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Something about Vitriol's words just made Nembus sadder.

We're a family, after all.

Were they a family? Was that really something she felt like she had here? Was her team a family? Was Jade her family? Could she find a family in a place that had taken so much from her?

We are all we have.

The Negaverse was all she had. It was all she knew. She didn't know her life before this. She never would. She didn't know what her life would be like after this. Probably nothing. She didn't know what her life was now. She was Super Sailor Nembus, corrupt senshi of electromagnetism. But she was also Delilah Samson, secretary and Destiny City University student. But Delilah was also a farce, and she knew it.

Vitriol seemed dedicated to the Negaverse because all they had was each other, but hearing that somehow struck more fear into Nembus, and she couldn't help a few moments where she trailed behind, fidgeting a bit with her skirt. Perhaps it was a good thing he wasn't looking at her.

She fell back on track when he started answering her question, and she trotted after him, attempting to swallow down the nerves she felt. Lost direction and his eyesight--he had gone blind? What had blinded him? What was the mistake? Take him? Was he forced like her? What made him think he had a debt? What made him think he had something worth dying for?

She buried the questions for a few moments, taking in the tour instead. It reminded her of some of the college dorms she had seen, in a way. Fairly basic. Some places to cook and eat and hang out, a place off to the side to clean clothing. A room to sleep in, presumably. Probably not much more than that. "Kinda reminds me of the dorms," offered Nembus, with a quiet laugh, as she glanced into one of the common areas.

Afterward, she turned and asked, "How did he take you? Did he... did he make you come over here? To the Negaverse?"

She had to know.

"Yeah, I'm a junior."

She had no read on how old Vitriol was, all things considered, especially the, uh, whole half-monster thing he had going on. Something about furry arms and yellow eyes made it hard for her to concentrate on a whole lot less when she looked at him. From the way he was talking, though, she had the impression that he might have been a bit older than her, or at least, he thought he was.

Who'd wanna force a blind man into the Negaverse?

Ah, so he wasn't forced.

He wasn't like her, then.

Nembus had just taken a shot, a hopeful one that perhaps she had found someone like her, like Sailor Stillwaterite Sedna, like Sailor Amazone, but she hadn't. He probably had some semblance of his memory, or some semblance of purpose, at the very least. He intended to corrupt, even. Wanted to be judged. Wanted to be seen as--

Her blood ran cold as he moved closer, asked why she corrupted, asked why she left.

s**t.

She had no answer to that question. Well, she did. But she didn't. She couldn't just say well, I was forced, could she? She had just asked if he had been, so it was her fault that perhaps he might even be thinking that, she could only blame herself. She put too much out there. She should have let it go. She shouldn't have let the curiosity get the best of her. What would he say if she said she didn't know? Would it make her lesser for not having a choice? Would he blow her in for figuring it out? Would he prod at her about what her actual loyalties were? What was his opinion on it? Would he think her more worthy, then, because she had been "worth" forcing? Would he think her less worthy for not just asking to be judged, to see if he was worthy of the Negaverse?

Nembus swallowed hard, and took a step back from him.

Calm down, Nembus, calm down, calm down.

"I don't know," which was somehow both a lie and the truth; she didn't know what had caused her to be force corrupted in the first place, but she did know she had been forced, and pretending otherwise was a lie, "I don't remember who White Moon Nembus was."

That was the truth.

"For what it's worth," Nembus opted to distract from what she had just said, "just because you didn't have sight, doesn't mean you weren't worthy. There's been blind people in combat, before. And blind martial artists. And we have other divisions, too. Ones that aren't so fight-oriented," like the one she belonged to.

A wonderful corrupt senshi.

Was she wonderful?

Nembus wasn't sure she believed that. She wasn't sure how much there was under the surface to be wonderful. She didn't even have the memories and development of living for a full year and she was in her twenties. Her twenty-first birthday was next month. Her twenty-first!

It felt surreal, honestly, considering she could recall nothing before she opened her eyes and asked about Marcasite--

"Ah, thank you," but she accepted the compliment despite, shyly grasping one arm with her other hand and slumping her shoulders a bit. It was both a defensive positioning and a somewhat sad one, one she worked quickly to muffle by at least squaring her shoulders up.

He didn't seem particularly confident in himself, considering how much he kept bashing himself and insisting he was stupid and made a mistake. And then he said his outsides matched his insides.

That hurt.

"You shouldn't say that, the outsides match your insides, thing," she gestured at him, mostly at the arms, admittedly, and the tail, and the ears and the eyes, "you don't seem like a monster to me."

Was calling a half-youma a monster rude?

Maybe she should have reconsidered how she worded that hopefully he wasn't mad at her for that she didn't want to make any enemies--

"And it's Nembus. And no, you didn't upset me. I'm not afraid of this place."

She upset herself, more like...

Nembus had no idea who she was before, what she was before, how she was before, her relationships from before, her family from before, her life from before, anything from before.

Anything from before those fateful moments when she woke up.

That was the biggest part of her problem.

Whatever she had been before, the Negaverse had stolen it--

At being called sweet, Nembus flushed a bit and averted her eyes. She didn't quite understand why she was sweet just for telling someone not to bash themselves. He didn't need to be so mean to himself. It sounded like he had already faced his punishment, anyway, being an ... actual partial monster, now, with big awkward furry hands that he was reaching out to her.

Nevertheless, though she didn't understand the source of the compliment, she did hear the word friends, and really, all she wanted was more connections.

More things to find some sort of meaning in her short life.

"You don't need to fight for me," murmured Nembus, shaking her head at the idea. She barely wanted to patrol in the first place. She didn't need people to patrol for her-- "But I'd like more friends."

Why did he want to fight so badly?

It seemed that all he believed was that his only good was being a soldier, a fighter. She supposed his current form might have reinforced that--a partial monster, with such large claws--

Maybe he would be a good fit for SpecOps, later, but that was definitely not where she belonged. She preferred being part of Jade's team, where she wasn't necessarily expected to fight all the time, though she would if she had to. It wasn't like she didn't still have quotas and didn't still have to defend herself against threats.

Though, it was interesting; for the most part, her experiences with Order had been relatively positive.

Not the point.

"I appreciate it," responded Nembus, not sure how to respond to the part where she didn't exactly want him to fight with for her, since he kept insisting on it. "It's always good to have more people to talk to."

"It is."

Why was he staring? He seemed pretty emphatic about this whole ... talking thing. Was everyone treating him as an underling, or something? Maybe that was why he was so insistent on fighting for her. She was a stronger level than he was, after all, somehow, technically...

Nembus had been told why she was upgraded, but all the same, she still wasn't sure to think about any of it.

Awkwardly, she rocked back and forth on her feet for a moment, searching for the words to say, before deciding on, "Thanks for showing me around here. I appreciate it."

Why did he bow? Did she say something wrong? What did she do wrong this time? Nembus fidgeted awkwardly behind her back, trying to find something to say to make the situation a little less ...

"No need to bow," offered Nembus, finally, rubbing her neck.

That made her feel too ... she didn't know, but she didn't really enjoy it.

"It's the evening, for what it's worth. At least, it was when I got down here." She offered a smile to him, even if he was turning away. "Probably nighttime now."

Nembus was relieved when he thanked her for telling the time. He didn't seem as ... formal and upset now. Perhaps she had done something correctly, that time. Good. She just wanted to make connections, after all.

"I imagine it does," she murmured, glancing up to the sky as Vitriol gestured at it. It was very pretty looking, admittedly, but there was a part of it that struck a chord of sadness and fear in her the longer she looked at it. Endless lightning. Endless darkness. Endless gloom.

It seemed stifling.

"Yeah, definitely!" Nembus chirped, with a grin, nodding at the idea of talking to someone. Making connections. It was nice. That was what she was supposed to do, right? "I have mine, too."