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Percy didn’t mean to become a marine biologist internet sensation. To be perfectly honest, he blamed Leo for making a demigod-friendly phone and then filming Percy out in the middle of the ocean to “test it”.
The first video starts as if by accident. It was a bright sunny day with little to no cloud cover, the ocean was calm and the water was sparkling from the reflected sunlight. Percy’s hair was a riotous pile of curls and waves, a complete mish-mash of hair types that had some strands stuck straight up right, and others that curled down onto his forehead as if placed specifically to draw attention to his sea green eyes. His eyes were not too dissimilar to the water surrounding the boat he found himself on, the sea-green shifted occasionally to a more bluish tone before lightening back to his signature green.
Percy was caught mid-sentence, a wry smile on his face as he looked towards the cameraman.
“So what do I say to start? This is so stupid.” He laughed, his head tilting back as he did so, the sun’s rays caressing his face, accentuating his nose and jawline.
“Introduce yourself, Aqua Man,” replied the unseen cameraman. “Say what you want to show them.”
Percy ran his hand through his hair, tugging gently at the ends as he looked away from the camera, towards some point outside of the watcher’s view. He gathered his thoughts for a brief moment, worrying his lip as he did so, before sighing and promptly refacing the camera.
“Hi,” He started, a smile on his face that could almost count as a smirk. “My name is Percy Jackson, I study marine biology at college. My friend here has created a new phone and has asked me to test it out.” He shrugged nonchalantly, his smile morphing into a mischievous grin. “So I’m going to test it out by showing you some of my favourite sea creatures.”
The camera began to move, following Percy to the edge of the boat, the swaying motion of the ocean seemingly only affecting the cameraman and not Percy.
“Today we are…” Percy trailed off, frowning slightly. “Actually, I’m not going to tell you where. Probably safer for us and the animals. Poaching is still a thing and I don’t want these guys to be targeted. There’s also the risk that I tell you guys where we are and everyone and their mum piles onto a boat to come bother them which is just rude.”
“What are you showing us today?” The cameraman interjected.
Percy shook his head, his frown melting off his face as a wry smile replaced it.
“Sorry guys, I just don’t like seeing sea animals or any animals being mistreated. This world is their home too, some could even argue that they were here well before us.”
“Anyway,” Percy clapped his hands. “Today, I’m going to show you a pod of Humpback Whales. Their scientific name is Megaptera novaeangliae and they are a completely migratory species. This means,” Percy faces the camera, his hands gesturing wildly. “They move about depending on the seasons. We’re pretty lucky that we decided to start filming today because they will soon be moving on from these waters, so let’s see if they’ll come say hi.”
Percy strode towards the cameraman, gently taking the phone off him.
“Thanks Leo,” Percy muttered as his hold was corrected.
“Okay,” Percy started, facing the camera towards a small Hispanic man, who had even messier hair than Percy. “This is Leo, the creator of this phone we are testing. We’re going to be leaving him for a bit and testing the underwater features of this thing.”
With a wave from Leo, Percy jumped over the side of the boat, the camera jerking in his hand as he hit the surface and submerged for a few seconds.
“Right,” The view panned back to Percy and away from the side of the boat. Percy’s hair was dripping delicate droplets down his face, the run marks reflecting the sun, making Percy’s face shine. “The whales are just a bit south from us, so I made sure to stay out of their migration path.” He grinned at the camera. “I guess that means we need to swim for a couple minutes. Don’t worry, the camera will be facing in front of us so you guys should get the first view.”
With that, Percy dove into the water, no swimming gear on him except for some swimming trunks that had little dolphins all over them. There was little to no noise for a few minutes, with only the sound of Percy occasionally breaking the surface to take a breath disrupting the near silent audio.
Minutes ticked by and slowly a pod of whales came into view, their whale song mournfully crying through the water. The camera quickly spun back to Percy who grinned with a brief thumbs up as he approached the pod. He swam alongside them for a few more minutes, showing each individual whale to the camera until one mischievous whale calf bumped into Percy, causing bubbles to blow out of his mouth.
Percy swam to the surface, the calf and mother alongside him as he breached the surface, taking a few deep breaths even as he continued to swim next to the pod.
As the mother dove beneath the waves again, her calf following after one more playful nudge, Percy turned the camera towards himself once more.
“Whales are predominantly friendly creatures, with many whales actually protecting divers from predators like sharks. As you guys could see, the calf was very playful and their mother trusted me enough to allow it. This calf is proof that this pod is thriving and increasing their numbers.”
Another whale surfaced near Percy and sprayed him with water, causing him to laugh gleefully.
“These guys are an endangered species thanks to things like whaling and fishing lanes. In fact, just a second, guys,” Percy resubmerged into the water, swimming towards one of the larger whales at the back of the pod. In the water he couldn’t speak, so Percy gestured to the large scar marks present on the whale’s back.
“The large scars are left by propellers from large ships that don’t see the whales underneath the water. The whale rises for air, not realising the ships are above or can’t move out of the way fast enough.” Percy stated once he left the whale with a pat on the side.
“Thankfully, whale numbers are increasing. This is thanks to the ban on commercial whaling which came into place in 1986. Only a couple countries have protested this ban, Japan, Iceland and Norway. Although Japan continues to hunt whales under the reasoning of ‘scientific research’.” Percy rolled his eyes as he stated the last sentence. “Indigenous whaling is still legal for groups like the Inuit due to it counting as an indigenous activity and being a part of their lifestyle.”
Percy barked out a brief laugh. “It still causes controversy globally but I don’t see a problem with it. They respect the animals, use every part of the body they can and they only hunt a couple each year. Way better than the mass corporations that overfish our oceans. But that’s a rant for another day.”
By this point, Percy had swam away from the pod and was slowly returning to the boat where Leo had dropped anchor, waiting for him.
“I think that was enough for today, guys. Obviously Leo’s phone works underwater and didn’t spontaneously combust in my hand which I count as a great success. Maybe I’ll do another one of these, I don’t know.” Percy shrugged, handing the phone back to Leo so that he could climb back onto the boat.
“How were they?” Leo asked, the video still recording.
Percy smiled. “They were great, Waylon and his mum came up to me and said hi to the camera. They’re moving out of these waters soon.”
“How was the camera quality?”
“It was good, Managed to see the whales clearly as I approached. I think the audio even managed to pick up some of the whale song.”
“Yeah, I upped the frequency range so it should catch things like that.”
“You gonna end the video or?”
“Oh cra-” The video cut off. It was uploaded onto a newly made YouTube account called JustASeaweedBrain later that evening, with absolutely no editing done. It didn’t gain too many views to begin with, even with the title of “Swimming with Humpbacks”.
It wasn’t until Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the rebel heiress to Dare Enterprises who regularly protested against the pollution and destruction of the planet, shared the link to the video on her twitter page.
@RachelElizabethDare
Go check out my friend’s new YouTube channel, JustASeaweedBrain, where he swims with Humpback Whales.
After that, comments and views poured in.
GreenPlanet4Ever: Very interesting! He seems knowledgeable about this species and the pod seems to trust him.
WhalesRule: Waylon was just too cute! I was so sad to see the scars on that other whale, is there a donation page for the protection and treatment of whales?
↪ OceanLover: I would love to donate as well if there was one.
JustAFanGirl: Forget about whales, look at the ease in which he swam next to them!! He kept up with them swimming and did it with no gear, he should be at the Olympics!
↪ OMDays: He could be a model as well, just look at that figure!
↪↪ Beachbabes: The way the sun shone on him? Sublime. Perfection.
TechGeek: A phone capable of picking up whale songs underneath water is incredible. Is there any chance they will be sold to the public?
↪ T-T: The video quality was amazing as well. Does anyone know how to contact this Leo guy?
WiseGirl: Good video Seaweed Brain, didn’t realise this was why you had to go home for the weekend.
↪ JustASeaweedBrain: Sorry Wise Girl, Leo said it was an emergency and then the timing was perfect. I’ll be back soon.
↪↪ TheValdezinator: Annabeth it was for science! Very Important Business.
BlofisNotBlowfish: Very nice Percy, Estelle loved watching it. What are you thinking about showing next?
↪ JustASeaweedBrain: Not sure yet, I’ll let you guys know first though!