#I did find a couple more recent Cherokee actresses! but they’re all teenagers

[imaginmatrix]

Hiiiiii just for fun I thought I’d show some irl examples of how imagine the characters in aoyaom— as always this is about ✨vibes✨ only, I don’t really think of these as “face claims” or EXACTLY how I think they’d look, but certain features capture a tangential feeling of you get me?

Anyway, here are the candidates for Academia’s Next Top Models— imagine them as slightly more realistically pretty, whatever that means? Like these same people pictured, but without a team of skin and hair and makeup artists and a lot of money for whatever treatments or physical alterations they want. People who would make you double take if you passed them on the street, but don’t look like they stepped out of an Instagram filter. Anyway.

Spoilers for aoyaom ahead!

Annabeth Chase

Pictured: Tetiana Kizko, Dorit Revelis (but older lol— maybe Annabeth in college?), Morgan Crabtree, and Julie Hocke

Honestly for her, I just focused on hair hair hair. But also I need her to have features that are like Percy said in the epilogue: soft or sharp depending on lighting and mood and stuff. But towards the beginning of the story, she’d probably look a bit more haggard and worn down than this— I imagine circles under the eyes, her poor hair heat styled smooth, and just a constant scowl on her face that makes some people (like Becky) just not notice how pretty she is at first (not Percy tho. He noticed right away.)

Luke Castellan

Pictured: Leif Stacey, Rudi Dollmayer, and Danny Smith

At first I was like “what does near 40/already 40 year old Luke even look like?!?!” because when I wrote most of aoyaom, the oldest I saw him in my head was like. 30. Similar vibes to how I pictured him in the og series as a kid (except he was barely over TWENTY in those, GOD) but then I found a photo of Leif Stacey specifically and went “oh that’s him.” A guy who’s clearly older, but young woman would still find him REALLY attractive. Charming, put together, chiseled, does good work in education, but also a total secret scumbag in one particular area— 😬 ……. I would probably be in the same position as Annabeth if I were a freshman in college, because I’m very dumb!

Percy Jackson

Pictured:

Okay listen. I. Hate. Looking for real life men who remind me of fully-adult Perseus Jackson. I hate it. None of them ever have the right vibe for me!

Evans Nikopoulos is maybe the closest? Maybe????

And Arthur Gosse is in there I think??? But I’m not even sure he’s a good fit either— idk he looks like a different man in every photo I see of him and I can’t figure out if there’s just 2 different models with this name or what!!! who even are these people? Heck if I know! Whenever I find a dark haired man on Pinterest, for all I can tell his name is Damien Alexander Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way and he only exists in wattpad’s very own “The Alpha’s Maître d’: Part Seven of the Lust Devourer Mafia Werewolf Fated Mates Cycle Part 2 Chapter 12” or whatever WATTPAD LOVES THEIR DARK HAIRED BOYS!!!!! PINTEREST’S DARK HAIRED MAN SELECTION IS ONLY POPULATED WITH WATTPAD FACE CLAIMS!!!!!!! Finding the names of these men is a total nightmare!!!!!!!

Mike Pishek is there too. I seriously labored in the Pinterest mines, and then there’s only like one specific photo of each of these men that feels like “Percy” ish to me

I think one of them is Daniel Illescas. I don’t know anymore.

Percy is just HARD because you need a guy who is intense, but can clearly be silly and have a good sense of humor and a mischievous twinkle in his eye, who can be flirty then smoldering, but then is incredibly good natured but a bit of a rebel— I hate this man there’s a reason he doesn’t exist. I never want to look at skinny pretty people on Pinterest ever again.

I was planning on doing more, but then…

Piper. Oh my GOD Piper. If I thought trying to find “Percy vibes” was hard… that’s just a whole dark haired white man. There’s trillions of those. I was trying to find a Native American woman who was specifically of Cherokee descent for Piper, and I spent almost 7 hours scouring the internet for literally any actress or model who could fit, and I’m pretty sure I’ve just. Completely lost my mind. And it certainly doesn’t help that so many results are just… disgusting displays of stereotypes!!! Maybe I wasn’t using the right search terms in google, but GOD it was just. A nightmare. It’s dire out there. I knew it would be but. I gave myself such a migraine trying to do her justice. I found ONE woman who was a model I think? In the 90s? There are so many beautiful Native American actors and models and people, yet it’s still like this! And maybe it would be fine to just use any indigenous women, as long as they’re from a tribe, but I don’t want to treat them interchangeably I guess— I don’t knooooow anyway that whole search gave me a temporary eye Twitch and destroyed any remaining dregs of my hope in society, and killed my will to keep finding examples for other characters, but I will absolutely try again!!! She deserves it!!!!!!

Anyway let me know who you’d like to see. Hopefully I will not have another breakdown. It’s probably fine.

#morgan murmurs #aoyaom #representation of indigenous people is abysmal #I mean we all KNOW that #but actually not being able to find more than a couple people from a specific tribe who are well known is…… #woof #let’s get it together #I did find a couple more recent Cherokee actresses! but they’re all teenagers #and Piper in this fic is mid-late 20s #anyway. #pjo #pjo fanfic #Percy Jackson #Annabeth Chase #Luke Castellan #I would like to lie down now