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Neptune stares at the girl in front of him. She stares back. Begrudgingly accepting her stubbornness, the god knows she won't anytime soon, and so, he simply sighs.
"You are my daughter?"
She cocks her head to the side. "Sort of, I suppose? I'm Greek, so it would make me your counterpart's kid, but you guys are the same person, right?"
He sighs again. "We are not the same person, however, yes, his children are still mine."
"Then, I'm your daughter, Rhea."
He takes a deep breath. May Chaos help him in his endeavour. "In that case, Rhea, what are you wearing?"
Her face immediately takes on an affronted look, and she says, defensively, "What, my skinny jeans mortally offend you or something?"
Neptune is so out of touch. He doesn't even know children talked this way these days, much less to their own parents. Or is it a side effect of her being his offspring? They're known to be impertinent, especially the Greek ones.
Regardless.
"What are these 'skinny jeans' you mentioned?"
Rhea motions to the blue-ish fabric covering her legs, "Or is it the shirt?" The way she is looking at him suggests she does not have a very high opinion of her father right now.
"You misunderstand me," he tries to explain, "Why are your clothes so plain? There isn't even any adornment to make up for it."
She blinks, confused. Does Poseidon truly let the girl wander around like that?
"I wear it because it's comfortable?" she spells out. "And I don't see the point in wearing jewellery when it isn't necessary."
He is going to go under the sea and have some serious words with his Greek counterpart. Or at least, try to. Mostly, they just get a terrible headache everytime they try. He bids his daughter farewell, but makes sure to sneakily add a pearl bracelet on her right hand; it isn't much but it should do for now.
Until he gets to the bottom of what exactly is going on.
The second time he meets his daughter – still without any sort of adornments or more expensive fabrics – she positively reeks of sunshine. He almost gags. How dare some other god spread their aura around his child? The audacity.
"Why is Apollo's aura around you?" he asks before any sort of greeting.
Rhea yelps, and turns around in a jump. "Father, did you just break into my apartment?"
It is Neptune's turn to look confused, scanning the area. He is sitting on the couch, and nothing in the entire 'apartment' is ripped or broken. "I did not break anything."
She closes her eyes, as if in pain. "Breaking into means that you just– entered my house. Without permission."
Is she always this– wait. House? "House?" he argues. "This is the size of one chamber at best."
"Must be some huge chambers," Rhea hums, "Would you like anything?"
Neptune does not understand this strange child. She is his daughter, and has his nephew's aura all around her. She is the daughter of a god-king, but she wears plain things and lives in a house that is smaller than the chambers she should have. None of it makes sense.
"I would like to know why my brother's son's aura is on you."
"Oh that," she waves her hand dismissively, "I just came back from a date."
He's heard Salacia mention this, hasn't he? Doesn't it mean– "Is he courting you?"
She shrugs again. "I'm going with dating for now, but sure, some people did call it courting."
"I see."
He does make sure to will some water to surround her for a few minutes, while she shrieks, "Is this your idea of a hug?"
"Yes," he tells her, "That is a way of showing my affection."
Technically, it is. No child of his is walking around without the smell of the sea being their primary scent, godly lovers be damned. Speaking of godly lovers, however… He really must try talking to Poseidon about this.
In any case, he did come here for a reason.
"I have dropped off some things for you," he says.
In response, she merely stares at her kitchen table. "What – exactly – am I supposed to be doing with that much jewellery?" she asks through gritted teeth.
Neptune scoffs. "It's hardly anything. Just barely enough to signify your rank, since you have some sort of aversion to displaying it openly."
Rhea turns to him and narrows her eyes. "What rank?"
"Are you not my daughter?"
"So?"
"I am a king, child. And you mentioned – dating, was it – another god, surely even he must see the importance of this–"
"Importance of what?" she interrupts. "Because you're going somewhere in the princess territory and I do not like it."
"Should you not deserve all the titles and honours that being a god-king's daughter offers?" He must be missing something here. There is no other way, unless– wait. "Are you ashamed of being my child?"
She looks offended. "What? No! I love being your daughter–"
"There is no other explanation for your–"
He does not remember much of the conversation after that. He thinks she yelled in some foreign language while he spoke in a mix of Latin, Italian and English.
After that last meeting, Rhea does the sensible thing. She calls Apollo and requests him to come over. As they're sitting on the couch, she starts, "I need help with my dad. The Roman one, anyway."
"And you thought to ask me, darling?"
"It's some godly thing I'm not getting," she explains, "And I refuse to squander my relationship with my father – my other father? Other version of my father? – over it."
"Tell me everything."
So she does. In the end, there's some silence, before Apollo winces. "I think I got it."
She inclines her head as if to say and?
"So Neptune is, well, a bit of a recluse. And mostly knows sea politics better, and is sometimes out of touch with current earth fashion."
"Your point?" She raises an eyebrow.
"My best bet is that he's operating under sea culture," which makes sense, Dad-Poseidon does it often enough, so what's stopping Dad-Neptune? "And from what I recall, the higher your status, the more extravagantly you should present yourself."
"As in?"
"Shall I be bluntly honest, darling?" she nods, "And you promise not to get angry at me for interpretation?" she nods again. "The answer is: he thinks you live like a peasant," before she can open her mouth to continue, "And I'm guessing he doesn't have a very high opinion of me either."
"Because you're not giving me an overabundance of jewellery?" Rhea asks sceptically.
"It's a lot more than that but yes, essentially."
Neptune does manage to have that talk, but it is with Jupiter instead. The two of them are much closer than Poseidon and Zeus, and Jupiter is more likely to know what is going on in the surface world. Mostly because the sea god does not usually bother with such things.
The third time he visits his daughter, he is much more enlightened. And also a little surprised, because for the first time since he's met her, the girl has actually deigned to wear some accessories.
"So I talked to my little brother," there is a warning thunder, but he hardly cares. He may have a good relationship with Jupiter, but that does not mean Saturn's children milk every opportunity to remind him who the baby is. "And it seems that most surface children are better versed in the surface culture, which is far different these days. Honestly, it keeps changing every decade, am I honestly expected to keep up with it?"
She giggles a little, and he counts that as progress. "It's okay, I talked to a couple people about it and I really misunderstood the whole point so."
"But we're on the same page now, I believe?"
"Well, I hope so," she says. That's as well as it can get, Neptune supposes. She still reeks of sunshine. "So, I guess I'll wear a little bit of jewellery, but not too much, okay?"
"That is fine, I am given to understand you prefer your position in military to the one given by virtue of descent, which I can honour."
At least, that's what Jupiter had explained. He mentioned about her leading armies more than once – and truly, he couldn't be prouder of his daughter. In a sense, it may still irk him a little that she does not like flaunting her power as his offspring, but something in him warms at the fact that she prefers using the power she has earned with only merit to guide her. A marvel of a girl, really.
She nods slowly.
"However," he snaps his fingers, and a circlet materialises over her head, "I do insist you wear that at all times, if possible," before she can protest, he adds, "It will hide itself from mortals, demigods and legacies unless you will it to be seen. As for the immortals… it is simply a way for them to know whose daughter you are, so they don't make the wrong enemy, see," he smiles almost cruelly at the last part, and is thrilled to see Rhea bare her teeth back.
"I think they'll be far more afraid of me first."
Neptune gives a hearty laugh. "I knew I liked you for a reason!"
Then, he makes sure to surround her in seawater for good measure.
OMAKE:
Hermes stares at where Rhea Jackson just left to play with some of the younger kids after greeting him. He's here to see his children – and he will, just right after he solves this mystery.
"Dio," he asks his brother, "Is she wearing the circlet that announces her as an official royal of Atlantis?"
Dionysus snorts. "To be honest, I doubt she knows she just got recognised as a princess of the sea, and isn't wearing just a gift from her father. But who am I to burst her bubble?" He went back to his cards.
Shit. Hermes is going to have to talk to Father about this – it makes things a lot more complicated than if she was just a regular demigod of Uncle P's. Actually, could that be why this is happening? And Apollo! He needs to talk to his brother about his love life at the moment quite possibly diving head first into diplomacy and international relations and–
Hermes groans. So much paperwork, he bemoans.