If you were reincarnated or isekaid into the Universe of Rick Riordan, what would you choose to be? The might and power of an Olympian? The immortal and quiet life of a minor god? The perilous life of a Demigod? A background being like the Nymphs? Or maybe even a satyr (age at half the speed)?
Edit: yes, you have all current memories and knowledge of the books
What if after a Cosmic Deity left her, a broke orphan fresh out of college, pregnant with an illegal child the world would stop at nothing to kill, Sally decided that she would do anything to protect her baby?
What if Sally used her gift of sight to hunt down the traces of the Divine World all around her and befriended some adult demigods along the way?
What if she ended up taking a page from Thetis' book and (with the help of a psychopomp child of Hermes) made her way down to the Underworld to dip lil baby Percy into the river styx so that no simple monster could hurt her child?
What if Sally Jackson made her way to the Amazons and asked for their protection in exchange for playing out the Great Prophecy on their own terms?
Imagine an invulnerable 7 year old Percy training with his Aunty Victoria, the Queen of the Amazons, learning not to fear his powers but to use them to their absolute potential. Imagine Sally the Amazon absolutely living her best life, using her gift of sight to help the business empire.
What if Percy now invulnerable, under Amazonian protection, and fully aware of the Divine World and his role in it, was given a teleportation pearl every year on his birthday which transport him instantly to Atlantis for a weekend with his father? Poseidon stayed away originally to keep the other Olympians unaware and the protection from monsters that ignorance granted, but with Sally having dealt with both, I think an annual visit would be in character for Poseidon.
What if Sally goes full Mama Bear and begins to go on an adoption spree collecting Demigods left and right to protect and raise in the Amazon Compound which rapidly develops into a lil Demigod City?
Can you imagine Sally coming a cross a starving injured Luke Castellan and immediately going "you're mine now", lol. I'd like to think Thalia would still find Annabeth and Grover, making their way to Camp and that all going largely the same.
What if Amazonian Percy grows up with full knowledge that both the Romans and Greeks exist and uses that during the Second Titanomachy to bring both sides together in defense of Olympus against Kronos/Saturn?
What if Hades pulls up in front of Sally one day and calls her out for having invaded his realm and demands a favor to make up for it, resulting in Percy getting new siblings - Bianca and Nico?
Can you imagine Sally Jackson showing up to the Battle of Manhattan in a Celestial Bronze Mech Suit to defend her babies not content to stand by and refusing to play the role of helpless mortal?
I'm imagining Prometheus absolutely stunned with his mouth hanging open watching a bloodthirtsy Mama Jackson battle her way through hordes of monsters, the pinnacle of human potential. Only for Luke and Nico to stab him in the back for looking at their mom that way, lol.
I wonder who would be the Demigod to bring Kronos back in the absence of Luke? Ethan seems too young to keep the same timeline, I guess Chris would do but he feels meh, maybe one of the main guy turns traitor in the absence of Luke. I think Annabeth fits, but still so young and been done. Silena maybe? Maybe a Satyr falls for a promise to restore the wild and bring back long lost Pan?
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IDK, there's just so much potential with Sally Jackson and she is criminally underused, lol. Like being clear sighted is such a powerful thing to be.
Annabeth's flaw is her pride and what hurts the pride of a Daughter of Athena more than a mere mortal showing her up at every turn? Imagine Annabeth having a roommate at Boarding School that has moved up three grades and is the school's new genius, a title previously held by Annabeth.
Annabeth actually starts trying and yet her roommate always manages to outshine her. Imagine Annabeth tolerating it all until she gets shown up on the topic of architecture and she absolutely snaps, "no way in Hades some mortal knows more than ME about architecture, she has to be a daughter of Athena, she has to be!"
Imagine the roommate is slightly more clear-sighted than most and sees Annabeth's dagger with 50/50 odds which convinces Annabeth that her roommate is a demigod in hiding but who is messing with Annabeth by pretending to be a mortal just to torment her even. Annabeth just tying herself up in frustrating loops of logic fueled by her pride.
Imagine Percy visiting Annabeth vis Mrs. O'Leary to find her like a madwoman with an actual board with notes, baggies of evidence, pictures, and red string; she's muttering "she has to be... no no no... but what if...". Imagine Percy having to talk down a slightly deranged Annabeth from using her celestial bronze knife to test out
I'd like to think the roommate is actually enough of a genius that she actually pulls together all the clues, odd references, chance sightings beyond the mist, and such to actually figure out that the Greek Gods are real and Annabeth is a demigod. Her only mistake is guessing that Annabeth was a Daughter of Hermes (she is super athletic and I imaginer her running track, she stole some shit as part of her investigation, she loves to read about foreign places).
I just would love Chiron introducing Percy to the Poseidon Cabin and Percy points to a painting of Captain Jack Sparrow in his prime. Chiron responds about how that was a Son of Poseidon from centuries ago who he trained back in the 1710s when Camp Halfblood was in Brittany (france) before moving to Long Island.
I'd read a whole fic about Jack and his time growing up at Camp Halfblood. I can so imagine him starting a gambling ring with the other demigods, getting wasted with Satyrs, and stealing a trireme for a joyride on the english channel.
Honestly, now that PJO is part of Disney, it would've been such a funny gag to have his portrait in the cabin.
There's like 60 PJO/Pirates of the Caribbean fics on AO3 but most are like mergers or whatever, not just folding Jack Sparrow into the history of PJO.
IDK, where Camp Halfblood would be before moving to the US in the 1740s, but I imagine it'd be in Brittany as a good sport between Paris and London as the centers of the West.
What if the Hazel Levesque was used as the human sacrifice instead of her mother, she never collapsed the cavern, and now Alcyoneus has risen in 1942 Alaska as the world was already eating itself alive in the Second World War?
What if Gaia lured Thanatos and had him captured, allowing for the doors of death to be opened without restraint by the start of 1943, meaning monsters could not die? What if by 1944, Demigods could no longer die and even by the final weeks of the war in 1945 mortals were unable to die?
What if the Children of Hades wishing to restore the balance of death and avoid their impending doom at the hands of a war they could not win, decided to form an alliance with the only immortal known to have neutralized a primordial, Kronos?
What if in mid-1944, the world becoming beyond chaotic, the Ophiotaurus is sacrificed and lord Kronos is resurrected with a promise on the river styx to ensure victory fo the Children of Hades and a neutralization of his mother?
The Titanomachy, the Gigantomachy, the Western World led by Demigods, it all becomes one single war the likes of which the world had never seen before.
Imagine D-Day as the Sons of Poseidon and Zeus face not only the might of mortal empires by countless hordes of unkillable monsters loyal only to Gaia.
Imagine the countless monster attacks across the US hidden by the mist as covert operations by enemy nations wishing to sabotage america and have instill fear.
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tldr: what if EVERYTHING went wrong in WWII
I was wondering about this and other older posts just dismissed it since they cremated, but that doesn't make sense. Cremation was a step in the funerary process, especially for a hero, a great tombstone worthy of their life would be placed above the buried ashes. Ancient tombstones often had carvings of the deceased lives carved onto it, the events that defined them as a hero.
Imagine Annabeth guiding Percy inland, following the creek, until coming to a valley filled with thousands of small monuments. Some marble, some bronze, and others basalt. Imagine them walking past thousands of images of battles fought, great loves, inevitable deaths, unnecessary wars, heroic sacrifices.
Not all got to have their ashes brought here to be buried, but Chiron has always ensured for thousands of years that each and every hero that came under his care is remembered.
Imagine the sheer weight of how many there had been. This graveyard had been made in the 1740s when Camp arrived in America and in the quarter-millennia since has filled a valley with the children of gods. Some were the lucky few to live decade after decade with so many carvings of marriages, battles victorious, and a proper end after a good life. But they were far outweighed by the MANY who never even lived a single decade, poor souls who had only their young face carved to remember that they once existed.
Imagine Percy wondering before every quest, what will be carved into his stone, who will come to see it, how long before he is just one of many. Frankly, demigods do not deal with their hyper-short lifespan enough in the books.
Rick Riordan famously is not great at keeping track of his timeline, made all the more confusing by the universe existing in a floating timeline. Aka, the events canonically take place whatever year Rick is writing, 2015 or 2005, it all smooshes together.
A lot of readers and fanfic writers rely on the unofficial timeline established by the first book - Percy is born in 1993 and Battle of Manhattan in 2009.
What timeline do you prefer? Should fics state the year their version of pjo takes place? Should the show and latest books now make PJO occur in the 2020s? Did Percy experience going on a quest in the middle of Covid now according to the floating timeline, lol
I feel like there's a serious lack of Demigod/Divine structures in the PJO world. Monsters can seemingly create their own stores like Medusa or even gas statioins. Demigods have Camp, New Rome, and the Waystation. Only godly instance I can remember is Iris having a vegan shop and the Empire State Building. So I though why not make up some more?
The most obvious thing any god would build to me seems to be Athena creating a Library. So my proposal is that Athena has a great library established thousands of years ago for her personal use and open to any in the divine world seeking knowledge. It moves from place to place along with western civilization. And since 1911 it has moved from London to London. In the same way that Olympus is an extension tied to the Empire State Building, I think the Library of Athena is a magical extension tied to the NYC Public Library.
I'm totally stealing the idea based on the foxes of Wan Shi Tong from ATLA, but I think it'd make sense for the Library of Athena to employ a race of automaton men who use the mist to travel the world and collect knowledge. I'd call them the Hephatheons [hephaestus + athena] with a bit of their essences going into their creation.
My first thought was to have the Library of Athena be run by the Children of Athena, but I think they all almost die too young or dedicate themselves to other pursuits for that to be the case. If a child of Athena survives to adulthood, I think ambition or love would drive them to live lives out in the mortal world. But I do think a massive part of the library are additions to it made to it over thousands of years by the Children of Athena.
I think the Library should also have an enchanted hallway where with two doors at the ends of this really long hallway, one opens to the Library and the other to the Big House in Camp Halfblood.
I imagine the place would constantly be busy with Satyrs, Nymphs, Demigods, and Minor Gods coming to read all their favorite books translated into ancient greek, all the lost works of greek literature, magical tomes, diaries of demigods from the middle ages, alchemical manuals, etc.
I think it'd be cool to have a story where Percy helps Annabeth sneak into the forbidden section to read the locked away works from WWII, Annabeth having to know how bad the war was for herself.
I came across an instance of a victorian saying "by jove" and the goblins in my brain took it from there. Queen Victoria became the head of the British Empire just a month after turning eighteen, going on to lead the largest empire in history. But what if in that month between becoming a woman and becoming the most powerful woman in the world, she was visited by Jupiter himself?
I'm imagining a frustrated Princess Victoria slamming the door to be alone in her chambers as she exclaimed "by jove!" to which Jupiter responds "you called?" while sitting on her bed.
Imagine the King of the Gods infatuated with a beautiful woman poised to rule kingdoms and colonies, there's nothing he loves more than a powerful woman. He promises to make her an Empress, ruler of a greater empire than any before, a life spanning across generations, her life will be the center of the age, he shall be her patron, a quarter of mankind shall call her their Queen, and all she has to do is say yes.
So Jupiter has a wonderful lover affair with Queen Victoria over the decades, acting as the British Royal Family's patron god, even attending her funeral when she passed. Her death in 1901 marked Jupiter/Zeus' departure from Europe fully as with his last connection severed, he was fully committed to America.
What if soon after the end of the Second Gigantomachy, Eris decides its been almost 3,300 years, and that enough time to redo one of her classic pranks on the Olympians right?
Hera offers to make Percy the Leader of any of the World's Republic, even the President of the United States itself
Athena offers grant Percy the wit and instinct to never lose a battle again, he shall never fall to some monster's claw, he could protect Camp and his loved ones without fail for all his life.
Aphrodite offers him a marriage without strife, should Annabeth take his hand, no god or monster would touch them even if the world burns.
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War breaks out between the Greeks and Romans after Ella remembered a verse, "love prevails as the west steals the keeper of sybil... the first sight seen by the child of sea and wit shall be the pyres... the golden apple ignites the spark and for a woman the city burns...". AKA the Romans are more aggressive about getting Ella and fate guides her to resist, both sides doing what they most at all costs.
The wedding bells ring and as Percy and Annabeth have their first kiss as husband and wife at 22, the Romans have destroyed the Oracle's cave, killed the guards, and stolen Ella.
Who could expect the newlyweds to enter a third war, they had fought enough and all they wanted was peace. Camp Halfblood goes to War with the Romans, they look at Percy the Hero with hope he might lead them, but he goes with his wife to settle down at a nice little home in Hawaii. Annabeth already has a position as a Librarian at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Percy is happy to just work at the local surf shop.
Its not long before Annabeth and Percy are expecting their first child. No monsters. No gods. Its just nice.
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An Iris Message ruins it all right as Annabeth is about to pop. The call comes in from Harley, Son of Hephaestus now age 13, who says he won't ask Percy and Annabeth to end their peace, but as his heroes since he was seven, he thought they should know. Last night a greek spy in New Rome said another prophetic line had been tortured out of Ella that said, "Architect and warrior, sister to the traitor, only she can prevent the city from becoming a crater". The spy was another 13 year old, a daughter of Apollo, who was caught and killed by the Romans just that morning; which is what made Harley decide to call, to not let her death be in vain.
Annabeth decides to head to New Rome despite Percy's insistence and she ends the war between the Greeks and Romans (IDK how). She gives birth shortly after to Bianca Jackson whose first sight as Percy hold her by the window are hundred pyres burning below.
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I don't know about the name, but I definitely feel like their first child should be a daughter. Bianca did die on a quest to save Annabeth and was the first person that Percy might still blame himself for dying.
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The Sybil War / the Trojan War Parallels:
More Potential Parallels
The minotaur was chasing them and Sally only intended to get the two boys across the boundary, but she never expected to pass through as well and watch the Minotaur splatter against boundary like a fly on the windshield.
Chiron was stunned that the mortal lover of Poseidon was able to cross bur Mr. D was able to sniff out that she was in fact a distant descendant of Aphrodite, having just enough divine blood to make an elder god break a pact on the styx and apparently cross the boundary.
Sally ends up being hired as an assistant by Chiron with room in the Big House, because gods knows Camp could use some more adults. This way lil Percy get to have his mum with him and remain a year round camper to stay as safe as possible.
Sally becomes the Mum of Camp Halfblood, helping fill the maternal void left by the manny absent goddesses and bad mortal parents. Even those who don't see her that way end up coming to her as the unofficial Camp Therapist.
I think Sally and Hestia would be absolute besties and often have lunch over the eternal fire at the heart of Camp.
Personally, I'd change it so Grover never forms an empathy link and so Percy never goes to the Sea of Monsters. Let Percy have a normal-ish summer for once while Clarisse is able to actually succeed. Maybe some chats with Sally convinced her to confess to Silena Beauregard, going on the Quest together during their summer relationship. They continue to have feelings but Silena still ends up with Charles Beckendorf. Makes Silena pulling a Patroclus during the Battle of Manhattan have more of a punch.
I'd love a scene where Chrion and Sally seem a little too chummy and Percy absolutely forbids Chiron from dating his mom as a furious thirteen year old. "I fought Ares, I'll fight you too horse-man", Lol.
I'd love a fic going through the books but filled with fluff between the deaths and battles, Sally always there. Occasional flirting with Apollo. The rare visit from Poseidon. Sally enjoying flying a pegasus. Sally giving advice as a fellow clear-sighted mortal to Rachel. Sally holding a crying Annabeth when Percy vanishes and treating her like a daughter in all but name. Poseidon has a heart attack when he hears Sally fought in the Battle of the Labyrinth with a celestial bronze crossbow.
Imagine Mr. D in nothing but briefs as Sally robs him blind in pinochle, him refusing to accept a mere mortal barely past 30 can beat him at over 3,000 years old. Sally wrapped in leopord cape and wearing more bling than a jewelry story, "another round Dio?"
I still want Estelle to exist, but she'd probably be a Demigod with no Paul around. I don't know who should be her parent? Maybe Poseidon and Sally can't help but let themselves be pulled back together like the tides for the briefest little fling. Maybe Athena becomes fascinated with the Mortal tending to the Children of the Olympians and out pops a thought baby. Maybe Apollo manages to seduce Sally into a beautiful night together after years of flirting and the occasional gifts.
It'd be hilarious if Amphitrite said, "well you had your turn, its only fair" and Estelle ends up also a daughter of the sea but in a different way.
Little Octavio was bored during the winter break, everyone in town was busy with holiday preparation with christmas in a few days but he was out exploring the Sierra. Octavio had always been drawn to the desert since his town was surrounded with mountains to one side and the desert to the other. His grandfather had taught him how to avoid the plants and critters that would hurt him. But this was the only place he could be alone and do his little bits of magic. He saw the lone cactus, closed his eyes and concentrated, and when he opened it they were full of tuna (prickly pears).
Eventually during his wanderings, Octavio found the remains some random wooden structures with occasional smooth stone that spoke of buildings. Then he saw stone nose poking out of the ground. He dug up the stone bust of some old güero, but then the stone head started to blink and move, Octavio screamed and dropped it.
The bust statue and whined in latin, "Quomodo audes deum demittere", which Octavio was shocked to understand.
It turned out that the statue was called Terminus and was one of many physical incarnation of a god. He'd been left there by other ungrateful demigods for over two centuries. Apparently, the Roman Gods were real and their demigod children had a city called New Rome that lived on the frontier of Western Civilization which back in the 1600s had been right near Octavio's own town.
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I just like the idea of cute little mexican kid and a sassy statue. Plus Rome definitely deserves some more love in the fandom. I definitely think the Roman Gods are way more active in Latin America than the Greek Gods are.
Athena and her children are always accused of being too cold and calculating, filled with an arrogance that places their strategies above the lives of comrades. But what if this was no exaggeration or misinterpretation for a certain child of Athena.
Athena is a virgin goddess but when she admires or is fascinated by a mortal, the thought of them festers and grows until a child bursts. In the books these are professors like Annabeth's dad, probably some military higher ups, and the like.
But what if one day Athena notices a mercenary in NYC who took the work out of the sheer pleasure of killing with the sheer intelligence to never get caught. She admired his strategy and skill as much as she reviled at his sick nature, but before she knew it she had become fascinated enough with the mortal that a baby was growing in her mind.
So was born a child of Athena and a psycho Mercenary, incapable of guilt, unaware of other's emotion, no value for human life.And what greater fun would there be for such a child than the challenge of outthinking their mother on the battlefield, siding with the Titans, and waging war on the gods.
Imagine the Psycho Child of Athena returning to Camp Halfblood with an army of monsters during the Battle of the Labyrinth and succeeding in razing it and salting the earth. He weakened the gods, killed so many, and scattered the surviving Demigods for the year before the Battle of Manhattan.
I like to think that the few years before they left Camp Halfblood, the child got along extremely well with Mr. D as two insane people rejoicing in mutual madness with games of poker that evolved into a mix of twister and risk with rules that changed based on the time of day.
I imagine the Athena Cabin becoming the outcasts as every little cold moment of theirs makes them suspect of being like their insane brother.
Edit: Imagine after the destruction of Camp Halfblood, one of the campers who came from Circe's island admits she knows where they could find Allies. Instead of a year of pretending things are normal while prepping for war, Annabeth and Percy head to Rome to try and make a powerful ally to prevent the end of the world.
What if in an AU where the Children of the Big Three are feared because they all had power similar to canon Percy, so Zeus and Hades are more determined and paranoid about the Child of the Prophecy? What if this results in them discovering Percy at like 7 and killing Sally, forcing Percy to live in the shadows and on the run from Gods and Monsters alike.
Imagine a feral Percy Jackson learning to use his powers without holding back just to survive another day. Imagine Percy causing a hurricane to fight off Artemis who had him cornered in her hunt for the Cursed Child of the Prophecy.
Imagine a feral Percy tempted by the offer of Luke but knowing the paranoia of prophecy and the arrogance to treat human lives as pawns is a fundamental problem of all immortals whether gods or titans.
Imagine a three-way war between the Titans championed by Luke, the Gods championed by Nico, and Humanity championed by Percy who sought to bring down the Divine World.
I like to imagine Dedalus would side with Feral Percy to help bring down all sides, helping him to design a cage to hold Zeus himself after destroying his throne on Olympus. With Zeus weak and caged, a power struggle breaks out between the Gods while Camp Halfblood faces the Battle of the Labyrinth.
While the Battle of Manhattan rages on with the survivors of the Battle of the Labyrinth, Feral Percy and Dedalus have manage to steal a nuke to try and blow up Mount Olympus.
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IDK, just woke up from a nap where Dedalus and Percy just kinda blew up the Greek Pantheon
