Sorry if it sounds a bit too blunt but when did percico just hit you? What where the moments to lead you to realize you adore this pair? You may have answer this before but I can’t for the life of me navigate tumblr that well so hope you don’t mind, and I also want to hear more of your thoughts too of where it all started for you
You have a lovely blog btw.
It all began in 2009, when, after finishing yet another book series, I began craving something else. Because I have always been into Greek Mythology, the guy at the bookstore recommended me the first 4 PJO books (the fifth hadn't come out by then), which I bought and started reading.
I loved the world, but the characters where hit or miss for me. This may be because I was a two or three years older than the main cast for the first couple of books, but as a mythology nerd, I didn't really like how Percy and friends kept falling for mythological traps that to me were quite obvious.
Enter the Titan's Curse and Nico di Angelo.
Nico as a character spoke to me in ways no other character did. He was a fanboy, a mythology nerd like me, and a protective younger brother. I loved this kid with all my heart, even when the narrative kept hammering in the fact that Percy found him annoying.
I'm no stranger to liking minor characters, and when I do, I tend to ship them with whoever I think would make them happiest (even if said ship is never canon), Nico was still too young for me to ship with anyone, but as every book had the characters grow older, I was excited to see how he would develop (and who I'd like to see him with). And then the ending hit.
Nico was a son of Hades, an outcast among the outcasts. One of the children who was powerful enough to fight on equal grounds with Percy... and he was angry, hurt, and walking a dark path. I was so overcome with emotion for this kid that I started projecting a lot of my issues on him.
By pure coincidence, one of my issues at the time was being a bisexual boy who leaned more towards men, but because of violently homophobic extended family (mostly an uncle and a grandmother) I remained closeted to everyone but my parents, so I began headcanoning Nico as bi, and wanted to ship him with a boy who would make him happy.
At the time, I did take notice of Percy wanting to protect Nico, but thought nothing of it. To 14 year old me, Nico was too good for Percy, he could have his boring, predictable romance with Annabeth (yes, even back then I considered that ship super basic), but Nico was meant for grander things.
I started The Battle of the Labyrinth with this mindset, wanting to find Nico the person who would "save" him from his dark path and make him happy again.
And the narrative shoved Percy Jackson in my face.
It was a 180° for me on the character. Percy, who I once considered too juvenile for my taste, was going above and beyond for Nico, wanting to find him, to save him from himself and the bad influences he was surrounding himself with. Without noticing, Percy had grown up, and the first time I really saw that maturity was by wanting to protect Nico, the character I had latched on to the most.
The moment I realized I shipped it was when Nico appeared in Dedalus's workshop, because it meant one thing: Nico was receptive to Percy's attempts to save him. You could give me the most perfect boy for Nico, but if Nico didn't want to be saved by him, it wouldn't matter. But Nico not only wanted to be saved, he wanted to save Percy back!
Their talk about belonging inside the Labyrinth, Percy still respecting his boundaries and letting him leave, and the blue cake scene just finished the job for me. When The Last Olympian dropped, I knew Percy would end up with Annabeth, but I savored and enjoyed every single interaction he had with Nico nonetheless.
Even back then, Percico was a rare pair. I must have read Kiss a Boy in Tokyo Town and Skinny Love about a dozen times each, just because they were the only long Percico fics that existed. I went to the LiveJournal kink meme page for PJO just to look at whatever Percico prompts there were, and even though I had many more fandoms, ships, and rare pairs, every once in a while, I'd come back to Percico.
That was how it stayed until House of Hades.
When the spoilers came out, I was so stoked! Nico was gay, and had been in love with Percy all along. I felt so smart to have "figured it out", and enjoyed the brief period when Percico dominated (people newer to fandom may not know this, but once upon a time, it had more fics in Ao3 than Perc*beth!) There was just so much art, fanfic, and headcanons about it, and I indulged in it all!
Alas, things quieted down again after BoO, just as I expected. I just... didn't expect it to be so drastic. It may have been the rise of fanpol in fandom spaces, or the fact that even back during the HoH period, people would harrass Percico shippers for age discourse, for being "cousins", or because Percy "wasn't gay", but about 95% of people who shipped it just took off once Nico had a "proper" love interest and never looked back.
I stayed, because I love Nico, and with time I came to love Percy almost as much, and I adore the potential they have together. It's been 13 years and I still ship these two demigods who were there for me in some very dark moments of my life, so it's safe to say that I won't stop any time soon.
hi, could you give more info on the nico vs the real world au because that is such an interesting idea! also do you have any plans on writing this fic sometime? sorry if it appears like i'm pressurising you, i just really love your fics.
Okay, in my notes I call Real World a red herring AU, because it's basically my take on many mortal AU tropes but... Well, I do plan to write it some time after I'm done with my Sex Pollen fic, so I don't want to spoil too much. I'll put some of the premise under the cut.
The main tropes I'm tackling here is the Coffee Shop AU and the College AU. Nico in this story is just sort of living that life of part-time barista and college student when Percy comes into his life. He talks to him about mythology, monsters and heroes, and Nico is instantly charmed, thinking he's a Lit or anthropology student pitching a book or his thesis.
Then one night, a monster attacks Nico, and Percy protects him. The next day, Percy acts as if nothing happened, and Nico must decide which one is the "Real World" and whether Percy's talks of the dark son of Hades that helped the hero in his world-saving quests are his story, or just wishful thinking.
So I just kinda left this here and then didn't check tumblr for a few days. 🙃
So... yeah. There's a Narnia Manga. They started with The Magicians Nephew, and I think both it and The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe are both complete. The Horse and His Boy is currently being released in Japan. From what I've heard, it's a pretty faithful adaptation (be afraid Netflix, the Narnia fans are drooling over here).
It's up on Manga Dex right now with a fan translation (MN is all there, and they are currently translating TLTWATW). Apparently, we won't be seeing official translation in physical copies for a bit because of licensing... Narnia is public domain in Japan, but not here. I need an official release because I want it on my shelves. And I'm gonna need an anime. Pretty please. Whoever is in charge of the Lewis estate... please back this instead of the awful butchering that the American studios are attempting! We don't want rock and roll Narnia! We want beautiful, true to source material, manga/anime Narnia!
On a daring quest to save a life, two friends are hurled into another world, where an evil sorceress seeks to enslave them. But then the lio
Four siblings are evacuated from wartime London to an old mansion in the countryside. While exploring the mansion, the youngest sibling, Luc
Shasta, a young boy, was raised as the son of a fisherman, but he lived an oppressive life every day. One day, he met Bree, a talking horse,
Just a small, cute scene I thought up, nothing special.
Nico heard the camera shutter sound and looked up from his salad.
Percy had his new phone out, pointing it at their bistecca alla fiorentina.
"What on Earth are you doing?" Nico asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you... photographing the food?"
Now, Nico would be the first to admit he was probably even more technologically illiterate than your average demigod, but the meaning behind Percy's actions eluded him.
"Uh-huh," Percy said as he fixed his angle a bit and took another picture. "I don't really get it either, but Rachel says it's a thing."
"... Why?"
"It's trendy, apparently," Percy explained, shrugging. "You take a picture of what you're about to eat and you post it."
It was a really stupid trend, in Nico's opinion. What even was the point? It's not like people could guess the most important things, its taste, its smell, from a dish's photo.
But it probably was also a mortal teen experience. Something Percy really wanted to have. There was a reason he had been one of the early adopters of the monster-proof cell phones, after all.
"Is it fun?" he finally asked, observing Percy carefully.
"...Yeah, maybe," he answered, looking satisfied at the screen. "I liked finding the right angle to make it look best and all."
Having finished his photography project, Percy carved a piece of the steak and placed it on his plate, the juices coming out as he did so.
"Then I should give it a try," Nico said, pulling out his phone and taking a quick, candid shot of Percy in the middle of eating.
"Oh, you're supposed to take the pic of your meal before you eat it, Nico," he said, wincing. "Sorry I already took a piece."
Nico observed the photo of Percy on his screen, his green eyes half-lidded and his mouth open. He smiled.
"It's okay, Percy," he told him. "The meal I plan to eat is still untouched."
Percy raised an eyebrow, confused, but Nico just nodded and put his phone away, taking a piece of the bistecca for himself.
