#did i have these quotes memorized. perhaps. the bond between me and tlt is unmatched.

[ruegarding]

like the whole point of the ball scene is to humanize cerberus and the underworld. percy literally says "i thought maybe annabeth and i had both had the right idea. even here in the underworld, everybody—even monsters—needed a little attention once in a while." and then almost immediately afterwards percy thinks "the dead aren't scary. they're just sad." the whole point is that the underworld, and hades by extension, isn't scary! that's why percy is so sure he can leave his mother w hades and come back, and that's why he mentions charon and cerberus ("it wouldn't hurt to play with cerberus once in a while. he likes red rubber balls" HELLO) bc he doesn't see hades as the scary, conniving god everyone else does.