fanfic: Necessary
Well, the inevitable has happened, and the Pythagoras!whumping has really got going in earnest now *rubs hands gleefully*. I even have a shiny new icon for the occasion! Poor Pythagoras, this is price you pay for being one of my favourites, and at the point when I have a hurt/comfort bingo card, no less... *evil grin
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Always a pleasure to chat about Pythagoras! Idealise? Um, well with Jason it's easy because he knows that Pythagoras is (going to be) this mythical maths genius who will be remembered forever. So that image is always there alongside Pythagoras the real man who likes honey cakes and is scared of spiders or whatever. Pythagoras is certainly aware that Jason admires his intellect. But that's something that isn't going to be affected by finding out that Pythagoras has been prostituting himself - although clearly he'd prefer not have been caught. It is, however, ultimately a safe disclosure. Hercules is a bit more complex in that he - I think - admires Pythagoras the person in a slightly myoptic way - as innocent and good. And Pythagoras needs to be thought a good person by Hercules in a way that confessing to hookerdom would puncture. I don't honestly think that, deep down, Hercules has many illusions about himself but he does about Pythagoras. Their relationship would be fundamentally altered which your story totally picked up on. (*g* The triangle dynamics make for great fic but do impede the pwp and slash somewhat!)
Yes, yes, sometimes it's a bit of a shock to go back to canon because you get so wrapped up in certain characterisations. They're all quite laddish in Atlantis.
Good vibes for the writing. You've done novel length before so that's one barrier out of the way. As for the fic pile - everyone knows unbirthday fics are the best!
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Also, I think Jason's view is very much influenced by what happened when they first met. Pythagoras grabbed him off the balcony and saved his life, and then risked himself by hiding Jason from the city guards. He followed this up with providing medical assistance, taking Jason to the Oracle and then apparently waiting around long enough to make sure Jason was okay when he came out from seeing the Oracle. Pythagoras then provided yet more support and sympathy when Jason was lost and confused and in shock over finding out his father was dead. And after all that, Pythagoras offered him a home as well.
No matter what else happens between them subsequent to that, I think what Pythagoras did in those first few hours is going to permanently colour Jason's perception of him.
Hercules and Pythagoras, on the other hand, is... complicated. And fascinating. All those times that Hercules jokes about Pythagoras having no interest in women or love or relationships, I wonder if he actually believes that, or if it's just an old recurring joke between them?
I'm torn between wanting to know just *how* they came to be living together like that, and how long they have been friends, but at the same time I suspect if they did ever address that in canon it would completely joss my own headcanon backstory for them.
They're all quite laddish in Atlantis.
Lol, yes. They do sometimes come across as an Ancient Greek version of Men Behaving Badly! I'm currently rewatching the episode with the baby (possibly for wallpaper screencap research - I don't normally do mpreg, but the h/c prompts made me do it!), and I often forget just how laddish they are, even when they're looking after the baby. Or possibly *because* of the baby, to prove they are still manly men ;-)
I'm sure it can't be that difficult to construct an argument about Pythagoras' need for approval and need to impress his friends going back to his childhood, and what appears to have been a quite difficult relationship with his father. He's very definitely *not* looking for a substitute father figure, but he does seem to need to be appreciated, and he cares what people think about him and wants to make a good impression.
It's interesting to note that whenever anyone makes a comment about the three of them being messy or troublemakers or whatever, Pythagoras is always very quick to distance himself and point out that it isn't *him* who is like that, it's the others (usually Hercules). There's a couple of instances of that in the baby episode alone (but then for some reason which I have yet to work out, Pythagoras spent much of the baby episode being very, very bitchy, so that may not necessarily be a representative example!).
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