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There was a lot Percy enjoyed about his part-time gig teaching at CUNY, the stable pay check, the proximity to his apartment, but mostly the outrageous things he heard his students say in the halls. He was currently teaching his six-week intensive in oceanography before students could come out on the boat to help with sample collections as part of their fieldwork. They were most of the way through, and he wanted to have some fun with the students before they spent time on the boat together.
Part of what Percy deemed necessary to teach were rituals of the sea, in part to teach students to respect sailor’s traditions, to mix up what their usual lessons look like, and for a chance to have some fun. He shared a snippet about different cultures at the end of every class, sometimes a tale of a pirate, sometimes mythos from around the world, sometimes a crazy story from a lobster boat he had heard. This week was his favorite every year. He was talking about the Mediterranean Sea and sailors stories from years past. Tuesday’s section he shared superstitions that Turkish sailors believed in, and told the story of Nu, the Egyptian god of water. Today he was talking about Greek and Roman myths. The class started to file in as Percy adjusted the stack of papers in front of him, smiling down at the “good luck, don’t do anything too stupid” text from Annabeth that had just come in.
“Hi Percy” one of his students, Shane, called as they made their way in, “when are we going to get our quizzes back.”
“You’ll get them when I’m done with them” Percy joked back to them, it was well known Percy was slow to return assignments, but when he did most students were happy with their grades. Percy remained a firm believer in the idea that effort and interest are the most important factors in a student’s try.
The class filed in, talking amongst themselves as they took their usual seats. The class was small enough that Percy could just do a head count to know that everyone was here, and they were only missing one student.
“Has anyone seen Erin today?”
“She has a cold, I told her I’d take notes for her today,” Amy spoke up to answer Percy’s question. Percy made a mental note to email Erin after class about reaching out to him when she was going to be absent, but nodded back to Amy.
“She’ll be sad to miss this class,” he predicted, “But I’m sure you'll tell her all about it.”
He stopped fidgeting with the papers in front of him and clasped his hands together, walking to the front of the room.
“Right, so today we’re shaking things up a bit, I figured we’d start today’s lesson with my tale from around the world –“ he was cut off as the whole room groaned, “hey now! This one is interesting!” Percy laughed out as his students shook their heads. He may have a habit of embellishing stories as he tells them and the class has mostly made a joke, as they always do, of the claims Percy makes of the sea. They tend to joke about them once they’re on the boat later in the semester, but today’s lesson usually results in students viewing his stories differently. Percy took another step forward and snapped his fingers loudly, hoping it came across enough as getting their attention, as he cleared the mist in the room temporarily enough for this to work.
“Today we travel to ancient Greece and Rome, arguably two of the most powerful forces in the Mediterranean Sea,” despite the groans, all of the students were looking at him with at least passive interest, “what ruled both civilizations were the Gods, the Greek and Roman traditions blending into similar belief patterns. Sailors and those living nearest to the sea prayed to the god Poseidon, wishing for safe passage and strong harvests from the sea and the rain brought to shore. History often forgets Poseidon is the god of storms and earthquakes in addition to the sea”
“Didn’t he also have a thing for horses?” Ryan called out from the second row.
“Ah yes, horses too were within Poseidon’s domain.” Percy suppressed a laugh, he had run into a horse this morning, had actually released one from where it was being held as a mounted police tool, and had Iris messaged Grover to bless the horse’s journey to safer lands. Percy walked to the table he had been behind, clearing a space in the center as he continued, “Legend has it that people communicated with the Gods through fire, they would send up offerings for every prayer and the gods would hear them.” He turned around to grin at his class, “who wants to start a fire?”
Everyone laughed, Shane cheered, looking at him as though they couldn’t quite figure out if he’s serious.
“I’m not kidding!” Percy called, he had fully cleared off his tabletop and pulled out the fire-resistant sheet he kept for this very reason. “Does anyone have any paper they are willing to burn in the name of this fire? Any bad test grades you ever want to see again?” There was a rustle as students looked through their bags and collectively came up with about eight crumpled sleets from backpacks.
“Most of us go paperless now man, join the 21st century,” Ryan told Percy as he handed over the collected paper. Percy laughed it off, despite being old enough now that monsters mostly left him alone, he and Annabeth still tried to limit their use of electronics to as little as possible, just to minimize any unnecessary risk. His students hated how much paper he gave out, but Percy’s deal with himself was helping with ocean clean-up for the majority of the year outweighed the environmental impact of printing out materials for his fifteen person maximum class every year.
“Okay, so, we’ll get this fire going,” Percy pulled out the lighter he brought today after arranging the paper on top of the sheet in a half-assed triangle shape. He lit the paper and turned to the class and there was a small flame making its way through the paper “now we need food to burn as offering, thankfully for all of you I brought cookies, yes you can eat one after” he saw most of them grin, “and I am willing to offer one up.”
He had moved to be behind the table in front of the classroom and pulled out the blue cookie he had prepared. “Now this particular offering is said to have brought Poseidon to ships in need that were stranded at sea–”
“You can’t actually think Poseidon is going to appear here” he was interrupted.
Percy actually knew for a fact that Poseidon was going to appear, he visited the palace last week to remind him of the plan, plus the smell of his mom’s chocolate chip cookies was nearly foolproof when wanting a prayer answered. “Hey,” Percy called back “it can’t hurt to try right? Plus you’re all getting cookies so even if it doesn’t work it seems to be a win-win here.” The class settled down, but he saw the looks of skepticism on all of their faces. If Ryan hadn’t asked that question he knew one of them would have.
“Okay before this fire burns out let’s do this.” Percy dropped the cookie into the flame, “Oh mighty Poseidon we ask your guidance as we prepare to set sail on the sea, we wish for your blessing of safe voyage and your wisdom to guide our efforts in conservation.” The flame went out as wind appeared in the room, replaced quickly by the familiar form of his dad.
The class seemed momentarily stunned by the new form in the room. Poseidon was in a more stereotypical godly body for today, Percy had specifically requested he turn up looking more like he did in Atlantis then when he appeared in the Mortal world, for the added pizzaz.
“Oh my god I didn’t even see him come in, that was a great trick,” Amy was the first to find a voice after the smoke cleared.
“What trick? I didn’t plan this” Percy protested, a lie but not in the way the class knew.
“Who are you?” A student named Mark asked, with a bemused look on his face.
“I am Poseidon, God of the Sea, earth shaker, storm bringer, maker of horses” Percy had to stifle a laugh as his dad put on a booming voice, it had been a long time, thankfully, since he had to encounter his dad in any true godly way. Percy heard snorts around the room as students sat in disbelief, some were squirming in their chairs, clearly not realizing their bodies were reacting to a godly presence, the flight or fight reflex kicked in even for most mortals.
“You do not believe me” Poseidon appraised as he looked around the room, “What can I do to prove myself to you?” He waved his hand and every water bottle in the room opened and the water came to his palm in a sphere. “You are planning on spending time in my domain soon, you will want my blessing as your ship goes to sea.” Students were staring at the water in his hand. Poseidon flicked his wrist and the water went out to sit right in front of everyone’s faces, in small orbs, and then brought it all back to circling around his body.
The class erupted and started asking questions a mile a minute about the ocean. Percy sat back and laughed at how many questions about the sea they have. Occasionally they would get off track and he would redirect them to inquires closer to class material –
“How many fish are in the sea”
“What method of coral reef protection is actually the best for the coral?”
“If you’re the god of the sea can’t you just make the ocean temperatures colder”
“Don’t you have like a million kids in the myths”
“Are other Gods real”
“How can we protect whale migration paths best”
Were some of the questions thrown out to the god as he answered them with ease. Managing, Percy noted, to avoid all responsibility for global warming, which was something he had been trying to get his dad to care about for years.
“All righty everyone, that’s our class period for today, time to say goodbye to our special guest.” Everyone looked at Percy alarmed, he couldn’t tell if it was because they were surprised the time had gone by that quickly or at the idea that this magical thing was going to go away. “I need everyone to close their eyes, the last part of all of the old tales was that no one could look at a god in their godly form as they left or else they’d incinerate on the spot.” Percy was met with incredibly wide eyes before everyone snapped their shut. Poseidon laughed and then patted Percy on the arm as he shut his eyes as well, murmuring “thanks dad” as a bright flash filled the room and Percy was left with the smell of salt air and seaweed. He smiled and he turned to the class.
“Okay everyone, have a great weekend, since we didn’t get to the lecture today we will be doing that Tuesday so please come prepared with your questions about the readings for today as well as any of the new nitrate level research published earlier this week that I just sent to your emails earlier today.” He smiled as they all stared at him silently, “Next time y’all might not be so quick to judge when I tell you tales of the past, huh?” The class continued just to stare and then slowly shook themselves out of it and grabbed their bags to leave the room. He could hear the second they got to the hallway conversations started, their disbelief echoing throughout the halls. Shane was packing up slowly, they were the only ones to have taken any notes throughout the lesson today, they seemed lost in thought as Percy came over. “You okay Shane?”
They looked up, “oh yeah, sorry” Shane shook their head and said simply “I never thought I would actually meet a god.”
Percy smiled, Shane seemed to be a believer. “All things considered you don’t seem all that shocked” he noted as they started to walk to the door. Shane turned and had a glint to their eye, like they knew something Percy didn’t.
“My brother spent every summer at camp half-blood. Even after all these years you’re still pretty legendary” Shane paused seeing the surprised look on Percy’s face “I just never thought I would get an insight into his world here. Have a good day, Percy” they turned and walked out the door.
“Well I’ll be” Percy muttered staring after them.