Power trio Nico,Percy and Hazel
Their stand-alone relathionships are very poignant on their owns while being complimentary to eachother:Nico and Percy shared a sibling bond going unnecessarily complicated by narrative forces keeping them from becoming as close as they could've been,Nico and Hazel got to be closer than he was to Percy but suffered from their own hurdles partially sprung on by Bianca's death too and Percy and Hazel instantly clicked thanks to their commonalities and distinctions causing them to fit perfectly together at first try rather than having to work towards it and as opposed to clashing for the same reasons like they did with Nico.Thus,a trinity consisting of them would've been a pretty good addition to their developmental arcs and completed them(both meanings on both)full circle
Nico's so important to Percy even a deity couldn't make them forget him-they explicitly felt subconscious memories of him in Son!-and the only animal not scared of Hazel is horses and she disliked the sea while Percy was the first person to not define Hazel by her godly parentage and helped her move forward from what she wished would stop holding her back and unbury what she'd been taught to dig down until nobody else could find it 'for everyone's own good'.Poetic Cinema™️
Nico genuinely liked Percy a lot as a person and his unrequited crush and internalized homophobia was textually their only obstacle to achieving a healthy and steady friendship and his reasoning for why he even had it was idealizing them as a man they weren't and never would be.Percy also carries heavily present evidence they're transfeminine and just haven't realized it yet so this adds to that and is solid proof they're platonic queer soulmates doomed by a cisheteronormative story and Percy understood Nico better than anyone else even when they were annoyed at or mad at him,let him be the hurt and trying to protect himself child he was and appreciated him for who he is even with his and their interpersonal issues and not despite them
Hazel's black but didn't get to have any positive connections to other black characters-Marie's the only other canon black rep she has a dynamic with and she was depicted horribly on purpose(dgmw though,i 100% believe in Good Mom Marie and aknowledging her nuance a bajillionistic percent more than the books did so here that applies rather than discarting her!)and Percy was popularly death of author'd as black by black Pjo fans beginning in the 2010s and their interactions and how their connection was written read like solidarity between a young black teen and an older black teen.Her description of them was they 'had the good looks of a roman god',her dad is a roman god and they treat eachother in a mixing of older sibling figure/younger sibling figure and adoptive parent/adoptive kid.The subliminal messaging is real and true
That last point also applies to Percy directly admitting they treat Nico like Sally treats them in their Ttc narration and Nico always wanting sisters but never brothers,similar to how he misunderstood what Percy actually meant to and for him
Also!There's an unfortunate trope for black female characters where they only have white siblings so since Nico makes sense as black,specifically somali-italian Di Angelos as there was a high population of multigenerational solamis in Italy back in the timeframe he was born in,that headcanon removes it along with blessing us with the objectively based concept of a black Nico di Angelo,a Hazel Levesque who isn't kicked out of protagonist status(more ideas on that coming up!)and a black Percy Jackson who's not a classy class traitor or a servant to the white men responsible for their trauma yet get framed as their saviours.And they're all close to Charles Beckendorf in an honorary family way too ofc,that's PERCY'S older brother so Nico and Hazel address him as Unc on first meeting and he joins their adventures sometimes when he's not too busy on his own business🙂↕️
Nico and Percy spending the Botl-Tlo interlude year bonding as they deserved to and yearnmaxxed over → Nico finally realizes and accepts Hades is abusive to him so Sally officially adopts him as Percy did unofficially beforehand → Hazel still gets ressurected but because Persephone ordered Nico to secure a chthonic half-blood on the The Second Great Prophecy lineup and Percy tags along with permission for once on the logic Persephone's got a canon soft spot for them → Sally takes in Hazel too so she'll have a safe adult mortal guardian and her biobrother is her son anyway so there was no reason to leave her behind → Literal urban fantasy siblings shenanigans commence
Alsoooooo Percy parallels Persephone!Perse name,paragoning opposite ends of the versality of their domains,pet hellhound owners and dumbasses more than old enough to know better insisting they actually wanted the men they didn't consent to being with constantly as a fundamental element of their actual stories.Hence,Persephone is a valid Girl!Percy name afterall💚🩵Including she dosen't need to cis to be a woman😁
Nico said 'Let's turn this tide!' while smiling cockily and knew the exact joke Percy would do if they were eating farturas with him in Boo i.e they rubbed off on him and he associates eating pastries with spending quality time with them(referring to them inviting him inside their apartment bedroom so he could have some of their blue birthday cake in Botl's cliffhanger)
Hazel attended a catholic school where she got her mouth washed out with soap by the nuns for swearing at them and Percy had a scandalized parent moment at mishearing her 'schist' remarks as if they didn't get kicked out of six schools in the first six years of their academic career
She also refused to even consider Percy might turn evil even after witnessing them at their most brutal on the battlefield and find their presence and apperance comforting and oozing safety and protection(and Percy thinks Hazel's beautiful,cute and delicate-looking!That gets forgotten and left out way too damn much,especially compared to all the raving y'all do of them aknowledging men exist sometimes over 'representation' y'all weren't offered and that's blatantly ooc)
Percy's punk,Nico's goth with punk elements and Hazel has a mix of punk and goth motifs.Percy would totally mentor them with Thalia's help since she's more knowledgeable about goth-punk subculture(s) and their overlaps and motivate Percy to take their first actual steps onward toward joining the alternative scene and lifestyle.And don't tell Jason but Thalia's their favorite non-sibling cousin no competition🙂↕️He'd find it understandable and respect their choice if he found out though
Their name is 'Dead Sea Siblings'.One's greek,another's greek-italian and another another's roman,the Dead Sea is located in the Mediterranean and Percy's father is Poseidon while Nico and Hazel's father is Hades/Pluto i.e the sea god and the god of the dead!Update:Apperantly,historians theorize Hades and Poseidon might've even been the same deity before separation into different ones-so they literally ARE siblings in every way but biological🫶🏼
Nico might as well be a ghost but is actually an angel and Hazel might as be an angel but is actually a ghost and Nico used to always feel like he was permanently dying over and over again every day and Hazel wasn't permitted peace after her death for a lifetime's worth of passed time she felt frozen in and her brother was in the Lotus Hotel alongside her yet unaware eachother even existed until death was lifted off them.They're the same and they couldn't be less different.They wouldn't want anything to change from him to her and her to him except if it came with better and longer promised tomorrows
Hazel negative feelings on her powers primarily focused on her chrimatakinesis and pearls are a type of gem formed in the ocean so they're one of the few unaffected by her curse as her's lays entirely within ones formed underground and Percy'd probably compare her to them at least a few times if they weren't dropped post-Son.Others saw Hazel as a cursed stone,Percy sees her as the world's most precious pearl.She lost almost everything and they remembered almost nothing when they met but they'd do practically anything for her and she's practically the only person who didn't doubt their intentions and vice versa.Yes they're both quippy and unnerving mega powerful horse girls(and definitely eat unicorn flavor foods all the time together)but there's so much more to them than that and they should be explored way more deeply
Percy's scared of drowning but would cross the entire sea for Nico in a heartbeat without him even needing to ask and Nico's feelings of invisibility around them were purely in his head and he would've picked up on that if he wasn't obsessed with convincing himself they couldn't possibly not hate him like he tried so hard to hate them.Percy willingly followed Nico to the Underworld and their anger at his percieved betrayal came from a place of genuine hurt and Nico walked through literal hell(Tartarus)at the chance to help Percy(and everyone else but he put an emphasis on them)
And Nico and Hazel's life courses defied themselves hard enough they still managed to unite with Percy despite everything that should've and desperately tried to keep and prevent them from even existing together
So basically,Nico,Percy and Hazel/Dead Sea Siblings=Devotion so indomitable not even their own canon could handle it
And it couldn't handle Hazel period.The saga that cared for her would've had her as the collective community baby sister of the other main/major characters,only given her a love interest if it was a girl her age and even then it'd be a years long slowburn,done Marie as an actual creole woman of her era and at worst framed her as a mother trying her best with too much on her plate,played her(Hazel's)relevance to the plot of Hoo where it actually applied and not ignored her blackness when it mattered most and in the little details and only really bringing it in strongly when she was experiencing antiblackness/misogynoir,granted her a post-Hoo solo book titled 'Hazel-Blood' for the Right There pun and she'd the catalyst for the indescribably highly needed revolution third series.Specifically Zeus trying to smite her for dissing and clocking the system EXTREMELY accurately during a mandated 'visit'/gathering of the heroes of the two latest wars and The Olympians a year after Boo and Percy's brutality didn't control itself on a third strike as they kill him both to save her and in indignation at him for thinking he could put his hands on her
And so happens The First Last War,finally bringing the entire greco-roman mythos world a society they'd built for themselves and not living torturously and dying needlessly under their 'superiors'.Four books,four timeline years,return of the iconic chapter titles style,the third installment is Nico and Hazel centered,and,of course,the name of the set itself is Tales of Dead Seas
