[BSD-RP] Human World: Karakura Town

[BSD]

It had been 100 years since the Shinigami of Division Thirteen were pelted by Togabito and Hell gate, and the return of arrancar. Throughout those 100 years, they have been busy, so busy in fact many of the higher ranking members haven't been back to the soul society in the 10 years that passed in Karakura, and took it upon themselves to create Gigai and personas to fit the town for a while, even their lieutenant, who's been back and forth so much they've all lost count.
It helps a great deal that he requested a Senkaimon gate in Division Thirteen with access to Karakura town. Today was pretty quiet compared to previous ones at the moment. Some of the Shinigami have taken to the local school for undercover, others have taken jobs around town. One of which was a young woman cleaning the patio of a local cafe. It helps to recharge their batteries sure, but they remain more vigilant than ever, in the wake of the broken peace. At peak hours of the day a numerous amount of Division 13 members are around now, per Katsuo Oda's request. Stretched thin as they were, they still tried their best to keep up with their duties.
The Quincy, they knew were out there. However, as long as they left the shinigami to their duties, the Quincy were left alone, per Katsuo's request. If they wanted to take down one or two hollows, they didn't mind. However for the most part the shinigami would like to slay them to purify them. They've not heard much from Quincy for a while, and concerns about that started floating around. Still, they followed orders and kept their noses out of their business; afterall, the enemy of your enemy is sometimes your friend.

 

[BSD]

Whether his words go unnoticed and without a response, made no difference at the time. By now his mind lingered on other matters- matters to him that are far more important. What of his Church in his absence? Did this man truly mean what he says? Will he be able to return in order to help the people that come for his aid and advice? These questions remain elusive to any verbal output. A concern that will not register to the man beside him. Dimitri at least felt this to be true, but not much else exudes from him. As if to be a ghost, a mirage. Just who did he decide to partake in this adventure with? They had pulled off, merging into traffic, and in tow, the man broke the temporary silence.
" Dimitri, If you insist."
A nod would suffice at this moment, but Dimitri makes no such action. However, his head does turn slightly, his eyes peering over to the outside world. Lights passing by, cars, all the same, even people who linger this late at night. He had almost forgotten how beautiful the outside looks. Lukas once again opens his mouth to speak, but not just to Dimitri, but to his pride as well.
" Dimitri, Name a single other Quincy family in position for absolute power, besides the Diamante."
Even to the call of his name, he doesn't turn his attention to Lukas right away. His gaze lingers further, seemingly enthralled by the passing world. Luka’s question doesn’t go unnoticed in the slightest. Though, if he truly wanted to answer right then and there-
" There is no need to answer immediately. Please, do not answer my question right away. I want the answer after dinner."
Adamant in allowing the Priest to think about his answer, possibly expecting a certain one. For the time being, Dimitri turns his head back, as if to give some thought to his answer. Lukas in turn turned his eyes towards him while releasing a rusty shade of smoke from his mouth as he enjoyed his peculiar cigar.
" While you think about your answer, allow me to update you on the affairs of your kin. Those who have any right, any at all, have either been killed, abducted, or are missing somehow. Vanetti, Lagusa, The Barbero families had been destroyed and then merged with their Japanese cousins. All have been silent and isolated until Blume reached out to them. Nearly every full-blooded family is on board."
Listening, Dimitri’s joy is unseen. Happy to hear that these families have come together. However, surely this man understood. All of this seemed far too good to be true. As even the most willing can be the most deceitful. Their treachery is possibly disguised by their loyalty and dedication. From his younger days, Dimitri saw no trust in others, he could depend on others for too long. However, as his faith grew, he began to find faith in many, despite their past. So what faith did the Diamante family have in these families? What faith would they have in Dimitri?
Finally, Dimitri turns his head towards Lukas, giving him his full attention. His eyes are hidden beneath the glare of his glasses, and his expression even more so absent to this plane of existence. While he did digest and understand this information, Lukas continues on.
" Each of these families since joining has been taken care of financially and protected by the Diamante. You would be hurting your own people by refusing this request. You think we only need soldiers and scientists to become complete again? Even if I disagree with them, with you, we need the healers and the people of faith. We need you. It will take every one of the Quincy to get what is constantly taken from us."
Gently, Dimitri smiles…
He turns his head away. A sign of amusement. With all these families, did they need him? For what exactly? That question remains tucked away for now. How can Lukas say that he has been hurting his people, when in fact the people that come to his church seek help? They seek guidance, a chance to start over. Financial support, protection, his people did not require this. Dimitri aims to give them the power to protect themselves, to ignite their diminished resolve once more so that they can build themselves up from the ashes. Money, bodyguards, it only does nothing but delay and hides the inevitable fact.
Soldiers, scientists, medics, and now the people of faith? What is their plan? What exactly does the Diamante need prayer for? What do they hope to accomplish in the next coming months or years? More importantly, what has been taken from us, the Quincy? Regardless of these questions that begin to pile on top of each other, his choice of words was nice at best. However, no matter what pleasing things he said, even from this man, the Whisper of the Quincy, Dimitri can tell he truly cared little for this conversation, for this drive, for this situation as a whole. Perhaps his empress will bring a different vibe than he gives off, as the young kids might say.
They arrive…
The doors open to both the vehicle and the establishment they enter. Lukas enters first, he orders first as well, even his meal choice is quite peculiar. Dimitri follows him in, at his own pace, of course, taking his sweet time to finally get to his seat. If the current events, unbeknownst to him, are set to happen, what did he truly need to rush for? If they needed him as Lukas claims, why rush towards something that is already guaranteed? Eventually, he takes his seat.
" Order whatever you want, Dimitri, don't feel bad. The kids back at the church are getting brought meals from the Diamante Mansion's cooks. So try to enjoy this meal, eh?"
He didn’t plan on ordering, but as some might say, ” don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Painfully generous, Lukas once again extends the kindness of the Diamante family, and to accept his offer-
” A sweet tea with light ice, as well as a bowl of salad is fine.”
Even as his food and drink are brought to him, he makes no motion to take a sip or even enjoy a bite of his meal. Instead, he awaits an opportunity, an opportunity to answer the question that he was asked on the ride here.
" So, What is your ans-”
” You expect an answer to a question that you yourself have already answered? Your question has become rhetorical, however, I do hold quite a few of my own, but only one will suffice for now. I believe I will save it for the ears of Blume Diamante. I would guess that she will be joining us?”

 

[BSD]

Karakura Town ———————————— traveling from ———————————— Naruki City

"Nice save there, I was getting ancy. So are we just heading on home and calling it a night or do you REALLY have more business to attend to. Burnt all the daylight and now you want to cut into my sleep hahaha!”
The hidden realm in which the Quincy were able to go absolutely undetectable surrounded both Blume and Dominic as they escaped the event and were both alone for the time being. She listens to him closely as he complains, but it’s nothing less than poking and prodding away at her as any close friend would. She rolls her eyes as he speaks of sleep, knowing full well it was his own fault for getting up before dawn even broke.
“Elende has informed me that a particular prospect hasn’t responded too kindly to my summons. Lukas has made an attempt, but he is keen on having me come to him directly. How cheeky, don’t you think?”
A gentle laugh escapes her, but that smile does not reach her eyes. Perhaps she understood why anyone would be hesitant to fall under the hand of what they would deem a young and foolish girl that only heard stories of the horrors of the war that her people faced. While it may have been ten years ago that she’d finally made this decision, it shouldn’t have taken so long in the first place for her people to learn to be unselfish. Purebloods were obsessed, and while she would admit the same, it was not her obsession that drove her to do as she’d done after all this time. Many question her ethics, her goals, her endgame, everything that would put them in harm’s way for Blume to have what she wanted.
And what it was that she wanted so badly was simply peace.
Such a request was frugal yet it seemed like those who laughed in her face found it to be the most difficult request anyone could have ever imagined. Power, money, strength, assets, were all so easily obtainable but outdated and outsourced. Those few things were feeble in comparison to peace, one that was long-lasting. What did the straggling Quincy need protection from if they were so capable of handling themselves?
Blume had no intentions of offering protection, but simply an offer of unity of those of her kind. For well over 1500 years, Quincy have been killing one another after the Almighty’s plight back in the Soul Society, aiming to become the newfound leader, but had nearly wiped their own kind before they could enact revenge. At this point, revenge for their fallen king was… childish. So much that it didn’t interest the current Empress in the slightest. If anything, those Shinigami from that time ago could have very well perished since then, one way or another. Near immortals themselves, the Shinigami have had more than enough time to pass for the Quincy to simply be a legend of old until recent times. The last three hundred years have been quiet… up until now.
She exhales through her nose and stares ahead. Perhaps this servant of God had questions for her. No matter, she would answer him. Whether or not he would turn back on Him would be of his own volition.
Stepping through the shadows once more, Blume comes to find a pair of elderly individuals sitting at a table with a heavy topic in discussion. His back to her, Blume stares down at the elder Quincy that has devoted his quiet life to an omnipotent being and just manages to catch the end of his speech:
“You expect an answer to a question that you yourself have already answered? Your question has become rhetorical, however, I do hold quite a few of my own, but only one will suffice for now. I believe I will save it for the ears of Blume Diamante. I would guess that she will be joining us?”
“I had to see for myself the one who would not answer my summons. With old age, I thought the elderly would become wiser...”
Blume had made herself known by addressing Dimitri in the instance his questioning had finished and would startle him after having emerged from the shadows. Dominic would be close behind, and upon his reemergence, the shadow would fall away. In front of Dimitri, Lukas sits, with his meal nearly gone. So as not to spill any unnecessary blood, Blume had urged Elende to guide Lukas back to the Schatten Bereich. Without a fight, Lukas had begrudgingly left them and from what she would hear, later on, locked himself in his workspace. Taking Lukas’ place after the area was cleaned, the Quincy Empress stares down at Dimitri Lehmann, her stone gaze locked and unmoving. Her hands rest in her lap as she crosses her legs beneath the table, her posture relaxed, unlike Dominic. Hopefully, he would linger in the back, yet still close enough to respond if need be, but she had doubted that would be the case.
“What questions do you have, Father?”
She would waste no time. She wanted something, as did he. Why not go straight to the point?

 

[BSD]

“ I had to see for myself the one who would not answer my summons. With old age, I thought the elderly would become wiser...”
From the shadows, her presence came to be- followed by a statement that trails directly behind his own. As sudden as her arrival and words were, his expression never changed. Not a twitch nor jump acts in response to her, instead, the shift of his gaze from beneath his lenses. If the creatures from before did not provoke any sort of reaction out of him, then why should she? Despite her strength above them- despite her title… However, another is soon to follow behind her, trailing the very steps that would lead her to the now vacant seat. Lukas left, departing to who knows where, and without fuss. It seems for those who prey on raw meat, this young lady has been able to quell them. Or perhaps they follow until an opportunity arrives…
Though interested, his face and posture did not show the slightest of it. He remained as is, relaxed, at peace. He felt nor saw any danger even at this moment, despite being on a different side of town, one that is likely controlled by her might. The empress takes a seat, as soon as her spot is cleaned and sanitized. If only he could have such treatment, being far older than her. Regardless, he watches her settle, becoming comfortable in her position, but her eyes settle on him like stones, fixated. For now, she held no foresight to violence in this small gathering, but she was willing to listen, and also receive the answer she wanted. Whether Dimitri would give it, depending on her response…
“ What questions do you have, Father?”
Straight to the point indeed, there is no need for small talk. His hand moves finally. Finally grabbing a hold of his cup of sweet tea and placing the rim to his lips, sipping gently. As if to quell a dry throat, as if he had been talking far too much, as if to test her patience, but she has been waiting long enough, far too long for what she seeks. The cup is set down, half of his beverage devoured smoothly. He opens his mouth while resting his hand atop the other.
” Wisdom comes with time, young lady, time I have spent listening.”
He leaves her to ponder that statement for a small moment, to understand that another person's wisdom does not revolve around her time. Whether she realized that or not, he’d have gone on with his question.
” With all this power you have obtained for yourself and for your alleged allies. Even the ones who stand close to you. Once you have it all, Ms. Diamante, what do you seek from this path?”
Within her pending answer, the same hand moves, and this time he grips the fork to his salad, biting down gently chewing while the Empress speaks or ponders her answer. He expected a careful one, one that wouldn't display her entire plans, but even if she did, he only wanted to see where the young lady’s head was. He wasn’t an entire family, he had no immediate family to protect, he only had strangers, people from all over the world that simply sought his help to better their own lives. She had to give him reason to follow her, to achieve the loyalty that is already being spent towards God.

 

[BSD]

God’s little prospect shows no fear even as she steps into the room and addresses him. Good. Not as though she was purposefully intimidating at the time, but she had no need for those who cowered in her presence when it was just simple conversation. That wasn’t how she wanted to rule. The ruling by fear was simply only delaying the inevitable fact that those that feared her would rise together and overthrow her sooner or later. He sips away at his tea, and she can only sit in silence. What reason was there to rush? They had all the time in the world to discuss his services.
“Wisdom comes with time, young lady, time I have spent listening.”
Blume Diamante feels a gentle tug as he dares to test her with verbal quips on patience. Her expression does waver even as he finally addresses her, but her interest is piqued even further. She knew very well that this man before her bore no kin nor relatives, but she knew of the history that he once took place in when it came to the internal Quincy Wars. She knew that he had become a man of faith in an attempt to hide his past, to forget his days of the mindless slaughter of his own people in a stupid war for the title. The truce in which these families that have vied for the top had settled for peace rather than the extinction of their own kind, and perhaps it was this that the priest had created this shell of a man that defended those who were unable to defend themselves…
And that was specifically why she had wanted him.
” With all this power you have obtained for yourself and for your alleged allies. Even the ones who stand close to you. Once you have it all, Ms. Diamante, what do you seek from this path?”
“Modern idols or false gods can take such forms as clothes, homes, businesses, machines, automobiles, pleasure boats, and numerous other material deflectors, just like that little cross that sits on your chest. Your dependency is fickle on prayers and support from a God that does not exist to assist the people that seek help. War, famine, plague, and then death, millions of prayers gone up in smoke, unanswered, and it is then that people denounce this faith of yours and many others.”
“I am more than aware that there are people who have verbally sworn their allegiance to my cause but have yet to devote their souls wholly.” A cup of tea of her own comes to rest before her and she leisurely swirls the light liquid around in circles in the pristine cup that held it. Slowly she lifted the smooth beverage to her lips to be consumed, and she savored the particular taste that lingers on her tongue. “There is only so much power one person could have before it begins to cave in… I’m not looking for numbers, if that is what you are insinuating, Father. I need skilled individuals that have a purpose that aligns with mine. Those families that have come beneath me are just gentle influences, small streams that seep into rivers that join lakes and then oceans...”
The Empress leans back in her chair and her gaze falls elsewhere, staring at the corner in which Elende rests, quietly with his hooded cape draped over his features before returning back to the entity eating away at his selection.
“My purpose for collecting individuals like you is simply for peace. You’ve seen the repercussions of these otherworldly attacks, what they’ve done to the people that cross the threshold of your church every day. Every day.”
Her left hand crosses the table, bearing a smooth palm, unmarred by any means, palm held out towards the priest. Such a sign had usually meant that she knew no value of hard work, but the scars that were embedded deep in her lower back said otherwise. Out of sight and out of mind was how she wanted to keep it; the past served as a reminder to a life that she did not want to lead, a subject born and bred for dominating the competition…
A weapon.
She didn’t desire that life at all.
“I seek a safe place for the people of this world. I desire balance. There is no reason as to why we should live in fear of the monsters that our parents told stories of to scare us into slumber any longer… There are limits as to what a person can take. Humans are feeble creatures and do not have the same prowess and both you and I possess makes it even harder to survive.”
Her cerulean orbs fall onto the pendant that hangs from his neck, lingering on the silver cross that signifies the faith in which he devotes himself body and soul. Blume Diamante almost laughed when she came across his file. To think a ruthless man such as he would desire a quiet life such as this. The young Quincy returns her gaze back towards the face of her elder and tilts her head, her two-toned locks that frame her face fall over her shoulder.
“I only ask that you join me to aid those who can not protect themselves from the things in which they can not see. You are well aware that this conversation was no means of having you dawdle in actual human affairs, did you? You do enough of that on your own.”

The Empress raises the cup of tea to her lips once more and holds the gaze of her target.
“Shinigami have caused plenty of trouble, bringing even the Gates of Hell to this world all those years ago; Father Lehmann, can you truly look me in the eye and tell me that this is God’s plan for his children? Are you willing to continue to stand by and do nothing in the name of your God as his children suffer?"
A soft chuckle escapes, but it quickly fades.
"Prayers may provide the thinnest sliver of hope for but a moment, but reality crushes it so easily, Father. Reality makes people weep and curse the heavens. The reality is that people are needlessly dying from the hands of Hollows, tortured souls in which the Shinigami pay no mind to until it's too late, and those tortured souls only want to take more and more because they want to hurt people because they were wronged. The Shinigami go home and it is us who are left to pick up the pieces of their destruction.”
Balance, peace, destruction, and creation went hand-in-hand. Blume Diamante would do whatever it took to reach the vision that she desired. The eradication of Hollows was permanent if they fell to a Quincy's hand, which is why nearly two thousand years ago, their kind was nearly eradicated for destroying these extremities. Balance was threatened, but such would not be the case if Shinigami were to do their jobs properly. Millenniums of service and they still were unable to attribute to the balance between life and death, earthbound or not. She desired not to do their jobs for them because she simply couldn't. Eradication was the short-term solution to a lifetime goal, and by the Gods would she break the world for them to reap their mistakes.