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Of all the knights and senshi among Order's ranks, few people could be said to be as categorically unhostile as Hvergelmir of the Cosmos. It had been a while since she had met anyone new from the Negaverse -- and though the corrupted senshi she had met had often been highly unstable, for one reason or another, she was rarely concerned, these days. Hvergelmir had Eikthyrnir to help her if things ever went south with someone. She felt generally safe.

She approached this new corrupted senshi with cautious curiosity -- but mostly curiosity, nonetheless.

"Perhaps," she answered the corrupted's question. "I wonder if you'll talk with me for a while. I mean you no harm."

Hvergelmir was not sure she could remember ever being confronted with such a wall of sheer vitriol from anyone she'd met. Cinnabar had been less hostile. Labyrinthite had. No one had come out spitting acid quite like this woman just had.

In the wake of it, Hvergelmir blinked back at her, startled. She tilted her head at a quizzical angle. "No," she answered, bemused. "That's not what I wanted to talk about. I'm not 'you people' -- and I don't have any intention of treating you like you are, either." She was careful to rest her hands loose at her sides: a counterpoint to the senshi's closed posture. "My name is Hvergelmir Knight of the Cosmos. May I ask yours?"

Still hostile. Still impatient.

Impatience was the hardest, after all. It was so difficult to get a toehold with people who didn't want to listen for even a second.

"Yes. I was captured at New Year's," she said, careful to lean on the passive voice to avoid the issue of Amphitrite's pronoun choice.

"It's good to meet you, Amphitrite," she followed up evenly. Hvergelmir could meet anger with tranquility, fear with trust, war with peace. Rage was harder to keep in the face of someone who didn't rise to the occasion. "I've heard your name before -- but I prefer to get my own impressions of people."

She smoothed her hands over her dress, forcing herself to stay relaxed. "I'm not here to lecture you." She paused, tilted her head to one side. "Are you angry with me?"

Amphitrite was antsy. On-edge. She couldn't seem to keep still, pacing an arc around Hvergelmir like a tiger irritated at the bounds of its cage.

Hvergelmir held still, the more she moved: Amphitrite circled in hard strides, but as long as she stayed within Hvergelmir's line of sight, the knight didn't so much as twist her head to follow her progress.

"I told you," she reminded the corrupted senshi patiently, "I'm not an 'all of you.' I'm just me. Please don't judge me by other people."

The first question was how did you come to join the Negaverse.

She skipped that question. Hvergelmir knew enough of that answer not to think that soliciting the rest of it would take this conversation anywhere good.

New Year's. What a travesty that had been.

She went straight to the second question instead.

"I want to understand your perspective," she said. "What it is you're fighting for. Will you tell me what you know about the history of this war?"

Hvergelmir let her eyes track Amphitrite, taking in the constant movement of her, the overly abundant posturing.

Which of us are you trying to convince, here? she wondered. Me? Or yourself?

She could still picture Astrophyllite in her mind, before she'd become Teide. All her uncertainty, all her desperate attempts to find a path she felt unerring on. Teide had explained it to her often, what she'd been taught she was becoming.

Beautiful and perfect in Metallia's service was the phrase she'd used. Avalon, who'd apparently taught it to her, had said much the same.

Is that what you're trying to become, Amphitrite? she wondered. Did someone promise you that if you worked hard enough, you'd stop feeling the way you felt? Did they assure you that you, too, could become beautiful and perfect, and never feel doubt or fear or sadness again?

"Those are both worthwhile," she answered impassively. "What you know and how you feel about it are both important to your life, so they're both important to me. I'm interested in hearing your point of view."

Hvergelmir listened, first to Amphitrite's briefly summarized history of the war, then to her more impassioned screed against Order's forces and the ways in which they'd disappointed her. She took it all in without comment or movement, as she had everything else -- and when she finally responded, it was with that same measured equanimity.

"I see," she said softly -- not I agree or I understand, nothing extravagant that might suggest that a few short statements could provide true insight into someone else's suffering -- simply I see. Just an acknowledgement that she'd listened. That she'd heard. "I can understand why Order holds nothing but bad memories for you. No one deserves to go through something like that alone."

She folded her hands demurely in front of her, fingers laced loosely together. "I'm sure that dedication to your comrades -- wanting to be a part of something where no one's undervalued or left to fall by the wayside -- will make you a valuable asset to your cause. However -- "

Here she cast her head ever-so-slightly to the side, offering the vestiges of an apologetic smile. "Please don't sell yourself short. That desire to fight for a world in which no one's left behind or abandoned -- the desire to take your own experiences and use them to make the world more like you want it to be -- that passion comes from you. Please give yourself credit for it. You were in a weak position once. That doesn't make you a weak person. Serve whatever cause you find worthy -- but don't ever look back on yourself so short-sightedly. If you can't see the obvious strength in the person you were before, you'll never see it when your teammates need you to help them see it in themselves."