I won't lie to you I AM a little fond of those "mortal au poseidon is a millionaire and finds out about percy and takes custody of him" fics but they're always like sally was murdered by gabe or died in an accident or something equally sad. I want one that still keeps the base plot of the lightning thief. just imagine how hilarious it would be if random rich guy poseidon turns on his tv one day and sees that 1) the woman he cheated on his wife with is missing in a mysterious car explosion and 2) her 12 year old who is being labeled a domestic terrorist looks exactly like him. the olympian family pr firm is going fucking CRAZY.
imagine. your wife and kids are finding out you had an affair from CNN. your ex's husband is on fox news trashing a 12 year old you just found out about and saying the 'evil' in him must've come from your side of the family. the 12 year old in question has just blown up a national monument. hera is threatening you at knife point in the emergency family meeting. you are begging your arch nemesis athena to defend this random 12 year old in court and she's refusing until she sees news footage of HER 12 year old daughter at the crime scene and frantically calls her baby daddy. conservatives that were already big mad about a powerful and rich family from another country being so entwined in american politics are having a fucking field day. you just wanted to run your silly little marine life passion project in peace.
apollo is live streaming the emergency family meeting and it's only fueling the media storm,
when percy's giving his 'here's gabe's phone number' interview at the end the reporter follows up with 'do you think your olympian family has done enough to protect you in this ordeal? why would they not publicly defend you and state your innocence? how close are you to your father?' and poor percy is just like. .what.
percy on live television finding out his dad is 1) alive 2) insanely rich and powerful and 3) has an evil father who just orchestrated percy's kidnapping despite literally no one knowing he existed prior to this
(and also 4) desperately trying to work out from context clues whether or not the cute girl he's been stuck with all month is his cousin or not)
poseidon frantically giving sally 12 years worth of child support and insisting he will always be there to Help from now on no matter what
like 3 days later he gets a call from percy who's like 'quick question how serious were you about that 'do anything for us' promise' (sally just murdered gabe and they don't know how to get rid of the body)
ooooh okay let's go:
1) Thalia wasn't in the camp she's been in a coma for years and in an act of desperation to get good press Zeus announces she's showing signs of waking up (she's not) (and it doesn't out shine the national manhunt at all) and then when she Actually wakes up a little over a year later the public doesn't believe the news at first bc of it. like they see the front page news about her miraculous recovery and the general public is like "what did Percy do this time"
2) the concept of Jason still getting raised by wolves- normal, non magical wolves this time- is KILLING ME!!! when he eventually gets discovered and rescued, Hera is his biggest supporter in helping him get readjusted to society and everyone is genuinely shocked that she's not Just doing it for good press
3) Hades actually takes custody of Nico and Bianca right away and it's not a big news story. when the press find out about HAZEL, HOWEVER,
4) Mr. D is still In The Family he's just cut off financially and out of the will and he literally does Fine for himself like he's rich in his own right between the strawberry wine vineyards and the camp he owns and runs. but every time he turns up to a family event he acts like he's a street beggar and has the hardest life imaginable. very 'woe is me I'm the only one of my siblings that can't afford TWO yachts' energy lmfao.
5) Kronos had Percy and Annabeth specifically kidnapped bc they were the two weakest spots in The Family- no one knew about Percy, so no one was protecting him, and while Annabeth grew up around the family because of her mom's job she wasn't Related to them and they never thought to extend any protection to her. Grover just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time bc he was tagging along on Percy and Sally's vacation and while Ares was okay with kidnapping and arson for his evil grandfather he decided to not be down for murder. this is why he never killed Percy's annoying ass during their cross country trip even when Percy kept fighting him and ruining his various bombing plans. AND he was mad as hell that Percy kept getting all the credit and being called the terrorist bc none of the reporters seemed to notice Ares was even there lmao
6) Annabeth was definitely missing for at least a week before Athena saw her on the news and Realized lmfao Frederick WAS trying to find her but he was more scared of telling Athena than he was for their daughter's safety
7) Amphitrite was mad about. well everything. but when she found out Sally murdered Gabe she was happy to help cover it up lmao she had a BLAST. she's like damn I married into such a shady family I can't believe I haven't had the opportunity to do this yet
8) Triton and Kym HATE Percy the beef is so immediate but Tyson adores him and Rhodes, who doesn't live at home, is nice when she stops by. Percy is literally more scared in this fuck ass family than he was when he was kidnapped lmao
9) Apollo keeps trying to get Percy to do an 'exclusive interview' with him and Poseidon keeps literally chasing him off
10) Zeus is never going to financially recover from this bullshit
screaming!!
Apollo's only like in his 20s in this and publicly he's just taking a gap year before starting medical school bc Zeus doesn't wanna admit he 'had to' cut off ANOTHER kid. but this means he can't control the narrative of whatever the hell Apollo's doing when it hits the press, so it's all like
Apollo Olympian spotted dumpster diving, seemingly confused of his surroundings
Apollo Olympian has reportedly kidnapped the 12 year old daughter of his father's business rival
Apollo Olympian and cousin Percy Jackson-Olympian seen in high speed car chase with the missing 12 year old girl in the front seat
Apollo Olympian comes clean about affair he had with one of his father's business partners when he was only 16!!
CEO accused of sleeping with Apollo Olympian says the then teen tried to kill him, disputes claims of a relationship
Breaking News: the 12 year old Apollo Olympian kidnapped is actually his cousin who was kidnapped years ago??
like just shit like that and everyone's losing their minds but the only people in the family he has regular contact with are Percy and Jason (minors, not allowed to talk to the media to clear his name) and Thalia (keeps encouraging him to be even more destructive). Artemis is M.I.A. on some "wellness retreat" in the Mediterranean but it later comes out Zeus is keeping her there to be an ass. the only person who really CAN go to the press to explain he's not actually on a crime spree is Rachel, but as she's not In The Family and also regularly creates scandals of her own out of boredom, no one really believes her lmfao.
eventually Apollo gives up and posts like a six hour long YouTube video detailing all the crimes he's caught the Triumvirate red handed of, he has a full blown conspiracy corkboard behind him and looks like he hasn't slept in a year, everyone is losing their God damn MINDS!! by the time his story culminates with him talking about having to fight a giant snake the general public already have their pitch forks and torches out.
Zeus is DEFINITELY never going to financially recover from this!!
@maedhroses THE IDEA OF KRONOS STILL EATING FAMILY MEMBERS IN THIS AU IS KILLING ME????
1) Zeus lying about Thalia's coma to get attention off Percy gets memed to shit over the years after this. when Percy is spotted at fjcking Mount Saint Helen's right before it exploded and the press was going crazy, the onion put out a headline that was like "Thalia Grace Threatens To Wake Up From Coma" and everyone loses their minds over it. Thalia has a framed copy of it.
2) I just can't stop imagining a Poseidon who hasn't slept in close to 3 weeks because he's been tracking this case trying to find his insane little kid and he like, gets swarmed by paparazzi while coming out of the police station and all they wanna know is why he cheated on Amphitrite and he finally snaps and is like
I'm with you but I don't think Juno and Hera are twins I think everyone in the Olympian family has multiple fake identities for their assorted shady rich people bullshit/emergency situations. She kidnaps Jason and Percy to keep them safe from whatever the fuck her evil grandmother is plotting, they were specifically being targeted so she was just gonna lock them up in a safe house for a while, but they have weird reactions to whatever sedative she used to nab them and lost all their memories and she doesn't have the patience to deal with that so she arranges for Jason to be looked after by the same guy she has keeping an eye on her secret grandson Leo that Zeus doesn't know about, and then Tries to get Hades to keep an eye on Percy since he's more off-grid then the other family members (and Percy tends to attract more attention than Jason), but he won't do it, so Hera's like "well fuck you. now I'm involving your secret daughter that no one knows about. yeah Nico found her and told me lmao", and sure enough within the week the press has a clear picture of Hazel escaping in a private jet with legally missing teen boys Percy Olympian-Jackson and heir to the Zhang family fortune Frank Zhang, who's mansion just mysteriously exploded.
In all the chaos of trying to a handle on the media storm, Nico, who was not originally a target, was left unguarded and gets kidnapped by Gaea (and Thalia once again threatens to wake up from her coma).
1) "Apollo your secret identity cannot also be named Apollo" "why NOT!!!"
2) when Percy is recounting his amnesia trip, Poseidon is like "I love you but you are lying about the wolves part. there is no way that happened twice in our family. please tell me you were nowhere near wolves" but Percy describes them all in great detail and where he was when they found them and Jason is like "wait that's...my wolf pack??? that's the exact pack that raised me? #mywolves" and everyone is like. WHAT.
3) Dionysus and Ares going by their fake names solely to fuck with amnesiac Percy
4) Nico was snooping through family documents and found Hazel's birth certificate, tracked her down, found out she was in foster care and snuck her out and then told Hera so she could arrange for Hazel to live at a boarding school run by the family. Hera was so thrilled to have dirt on Hades the kids hadn't even finished explaining before she got her checkbook out.
5) Frank was not originally part of the family but after the big news story about his house blowing up Ares adopted him for clout, and just kept sending him to the school he and Hazel went to
6) Leo finding out the reason he keeps getting caught by cps is because his billionaire grandmother has security guards around him at all times but she doesn't want to just take custody of him:
7) Piper realizing her amnesiac boyfriend is actually the younger brother of the man her mom keeps having affairs with:
8) Annabeth still somehow ends up getting sent on a suicide quest by her mom
oooh let me think okay.
like I said above it's funniest if Annabeth somehow still gets sent on a suicide quest. so Athena's having a breakdown for reasons separate from the main plot, I don't think the specifics matter right now bc it's midnight, but let's say she's mad that her daughter is moping (over her missing boyfriend mind you) and starts yelling about how Annabeth never brings any honor to her mother's name, she only gets in the news when Percy's in trouble, dumb shit like that. and she tells Annabeth to not come home until she does something noteworthy, and instead of being reasonable and 1) just moving in with her dad or 2) starting a charity like rich people do when they want good press, Annabeth's like well fine I'm gonna do the hardest possible thing I can imagine and track down a statue of the goddess you're named after that's famously been missing for centuries. fuck you. then your name will FOREVER be associated with me bitch.
So she takes Piper, Jason and Leo with her- Jason is a big history buff, he's a good help with research, Leo is good at squeezing into weird and tight places, Piper has a lot of travel connections through her dad and is definitely able to flirt her way into getting access to dig sites. They PLAN to also take Nico, cause he's a little freak and is good at sneaking around, but when they get to the school in California they find out not only that he's been kidnapped by his evil great grandmother, but PERCY IS THERE!!
Percy's memories don't come back as fast as they did in SoN, but he does remember Annabeth so he's like immediately on board with this stupid rogue archeology trip. Hazel decides to come along bc they already had reason to believe Evil Great Grandma is in the Mediterranean, and she's hoping they can try and track down Nico while they're there. Frank tags along bc his fucking house just exploded and he has nothing better to do quite honestly.
Many, many hijinks later they get info that Gaea has an extensive collection of stolen ancient art and she Knows they're looking for the Athena Parthenos and she offers Nico's freedom in exchange for the location they think it's buried. Percy is like "bet" and then just lies about the fucking location after they get Nico back so she's on like the other side of the country once they get to the parking lot in Rome that Annabeth has narrowed down as the most likely spot. Piper manages to get some permits and Leo's on the excavator while the others just have shovels and are sifting through rubble.
They DO find the statue, obviously- but since they're also a bunch of teenagers that have no idea what they're doing, all the digging triggers a huge fucking sink hole. Percy and Annabeth fall in and everyone assumes they're dead.
Meanwhile Percy and Annabeth are having like, "journey to the center of the earth" bullshit happening to them, and after about a month manage to make it back to the surface, grab a phone from the first kind samaritan they find and call in to CNN or BBC World or whatever and are like "hey yeah we're alive. listen there's a huge fucking super volcano underneath most of Italy from what we could tell, and it really doesn't seem like it's gonna be dormant forever. heads up? yeah we entered in Rome and we're now in fuckign Sicily somehow??? huge underground and underwater volcanic network guys and it seemed pretty Awake"
and then, because they just gave away their location on live international TV, they are PROMPTLY kidnapped by Gaea's people and taken to Greece.
Meanwhile, their friends and family are all on a plane to Athens to honor their memory while officially restoring the Athena Parthenos to her rightful place. They're in the air while Percy and Annabeth are calling into the news, so they completely still think they're dead until they get to the Parthenon and find those bitches Tied To A Ritualistic Altar.
Huge brawl between the assorted Olympian family (and extended friends) and Gaea and her henchmen. Half the Parthenon gets destroyed. International scandal.
However, between finding the statue/surviving underground/successfully warning people in time for scientists to come up with some bullshit to stop the volcano, therefore preventing what probably would've been an extinction level event- Annabeth and Percy managed to get just enough good press that Thalia got to stay happily comatose.
oh my God wait does everyone remember a couple years ago when Ezra Miller was randomly on a crime spree and they'd just show up out of nowhere in random places and start fights, and they had a teenage girl with them for some reason?? and maybe weapons?? I just realized that that's literally what trials of Apollo is in this au. it was this universes equivalent to the Ezra Miller era (until Apollo clears his name of course).
these tags are cracking me up. modern day au equivalent of ancient greek curses lmfao

























