Experiment time! I understand that because I’m a blog who preaches Percy’s intelligence, this probably won’t reach the people on the other side. But I want to see what happens anyway.
Is Percy Jackson smart?
Yes! He’s very intelligent, and in several different ways.
He’s definitely street smart, but nothing special in other areas of intelligence
He’s average. Not necessarily smart, but not stupid either.
He’s definitely not the brightest, but he makes up for it with power and heart.
I noticed that there are some people on internet who don't like Percy in the TV Show because he is smart....🤔
I don't even know what to say to this....
At some point I understand that he is new to the demigod world, but...I prefer him smart like he always was, even in the books....than a pretty little girl making fun of him because he has a seaweed brain, word that is related to a person who can't think for himself and just follows what other people say.
I even made a post with the definition of what Seaweed means.
You know how everyone thinks Percy is lowkey dumb and oblivious? But then they see Percy fighting a monster/planning an ambush that is so sneaky and just all around effective that everyone goes oh -
I was thinking about Percy Jackson the other day, and how he was in Pre-Algebra in 6th grade. I was in Pre-Algebra back in 6th grade and it’s almost the most advanced course you can take... So is Percy actually very smart but he’s downplaying it and trying to look dumb? Maybe he’s doing it because he realizes that he’s very powerful and doesn’t want to scare anyone by showing that he has brains alongside brawn. Who knows?
He knew his mom said he had to be careful, and he didn’t think she wanted him to use it much, but he had to! He was a waterbender!
It’s just like Katara, having to hide her bending to protect herself and her home. He could do the same, but he would also train.
After all, unlike Katara, he had easy access to a master. Katara herself.
He may have maybe kinda snuck money from Gabe.
But he’d been careful! He’d only taken a few bills, a little at a time, snuck a few from his gambling buddies too. He was smart, like Katara was with her gambling in that episode with Toph.
You’ve gotta be smart and distract them. He’d bring them beers and food, then sneak a few bills when they weren’t looking.
In the end he got enough money to buy the complete Avatar: The Last Airbender video set. And one of the neighbors gave him their old video player, a small one, they got a better one and didn’t need it anymore.
Now he had his teacher, which meant he could learn how to bend better.
First thing he had to do was take notes, that’s what all the teachers said.
He would figure out what he could do, everything according to Katara, then work on doing it.
Water was his new favorite drink, easy to carefully practice moving the water in the cup.
Watching the show he figured out all the little things to do, small bits of waterbending he could practice.
Lift the water, manipulate it, spin it, make shapes, see how far he can push it. He practiced freezing the water like Katara could, making ice cubes. He started to practice changing the ice cubes shapes.
He frowned watching the videos, they have to be really quick to do some of it, maybe he should practice running?
And he needs to learn how to pull water out of the air and plants like Katara learned from the creepy old lady who forced her to learn blood bending.
He wanted to learn blood bending, he knows it’s dangerous, but if he uses it like Katara, for the bad people, then it should be fine.
Of course, in the middle of all his interesting research and learning and practicing, he had to finish the summer assignments, and then… He was gonna have school again soon.
++++++++++++++++++++
The teachers just didn’t appreciate his smarts. He knows he’s smart, he’s learning from Katara really well!
He could make the water form any shape he wants now, and when he showers he practices controlling the moving water. He’s doing good!
School was just boring! How was he supposed to pay attention to geography? He could be practicing making a water whip instead!
He scowled, it’s not his fault that the words didn’t work, he couldn’t read it when it was gibberish. He kicked a rock on the playground, he hates school.
Ugh, Katara was smart though, she was amazing and smart, he wanted to be smart! He was trying. He swallowed back the tears, ignoring the burning in his eyes.
He was trying so hard.
++++++++++++++++++++
Percy huffed, glaring at the paper in front of him.
He had to really work hard to not let the numbers float around and mix everything up. Why did they have to be so close together? He carefully printed the work, and the answer in careful bold writing.
He was going to be an amazing waterbender, and to really be amazing he had to be smart too. Mom said that waterbender’s all work hard in school, and in the northern water tribe that seems true. It’s just annoying, he bet they didn’t have dyslexia like him, and they got to do stuff with their hands! That’s so much easier!
He turned in his test then sat back down to wait for the bell to ring.
He was determined to get at least a B in every subject this year. He would!
+++++++++++++++++++
Practicing his waterbending was hard. His mom always got so worried when she saw him practicing, but there was only so much he could do hiding in his room with a glass of water, or in the shower. He needed more space, a body of water where he could actually work at his bending.
He could do the little water whip, he could control the shape of the water, turn it to ice and back, coat his hands in it, pull little bits out of the air, dry himself off with a flick of his wrist, and stop the shower water in mid-air.
But he wanted to practice the big things!
He wanted to be able to make the octopus! Or make a big wave! Or those spirals of water, or the whips that cover her arms, or the shield, or stop the rain… There was so much he wanted to do, and he couldn’t cause he had to keep it hidden.
He didn’t like it, but he didn’t want to upset his mom.
He would just have to find someplace that no one would notice him waterbending.
The pool? He could make it look like splashes there, or he could try to go the rivers, but they’re dirty… Well, he could go to them and practice waterbending to clean them?
There’s an idea!
Oh, and he should totally keep a water-bottle with him at all times. Just in case of an emergency.
++++++++++++
Cleaning the river was going strangely.
He swears he saw two weird figures in the water. One had wolfish features and a seal-like body. It was kinda scary. Especially his glowing green eyes. The other wore rags and seaweed with a big beard. His appearance wasn’t as scary, but his eyes were angrier.
Neither of the two guys spoke to Percy mind you, and he’d only caught glimpses of them. But they kept reappearing,
He just focused on cleaning the water one day of bending practice at a time.
+++++++++++
Percy learned that the fish could talk. Or maybe he could just understand him?
There wasn’t much in the rivers, not many fish or other animals. But there were some. And the one’s there talked to each other, and when he commented on one of their conversations, they started talking to him.
He learned a lot about what happened nearby.
They also made him more determined to clean the river, the fish were thankful.
+++++++++++
It only took Percy three weeks to get the octopus technique down… roughly. It wasn’t perfect, but he was getting it.
The wave tricks were harder, more water to manipulate.
But at least he was getting better at… fine control?
That’s what that wolf-seal guy had mumbled before disappearing again.
Percy guesses that’s good, so he tried to practice it more.
Cleaning the river was hard though. He was starting to try to lift the water and filter all the bad stuff out onto the shore.
He didn’t quite get it to work right, too much bad stuff was going back into the river, but he was slowly figuring it out.
The more he worked, the easier it seemed to be too!
Like how Katara went from a little bit of rain stopping to making a huge dome!
He could do this!
Plus, he thinks that the weird scary guys in the water were happy, they didn’t glare so much anymore.
++++++++++++
Percy was only able to go to the rivers so much because mom worked late.
He tended to find bits of money in the trash and told Gabe he was working to ‘earn his keep’. It made Gabe happy, and he would give little bits of the money to Gabe. So Gabe didn’t tell mom.
He felt bad for lying, but he needed to get better! Waterbending was a part of him!
He wanted to do his best, to do as good as Katara.
++++++++++++++
It was getting colder now. Winter was coming.
Percy was determined to not be bothered by it. Katara wasn’t, she could control the ice and snow.
Though she did wear a jacket…
Percy used the money he found in the river (after cleaning it with his super cool waterbender powers) to buy a waterproof warm jacket.
There, that fixes that problem.
++++++++++++++
There was a new figure in the river.
It didn’t approach him, but also didn’t disappear when he looked at it, not like the scary ones.
This one was green. As in, his skin was green. His hair was black. He looked a lot neater than the scary ones, like clean neater. With pearls and cool armor. And you know, two fish tails. He was a mermaid, or merman, Percy guessed, but with two tails.
Did all mermaids have two tails and humans just got it wrong? Percy would have to ask Elli the Eel (he still couldn’t believe that was actually the Eel’s name).
But the fancy merman stayed while Percy was there, too far out for Percy to approach (he hadn’t managed to figure how to move on water like in avatar, his ice wasn’t thick enough yet). Percy decided to ignore him for now, maybe he wouldn’t come back?
Percy cleaned the river more, he also managed to get the rising wave trick (he’d named it himself!) down at last. He was happy.
+++++++++++++++
The merman came back.
It was about a good three months of irregular appearances (he was learning big words! He’d got an audio tape of some cool stories to listen too while cleaning the river. Audio tapes were easier then reading.) from the merman before he was approached.
It was also February, and very much cold now.
He’d managed to get his ice float down now, it was thick enough to sit on, and he was starting to get good at maneuvering it. Hopefully he’d still be able to make it when it was warm.
The merman approached him when he was trying to pull up a partly buried piece of trash.
Percy’s little ice float dipped suddenly.
“What are you doing?”
Percy blinked, turning to the voice, and the cause of the dip.
The merman had come up to him, was leaning on the ice float.
“Um, I’m trying to clean the river?”
The merman studied him.
“Why?”
Percy frowned, thinking.
“I just wanted to practice waterbending, but the river’s really dirty and it’s not nice so… I just thought… I just thought I’d try to clean it?”
The merman studied him. Percy felt like he was being judged.
“Waterbending?”
Percy faltered, he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about it. But this is a merman, that’s not the same is it? Of course, he probably just calls it something different. This wouldn’t be disobeying mom, right?
“You know, controlling the water… It’s called waterbending in the…” Well now he felt like it was childish but, “In the TV show avatar. And it’s basically what I do so…”
The merman hummed, “In the winter?”
“Well, it’s not gonna get cleaner just because the weather is colder. If I want to clean it then I’ll have to work even when it’s cold!”
The merman hummed again, “What’s your name?”
Percy shifted on his ice floe, “Percy, Percy Jackson.”
The merman nodded.
“What’s yours?”
He blinked, studying Percy again.
“…Triton.”
Percy smiled brilliantly, “Nice to meet you Triton!”
Chapter One || Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || AO3
The event was really cool.
Percy stuck with Triton as he was told to. Listening to them talk and trade carefully worded insults? Though they seemed teasing enough.
He managed to keep his cool, and when they talked to him he responded with polite insults of his own.
He wasn’t as good at it as a lot of them, but he decided he’d get better at it.
Triton had lectured him before about his anger getting the best of him, in the sea hiding your intent was too important to let your anger get the best of you. Unless of course you’re powerful enough to get away with it.
Spoiler: Percy was not.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
The food was yummy, he really liked it.
There were all kinds of fish, he thinks its like sushi, and some strange seaweed dishes. Triton ate everything first, showing him how to hold the utensils when used, and how to eat it by hand when they weren’t.
There weren’t any drinks, but that made sense. They were underwater after all.
Percy hid a grin as he watched Triton tear apart one of the guests that had been too blatantly rude to Percy. Of course, Triton was careful about it, sounding perfectly polite while he insulted the mers everything. From the way his tail curled to the tacky hair pieces in his hair. Nothing escaped Triton’s insults.
Percy thought it was hilarious.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Interacting with the other mers was a fun experience, he got to learn a lot about how the manners worked through actual talking. And he learned that insulting a mers tail gets you a lot of hate.
Only one mer had a tail anywhere near as flowy as Percy’s too.
She was nice, with pale green skin and flowy red hair. She showed off some of her magic, twisting the water around her into a mini current that spun little fishies in a circle around her.
Percy watched delighted, until one of the mer asked him to show his magic.
Triton gave him a nod though so he guessed he could.
He swallowed and considered for a moment, maybe….
He raised his hands, then twisted them and spread them apart, the temperature dropping between his hands until he had a block of ice. He sliced his hands down through the water and willed the ice to shift how he wanted it to.
A moment later and the ice was shaped like a fish.
He focused again. This was a trick he’d played dozens of times on a smaller scale in his glasses of water.
It was hard with a small fish, but a big one was even harder.
He carefully swiped one hand, the tail shifted, moving slowly side to side.
After a long moment the fish started ‘moving’ in the water. The tails and fins moving pretty closely in sync as he willed the water around the ice to guide it.
The other mers murmured to each other.
“That’s a difficult bit of magic there.”
Percy glanced at the speaker, a mermaid with Blue hair and deep green skin. Her tail was sleeker than Tritons, she didn’t have much magic it seemed. But she would probably be very dangerous and fast.
“Oh, I suppose so, I do it for fun when I’m bored in class.”
“What!?” Cried a merman in surprise.
Triton was smirking behind them.
“That’s rather impressive, who was your teacher? Surely you must have a skilled Thermomancer as a teacher to have such skills.”
Percy kept a straight face even as he wondered over the word the mer used, Thermomancer? What was that?
“My teachers name is Katara, she’s very skilled in water and ice.”
He couldn’t risk using the term Thermomancer until he knew what it meant.
The mer hummed, “I haven’t heard of her.”
“She likes her privacy, but she’s fairly well known where I come from.”
He’s not lying, loads know who she is.
They nodded, “What part of-“
“Ah,” Triton interrupted, quickly switching the subject to one of the fishes nearby, apparently it wasn’t common around here.
After that the event seemed to wind down. Percy still wasn’t sure what it was about in the first place, but whatever.
Triton led him back towards the rivers, using his magic to speed it up.
Percy was reluctant to return. He liked being here. He liked being able to use his magic freely without anyone judging him for it. He liked being in the sea.
But he’s only half of the sea. His other half is from the land, and he has to go home. He can’t leave his mom.
So, home he went.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
The rest of the summer passed in a haze of studying the books Triton shoved into his hands and cleaning the river.
The solstice was a brief respite, he gave Triton a carefully formed Ice box.
As in, a box made of ice. He’d very carefully formed the runes on it that should keep it from melting… hopefully.
Triton seemed to think it was good at least. Percy had also put two more sand dollars into it, they were looking good now!
Triton got him a hair piece, it was made of twisted coral and some small pearls.
Percy loved it, it kept his hair out of his face.
Maybe he should invest in a haircut?
But then he wouldn’t be able to use the hairpin… he’d leave his hair long.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy’s birthday was the only other break in the summer, as usual he went down to the river to see Triton. He was turning eleven now! He was almost a teenager. That was a big deal you know.
Triton gave him a bag.
You wouldn’t think that was cool, except this was a super cool bag. It was a waterbag, like what Katara had.
Apparently, it’s called a waterskin, but that wasn’t important.
The important thing is that this one is linked to the sea! As long as he has the bag he’ll never run out of water!
It was amazing.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
School starting again was the opposite of fun.
The teachers were rude, the students were judgy, and he was ninety percent sure the classrooms pet hamster was not a hamster.
He just hoped it didn’t try to kill him.
But it was really bugging his senses.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
He talked to Triton about the feeling, Triton was pleased.
He said Percy was sensing magic intent most likely. The hamster was probably not a hamster, but also not willingly in that form.
Percy had gotten very good at making the sand dollars, they even were starting to slowly draw energy to get stronger over time instead of just staying in statis, or worse the energy fading.
His skills with purification could go to more than water, experts at purification were able to remove the worst of curses.
Percy had read that. Purification and siren’s song were the two sea magics he had the most interest in learning more about. But he didn’t realize it would give him a sense for curses around him.
That was cool, and probably helpful.
Triton got him books on it.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Okay so Percy had zero idea how to change the hamster back to… whatever it was before.
On the other hand, he was doing good in class currently.
Triton had gotten him to the current math level, and now Percy could actually work.
English was still horrible, and geography for land stuff sucked.
Why couldn’t they quiz him on sea geography? He had that down!
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy baked food for Triton for the fall equinox, lots of cakes and cookies.
All blue of course.
Triton shared with him.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy decided something just before the solstice.
He really didn’t like his English teacher at all.
He kept saying Percy was doing stuff he wasn’t! He worked really hard on the English homework and rushed to get to class extra early! He swears the teacher gave him a detention for breathing the other day.
Triton suggested he use his training in ‘princely acting’ to try and out do them.
Percy was pretty sure Triton just wanted an excuse to make him practice it more.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy got Triton a stone horse for the Solstice.
He actually found this one instead of making it, but he added some sea runes for protection and safety. He wasn’t sure if it would do much, but maybe it would make Triton’s room a little bit more comfortable.
Triton gifted him with clothes. And while that might sound boring, Percy loved them.
They were clothes in the style of the sea clothes!
Worn by the sea beings that could go on land they were styled the same as the clothes underwater.
Percy had six sets now.
Flowy pants that were super comfortable, made from some kind of silk. Soft shirts in really cool designs that he very much enjoyed, with fun folds and clasps that gave him stuff to fiddle with. They seemed to have a shimmer of scales in them. Triton assured him that it was just to strengthen them.
There were different patterns, and the pants came in black and blue, with one deep red. The shirts had all kinds of colors, a deep purple, a bright red, two blues of different shades, a green, and a black. The buttons were all pearl.
They were probably crazy expensive and definitely the nicest things he owned, they looked so nice and were so soft.
Percy knew he’d treasure them for as long as he could wear them.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy worked slowly through the rest of the school year.
He had a lot of detentions, but he took Triton’s advice and put on what he’s taken to calling his princely face.
As perfectly mannered as he could be, with careful insults in his words. He was getting better at them and wearing the nice clothes sometimes certainly didn’t hurt.
He loved those clothes, nothing seemed to damage them.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
He searched high and low for a good gift for the spring equinox. In the end he settled on some cool flowers. He worked carefully with the ice, it was super delicate, frosting it just so, making sure it didn’t wilt.
But in the end, he had a sunflower preserved in a ball of ice.
Just ignore his pile of fails.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Triton seemed delighted. Apparently, he’d never really gotten to see sunflowers before. He’d seen pictures and seen them once a long time again when Persephone had summoned some near the beach, but otherwise sunflowers weren’t really around his realm.
Well, now he could have his own sunflower.
In turn Triton gave him a small orb, he tapped the top an the orb lit up. Percy stared in awe at the stars surrounding him.
“You’ll need to learn the constellations too.”
Percy sighed, of course he did.
He loved the present though.
When the stars turned off, the inside of the orb shone.
It was like a snow globe but with stars!
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy got expelled… surprise.
The English teacher finally got him kicked out, despite all he did to fight it.
It probably didn’t help that he’d been the last one around the pet guinea pig, the pet hamster that is now missing… because Percy tried to turn it back human and was now stuck with a pet fish.
At least he could understand it now.
Apparently, Percy should avoid spa’s at all costs.
Percy decided he needed to learn more about purification magic.
He didn’t even know he could do that, and he doubted he could do it again.
Triton agreed to get him more books.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Mysteriously the school flooded, Percy was baffled, it didn’t have a plumbing problem.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Triton was in a good mood.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Summer was in full spring, and he actually had fun. Triton took him to events more often and Percy was starting to make some sorta friends.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
But time passed, and the solstice arrived.
Triton got him more clothes, a different style. Apparently from a different area of the sea.
The old ones still fit, but it was nice to have some variety.
These ones were more drappy, less clasps and stuff. He liked them, he felt like he could spin and look dramatic. Almost like he has wings!
Triton also got him an instrument called an ocarina. It was shaped like a seashell and was a pretty blue. He got Percy some books to learn from and told him it was the first step in learning Siren’s Song magic.
Percy was determined to master it.
Percy made him a geode snow globe. He’d found the stone totally by accident, but it was the same green as Triton’s tail! It sparkled a lot, he thought Triton might like it (to show off, he was horribly vain about his tail Percy had noticed). He worked hard to make the snow globe, but with a little bit of glitter instead of snow stuff.
It sparkled a lot, Triton smiled and thanked Percy.
Percy was glad that he could make Triton happy.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy decided to dye his hair.
In hindsight perhaps he should’ve informed his mom first.
But he felt so plain compared to the other merfolk at the events he went to! All of them had such colorful hair! Triton’s hair was even a really dark blue, so dark you could mistake it for black.
That’s what Percy tried to do…
That didn’t quite work.
His hair was a cobalt blue, very clearly blue.
He’d gotten the dye from Samoa (a mermaid with a really pretty white tail that was kinda flowy and pale hair. Pale everything really, he thinks she’s albino or something, but it would be rude to ask.)
Triton thought it was hilarious, hair was all kinds of color under the sea, so it was totally fine for Percy to dye his hair.
His mom did not think it was hilarious…
He was grounded for a week, and she tried using dye remover… It didn’t work.
Triton found that even funnier.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy’s twelfth birthday was soon after, Triton got him a super cool bag!
Its enchanted so that other’s can’t take his stuff out of it, and it keeps the inside untouched by anything that happens on the outside. So if the bag gets drenched in water the insides won’t be affected, same if it gets set on fire.
Triton was kind enough to demonstrate.
Percy thought it was brilliant and would definitely help with the bullies.
Percy was so happy to have a friend like Triton.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy was not happy.
His mom had put him in a private school. Which wasn’t horrible, he’d been to two before.
What was horrible was the fact that his school was a boarding school.
He wouldn’t be able to visit Triton or go to the river or gossip with the fish or practice his waterbending (no matter what Triton said or the fact that it’s apparently called Thermomancy he would always call it waterbending).
He wasn’t happy at all, though at least Triton was right about them still being able to talk via iris messaging.
He still wasn’t happy.
He reluctantly said goodbye to his many fish friends, Triton took him down to say goodbye to the sorta friends he’d made amongst the merfolk. He told them his teacher had moved to another area for awhile and it would be a few months before he could visit.
They understood.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy stared up at the gates, reluctance filling him.
He fiddled with his bracelet, curling his fingers around the sparkling stone that glittered on it.
He could do this. He’s Percy Jackson, son of Oceanus (you know, probably), he’s going to be a master of purification and help clean the seas of all the pollution. He was Triton’s friend.
He could do this.
He stepped through the gates of Yancy Academy to begin the next school year.
