You Give Liberty a Bad Name (a Percy Jackson AU)

Just Thank My Height

London, England: July 20, 1776
    When they accepted him, Jason gave a prayer of thanks to God for making him tall. Having long legs and broad shoulders had made him appear bizarrely proportioned next to his companions back home, but in the army, they were an asset instead of a liability. The man ahead of him had been rejected for being too short.
      Jason waved goodbye to the rejected recruit, a squat man with the face of a gargoyle. Bes gave him a wide grin before trudging away. Jason wondered what he would do with his life. Though he would miss the quiet companionship Bes had offered him while they both had traveled from York to London, he was thankful to have found a home in the army.
Jason was taken to his new commander, a tall man with a lean face and broad shoulders named Mars. He was decorated with medals and battle scars and Jason felt like a scruffy pony standing next to a seasoned warhorse. He relaxed his shoulders. Someday, he would be that warhorse.
"You have joined the Brirish army on behalf of King George," Mars said. "Both he and Parliament extend their utmost gratitude to you brave soldiers. You will make your motherland and your fathers proud."
Jaron swallowed. He didn't even know his father's name. The idea that his father could ever feel proud of him made Jason feel like the overripe peaches that Jason's mother craved. From what he could remember, Beryl Grace was a thin, pretty woman who seemed as delicate as a twig, but drank whiskey and ale like a man. She could not hold down a job, but there were not many available women anyways.
Beryl had been romanced by a British soldier who had fought in the French and Indian War. She had beseeched him with letters after Thalia was born and after seven years, he returned, but only to impregnate her again. Pregnant and abandoned for the second time, Beryl had turned to washing laundry and sewing clothes to feed herself.
When Jason was three, his mother was desperate that she could not feed her children. Driven mad by hunger, she had sent Jason on a ship to England to work in a workhouse. Jason had not seen his mother or Thalia ever since.
       Jason was now eighteen and he had grown tired of the workhouse where Juno made snark remarks about the children's faces and the women's virtues. Juno's husband, Jupiter, was even worse. Jason had watched as Alcmene, Leda, Callisto, and Danae were all punished by Juno for her husband's roaming eye. Callisto had died in childbirth, while Danae and Alcmene were sent to roam on the streets. Only Leda managed some semblance of life, but it was rumored that the only reason she lived in a nice apartment was because she was willing to open her legs to men.
     It didn't matter if Jason could not make his father — whoever he was — proud of him. Mars was right. He would make his county proud and that — along with the promise of a better future — was all that Jason needed.