Characters Based on the Percy Jackson Series

Raven Piracello - Son of Melinoe

My father comes from a family who has always run a funeral parlour dating back to the civil war days. He was destined to run the family business and to become a mortician. He married young, his childhood sweet heart, a young woman by the name of Serenity, he loved her with all his heart, and when she died he was devastated. He insisted on attending to all details of her burial, no matter how hard it was on him, it was his only hope for closure. She would be his first cadaver since taking over the family business, he was only 28 years old, as his father had died of congestive heart failure just the month prior. Unbeknownst to my father, before Serenity was willing to move on and pay the ferryman, she begged Melinoe to give him a message. Upon promising, Serenity moved on in peace. Melinoe watched my father, Zachariah, for a few days before appearing to him, she was awe struck, at the way he was so reverent with handling the bodies of the dead. Instead of appearing to him as she had promised she would, to deliver Serenity's message, Melinoe took human form, and pretended to apply for a job at the funeral parlour. For months she worked with my father, consoling him in his grief, until one day it turned into a romance, and they fell in love.

As much as Melinoe loved my father, during their courtship, she learned how strict a catholic my father was, and realised he would never accept that the Greek gods not only ever existed, but still do. So upon giving birth to me, she left my father, to raise me alone. My father became bitter after Melinoe left, he felt betrayed, and I was a constant reminder of that betrayal. My father gave no thought to my name, so on the day he went to get my birth certificate, he thought back to the night he found me on his doorstep, a dark moonless night. When he bent down to read the note attached to my blanket, a raven landed in a bush next to the door step. So my father named me Raven, but till the day he died, at best he only ever called me "boy" or "hey you".

From the moment I could talk and walk, I could see ghosts, I would ask my father questions about them, but he would only yell, and beat me, and tell me there was no such thing, so I stopped asking him. As I grew, some ghosts asked for my help, some told me secrets, but some weren't so pleasant, and I learned how to command them from my presence, if they scared me. As I grew, I realised I could use the ghosts, to learn the secrets of others around me, what they said behind closed doors, where they hid their valuables.

One ghost in particular became my constant companion and friend, he had died tragically in a car wreck when he was 17. I was kicked out of one school when I was 10, for stealing from the other students. When I was 13 I was kicked out of another school for trying to extort money from one of the teachers whom I threatened to tell her husband of her affair, if she didn't pay me. When I was 14, my ghost friend, Nathan Stuart, came to me, and warned that a monster was going to attack the house. I asked him what he meant by monster, but at the time only rushed me to pack what I could, and leave the house. To this day I have no idea what the monster was, but whatever it was caused the house I was living in to burn down, with my father inside.

Nathan told me, he heard things while walking the earth, and he believed that my mother hadn't died in child birth like my father said, but was a Greek goddess by the name of Melinoe, the goddess of ghosts. It did explain some of my abilities, but this camp place he had heard of did not sound to my liking. After having lived under my father's iron fist for 14 years, I was in no hurry to be anywhere there might be rules.

For five years I lived on the streets, conning money out of people, extorting money, stealing valuables. I never stayed in one place for long, and stashed loot in safety deposit boxes across the country, for emergencies. My only companion was Nathan, the only friend I ever wanted and ever needed. At times monsters would track me, but with the help of Nathan I usually managed to either escape or fight my way out of it. Many times I could take the monsters by surprise, with the help of Nathan. On a couple of occasions a satyr would try and track me down, but the one time one managed to actually approach me, I expressed no desire to go to some stupid camp, and asked to be left alone. If my mother had no use for me, I had no use for any of the Greek gods.

So I lived my life, taking from mortals, and hating the gods, Until one day about a year ago, Heinrich Alten found me, and recruited me for his cause. I quickly decided to throw in my allegiance with the Liberi Superum. Because mortals mean nothing to me, and the gods mean less.