Texas (private for Zane and me)

Sawyer pushed her books into her bag the moment the bell rang across the school. She had spent the last twenty minutes of Econ absently clicking her pen and frankly couldn't wait to be out of this classroom. In the hallway she mixed in with the noisy ocean of other students and briefly stopped at her locker before heading for the exit. Her headphones hanging around her neck, she was talking with one of her friends from the basketball club, a tall bloke with biceps of pure concrete. They were discussing training and the next game against this other school; the result of that game could probably better all of their chances at getting a scholarship. For Sawyer, who had dyslexia and a mother with a limited income, it was definitely something to aim for.
Dressed in a flannel shirt, sturdy cargo pants and a parka, she walked out of the school and waved bye to her pal as he stepped into his car. As for her, she still had to study for next week's history test. Sure, she could do that at home but she also wanted to use the school library. History was one of her worst subjects and her teacher had been clear she had to ace that test otherwise her GPA would be heavily screwed.

But first, coffee.

The girl crossed the loud road and headed for this coffee shop she knew -- the coffee in her school's cafeteria was disgusting. More like dust in boiling water. At least in that other shop she'd get a good cup for a decent price. A few minutes later she walked out of the shop with a steaming espresso in her hand when she almost smacked it into a guy's head. It wasn't her fault, she just hadn't seen him coming her way.

"Wow, sorry dude," she said as she tried wiping the coffee droplets off her parka. "Whoa- Zane?"

Zane kept his hood up like always, and almost constantly looked towards the ground to try and not draw attention to himself, but a guy wearing all black clothing and a sword strapped to his back tended to get people's attentions. He wanted to hide his black blade, but there was nowhere for him to put it, after all, this little trip wasn't exactly planned. Once again, he had found himself on the receiving end of Shadow Travel gone wrong. He had no clue where he was at, but judging by the landscape, he was somewhere like California, or maybe Texas. Somewhere dry and dusty.
He ended up walking down some busy city street as he repeatedly glanced up to get an idea of where he was. He didn't really have to know, but he felt it always helped him travel when he knew the distance between the two locations. Despite his glancing, he had no warning at all when someone rammed into him, hard. His head a little fuzzy from the sudden impact, he found himself sitting on the sidewalk, the collision having made him fall backwards. Luckily, most of the steaming hot coffee in their hand had missed him, though a few drops did land on his hoodie.
He gave a sudden jolt as he heard the person call out his name, before realizing that it was a woman. A woman he knew quite well. "S-..Sawyer? What the heck are you doing here?" He asked in a surprised tone, completely forgetting that he was sitting right in the middle of the sidewalk, making other people have to move around him.

"Dude, could ask the same of you," she grinned, extending her hand to help him up. "See, I live here."

As he was on the ground, a small black figure all dressed in black, she realized again how frail he looked. However she knew he wasn't someone you should underestimate when it came to combat, she had seen him on the field more than once. Even if he was relatively new to camp, he was a quick learner and had caught up on training in a matter of months.

"Come on, let's not stick around here." She looked at her cup, which was almost empty now because of their collision. Sighing, she drank what was left and tossed it into a nearby bin. "You hungry or something? I know a great place for coffee."

Zane gave Sawyer a small half grin as he reached up to grasp her helping hand and pulled himself up to his feet. He squinted his eyes from the sunlight as his hood had fallen down, letting his jet black, now almost shoulder length, hair out before he flipped his hood back up, letting his eyes open back up normally.
"Yea. Someone could call the cops since i'm carrying around my sword." Zane replied as he glanced back at his sheath before looking back toward Sawyer as she threw away her coffee cup away. "Eh... Not a big fan of coffee." He added before his stomach suddenly growled, making him blush in embarrassment. "But I guess that says I could eat.."

Sawyer glanced at his back. "That's Stygian iron ain't it. Don't bother too much, the Mist does a great job at hiding mythology stuff. People probably think you're carrying a really weird backpack," she shrugged. She had spent a great deal of time studying godly metals, being a daughter of Hephaestus and all.  She knew one or two things about their individual properties.
Leading him down the street, she pushed the shop's door open and stepped in. Inside it was warm and the air smelled of croissants and cookies. A large blackboard hung over the bar with the different drinks they had: tea, coffee, hot chocolate, frappes, etc. "So, why are you in Corpus-Christi?," she asked Zane as she ordered a toastie and another espresso.

"Yea, of course it is. I wouldn't use anything else" He replied, absently rolling his shoulders to adjust his sheath strap a little. He blinked a little at her Mist comment, then felt his face flush a little. "Right... forgot about that.." Zane mumbled as he looked away awkwardly before they started for the coffee shop. As they entered the little store, the smells wrinkling his nose a bit. Not really liking anything else, he just ordered a water and found themselves a table in the corner. "You know how it goes.. Shadow travel gone wrong and all that." He gave a little absent shrug before taking a drink.

"Oh, so you just happened here?" Sawyer rose her eyebrows. She knew Underworld kids sometimes had problems controlling darkness, but it still felt weird to imagine jumping into the shadow of say, a tree, and coming out in a completely different state. It was cool, of course, but it was a little freaky too. What did it even feel like?

"Out of curiosity," she asked, biting into her toastie, "where in the US were you before you appeared here in Texas?"

"Yea, pretty much." Zane agreed with a slight nod. He took another sip of his drink as he tried to remember where he had jumped from. "Um.." He started to say, silently cursing his bad memory. "Southern Florida I think."

"You think?" Sawyer asked, one bushy eyebrow popping upwards. "Jeez, how long have you been shadow traveling for?" It must be so strange, randomly going from one place to another, just like that. It must be quite disorienting. And trying to figure out where exactly you end up could prove rather awkward -- did you just, walk up to strangers or. .?

But oh well, he was here now, if he needed somewhere to eat and sleep she could take him to her flat. He did look exhausted, and paler than usual even if his body had become more toned than the last time she had seen him.

"Yea.." Zane replies while rubbing the back of his head, a look of embarrassment on his face. "I don't have the skill with Shadow Travel as a child of Hades does. It takes me a lot of concentration to get the destination right." He explains, rubbing his head a bit more before taking another gulp of his drink.
"And yes, to answer your question. If i don't know where i'm at, it gets a little hard to figure it out. I either hope i stumble upon the info, or ask someone. Which makes them give me alot of strange looks.."

Sawyer listened to him; she knew how hard it was to master your powers and get the results you wanted. She herself experienced glitches with lava or mechanokinesis every now and again, she could only imagine the amount of effort needed to melt into shadows and appear somewhere different.

"Are you on a mission or something?" She asked, scuttling forward as a large man squeezed his way past her chair. She couldn't think of any other reason for Zane to travel so much....or maybe he was on the run?

"Oh, no, nothing like that. I just..." Zane started to reply but fell silent as he watched the other people in the little shop. After a few brief moments, he continued, "I just can't stay at camp constantly. Everyone says they've accepted the Underworld kids with open arms, but I can see it in their eyes. They still hate and fear us deep down..."
He sat there quietly as he looked down at his hands on the table, nervously tapping a couple fingers on the wooden surface. He felt claustrophobic at camp, but he didn't like it much better around all these people.

The chair creaked as the huge girl leaned back, some of her hair escaping her bandanna. Maybe this was why Zane and her got along so well. "You know, you wouldn't worry so much about what other people think of you if you knew how rarely they do," she finally said, crossing her muscular arms.

Zane simply gave a small shrug at the comment, staying quiet. He was an outcast, just like the rest of the underworld children. No matter how nice Sawyer was or what she said, he knew deep down that it'll still be a long time before they were all accepted fully. People still associated underworld kids with darkness, evil, and death. None of which many people care too much for. But he was used to it. He gazed down at his drink as he thought, idly running his finger along the rim of his glass.

(I.....am......so..... sorry! I did not expect to be gone from here this long T^T. I'm gonna be trying my best to be on here every once in awhile, as long as i have the time i'll make sure to come on. Again, i am so sorry Morgan *pouts*)