#perseusjackson

Thanks for launching me back into 2015, Logan. *salutes*

OMG NO-ONE EVER ASKS ME FOR NESSIAN STUFF THANK YOU. i love moriel and elucien i doooo but it’s exciting to shake things up, I hope you enjoy these OKAY LET’S GO. 

5. Who usually has nightmares?

Oooooh right off the mark with the angst/hurt/comfort. Hmm. I think Nesta’s are possibly more frequent? And they usually don’t wake her up, Cassian has to watch her thrashing in her sleep for a little while before he manages to rouse her. And if they do wake her up she never screams or bolts out of bed or really shows any sign of it outwardly? It’s all very very contained and kept within herself?

 But sometimes Cassian wakes up and she’s not there and he knows exactly what’s happened. He takes the blanket off of the bed and pads into the bathroom where he inevitably finds her curled up on the cold stone floor trying to calm herself down. He sits down beside her and wraps the blanket around her shoulders then he sits a little apart from her. He doesn’t touch her or speak or do anything to disturb her peace until she shuffles closer to him and puts her head on his shoulder. Then he wraps his wing around her and tucks her in close. 

Sometimes she cries. Sometimes she talks to him about it. Sometimes she asks him to talk to her. Sometimes she just sits in silence and lets him hold her and be with her and that helps. Cassian lets her dictate everything, he doesn’t try and push her into talking or touching him or any of it. He just sits and is there for her. When she’s ready she takes his hand and leads him back into the bedroom and they curl up to sleep together. Some nights she can’t face that and instead she takes his hand and leads him out onto the balcony. Then he scoops her up into his arms and they fly for a while until she falls asleep against him. 

Cassian’s nightmares are much less frequent but they’re far more violent and intense. Sometimes it’s his wings being shredded all over again. Sometimes it’s worse and it’s him being too slow, or not acting at all, and instead he’s watching Azriel die right in front of him while he does nothing. Sometimes it’s people he’s slaughtered on the battlefield - in some cases hundreds of years ago - that return to haunt him. But no matter what it is he lives every one of them. He feels every bit of them all over again as though he was there. 

Nesta hates them. She hates what they do to him, how sick they can make him, how much they hurt him and how that pain is one that she can’t easily take away. When he wakes up it usually takes him a moment to realise where he is and sometimes he tries to get away from Nesta when she tries to comfort him, still trapped in the dream. The times he does that ruin her even though she knows it’s not rational. But she helps him a lot. She’s very, very calm and very grounded, her voice is cool and soft and low and it helps to anchor him. 

She rubs his back and holds him and reminds him that he’s okay, he’s safe now, he’s here with her, those things are all in the past. They can’t hurt him anymore. She won’t let them. She says this so fiercely that it never fails to draw a little smile out of him and then he’s kissing her forehead and she’s pressing their brows together and he’s okay again. 

Some nights he needs to just get away. and get away now. That used to destroy her. When he would just lurch away from the bed with his head in his hands and launch himself into the air and away from his pain, from his past, from his memories...but also from her. She understands him more the longer they’re together and a lot of the time he takes her with him but...She knows when he needs space and she gives it to him. She makes sure she’s waiting for him when he comes home and she has a glass of water and a blanket ready for him and there’s a fire burning in the hearth so that he never has to come back to darkness. 

once he crawls back into bed with her she wraps her arms around him and cuddles him so tightly and doesn’t let him go. She watches over him all night and only once he’s been asleep peacefully for a long time does she let herself fall asleep again too. 

I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS ABOUT NIGHTMARES I’M SORRY. 

11. Who likes horror movies/ Who likes romance movies?

Hmm...I kind of want to be Difficult and say that...neither of them really like either??? Nesta doesn’t like horror movies because...they’re predictable and dull for the most part and she doesn’t have any time for them. Cass doesn’t much like them because they make him jump. And then he has to spend a month insisting that it did not make me jump, Nes, you’re imagining things. Nesta just -_- over romance movies and Cass is too busy teasing her for her repeated huffing and eye rolling to actually watch the thing. 

Nesta is a total Nerd I think she likes sci-fi things and fantasy things but her favourites are documentaries. She’ll just curl up in one of Cassian’s oversized sweaters and sit and stare at them for hours and hours and hours. Cassian likes them too and they sit and snuggle and watch them together. Right i have no idea why like there is no justification to this but I can see Cass having a guilty pleasure thing for like old westerns as well as old black and white movies? He doesn’t let this known to many people and he doesn’t indulge in them very often but..he is fond. 

19. Who loves to call the other one cute names?

Ahem, “Nesta ‘Sweetheart’ Archeron” - Courtesy of Captain Pet Name himself. Cassian. The answer is Cassian. (I feel like if Nesta is calling you a ‘cute’ name...you have fucked up. Like big time. And you’re probably in public with her. and she needs a way to alert you to the fact that you have fucked up big time and that your death is fast approaching but in a way that is socially acceptable? And so she just like, ‘that’s nice, dear’ and Cassian just WELL I have somewhere very important to be. the other side of the country. actually no, no another country entirely, I have to put an ocean between myself and what’s coming to me) 

24. Who is the talker/ Who is the listener?

Oooooh interesting. I actually think this is pretty mutual when it comes to important stuff? If one of them has something they need to tell the other then they take on the appropriate role? Cassian is actually a really good listener like he’s a great person to tell your problems to he will just absorb them all and listen so intently and you know that he cares so much about whatever it is? Like he never makes a problem feel small or stupid or insignificant? If it’s important to Nesta then it’s important to him. Nesta is a very good listener too, she’s more intense than Cassian and sometimes people wonder how much she’s taking in because she doesn’t react that much? But the wheels are turning in her head and she’s already coming up with a half a dozen plans and suggestions and ideas for what to do. She just doesn’t emote as much as Cassian does when he listens? 

When it comes to just casual every day stuff though Cassian is definitely a prattler and Nesta is quieter? If they’re just doing stuff around the house Cassian will chatter away while Nesta nods absently. It always looks like she’s not actually listening to him and is absorbed in her work but...She’s taking in every word her mate says to her. 

31. Who is more affectionate?

Cassian is much more kind of ‘typically’ affectionate? In that he’s much more sort of emotionally/verbally/outwardly affectionate in that squishy loving kind of way? He gives her lots and lots of kisses and makes her beautiful breakfasts in bed and lavishes love and praise on her at all hours of the day and night and he will do anything in his power just to tease a little smile out of her (he lives for her smiles and her laughter is like the fountain of youth to him (I KNOW HE’S ALREADY IMMORTAL, SHUT IT AND ACCEPT MY CHEESY METAPHOR)) 

Nesta...It’s kind of like the talking/listening thing again? Nesta’s is..much quieter, much more reserved, much more subtle and much harder to see? It’s the way she always knows exactly what time he’s going to be home and makes sure there’s a cup of tea sitting waiting for him on the table beside his favourite armchair (even if she’s upstairs pretending that it’s not a big deal) And in the way she’ll lift his book off of him and carefully mark his page when he falls asleep reading because she knows it takes him forever to find his place again. Or the way she can see through his big smiles and false laughter if someone says something that’s upset him and how she’ll look after him afterwards - a soft touch, her hand slipping into his, a gentle squeeze, she’s there, she loves him, she understands. It’s little kisses in public that she uses to surprise him when she knows he needs them or how she’ll go out of her way to find information on this one incredibly obscure topic that’s important to him and then brush it off like it was easy. 

So I think they’re both..equally affectionate it just manifests itself in extremely different ways. But these two were made to love and be loved with every single piece of themselves. And they give and expect nothing less in their partner.

34. Who would wear “if lost return to…” t-shirt/ Who would wear “I am…” t-shirt? 

See you’d think because Nesta’s technically more serious and practical and put together that Cassian would be returned to her? But nope. Nesta gets the ‘if lost’ t-shirt and Cassian gets the ‘I am’ t-shirt because he is both the commander and the mother hen in this relationship (and Nesta has a tendency to wander - like she just vaguely starts ambling because oh look, a rare book stall...oh! they have interesting paints over there I should get some for Feyre, oh flower arrangements- wait where is Cassian? so she gets lost more and is therefore in need of returning) 

The following was posted by Rick Riordan on his blog, a long, long time ago (October 3, 2013).

A Deleted Scene from The Last Olympian

Recently on Twitter I mentioned a deleted scene from The Last Olympian, in which Percy Jackson comes across his old nemesis Nancy Bobofit, the mortal girl who bullied him in The Lightning Thief. The scene was cut from the book for the sake of keeping the narrative moving, but I’ve always liked it. This week I spoke with Publisher’s Weekly about how I decide which characters to highlight and sideline in each book. As an extension of that interview, the deleted Nancy Bobofit scene is featured below.

Percy, Thalia, Annabeth and Grover are heading to Central Park to fight the Titans when they run across a group of unconscious mortals. As you may recall, the god Morpheus put all the mortals in Manhattan to sleep before Kronos’ army attacked the city:

The lights of the city were blinking on. I guess they were on automatic timers. The streetlamps in the park glowed, making the lanes and the trees look spooky – like we needed any more spookiness.

Thalia stopped and tensed, like she was catching a scent. “I’ll be back. Need to check the Hunters on the right flank.”

Her bow appeared in her hands and she disappeared into the trees.

We stepped over bodies of sleeping New Yorkers, moving them to safety when we could. We were just coming to a stone bridge on the northern side of the park when we came across a dozen kids, all slumped next to a pretzel stand, like they’d been lined up to buy snacks.

Grover yelped. “Percy . . . look.”

He crouched next to a girl with orange hair and freckles. She reminded me a little of Clarisse, because she was a big girl, like she was built for tackle football.

And then my eyes widened. “Oh my gods. It’s . . . Nancy?”

I hadn’t seen her in four years, but I still recognized her. Nancy Bobofit, a bully who’d made my life miserable in sixth grade. Grover and I had been at Yancy Academy, and she would pick on us mercilessly. She’d been around the first day I suspected that I was a demigod.

“Who’s Nancy?” Annabeth asked.

“A girl we used to know,” Grover muttered. “Not a very nice girl.”

I looked at the other sleeping kids. Some I’d never seen, but a few looked familiar.

“This is our class from Yancy,” I said. “They must’ve been on the summer trip.”

“Yeah,” Grover said. He pointed to a lady in a flowery dress. “Here’s Mrs. Watt. She always chaperoned the summer New York trip. If we’d stayed at Yancy . . .”

He didn’t finish the thought. We both knew that was impossible. We didn’t live normal lives. We never would’ve made it through middle school without monsters destroying us or the school or both. Still, it was strange looking at my former classmates. I never went backward. Once I left a school, I always tried to leave it behind for good. Besides, the memories were usually bad. But looking at the kids who’d kept going, even stupid old Nancy Bobofit, I felt a wave of sadness wash over me.

“They’re right in the path of the battle,” Grover said, and he looked at me to see what I’d suggest.

“We have to move them,” I said. “Under the bridge, maybe. They’ll be safer.”

“After all she did to us,” Grover mused, “it kind of serves her right to be stomped by a titan army.”

“But we can’t.”

He sighed. “Yeah. You’re right. Maybe . . . draw a moustache on her, at least?”

Four years ago, it would’ve been tempting. Now, I realized that I didn’t hate Nancy anymore. I was a different person. She was a mortal in the path of danger – we were the only thing between her and destruction.

“No moustaches,” I said. “Annabeth, give me a hand?”

She was studying me carefully, trying to read my thoughts, but she didn’t say anything. She just helped me drag the school group to safety.

This deleted part is in Chapter 14: Pigs Fly, between these lines:

“Do you think Ethan suspects about your weak spot?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “He didn’t tell Kronos anything, but if he figures it out—”

“We can’t let him.”

“I’ll bonk him on the head harder next time,” I suggested. “Any idea what surprise Kronos was talking about?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t see anything in the shield, but I don’t like surprises.”

“Agreed.”

“So,” she said, “are you going to argue about me coming along?”

“Nah. You’d just beat me up.”

She managed a laugh, which was good to hear. I grabbed my sword, and we went to rally the troops.

--- Somewhere here. ---

Thalia and the head counselors were waiting for us at the reservoir. The lights of the city were blinking on at twilight. I guess a lot of them were on automatic timers. Streetlamps glowed around the shore of the lake, making the water and trees look even spookier.

“They’re coming,” Thalia confirmed, pointing north with a silver arrow. “One of my scouts just reported they’ve crossed the Harlem River. There was no way to hold them back. The army . . .” She shrugged. “It’s huge.”

“We’ll hold them at the park,” I said. “Grover, you ready?”