PFMZ | Frank Zhang (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
iguanasolution) wrote2013-05-22 02:03 pm
iguanasolution) wrote2013-05-22 02:03 pm
Entry tags:
TuShanshu app
Player Information:
Name: Al
Age: 22
Contact: Crotalus on plurk / daiannecrotalus on AIM
Game Cast: Superman / Clark Kent from DC Comics (andaway )
Character Information:
Name: Frank (“Fai”) Zhang
Canon: Percy Jackson: Heroes of Olympus
Canon Point: The end of Mark of Athena, where Percy and Annabeth have just fallen into Tartarus and Frank an d the others decide to go find the gates of hell.
Age: 16
Reference:
Camp Half-blood wikia
Wikipedia
Setting:
SPOILERS UP UNTIL THE END MARK OF ATHENA
In our world, thousands of years ago in old Europe, Greek (and then Roman) mythology was born. They looked up at the stars and believed they saw history in them, the history of gods, demigods and heroes along with titans, monsters and other mythical creatures. They believed in legends, magical objects, three old women that would thread fate… well, we all know a little bit of their legends nowadays thanks to their art and buildings.
In the world Riordan creates in his books they weren’t simply ‘legends’ at all, even though the majority of people still believe they were (I’ll get back on how that is possible later). They existed in Greece, existed in all of Europe and eventually in our days they exist in America. They were born in Greece (so to speak) and that’s still where both the gods and the monsters are the most powerful since it’s where they spent the most time in the past, but they tend to adapt to where the culture is the strongest and where the civilization grows the most.
Zeus is described as ‘hippie’, Poseidon likes to wear Hawaiian shirts, Ares is a cool biker with sunglasses, Medusa owns a garden statuary shop… and Dunkin Donuts is simply the Hydra’s way to reproduce every time you cut one of her heads off. You get the idea.
That doesn’t make them any less powerful though! Merely badmouthing Zeus will make him send a thunder storm at you. It’s made very clear in the books that they are gods, not ‘Gods’ and the existence of ‘God’ is too metaphysical for them to discuss. You have to imagine the gods as extremely powerful beings of nature, but not as the all-powerful creators of the universe. …If that even makes sense. Each god has its own power and restrictions.
I’ve mentioned they change depending on the actual culture, but still are the strongest where they spent the most time. In case of the Greek Gods that’s actually a special case, since both Rome and Greece adored them for long, and had a strong culture for… very, very long. So long, and with personalities so close but still not nearly the same that eventually they started to grow… and become personalities on their own. More aggressive, more war-minded but similar nonetheless.
It’s a little like someone with split personality. Depending on who they are talking to or where they find themselves they will “show” one personality or the other. Some gods like Aphrodite/Venus were so similar in either legends they barely notice the change at all and manage to stay sane, other like Athena/Minerva that were really different from Greek legends to Roman they didn’t have the same luck.
(At this point you might be wondering ‘wait, why the Greek/Romans ones only? What about Nordic mythology, or Egyptian?’ Weeell it’s been implied in Riordan’s other books that they are also alive and around, each group of gods just keeps to himself and tries not to meddle with the others. But since that’s not important to Frank specifically I won’t dwell much on it.)
Now, where do Demigods like Frank enter the equation in this mess of a magical world? Easy… it’s not like the gods ever tried to hide their penchant for sleeping around with mortals that caught their eye. And from those unions, demigods were born. In some cases the person doesn’t even know she’s sleeping around with a god, in others they do know. However a common factor is that most of the gods will just ignore their (got to say numerous) offspring and the mortal parents are left to take care of them on their own. Mars, the Roman god of war Frank’s father, wasn’t any different and fell in love with his mother when he saw her in battle.
There is also ‘Legacies’, which are the descendant of said demigods, so the grandchildren, great-granchildren… etc of the gods. Most of them also have special powers but said powers diminish with every generation, and it’s implied most Roman Emperors were legacies of one god or another.
Frank is a legacy of Poseidon, which makes him the only demigod to ever be both a legacy and a demigod, which makes him extremely powerful (Note: that doesn’t mean he’s overpowered at all, just that he has the powers of two legacies which is unheard of). That’s the reason Juno appeared the day of his birth to warn his mother and grandmother that he would die as soon as a piece of lumber that was on the fireplace burned down. Frank eventually gave that piece of firewood to his new girlfriend, Hazel.
Moving on… remember each Greek god had two different personalities, the Original Greek one and the Roman one. Double the personality, double thefunoffspring. In Frank’s father case he had sons and daughters as Ares, and sons and daughters as Mars. The same works for almost all the gods.
And every time these demigods from clashing cultures met, they fought. Apparently important wars like the American civil one and the two world wars were caused because conflicts between them… so the gods decided it was best to not Greek demigods know of the Roman ones, and vice versa. Until Hera/Juno decided they needed both sides to fight the upcoming battle against the giants, but that will come later.
Speaking of things kept hidden, the majority of population don’t actually know about the gods, the monsters of any of this. They go on with their lives normally without knowing about it, like we normal people do. That’s thanks to the goddess Hecate who creates a ‘mist’, able to fool most normal and sometimes even demigods into seeing normalcy instead of whatever magical thing it actually is.
Now, with so many monsters and things like that around a demigod cannot be safe around the world. As soon as the mist around their eyes is lifted and they realize who they are the monsters do as well, and they start being in danger. So how to keep them safe from that? By keeping them in Camps, were they are surrounded by magic and away from danger.
The Greek demigods stay in Camp Half-Blood, in Long Island and the Roman one in Camp Jupiter that can be reached using a service tunnel near Caldecott Tunnel in San Francisco. Since Frank is Roman, I will focus on the later.
Before they actually get to the camp they have to spend some time training with Lupa, the wolf that helped found Rome that makes sure they are strong enough to survive on the legion and also worthy of being in it but we don’t know much about the training that she gives them.
The camp is structured pretty much like a roman battle camp with Praetors, Cohorts, Centurions, Senators, Legionaries… and Probatio: the newly-arrived to the legion, those who still have to prove their worth. Frank was on Probation in Son of Neptune but proved himself after fulfilling the Quest to free Thanatos (along with Hazel and Percy) against everyone’s expectations.
The Roman legion comes from the Legio XII Fulminata, the last Roman legion standing. In it Demigods are divided in 5th cohorts. They aren’t divided in cohorts depending on who their godly parent is, they are simply placed in different cohorts depending on their recommendation letters, the 1st being the best one and 5th being considered the worst one (even worth of mockery!). Only the people with the worst or no recommendation letters at all end there… and Frank belongs to it because they didn’t really know who his father was when he got there.
Oh and also because his grandfather Shen Lung was thought to have caused the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. There was also that. Eventually Frank and the others manage to bring back honor to the fifth cohort by winning in the war games, mostly thanks to Frank’s leadership skills in battle (which is also why Mars finally appears to claim Frank as his son), and at the end also clean up Shen Lung’s name. Just because he was a legacy of the son of Earthquakes (Poseidon) it doesn’t mean he caused it geez.
I have mentioned War Games… well, they aren’t at Camp just to have fun and stay away from monsters, they are there to train and they take it very seriously. It’s not unheard for people to get hurt during training, and in some cases they might even die… the Romans were pretty hardcore after all. The Camp is pretty similar to a Military one, except the food is actually quite good and the atmosphere is mostly friendly. Frank admits he had been expecting more weird looks from the people at camp because he was the only Asian there (more on that later).
Now, Romans might have been a strong and warrior culture but that wasn’t all there was, so apart from Camp Jupiter there’s also ‘New Rome’, the city where demigods, legacies, minor gods and others go to live to stay safe. It’s a whole city were families can live together, have children, go to university, and get a job. The legionaries have to be on the legion for 10 years before they are allowed to retire to the city.
Wait, does that mean the demigods spend all their live closed down in the camp or the city? Of course not. They actually can leave whenever they please, it’s just not really safe out there and most would rather stay there. And then there’s also the Quests. Quests are like missions they have to fulfill, given by a prophecy.
The books Frank comes from (Heroes of Olympus, which is a sequel to Percy Jackson and the Olympians) mainly deal with Gaya, the goddess of Earth and mother of all gods (among other supernatural beings) trying to ‘wake up’ and sending the Giants to dethrone the pantheon of Greek/Roman gods. So basically the modern version of Gigantomachy, which makes sense since the first books deal with the rise of the titans and Titanomachy.
Frank is part of the group of the seven prophesied to either save the world or let it fall to Gaya’s whims.
Personality:
If I had to pick a word to describe Frank it would probably be along the lines of ‘Sweetheart’. He’s gentle and always willing to help people out, even if he has just met them- like when he spoke up for Percy so he could get into the Legion, even though he was still on Probatio.
Being a son of Mars though he is obviously not going to be a pushover. He’s always eager to help, yes but that doesn’t let people push him around or be rude around him. He has actually have got a bit of a temper on him when someone makes him angry, but he’s shy and quiet so it’s hard to push him to the point of anger. Only people who keep on pushing at his buttons manage to get him angry to the point of snapping (so basically someone like Leo), otherwise he takes out his anger in other ways. When he was angry at his mother’s death he calmly grabbed his bow and arrows and started shooting and destroying his grandma’s expensive Chinese tea seat. You will hardly see him raise his voice but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t state his disapproval in other ways.
(I should probably note that Frank destroying his Grandma’s expensive things was also a way to get her to scold him, and the poor kid was only mourning so it’s not something he does every time he’s angry).
Frank is also incredibly loyal, to a fault. He’s a member of the 5th cohort and very proud of it even before they restored its good name. He’s a member of the Fulminata and doesn’t stand for anyone talking bad about Romans or the Roman versions of the gods. He’s a friend o Percy, Hazel and the rest of the seven and he will defend them until the end against all odds. If you get Frank’s loyalty you’ll be pretty much assured to never lose it.
He’s also very, very proud of his heritage- of both his heritages. He’s Chinese-Canadian, and he doesn’t let anyone badmouth either nationalities to the point where he questions why Chinese Handcuffs would be called that if they aren’t Chinese at all. He’s the only Asian in the camp and even though he might not be the only Canadian it’s implied most of the campers are from the United States, so even though he states nobody treats him any differently because of his nationality he still feels like he has to prove something.
Even though it’s never stated how the Zhangs made their fortune they are still a pretty wealthy family, to the point of having a mansion and owning extremely expensive things. Frank is partly aware of his privilege in that sense, but he still sometimes doesn’t realize how lucky he was for most of his short life. Leo says once it’s hard to feel sorry for Frank when he talks about his mansion and things like that like it’s nothing.
Another big thing you have to keep in mind for Frank is the fact that he’s a teenager who lost his mother less than a year ago, and he was given no time to mourn. His Grandmother loved him and took care of him while Frank’s mother was off (being a soldier she tried to be there for Frank as much as she could but was out a lot), but she was a stern and stubborn old woman to the point of refusing to call him Frank and calling him ‘Fai’ because Frank wasn’t a Chinese name work of the Zhang family so when Frank lost his mother he probably lost the one person that showed him affection.
And then he was told he was the son of a god; that he was meant to be so powerful his life depended on a stick of wood that could burn at any minute, and sent off to train with a wolf then stay in a strange place with not a single known face. All while he was still wearing the suit he had to wear for his mother’s funeral. The first months in Camp Jupiter were… not easy at all for Frank. And would have been even harder if he hadn’t met Hazel.
Speaking of Hazel… Frank would give his life for her, literally. He even had thoughts of burning the stick to make some fire for her, his crush on her is so big. I’m hesitant to say he’s in love because he’s still young, but his feelings are still pretty strong. Hazel is sweet, gentle and brave… Hazel was the first person to hold out a hand to him not out of obligation but because she wanted to be his friend.
Frank is just a big romantic woobie. He’s shy, blushes a lot and is extremely awkward but he still dreams of romantic walks and dates and being his girlfriend’s savior. And he’s also a little bit jealous, if the way he acts when Hazel and Leo begin to get close is anything to go by.
But it’s not only Hazel he feels this loyalty to. Frank is not the most extrovert guy but when someone approaches him in a nice way and tries to be his friend he’ll receive them with their arms open. Percy became his best friend in Camp Jupiter after only a day, and he already felt comfortable enough to go talk to Annabeth and express his doubts after also a day of meeting her. And let’s not even get into Jason, who he kind of worships because he was kind of a legend in the Camp.
He’s a pretty good judge of character and likes to let his instincts guide him, so if he likes a person he won’t hesitate to be friendly towards them. However the opposite is also true, if he dislikes someone it will take… a lot for him to change that opinion of them. If he ever does.
And what is it he doesn’t like? Well, it’s mostly rude people or people who have fun at the expense of others. Which is probably why him and Leo just don’t get along- it’s not that Leo is rude or mean, he just has a sarcastic sense of humor Frank takes the wrong way.
Frank is also brave, but that isn’t surprising since he’s son of the god of war. Which was actually something he didn’t really like at all at first, since he didn’t consider himself a bellicose person. However he soon understood being a son of Mars is not only about punching things and welding the sword around, it’s also strategy and being smart in battle. It’s loyalty. It’s getting your soldier’s trust. And it’s a lot of bravery.
Frank might actually not seem a strong kid at first, being shy and awkward and not feeling right in his own body. Any time there’s fire around he pretty much freaks out and is unable to do anything because he imagines his life burning with the stick. But when there’s need for him to be brave he will steel himself and do whatever needs to be done, no questions asked.
I’ve talked about how he’s supposed to be so powerful… well, he doesn’t really like thinking about that. It’s the reason his life could end with a little fire gone wrong after all. But once he processed and accepted it he took it with humor, accepting Percy as his great-a lot of times great-cousin Percy… and his brother Tyson the Cyclops, also son of Poseidon. Tyson isn’t actually his brother but you try to convince a Cyclops of that.
So in short Frank is pretty shy, awkward and basically a sad teenager… but also brave, loyal and a really quick-thinker in battle.
The idea of an afterlife, and a life in-between will not faze him much, or at all. He burned part of his stick down to free death itself, he’s joining his friends on an adventure to find the doors of death and he’s literally seen one of the campers wake up from the death and live again. Maybe this won’t be the Roman idea of the afterlife but he will take it as long as it means one day he’ll be able to get back. He will be a little confused because he’s pretty sure he just went to sleep last night and was very much alive, but as soon as someone explains the dreaming part to him he will run with it (even if he will be a little skeptical, honestly monsters attacking him during the night and killing him sounds more likely than falling into such a deep sleep…)
He will focus on trying to help, both his fellow foreigners and the Kedan. Hunting, maybe trying to find a job… anything he can do to help he will do it. He will also do his best to try to get information, especially anything related to getting back home. His friends are here and he will be glad for that, but they were kind of in the middle of saving the world back at home thank you very much.
What will affect Frank the most about the life on the turtle will be the idea of other worlds and realities. Accepting gods, demigods and monsters were hard enough to accept and he had definitive proof, so this will probably take a while. But he’s the son of the Roman god of war and a shape shifter so he can’t be too picky about what he believes or doesn’t.
Speaking of shape-shifting! He will probably freak out for quite a while when he’s told (or sees) the Kedan can change their appearance like he can, even if they are so much better at it. Once he gets over it he might even ask for tips... that will end well.
Appearance:
This is the only official art of him we have
I’ll be using Bart Kwan as his PB
Abilities:
Son of Mars: These are the abilities that Frank has because of being Mars’ son.
> Archery – Frank is really skilled at archery, he’s very accurate in his shooting and is able to make his own arrows, even tweaking them slightly for different uses. He’s not at Hawkeye or Green arrow levels but he’s slightly better than any kid his age would be with his training.
> Other weapons – Frank doesn’t really like to battle but it’s implied if he had to he could pick up different kinds of weapons with ease. Probably the closest to roman weapons they are, the easier it will come to him: for example he used a spear with ease in the books without any training, but I bet if you have him a gun he would have to familiarize himself with it first, and wouldn’t have nearly the same accuracy as he would with a bow and arrows.
>Tactician – I have already mentioned how he’s pretty good leading people in battle and how it comes naturally to him. He doesn’t have any power that makes people follow him in battle or anything like that, he’s simply very quick when it comes to deciding the best course of action during a battle or getting new ideas on what to do.
Legacy of Poseidon: These are the abilities that Frank has because of being Poseidon’s legacy.
> Shape-shifting - Frank has the limited ability to change into any animal he wishes, mythical or real. He is theoretically able to do it whenever but it’s hard for him to do it if he’s not in danger or in a battle. While he’s turned into the animal he keeps his conscience and was even able to talk to Percy while he was turned into a fish.
The animal itself is also much stronger if Frank knows it well. Frank has so far turned into an elephant, an eagle, a grizzly bear, a weasel, seal, a dragon, a crow, an iguana, a snake, a koi goldfish, and a dolphin.
We still don’t know for how long he can keep the transformation but I’ll keep it to only around a couple hours with a lot of effort since that’s the longest we see in the book. In the book it’s implied that once he’s changed into an animal he has to turn back into human to shapeshift again, and even then he needs some time to recover.
Inventory:
Since I’m taking Frank from the end of Mark of Athena he would have his bow and some arrows with him. It’s mentioned in the book that he has special arrows for special occasions but we never get a complete description of them and it’s difficult to imagine him carrying them around everywhere… we can just assume he only has his normal arrows with him.
Suite:
Frank would probably like the Earth sector the most. He’s loyal, hard-working and fair but also a little shy and cynical so he’d fit there. He might be Poseidon’s Legacy but he never had the same connection with water Percy had.
As for his house… Frank isn’t vain or full of himself at all but he does come from a rich family, and lived in a mansion until he was 15. Maybe a double suit?
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
Frank clutched the bow on his hands, looking around with a look that was equal parts amazement and fear. He was used to dangerous situations, he’d been in them more often than he could count in the last months. That didn’t mean being pulled into a random world with a lots of weird faces- faces that were theoretically not even human, faces that belonged to shape-shifters like him but he was trying to push that thought away from his mind- didn’t make him at least a little nervous.
Now that he’d managed to calm down enough to focus his training was slowly coming to him. He’d been ignoring the suite he was supposed to live in from now on, focusing on trying to get a feel of the city first. That had been pretty easy, the city had a pretty organizing setting and was divided on pretty clear sectors. He’d bought a little notebook, ink and a brush with some of the money he’d been given and was writing everything down trying to make some kind of map. Drawing was definitely not one of his strengths but still, it was useful and it made him feel some sense of… getting something out of the situation. Of actually doing something instead of freaking out.
And he was doing it the Chinese way too. His Grandmother would be proud.
The stood in front of the Fire sector, unable to take a step further as soon as he had noticed the little flames and the fire decorations all around. He knew it wasn’t real, he’d seen the Kedan touch it and not end with 3 grade burns… but that didn’t make him any less scared of it. It took him a couple of minutes before he decided maybe it was better to visit the head of the creature the Kedan affirmed was a turtle instead.
That sounded way more interesting than being surrounded by fire anyway. He turned around and started walking, the bow still on his hand. He was holding so tight his knuckles were turning white but he didn’t even notice. The bow gave him a sense of reassurance and being able to defend himself.
And he wasn’t going to let that go.
Network:
[Frank decides to go with a voice post for this. It’s not that he minds using video but he’s freaking out enough without showing his face to all the population in this place, thank you very much.]
Okay, so… […Still, it’s pretty easy to tell how awkward Frank is feeling about the whole thing just with the sound of his voice.] Hello, I guess? I think this thing is supposed to connect me to the whole network but I’m not sure who ‘the whole network is’? So here’s to hope someone who’s able to actually help me will get this.
I’m Frank Zhang. If anyone recognizes that name please contact me, you know who you are. [’Di immortales please don’t let me be alone in this place’ is left unsaid but is still somehow made very clear. Even a son of Mars needs his friends in this kind of situation.]
I-… uh, I’m also a good hunter, and I heard there’s some kind of food rationing going on? So if there’s some kind of hunting place or something like that I could probably help? I don’t know. [A loud sigh, and the sound of shifting.] I just want to be useful, I guess.
Name: Al
Age: 22
Contact: Crotalus on plurk / daiannecrotalus on AIM
Game Cast: Superman / Clark Kent from DC Comics (
andaway )Character Information:
Name: Frank (“Fai”) Zhang
Canon: Percy Jackson: Heroes of Olympus
Canon Point: The end of Mark of Athena, where Percy and Annabeth have just fallen into Tartarus and Frank an d the others decide to go find the gates of hell.
Age: 16
Reference:
Camp Half-blood wikia
Wikipedia
Setting:
SPOILERS UP UNTIL THE END MARK OF ATHENA
In our world, thousands of years ago in old Europe, Greek (and then Roman) mythology was born. They looked up at the stars and believed they saw history in them, the history of gods, demigods and heroes along with titans, monsters and other mythical creatures. They believed in legends, magical objects, three old women that would thread fate… well, we all know a little bit of their legends nowadays thanks to their art and buildings.
In the world Riordan creates in his books they weren’t simply ‘legends’ at all, even though the majority of people still believe they were (I’ll get back on how that is possible later). They existed in Greece, existed in all of Europe and eventually in our days they exist in America. They were born in Greece (so to speak) and that’s still where both the gods and the monsters are the most powerful since it’s where they spent the most time in the past, but they tend to adapt to where the culture is the strongest and where the civilization grows the most.
Zeus is described as ‘hippie’, Poseidon likes to wear Hawaiian shirts, Ares is a cool biker with sunglasses, Medusa owns a garden statuary shop… and Dunkin Donuts is simply the Hydra’s way to reproduce every time you cut one of her heads off. You get the idea.
That doesn’t make them any less powerful though! Merely badmouthing Zeus will make him send a thunder storm at you. It’s made very clear in the books that they are gods, not ‘Gods’ and the existence of ‘God’ is too metaphysical for them to discuss. You have to imagine the gods as extremely powerful beings of nature, but not as the all-powerful creators of the universe. …If that even makes sense. Each god has its own power and restrictions.
I’ve mentioned they change depending on the actual culture, but still are the strongest where they spent the most time. In case of the Greek Gods that’s actually a special case, since both Rome and Greece adored them for long, and had a strong culture for… very, very long. So long, and with personalities so close but still not nearly the same that eventually they started to grow… and become personalities on their own. More aggressive, more war-minded but similar nonetheless.
It’s a little like someone with split personality. Depending on who they are talking to or where they find themselves they will “show” one personality or the other. Some gods like Aphrodite/Venus were so similar in either legends they barely notice the change at all and manage to stay sane, other like Athena/Minerva that were really different from Greek legends to Roman they didn’t have the same luck.
(At this point you might be wondering ‘wait, why the Greek/Romans ones only? What about Nordic mythology, or Egyptian?’ Weeell it’s been implied in Riordan’s other books that they are also alive and around, each group of gods just keeps to himself and tries not to meddle with the others. But since that’s not important to Frank specifically I won’t dwell much on it.)
Now, where do Demigods like Frank enter the equation in this mess of a magical world? Easy… it’s not like the gods ever tried to hide their penchant for sleeping around with mortals that caught their eye. And from those unions, demigods were born. In some cases the person doesn’t even know she’s sleeping around with a god, in others they do know. However a common factor is that most of the gods will just ignore their (got to say numerous) offspring and the mortal parents are left to take care of them on their own. Mars, the Roman god of war Frank’s father, wasn’t any different and fell in love with his mother when he saw her in battle.
There is also ‘Legacies’, which are the descendant of said demigods, so the grandchildren, great-granchildren… etc of the gods. Most of them also have special powers but said powers diminish with every generation, and it’s implied most Roman Emperors were legacies of one god or another.
Frank is a legacy of Poseidon, which makes him the only demigod to ever be both a legacy and a demigod, which makes him extremely powerful (Note: that doesn’t mean he’s overpowered at all, just that he has the powers of two legacies which is unheard of). That’s the reason Juno appeared the day of his birth to warn his mother and grandmother that he would die as soon as a piece of lumber that was on the fireplace burned down. Frank eventually gave that piece of firewood to his new girlfriend, Hazel.
Moving on… remember each Greek god had two different personalities, the Original Greek one and the Roman one. Double the personality, double the
And every time these demigods from clashing cultures met, they fought. Apparently important wars like the American civil one and the two world wars were caused because conflicts between them… so the gods decided it was best to not Greek demigods know of the Roman ones, and vice versa. Until Hera/Juno decided they needed both sides to fight the upcoming battle against the giants, but that will come later.
Speaking of things kept hidden, the majority of population don’t actually know about the gods, the monsters of any of this. They go on with their lives normally without knowing about it, like we normal people do. That’s thanks to the goddess Hecate who creates a ‘mist’, able to fool most normal and sometimes even demigods into seeing normalcy instead of whatever magical thing it actually is.
Now, with so many monsters and things like that around a demigod cannot be safe around the world. As soon as the mist around their eyes is lifted and they realize who they are the monsters do as well, and they start being in danger. So how to keep them safe from that? By keeping them in Camps, were they are surrounded by magic and away from danger.
The Greek demigods stay in Camp Half-Blood, in Long Island and the Roman one in Camp Jupiter that can be reached using a service tunnel near Caldecott Tunnel in San Francisco. Since Frank is Roman, I will focus on the later.
Before they actually get to the camp they have to spend some time training with Lupa, the wolf that helped found Rome that makes sure they are strong enough to survive on the legion and also worthy of being in it but we don’t know much about the training that she gives them.
The camp is structured pretty much like a roman battle camp with Praetors, Cohorts, Centurions, Senators, Legionaries… and Probatio: the newly-arrived to the legion, those who still have to prove their worth. Frank was on Probation in Son of Neptune but proved himself after fulfilling the Quest to free Thanatos (along with Hazel and Percy) against everyone’s expectations.
The Roman legion comes from the Legio XII Fulminata, the last Roman legion standing. In it Demigods are divided in 5th cohorts. They aren’t divided in cohorts depending on who their godly parent is, they are simply placed in different cohorts depending on their recommendation letters, the 1st being the best one and 5th being considered the worst one (even worth of mockery!). Only the people with the worst or no recommendation letters at all end there… and Frank belongs to it because they didn’t really know who his father was when he got there.
Oh and also because his grandfather Shen Lung was thought to have caused the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. There was also that. Eventually Frank and the others manage to bring back honor to the fifth cohort by winning in the war games, mostly thanks to Frank’s leadership skills in battle (which is also why Mars finally appears to claim Frank as his son), and at the end also clean up Shen Lung’s name. Just because he was a legacy of the son of Earthquakes (Poseidon) it doesn’t mean he caused it geez.
I have mentioned War Games… well, they aren’t at Camp just to have fun and stay away from monsters, they are there to train and they take it very seriously. It’s not unheard for people to get hurt during training, and in some cases they might even die… the Romans were pretty hardcore after all. The Camp is pretty similar to a Military one, except the food is actually quite good and the atmosphere is mostly friendly. Frank admits he had been expecting more weird looks from the people at camp because he was the only Asian there (more on that later).
Now, Romans might have been a strong and warrior culture but that wasn’t all there was, so apart from Camp Jupiter there’s also ‘New Rome’, the city where demigods, legacies, minor gods and others go to live to stay safe. It’s a whole city were families can live together, have children, go to university, and get a job. The legionaries have to be on the legion for 10 years before they are allowed to retire to the city.
Wait, does that mean the demigods spend all their live closed down in the camp or the city? Of course not. They actually can leave whenever they please, it’s just not really safe out there and most would rather stay there. And then there’s also the Quests. Quests are like missions they have to fulfill, given by a prophecy.
The books Frank comes from (Heroes of Olympus, which is a sequel to Percy Jackson and the Olympians) mainly deal with Gaya, the goddess of Earth and mother of all gods (among other supernatural beings) trying to ‘wake up’ and sending the Giants to dethrone the pantheon of Greek/Roman gods. So basically the modern version of Gigantomachy, which makes sense since the first books deal with the rise of the titans and Titanomachy.
Frank is part of the group of the seven prophesied to either save the world or let it fall to Gaya’s whims.
Personality:
If I had to pick a word to describe Frank it would probably be along the lines of ‘Sweetheart’. He’s gentle and always willing to help people out, even if he has just met them- like when he spoke up for Percy so he could get into the Legion, even though he was still on Probatio.
Being a son of Mars though he is obviously not going to be a pushover. He’s always eager to help, yes but that doesn’t let people push him around or be rude around him. He has actually have got a bit of a temper on him when someone makes him angry, but he’s shy and quiet so it’s hard to push him to the point of anger. Only people who keep on pushing at his buttons manage to get him angry to the point of snapping (so basically someone like Leo), otherwise he takes out his anger in other ways. When he was angry at his mother’s death he calmly grabbed his bow and arrows and started shooting and destroying his grandma’s expensive Chinese tea seat. You will hardly see him raise his voice but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t state his disapproval in other ways.
(I should probably note that Frank destroying his Grandma’s expensive things was also a way to get her to scold him, and the poor kid was only mourning so it’s not something he does every time he’s angry).
Frank is also incredibly loyal, to a fault. He’s a member of the 5th cohort and very proud of it even before they restored its good name. He’s a member of the Fulminata and doesn’t stand for anyone talking bad about Romans or the Roman versions of the gods. He’s a friend o Percy, Hazel and the rest of the seven and he will defend them until the end against all odds. If you get Frank’s loyalty you’ll be pretty much assured to never lose it.
He’s also very, very proud of his heritage- of both his heritages. He’s Chinese-Canadian, and he doesn’t let anyone badmouth either nationalities to the point where he questions why Chinese Handcuffs would be called that if they aren’t Chinese at all. He’s the only Asian in the camp and even though he might not be the only Canadian it’s implied most of the campers are from the United States, so even though he states nobody treats him any differently because of his nationality he still feels like he has to prove something.
Even though it’s never stated how the Zhangs made their fortune they are still a pretty wealthy family, to the point of having a mansion and owning extremely expensive things. Frank is partly aware of his privilege in that sense, but he still sometimes doesn’t realize how lucky he was for most of his short life. Leo says once it’s hard to feel sorry for Frank when he talks about his mansion and things like that like it’s nothing.
Another big thing you have to keep in mind for Frank is the fact that he’s a teenager who lost his mother less than a year ago, and he was given no time to mourn. His Grandmother loved him and took care of him while Frank’s mother was off (being a soldier she tried to be there for Frank as much as she could but was out a lot), but she was a stern and stubborn old woman to the point of refusing to call him Frank and calling him ‘Fai’ because Frank wasn’t a Chinese name work of the Zhang family so when Frank lost his mother he probably lost the one person that showed him affection.
And then he was told he was the son of a god; that he was meant to be so powerful his life depended on a stick of wood that could burn at any minute, and sent off to train with a wolf then stay in a strange place with not a single known face. All while he was still wearing the suit he had to wear for his mother’s funeral. The first months in Camp Jupiter were… not easy at all for Frank. And would have been even harder if he hadn’t met Hazel.
Speaking of Hazel… Frank would give his life for her, literally. He even had thoughts of burning the stick to make some fire for her, his crush on her is so big. I’m hesitant to say he’s in love because he’s still young, but his feelings are still pretty strong. Hazel is sweet, gentle and brave… Hazel was the first person to hold out a hand to him not out of obligation but because she wanted to be his friend.
Frank is just a big romantic woobie. He’s shy, blushes a lot and is extremely awkward but he still dreams of romantic walks and dates and being his girlfriend’s savior. And he’s also a little bit jealous, if the way he acts when Hazel and Leo begin to get close is anything to go by.
But it’s not only Hazel he feels this loyalty to. Frank is not the most extrovert guy but when someone approaches him in a nice way and tries to be his friend he’ll receive them with their arms open. Percy became his best friend in Camp Jupiter after only a day, and he already felt comfortable enough to go talk to Annabeth and express his doubts after also a day of meeting her. And let’s not even get into Jason, who he kind of worships because he was kind of a legend in the Camp.
He’s a pretty good judge of character and likes to let his instincts guide him, so if he likes a person he won’t hesitate to be friendly towards them. However the opposite is also true, if he dislikes someone it will take… a lot for him to change that opinion of them. If he ever does.
And what is it he doesn’t like? Well, it’s mostly rude people or people who have fun at the expense of others. Which is probably why him and Leo just don’t get along- it’s not that Leo is rude or mean, he just has a sarcastic sense of humor Frank takes the wrong way.
Frank is also brave, but that isn’t surprising since he’s son of the god of war. Which was actually something he didn’t really like at all at first, since he didn’t consider himself a bellicose person. However he soon understood being a son of Mars is not only about punching things and welding the sword around, it’s also strategy and being smart in battle. It’s loyalty. It’s getting your soldier’s trust. And it’s a lot of bravery.
Frank might actually not seem a strong kid at first, being shy and awkward and not feeling right in his own body. Any time there’s fire around he pretty much freaks out and is unable to do anything because he imagines his life burning with the stick. But when there’s need for him to be brave he will steel himself and do whatever needs to be done, no questions asked.
I’ve talked about how he’s supposed to be so powerful… well, he doesn’t really like thinking about that. It’s the reason his life could end with a little fire gone wrong after all. But once he processed and accepted it he took it with humor, accepting Percy as his great-a lot of times great-cousin Percy… and his brother Tyson the Cyclops, also son of Poseidon. Tyson isn’t actually his brother but you try to convince a Cyclops of that.
So in short Frank is pretty shy, awkward and basically a sad teenager… but also brave, loyal and a really quick-thinker in battle.
The idea of an afterlife, and a life in-between will not faze him much, or at all. He burned part of his stick down to free death itself, he’s joining his friends on an adventure to find the doors of death and he’s literally seen one of the campers wake up from the death and live again. Maybe this won’t be the Roman idea of the afterlife but he will take it as long as it means one day he’ll be able to get back. He will be a little confused because he’s pretty sure he just went to sleep last night and was very much alive, but as soon as someone explains the dreaming part to him he will run with it (even if he will be a little skeptical, honestly monsters attacking him during the night and killing him sounds more likely than falling into such a deep sleep…)
He will focus on trying to help, both his fellow foreigners and the Kedan. Hunting, maybe trying to find a job… anything he can do to help he will do it. He will also do his best to try to get information, especially anything related to getting back home. His friends are here and he will be glad for that, but they were kind of in the middle of saving the world back at home thank you very much.
What will affect Frank the most about the life on the turtle will be the idea of other worlds and realities. Accepting gods, demigods and monsters were hard enough to accept and he had definitive proof, so this will probably take a while. But he’s the son of the Roman god of war and a shape shifter so he can’t be too picky about what he believes or doesn’t.
Speaking of shape-shifting! He will probably freak out for quite a while when he’s told (or sees) the Kedan can change their appearance like he can, even if they are so much better at it. Once he gets over it he might even ask for tips... that will end well.
Appearance:
This is the only official art of him we have I’ll be using Bart Kwan as his PBAbilities:
Son of Mars: These are the abilities that Frank has because of being Mars’ son.
> Archery – Frank is really skilled at archery, he’s very accurate in his shooting and is able to make his own arrows, even tweaking them slightly for different uses. He’s not at Hawkeye or Green arrow levels but he’s slightly better than any kid his age would be with his training.
> Other weapons – Frank doesn’t really like to battle but it’s implied if he had to he could pick up different kinds of weapons with ease. Probably the closest to roman weapons they are, the easier it will come to him: for example he used a spear with ease in the books without any training, but I bet if you have him a gun he would have to familiarize himself with it first, and wouldn’t have nearly the same accuracy as he would with a bow and arrows.
>Tactician – I have already mentioned how he’s pretty good leading people in battle and how it comes naturally to him. He doesn’t have any power that makes people follow him in battle or anything like that, he’s simply very quick when it comes to deciding the best course of action during a battle or getting new ideas on what to do.
Legacy of Poseidon: These are the abilities that Frank has because of being Poseidon’s legacy.
> Shape-shifting - Frank has the limited ability to change into any animal he wishes, mythical or real. He is theoretically able to do it whenever but it’s hard for him to do it if he’s not in danger or in a battle. While he’s turned into the animal he keeps his conscience and was even able to talk to Percy while he was turned into a fish.
The animal itself is also much stronger if Frank knows it well. Frank has so far turned into an elephant, an eagle, a grizzly bear, a weasel, seal, a dragon, a crow, an iguana, a snake, a koi goldfish, and a dolphin.
We still don’t know for how long he can keep the transformation but I’ll keep it to only around a couple hours with a lot of effort since that’s the longest we see in the book. In the book it’s implied that once he’s changed into an animal he has to turn back into human to shapeshift again, and even then he needs some time to recover.
Inventory:
Since I’m taking Frank from the end of Mark of Athena he would have his bow and some arrows with him. It’s mentioned in the book that he has special arrows for special occasions but we never get a complete description of them and it’s difficult to imagine him carrying them around everywhere… we can just assume he only has his normal arrows with him.
Suite:
Frank would probably like the Earth sector the most. He’s loyal, hard-working and fair but also a little shy and cynical so he’d fit there. He might be Poseidon’s Legacy but he never had the same connection with water Percy had.
As for his house… Frank isn’t vain or full of himself at all but he does come from a rich family, and lived in a mansion until he was 15. Maybe a double suit?
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
Frank clutched the bow on his hands, looking around with a look that was equal parts amazement and fear. He was used to dangerous situations, he’d been in them more often than he could count in the last months. That didn’t mean being pulled into a random world with a lots of weird faces- faces that were theoretically not even human, faces that belonged to shape-shifters like him but he was trying to push that thought away from his mind- didn’t make him at least a little nervous.
Now that he’d managed to calm down enough to focus his training was slowly coming to him. He’d been ignoring the suite he was supposed to live in from now on, focusing on trying to get a feel of the city first. That had been pretty easy, the city had a pretty organizing setting and was divided on pretty clear sectors. He’d bought a little notebook, ink and a brush with some of the money he’d been given and was writing everything down trying to make some kind of map. Drawing was definitely not one of his strengths but still, it was useful and it made him feel some sense of… getting something out of the situation. Of actually doing something instead of freaking out.
And he was doing it the Chinese way too. His Grandmother would be proud.
The stood in front of the Fire sector, unable to take a step further as soon as he had noticed the little flames and the fire decorations all around. He knew it wasn’t real, he’d seen the Kedan touch it and not end with 3 grade burns… but that didn’t make him any less scared of it. It took him a couple of minutes before he decided maybe it was better to visit the head of the creature the Kedan affirmed was a turtle instead.
That sounded way more interesting than being surrounded by fire anyway. He turned around and started walking, the bow still on his hand. He was holding so tight his knuckles were turning white but he didn’t even notice. The bow gave him a sense of reassurance and being able to defend himself.
And he wasn’t going to let that go.
Network:
[Frank decides to go with a voice post for this. It’s not that he minds using video but he’s freaking out enough without showing his face to all the population in this place, thank you very much.]
Okay, so… […Still, it’s pretty easy to tell how awkward Frank is feeling about the whole thing just with the sound of his voice.] Hello, I guess? I think this thing is supposed to connect me to the whole network but I’m not sure who ‘the whole network is’? So here’s to hope someone who’s able to actually help me will get this.
I’m Frank Zhang. If anyone recognizes that name please contact me, you know who you are. [’Di immortales please don’t let me be alone in this place’ is left unsaid but is still somehow made very clear. Even a son of Mars needs his friends in this kind of situation.]
I-… uh, I’m also a good hunter, and I heard there’s some kind of food rationing going on? So if there’s some kind of hunting place or something like that I could probably help? I don’t know. [A loud sigh, and the sound of shifting.] I just want to be useful, I guess.