Dealing with Drama

Marine Madness: Part 3

AN: Late updates. I'm thinking of scrapping my entire update schedule and cramming in updates whenever I can. Real life is taking a hefty toll on me, and I can physically feel all enthusiasm to do anything slowly leave me.

Anyway, despite my woes, I was inspired by some debauched fanfics I stumbled across today quite by accident. So here we are.

Happy reading.

Percy sighed softly to himself as he ran his fingers through his messy hair, which seemed to grow more and more untamed with every passing minute he spent cooped up on the bridge, being buffeted by the briny seabreeze at full speed. The tropical sun, perennial over the warm waters they drifted on, beat down on the Blue Cookie with a burning vengeance, until the metal steps of the bridge felt like a frying pan and even the wooden sundeck was left slightly warmed, reflecting Asteria's jealousy at being left out -occupied with her duties as she was, yet able to observe everything from her chariot.

His sea green eyes roamed across the azure waves, calm and gentle to the point that even the slight sway of the yacht was almost imperceptible. The sky overhead reflected the sea underneath, cloudless save for a slight scatter like the frothy spray of waves on blue canvas. The seagulls, which had followed them for so long when they had departed from Ogygia, were nowhere to be seen now, out ranged and with nowhere to nest save for the low, rocking yacht itself, and for once, Percy was left with his own thoughts, the lulling sounds of the gentle waves, and little else.

It was unbearable. The heat, which had prompted him to ditch his Hawaiian shirt long ago, leaving him clad in only a pair of swimming shorts, and the silence, which he had drifted away from.

"Let's take a little break." He announced to the bridge, of which he was the sole occupant, before shifting over to the shipping map, charting out the course the ship was to take like a good Captain, dragging his finger across the smooth screen.

A red line followed his finger, slicing across the Atlantic to connect the equator to a point just off the southern coast of Hawaii, and for a moment, Percy stopped, hesitating about the next course that they could take to have maximum fun.

Well, they didn't really need to get off the yacht to have fun, per se, but Percy didn't want to disappoint his girls. So he had mapped out some of the best maritime tourist spots they could check out, and even though half of them liked to linger back on the boat, the rest were still filled with wonder as he showed off to them the wonders held in the untouched hotspots of his father's domain.

Even Athena, who was so deathly scared of the sea, had managed to get over her fear and go diving -never letting go of his hand, but still, baby steps and all- just to appreciate all the different varieties of marine life that had yet to grace the pages of taxonomy, like aliens given flesh and blood and dunked several hundred metres under the sea.

"This is the bridge to the engine room." Percy leaned towards the horn, deciding that he would decide the next course once they reached Hawaii, reaching out lazily for the aviator sunglasses that he had ditched on the panel, opening it with a lazy flick of his hand and putting the sunglasses on with a flourish. The horn responded with a hazy static, barely audible over the waves, the most sound that Calypso's luminous servants- and the ship's only crew- could make.

"Send a man up to the helm, I'm going to the deck. Maintain course, drop speed down to three knots."

His instructions given, Percy couldn't care less, eager to escape the bridge and go down to the deck to join in the fun.

His feet slipped into the flip flops that even he had been forced to don to avoid getting the soles of his feet burned off from the scorching metal, and Percy sprinted down the stairs with practiced ease that came with his genes, the slippers clacking against his heels in a gentle rhythm.