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A God was not beholden to the laws of mortals. Oh, They certainly had Their own laws, laws of Fate and Existence that They dared not defy… but just as Gods were not beholden to mortal laws, nor were mortals beholden to divine laws.
And so, there was a balance.
One mortal law that the divine had no need to abide by was the law of blood, of born family and two parents, of separate sexes.
This was something the divine rarely brought forth unless a mortal of the same sex caught Their eye, or on the rare occasion another deity, but it was brought forth.
One aspect of it, rarely used—so rarely in fact that mortals held no records of such—was the ability to change ones’ blood.
The divine did not do much for mortal blood, Their presence and power could change the DNA of course, result in the child not being simply a copy of their mortal parent, but most of what They offered was divine power, a divine nature, something more.
And They could offer that whether They had a hand in the child’s birth or not.
It was this ability that Poseidon was basing His entire plan on. The ability to adopt a child not one’s own.
And in this case, the ability to give His child more of a shot to survive the war building.
And so, Poseidon placed the contract before His counterpart, before the Titan of the Encircling Ocean, the Deep Dark Depths. He offered up His son, not to give away, but to share between the two of Them.
Okeanos had mourned more than once that He had no more children. Oh, He was always happy to adopt lost children, but that wasn’t official in the manner this would be. Those were children sheltered in His court, this was a proper parentage.
Perseus Jackson would be the Son of Poseidon and Okeanos… and Sally Jackson of course.
Poseidon was not happy that it had come to this, but He knew His power would be needed in the war to come. More than one of the oracles of the sea had warned Him of such.
The choices were limited, either allow a vast number of his forces to die… or share His son.
He had a duty to His people, to His subjects, and so did Percy.
That is not to say that He was springing this on His son. Oh, He could have, it was His right above all other. He was the King, He was the Father of the one being discussed, if not His right, who’s? But He also knew that Percy would resent Him if He did so.
And He loved his son dearly.
So, He did speak to His son, He laid out the options and the paths they could take and told Percy what was likely to result from each.
Offering Percy more power to protect his family, his friends, his camp, offering him a path with less war and one more Olympian on his side?
Well, Percy couldn’t say no.
Poseidon knew that he wouldn’t.
It was their nature.
The decision made He signed the contract, allowing Okeanos the option to sign or not.
But Poseidon knew He would.
And, after a delay and final consideration, Okeanos did.
Now they just had to figure out how joint custody would work when neither really got to spend time with their child anyways.
OO OO OO OO
“I get him weekends,” Okeanos declared.
“We are still limited in how often we get to spend time with him,” Poseidon said with a sigh. “Also, every other weekend.”
“Starting this weekend,” Okeanos added. “And I am not beholden to Zeus’ law.”
“Next weekend,” Poseidon corrected. “And you are as beholden as the rest of us to the laws intended to ensure the world is whole and hale.”
“Three-day weekend, and me spending time with my child would not do any damage.”
“He has class, two days,” Poseidon shook His head. “You know just as well as I do what happened with Helios.”
“Yes, classes with me, three days,” Okeanos scowled. “And I have more self-control than Helios.”
“Classes on land, that he cannot miss, two days. And might I remind you of the ‘drowning the world’ incident?”
Okeanos was not inclined to be reminded of the ‘drowning the world incident’ and thus moved on without comment. “I get him holidays.”
“His mother gets him holidays,” Poseidon corrected.
“So, Tethys?”
“Sally.”
Okeanos grumbled and glowered some more. Poseidon was just glad He’d already collected the important terms from Sally.
Poseidon was glad He had ensured Percy’s safety, granting him even more power to utilize in the war and ensure his survival… but co-parenting with Okeanos was going to be a pain.
OO OO OO OO
By the second weekend of Poseidon sending Percy to Okeanos He was nearly ready to break the treaty.
Okeanos sent His most annoying messengers and guards to pick up Percy every time, Poseidon could not help but want to blast them into nothingness. Alas, He valued His subjects too much to bring war down upon them.
But He could dream.
At the very least Percy seemed to be enjoying the time in the ocean. Poseidon was glad to get to spend some time with His son as well. It was so rare He got to, but even Zeus didn’t complain about Poseidon ensuring Okeanos wasn’t doing anything suspicious with His time with Percy.
And Poseidon was doing that, somewhat. But He was primarily concerned with actually spending time with Percy while He could.
And keeping Triton from getting attached. It was bad enough that Triton invited all of His immortal siblings to every family event (and that was such a large number-), He didn’t need Triton to get the idea to include the non-immortal ones.
The Kyklopes alone would fill the palace.
So, running interference was necessary. And keeping Okeanos from getting any ideas about keeping Percy, He needed to be careful of that too.
Alas, Okeanos definitely had ideas. Okeanos having ideas was dangerous, Poseidon much preferred Him when He was just relaxing in His depths, leaving the sea to Poseidon.
The last time Okeanos got an idea Kharybdis was born.
That was a mess. Explaining it to the other Gods was even more of a mess.
Zeus was never going to let Poseidon live that down.
So, He kept a close eye on Percy and Okeanos’ interactions and ensured that Percy had all the time possible to spend with Poseidon as well.
And of course, kept Sally updated. He was squinting at the man she was bringing home though, he didn’t seem worth her time.
OO OO OO OO
Explaining to Okeanos that during the summer Percy was at camp was a mess. For one, Okeanos did not care. For two, Percy was barely at camp a week before he was off on a quest.
And for three, less than a month later Percy blew up a volcano and got himself stranded on Calypso’s island.
Okeanos nearly sent an army at her.
The fact that Poseidon stopped Him might be His greatest achievement yet, both in controlling Okeanos and in controlling Himself.
He also wished to send an army after her for daring to so much as look as His son.
Poseidon had not forgotten what she’d done to Odysseus.
Luckily, Hephaestus was smart enough to clean up His own mess. Poseidon had words for Him.
Less Luckily, all the Gods had words for Poseidon about Percy waking up Typhon.
Poseidon was conveniently indisposed dealing with Okeanos. So much negotiating to do there, They understood He was sure.
OO OO OO OO
Kymopoleia caught wind of Percy blowing up a volcano and was quite gleeful about scooping the child up and teaching him about his powers.
Poseidon of course came along to supervise, nothing else. He certainly was not suggesting tips to Percy. No, that would be against the Ancient Laws. Poseidon would never break those.
In other news, Percy was showing great improvement in his control of the sea and water in general. And even more, he was learning to summon storms.
It would be quite a while before Percy could truly summon a real storm, but the cute personal one worked for emergencies.
Poseidon had still managed to keep Triton away, but He worried He wouldn’t be able to for much longer.
OO OO OO OO
The war did require Poseidon’s help, He was glad He was not at war with Okeanos at the same time.
As reluctant as He was to grant Okeanos more leeway with Percy, His willingness to disobey the Ancient Laws gave the demigods, and more specifically Percy, a great asset on their side.
And the Titans actually hesitated to harm Okeanos’ youngest child, now that they knew.
Percy was just glad he didn’t have to fight more Titans.
OO OO OO OO
Poseidon and Okeanos stared each other down after the war. The treaty had been intended for the war time, but the adoption could not be undone, meaning the treaty was rather permanent.
But not everything could go the way it did in war time. Thus, it was time to renegotiate visitation rights.
At least they could be assured that Percy was safe.
OO OO OO OO
Poseidon and Okeanos had put aside their differences in joint agreement of hunting Hera down and giving them back their son.
How dare she.