It's my very little wonder
Jan. 11th, 2015 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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It had taken L some time to recover from his thrashing from Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra still wouldn't speak to him, and blanked him entirely when he ran into him. L knew he deserved no more, or no less.
He still got headaches, and he felt dizzy if he worked for too long at a computer. That had slowed him down, that, and having to re-establish his communication network from scratch in and around Rabanastre. Several of his key informants were missing, and most likely dead, and L wasn't sure if the Ryoka had found them, or someone else, and the really frustrating part was that he wouldn't be able to find out.
He'd kept a close eye on the comings and goings and activities in Daguerro, however, even while he recovered. He had good reason to, and now, finally, he would have the opportunity to devote his attentions further afield of the place, because he was finally able to move the 'package' he'd been keeping an eye on.
There was another there, that another party had been sent to collect, but this one was L's alone to deal with, not least because anyone else would probably just kill him.
L had been forced to make the last leg of the trip personally to bring his guest under Khamja's roof. There was space for him, at last. L hadn't been present when Aizen's request to claim Orochimaru's labs had been denied, and he wished he could have been, but L had got his request in before Aizen had even returned from his own trip to Midgar. He could be a flagrant opportunist, when he had to be.
L sloped in through the main doors, ushering his guest in before letting them close. Personal effects weren't an issue, at least. Most of what the other man considered important had already been retrieved, and L had a few details he wanted the man to elaborate on for him as soon as they got the opportunity.
"Your laboratories are this way," L said, indicating the direction they needed to head.
He still got headaches, and he felt dizzy if he worked for too long at a computer. That had slowed him down, that, and having to re-establish his communication network from scratch in and around Rabanastre. Several of his key informants were missing, and most likely dead, and L wasn't sure if the Ryoka had found them, or someone else, and the really frustrating part was that he wouldn't be able to find out.
He'd kept a close eye on the comings and goings and activities in Daguerro, however, even while he recovered. He had good reason to, and now, finally, he would have the opportunity to devote his attentions further afield of the place, because he was finally able to move the 'package' he'd been keeping an eye on.
There was another there, that another party had been sent to collect, but this one was L's alone to deal with, not least because anyone else would probably just kill him.
L had been forced to make the last leg of the trip personally to bring his guest under Khamja's roof. There was space for him, at last. L hadn't been present when Aizen's request to claim Orochimaru's labs had been denied, and he wished he could have been, but L had got his request in before Aizen had even returned from his own trip to Midgar. He could be a flagrant opportunist, when he had to be.
L sloped in through the main doors, ushering his guest in before letting them close. Personal effects weren't an issue, at least. Most of what the other man considered important had already been retrieved, and L had a few details he wanted the man to elaborate on for him as soon as they got the opportunity.
"Your laboratories are this way," L said, indicating the direction they needed to head.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-14 09:05 pm (UTC)"How many successful specimens do you have?" He asked. He'd met four, but there were the traces of others in the Palace, of varying strengths, and there may still be others yet at Draklor.
There had been failures prior to Project S, too, and the loss of some less valuable specimens, before Hojo had turned to his own offspring. There were less variables outside of his control with Sephiroth, and Sephiroth had proven the potential of the procedure. Then there had been difficulties, and he'd never quite been able to produce another due to ridiculous sentimentality on the parts of others. It still frustrated him.
"The specimens I met have all been exposed to Mist and Mako," and Hojo knew that didn't come without its risks and potential fatalities, "you must have suffered a high fatality rate in the early phases." It took a long time to work on the precise calibrations for Mist and Mako exposure, and worse, such things could be affected by the amount of background exposure in the specimen's past, and the levels in the present environment.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-14 09:40 pm (UTC)It wasn't a surprise. Given that he worked with it extensively, it stood to reason that Hojo could pick out a Mistant with little issue. It didn't change anything, of course. He still wasn't to know why Mist was a requirement, only that it was, something that was a common element of many Hyur experiments of dubious legality and even more dubious morality. The precise method of fusion was complex and Mist or Mako exposure was only a tiny part of it.
"Indeed," he agreed, nodding at the assessment.
Mistants were, of course, a scientist's preference for experiments that required the subject to be hardy and resistant to death. While many of the control candidates had not been exposed prior to the experimental process, those who already had an innate resistance to Mist and/or Mako tended to do better during it.
Despite both Mist and Mako being dangerous or even lethal in high concentrations, the mutagenic qualities of those substances did tend to produce people with a higher capacity for damage repair, above average strength (both magical and physical) and far vaster potential chakra reserves than normal, untouched people. It stood to reason that these types of people were preferred for dangerous experiments.
With few exceptions, many of the worlds strongest people, be they those born as Mistants, like Kuja, or those affected by sustained moderate-to-high exposure in later life, like himself, were Mist-touched in some way. Work and practice could expand one's Chakra reserves, but Mist exposure did tend to forward the process.
"Currently, there are twelve," he said, not feeling the need to conceal the information. He would meet them eventually, anyway. "Most are Mistants, as you saw, though one of them has the distinction of being an ex-Turk."
The ex-Turk was, surprisingly, the strongest of them all despite not being a Mistant in the first place. More than that, Turks were supposed to live and die in the service of the Shinra Corporation. The only way a Turk was meant to leave their employ was via a Sending.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-14 10:04 pm (UTC)He wanted that data.
The last words lanced through his thoughts with the power of a klaxon.
"Really?" He looked at Aizen, in obvious surprise. "Where in the world did you get your hands on a Turk?" An 'ex'-Turk, no less, a living one. The thought that the incompetencies of that idiot Heidegger had allowed someone with the insights of a Turk escape all the way to Draklor amused him greatly.
He must have been a very good Turk. No wonder he'd made for an equally good specimen, then.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-14 10:12 pm (UTC)He shifted the conversation back onto his Arrancar as a group, not wanting to discuss the origins of one individual any further with Hojo, regardless of the fact that Midgar was no longer a threat to anything.
"Many of my subordinates are currently outside the Palace," he said, quite casually, giving him a thin smile that was neither entirely pleasant, nor particularly threatening. "The ones inside will be warned of the risks of talking to strange men."
no subject
Date: 2015-01-14 10:30 pm (UTC)Fortunately, Khamja, or at least those within it who wanted Hojo alive, knew better than to try and stop his funding.
He laughed when Aizen brought up his other subordinates again. Of course Aizen didn't want them giving away any secrets to a rival scientist; it would jeopardize his monopoly on the techniques used to create them.
"I have thus far found them to be singularly unforthcoming with anything useful," he said. Though to have Hebira Jiruga's son, and an ex-Turk in the catalog, Aizen had done quite well at selecting uniquely qualified individuals to be his specimens.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-14 10:49 pm (UTC)Szayel, at least, would not be likely to divulge anything to Hojo. He was probably still hyperventilating into a paper bag over his arrival at the Palace, but he was a scientist secondmost (first and foremost he was an incorrigible pervert with little regard for his own continued existence), so Aizen was relatively sure that he would not give details of the creation of the Arrancar to someone he would regard as a rival purely based on the fact that he worked on the project before volunteering to join it.
He trusted Stark, Wonderweiss and Halibel to be more intelligent than that and he trusted Apache, Luppi and Nnoitra to be stubbornly contrary. Still, he would have to speak to them, particularly Szayel, and make sure they treated this new scientist like the one he had replaced. Possibly without killing him.
"I expect L was able to salvage some of your old notes from Midgar's computers before they became inaccessible?" He asked, knowing full well he had. Gin had told him as much.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-14 11:04 pm (UTC)"There is some he wishes me to elucidate on," Hojo added. He didn't know which parts, yet; L had just said he wanted Hojo's views on some related subjects, "and I understand he recently retrieved a lot of data that was created after I left." Which he also wanted Hojo's opinions on, although Hojo wasn't sure if L was going to hand all of that over or not.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-14 11:54 pm (UTC)They would undoubtedly get more information on this person when Ulquiorra's current mission concluded, should it go well. He saw no reason why it wouldn't, short of those sent on it running into trouble in Nabradia. That wasn't outside the realm of possibility, especially given that it was impossible to go there in an Airship if you didn't want to draw attention to yourself, but he trusted that a team of three Ryoka and the third and fourth ranked Espada would be able to get in and out without dying on the way, even on foot.
"Quite likely," Aizen said, giving him a thin smile. "Science in Midgar didn't stop after you died."
no subject
Date: 2015-01-15 12:24 am (UTC)"Unfortunately for Shinra, they employed a lot of hacks and mediocre scientists lacking in curiosity, so my research won't have benefited them as much as they would have hoped." It would be back in his hands again, now, and he could continue it, to the best of his ability.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-15 12:33 am (UTC)His research and previous work was radical and, it had to be said, far off the edge of inhumane and, more often than not, totally immoral. That was the price of progress, however, and who was Aizen to condemn men who took their ideas a little too far for the sake of a result?
"Some would consider that fortunate," Aizen said, thinking on the fact that, without someone like Hojo at the helm of its scientific advancements, Shinra's governing body was slipping further and further behind the Archadian Empire.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-15 12:45 am (UTC)Hojo didn't care. Hojo famously didn't care, and would lend his expertise to anyone willing to fund his work, and if that meant they also had to be unwilling to ask him too many questions about how he obtained his results for fear of getting uncomfortable, so be it. Hojo would tell them if they asked. If they didn't want to know, then they shouldn't ask.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-15 02:48 am (UTC)Aizen, having greeted the new scientist that would be infesting the laboratory complex he'd had his eye on, decided that it was high time he returned to his notes.
"Anyway," he began, half turning away from him to head back into his office. "I shall leave you to your ...work."
And he would not forget to threaten the Arrancar with death, or worse, should they speak to this man on matters concerning their creation.