Adder glanced at not-jock-Austin with more interest. Shift to what? He couldn't smell any sort of animal, although that wasn't a guarantee. Something not-usually-alive? He'd run into a water shifter before. Eerie woman. Smelled like algae and snaggle-toothed-scaly-anger-lazy. Mostly algae. But creepy and enough to spook him off waterways until another gang killed her.

Side note, he was a little bit tempted to smack not-jock-Austin upside the head. Could she fly. She'd just flown down from the top of a building. She had probably flown to the top of that building, or at least glided from another one. Getting to the roof of an occupied private building was hard, especially on the nerves.

"You don't know where we're going or why," Adder answered, trying for flat but succeeding in suspicious. "Why would you want to come?"

At the very least, minimally dangerous to him sort of option, she'd probably chatter with not-jock-Austin and make his ears ache. She looked like a chatterer even if she spoke like a toddler.

((OOC: This has been an Austin-approved order change.))

>>"You don't know where we're going or why. Why would you want to come?"

Astrid pursed her lips in a scowl. Why did she want to go with them? Boredom was one answer, but in reality, she could be walking straight into a trap. A trap with a wolf-like face and full of stupid teenage boys. All in all, she couldn't really come up with an answer better than 'because I want to'.

While her brain scrambled for a good response, Astrid tried her best to continue looking as menacing as possible. There really was no good way to come out of this except to continue along down the path she had chosen. After all, she couldn't just go around saying that she actually changed her mind and now didn't want to come after making such a scene. That would be childish and, well, as the Yanks say, lame.

"Why you want to know?" Astrid countered in her most I'm-too-good-for-you voice. That sounded good. It sounded... Snarky. If she could have patted herself on the back without it looking strange, she would have.

In order to shift the focus off of herself, she then turned to the first boy, "why you going?" Astrid asked, even adding in a sassy head bob for good measure.

Astrid was killing it with the attitude.

“You don’t know where we’re going or why. Why would you want to come?” Adder said flatly.

The girl responded with a scowl. It took her a little too long to respond to convince Austin that she had a response prepared. “Why you want to know?” She said with maximum sass. God, this girl was getting annoying. Like a snarky, clingy little sister. She then turned her attention back to Austin with a sass-filled head bob. “Why you going?” She asked.

Austin’s eyebrows met as his face contorted in confused exasperation at the girl. “I don’t need to answer that. You’re the one who’s in our way.” He said. He was quickly losing interest in this feathery demon girl. He looked to Adder, then to the girl. “Are we done here?” He said without malice, genuinely trying to end the scene. Frankly, he was just already thinking forward to the warm bed and meal waiting for him wherever Adder was taking him.

Feather-chatterer clearly had not thought this through. Adder's opinion of her impressiveness dropped a few more pegs. Somehow. He wasn't sure where the scale found the pegs for it to drop. It had to be at starving-and-thirsty-in-midwinter-in-a-blizzard by now.

He gave his head and shoulders a shake. He didn't want to drag in a chain of stray kids. It'd just make the mansion more crowded and more loud and it was already too much of both. Plus feather-chatterer was annoying and threw things. That was not the sort of person he wanted anywhere near him for whatever long term this weirdness of closet-sleeping lasted. Plus she was refusing to answer him usefully. She might be dangerous.

In theory.

Possibly to a chihuahua. Probably not even to a drunk chihuahua, though. Heh.

Adder resumed walking, path apparently to pass feather-chatterer by without actually going around her; avoidance wasn't worthy of her. "There's a playground a few blocks over," he said as he neared feather-chatterer, an edge of his mouth almost twitching against his teeth. "Even has a water fountain."

If that didn't annoy her, it ought at least confuse her. Either worked for him.

English was such a confusing language. Did the wolf boy mean that they were going to the park, or was he just telling her that? Why would he just tell her that, though? Nothing made any sense. Maybe they were just trying to throw her off? Yeah, that could have been it. After all, she was more than used to having people dislike her. Kids at the orphanages and foster homes used to try and avoid her all the time.

But she still couldn't be entirely sure. Where other people may have just asked for clarification, Astrid simply resorted to anger. Intense anger.

The winged girl stepped heavily behind them, trying to catch up. Her face was twisted in a blind rage as she shot off her bottom row of crystals. She wasn't really looking where they landed as she stepped forwards in front of the boys.

"Tell truth now." She demanded. That seemed like a good time for a dramatic foot stomp.

Yes, a very good time indeed. It did not at all resemble a two year old having a temper tantrum. At all.

“There’s a playground a few blocks over, even has a water fountain.” Adder said with a twitch in his lip as he stepped forward as if the girl weren’t there. Austin followed, and the girl, in her confusion, let them pass her by. They made it a few steps beyond her. Austin was just beginning to think there’s no way it was that easy, when he heard a flurry of feet and some other off-metallic sound behind them. Shortly following, a sound at his feet made him look down with a start. A row of sharp crystals had impaled themselves into the ground a few steps back from where they stood.

“Jeez!” He exclaimed. “What’s your problem?” He asked the girl, who stepped around to position herself in front of them once again.

“Tell truth now.” She demanded, stomping her foot like a toddler. Austin wasn’t sure whether or not she was trying to be intimidating, but either way she striking him increasingly as more pathetic than fearsome.

“Look,” he started, “you haven’t even given us a reason to give you the time of day, so why don’t you try again when you learn to ask nicely and not like a child. But until then, we’ll be on our way. If we see you again someday maybe you can show us your big girl words.” He said coldly. He knew it was harsh, but at this point he just wanted to get the message across, because this girl wasn’t getting it. In the back of his mind he prayed Adder didn't think he was an a** and ditch him. He then moved to step past her once again, hoping Adder would follow, though if he felt at all the same as Austin about the situation he knew he would.

The confusion attempt was successful. And then turned into childish rage, paired with a mutation that looked to be a bit more dangerous than just feathered wings.

Too late to turn back now, though, and her anger didn't have the control of the truly dangerous. The tips of his teeth flashed in a momentary near-grin. "There really is a park. You can go see if you don't believe me." And in doing so, disappear out of his life! Win-win. Well, win-lose. Maybe win-win-lose if he included not-jock.

Who earned himself a few more points. Adder turned an ear towards him, interested. That was a pretty fancy way of telling her off, but without using fancy words. Words certainly were useful things.

And time to move again! Adder strolled, though with a longish pace so that he only appeared to be moving slowly. Confidence and disinterest in the brat. That was the tact that had worked in the past.

Why weren't her intimidation tactics working? They had always worked with the kids in France. Perhaps New Yorkers were just a different breed.

Well, nonetheless, she needed something to do. So, she decided to change her technique. Who could resist a crying young girl?

She once again lifted a boot-covered foot and stomped it down on the pavement. It hardly made a noise, but that wasn't the point. The stomp was merely one part of what she was going for.

"Why so mean?" The girl sobbed. There were actual, real live tears streaming down her pigment-less face. Huh. She hadn't realized she could cry on the spot.

But the tears kept coming. They wouldn't stop. Maybe... The tears weren't fake? Yeah, she didn't think they were.

So, she was standing on the street, in front of two young boys, crying. And whining. And stomping her feet. Repeatedly. It felt sort of good.

"Nowhere to go," she blubbered through her tantrum. The boys would have to listen to her now. 

“There really is a park. You can go see if you don’t believe me.” Adder added as they passed the girl. Austin did well keeping up with Adder’s fast pace. It was obvious that he just wanted to get out of there at this point. Unfortunately, they once again couldn’t make it more than a few steps before the girl just had to make another scene.

“Why so mean?” The girl began to sob. Dear God, Austin thought. They stopped again, but he didn’t move to her. The girl was genuinely crying. Real, live, tears. She began stomping her feet and whining incessantly. “Nowhere to go.” Austin froze somewhat. He didn’t know what to do. He looked back and forth between the girl and Adder, until he finally spoke.

“Your call, buddy.” Was all he said.

Adder watched the girl cry. Was he supposed to react to that? Rich people would have, he expected, but all he saw was a bratty kid who threw things at people, threatened them without any apparent ability or will to back it up, and made a hideous amount of noise.

He glanced sideways at not-jock-Austin to see if the display was having any effect on him. Discomfort, sure. No 'oh poor baby' stuff like showed up on people's faces when they taken pity on him when he was little and didn't look 'threatening' yet.

"There are plenty of places that'll take you in looking like that," he told the girl. Not that he expected she'd appreciate it. She'd probably run away from home that day or something and was just starting to get a taste for what being on her own with no given resources felt like. "Where we're going stopped being one of those places when you decided to stab things." Maybe she'd get along with Aura. Stabby murder ladies.

He didn't want more murderers around, though, so he just gestured forward to not-jock-Austin with his chin and continued moving. Long past time to be gone.

Were they seriously saying that to her? Were they telling her that they were going to leave without her even though she was crying? They were going to leave her crying on the street?

Fine.

Astrid sniffed and wiped her nose as she replaced her expression with one of anger. If they were going to treat her like something evil, then that was what she was going to be. Or was it that she was pretending to be nice so that she could really be evil? She had lost track. Whatever. The two awful boys were going to learn to never be mean to her ever again.

Another row of crystals flew quickly at them, landing at their feet. "Shut up," she growled at them. She was itching for a fight, and they were going to give it to her. Whether they wanted to or not. "Or put money where mouth is." That was a cool expression. Yeah, she sounded cool. Really cool.

Okay, maybe a little less cool after the whole crying thing, but still cool.