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Post by Lazarus Jeager on Dec 13, 2022 21:55:42 GMT -5
The runes were definitely older than anything he had been familiar with, though a handful of them were close enough that Lazarus had a rough idea of what the spell crafting components of the process were. It was clear as day that someone was working to either directly effect the population of hollows, or distribute this stuff to a number of individuals who might do it over a larger area. Either way this much alone would be exactly as Cole had said, the end result could be a collapse of the balance of souls, didn't matter which way the scale swung.
"I've got my own higher ups to report back to on this as well, but the problem lays in the people who are making the bait. If someone destroys the lab they may go into hiding even more so than they already have been here, making it even harder to solve the root problem. I've never been one to advocate for passing judgement on people without justice but this..."
His fingers traced some of the equipment, tempted to tamper with the formula on the machinery to cause it to fail. Unfortunately that would give away the fact that they were down here, which brought up a secondary thought about this place, his voice picking back up as he memorized the runes on the metal.
"Now that I think about it, it's also entirely possible that whatever trap you triggered might have alerted someone that their cover has been blown. If this gets handled poorly we might be facing an even darker outcome as a result, let's get out of here before we chance meeting someone we might not be able to handle. Oh, and for what it's worth, I think hollows are a natural part of the cycle, never in a million years would I use this stuff, hell I left because of practices like this..."
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Player
I have nothing to say.
Cole
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Post by Cole on Dec 14, 2022 18:56:54 GMT -5
Cole shook his head, pulling out a spiritual cell phone, ”If we did alert someone with that trap, but that seems like all the more reason to call back-up now to come dispose of this. In the time it takes me to return to Soul Society, report back, and get back here, the people responsible could probably come in and clear it out. I’m not here to track down the Heisenberg of hollow bait, I was here to figure out what’s up with the hollow activity.”
He swept a hand over the mountain of hollow bait, ”Question answered, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t have an MSDS sheet that tells me how to safely dispose of this stuff. I don’t know who your higher ups are, particularly if you’ve left whatever organization the Quincy have, but there’s no good that can come of what’s been left here.”
The man had some valid points, but they hadn’t really been sneaky in their entry, there was a Shinigami-shaped dent in the wall opposite the secret door, and uprooted trees all over the outside. ”Subtly is out the window, do you have a good reason I shouldn’t call in back-up right now?”
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Post by Lazarus Jeager on Dec 15, 2022 17:01:34 GMT -5
There was a sinking feeling that a bigger picture was written on the walls of this place, but without a good argument for the Shinigami to not make his call, Lazarus would concede the debate. A deep sigh left him as he looked about the place, trying to collect as much data on this place as possible before it was swept up in Shinigami investigation, eyes returning to the ungodly amount of hollow bait in the room.
"You're right you've done your job, I just hope for everyone's sake that this 'Heisenberg' doesn't have more of these labs elsewhere. As for the disposal of the bait I wouldn't know a safe way to get rid of it, what I can tell you is it's incredibly fragile, you could break it with just a snap of your fingers if it's fresh. Given the age of it I'd probably recommend using kido to transport it in a barrier or something that's air tight. I don't think I have to stress the importance of keeping those tablets from breaking apart..."
Lazarus didn't pull out his own spirit phone for fear it might get either confiscated or destroyed, while they appeared on good terms for the time being, he couldn't be sure what Cole would and couldn't demand if he started taking evidence. After all a Quincy taking notes on a hollow bait factory can only look bad, so he kept his information gathering to what he could remember with his eyes.
"Just give me a head start, wouldn't want anyone assuming I was the culprit and passing judgement too hastily."
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Player
I have nothing to say.
Cole
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Post by Cole on Dec 16, 2022 8:45:07 GMT -5
Cole shook his head, he wasn’t looking to screw over the red-haired man who had just helped him fight off hollows and find the reason for all the trouble in the first place, ”Listen, if you need to take pictures or make notes; go for it. If someone is watching the place, they might not try to clean up the site until we leave. We can probably afford a few minutes for you to get the info you need. But the Gotei 13 sent me here, and I’m not going to lie about what I found; though I can omit your presence in my report. But someone’s going to check the sensors, see there aren’t any more hollows, and they may send someone to go check up on me even if I don’t call in.”
He gave a small shrug, ”I’d trust them to safely dispose of this hollow bait, but I don’t know how quickly a follow-up investigation would get started. I’ve not been dead very long, but I do know that things that don’t require immediate action don’t move very fast in Seireitei, speed of bureaucracy and all that jazz.”
The shinigami seemed to consider something, then shook his head again, ”But yeah, I have no idea who might follow-up to check on me, and not all Shinigami are going to be as okay with a Quincy as I am. If I vouch for you it might be alright, but it depends entirely on who’s coming.”
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Post by Lazarus Jeager on Dec 17, 2022 10:33:19 GMT -5
They had just fought off a group of hollows together, basically placing ones lives in the others hands hoping they didn't drop it, and yet Lazarus still held onto his reservations about the Shinigami. Perhaps it was his upbringing, maybe the fact that their people had been at each others throat's a handful of times before, whatever they case he paused for a long moment before finally pulling the phone from his pocket.
"Good to know the Shinigami have much the same systems as the humans do, helps to temper expectations I suppose. I've not looked into the Gotei 13 much, I know you have different divisions that focus on different things, is it a cohesive group or do the divisions mostly keep to themselves?"
While there were probably plenty of Shinigami who would strike him down on sight, Cole was not one of them, and Lazarus would have to work on his misguided mistrust to the man as it was probably not helping the situation. He'd take photo's of both the bait and the equipment, paying close attention to the runes and the actually machinery involved. It was complicated spell craft for sure, but given the right time and possibly another crossing of paths with this man and his unusual spellcasting they might actually come up with a sort of counter measure, which brought up his next bit of conversation.
"This phone doubles as a spirit phone by the way, in case you'd like to exchange contact info. I think I can probably reverse engineer some of this, or at the very least convert the older runes into something newer and easier to digest. When it comes to waiting on other people to get the ball rolling I find it's better to do independent research and try and find the solution while waiting for them to get around to actually investigating. Your spell craft is unique as well, wouldn't mind swapping secrets about how you do what you do."
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Player
I have nothing to say.
Cole
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Post by Cole on Dec 18, 2022 20:32:35 GMT -5
Cole nodded, examining the setup himself, switching his phone from being ready to call in backup to photos. He started taking pictures, focused mostly on the Quincy runes; another subject for research; ”The divisions are a bit like majors in college; if you’re in the school of Engineering, you don’t need to interact too much with the folks over in the Philosophy department. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can learn from them, but you don’t have to know it to do your job.”
He gave a slight shrug, taking note of a rune that looked only slightly different from the old Norse sigils, ”Personally, I get passed around a lot, I’m in 5th division, which is basically kidō specialists, but R&D calls me in occasionally; and I was sent here today by eighth squad, which covers Europe and Africa. Mysterious shrine that we can’t figure out? Send in the guy who literally wrote the book on comparative mythology.”
The Shinigami hit a few things on his phone and read off a number to Lazarus, ”Feel free to call me whenever; I think I can make some sense of these. This one here resembles Erliaz script. It’s only a little different from the rune for ‘calling,’ which, given the circumstances, makes sense. If you can actually read the runes without me guessing, I can probably help you figure out exactly how this worked.”
Cole distinctly didn’t follow through on the mention of swapping magical secrets. The Shinigami were already trying to figure out what woman had been hunting Arrancar kidō, he could only imagine how much trouble he’d get in if he was teaching a Quincy.
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Post by Lazarus Jeager on Dec 18, 2022 21:32:31 GMT -5
All worth while information to keep track of, knowing what each individual faction did helped in understanding who might be reasoned with and who might attack on sight. He was at the very least aware of the eleventh division from his run in with the Shinigami from said division, though that man might be the exception to the rule as opposed to the standard.
"I see, I'll have to study up on the script in my free time, though for example if you look at this other one here, it can be translated roughly to either mean 'focus' or 'purify', which if you take into account the newer runes might mean 'to concentrate'. A rough guess would be that part specifically works to filter out impurities and get a more powerful concentrate of the substance, which would make sense for what has been going on down here."
Taking down the number, he would in turn do the same, saving the number simple as 'Cole' to keep people from making any unnecessary connections if his phone was taken or confiscated. He took note of Cole's lack of response to his offer of spell secret exchange, assuming the other either just wasn't interested or had other reasons for passing over the topic. No harm no foul, Lazarus just had a habit of trying to get the most out of people in fair exchanges, perhaps a topic for another time if they became better acquainted in the future. Finishing up his notes and taking a couple more photo's, he'd pocket the device with a sigh, turning to the Shinigami with a nod.
"Alright I think I've gotten everything I need on my end, I'll probably be working on translating this to more modern runes for a while but I can keep you updated on it as I 'crack the code' as it were. You're the second Shinigami I've met so far, both of you have really been exceptions to the rule as far as expectations, though let's hope that if we cross paths again it's for something that isn't so dire as finding a hollow bait production facility."
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Player
I have nothing to say.
Cole
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Post by Cole on Dec 19, 2022 18:04:30 GMT -5
Cole nodded, following the man’s gestures as he pointed out various runes. It made sense, the process was extensive, but didn’t look particularly complicated. The Shinigami made sure to document as much of the process as he reasonably could from start to finish; order of operations was critical in artifice and alchemical shenanigans. Hell, he might be able to make some sort of hollow-repellant, or turn the process into an entirely different form and more of a spell than an item. There were a lot of possibilities here for new additions to his repertoire. And if he knew what the runes meant, it might be really easy to whip up some new things.
He added the Quincy’s number to his phone, giving it a nondescript name as the contact. Cole nodded at Lazarus, ”Sounds good. Yeah, let's hope for better circumstances next time. I’ll keep you up to date on any investigation. If I make any progress on the runes myself I’ll let you know. But at worst you can keep out of any potential raids so you’re not there. I’ll let you clear out before I call this in, five minutes enough?”
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Post by Lazarus Jeager on Dec 20, 2022 15:40:42 GMT -5
Taking one last sweeping look over the room, a sigh left him as he rolled his shoulders and stretched his legs, turning back to Cole with a nod.
"Two minutes should be plenty, I'll be long gone by then, reiatsu should be pretty much gone as well if I'm quick enough. Thanks again for the help with the hollows, and here, in case you ever find yourself without friends in the human world."
Lazarus pulled a small card from his ack pocket with a number on it that was different from the number he gave, the other side simply reading 'shoot it or recruit it'. With that last bit of goodbye done he'd see himself out of the building, working his way up as fast as possible on foot, waiting until he was outside the shine gates and near the forest to start using hirenkyaku to gain some real distance. A minute or so of this and he'd come to a stop just before the edge of tree's might let out into a village, his palm held up as an inky black reishi formed on his palm. Using it as the base he would open a portal back to Tokyo, looking over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't followed by any onlookers before stepping into the murky abyss. Lazarus found himself standing in one of the many dark alleyways of Tokyo's busy cities, straightening out his clothing before stepping out into the night life, becoming another face in the crowd as he made his way back to the office.
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