Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was hard to predict who would come back to her bench for a second visit. Hvergelmir did her best not to hang her hopes on any one person -- or at least not to do so too soon -- but each person that came back felt like a victory, and each one that never returned stung as a failure. In her line of work, first impressions were beyond crucial: they were often the only impression she'd get to make.

It was a welcome sight, then, Mjolnir's approach. Hvergelmir set aside her spinning, laying her distaff and spindle to rest against the bench, and stood to greet the young would-be berserker.

"Mjolnir," she said, smiling. "How are you?"

Hvergelmir smiled pleasantly. "There's nothing to feel badly about," she said with ease and confidence. "I think we all make better decisions when we're better informed -- I'm happy to help, if I can. It's what I do."

It was no surprise to hear that Mjolnir was here because she was feeling, in her words, a little lost. People came to Hvergelmir when they needed guidance or support -- they stopped coming when they didn't need it anymore. It was as true, she thought, of her allies as it was of her enemies: but there it was. It was what she had to give. At least people still came.

"I'm very well," she said. "It's kind of you to ask." In a more solicitous tone, she went on, "I'm more worried about you. The last time we spoke you were charting your own course . . . but you seemed a bit alone. How are things going?"

Hvergelmir shrugged, allowing the admission that Mjolnir had avoided fully addressing her problems. It was what people did sometimes. Hvergelmir herself was guilty of it, certainly. It wasn't her best self -- but it was a self she'd never been able to be fully rid of. "We protect ourselves, sometimes, by shutting out the things that are more than we're prepared to handle at that moment. Sometimes that's a harmful decision, and sometimes it's not -- but often, it's all we're capable of at the time. We all go through periods like that. The most we can hope for is that we get through them quickly, and back to steering our course."

She didn't press the subject further. Guidance, she'd always thought, had a more lasting value than admonition -- especially when admonition meant telling someone something they already knew.

It seemed better to pursue what Mjolnir was asking. Her pursuit of knowledge, even knowledge that might be before her time, was admirable. It bespoke a person like Hvergelmir, who wanted to understand the lay of the land, not just play out a role she'd been given. It was a question worth answering.

So Hvergelmir thought it over.

"Well, I guess that was a few years ago, now. Things were . . . simpler, then, I think -- but I'm not sure they were because of it. I don't think I knew anyone else, back then, who was trying to untangle the divisions between us all. That's really the only reason I took up my path, actually. I don't think I'm really the best suited person for diplomacy, honestly -- but no one else was doing it. And someone had to: that's what I thought at the time. Back then, people were always at each other's throats.

"It would be nice to be able to say I could take credit for that, but -- in the end, of course, it wasn't me at all. A few years ago, when we all started having dreams of horrible futures for ourselves -- I think that's when people started to see it, started to shift into looking at each other and seeing their potential, not just what team they played for. I think that's when a lot of people started to realize it didn't have to be just like this." She frowned. "Before then, the Negaverse and the Dark Mirror Court were more closely allied. Nowadays, it's hard to tell, but -- things seem to be . . . different."