roll from the god. While it was smart, as in you can't really transmit sound through the water in a meaningful way, he was a god.
Hermes leveled his staff at the lake, and with a bit of godly power, he forced all the water back.
"Wait, what?" He looked around and saw that no one was there.
The mild annoyance slowly turned to anger.
[Line Break]
Ocean Song let out a breath as he poked his head up out of the ground.
"Foolish. Does he not know that every proper cultivator knows the Earth Escape technique!?" Ocean Song was very proud of himself as he wiped himself clean.
Technically, he also didn't know the Earth Escape Technique.
He actually just dug a tunnel underground from the lakebed to safety.
He made a mental note to learn said technique, however.
So he could look cool in the future.
"Where Are you, brat!?" The God's angry voice reverberated through the forest that Ocean Song found himself in.
Hermes was usually lackadaisical, easygoing, and otherwise very laid back. So it was easy to forget that he was also an ancient god that wasn't to be trifled with.
Ocean Song realized this was a very good time to escape.
He still didn't know what the Messenger God was trying to relay to him, but at this point, he was far too committed and had no choice but to keep running.
Ocean Song started sprinting through the forest.
Caution was paramount.
He couldn't give away his position; he needed to get some distance before he was discovered.
He needed –
"Found you." The god's voice was carried on the wind.
And like that, he threw caution to the wind and stepped back onto his sword and shot towards the horizon.
For a brief moment, Ocean Song thought he may have gotten away. Circulating his Qi, using his newfound Cultivation to accelerate faster than he ever had before.
He had even cleared several states; he was fairly sure he was on the west side of the country now.
"If it didn't work the first time, why do you think it would work a second?" Hermes was standing in front of him, arms crossed.
"Sorry, have we met? My name is Water Melody; you must be looking for my brother, Ocean Song." Ocean Song did what every true cultivator would do.
Lie through his teeth.
Hermes held up a hand. "Look, I respect it. I'm a bit annoyed, but respect where it's due. Not many people can actually make me chase after them. But take the loss before I really get pissed."
Hermes unfurled the parchment for the umpteenth time now. "As decreed by Zeus, King of Olympus –"
And like a proper cultivator, Ocean Song only knew how to double down.
Laced with Qi, using his full presence, he spoke a singular work.
"Mercury."
Hermes's words died in their tracks, and his whole face contorted as he let out a shout.
His whole body spasmed for a moment as the unintentional transformation occurred.
Greek Gods, Roman Gods.
They were the same being but divided.
When their Roman counterparts are needed, the Greek gods change into them. They take on their Roman personas, which are often vastly different than their Greek sides.
For most gods, it was enough of a transformation that if it happened suddenly, it could be debilitating if not outright unpleasant.
A god having their true Roman name spoken so authoritatively right to their face, unprepared, caused Hermes to transform into his Roman side—Mercury.
It took a few moments for Mercury to catch up to Hermes in what was happening due to the abrupt and unintentional transformation.
The biggest difference between the Greek and Roman sides is that the Romans were much more…militaristic.
They were more stern, more firm, or otherwise direct.
Mercury looked up and already decided on his next course of action.
His Greek side was too playful, so he decided to stay as his Roman side for just a bit longer.
He shot forward just as fast, finding his target having had run away as soon as he spoke the god's name.
The landscape changed several times before Mercury caught up with him.
He didn't even utter a word before he used his symbol to smack the sword out of the air, causing Ocean Song to plummet to the ground.
In that same breath, he waved his staff around and forbid flying in the area, essentially grounding the new god.
With a content nod, Mercury went to descend down past the clouds, but stopped when he realized where he was.
Even the Roman god acknowledges it. "Clever kid."
Ocean Song hit the ground hard, his head spinning ever so slightly.
He was thankful that his head broke his fall because he might have been hurt!
He brushed himself off, looking around and he realized he wasn't alone.
In fact, there were a lot of people around him.
Children, mostly. Well, teenagers, some young adults. Actually, even some regular adults, which was surprising because Ocean Song was fairly sure these were demigods. Demigods training with some very sharp weapons in large groups.
Except Camp Half Blood was on the other side of the country.
It was only when his eyes landed on the big Colosseum far away that he managed to extrapolate where he was.
Thankfully, he was a master at deception.
Ocean Song clasped his hands behind his back. "How do you do, Fellow Romans?"
"Really?" One boy spoke up after several seconds of silence.
While they didn't immediate charge him with weapons, they very clearly recognized a threat.
"It's a good day to be Roman." Ocean Song responded.
"Did…you think that would work?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Right." The boy's demeanor didn't scream I'm going to stab you, but Ocean Song had the sneaking suspicion that he would be stabbed if he tried to run. "If you're one of us, you should know who I am, right?"
Ocean Song realized he had been caught in an expertly woven trap of words.
But he had a counter.
"Shouldn't you know who I am? You sound like an imposter." Ocean Song retorted.
"Uh huh." The young man barely batted an eye. "I'm Jason Grace, Centurion of the Fifth Cohort." He leveled his sword at Ocean Song. "And who exactly are you?"
"I am Roman Water Melody," Ocean Song said with a straight face. "It even has Roman in the name, so you know it's real. More than I can say for you."
Jason's eyes dilated, and he immediately knelt down, as did every other mortal within the training field.
"Ave Mercury, Divine Messenger," Jason spoke, and the crowd repeated it.
Mercury, the Roman god, stepped down onto the field opposite Ocean Song, barely giving a flip of his wrist in acknowledgement of the kids.
"Clever. Very clever." With a wave of his staff, he isolated his words from reaching the mortal's ears. "You knew that my message was to be delivered from Zeus, as the Greek god Hermes, on behalf of the Olympian Council. So you led me to Camp Jupiter, making it so I am forced to remain as my Roman persona. I underestimated you; it was a brilliant plan."
"...."
"..."
"Yes. It was my completely intentional plan that I devised very meticulously and absolutely intended." Ocean Song clasped his hands behind his back and let his robes billow heroically.
Mercury frowned slightly because the way he said that sounded odd.
But he simply shook his head out of exasperation. "In respect to your attempt, I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. Simply leave Camp Jupiter, accept the divine missive, and we can be on our way."
"...or?"
"Or I can let the Roman camp break your legs and drag you out of the camp's boundary so I can change back to my other self, and the same thing happens."
The wind – the wind that wasn't present – increased, making his robes billow even more heroically. "I see, so you didn't see through my true plan."
Mercury raised an eyebrow.
"And that is?"
"Stalling for time!" Ocean Song declared, "Secret technique: smoke bomb."
It was actually a talisman, but all the same, Ocean Song slapped his bag of holding, producing a talisman and throwing it at the ground.
It produced a big smog of smoke that expanded outwards, covering the whole area.
Mercury sighed.
He realized it was going to be the hard way.
Just as he was about to wave the smoke away, he heard a strange sound.
"Bawhooooo."
It started him enough that he quickly dissipated the smoke and blinked in confusion. Because the newly ascended god was nowhere to be seen.
And it wasn't like the time he dug underground either.
Mercury expanded his godly senses everywhere, into the earth, into the sky, across the entire camp, and out to the horizon.
He well and truly couldn't find him anymore.
"What the fuck?" He couldn't help but blurt out.
It was very uncharacteristic for his Roman side, but he was absolutely bewildered by what happened.
Frankly, he didn't even know what was going on in the first place.
No one just…ran away when he tried to deliver a message.
He didn't even know why the new god ran away in the first place!
[Line Break]
A/N
Ocean Song decides to reject divine mail.
The Mailman wasn't quite so enthused to allow this.
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