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Rhea is sure the sleep deprivation is getting to her. There is no other explanation for why she has just put in two golden drachmas in Hermes' mouth.
"A red bull," she demands.
Hermes takes the drachmas out of his mouth and conjures a six pack of red bull. "On me," he winks, "But next time, remember that I'm not a vending machine."
He flashes away, leaving Rhea with a six pack of red bull and a shit ton of embarrassment. This is bad. She needs to fix it. She'll go visit the hunters in a day or two, leaving Olympus ought to help.
Are river gods always this annoying, or do they want to specifically give her problems? What, is it 'let's make it hell for the new goddess' day. Like, yeah, she gets it, she's their new boss apparently, but can they not?
"Quiet!" they obey, a good few looking a little scared. Hm. Ares did say she had a good glare. She's tempted to apologise, but these are gods, not the water spirits she likes hanging out with or demigods, so it's okay if they're a little wary, right?
"I'm the goddess of rivers, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to get up and change everything immediately," she patiently explains. "All of you have autonomy in your own river, but if you require my help, or it's an emergency, then feel free to call me."
"So, won't we owe you a favour then?" one of them asks.
Rhea takes another deep breath. "Technically, helping you is part of my job description. You do not owe me favours for doing my fucking job. Next?"
"Then why did you even call us here?" another river god complains. "You just said you aren't doing anything and we can just continue on as we like."
No fighting, Rhea, she chides. Then, she pinches her nose. "I called you here so that you know you are now under me instead of my father or brother, and to inform you that you may call for my help whenever necessary."
Questioner No. 3 pointed out, "What else is the point of this then? Since we're all managing pretty well, you're still not doing anything."
She grits her teeth. If they want it that way, fine. No one can say she didn't give them clemency first.
Rhea gives them a sickly sweet smile that might just spread diabetes. "Alright, I also want annual reports of the state of your rivers. If something feels problematic, I will come to check in myself – and please don't lie, I'll have you know I can get Apollo to double check it."
Complainer No. 2 sputters, "Annual?"
"Yes, would you prefer I use the word 'yearly'? Or perhaps 'per annum'?"
No response.
This is too fun. She claps and injects as much cheer in her voice as she can, "Great! It's good to know you agree, or I might just add inspections."
"No!" one of the river gods who had been quiet until now yelps. "We'll give truthful yearly reports! No inspections, please."
"Alright," she shrugs.
Her first godly victory. It feels nice.
Jason is going through the files of his newest case at the cafe next to Leo's workshop. It's mostly straightforward, and would be easy if everyone involved wasn't so determined to give him migraines. He, once again, wonders why he chose this for a profession.
Someone enters and sits down at his table.
"Rhea?" he asks, confused, because this isn't one of their hang-out days or a big three cousin day or a seven reunion day. Jason would know. He keeps a calendar.
Rhea blinks. "What? No, it's me, Kym."
"Rhea, we met her, she does not look like this," he says.
Rhea-Kym rolls her eyes. "I am a goddess, son of Jupiter, I can take whatever form I choose. It is Kym."
For effect, she changes her face for a minute. Oh.
"My apologies, Lady Kym, I, uh, got confused?" Jason fumbles, trying not to wince at how his apology sounds more like a question.
Kym laughs. "I understand, I do have an uncanny resemblance to my little sister in my currently preferred form," she winks at him, what the fuck, "It is on purpose."
"To prank people?" he blurts out, before slapping his hand on his mouth. Great. Jason is now mortified. The only thing that might keep him from becoming Jason-fish is the fact that it would make Rhea unhappy and Kym would never do something that would make Rhea unhappy. (Even then, he isn't sure it would still stop Kym.) There's also the whole son of the king of gods, but he doesn't think that will be very helpful.
The storm goddess smirks. "You are hilarious. I knew I liked you for a reason."
"...Thank you?"
"Anyway!" she claps her hands, "I came here because I received the action figure you made. It's very well-crafted, actually, and I loved the design on my–"
Kym talks about how much she loved the action figure and Jason's work the whole afternoon. When he has one of his hangout days with Rhea, Jason offhandedly mentions that Kym looks like her twin sister when out and about in the mortal world. His friend is just as confused as him.
Rhea and Kym are sitting side by side at the shores of a random island in the Atlantic. The waves are clashing violently, but that's more of their combined bonding activity than anything. Overall, it's quite peaceful.
"I heard you went to go flirt with Jason," she teases.
Her older sister huffs playfully. "Remember, you were the one who let slip that he's single now. Surely, you can't expect me to not try?"
Rhea bites her lip. "He doesn't know you were flirting."
Kym groans. "I'll try again." At Rhea's reproachful look, she adds, "I'll back off if he's not interested, and you know I won't intentionally hurt one of your demigods."
Rhea softens. They stay that way, in companionable silence, until she remembers something else too.
"Did you make your mortal form look like me on purpose?"
Kym turns away. By now, she knows this is more of a sign of vulnerability. This, Rhea understands, is more than just a method to prank people into mistaking her for her sister or vice versa. When Kym finally speaks, it's extremely quiet, and Rhea has to strain against the sound of the waves to hear it.
"You were the first person in our family to accept me for who I am. Without asking me to change, or become less destructive. I already know you threatened Father into inviting me to Atlantis, even though he would have been perfectly happy to leave me and forget I exist."
"You're my sister," Rhea answers truthfully, "I'd be a really shitty sister if I didn't treat you like family."
"See?"
"Let me finish! I'd be a really shitty sister, but also a fucking hypocrite."
Kym turns to look at her, eyes narrowing. "I'd hardly compare the two of us. You're so much… nicer."
Rhea scoffs. "No, I'm not."
"I don't believe you."
"Well, it's the truth," she hisses back. She takes a deep breath and apologises for the tone. Kym says nothing, daring her to explain further.
Rhea Jackson has never backed down from a dare.
She talked to Artemis about some stuff, didn't she? She can very well talk to Kym.
(She also remembers being very uncomfortable while talking about it, but ignores that part.)
"You know me," she starts, a little playfully, "I have a certified record of blowing stuff up – from toilets to volcanoes."
"Volcanoes?"
"Mt. St. Helens?" Rhea mentions, "I thought all the gods knew. My powers overreacted and I caused the explosion."
"And you were alright after that?" Fuck, Kym looks concerned now. This was a horrible plan. She can't even avert it.
"I went to Ogygia for a couple weeks," she tries to play it off, "Crashed my own funeral. It was iconic."
"Rhea, tell me what you're avoiding or so help me, I will bring Rhode into this."
"Hey! That's cheating!" she protests. Rhea wilts at Kym's intense stare. "I mean, I caused a volcanic eruption. That stuff sticks with you, right? And, maybe, just maybe, sometimes after that, I felt like the world could be safer… without me?"
Kym rushes to squeeze her in a hug. "Never, ever believe that again!" she whispers harshly. It feels nice.
After the hug is over, although her elder sister seems very unwilling to let go, Rhea continues.
"When I had the Curse of Achilles, it made me stronger, but much more bloodthirsty than usual during the Battle of Manhattan. I didn't know when to retreat. I used to laugh as I cut monsters to shreds, you know. Sometimes, I had this grin – it made it difficult to understand whether I was the good guy or the bad guy."
If she hadn't been immortal, Rhea is sure Kym's grip of her hand would break a few bones.
"And then, there's the Pit. We met the goddess of misery there – needed something from her," a pause. A long one. Rhea isn't sure if she's ready to reveal this. Only Annabeth knows, and the two of them have always pretended it never happened. The two of them never really talk about what happened down there. Tartarus, she has understood so far, brings out the worst in people, makes them do things they would never entertain the thought of in the mortal world.
In the Pit, only survival matters. Morality is not something you can waste time over.
(A little bit like Hunger Games, come to think of it. Huh.)
"But she tricked us, and tried to kill us. I got angry," Rhea confesses, "Really angry. And I thought, isn't poison a liquid? Can't I control it? The worst part was that I could. So I choked her on it. I remember thinking, 'let's see how much misery Misery can take'." A sniffle. "That was the first time I remember Annabeth being truly scared of me. She hadn't been scared the day I mauled Medusa to death when we were twelve, but this… She said it was unnatural. That some things aren't meant to be controlled."
"Excuse me?!" Kym's voice is sharp, and Rhea flinches, thinking this is it, this is how I'm going to lose her forever, I never should have talked about this, why did I tell anyone– "She had no right to decide what powers you can use and which ones you can't."
"But it–"
"No! You were trying to protect yourself and her, you have every right to use anything in your arsenal."
Rhea is quiet for a long time. She resolves to think about it later. This was supposed to be about Kym.
"What my point is," she starts, "Is that I know how it feels to think you're too destructive or dangerous for the people around you – don't even try to argue with me on this, K, or I will bring Rhode here – and it feels shitty and horrible and I wouldn't want you to feel like you don't belong in the one place you're supposed to belong no matter what."
Kym hugs her again, saying, "This is why you're my favourite."
Rhea thinks that, maybe, out of all her siblings, Kym might be her favourite too. If someone ends up mistaking them for twins occasionally, she's not going to be complaining.
Jason does end up realising Kym is trying to flirt after the eighth visit. He does not know how to feel about it, and her sister's response is, "I can work with that."
Piper finds the whole situation amusing.
[Rhea and Kym are standing back-to-back, in a pose, at an abandoned beach somewhere]
stormqueenkym no, we had nothing to do with the recent incident, what are you talking about?
bluecookiesjackson who took this picture.
apollotheawesome kym made me
bluecookiesjackson that's some very good photography
apollotheawesome <3
angelofdeath the two of you are disgusting.
ladyofrhodes why wasn't i invited?
stormqueenkym i can hog her if i want to.
tritonofatlantis that's fair
savetheunicorns twins?
bluecookiesjackson muahahahaha
stormqueenkym i knew someone would do it
chxse they're siblings, but not twins.
[see 35 more comments]
It takes four months, but Rhea's Olympus temple is ready. She wants to hug Annabeth, there's no way all these specific designs weren't on purpose.
For one, the inner walls are blue. A lot of the furniture placement and things of the like are inspired by what her friend has seen in her mom's place and Cabin Three. There's a door that leads to a garden with a lake, as well as a porch swing made for three to four people (or one person to simply lay down). There's no way Annie hasn't gotten some of the plants from Katie. A fountain with drachmas for IM's, so that Rhea can call anyone whenever.
Also, there's a jacuzzi and a bathtub and it's the best.
Between her siblings and Apollo and the hunters and heck, even the gods that have become her friends somehow (which includes Ares, and the two of them are equally surprised), Rhea thinks that maybe eternity won't be so bad after all.