Arrival of Mr. D

[Lysandros Evermore, Camp Half-Blood]

Charles Beckendorf and I soon arrived in the main building, where Chiron would soon make an announcement of sorts. Taking a look around the crowd of demigod campers, and even magical creatures that were the camp's staff, I soon found Thalia, who was talking with the little Annabeth.

Bidding farewell to Charles, and after thanking him for calling out to me, I proceeded to go towards the girls. After arriving, Annabeth greeted me, before she started giving me an uncertain gaze full of caution.

"Is there anything on my face Annabeth?" - I asked, after being unnable to make heads of the situation.

Blinking innocently, Annabeth answered, while still keeping an hesitant face - "Big sis Thalia said you are a big bad wolf that likes to feast on little girls..."

With my face twitching, I send an angry glare at the perpetrator, only for me to receive an even more intense angry glare back.

Yeah, no! She seems to still sulking, I better just ignore this mischief of hers, lest she really try to kill me. In the games you can always give some food and Pikachu will be back to a good mood... maybe that would be worth a try.

Ignoring her glare, I try and explain things to the innocent girl before me. Getting down on one knee, I look her in the eyes and say - "Your big sis is just messing with you! There is no way that would be true!" - Keeping a kind smile on my face the entire time.

Blinking innocently again, she then said with less suspicion - "Really? But that is what big sis said a Big Bad Wolf would say before eating a little girl..."

"Your big sis was just playing around, right? Thalia?" - I turn to my sulking girlfriend, talking in a bland voice, with narrowed eyes.

Knowing she had taken things too far, she decided to come to my aid - "I was just playing around, he would NEVER do that, right?" - She even made a point by emphasizing the word never. Is this her way of saying Annabeth was off limits? Is this how she sees me?

Don't get me wrong! Annabeth will surely grow into a gorgeous girl, but I only see her as my younger sister! Furthermore, she and Percy were just made for each other, there is no way I could change that! Same for my little brother-in-law and Piper, that daughter of Aphrodite. This time I will see to it that no crazy emperor will get to him! I would not be able to bear seeing Thalia crying.

I wonder how he is doing... too bad I can't seem to remember too many details on the timeline on his side. Maybe I should take some time to visit the Roman camp, and meet my little brother-in-law...

With the misunderstanring (read tomfoolery) dealt with, I walked up to Thalia, who was looking away, intent on ignoring me, snaked my hands around her waist, and pulled her towards my chest, as I was around 4 inches taller than her, standing at 1.68 meters tall (5' 7"). She did resist a little, going as far as elbowing me in the ribs, which hurt me a little bit, but she soon gave up on struggling and just stood leaning against my chest.

I leaned down and gave her a kiss to the forehead, making many people start staring in our direction with annoyed eyes, clearly not amused by our PDA. Seemingly noticing their gazes, Thalia blushed up to her ears, and soon pushed herself out of my embrace, standing beside me while holding hands, acting as if nothing had ever happened.

After a little time had passed, we finally saw Chiron arrive, following behind a short, stocky man, with a bloated face, curly black hair, bloodshot eyes, and an expression on his face that seemed to be perpetually sour. Wearing a colourful, but totally out of place hawaiian shirt, and holding an oppened can of diet coke.

That is 100% Mr. D, or Dionysus, it seems he has fucked up big time in Olympus, as Zeus just decided to boot him out now. Knowing him, he will probably try and take out the fun out of most things he can. Oh! They stopped! Will Chiron start the announcement? Probably.

Some seconds later he started, taking his sweet time, talking about some uninteresting things like some changes in schedule for some minor activities, and other things like that. Looking around I found out that most campers had a similar reaction to mine, and even Mr. D was starting to show impatience with all this unnecessary talking.

Finally, it was not until several minutes later, that he got to the main points of today's announcement. Did he really have to take so long? I felt like rolling my eyes at his antics. He could become a very good novelist with such a wide repertoire of bullshit. He could probably make Naruto's fillers almost seem important to the story in comparison.

"Now, going for the main contents of today's announcements, we first have the new camp director, appointed by the gods themselves. Campers, give a round of applause to Mr. D, also known as Lord Dionysus!"

Upon hearing his words, the entire camp went into a silent shock, their brains refusing to register the words they had just heard, almost as if unable to connect the grumpy man to the image of a god they had in their heads. Seeing the silence, Chiron faked a cough to bring everyone back to Earth.

"Ahem..."

And only then did the applauses start. And after a while, Chiron made everyone greet the new director.

""Welcome Lord Dionysus!"" - They said in choir, as I repeated with not much enthusiasm.

"Would you like to make a discourse, Mr. D?" - Chiron asked in a tone that made it clear he would not take a no for an answer.

"Do I have to?" - Mr. D asked in a defeated tone, while sipping on his diet coke.

"Lord Zeus gave me orders to ensure you played your part properly..." - He said, not paying any heed to the sulking god before him.

Grumbling at the unfairness of the situation, Mr. D soon started his speach, that was honestly, much better than anything I could have expected coming from him, magically projecting his voice, just like Chiron before him.

"Alright, listen up, you little monsters and demi-whatevers. I'm Mr. D, your new camp director. Yes, the god of wine, revelry, and, of course, chaos himself. Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering how a mighty god like me ended up here. And let me tell you, it's not by choice. Oh, no. It was either this or a thousand years of being stuck in a wine cellar with nothing but a bunch of rowdy satyrs and nymphs to keep me company. So, here I am, slumming it with the likes of you.

Now, I'm not here to coddle you, so don't get any funny ideas. I'm not going to be baking you cookies or throwing you surprise birthday parties. My job is to make sure you survive long enough to be mildly competent at fighting monsters. Anything beyond that? Not my problem.

You'll notice that there's a slight lack of wine here at the camp. Zeus, in his infinite wisdom, thought it would be a great idea to banish me from my favorite beverage. So, if you see me with a Diet Coke, don't stare. I know it's not the same, but I'm making do.

The rules are simple: don't die, don't annoy me, and don't mess with my Diet Coke stash. Follow those and you'll survive. Break them, and I will find creative ways to make your life miserable. Now, off you go, and remember—this place is not a vacation spot. It's a training ground. You're supposed to be learning how to fight monsters, not run around like you're on a field trip.

Oh, and one last thing—if you think I'm going to be leading any campfire sing-alongs or storytelling sessions, think again. I'm only here because someone has to be, and I'm frankly too busy for this nonsense.

Now get out of my sight, before I change my mind and send you all to the Underworld for a 'field trip'."

With that out of the way, Chiron soon gave out another announcement that left everyone, especially the male campers, very excited.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Hello guys! We are at the end of the very first week of this novel, and I would like to thank everyone for the support. We reached 133 powerstones, and almost 700 collections! There were also over 120k views! I never could have expected something I created just to pass the time would be so well accepted by all of you!

I wonder if any of you can find out what the next big announcement will be! The first one to guess it right will be mentioned next chapter!

I hope when can beat last week's power stones! Hope you all had fun!

Suffer with the cliff!

Peace out!