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Whether organically or with slightly more specific cunning, Hvergelmir was always looking to expand her network of contacts. She hesitated to call them 'friends,' particularly -- most of the people she'd met, she'd encountered only once or twice -- but she considered it a wise thing to put eggs in a lot of different baskets, in case someday she needed to call in a favor here or there.

It was all the better, then, when someone else reached out to her to make a connection. In this case, a Mars knight -- someone she'd met in passing at Avalon earlier in the month. She wondered if he was one of the ones Kairatos had said he knew. Well, at any rate, it never hurt to make a friend.

"Thanks for meeting me," she said warmly. The bus shelter where she'd offered to meet up did a fairly good job of keeping the wind off, but she'd still gone to some effort to coccoon herself in the voluminous cloth of her shawl until Glitnir's arrival -- so she was glad she didn't have long to wait. Hvergelmir got to her feet and let the cloak settle a little more casually around her arms. "I haven't gone out on patrol in a couple of months now, so I really don't mind the company. Are you familiar with the theater district?"

An awkward question, definitely. "Oh, that's um," she began, suddenly very interested in the theoretical existence of a piece of lint on her dress. "I've just been really caught up with things at home, that's all. I live with my family, and they don't know about me, so -- I have to sort of keep things balanced. Do you have family you live with?"

While she waited for this answer, Hvergelmir started walking at a slow, leisurely pace. She pointed directions occasionally -- but the theater district comprised familiar stomping grounds for her, and she could navigate the streets with ease.

It was a little amusing to hear him suggest that he'd take point if something attacked them -- he was a page, and she had made it all the way to a knight's rank, after all -- but she didn't push the issue. No one expected her to be much use in combat, and she wasn't really the best fighter, so there was no need to make a production out of it. For all she knew, Glitnir of Mars was a champion kickboxer.

Hvergelmir couldn't help it; she smiled at the mental image of a man in a toga wandering around the university campus and the nearby streets. However much she'd gotten used to the powered uniforms they all wore, it was hard to discount the humor in it sometimes.

"I blend in a little better there," she answered with an easy shrug. "It's not perfect, of course, but most nights I can get away with looking like I'm on my way to some kind of gala or a show, dressed like this. If not, most people will just take me for an actor from one of the shows, which works, too. It's a little easier than traipsing around the high-rises in the finance district or near the baseball stadium dressed in my white gown, anyway."

Hvergelmir had often wondered how other people chose their patrol sites. Did they choose places they thought would be easy to blend in? Underpatrolled? Dangerous? Familiar? How often did they vary their patrol routes? She only knew her own habits -- and those, at least in some respects of knighthood, had proven to be unusual.

"So," she asked, not wanting to presume too much (she'd spent a year as a page, after all), "How long have you been at this? Knighthood, that is?"

Hvergelmir shook her head, but not with any rancor. It was actually just pretty nice to answer lighter questions for once -- from an ally and not an enemy. 'What's it like talking to civilians while you patrol' and not 'Explain to me again why you aren't evil usurping aliens bent on enslaving us all.' It was easy chit-chat. "Actually, you'd be surprised," she replied off-the-cuff. "Most people don't actually stop and chat with me all that much. Seeing someone in costume, I guess it's intimidating? Like they think they're not allowed, or at least like they might be getting me in trouble somehow if they basically try to get me to break character? It's really -- I mean, it's respectful, you know? You really see how much the theater crowd in DC really does love their community."

She turned a corner and examined the street, taking a moment to push her senses past the little glow of Mars warmth that Glitnir, so close nearby, presented. Beyond that, there were the faintest tingles of distant auric movement -- but nothing too close, nothing close enough that she could get a bead on it. Still a quiet patrol. "About a year and a half since the first time I ever powered up," Hvergelmir answered the second question. "But I spent most of that as a page. After that, I sort of . . . " She paused, considering her own career history as a knight. "The way was easier to see. For me, it wasn't -- I powered up when I was . . . more of me. I guess I've heard that for some people, powering up to your next rank is like, a battle desperation thing? But for me, powering up is like . . . growing into yourself. It's a process."

"It would be nice if everyone could grow into their rank at their own pace," she agreed. Hvergelmir turned a corner, offering a demure royal wave at a hot dog vendor she'd often passed. He looked up and smiled back, taking note of the new addition -- Glitnir, the Roman toga guy -- then went back to his work.

"Have you been to your Wonder yet?" she asked. "Had a chance to look around?"

Hvergelmir lit up all at once, delighted and intrigued. "A courthouse! That's so exciting!" Without realizing it, she even sped up a little, almost as though they were walking to see his Wonder instead of on a circuit through the theater district. "I've been to Mercury -- all kinds of labs and libraries there, with their tech culture . . . but Mars is a completely different society. What's it like? Do you know what kinds of trials were held there, or anything about how they worked? To be so close to a planet's old government . . . !"

Hvergelmir waved a dismissive hand through the air, self-conscious. "Oh, nothing like as exciting as yours," she demurred. "My Wonder's very small -- an island floating on its own in space. It's basically just a glorified gas station, honestly." She shrugged. "White marble everywhere, with my well in the middle. Plus a temple, and a long, silver pier. There used to be a garden, too, but that's long dead. Not many planets and Wonders have any signs of life on them anymore, as far as I know. Plants, some of them -- nothing sentient."

Hvergelmir considered this, then answered with a private smile. "Well, some of them," she conceded. "But the island is open to anyone. I remember a good number of pirates -- and other sorts of disreputable people. Honestly, I remember enjoying the chance to meet so many people from different walks of life." She canted her head to one side. "I suppose a Mars knight's encounters with the criminal element might've been in a very different context, though."