UNDERWORLD WARS
~Player Information~
Name: Kat
Personal Journal: randomcrimes
Time zone: PST
Contact: EMAIL; katastrosity@gmail.com AIM; statichaste
Current Characters: N/A
~Character Information~
Fandom: Percy Jackson & The Olympians (novels)
Name: Perseus Jackson
Age: Fifteen
Canon Point: From the end of Chapter Eleven: We Break a Bridge in The Last Olympian.
Is this character dead? Nope. He's alive and kicking despite multiple attempts on his life.
History: A wiki on Percy here and one on the novels in general here.
[Optional] Character Development and Relationship Transfer from previous RP: [Please include information regarding the relationship and the name of the game it's being transferred from.]
Personality:
As a rule of thumb, like most heroes, Percy Jackson is a natural leader.
He might be an awkward teenage boy (for better or for worse) but he isn’t afraid to walk at the front of the line. To tell people what they ought to be doing. A great part of who he is stems from his fatal flaw, personal loyalty, which makes him willing to risk everything (including but not limited to his own life) to save the people he cares about. Occassionaly that stretches to people he hardly knows and enemies. That either makes him incredibly brave and righteous or extremely foolish. It depends on who you ask. In reality, it’s probably a combination of the two. Going to the great lengths that he does is something that makes people respect him or hate him, with very little leeway for a middle ground. He’s earned pretty much one or the other with the Gods and he knows it.
It probably goes without saying (given that he’s made enemies of all powerful immortals) that he has some issues with authority. Believe it or not, some of them happened even before he learned he was a demigod. Growing up, he owned the reputation of one of those “bad” kids, probably in relation to the ADHD and Dyslexia. Try attending school with both of those and actually managing to pay enough attention to care about passing grades and learning. Most of the time, when he got into trouble it was an accident but blamed on him nonetheless. It sure didn’t help that he has an attachment to underdogs (kids so far in black sheep status even teachers aren’t fond of them. ) Maybe he has a soft spot for them because he can relate, or maybe it’s just the hero in his blood waiting to come out. Either way, he butts heads with bullies and teachers all the same. Usually because he’s backing someone up or because he has the inflated belief that he’s right (because he is!)
His life’s the kind of thing that most people might complain about; getting transferred out of schools all the time, knowing it only makes things harder on his Mom. Especially when he actually does try to keep things under control and still gets kicked. He takes responsibility for his actions, accidents or not, and feels the guilt for it. Constantly being paranoid that he’s going to let his mother down again. All the while unaware that she knows way more than she lets him in on. It’s not until he’s twelve that he learns the truth about his father and despite it being something he should resent her for, he doesn’t get a lot of time for that. He’s got a knack for adapting and thinking on his feet. Rolling with the punches, as they say. The fact of the matter is, Percy doesn’t really have a choice. It’s go with the flow or keel over. Resentment and all that other stuff comes with people who have free time to sit around and stew over it.
Not to say he doesn’t have a fire inside of him. When given due reason, he has a temper that strays into uncontrollable. It often makes him do something without thinking, without acknowledging it’s happening until it’s too late. For instance, before he knows what he is, he ends up getting so angry he hears water rushing in his ears because of a bully. She falls into a fountain; he doesn’t realize it but he made the water grab her and knock her into the fountain behind her. Obviously, it can get much more drastic than that. Than a simple prank. Remember that part about making enemies of the Gods? Some of them anyway. He’s got a big mouth on him and he’s not afraid to use it, sarcastically, of course.
Percy is rash. He doesn’t always think before he speaks. And since his humor can sometimes be on the wry side, it’s hard to tell if he’s joking or being serious when he has a quip. Lucky for him they’re usually directed towards people he considers as “bad guys.” When he uses it on his friends, it doesn’t always get him brownie points despite how witty it might be. It can be harsh on the ears. Other times, the exact thing people are thinking but nobody else is going to say. He’s smart and perceptive (in some cases) but seems to miss the point when it comes to other people’s thoughts and emotions, namely their reactions to the things he says.
It’s not that he’s insensitive, per se, but rather that he can be oblivious to the people around him. Like he’s blind-sided when it comes to certain people skills and reading into things. He’s better with actions. Fighting’s easy. Saving the world? Hah, piece of cake. Slaying a monster? Sure, fine. Having a serious talk? Not so much. Again, like most heroes, he needs hints that are bigger than subtle implications because dense doesn’t begin to describe him. Specifically with the ladies. Maybe it’s to be expected with the lack of real life experience, when all he got was a summer to be a normal teenage guy, after all the mess started. He’s smooth, almost charming, until it comes to girls (the ones he likes.) Then it’s an unending spout of awkward you don’t know why you turned on.
But at least he doesn’t foam at the mouth with negativity. He does the sadness thing, he wouldn’t be part human if he didn’t. Depression, though, that isn’t his cup of tea. Angst isn’t who he is. Again, it’s hard to say what he might be prone to given the chance to sit around and sort through his mind and heart, through his actions, but generally he sees more hope than he does hardship. He recognizes the existence of both but typically chooses the former over the latter. Hey, you never know, that could have everything to do with the teenage belief in the invincibility of youth and nothing to do with personal confidence backed by skills.
In a nutshell, he’s the kind of guy you want on your team (maybe not in sports, no) for what counts. He can get the job done and he can make you laugh about it in the process. Percy will always have a friend’s back about something (right or wrong, but generally right) and he isn’t afraid to take a beat down if it means someone else will come out of it okay. He makes some hasty and reckless decisions but he isn’t by any means stupid, just young and brash. For someone his age, he’s up to speed and on the ball. He can put the pieces together with minimum effort. He’s sharp both at mind and with his words, sharper still with how quick he can pull a sword at the drop of a pin. He carries doubt about the innate good in every single person but believes that it does exist in the bigger picture, as a whole, if not in every individual. And despite believing in justice and unprejudiced decisions, he can hold a grudge like nobody’s business when it suits him to the point that forgiveness is improbable but not impossible.
Skills/Abilities:
Being the son of Poseidon and a human (one of the very few children of the Big Three in recent times) means he’s got a handful of tricks up his sleeve that an average person might not even dream about. A great majority of his abilities (as one might assume) deal greatly with water. For starters, he can manipulate it to his liking, whether it’s riding a wave or splashing someone in the face as a prank. He’s more powerful when he’s around it, better yet when he’s actually got some part of his body submerged. Not to mention the fact that it has healing components for him. Maybe not to such a great extent if he’s mortally wounded (because despite all the power, he is still half-human) but it’s definitely the sort of invigorating kick start a guy could use when he’s weary from battle. It’s been known to either work like an energy drink or to heal things like bruises, to close open wounds, and possibly to some extent have an effect on sprains.
One other nifty thing about the control over water? He can’t exactly drown to death, because of the whole … well, he can breathe perfectly fine in it thing. His clothes won’t even get wet if he doesn’t want them to. The exception to that rule has to do with the River Styx (something he learned firsthand.) Percy is just as vulnerable in that merciless river as anyone else.
He also has the uncanny ability to know precise coordinates of where he is on the open sea, like a nautical compass is built into his brain with a GPS system to accompany it. He inherently knows things about whatever ship he’s on and can telepathically control things like the sails or the anchors, navigating it effortlessly. Naturally, his gifts work a lot better in salt water rather than fresh water sources, like rivers. He can still function with them and get his bidding done but he notably does not stem as much power from them. Water pressure has very little (if any) effect on him. He can jump from great heights into a body of water without getting himself killed. Probably because if need be, he can reduce or increase water pressure.
In addition to this and as something that carried over from his father’s domain, he can communicate with marine life in the way that they will take commands from him. Percy can’t actually hear what they want but they usually obey his orders. He does the best at this with horses (as his father created them) and that extends to the normal kind, hippocampi, and pegasi. Most of them acknowledge Percy with reverence, you know, unless they’re cannibalistic. He can actually hear their thoughts and maintain conversations with them, even if their part of it consists only in the horse’s head. He can soothe other animals with that sort of telepathic link as well but it isn’t as easy. As mentioned with marine life, his way of soothing is more of a command or a compulsion.
You could say he’s not as flammable due to his strong connection to water. Or perhaps that he has a higher resistance and tolerance level for heat. Trapped in St. Helen’s, he ends up triggering an eruption and being coated in magma, saved only by the water he learned he could control from his body (although, it’s ten times more lethal than anything else - it takes more effort, more strength.) If he had gone any bigger, he could have died. Such is the risk of abusing a power like that from your own body. At the time, it was like a faucet had been turned on and then fell off, with no hope of stopping it. Likewise, in things like sand dollars that were once apart of the sea but have since only been in sand, he can somehow pull water from them and create small geysers. He can allegedly pull or summon water from greater distances, later in the novels, as he becomes more capable with his gifts.
It is offhandedly mentioned that because his father is the Earth Shaker and the Storm Bringer that he can also cause earthquakes and hurricanes.
Another thing he inherited from his father was clairvoyance and it’s one of the few things he has absolutely no control over. It comes to him in dreams only (as it does with most heroes) and he often dreams about his enemies or friends, overseeing times of danger or hints to things on the rise. It makes him unpredictable. Although, those who have been around long enough, who are more powerful than he is and who know how to look for it can tell when he’s listening in or watching the scene unfold. That’s probably why most everything that comes to him in his sleep is nightmare status equivalent to horror movies. It might not guarantee he’ll be the most rested when he does finally come to but it’s still a helpful tool in knowing what he’s up against.
Something he gains over the course of the novels with one of his best friends is an empathy link, which like his clairvoyance, only really hits him when he’s asleep. It makes him capable of talking to Grover (the friend he has the connection with) in his dreams once he goes missing and nobody knows how to find him. It’s convenient but also another risk in its way. If something happened to Grover, something bad, it could kill Percy, too. It’s something he decided to keep though; something he deemed worth the risk after he saved Grover and his friend told him he could remove it once they were face-to-face. He kept it, figuring he might need it again some day.
As a recent development and something he took only as a last resort, he’s almost invulnerable. He took a dip in the river Styx and because of that, became like the hero Achilles. It gave him the impenetrable body of a god, save for one spot of his choosing that ties him to his humanity. The one spot on his body that can destroy him is also the only reason he survived being in the river. He can take down armies if need be, without a scratch, provided nobody finds that Achilles spot on his body and takes him down. Its located at the small of his back, somewhere he thought would be difficult to reach in battle, with armor on. Definitely more classy than his armpit or a heel. This gift is also a curse, and about as helpful as it is a hindrance.
A skill that (surprise, surprise) doesn’t come branded in his DNA is the sword he carries conveniently on his person, downsized to a ballpoint pen. The sword (originally owned by Hercules himself) is called Anaklusmos or in plain english, Riptide. It’s made of celestial bronze, which means it can only be used against other demigods, monsters, and the Gods. It cannot, under any occasion, strike a human. In fact, the blade will go right through them without a mark, like sand through an hour glass, passing through them like a ghost blade more than anything else.
Before all the madness started, before he really knew what he was, growing up was hard. Mist is a thing humans don't often see through, that helped them keep the illusion that whatever weird things they saw didn’t really exist. It swayed them into believing some outrageous lie, rather than the truth. For awhile, the mist played its game on him, too. He went through school with ADHD and a bad case of Dyslexia, both things that had to do with being a demigod. The ADHD got him in more trouble than it was worth and was supposedly his impulsive, fine-tuned battle instincts lying idle. The Dyslexia stemmed from being hardwired to read naturally in ancient Greek, whereas English came as a difficulty. Not to say he can’t read if he puts the effort in. But they are two things that make being normal and having that lifestyle pretty difficult.
He doesn’t see the next part as a fault or something he needs in moderation, but every demigod has a fatal flaw, something they have in them more than a human. Something they are more vulnerable to cultivating and allowing to thrive. Percy’s fatal flaw is personal loyalty and one day, it really might get him killed. The goddess Athena mentions to him that he would sacrifice the world to save a friend and as the goddess of wisdom, it’s understandable why she wouldn’t see that as very practical. Percy doesn’t share the same belief. He doesn’t think it is a flaw but rather something they all should have a little more of. It humanizes him. But what she said is also true; he sometimes forgets himself and the value of his own life in the favor of his friends and loved ones.
First Person Sample:
Where are you taking me? [He demands, unaware that the device he’s been handed is recording. It’s at a bad angle, pointed upwards. It catches part of his face and occasionally the skeletal hand that belongs to the thing rowing them down the river, pointing.] Look, I don’t have any golden drachmas, so if you think I’m paying you for this, you’ve got another thing coming.
Tell you what. Turn this boat around and I won’t break you into a million tiny fract-
[Percy doesn’t finish his threat because the boat stutters to a stop, making him stumble and when he almost manages to stabilize himself, he sees the skeleton reaching for his chest.] Hey! Don’t! Get your hands off of me!
[Before he knows it, he’s stumbling backwards onto his bottom in the dirt, device discarded into his lap and then the ground when he stands up. A flash of movement and then there’s a sword in his hand, edge barely visible as his steps quickly carry him to the edge of the shore.] Don’t just take off! I don’t want to see your lord and overseer, I want to get back to New York. Take me back there and you’ll be rewarded, I swear!
[He’s yelling to no avail, because the guy just ditches him and he’s left sighing, approaching what he dropped. Muttering about what a jerk as he picks the ipad looking thing up.]
… since when was Hades not a cheapskate? Seriously. He's giving out door prizes now?
[Oops. His bad. Not like he knows he’s being listened in on!! And hey, it looks pricey to him, and last he checked, Hades was whining about how much the dead were costing him.]
Third Person Sample:
One second he was standing on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York, sending it crumbling into the East River, in the fight of his life and panicking over his friends and comrades. He remembered Kronos leaving, he remembered searching for Michael Yew in the water the bridge had fallen into but most of all he still felt the cell phone’s imprint in his clammy fingers.
Annabeth.
He had to get to her.
She had taken that dagger for him and he had to see her. Had to know she was still hanging on. There was so much he felt, in that moment, that he needed to tell her.
A quick glance around and a swallow told him he wasn’t in New York anymore. He must have fallen asleep on Blackjack after he got off the phone with Silena. After she told him he needed to get to the Plaza because Annabeth was in bad condition.
He raised two fingers towards his mouth, let them slip between his lips as he whistled, called for, practically begged in his heart and mind for Blackjack to appear. For Mrs. O’Leary. Five minutes passed and nothing. The animals he had come to rely on were no-shows. He was sure they would have appeared if they could have. He let out a frustrated shout and pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes in an attempt to force the panic out of his skin.
Grover, man, if you can hear me. I need you. I need you to get to Annabeth as quick as you can. Help her. Get her some nectar. Tell Thalia to help with the troops. He thought it as hard as he could, then again he relayed the message to Blackjack (the pegasus that had always been there in his time of need.) I don’t know where I am or how I got here but I’ll get back there as soon as I can.
Attempts exhausted, he realized he couldn’t just stand around!
Percy surveyed the area with a cautious glance. That ferry, that skeletal hand. Wait a second, he knew this place. He thought that maybe, that had been a dream, but this... what he was looking at. It was different sure, but held a vague resemblance to the Underworld. Nico di Angelo and his father, Hades. Of course. How could he have been so stupid? He’d wiped out a portion of Hades’ undead army, taken a swim in the river, of course this had to do with the god of the dead!
He was the one who’d said he didn’t care what happened, right? That it wasn’t his war. He’d tried to imprison Percy once already. He was trying to sabotage him! The Titan’s war against Olympus was going to succeed with him trapped in the Underworld. Everything would end. Was that really what Hades wanted?
He saw red, felt it amping him up with rage and strode forward. He had to get past Cerberus again. Past the furies and Mrs. Dodds and her vengeful face and leathery wings. He needed an audience with Hades, once again. Maybe Nico could help with that, some part of him thought, hardly bitter. But he still didn’t know if he could trust him. Percy pulled his pen out of his pocket and uncapped it, felt Riptide materialize to full size in his hand and called out.
“Hades! If you know what’s good for you, get me out of here. You might not care about the war going on street side but I’ve got allies up there. Troops. Friends. They need me! And if you want me dead so bad, letting me face Kronos could be the way you get your wish!” He was pleading at this point, negotiating. Percy scoffed. He knew better. Better than trying to strike a deal with Hades but he had to try, didn’t he?
“Don’t be such a coward. Get out here! Talk to me.”
A large rumble, a growl, footsteps too heavy to be human and he swallowed hard. He felt gravel sliding down his throat when the three-headed dog stepped out of the shadows, looking somewhat different than the one he and Annabeth had baited with a large stick and a giant rubber ball. Surely, it wouldn’t be so easy a second time.
He stepped forward, bracing himself with Riptide.
Annabeth needed him.
Nothing else mattered.
Name: Kat
Personal Journal: randomcrimes
Time zone: PST
Contact: EMAIL; katastrosity@gmail.com AIM; statichaste
Current Characters: N/A
~Character Information~
Fandom: Percy Jackson & The Olympians (novels)
Name: Perseus Jackson
Age: Fifteen
Canon Point: From the end of Chapter Eleven: We Break a Bridge in The Last Olympian.
Is this character dead? Nope. He's alive and kicking despite multiple attempts on his life.
History: A wiki on Percy here and one on the novels in general here.
[Optional] Character Development and Relationship Transfer from previous RP: [Please include information regarding the relationship and the name of the game it's being transferred from.]
Personality:
As a rule of thumb, like most heroes, Percy Jackson is a natural leader.
He might be an awkward teenage boy (for better or for worse) but he isn’t afraid to walk at the front of the line. To tell people what they ought to be doing. A great part of who he is stems from his fatal flaw, personal loyalty, which makes him willing to risk everything (including but not limited to his own life) to save the people he cares about. Occassionaly that stretches to people he hardly knows and enemies. That either makes him incredibly brave and righteous or extremely foolish. It depends on who you ask. In reality, it’s probably a combination of the two. Going to the great lengths that he does is something that makes people respect him or hate him, with very little leeway for a middle ground. He’s earned pretty much one or the other with the Gods and he knows it.
It probably goes without saying (given that he’s made enemies of all powerful immortals) that he has some issues with authority. Believe it or not, some of them happened even before he learned he was a demigod. Growing up, he owned the reputation of one of those “bad” kids, probably in relation to the ADHD and Dyslexia. Try attending school with both of those and actually managing to pay enough attention to care about passing grades and learning. Most of the time, when he got into trouble it was an accident but blamed on him nonetheless. It sure didn’t help that he has an attachment to underdogs (kids so far in black sheep status even teachers aren’t fond of them. ) Maybe he has a soft spot for them because he can relate, or maybe it’s just the hero in his blood waiting to come out. Either way, he butts heads with bullies and teachers all the same. Usually because he’s backing someone up or because he has the inflated belief that he’s right (because he is!)
His life’s the kind of thing that most people might complain about; getting transferred out of schools all the time, knowing it only makes things harder on his Mom. Especially when he actually does try to keep things under control and still gets kicked. He takes responsibility for his actions, accidents or not, and feels the guilt for it. Constantly being paranoid that he’s going to let his mother down again. All the while unaware that she knows way more than she lets him in on. It’s not until he’s twelve that he learns the truth about his father and despite it being something he should resent her for, he doesn’t get a lot of time for that. He’s got a knack for adapting and thinking on his feet. Rolling with the punches, as they say. The fact of the matter is, Percy doesn’t really have a choice. It’s go with the flow or keel over. Resentment and all that other stuff comes with people who have free time to sit around and stew over it.
Not to say he doesn’t have a fire inside of him. When given due reason, he has a temper that strays into uncontrollable. It often makes him do something without thinking, without acknowledging it’s happening until it’s too late. For instance, before he knows what he is, he ends up getting so angry he hears water rushing in his ears because of a bully. She falls into a fountain; he doesn’t realize it but he made the water grab her and knock her into the fountain behind her. Obviously, it can get much more drastic than that. Than a simple prank. Remember that part about making enemies of the Gods? Some of them anyway. He’s got a big mouth on him and he’s not afraid to use it, sarcastically, of course.
Percy is rash. He doesn’t always think before he speaks. And since his humor can sometimes be on the wry side, it’s hard to tell if he’s joking or being serious when he has a quip. Lucky for him they’re usually directed towards people he considers as “bad guys.” When he uses it on his friends, it doesn’t always get him brownie points despite how witty it might be. It can be harsh on the ears. Other times, the exact thing people are thinking but nobody else is going to say. He’s smart and perceptive (in some cases) but seems to miss the point when it comes to other people’s thoughts and emotions, namely their reactions to the things he says.
It’s not that he’s insensitive, per se, but rather that he can be oblivious to the people around him. Like he’s blind-sided when it comes to certain people skills and reading into things. He’s better with actions. Fighting’s easy. Saving the world? Hah, piece of cake. Slaying a monster? Sure, fine. Having a serious talk? Not so much. Again, like most heroes, he needs hints that are bigger than subtle implications because dense doesn’t begin to describe him. Specifically with the ladies. Maybe it’s to be expected with the lack of real life experience, when all he got was a summer to be a normal teenage guy, after all the mess started. He’s smooth, almost charming, until it comes to girls (the ones he likes.) Then it’s an unending spout of awkward you don’t know why you turned on.
But at least he doesn’t foam at the mouth with negativity. He does the sadness thing, he wouldn’t be part human if he didn’t. Depression, though, that isn’t his cup of tea. Angst isn’t who he is. Again, it’s hard to say what he might be prone to given the chance to sit around and sort through his mind and heart, through his actions, but generally he sees more hope than he does hardship. He recognizes the existence of both but typically chooses the former over the latter. Hey, you never know, that could have everything to do with the teenage belief in the invincibility of youth and nothing to do with personal confidence backed by skills.
In a nutshell, he’s the kind of guy you want on your team (maybe not in sports, no) for what counts. He can get the job done and he can make you laugh about it in the process. Percy will always have a friend’s back about something (right or wrong, but generally right) and he isn’t afraid to take a beat down if it means someone else will come out of it okay. He makes some hasty and reckless decisions but he isn’t by any means stupid, just young and brash. For someone his age, he’s up to speed and on the ball. He can put the pieces together with minimum effort. He’s sharp both at mind and with his words, sharper still with how quick he can pull a sword at the drop of a pin. He carries doubt about the innate good in every single person but believes that it does exist in the bigger picture, as a whole, if not in every individual. And despite believing in justice and unprejudiced decisions, he can hold a grudge like nobody’s business when it suits him to the point that forgiveness is improbable but not impossible.
Skills/Abilities:
Being the son of Poseidon and a human (one of the very few children of the Big Three in recent times) means he’s got a handful of tricks up his sleeve that an average person might not even dream about. A great majority of his abilities (as one might assume) deal greatly with water. For starters, he can manipulate it to his liking, whether it’s riding a wave or splashing someone in the face as a prank. He’s more powerful when he’s around it, better yet when he’s actually got some part of his body submerged. Not to mention the fact that it has healing components for him. Maybe not to such a great extent if he’s mortally wounded (because despite all the power, he is still half-human) but it’s definitely the sort of invigorating kick start a guy could use when he’s weary from battle. It’s been known to either work like an energy drink or to heal things like bruises, to close open wounds, and possibly to some extent have an effect on sprains.
One other nifty thing about the control over water? He can’t exactly drown to death, because of the whole … well, he can breathe perfectly fine in it thing. His clothes won’t even get wet if he doesn’t want them to. The exception to that rule has to do with the River Styx (something he learned firsthand.) Percy is just as vulnerable in that merciless river as anyone else.
He also has the uncanny ability to know precise coordinates of where he is on the open sea, like a nautical compass is built into his brain with a GPS system to accompany it. He inherently knows things about whatever ship he’s on and can telepathically control things like the sails or the anchors, navigating it effortlessly. Naturally, his gifts work a lot better in salt water rather than fresh water sources, like rivers. He can still function with them and get his bidding done but he notably does not stem as much power from them. Water pressure has very little (if any) effect on him. He can jump from great heights into a body of water without getting himself killed. Probably because if need be, he can reduce or increase water pressure.
In addition to this and as something that carried over from his father’s domain, he can communicate with marine life in the way that they will take commands from him. Percy can’t actually hear what they want but they usually obey his orders. He does the best at this with horses (as his father created them) and that extends to the normal kind, hippocampi, and pegasi. Most of them acknowledge Percy with reverence, you know, unless they’re cannibalistic. He can actually hear their thoughts and maintain conversations with them, even if their part of it consists only in the horse’s head. He can soothe other animals with that sort of telepathic link as well but it isn’t as easy. As mentioned with marine life, his way of soothing is more of a command or a compulsion.
You could say he’s not as flammable due to his strong connection to water. Or perhaps that he has a higher resistance and tolerance level for heat. Trapped in St. Helen’s, he ends up triggering an eruption and being coated in magma, saved only by the water he learned he could control from his body (although, it’s ten times more lethal than anything else - it takes more effort, more strength.) If he had gone any bigger, he could have died. Such is the risk of abusing a power like that from your own body. At the time, it was like a faucet had been turned on and then fell off, with no hope of stopping it. Likewise, in things like sand dollars that were once apart of the sea but have since only been in sand, he can somehow pull water from them and create small geysers. He can allegedly pull or summon water from greater distances, later in the novels, as he becomes more capable with his gifts.
It is offhandedly mentioned that because his father is the Earth Shaker and the Storm Bringer that he can also cause earthquakes and hurricanes.
Another thing he inherited from his father was clairvoyance and it’s one of the few things he has absolutely no control over. It comes to him in dreams only (as it does with most heroes) and he often dreams about his enemies or friends, overseeing times of danger or hints to things on the rise. It makes him unpredictable. Although, those who have been around long enough, who are more powerful than he is and who know how to look for it can tell when he’s listening in or watching the scene unfold. That’s probably why most everything that comes to him in his sleep is nightmare status equivalent to horror movies. It might not guarantee he’ll be the most rested when he does finally come to but it’s still a helpful tool in knowing what he’s up against.
Something he gains over the course of the novels with one of his best friends is an empathy link, which like his clairvoyance, only really hits him when he’s asleep. It makes him capable of talking to Grover (the friend he has the connection with) in his dreams once he goes missing and nobody knows how to find him. It’s convenient but also another risk in its way. If something happened to Grover, something bad, it could kill Percy, too. It’s something he decided to keep though; something he deemed worth the risk after he saved Grover and his friend told him he could remove it once they were face-to-face. He kept it, figuring he might need it again some day.
As a recent development and something he took only as a last resort, he’s almost invulnerable. He took a dip in the river Styx and because of that, became like the hero Achilles. It gave him the impenetrable body of a god, save for one spot of his choosing that ties him to his humanity. The one spot on his body that can destroy him is also the only reason he survived being in the river. He can take down armies if need be, without a scratch, provided nobody finds that Achilles spot on his body and takes him down. Its located at the small of his back, somewhere he thought would be difficult to reach in battle, with armor on. Definitely more classy than his armpit or a heel. This gift is also a curse, and about as helpful as it is a hindrance.
A skill that (surprise, surprise) doesn’t come branded in his DNA is the sword he carries conveniently on his person, downsized to a ballpoint pen. The sword (originally owned by Hercules himself) is called Anaklusmos or in plain english, Riptide. It’s made of celestial bronze, which means it can only be used against other demigods, monsters, and the Gods. It cannot, under any occasion, strike a human. In fact, the blade will go right through them without a mark, like sand through an hour glass, passing through them like a ghost blade more than anything else.
Before all the madness started, before he really knew what he was, growing up was hard. Mist is a thing humans don't often see through, that helped them keep the illusion that whatever weird things they saw didn’t really exist. It swayed them into believing some outrageous lie, rather than the truth. For awhile, the mist played its game on him, too. He went through school with ADHD and a bad case of Dyslexia, both things that had to do with being a demigod. The ADHD got him in more trouble than it was worth and was supposedly his impulsive, fine-tuned battle instincts lying idle. The Dyslexia stemmed from being hardwired to read naturally in ancient Greek, whereas English came as a difficulty. Not to say he can’t read if he puts the effort in. But they are two things that make being normal and having that lifestyle pretty difficult.
He doesn’t see the next part as a fault or something he needs in moderation, but every demigod has a fatal flaw, something they have in them more than a human. Something they are more vulnerable to cultivating and allowing to thrive. Percy’s fatal flaw is personal loyalty and one day, it really might get him killed. The goddess Athena mentions to him that he would sacrifice the world to save a friend and as the goddess of wisdom, it’s understandable why she wouldn’t see that as very practical. Percy doesn’t share the same belief. He doesn’t think it is a flaw but rather something they all should have a little more of. It humanizes him. But what she said is also true; he sometimes forgets himself and the value of his own life in the favor of his friends and loved ones.
First Person Sample:
Where are you taking me? [He demands, unaware that the device he’s been handed is recording. It’s at a bad angle, pointed upwards. It catches part of his face and occasionally the skeletal hand that belongs to the thing rowing them down the river, pointing.] Look, I don’t have any golden drachmas, so if you think I’m paying you for this, you’ve got another thing coming.
Tell you what. Turn this boat around and I won’t break you into a million tiny fract-
[Percy doesn’t finish his threat because the boat stutters to a stop, making him stumble and when he almost manages to stabilize himself, he sees the skeleton reaching for his chest.] Hey! Don’t! Get your hands off of me!
[Before he knows it, he’s stumbling backwards onto his bottom in the dirt, device discarded into his lap and then the ground when he stands up. A flash of movement and then there’s a sword in his hand, edge barely visible as his steps quickly carry him to the edge of the shore.] Don’t just take off! I don’t want to see your lord and overseer, I want to get back to New York. Take me back there and you’ll be rewarded, I swear!
[He’s yelling to no avail, because the guy just ditches him and he’s left sighing, approaching what he dropped. Muttering about what a jerk as he picks the ipad looking thing up.]
… since when was Hades not a cheapskate? Seriously. He's giving out door prizes now?
[Oops. His bad. Not like he knows he’s being listened in on!! And hey, it looks pricey to him, and last he checked, Hades was whining about how much the dead were costing him.]
Third Person Sample:
One second he was standing on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York, sending it crumbling into the East River, in the fight of his life and panicking over his friends and comrades. He remembered Kronos leaving, he remembered searching for Michael Yew in the water the bridge had fallen into but most of all he still felt the cell phone’s imprint in his clammy fingers.
Annabeth.
He had to get to her.
She had taken that dagger for him and he had to see her. Had to know she was still hanging on. There was so much he felt, in that moment, that he needed to tell her.
A quick glance around and a swallow told him he wasn’t in New York anymore. He must have fallen asleep on Blackjack after he got off the phone with Silena. After she told him he needed to get to the Plaza because Annabeth was in bad condition.
He raised two fingers towards his mouth, let them slip between his lips as he whistled, called for, practically begged in his heart and mind for Blackjack to appear. For Mrs. O’Leary. Five minutes passed and nothing. The animals he had come to rely on were no-shows. He was sure they would have appeared if they could have. He let out a frustrated shout and pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes in an attempt to force the panic out of his skin.
Grover, man, if you can hear me. I need you. I need you to get to Annabeth as quick as you can. Help her. Get her some nectar. Tell Thalia to help with the troops. He thought it as hard as he could, then again he relayed the message to Blackjack (the pegasus that had always been there in his time of need.) I don’t know where I am or how I got here but I’ll get back there as soon as I can.
Attempts exhausted, he realized he couldn’t just stand around!
Percy surveyed the area with a cautious glance. That ferry, that skeletal hand. Wait a second, he knew this place. He thought that maybe, that had been a dream, but this... what he was looking at. It was different sure, but held a vague resemblance to the Underworld. Nico di Angelo and his father, Hades. Of course. How could he have been so stupid? He’d wiped out a portion of Hades’ undead army, taken a swim in the river, of course this had to do with the god of the dead!
He was the one who’d said he didn’t care what happened, right? That it wasn’t his war. He’d tried to imprison Percy once already. He was trying to sabotage him! The Titan’s war against Olympus was going to succeed with him trapped in the Underworld. Everything would end. Was that really what Hades wanted?
He saw red, felt it amping him up with rage and strode forward. He had to get past Cerberus again. Past the furies and Mrs. Dodds and her vengeful face and leathery wings. He needed an audience with Hades, once again. Maybe Nico could help with that, some part of him thought, hardly bitter. But he still didn’t know if he could trust him. Percy pulled his pen out of his pocket and uncapped it, felt Riptide materialize to full size in his hand and called out.
“Hades! If you know what’s good for you, get me out of here. You might not care about the war going on street side but I’ve got allies up there. Troops. Friends. They need me! And if you want me dead so bad, letting me face Kronos could be the way you get your wish!” He was pleading at this point, negotiating. Percy scoffed. He knew better. Better than trying to strike a deal with Hades but he had to try, didn’t he?
“Don’t be such a coward. Get out here! Talk to me.”
A large rumble, a growl, footsteps too heavy to be human and he swallowed hard. He felt gravel sliding down his throat when the three-headed dog stepped out of the shadows, looking somewhat different than the one he and Annabeth had baited with a large stick and a giant rubber ball. Surely, it wouldn’t be so easy a second time.
He stepped forward, bracing himself with Riptide.
Annabeth needed him.
Nothing else mattered.