like most heroes, percy jackson is ( eventually ) a natural-born leader.

if you ask him, that’s the most surprising tidbit about him. the kid that was picked last in gym, had one (1) friend and got kicked out of nearly every single school he attended—that’s hero material? for twelve years of his life, he wasn’t good at anything. nothing clicked into place for percy until after his twelfth birthday when he discovered he was a demigod. finally, he had all these answers about why his life was the way it was; why bad things happened near him, why his mom had to keep him at a distance, why she married his crummy step-father, and why he couldn’t stay in school to save his life. finally, he could belong to something.

at a first glance, percy is a troublemaker with no respect for authority or rules. he challenges demands with questions, combats adversity with sarcasm, and generally downplays the severity of dire circumstances. in all fairness, if he’s always in trouble (regardless of what he does), then why do his actions and attitude matter? on that same note, if he chooses to take things seriously, he’ll never get anything done. he doesn’t have time to dwell, whether it’s bouncing from boarding schools or jumping into danger, there’s just not much time for reflection.

being a demigod means having adaptability, and boy, percy has that in spades. he rolls with the punches. sometimes because he’s actually, you know, rolling from being punched. he’s rash. he often doesn’t formulate a plan beyond yeeting himself into danger and shrugging when it doesn’t immediately work out. he relies on his streak of good luck ( and his powers ) a little too much sometimes because things happen to work out favorably for him in the end. he believes he’ll come out on the other side so he usually does. it’s as simple as improvising as he goes, both on the battlefield and in life.

the truth is that percy’s fatal flaw dominates his personality. every demigod has one to contrast their wondrous gifts and his is personal loyalty. he was told once that he would sacrifice the world to save a friend and athena wasn’t wrong. where it concerns his friends and family, he has a massive blindspot. he’s willing to risk everything, including his life, for those he cares for. it either makes him incredibly brave or extremely stupid or both. he knows inherently that it’s morally wrong to jeopardize the lives of the many over the one, and he also doesn’t care. what’s the point of the world without his people in it? he will never see this behavior as a flaw, rather it’s his strength. this is particularly true of his relationship with annabeth chase, who was his friend first and his girlfriend later; there’s no getting between the two of them. this is where a lot of his rule-snubbing and recklessness stems from, it's because some things are irreplaceable. they're worth putting himself in danger for.

if he’s courageous, then it’s only because he has people worth fighting for. he isn’t without fear and growing up as a child of prophecy definitely frightened him. accepting his fate was the only way to make sure that nobody else had to make the tough calls when the time came. he didn’t ask to be a demigod and he asked to be a leader even less, but it doesn’t change that percy stepped into the role and took on all the responsibilities that came with it. he didn’t decide to make the prophecy regarding the fate of olympus about him for the glory, he did it because he didn’t want thalia or nico to have to burden it.

he’s far from perfect. try as he might, he can’t save everyone. his confidence at having survived multiple quests ( and prophecies ) rattles whenever he suffers a loss. he questions whether he’s heroic at all in those instances. it isn’t only death that makes percy prone to self-doubt, it’s being surrounded by other massively powerful demigods who can do things he can’t. ( jason can fly, piper can charm people, nico can raise the dead, and frank can shapeshift. ) he’s forced to examine what heroism and self-worth are, particularly when he prides himself on promises he may not always be able to keep. percy means well, although he occasionally lacks follow-through.

of all the trials he’s endured, that one hits home the hardest. trust is a big deal for him. the idea that people have suffered because he failed to keep his word isn’t an easy pill to swallow. percy learned this lesson the hard way when he fell to tartarus because he refused to abandon annabeth, and acquired curse after curse from people of monsters he wronged. there’s a lot in percy’s life that he hasn’t taken the time to process or address and with the bottling of darker emotions comes an inevitable explosion. he has a temper and residual resentment where the gods are concerned for mistreating their children, failing to claim them, and repeating history on an endless cycle. he has the capacity to be vindictive. he can see red. when push comes to shove, percy can take things to the extreme. he mailed medusa's head to olympus and when they sent it back, he wanted to use it on his garbage step-dad to get him out of the picture; he also tortured the goddess of suffering to give her a taste of her own medicine.

like the ocean, percy has many depths. he's half-human, not full-god and with that knowledge comes the acceptance of mistakes. he may be unpredictable in some fashion ( something that scares the gods ), but he's predictable in every way that counts. he's generally a balanced person that does the right thing, no matter the personal cost.

that being said, he's tired. he wants a normal life. he wants stability. percy never made plans for the future because that would involve the assumption of living long enough to have one. once he learns it's possible for demigods, and the world is once again safe, it becomes his main motivation in trying to graduate high school so that he can get into college, marry the girl he loves, and have the family he's always wanted. that's the dream anyway, and everyone has to have one.

» DEMIGOD HARDWIRING — this is an umbrella term that applies to kids with godly parentage. depending on the origin of the god (greece, rome, egypt, asgard, etc.), their children are able to more readily comprehend those ancient languages and symbols. in percy's case, it's greek and latin by extension, but with a bit more effort on the latter's end. in the mortal world, the struggle to read english is commonly mislabeled as dyslexia. as the gods are unable to alter their fates or interfere, they have children to do their bidding. they often pass down various neutral attributes to their children (to make completing various quests much more plausible) such as enhanced senses, increased fight-or-flight capacity, and endurance/stamina that registers as ADHD in most cases. *in @meadowlark, the implant will take care of language processing and his demigodly abilities will be nerfed.

» ADEQUATE SWORDSMANSHIP — percy is by no means the best swordsman that ever walked the earth. he learns fast, operating somewhere between genuine talent and luck. he disarmed his mentor after being shown the technique once, yet didn't manage it twice. he's said to "fight like a demon" in one instance because of his agility and inability to stick to standard procedure and battle formation. he utilizes his environment in a pinch, prone to improvising, distractions, and putting himself in the line of fire rather than any specific tactic. he's most experienced and best with a sword, although he's become somewhat lax with swordplay, often relying on his (absent in meadowlark) hydrokinetic powers to fill in the gaps.

» NATURAL LEADER — what percy lacks in technique, he makes up for with inspiration. he can motivate people relatively effortlessly and what's more is that he's not always aware that he's doing it. he's very passionate about his friends and family, usually overextends himself via promises, but is generally well-meaning. he would sacrifice the world to save a friend and while this is his most problematic quality (and his most predictable one), it's also arguably what makes percy so dangerous to his enemies. for percy it is rarely about being morally right or winning/losing, it's about his people. he would, quite literally, die for them. he has killed for them if you count monsters.

» YIELDING — as a subset to not giving a heck about winning/losing, percy is capable of stepping aside and letting someone else have the spotlight. he learned this from hestia. that doesn't mean that he doesn't want to be the hero because sometimes he really, really does. it means that percy understands there are more important things in the world than pride, like relying on your team and keeping everyone together.

» SON OF POSEIDON — percy inherited control/manipulation in his father's domain, including but not limited to hydrokinesis, breathing under water, choosing whether water touches him or rolls off of him, healing with water, communicating with marine animals ( and horses ), a nautical compass, and to some extent, earthquakes ( although this may have more to do with liquid content in magma, we may never know ). inactive in @meadowlark

» TERRAKINESIS — level one: presently living that thrilling I CAN MOVE DUST PARTICLES, SON life. catch cinderalla abusing this power to clean without actually cleaning. #lifehack

TBD.

OTHER NOTES GO HERE

my tagging schedule is fairly sporadic with work and school. sometimes i'm around to boomerang, sometimes it takes me a few days to hit something back. it really depends on how hectic that specific week is. i understand that is not everyone's pace and we can always handwave or pass like ships in the night, no hard feelings.