Fanfic / An Undertow Of Sand

Ananke reaching out to Percy

"'A half-blood child of the eldest gods, shall reach sixteen against all odds.' Who decided the sons of Kronos met the criteria for eldest gods? There are older gods. Elder Gods. And They have been watching. See with your mind, oh Child of Prophecy. For reality is a lie. Your very existence is a flaw. An anomaly. A bend in Fate. And if Fate can bend, then it can break. Everything is different. Nothing has changed.

Open your eyes..."

An Undertow of Sand is a Fusion Fic of Percy Jackson and the Olympians with the Cthulhu Mythos (with bits of Bloodborne lore sprinkled on top) written by Shujin. The premise of this fic is that the creatures, gods and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos did in fact exist, but not precisely in the ways or by the names described by Lovecraft. Their existence did not go unnoticed by history.

The gods of historical mythology are real, if hidden, much like in PJO canon, but additionally, the older gods, the protegenoi and primordials of historical mythology are one and the same with the gods described by the Cthulhu Mythos, they are just not called by those names; for names have power and the words Lovecraft coined to name the gods are not nearly old enough to get even a flicker of their attention, but the names of historical mythology are.

Percy Jackson does not exist. Poseidon never had a son with Sally Jackson. Our protagonist is Percy Stele, son of Dorian Stele, a lawyer in New York, and the god known by the greeks as Ananke, the goddess of compusion, inevitability, necessity, and fate.

It is not its only name.

The Celtics knew her as The Mórrígan, the Phanton Queen. The Egyptians knew it by another name still, and came to consider its worship heretical: Horemheb tried to erase historical records of the pharaoh who adopted it; and by the time Ramesses II was in power, the period of this pharaoh's rein was described as "the time of the enemy".

And a peculiar man from Providence, who wrote wonderous and fantastical tales rooted on the vistas and visions he had in his dreams, described it as an evilly intelligent messenger of hidden and terrible powers.

The story is available on Space Battles, Sufficient Velocity, Questionable Questing, Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction.net.

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This fic provides examples of:

• Above the Gods: The Elder Gods far surpass the power of the Young Gods, and answer for none of their rules. It is their disinterest that keeps the two separated, for if an Elder God chooses to intervene all a Young God can do is ask another Elder God for help.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Subverted. The Mórrígan is introduced as a good-humoured, patient, and understanding individual. It is not until later that we see what happens when things don't go according with Fate's designs.
• Adaptational Villainy: The Olympians. While they were portrayed as jerks in PJO and in the original myths, they were ultimately seen as the lesser evil. Here, however, their actions are given much more scrutiny, and forgivness is not dished out as easily.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Several of the nicer olympians are given a harsher treatment than they do in canon, either by bringing forth their deeds in mythology or by scrutnizing their deeds within canon. Artemis is given an ironic punishment for derelicting her duties surrounding the protection of children and is pursued and/or threatned by other gods for her slights against them, specifically Aura and Khione. Athena on the other hand, is interpreted, per Word of God, as a narcisistic psychopath.
  "Yes, morals." She said that word 'morals' the same way I would complain about dog shit on my shoes. Charming, really. She shifted her hand off her eyes, peering at me with black coral orbs that shimmered with the rainbow in the light. "Ethics. Temporary discomfort is worth the King of Olympus being wary of war, rather than having him desire it."
• Adults Are Useless: As per canon, nearly all demigods are children because of their short life, additionally, we see Percy's father Dorian Stele, despite being a lawyer and living in a New York penthouse, having a complete break down after the Mórrígan leaves, although, admittedly that is less because he’s incapable/useless and more the fact his mind never really completely recovered after being broken by him being in a relationship with an Eldritch Horror.
• Always Someone Better: The gods do not have the same level of power. The gods of Olympus surpass the minor gods and nymphs in mythology, but Aphrodite in particular, is noted by Percy to be "The only reason there was even a fight" when telling an account of a rebellion within Olympus. The Elder Gods, however, outstrip even the Old Gods, for Elder Gods are gods in themselves, with no ties to humanity or mortals; their Names are merely masks they choose to wear — yet, even among the Elder Gods, there is a division of power. The God of Sleep is powerful beyond human comprehension, but even he is no match for the God Within Fate or the God Beneath the Pit.
• Big Brother Bully: The fates that tried to get Percy aborted by their mother.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The gods, specially the Elder Gods, and, to a lesser extent, Percy. The Matriarch of the Swarm, for instance, one of the most sympathetic Elder Gods shown, is asleep, for she sees humanity as defective, and if she was awake and fully realized, she would destroy humanity and her own children with it.
• Body Horror: Aura, the Titaness that insulted Artemis, was arranged to be raped and was then turned into a mostrosity:
  The monster was vaguely humanoid. It was covered in thick, ropey scar tissue the color of blood, almost looking like it was something that had been flayed alive and all that was left was the muscle fibers stretching over pockmarked and pitted black bones. The main head was eyeless and noseless, just a cone jutting out from a humanoid head, but then it opened like a blooming flower. Slimy, drooling tentacles covered in gaping mouths like the suckers of an octopus waved at us. There were two shrunken heads hanging off its body as it dragged its knuckles on the ground. They were covered in wide, bloodshot eyes wildly rolling around.
• Broken Pedestal: Percy at the start of the fic started with quite the admiration and even a bit of a crush on Artemis. His high opinion on her begins to slip when he calls her out of being petty enough to want to torture her uncle Hades out of suspicious that he, unlike the rest of the gods, might be getting stronger and she tries to kill him in retaliation. Then he finds out about Aura, Khione and Callisto.
• Brought Down to Normal: Artemis after derelicting her duties of protection of children and trying to kill Percy, is turned into a rabbit by Ananke, an ironic punishment in several levels. See also Ironic Hell.
• Brown Note: As per canon and per mythology, if a mortal sees a god's true form they will be incinerated. Additionally, however, in this story there are certain bits of knowledge than can provoke madness by themselves, such as the oldest names of the Elder Gods.
• Brown Note Being: See Brown Note.
• Cosmic Entity: The Elder Gods.
• Country Matters: Percy several times calls the Fates, his half-sisters, cunts, much to the shock and horror of everyone listening. Since they tried to convince their mother, Ananke, to abort him, he does have a point.
• Deity of Human Origin: Kronos, the Titans, and ultimately, the Young Gods in general are either ascended humans or descendents of humans.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Percy consumes a water deity in the dreamlands
• Divine Date: Dorian Stele is the father of Percy Stele through Ananke, the primordial greek godess of necessity, inevitability, and fate, and is currently married to the Mórrígan, the celtic goddess of war and fate.
• Divine Parentage: The demigods, as per canon.
• Divine Intervention: While there are rules surrounding intervention, the gods are regular characters in the story and their intervention is common; additionally, some gods, like Ananke and Nyx, are above those rules, and can decide to intervene whenever they see fit.
• Either/Or Prophecy: The Great Prophecy, as per canon.
• Energy Beings: The Etruscan gods before being absorbed by the Olympians
• Everybody Hates Hades: The family of Hades voted for him to have his divine names exposed by Adreisteia. Lampshaded by Artemis:
  “It is one of the worst punishments on Olympus,” Artemis said automatically. “It is agony, every inch of you tears. A million knives slicing into you, flaying you and you can feel yourself hollow out.” The monotonous tone of her voice drained my anger. I found myself gently putting her down on Luke’s bed. Her silver eyes were unfocused. “You bleed, but you do not know from where. You scream with no voice. You cannot see it, but you can feel your pieces drift away.”
• Fantastic Racism: Elder gods towards spawns.
• Fate Worse than Death: Ananke, as the goddess of fate, invevitability, compulsion and necessity, can dish out those whenever she wishes, as Lampshaded by Percy; her daughters, the Moirae, are in a similar position.
  • What Artemis did to Aura can be considered such.
• I Have Many Names: The gods. Names shape their focus and their domains, as a source of godly power. They are also what allow the gods to be in more than one place at the same time. Apollo Musagetes (Leader of the Muses) might be perfoming a musical piece while simultaniously Apollo Asclepious (of Healing) might be overseeing an operation at the hospital, while Apollo Agraeus (of the Hunt) and Apollo Aphetor (Archer) are hunting animals with his sister, each name containing a slice of godly power geared towards a certain domain. They are still all the same god, however, and if necessity calls, Apollo can call all his names to himself, thus holding his true power.
  • All gods have Names of power, but the Names of a Young God shape their focus. Artemis Agrotera (of the Hunt) and Artemis Paedotrphus (Nurse of Children) are both still Artemis, but as they have different focus they are comparable to different personalities of someone with Dissossiative Identity Disorder. Elder Gods, however, are different. They are always present, their names are not personalities, but avatars. Both the Mórrígan and Ananke are just different masks the God Within Fate chooses to wear.
• Immortal Ruler: Zeus, as per classical mythology. Zigzagged as he was overthrown by Athena, but mannaged to come back to power. However, thanks to the Great Prophecy, an oportunity will soon arise to overthrow him again.
• Ironic Hell: What Ananke gives Artemis for dereliction of her duty of protection and nursing of children and for attacking Percy by turning her into a rabbit, which is an ironic punishment for several reasons:
  • First, a rabbit is a prey animal, while Artemis was a goddess of hunters.
  • Second, Artemis had transformed many others into prey animals in the past, making this punishment a vindication on those actions; likewise, Artemis used her status as the favoured daughter of Zeus and goddess of a throne in Olympus to get away with many atrocities against other gods and nymphs, such as what was done to Aura and Calisto; by stripping her of her divinity, not only are the tables turned, but she also becomes a target by those she slighted in the past.
  • Third, rabbits are animals associated with the moon in many cultures, thanks to the shape and configuration of the dark spots that can be seen in the side of the moon that faces the Earth, thus the transformation is a mockery of her lunar domain.
  • Finally, rabbits are animals that resort to canibalism with little provocation, and a mother rabbit can quite easily consume its own offspring, making the transformation also a mockery of her Names of protection and nursing of children.
• Jerkass Gods: The Olympians in general, as per canon and classical mythology, with several gods outside of olympus also fitting the bill subverted in that non-greek gods are seemingly not as awful, at least to their demigods.
• Mortality Ensues: Artemis, see Brought Down to Normal and Ironic Hell.
• Mother of a Thousand Young: Nyx, already an example of this in classical mythology, was merged with the Trope Namer here.
• Offerings to the Gods: As per canon and classical mythology, mortals can make these. Additionally, Young Gods can also do this for Elder Gods, as Hermes finds out after Artemis is turned into a rabbit.
• Prophecies Are Always Right:As per canon and classical mythology. This additionally has the side effect of making Fate unable to lie, for her words are the truth itself.
• Psychopomp: Thanatos shows up shortly to bring Hypnos to the House of the Night in Tartarus, as per Nyx's and Erebus' command.
• Semi-Divine: Demigods, but also nymphs and daemons.
• Society of Immortals: Olympus.
• Starstruck Speechless: Percy gets like this after meeting Artemis, whom he has a crush on. It doesn't last.
• The Old Gods: The Elder Gods, specially the primordials such as the God Within Fate or the God Beneath the Pit
• The Older Immortal:As per canon, Aphrodite is far older than the rest of Olympus, and the primordials are far older than any of the gods of earth.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: Mentioned by Percy:
  “My Mom also mentioned this one book that has everything, but it’s dangerous.”
  As in, ‘you can find all of the Names of my mother in it’ dangerous. Hers and the Names of others, like the god behind the Night.
  Names that could drive even a god mad.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Lampshaded by Athena and Dionysus:
  Athena: You do not have to like the boy, but you will respect his parentage. I tell you this for your own sake, if anyone wishes you to fight Fate? Don’t.
  Dionysus: [bitterly] Not even the gods fight Ananke.