They'd arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO.

At least, Sylvia thought it said that. It was either that or ELWOMEC OT CORFLO,UDCT WNE OCIMEX.

The air was cold and thin. The roofs of the cabins were heaped with snow, and dirty mounds of it were piled up on the sides of the streets. Tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, though the morning was sunny. 

Even with her hoodie, Sylvia was freezing by the time they got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As they walked, Sylvia discussed her dream with Fawkes (and listened to Percy telling Grover about how he needed to go see the guy named Nereus in San Francisco).

Grover looks uneasy, her phoenix noted from the tree she'd just landed on.

"That's good, I guess," the satyr said to Percy. "But we've got to get there first."

And Percy looks like he's trying not to be sad about the chances of finding Nereus and Artemis and Annabeth, Sylvia added, shutting the sadness at Annabeth's name in a tiny box full of all the sadness and fear she'd stored over the years. Which, of course, is how we're all feeling, but he's not very good at concealing emotions.

To be fair, today is Monday, and the solstice is Friday. He does have every right to be stressed, Fawkes reminded her.

Thanks for that, Fawkes. I really needed to be thinking about those things at the moment. Sylvia forced more emotions into the box. 

They stopped in the middle of town. They could pretty much see everything from there: a school, a bunch of tourists stores and cafes, a run-down motel, some ski cabins, and a Walmart.

Lux tugged on Sylvia's hand, bringing her to look at them. "I've go-gotta go to th-the-the washroom," they murmured, cheeks a rosy tint. "I'll-I'll be right ba-back."

"Ok." Sylvia smiled at her sibling. "Just come here when you're done, and we'll meet you after we finish doing...whatever we're going to do."

The child of Apollo nodded once and scurried toward the Walmart, almost running into an elderly woman at the door and quickly apologizing.

"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental."

"No way out," Sylvia summarized, grabbing a hair elastic and pulling her golden hair into a ponytail.

"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.

Sylvia glanced at the Starbucks, frowning at the thought of the overpriced drinks that'd be there.

"Yes," Zoe said. "Coffee is good."

"And pastries," Grover agreed dreamily. "And wax paper."

Sylvia wasn't quite sure how satyrs could eat half of what they did. The last time she'd tried wax paper (for a dare and totally not because she was hungry and didn't feel like stopping her art to go get food), it'd tasted awful and way too heavy. She highly doubted it tasted any different only six months later.

"I'll go with you. I could use some caffeine and sugar," the daughter of Apollo admitted.

Thalia sighed. "Okay. How about you three go get us some food."

Sylvia nodded. "You, Percy, and Bianca should go check in the grocery store. Maybe they could give you directions."

Percy looked like he wanted to argue against the order, then decided not to.

"Fawkes will circle the area. She'll alert us by shrieking really, really loudly if something is wrong."

That's so undignified, Fawkes grumbled.

You'll still do it, though, Sylvia pointed out.

Let us just hope I won't have to. The fiery bird leaped out of the tree and soared high above everyone else, her keen eyes searching the town for any possible threats.

"'Kay. Let's meet in front of Walmart in fifteen minutes," Thalia suggested. No one had any objections, thankfully. Bianca did look a little uncomfortable going with Thalia and Percy, but she went.

Inside the Starbucks, Sylvia frowned at the line. There were at least ten people before her. They didn't have enough time to wait through the entire thing then wait for their drinks to be made. She glanced at Zoe, whose brow was lowered as her dark eyes scanned the customers. She was probably wondering which one she could bully into giving them their spot.

Sylvia decided for her, shoving an awkward teenager out of line and standing where he'd been moments ago. He didn't even protest, and instead just walked to the back of the line.

The huntress gave her a smile as she practically glided up beside Sylvia, Grover in tow. "I believe I enjoy thy company."

Sylvia grinned at Zoe, then stalked up to the cashier with her signature glare. She deftly grabbed a cup on display and silently cracked it with her steel knife. "What do you call this?" she demanded, shaking it in their face and returning her knife to her pocket. "It's destroyed! Completely destroyed! I demand a refund!"

The employee frowned at her and took an earbud out. "Lady, calm down. I need your receipt first."

"A receipt? A RECEIPT?" she shrieked, the music playing from the speakers growing louder. She vaguely registered that it was the song Golden Hour by JVKE. She loved that song. "WHY WOULD I HAVE GOTTEN A RECEIPT WHEN I'VE BEEN TOLD YOUR CUPS ARE THE BEST QUALITY AND THERE'D NEVER BE A REASON TO RETURN THEM?"

"Who told you that?" they asked, raising an eyebrow. "Your Facebook friends?"

This is not the time to burst out laughing, Sylvia, she reminded herself. "The poster on your window."

The poster was, in fact, promoting the cup's quality. The employee, whose name tag said JAMIE, rolled their eyes. "I don't care. I can't do anything without the receipt."

"Look, Jamie," Sylvia hissed, seeing Grover's terrified eyes and trying not to grin, "you're either going to refund this and give me a 50% discount on everything I'm about to order, or I'll report you to your manager."

"What'll you do?" they scoffed. "Complain about not getting your way for once?"

Sylvia smiled sweetly and cut herself on the steel knife in her pocket, waiting for a moment before pulling the bloody finger out and showing it to Jamie. "This is what your cups did to me. I'll tell your boss you aren't inspecting these carefully enough."

Jamie pursed their lips in thought. Sylvia tapped her foot impatiently while waiting, letting her fake "Karen" personality grow angrier.

"Well, what'll it be?" she demanded. "Refund and 100% discount, or you get fired?"

The employee stared blankly at her. She made the "Karen" grow to her peak of anger. 

They stared at each other, both daring the other to speak.

Jamie suddenly widened their eyes and yanked their other earbud out, frantically grabbing for their phone and pressing the pause button. Sylvia was surprised to realize she could a) hear the music clearly from the earbud despite standing at least 3 metres away and b) could still hear the music despite Jamie having clearly stopped it earlier.

"Kierstyn, please step in." Jamie winced and held their ear. "Just give her what she wants. I'll pay for it."

Kierstyn blew a purple bubble and popped it, turning to face the daughter of Apollo . "M'kay. What do you want?"

Sylvia turned to face her group. Grover now looked horrified, and Zoe was looking her in the eyes with interest. "What do we want?"

"Oh, I don't need anything," Grover rushed, glancing at the front door as if wishing he could run out. 

"Too bad." Sylvia rotated her body to face Zoe. "What would you like?"

"I would like an oat bar and coffee with cinnamon in it, please," the maiden requested. 

"Okay then." Sylvia spun and smiled at Kierstyn, sending a wicked smirk in Jamie's direction a moment later. "Twelve oat bars, one black coffee, one regular coffee with cinnamon, four venti strawberry acai refreshers with lemonade, three venti mango dragonfruit refreshers with coconut milk, five cake pops--I don't really care what the flavour is--and nineteen muffins, also random flavours. Oh, and a refund for this cup."

Jamie stuck up their middle finger and Sylvia returned the gesture.

"Will that be all?" Kierstyn asked, handing her money in exchange for the cup.

"Yep."

"It might take a while," Jamie warned. "Possibly years. You should leave, bitch, before we all shrivel up and die here."

"It'd be fun to watch you grow old and realize there are better things to do in life than work at a coffee shop when you're, like, 43 and obviously grew up privileged," Sylvia told him, smirking as he glowered.

"You'll regret this one day," he promised.

"Sure I will. This interaction will haunt me at night and make me a changed woman." Sylvia snickered. "See you when you're done making my order, Jamie."

She stalked off to the washroom, relieved that she could finally pee after holding it in for that entire interaction.

As she sat in the stall, cursing herself for only bringing a couple tampons, she wondered if she should've felt bad for that interaction. 

You did what you had to do, she reminded herself. It doesn't matter that you did the exact same thing your maman used to do years ago. It doesn't even matter that you sounded exactly like her, too. What matters is you saved the money you'll probably need for more important interactions later...right?

Sylvia frowned as she realized she wasn't so sure that was the case.

Unedited again

Very much filler chapter because I wanted to write her as a Karen lmao

Word count: 1.5k

Sorry ab saying I'd update then not updating. I got very sudden writer's block (again)

To make up for it, I'll have to question of the days

QOTD (1): Favourite movie/TV series?

A: Currently Brooklyn Nine-Nine

QOTD (2): Do you guys like Sylvia POVs or Lux POVs more? Also, would anyone be interested in a Fawkes POV or nah

A: Idk they're both fun to write and a Fawkes POV would be interesting

Anygays, cya!

~Aspen~