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Persy was indeed engaged at the moment, arguing at the counter with a young man who seemed to be at least a foot over her in height. However, the glaring seemed to be rather one-sided, as the man himself seemed rather flustered and confused about the whole situation, and one couldn't help but feel somewhat sorry for the guy.

"I already told you, Des, that I am fully aware of the ominous crevice outside my store, I've seen the giant three-headed dog, and I've heard worse things from the people who are crazy enough to still come to the flower shop. I don't need to hide out somewhere with you: I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself right here--"

She felt the boy's presence before she heard his voice, the familiar aura catching her off guard as she hesitated, her expression slackening from anger to disbelief. Blinking, she held a finger to the man to shush whatever he would have to say in response, her head turning sharply to receive the one who had just passed the threshold into her store for the first time in months.

"...Hey there, kid," Persy nonchalantly passed the words from her lips as she walked out from the counter, smiling and crossing her arms as she looked the teen up and down. "You know, I thought you weren't coming back for a while there...new haircut?" Persy smirked, but the expression was weary, combined with slight bags under her eyes, the flower in her hair even somewhat wilted. She resisted the strange, childlike urge to hug the boy, but hell, she needed a hug, and not from the pale creep behind her. Things had gotten so bad recently, and for her to see something good out of so much bad was relief enough for her to put away the tough act, at least for now.

She'd known that Fish had grown, heard about it from her network, but it was one thing to hear things and another to see them face to face. Well, really, more like face to chin, seeing as how he was taller than her now, but she couldn't help feeling nostalgic about the little boy with gills. "I'm assuming you noticed the monsters on your way here?" Truth be told, she couldn't be sure of anything anymore: with the Underworld out of control as it was, her network had gone amok, leaving her blind to most of the City's activities. She didn't even know that some godlings had already taken down the minotaur, and that Hypnos's godling had already lost to Sthenos.

"Yeah...things have been pretty hectic lately."

Persy looked from Fish to Des, and realized that this conversation was going to head in a direction not intended for the pale man's ears. "C'mon, I'll go get the plans for your bosses irrigation system in the back and we can see what went wrong," she quickly responded, grabbing the boy by the hand and pulling him with a powerful tug to the hallway that led to the back room, closing the door behind her. Once they were alone, her gaze faltered, and she rubbed her temples, brows furrowing.

"So you met with Poseidon and he didn't tell you what was out there?" Persy groaned, tempted to pull her hair from it's roots. Why, why couldn't things be somewhat easier for her? "...Fine, it won't cost you a question, since I need the help anyway. There's two of them: Scylla and Charybdis." She looked the boy wearily up and down. "I'm guessing by the fact that you're not transparent or missing limbs that you ran into Charybdis."

"Big swirling vortex of doom sounds about right, because the other one's a six-headed monster," Persy commented, shrugging as she leaned into a wall, wearily giving out a sigh. "They both used to be nymphs, but they slept with the wrong people, and, well..." She paused, taking on a somewhat sarcastic, gooey voice, "When two people love eachother very, very, much, but a third wheel comes in and they all happen to be immortal gods or something similar, the female usually gets turned into something creepy, gross, and icky." Her expression and voice then came back to it's usual slouching self, and she sighed again, wiping her hair away.

"Scylla can probably be defeated with a good-sized army and a bigger sized piece of bait, but the only way I can think of killing Charybdis is by choking her with poison." Shrugging, she slouched further against the wall, rubbing her eyes to prevent herself from falling asleep. "I couldn't give the poison to just anyone, though...giving me two parts of your name shows that you're not just playing around." She stared the boy down (or up, rather), waiting to see if he really had the guts to get it done. "Even so, you'd have to head down into the harbor and feed it to her, which won't be a walk in the park unless Poseidon taught you how to walk on water."

Persy couldn't help but glare at the child, her fists slowly clenching. However, she had made the deal, so it would have to do, and she let it go, sighing. "You know, kid, you would've done well in Ancient Greece. They all enjoyed that sort of thing." She shot him a glare before walking back to her private room to fetch what she needed. "You should know, though, that I much preferred the Roman honor system."

With a bit of a huff, she closed the door behind her, not to reappear for several minutes. When she did, however, it looked like she'd gotten herself into a fight with a tornado and nearly lost. Her hair was all out of place, her expression rather flustered, and in her hands were two small items: one, the little black book of information she always seemed to have, and the other holding a small brown cloth bag. "Alright, so this should handle it," she explained, holding out the bag to Fish. "You probably don't want to know the ingredients, and I won't tell you anyway, but if Charybdis gets a mouthful of that powder, it's back to the underworld for her." She then opened her book, scribbling a note or two before closing it again.

"I'll need to come with you, to make sure things stay alright," she explained, trying to act nonchalant. The truth of it was, if she didn't have a godling to protect her, Persy was practically defenseless. No one else needed to know that, though.

It seemed that once Persy had left the shop, she'd gotten rather quiet. Gone was the arrogant way of speech, the commanding attitude: in fact, she seemed rather weak until Fish motioned to the waters, at which point her eyes dully looked out to the Harbor. "Not a chance: look over there," she said, slowly lifting her hand to point to a ripple, which was slowly beginning to churn in a spiral shape.

"That's her, over there. It'll be getting there that's the problem."

Persy watched nonchalantly, hiding the fact that she was impressed at the kid's ability to work with water. Whatever he'd been doing with Poeidon over the summer, he'd learned it quickly, and she had the feeling that he could do even more. Scary, what the kid would do, but as long as he was on her side, then she was cool with that.

The whirlpool continued steadily, even as the poison filtered into the water, and for a time, it seemed that it wouldn't work. However, before Persy had the chance to frown, the ground shook, and she toppled over, her legs weaker than she thought. The whirlpool came to a halt, and then began spinning in the opposite direction, regurgitating parts of ships and other debris, tainting the salt smell of the Harbor with death. A hissing sound rose from the place where the whirlpool had been, and when that was done, everything became surprisingly calm.

A seashell bobbed in the waters near the two, and shakily, Persy got to her feet, pulling it from the toxic sea with some hesitation. It was a nautilus, and quite possibly white under all the dark grime that took residence on it's surface. She handled it with as few fingers as possible, studying it, then dropped the slimy thing into Fish's hand. "Here. This is yours."

She turned, wiping her dirty hands on her apron, then began walking away. "We should go. Now."