A Son From Lands Unknown (PJO x Male Reader)

Self-Indulgence: What I'd Do Different

This is the first of a potentially recurring theme of Author's Notes I'm calling Self-Indulgences. They're essentially things that are me getting on a soapbox and doing things that are, well, self-indulgent. Things like fake trailers or, the thing I'm talking about now:

What I'd Do Different.

I'm gonna go book-by-book and talk about things I either regret doing or things I'd change if I were to be starting from scratch, ending with a list of things that aren't book-specific. This'll be in a bullet-point format, starting with:

Lightning Thief:

That first chapter. Oh dear god that first chapter. I was still deciding if I wanted to go first or third person and wound up forgetting halfway through, leaving the whole thing a confusing mess. Were I to be starting from the top, I'd skip the opening monologue and just go third-person from the jump.

Other than that, though, I'm happy with Lightning Thief outside of problems that are across the story. The same cannot be said for

The Sea of Monsters/Eidolons:

Have Stolas show up again: Massive missed opportunity on my end to keep the Abrahamic side of it engaged and expand upon the Plan. That, and it'd be a good time to get Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson introduced to him.

Have Adrianna interfere earlier: Have an agent of Luke interfere more often to keep that side a constant presence. Maybe during Circe's island. That and it would allow me to expand on a character that has pretty much been left in the dust.

Change the name of the Eidolons: I named them after the Greek monster that also appears on Magic: The Gathering cards not realizing that a Roman monster of the same name also appear in the HoO books. Sure, I can excuse it as "Greek vs Roman," but that feels like a cop-out. I should have done more research.

Have more Eidolon encounters or make it ambiguous earlier: As it stands, I can see why it feels like (Y/N) is always right about who was an Eidolon and who wasn't. I'd either add more encounters where it's more ambiguous, or make the existing encounters more ambiguous about whether they were people or Eidolons. Maybe have someone else stumble on the aftermath of a false positive on (Y/N)'s end.

Have Simon be an Eidolon: Specifically the Simon as seen in the Eidolon chapters. The real would probably be getting used as bait or a human shield. With that said:

Make Simon the love interest after Thalia: I understand that there was a vote, but as the story has played out, I'm realizing there's a lot more chemistry between Simon and (Y/N) than Zoe and (Y/N). That, and it would probably have been expanded upon with Thalia and (Y/N) helping Simon with recovering after being trapped in the Eidolon's nest for awhile.

Fully introduce the name: I think I've dropped it before so I don't feel like this is a spoiler, but rather than being ambiguous about who is recruiting Abzcanon, I'd just spell it out that it's Enoch. 

Next up, Titan's Curse/Resurrection of Lucifer:

Have (Y/N) use charmspeak more: I was going for a "three strikes you're out" kind of thing, but in retrospect I can see how this hurt the idea that (Y/N) was becoming more manipulative. That, or have someone call him out even earlier.

Get Abzcanon, Stolas, or both involved: Second verse, same as the first. Keep Heaven involved, potentially drop more clues about the Plan.

Have challenges in each Ring of Hell: Cut for time, but I really shouldn't have. Not sure what I would have chosen, and that lack of knowing what to choose is probably why I cut it, but I would want to have a fight or diplomatic challenge in each ring.

Expand on the Sins as characters: Once again, an instance of something being cut for time. They're side characters, sure, but pretty much all of them besides Mammon, Asmodeus, and Leviathan are pretty much Maguffins the way they are right now.

Kill Zoe: With Simon being the love interest after Thalia, there's no reason for Zoe to be here. As such, I'd let her die as in canon.

Add more to the church scene: Don't cut it off where I did. Have Gabriel further explain what's going on, giving (Y/N) more to work with in regards to what's going on in the Silver City.

Finally, the big one that goes across the board for past and future:

STOP ADDING REFERENCE CHARACTERS: Jesus Christ, past me. Stolas, Mazikeen, and Crowley are at least demons so that's a little better, but seriously? The Unknown and Paz from Metal: Hellsinger? The Skull Merchant from Dead By Daylight? At least with Simon I changed him a good bit from his original reference to the point where he can be his own character, but the other two are just awful.