"I — I don't know the first thing about Aphrodite-"
"My mother was born of sea foam," Silena cut him off. "And if you're really who I think you are... you are the sea. You can pull this off," she said and touched his cheek. "Get the bolt. Survive," she said. Percy swallowed.
"What if I can't act the part?" He asked. Silena's expression went blank for a moment. Slowly, she slipped off her bracelet and placed it in his hands.
"If you're going to be one of us... you better learn."
Son of Sea Foam
is a Percy Jackson and the Olympians Alternate Universe Fic by Caffeinated Flumadiddle.
In a world where children of the Big Three are killed when they are discovered due to a war in the 1940's, Percy has to hide the fact that he is a son of Poseidon in order to survive. Unfortunately, unclaimed children tend to raise the most suspicion, so Percy comes to the conclusion that he needs to trick another god into claiming him. He may just have found what he was after in Aphrodite.
The series has sadly been deleted as of May 2022, so the only way to read it and its sequel ''Descendants of Olympus” at the moment is by finding someone who downloaded a copy or by using an Internet archive.
As of December 2023, it is back up online, and the author has asked for people to respect her privacy this time.
Tropes contained in Son of Sea Foam:
- All There in the Manual: A lot of backstory, worldbuilding and things that happened which didn't make it into the main story can be found on the author's Tumblr.
- Ambiguous Gender: Nobody quite knows what gender Sam, one of Aphrodite's children, is, and when asked their only response is "I'm pretty".
- Apocalyptic Log: Evelyn Laurent, the daughter of Poseidon, kept a journal recording everything that happened to her, her siblings and friends. Eventually, as the Hate Plague consumed her as well, it descended into gibberish written in blood.
- Bad Liar: Silena Beauregard catches Percy using his water powers, and his Blatant Lies just made it worse for himself. With her training and him committed to their plan, he gets better.
- Becoming the Mask: Thanks to Silena’s mentorship, Percy becomes really good at embodying the traits of Aphrodite children, to the point that Nico initially didn’t believe him when Percy admits to being the son of Poseidon. After The Reveal, Nico asks the campers if they believe Percy has “love magic” and many hands are raised, including Apollo’s.
- In a darker example, an upset Percy loudly reminds the camp that Chiron’s replacement was a ''katára”, and Mr. D is forced to jump in when the demigods turn hostile. It was All for Nothing, as Percy later finds out the camp got rid of him anyways.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: In fact, with the 1940s kids involved, the Olympians and campers are coming off worse than canon.
- Blood Is the New Black: Hugo Brandt, a son of Hades, ended up covered in ichor after almost slaughtering one of the gods. It's later revealed that it was Artemis.
- Caretaking is Feminine: Silena and later Bianca are shown as excellent caretakers for their younger siblings. The fact that they’re kids with too much responsibility and grief drive both to near breakdowns in the sequel.
- Cassandra Truth: In the past, Vera tried to draw attention to the strange marks appearing on the children of the Big Three, but not even her friends took her seriously. Naturally, it turns out the marks were a preclude to the madness.
- Character Development: Like his canon self, Percy looked down on the Aphrodite cabin until Silena rightfully calls him out. Later he does the same to Zoe, Bianca and Thalia.
- The gods decide that as punishment, Zeus needs to go through this as a mortal.
- Compliment Backfire: At one point, Thalia tries to tell Percy that Zoe’s aggravating behaviour to Percy is because he’s prettier than her, misunderstanding what a supposed child of Aphrodite would care for.
- Compressed Adaptation: Much of Percy’s adventures in the Lightning Thief arc gets summed up as a numbered list.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Zoe actually suspected who may have been responsible for the Hate Plague, but without proof knew she would be dismissed as such.
- Cool Big Sis: Silena is an awesome older sister figure not just to Percy but to her whole cabin, finding ways to comfort each one of them. Naturally when Zoe disparages her, Percy is quick to jump to her defence. Percy, much like Luke, is also considered Cool Big Bro material.
- Cover-Blowing Superpower: Percy tries to not use any power than cannot be theoretically coming from Aphrodite — meaning that any water manipulation or earthquakes are off the table. However, he still gets caught by Blackjack because he forgot that only a child of Poseidon would understand pegasi.
- Create Your Own Villain: The gods’ poor decisions contribute to many of the demigods going to the side of the Titans, Luke himself is a result of this and Evelyn says as much to her father.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: The whole premise of the story. In order to survive, Percy decides that he needs to trick another god into claiming him and ends up settling on Aphrodite. Later, Percy, with the help of Drew, manages to get Bianca and Nico di Angelo claimed by Demeter in order to draw suspicion away from them. Demeter sees through it pretty quickly, but continues on with the charade because she does not want to see the death of any more children.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Silena notes that children of Aphrodite's natural ability to attract people is something that is helpful in battle."Sometimes you need someone to gawk at how pretty you are so they don't notice when you slit their throat."
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Zoe makes the mistake of interrupting Aphrodite when she and Percy are in a heated discussion, Aphrodite reminds her just what a dangerous mistake she was about to make.
- Doting Parent: Sally Jackson, Percy reluctantly admits she spoils him, which makes Silena’s Training from Hell and the Olympians’ regular behaviour abominable to him.
- The Dreaded: The katáras (Greek for cursed), the children of the Big Three. After many of them went mad in the 1940s, resulting in them slaughtering mortals and demigods alike. The fear of them is so bad that many of the campers of Camp Half-Blood will outright try and kill any child of the Big Three or anyone who might be one.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While not quite ‘evil’, when Annabeth is kidnapped, one of the things keeping Percy sane is the constant reminders that Luke would never allow harm to befall her. Near the end, Luke even switches to Bianca’s side because Annabeth chose to.
- False Flag Operation: Poseidon states that Elliot Parker, the self-declared child of Poseidon who killed six demigods, was not his child and came to tarnish the name of his children. He is completely right: he was a son of Phorcys who had been ordered to do so in order to maintain the fear of Big Three kids
- Final Solution: The solution the gods took to the maddened rampaging of the katáras in the '40s. Every child of the Big Three, whether they had been inflicted by the madness or not, was rounded up and killed. This included several of Artemis’ Hunters.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: The Di Angelo siblings and the revived 1940s kids when they realize they are decades in the future.
- Friendly Enemy: Even when they’re on opposite sides, Silena continues helping Percy. When Evelyn is revived and also fighting against Percy, she remarks on this as well…while providing advice for Percy.
- Friendly Rivalry: While Percy initially did not get along with Artemis’ hunters and definitely did not like Zoe, their friendship with Bianca eventually does allow for common ground. Afterwards, Zoe braves Aphrodite’s wrath when she officially selects Percy as her quest companion, and when accused of doing so only to annoy Aphrodite, is able to point out that Percy is definitely skilled enough.
- Give Him a Normal Life: Like in canon, Poseidon was not in the picture while Percy was growing up, but he now actively monitors and suppresses Percy’ powers to prevent him from showing any Big Three traits to people.
- Good Is Not Nice: Aphrodite is kinder than most of her brethren, but she is just as capable of horrific punishment as any of them.
- Percy cuts himself off during an argument with Zoe and Bianca, when he tells Thalia what he had been about to say, she tells him that he would have been cruel.
- Has a Type: Silena determines that Percy has a preference for blonds. He ends up dating Castor, a blond son of Dionysus.
- Hate Plague: The Big Three children in the 1940's were infected by one, resulting in them going mad and slaughtering hundreds. Even the gods are not entirely sure what happened. Those affected have a red dot in the centre of their forearm. It is revealed to be the Curse of Heracles
- Hunting the Rogue: The campers are said to organize hunts for katáras, much to Percy’s horror and disgust.
- Interrogating the Dead: Percy uses the Di Angelo siblings’ ghost-summoning ability to ask about the past.
- It's All About Me: When the 1940s kids were going mad, Zeus was only bragging about the fact his daughter Vera never fell victim.
- It Was a Gift: Aphrodite gives each of her mortal lovers a bracelet. Silena’s dad passed it on to her to ensure that she was claimed, and Silena gives it to Percy in order to help sell the idea that he is Aphrodite’s child.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Zoe, the leader of Artemis’ hunters, starts off constantly putting down the Aphrodite children but would stay to fight for Percy. She claims it’s because she’s leaving an undefended lamb, but eventually she does start treating him better.
- Mama Bear: Aphrodite. Oh boy, Aphrodite.
- Ares outright says that he's not going to kill or curse Percy despite wanting to, because if he did then Aphrodite would be... angry.
- One of the six demigods that Elliot Parker killed was a child of Aphrodite. Aphrodite killed him herself and mounted his head on a spike.
- Mental Affair: Discussed and Played for Laughs. After Annabeth states that Athena joins minds with a mortal to produce a child in the first chapter, Percy concludes that Athena has mind sex with them. Annabeth is outraged, but Percy is pretty sure that it is what happens.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: It’s not just the jaded campers or the unclaimed fearing murder from their peers, it’s the disregarded minor gods and goddesses who also join the Titans.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: The default camper will defend their godly parent no matter what, but for those unclaimed this is unacceptable. Percy is initially horrified when Annabeth appears to be the same, until she reveals she never forgave the campers for what they did to Thalia.
- Ares cabin, after witnessing their father insult the other gods and getting bound for it, refused to fight in the war effort.
- Not What I Signed on For: When Percy tries to tell Silena what Luke’s side may be doing, she expresses some horror and regret.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Silena points out Aphrodite children and the goddess herself will do this this. Demeter plays this even better.
- Only Sane Man: The first time they meet, Hades calls Percy “Son of Poseidon”, except Percy starts acting like it was a joke and then more important things happened, including Aphrodite claiming him as her son. By the time the truth comes out, Hades could only say
I Knew It!. - Parental Abandonment: To the unclaimed campers, this is worse than canon, as it very likely means a death sentence or a visit to Olympus where no one has returned. Before knowing he was a child of the Big Three, Luke and Silena try to comfort Percy because they assume this was what he was feeling.
- Patricide: As in canon, Luke wants this, so does a revived Evelyn and in the sequel, Vera.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The attempted murder of Thalia by the campers didn’t just motivate Luke to join the Titans, Annabeth ends up doing the same, and you could say the deaths of the 1940s kids started the whole storyline.
- Prophecy Twist: Discussed by Demeter in regards of the Great Prophecy:
- Firstly, the word "gods" could be considered a gender-neutral term, which means her children also qualify for the prophecy — she is, after all, the elder sister of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.
- Secondly, while "the eldest" is assumed to indicate their prominence, it could just literally mean "the oldest" — in which case it would point at a child of Aphrodite as she is older than all of Kronos' children.
- And finally, "gods". It's a plural. Almost like the hero of the prophecy had two godly parents — one birth parent and one adopted.
- Really Gets Around: Exploited. Most of the Olympians have many lovers and not every fling results in a demigod child so the gods don't really keep track of their children. Percy can easily claim to be a child of Aphrodite — since he manages to keep his story straight and leaves some details deliberately ambiguous, she has no means to double-check this and accepts his words.
- Sentenced Without Trial: Part of the horror Percy feels when he discovers the garden in Olympus, the gods may consider it mercy, but most see turning unclaimed children into plants and without investigating who their parents could be, as this. Played straight in the scene where the gods gather the 1940s children and have them executed.
- Shipper on Deck: While all of Aphrodite cabin teases Silena about her growing relationship with Charles Beckendorf, Percy is definitely not this, as he points out that Silena and Charles were on opposite sides of the upcoming war.
- Smarter Than You Look: Nico frequently runs his mouth and is a terrible spy for Mr. D, come the moment where it seems like they’re in for a confrontation with Demeter, and he quickly uses the story to their advantage. Percy couldn’t be more relieved.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Poseidon bemoans the fact that Percy so strongly resembles him in his usual form. Because of this, he appears in an aged form when Percy returns the Master Bolt to Olympus using the excuse that he was distressed by Zeus' accusations that he had broken the oath to throw him off. Kronos is able to identify Percy as a child of Poseidon at a glance, because he inherited Rhea's green eyes just like Poseidon did.
- Sympathetic Murderer: At one point, Bianca calls Percy in distress, and Percy arrives to see a dead body. Bianca explains that the body was a fellow Artemis Hunter who saw her using her katára powers and tried to kill Bianca as a result. Percy just…offers to help her hide the body.
- When Percy sees how Bianca could just use her powers to hide her crime, he asks why she called him. Bianca replies she was considering turning herself in and expected Percy to say the same. Percy points out the Killing in Self-Defense and Asshole Victim.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Percy, after Silena snaps at him for dismissing his Aphrodite siblings. Zoe, Thalia and Bianca after Percy points out how he has equal, if not more, experience than them.
- Tough Love: To help Percy blend in among Aphrodite children, Silena relentlessly trains Percy in what would be considered their typical interests, much to his dismay and horror. It gets to the point where she threatens to destroy his belongings if he doesn’t shape up. She does apologize at one point for cutting his shirt, and proves to genuinely care for him.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Percy cannot believe that the campers could just murder one of their own without proof, or that the gods were just turning people into plants, or that Evelyn’s rage towards the gods meant she was going to accept the collateral damage that was Percy’s loved ones.
- Underestimating Badassery: Multiple characters underestimate Percy, whether it’s because he’s a supposed child of Aphrodite (the campers), or because he’s a mere demigod child (Ares and Zeus).
