Someone should really get the sun some sort of shade or something.

It was an exceptionally sunny day, which Astrid was not pleased with. Having pigment-less skin led to intense sunburns, which she really wasn't equipped to deal with. If she had it her way, she would have stayed somewhere shady all day.

However, her wallet sang a different tune. It had been empty for several days, and Astrid was getting rather sick of being chased out of restaurants or digging through trash cans. So, instead, she was forced to play in the god forsaken place of eternal sunshine. Otherwise known as Central Park. 

So, she was slathered in sunscreen and wearing long clothes and a hat, and ready to play for cash. Her cello case was in set out in front of her, and she was finishing up the last few notes of a solo arrangement of Elgar's Cello Concerto. The first movement only, of course. 

As Astrid's bow slid across the strings on her final note, her eyes spotted something. It was one of those dammed posters of the harpy. Ever since the rally, people had been going crazy over her. There were internet memes, t-shirts, and of course, the stupid posters. 

Astrid snatched it in a pale hand as it blew through the wind and held it up to the intense sunlight. Her smug little face made her writhe in anger. Why did she get all this attention? She hadn't even done anything, really. Astrid crumpled the paper in her hand and tossed it away onto the pavement, not bothering to aim for a trashcan.

Just as the paper soared away, Astrid spotted something even worse. It was the harpy in flesh and blood, just walking down the sidewalk. Astrid's blood boiled. 

She shut her eyes, hoping that she had simply imagined it, but when she opened them, the girl was still there. There was someone else with her, too. Another spoiled little blonde. She looked older, though, not that it would matter. The world needed to know just how wrong they were about the harpy, and no one was going to stand in her way.

"You!" Astrid yelled, mostly to get her attention. She set down her cello and stood on the soap box she had just been using as a seat. She was armed and ready for a fight; even if it was just with words. 

Abby was enjoying the sunshine. Summer was officially upon New York City. After convincing an adult at the Mansion to go out with her, the little blonde was enjoying a walk around the many stalls and artists and musicians in Central Park. It was a little strange having to have an adult with her, but after the Rally, people knew what she looked like. After meeting Kirsi because of some anti-mutant people, Abby knew to be careful now. She was dressed to show off her discolored legs though. It was getting easier though, what with so many others giving her praise for showing who she was.

She had already bought a few trinkets from a few people, when she heard the haunting sound of a cello. She let herself go towards the musician, though she moved slowly instead of rushing. She could hear the music just fine from where she was. When she finally got close enough to see the musician, she found the winged girl from before. The French girl.  Astrid.

"Whoops," Abby muttered before trying to make a large loop around the older girl. She didn't want her nice day to be ruined because of a run in with the criminal-like feathered girl. She kept her pace steady, not speeding up. That made people notice you, if you walked faster with no clear reason why.

>>You!"

Green eyes widened. She had hoped to get away unnoticed. Hopefully the older girl hadn't seen her listening to her play. That would be hard to explain. No point in ignoring the older girl. At the very least, Abby wasn't alone this time. She hoped that meant she wouldn't be kidnapped again.

"Yes? Can I help you?" she asked after turning to face the winged girl. Abby kept her face blank of any recognition.  Just because she knew who it was, didn't mean she had to act like she knew the girl.  It wasn't like they were friends after all.

Serena's day had started out interestingly enough, one of the mansion staffers had asked her to cover a reception desk while she went on break, she had done it on more than one occasion. Her day had then turned into a young girl she recalled meeting a few years younger when she was much shyer, requesting that an adult with the mansion accompany her out into the city. Serena could do with some sunlight and offered herself, signed off on it and chaperoned Abby. God, it was terrifying that she could be a chaperone now.

The blonde was well aware of the younger girl's part in the rally and internet sensation. She wasn't entirely happy with the idea of her walking the city on her own, where she could get mobbed by supporters or anti-mutant groups. So she had agreed to help.

She was clad in a sleeveless top, her still slightly paler than normal skin highlighted in the bright sun. She had obviously taken a large amount of sunscreen on herself, she didn't want to burn. The only downside was that if anybody looked close enough at her skin they could see what appeared to be faded self inflicted scars, though in Serena's case it was just a leftover from learning her power in private.

She was wearing jean shorts and a had her hair tied up into a neat pony tail. The blonde was somewhat startled by the screech that seemed to be directed at them. She turned swiftly to see the mutant teenager standing in a somewhat aggressive position on a box, she looked like she had been busking. The mutant teen must have been the source of some of that music. She blinked at the girl and Abby's reaction to her.

Of course, she assumed this was just a reaction to the younger mansion goer having blown up online. She smiled at the somewhat annoyed looking teenager. "Is everything alright, miss?"

>>"Yes? Can I help you?"

Astrid fumed. Obviously, the little harpy was playing dumb. Or at least, dumber than she already was, which was very. But she did not enjoy being played with. Not in the least.

She stomped hard on the soapbox, making a loud, echo-y noise with the hollow box against the pavement. The citizens of New York were going to see how awful the harpy truly was, and she was going to show them.

>>"Is everything alright, miss?"

Astrid's eyes traveled to the weird blonde woman that was walking with the little brat. So she was playing stupid, too. As if the harpy hadn't told absolutely everyone about her. 

The young winged girl scoffed. "Not alright," she began, hunching her shoulders slightly and tensing her muscles. She wouldn't shift just yet - she didn't want to start anything that early - but she wanted to be ready. "Little girl evil!"

Most of the heads in the crowd turned to look at Abby, most of them murmuring in disagreement. "That's the girl from the rally, isn't it?" One patron mused aloud.

"She evil!" Astrid insisted again. She rolled up a black sleeve and showed the crowd a fairly recent scar she had received on her arm from an accidental wing shift in the middle of the night. It sort of resembled a shark bite if you looked at it from far enough. "Gave this! Look teeth!"

Having Serena with her was really helpful. It seemed to annoy Astrid even more than she alone did. Ha!

>>Not alright. Little girl evil!"

That shocked her a little. She wasn't evil. Not one bit.

>>"She evil! Gave this! Look teeth!"

"I never bit you!" Abby yelled back. "And you kidnapped me!" And she did too! The winged girl had grabbed her in the subway and flew off with her. She'd also forced Abby outside of the store while Abby had been trying something on. Then she had held her hostage when the hotel lady came in. And then Astrid had held her over traffic, threatening to drop her onto the street too.  Though she wasn't going to say anything about that.  At least, not if she could help it.  She may not like Astrid, but she didn't want to cause the girl any more trouble than she caused her.  For every thing Astrid accused her of, Abby could come back with a true one easily.

Abby didn't notice a few people gasp at her admission to how they had first met.  She was too focused on the winged girl.  The girl who couldn't speak in full sentences and lied.

In Serena's experience, people on the younger end of the teenage spectrum had a hard time being classified as 'Evil'. You'd need to be a special kind of sociopath to get classified as such, and Abby didn't strike Serena as anywhere near that kind of personality. She struck her more as a stereotypical teenager, if a little more nave than some of them that she'd met.

The other, young mutant was also addressing the situation in flustered and somewhat broken English, Serena's mind was less on the situation and accusations, and more on the situation of the girl making them. She glanced her up and down. The clothes didn't look all that tattered, not beyond normal teenage means anyway. So she assumed she wasn't homeless, but she didn't recognise her from the mansion either.

The blonde cocked an eyebrow at both of them. She was trying to hide her amusement at the whole situation, they really were acting fairly childish. In a way, it reminded her of an encounter she'd had with Sylar and Tses once, but with much more tame reactions. It was refreshing if she was honest, seeing very teenage, normal drama. At least in her eyes, compared to all of the serious issues with mutant/human relations going on.

"I'm sorry, back up a second. Who are you?" She asked the somewhat aggressive, angst filled teenager. Serena had noted that Abby's initial reaction to Astrid had been pretending she didn't know her, and now she was making accusations of kidnapping. She'd have to bring this up at some point too.

Why did the harpy have to go and bring up the so called 'kidnapping'? She had done more good for the girl than harm, even showing her what to wear. And, it seemed, she was even starting to take her advice. Even if she was wearing pink under the dark grey.

Pink was the worst colour ever created, which only made Astrid even angrier.

Her wings finally shifted. She swayed slightly on the soap box, still not good at balancing the sudden weight shift.

"Still bad!" She insisted again. The harpy really was. She didn't have any real evidence to show it, but it was the truth. In her eyes, anyway.

>>"I'm sorry, back up a second. Who are you?"

"Valkyrie," Astrid told her, starting to beat her wings a little bit. She wasn't going to let the harpy go this time.

>>"I'm sorry, back up a second. Who are you?"

>>"Valkyrie."

Abby snorted at the name. Then she turned to Serena. "Her name is Astrid. I met her in the subway where she was playing her cello. After giving her what little money I had on me, she grabbed me and took me wherever she wanted. I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter."

All true. She had gone along with what the older girl wanted to see what was going on. It wasn't easy to understand the girl's broken English. Abby had even tried to help by using what little French she knew.

Serena listened intently, trying to ignore those gathering around them. This was exactly the situation that she hoped to avoid, even if the teenager was no real threat, it was easy enough for people to spot a group of mutants and kick off about it. She really wanted to avoid that happening, so hopefully she could resolve this and move on quickly, she wasn't in the mood for a fight.

The blonde sighed at the two of them as the girl gave what was obviously a fake name. Before she could say anything, Abby eagerly interjected. While Serena was happy to learn the real name of the clearly troubled teenage mutant that was in front of her, she somehow didn't feel like Abby's tone was helping matters very much.

Somehow she didn't feel like she was getting the full and true story one way or another, and she wasn't the type to judge a person on word of mouth, or immediate impressions, if that was the case she'd dislike Cafas, and she was withholding her judgement there until she had a proper chance to gain a measure of the man's personality and views first hand, not by proxy. She gave the mutant a reassuring smile and responded politely, despite the tension.

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Astrid. You're very talented, if that was your Cello playing I was hearing." She responded softly.

Astrid glared at Abby, aware of what she must have been telling the other girl, even if she couldn't quite make it out. It was her choice what name she wanted to give, and the little harpy shouldn't have been giving out her real name without her permission. She supposed that was a good example of how horrible she really was.

She really needed to be pushed around for a bit. Maybe that would teach her to keep her mouth shut.

>>"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Astrid. You're very talented, if that was your Cello playing I was hearing."

Astrid blinked. Several times.

She opened her mouth to respond, but couldn't find the words. What was the woman's game? What was she trying to do, throw Astrid off? Well, she happened to be doing a good job.

"Thank you?" She faltered. How was she expected to respond to that. "I very good." That she knew. She was very good. She should be though, with the amount of effort she had put in over the many years. "What you want, though?"

Abby smiled at Serena's compliment. "She really is good. I wish I had more money to give her last time." It was something she liked to do now. After explaining why she need the money, her Aunt was happy to give her an allowance of twenty dollars a week. It really had helped her with her trips into the city.

Abby listened to Astrid's response. There wasn't really any thing she could say about her playing. It was really good. "We don't want anything," she stated honestly, not a hint of her earlier sarcasm in her voice.

As she continued to observe and interact with the teenager, Serena was reminded more and more of her first meeting with Sylar, she seemed genuinely taken aback at the blonde's compliment of her. It was well and truly sad to her that there were people living in this city that were so guarded when met with genuine interest or kindness, Serena didn't want anything from the poor girl, she didn't even start the interaction.

She glanced down at Abby and then turned back to the other girl, the younger of the two definitely seemed to be behaving more politely now, which she was thankful for, it would hopefully defuse the situation quite quickly.

She shook her head with a soft smile. "No no, I don't want anything from you. You called us over, remember?" She spoke with a soothing tone still. "I just wanted to let you know that I admired your musical talent. I've never been very good with music or art, so I've always been appreciative of those that are."

Serena quickly glanced around to see that those around them were only looking on with casual interest now, nothing particularly excited or aggressive. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh," Astrid sighed. It was true; she had called them over, and started the whole conversation. They really hadn't been doing much of anything, and now she wasn't even really angry anymore.

Her wings flattened slightly and returned to their usual black feathered state. She didn't really have anything else to add. So, she slumped back down onto her soap box and let her wings fall over the back. Astrid pulled at the cello strings, having no desire to play after the awkward encounter.

"You go, then," she nodded to the path. They looked like they had been about to leave when she called them out, so now they were free to. She wasn't going to bother to follow after them.

It really wasn't the evil thing to do, but she didn't have any drive to fight the woman, and by extension, the harpy.

Abby shifted on her feet as Astrid sat down. The older girl looked sad now. Her wings even showed it. The last time she had met Astrid, they didn't really get along. But how much of that was their lives? Before Abby just thought Astrid was being... well not nice. But this was the second time the blonde had seen the winged girl playing her cello in public.

>>"You go, then."

Abby turned to Serena for help. She didn't know what to do, but maybe the older blonde would.

It was always odd, the kinds of situations that Serena inevitably found herself in. She still couldn't believe how many people with heavily physical mutations she'd met over the years. She'd met gargoyles at midnight, monsters in the sewers, saber toothed tigers in green houses... And now she'd met somebody else with wings, in the middle of central park.

She wondered how the girl managed to get by most of the time. The poor girl must have been starving most of the time. She couldn't imagine what that must feel like. She didn't really have much physical money on her, and it would look a bit odd running to a cash machine and then back...

She smiled at the girl softly. "I don't have any change on me to give you for your lovely music, but it's around lunch time and I'm getting hungry. Would you like to join us for something to eat?" She asked in a soft tone.