Chapter Text
It always felt a bit weird when Percy felt like he wanted to see his immortal relatives. In his past situation, (life?), he felt odd feelings about half of these immortals. That hadn't changed completely in all honesty. Half of these damn Gods just sat on their asses on Olympus and came to his restaurant to harass his employees.
Assholes. God and Goddesses alike, they were nothing but pains in his ass. He had to make a set of rules for those idiots.
One, the customer is absolutely NOT always right. Respect all workers and other patrons of the restaurant.
Two, there will be no violence committed to anyone within the property of Perthales. If you must fight, with a sibling or such, you will go to the designated wrestling corner. NO /TABLES/CHAIRS/PEOPLE/ANIMALS CAN BE THROWN AT ANY TIME.
Three, harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. If you dare to harm anyone connected to our establishment, you will be forcibly expelled, and banned from all properties connected to Lady Demeter, Lord Perthales, the Court of the Seas, and the Afterlife's rulers.
Four, if you are banned you are banned. There are no exceptions.
A fine set of rules he must say. It had started to become irritating to deal with those unreasonable immortals. They were truly such an utterly irritating pieces of shit. At least he had a fine way to entertain his poor little cousin. Nico always had a bit of a sadistic side when it came to anyone who harassed his friends or any of the younger campers.
Sometimes letting your little cousin throw people out onto their asses so he doesn't go stir -crazy. Speaking of his cousin, it was so, so nice to see him again. It had been a few long years without anyone understanding any form of modern references.
Never mind that he had been renamed to Nikador but whatever. His cousin would always be his precious Neeks to him.
Never mind that. That wasn't important right now. What was significantly more important was finding out where Neeks went.. last time he checked Neeks was busy in the underground cellers.
Percy sighed and stretched out from where he was sitting in his orchards. "Time to move.. ugh. The sun was warm and the grass he was laying on was incredibly comfortable. He didn't really want to move from where he was, but he wanted to make sure his cousin wasn't bored. "
"It wasn't like they had any irritating customers to beat up—. To expel from the premises."
Anyways… time to move. "Little brother?" Percy called out, walking deep into the cellar. "Where did you go?"
"I'm over here!" Nico responded. "I was thinking..I'd really prefer to stay close to you. So the best way to convince my parents to agree for me to stay with you, choose something that compliments Hospitality."
"You're better at cooking then I'll ever be, so the next best thing to choose is something to do with drinks."
Nico sighed. ".. and to be honest, I kind of miss Mr. D."
"Really?" Percy asked.
Nico rolled his eyes at his cousin. "Yes really. I told you, didn't I? How much he helped me with the trauma from Tartarus and the effects from staying in the Lotus Casino for so long? I swear I've told you and Thalia this before."
"Umm…" Percy tapped his chin and tried to think about. "Yes? I think I remember? Fuck dude I barely remember you telling me."
"That's cause you're old as fuck." Nico snarked.
Percy felt his jaw drop and reached out a hand to mess up Nico's hair. "Fuck you asshole!"
Nico shrieked and batted Percy's hands away from his head, trying desperately to save the disaster his hair was turning into. "Get off, get off, get off—!"
"No way in Chaos!" Percy crooned condescendingly before messing up his cousins hair even more. "Maybe you shouldn't call me old you little brat—!"
"I'm just saying the truth. Maybe I'll become the God of Truth instead of our cousin because I only speak facts!" He snarked. "You're sooooooo old. Anyways.."
Nico batted his cousins hands away and covered his hair with his arms protectively. "As I was saying before a certain crude vagrant attacked me—" He said pointedly. "Mr. D helped me a lot and he felt like a kind mentor to me at one point. So I want to feel close to him again."
Percy smiled. "That makes sense Nico. He did help you a lot. I know you feel grateful for his help but don't lock yourself into a domain that you don't want to benefit me or Mr. D alright? Choose something that you want to do. For yourself and only yourself."
"You're such a sap Percy." Nico teased fondly. "I'm not doing this for just your benefit you know. Drinks and food may go along with each other perfectly, but drinking is as much of a universal language as eating is! If I choose drinks, not only do I get a powerful domain, I also keep myself as relevant as can be. I don't want to end up fading and leaving you behind."
"Nico…"
Nico rolled his eyes at his cousin. "Not to mention, if this continues, drinks are an option that both Thalia and you won't choose."
"Nico?" Percy questioned. "What do you mean if this continues?"
"You're joking right?" Nico said incredulously. "You do realise that our parents have starting calling us the fruit babies because we keep on being born from fruit that our parents have cultivated? And it's only us. No other Greek Gods have been born like us in this period of time. So that probably means that it will be Thalia who is next!"
"Both you and Thalia are iffy about alcohol for very understandable reasons, so it makes sense if I take the bartender role of our lovely restaurant no?" Nico explained. "I obviously can't be the creator or God of wine, but it's not like Vodka or Tequila have been made in the Greek memory yet. I did that part-time bartender gig last time, and while I was alone, a kind distiller owner—"
"You mean while you were being a emo, lonely child who only talked to ghosts?" Percy interrupted.
Nico rolled his eyes. "Yes while I was being all alone with only ghosts for company. Exactly then. As I was saying, before you interrupted me AGAIN, the distiller owner taught me all of their tips and tricks. I know how to brew.. at least I think..?"
"You.. think?"
"Yup." Nico agree. "I think. I think that I can make us into an even more powerful conglomerate, so that you can feed even more people. Not to mention, the people of Manzane are far too kind and welcoming not to be rewarded."
"So, I'll become your distiller and bartender. I'll make drinks, alcoholic or not, and made sure we will never Fade from mortal memory. I refuse to die again. I absolutely refuse to let you die to protect us again either." Nico said seriously. "I refuse. You're not allowed to do that ever again."
Percy sighed. "Nico…"
"Never again Percy." Nico's breathing stuttered for a brief moment as he clenched his fists into balls. "I never want to feel the warmth of your body and your life drain away under my hands ever again. I never want to hold your cold corpse ever again."
"Hey…" Percy pulled his little cousin into his chest to comfort him. "See? I'm warm. I'm alive and breathing. My ichor is flowing in my veins. We're immortal now Neeks. I promise I'll never make you feel my life fade away ever again. Thals will be here soon and then the three of us can cause chaos in Ancient Greece instead of New York City. I'm not going to leave you. Never again."
Nico breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. You better remember that promise Percy."
"I will." Percy rested his chin on the crown of Nico's head. "I promised after all."
***
"Brewing and Mixology huh." Hades muttered to himself, reading the letter his youngest immortal child sent him. "What an interesting choice… seems as though those two are already attached. Enough so that it influenced his domains."
"Dear? What are muttering about?" Persephone asked her husband. "Our son has claimed his domains and they're rather unexpected my love."
"Unexpected?"
"Yes. None of his domains relate to mine nor your domains as of now." Hades murmured.
"Is that so?" Persephone mused, leaning over her husbands shoulder to read the letter in his hands. "How interesting.. it seems as though our new child is rather attached to my little brother."
Hades' head shot up in surprise, looking deeply into his wife's eyes. "Attached? You mean…?"
Persephone lightly chuckled. "It seems as though our little one and my brother are attached at the hip. It honestly reminds me of Apollo and Artemis."
Hades sighed in relief, dropping his head into the table. "you scared me my dear… I thought you meant a different type of attachment…"
"Already worried on who will capture our youngest's heart my dear?" Persephone laughed, dropping into the chair to the right of Hades, reaching out to stroke his hair.
"Yes." Hades muttered, leaning into his wife's hand. "It was only a few months ago when we opened that pomegranate and met our youngest. I don't want him to be married already, I rather he enjoy his freedom."
"Who knows. Perhaps instead of being more similar to our dear Artemis, he could be more similar to me. You know I love my mother, however, I was most definitely trapped within her grasp. I met freedom when I became a Queen in my own right and was able to rule as I saw fit."
"Of course dear." Hades looked up at his wife through his eyelashes. "But, your mother would beg to argue."
"Then she'll have to beg." Persephone rolled her eyes. "I love being Queen Persephone, instead of the coddled Kore. Even if you had stolen me instead of I coming with you willingly, I would love being your Queen wife."
"Mmm."
"So stop your worrying and mother-henning. At this rate you'll become worse than your sister and brother. I think it might be genetic at this point." Persephone rolled her eyes. "Don't overwhelm our little one too much.. otherwise hes never going to come for family dinners."
"Fine.."
Hades continued to think of his newest child as he and his dearest wife had a late breakfast. It wasn't very often that he had children, at least compared to his brothers. It was even less often that he had children with his lovely wife. Not for lack of trying of course, however. But it seemed that recently the King and Queen of the Underworld's luck had improved.
Not only had they have a lovely child, he had interesting domains to match the interesting way he had been born.
Born of the symbol of their love. Born of a pomegranate just as his brothers youngest child was borne of an apple. But instead of an accident involving their sisters golden apple tree, his Nikador had been born of a pomegranate tree from their royal garden. One that was a few generations from the pomegranate that had resulted in their marriage.
A child that was born with their exact likeness. Born in a similar way to his nephew. How utterly fascinating…. yet he didn't know the exact reason that these children were born.
One thing he did know, though, was that he would love his youngest child and would match his siblings in levels of rage if anything happened. With a deep breath, he rose from the table and kissed his wife goodbye as he left to go on a walk.
It was only when he reached a crossroads between punishment and the path to Tartarus in his walk where he took a short pause. Was that.. a woman? She looked familiar, but as he called out a greeting, she faded away into a mirage.
Huh. If anything she looked similar to his mother, Rhea. But she looked older.. could that be a mirage of the Earth Mother? But why would she be in the underworld of all places? Anytime hes seen or heard about her, shes been in The Wild or in the Pit.
Why would she be in the underworld when she was an primordial of her own right? She most definitely could teleport from surface to Pit so why on Herself would she be in his domain?
Hmm… possibly something to note and communicate to his siblings. Or his mother. Definitely his mother.
However, for now, he was going to just move on and continue on his walk.
***
Humming softly, Percy finished off the apple cider and signed the last of the restaurant paperwork for today. It was so unforgivably boring! He grabbed a spoonful of pudding from the container from the bowl beside his work and hummed pleasantly at the taste.
It was just wonderful~
Manzane was developing quite nicely as well. The town was expanding quite nicely becoming a lovely port town. He was very careful to order the creation of parks and continued the towns efforts to relocate willing dryads to populate the town.
It was a struggle to introduce sanitation, however public baths were already in construction. Social norms of Ancient Greece would take time to break and build norms of his own. Even worse, the massive slave industry that inundated his history books was now part of his reality.
Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. Slavery would not be allowed in his sacred city. He refused. But was there even a way to abolish it in Greece in its disgusting entirety?
While he didn't know very much about the slave industry of Ancient Greece compared to the enslavement and exploration of African Americans in the United States. It was disgusting no matter where it took place however.
The disregard and erasure of their labour would never be something he appreciated or enjoyed listening about. It was shameful to find out that humans dared to judge each other just because of their difference in their skin pigment.
He could acknowledge the privilege he held for being a white passing cisgender male. The struggle that he watched Hazel and many of his little campers face just for the colour of their skin.. it was horrible to think about it.
He and his mother had gone to every rally, and shown support even when under the tyranny of Gabe. Even when they didn't have enough money to donate, even if they were near poverty themselves, they would always choose to help their neighbours. No matter what they looked like and who they were related to, as long as they were human beings, they deserved respect.
After he grew up and learned about the Grecian world, that kindness extended itself to every living being on Earth. Every nymph, dryad, demigod, mortal, it never mattered to him. They all deserved kindness, even if they didn't deserve his respect.
He never cared very much about position however. It was obvious if you looked at the way he treated the Olympians in the past. Ares for example, regardless of his violent aura that regularly incited violence was treated with begrudging kindness when he wasn't being a pain in his ass. He had found plenty of his children, and many other gods children and had never spoken a bad word about their parents to them.
(Although he would always throw hands with Ares if he was asking for it.)
He was getting off track. Fuck.
Back to his thoughts. It was unlikely that he would be able to ever exterminate slavery in its entirety. Even if he was a God now, it was not like he was a God King of a Pantheon in any right. He did not have the power to order its absolute abolishment, but he could ban it from Manzane itself.
Not only that, it wasn't just slavery that was holding back Ancient Greece in his eyes. He wanted his people to not just be ahead of the times, he wanted them to be leaders of change.
An army ran on its stomach and so did every single normal person in this world. Nymph, Naiad, Dryad, mortal it didn't matter. They all required some form of food to function.
He could handle the feeding of his people so they could focus on living instead of just surviving. So the next thing would be to give them the tools so they could do more than just live.
He could start with focusing on their reading and writing. Many of the original residents and the new members weren't wealthy when they arrived. Many of them simply moved here to find new opportunity, for themselves and their families.
It was the very least he could do. They were loyal and loving, never giving up in their belief of him. Even when he did things they didn't understand, even when he did things that were completely different to what they have ever known. They never minded.
So he would make sure that they were educated and strong. Strong enough to make their own decisions no matter how easy it could be to just follow along with the decisions he made. He wanted them to exercise the free will that humans so dearly loved.
So teaching them how to read and write was just the basics. Even if he wasn't the greatest academic, even if he wasn't the smartest person to even be in a class, humans were interesting creatures who thrived when they didn't have to worry about surviving.
So first reading and writing.. math should probably be next.. what else? Perhaps biology.. no! Basic understanding of food and nutrition would be helpful.. perhaps how to preserve it? It would be helpful for trade…. and navigation should likely be the next. It would do them no good if they got lost on any of their travels.
Right.
He could make some more plans about that later. It was too early to think of every little thing when they hadn't even started with the basics. For now, I just need to acquire the teaching material and teachers that are able to teach without discrimination.
Where the fuck could he find educators who weren't absolute sexist assholes in Ancient Greece?