Becoming Pluto's Ambassador: Nico Di Angelo

4

I'm sorry, does someone want to fill me in here? I'm on a trip with a guy named Pluto who was in my father's palace, and seems to have the same powers as my father, but he's not Hades. He even knows about the oath, and it sounds like he has taken it too.

"I'm sorry, but who exactly are you if your not Hades?" I asked.

"I'm Pluto," he said, "Just as I told you."

"Ok I caught that, but can you be more specific?" I questioned. "Like what are you the god of? I'm assuming you are a god?"

"Yes Nico, I am a god, but it will be hard for me to fully explain to you who I am without breaking that annoying oath."

I looked up at him puzzled, surely it was as simple as 'I'm the god of .......' but apparently not.

This Pluto guy saw me and said "I suggest you search it on the internet. That way I don't have to tell you and the oath isn't broken but you still find out."

I liked this guy, he seemed clever, and was able to find loopholes that made me finding out about this fairly easy.

Pluto looked at me expectantly but then understanding flicked across his face, and he reached into his suit pocket.

I tensed. I know the things Hades keeps in there can be rather vile, but Pluto only pulled out a pristine iPhone that looked to be the latest model.

He handed it to me unlocked and said "Sorry I keep forgetting that you demigods have issues with mobiles, but don't worry about using this one, it's a specially designed phone so that it's signals can't be detected let alone traced so those nosy gods keep out of my business. It won't alert any nearby monsters."

"Thanks." I felt more relaxed at this, but it was still very strange using a mobile phone for the first time in ages.

I opened up Google and searched in 'Who is the god Pluto'. It came up with some nonsense about "the Wealthy One" and "the Giver of Wealth". This didn't really help me too much so I scrolled down the page to find a better answer and as I'm going past the 'people also ask' section, one question catches my eye.

'Is Pluto the Roman god of death?'

I press the drop down arrow at the side to read more.

'The Roman god of the dead and lord of the underworld, Pluto was a mythological figure shrouded in mystery. He was also the master of wealth extracted the chthonic (“subterranean”) realm.'

Oh. My. Gods.

I stutter trying to find my words, "S..... S..... So you are the Roman god of the underworld? And the Roman gods are real as well as the Greek ones?"

"Yes you are perfectly correct." Pluto said formally.

"Are you just my father but the Roman version then?" I asked.

"Yes, but I control everything under the earth. This means that I am also the god of jewels and riches." He stated.

"Well that explains the rings."

"Oh, you noticed them, do you like them?" He asked in a friendly manner.

"Yes, they are very beautiful, but kind of look a bit impractical." I stated.

"Don't worry about that," he said, "I have plenty of costume changes." And with that he quickly changed into a toga, then into what I assumed was Roman battle armour, and then back to his suit.

"Cool" I appraised.

Then I thought to myself, if I was with this guy, where was my father Hades?

"Um where's Hades" I questioned.

"I suppose he's here also, but it is incredibly hard to explain with certain words that I can't say without, you know."

I looked at this man incredibly confused.

"Imagine a split personality disorder," he said. "That's the best way to imagine this situation, but instead of fighting for control, we work together. Although it does get hard to do that when we have conflicting interests.

"And on that topic Nico, you must know to be cautious, if they suspect you are not my child, they will kill you and then go in search of your friends at their camp.

"You have been separated from each other because when you have known about each other, there has been war. How much do you know about the American civil war Nico?"

"Um not much other than it was a travesty and it was about slaves." I replied

"You're not wrong with the first point, but the war didn't start because of slaves. It started because this group of demigods found yours."

"Wait so are you saying that they are Roman demigods?" I was shocked

"Yes" he replied. "Now, let's see what we can do for you. You need to look that part when you introduce yourself to them."

I was confused until after a wave of a hand, the phone I had been holding disappeared, and was replaced with me holding a bright white toga.

"Put it on then." Pluto snapped.

I started to remove my shirt, but Pluto interrupted.

"No, no, no," he cried, "just slip it on over the top, they don't really care about what is underneath."

"I can't believe they still wear togas!" I exclaimed, making a mess of putting it on.

"Only on formal occasions." He noted.

"Oh so this is formal now?" I asked, finally into my toga.

"Well, I'm not sure how they will take it, formal or informal, but it's best to always make a good first impression." Pluto said.

"Oh," I sighed. "Thanks."

"No problem. Anyway, you going to go down there now and introduce yourself as an Ambassador of Pluto." He said. Then he hummed, "You would look much better in black."

Flicking his wrist again, my toga suddenly changed from a stark white to a coal black. This was much more preferable. I nodded my thanks.

"Anyway, if anyone asks about you, tell them the truth as much as you can unless it compromises that your not like them."

"Ok, so if asked about parentage, do I say that I'm your son?"

"Yes exactly" he replied. "Also, don't use the names you know for the gods, just go along with them and figure it out, ok"

"Yeah, so I'm pretty much going into the lion's den when I'm a lamb, so I have to not mess up, even though I know nothing about them."

"Perfect you understand! Oh, and what ever you do, don't become enrolled into their program. Tell them you will be living mostly with me."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because if you are enrolled, you won't be able to leave until you have done 10 years of service, and you need to make appearances at the camp of your kind of demigods before then." He said and then with a wave of a heavily ringed hand, he was gone.

Oh wonderful.

I trudged down the hill towards the mysterious Roman camp.

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A/N
Anyone else find this situation funny? Although I do feel bad for Nico. Gotta make sure he doesn't mess up.

Once again, if there are any grammatical errors, pleas let me know.

~Sheeps