1. An introduction to general terms and phenomenae associated with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Fandom

ie; The Beginner's Glossary

When stepping into a fandom, you often encounter strange terms. What is this OOC thing everyone is talking about? What do they mean by 'your OC'? How on earth do canons come into the picture? And what on earth is this Sue thing that's got everyone so angry?

See below.

AR [Alternate Reality]: Universe obtained by changing any event in the books. The Whatifs belong to this category. What if Thalia had never joined the hunt? What if Nico had died instead of Bianca? Stuff like that.

Note: Often, the line between AU and AR can be blurry. For simplicity's sake, people tend to use AU for both of these.

AU [Alternate Universe]: Usually obtained by changing the premises of the series. All-human High School fics are an example.

Canon: The Word of God. Which is to say, facts and events which actually happen in the books. Or has been confirmed by RR himself.

CC [Constructive Criticism]: Critique given to the story, often politely.

Criticism: Critique given to story, often bluntly. These are the people who don't have the time to sugar-coat things for you, but who aren't exactly interested in insulting you either. Sections of the population often classify people who do this as Flamers, but this is what they are going to be for the purpose of this Guide.

Fanart: Like fanfiction, except with images. These can be quite disturbing too.

Fandom: In general, the people who have read the book and liked them. In some cases, this can lead to them hanging out in fanfiction sites.

Fanfiction: There are a lot of loose ends and unfilled crevices in the PJO series. What was Thalia's life with her mother like? How did Sally meet Poseidon? What happens after they finally defeat the Big Bad? Are there any instances where Nico sees ghosts in normal life? Stuff like that.

Fanfiction is the devout fan's answer to such things, which is all well and good and very enjoyable. But sometimes, things go… overboard. *cue dramatic music*

Since fan is short for fanatic, this should not be surprising.

Fangirl: Derogatory term used to indicate/address a person who uses one or more of the following: Chatspeak, excessive punctuation, bad grammar and other things in a similar vein. Things of the sort tend to annoy people who write, because it's mostly disregarding the sanctity of the language.

Fangirl is not gender-specefic. In other words, being a guy does not stop you from being one. Think of it as female chauvinism, since the majority of FF writers are females and everything.

Fanon: Things which deviate from/are not actually stated in the books or by the author. Fanon is a very relative term; individual, fractions and shippers all have their personal head fanon. An example would be Thalia/Luke, which is fanon for many people. Or Thalia/Nico, which is fanon for other people. Or Bitch!Rachel, which is also fanon for many people.

Nope, that last one is not canon. I'm sure that comes as a shock.

Femmeslash: Homosexual pairing featuring two females. Fancy Japanese term for this is yuri.

Note: Femmeslash is often abandoned in favor of slash. It's simpler.

Note2: The terms, I mean.

Flame: Insulting review. Definitions of 'Flame' and Flamer vary, but for the purpose of this Guide, it's what you call the reviews which offer a personal insult to you. And by personal insult, I don't mean "This is OOC." or "Please improve your spelling." It's the ones which go "Your story's a piece of crap!" with no actual reasons given, or the ones that go insult the ficcer personally.

IC [In Character]: The characters act like they usually do in canon. Percy snarking? Annabeth bossing people around? IC.

Marty Stu/Gary Stu: The male version of a Mary Sue. Or you could just use Sue for everything.

Mary Sue: Ah, the infamous Sue. Many define her as the perfect character, who is the epitome of the writer's fangirl fantasies. That's one way of looking at it; definitions of Mary-Sue vary vastly from individual to individual. But let's just say that most characters other people tend to hate, even though you're creating them specifically to be lovable, fall into this category. That's not all, of course, but it will do for a start.

OC [Original Character]: Not to be confused with OOC. An original character is somebody who is not in the books, but who appears in your fanfic.

Note: It's been brought to my attention that OC can very well stand for Other Character. I did not know this, but I see nothing wrong with the interpretation. It's still used almost exclusively to refer to the same thing.

OOC [Out of Character]: In my opinion, the bane of any fandom. Rachel plotting to take over Percy? Annabeth crying when confronted by mortal bullies? Thalia quitting the hunt at the first opportunity to shack up with some guy, random or otherwise? Artemis having a child (generally)? OOC.

Pairing: A romantic couple a person can support. Does not always have to be a couple. Does not always have to make sense. However, pairing problems in the PJO fandom breed mostly from overuse of a key few pairs, not bizarreness.

Pairings are indicated by NameA/NameB, or are sometimes words smooshed together from the names of characters. Example; Percabeth, Thuke, Thalico, Rico/Raico, Tratie and so on and on and on and on and on.

Shipping: The term 'shipping', is nothing nautical. The origin of the term starts with the English word 'relationship'. Relationship was shortened to ship. And ship became a verb rather than a noun, serving to indicate the massive approval of the person in question with the pairing under discussion. The act is called 'shipping.'

Got that? It's Fangirls-sorry, Fanpeople deciding that two people (or more people) are entirely, absolutely perfect for each other and hang any indication otherwise. But to be fair, we also get a lot of it in somewhat milder form.

Slash: Homosexual pairing featuring two males. Fancy Japanese term for this is yaoi.

Stereotypes: Cardboard-cutout character profiles. Distressed Damsel, Hot Dude, Romantic Lover and Jealous Bitch are examples of these. These are a few basic character types used in most works. But they are basic. Using them does not a character make. More on that later.

Troll: Term given to a Flamer or Ficcer who acts excessively juvenile precisely in order to draw attention to him/her self. This is generally frowned upon an considered an absolute nuisance.

The list given here is by no means complete, but it's one of those things you tend to remember as you go on. Questions? Clarifications? Review or PM.