The Report (Blodewyn/Plot)

Blodeuwen was sat, as usual in her office. Today it smelt of "Dragon's Blood" and pumpkins. There were a few stalks of incense burning dotted about the place, and she wasn't especially made up. She looked prim, proper, and businesslike, wearing the royal purple cloak of her office. She had kept Aoi waiting a while so she could finish some paperwork she needed to do, but after not too long, the door to her office slid open following a gentle push from her reiatsu and she called him in softly. This one required... A gentle touch. He was liable to making assumptions, thinking she didn't know things, or being insistent on having his own way. Aoi was, quite frankly, a child. He was awfully sweet, and no more or less gifted than anyone else here was at kido, but regardless of whether he could keep up in terms of spellcasting, he had a lot of maturing to do.

She was hoping he could give her some feedback over what happened to the note she had sent to Shio. She wanted Shio on board. From what she'd seen, that boy needed an environment where he could be himself without worrying what others would think of him, and an environment where he could afford to stretch his legs without this "the tallest poppy is cut down" attitude she had discovered. Of course Blod had not heard about his rapidly descending sanity, or the blindness he was choosing to retain following their previous encounter. Hopefully she hadn't been mistaken in entrusting such a simple task to the young shinigami.

"Hello Aoi, how are you today?" she asked him, presuming he entered as he seemed to be getting antsy. As always she was drawing beautifully calligraphed notes with her left hand elegantly clasped around an ink pen as she was the last time Aoi was in here. "Would you like an apple, or an orange?" she asked, indicating with her free hand at the fruit bowl on the desk before her. She would offer him candy but she didn't exactly want to endorse bad eating habits and the only candy she'd ever really had as a child was rock candy made from fructose.

Blod paid no heed to Aoi's clumsiness, though she noticed immediately the ebbing and flowing of his reiatsu. She quietly blanketed the room in her own reiatsu, filling it with the scent of summer flowers and a hazy pink glow. She attempted to envelop Aoi, to stifle his erratically shifting spiritual pressure, to calm him down enough to get at least a modicum of sense out of the boy, otherwise he would be nothing more than a liability. She needed to know what exactly had happened with Shio so she knew the best way to move forward.

"Come, Aoi." she chided him softly. "It is rude to ignore questions directed at us." she said, her left hand still writing beautifully upon the unfurled parchment that she wasn't even looking at. "Did you manage to deliver the message to Shio? It's very important that he receives it." she told him, once he had finished his orange. She had decided on the best course of action. She had to keep him out of the line of fire; physically, as well as politically. He could do untold damage to himself and to her, too if he wasn't kept in check. She had to promote him to functional obscurity. Into a position where he could do no damage whatsoever and she knew exactly how to do it.

She listened to him closely attempting to make sense of his rushed report. She regarded him seriously. It sounded like they had a spiritual human in their midst who was a little curious about shinigami and was prepared to go to whatever length necessary to satisfy that curiosity. However, Sachiko was Vanessa's friend from the SRDI and so invariable, Mayuri would know about this, and the Gotei 13 would have a handle on it. It was not the Kido Corps job to look after them and so she disregarded the issue, levelling a gaze at Aoi, who seemed to be waiting for her to respond.

"Thank you for alerting me to this Aoi. The Gotei 13 should have a handle on the situation. Now, what of Shio? That is most important. I also have something to discuss with you regarding Jigokucho." she said to him, a small smile playing her lips. She was glad that she had finally worked out what to do with the young shinigami to keep him out of trouble. She'd hear no end of complaints if he kept going around causing as much mayhem and destruction as he had so far. But this way, everyone could be happy.

Blodeuwen's heart initially fell at Aoi's words. Shio was crazy. Moderately talented, yes, but crazy nonetheless. There was quite obviously some kind of pathology at work there, and she wasn't sure she wanted to root it out. That wasn't a problem in and of itelf, she would either just have to do it or have him thrown in the nest until he got a little less psychotic. What was an issue was that bigoted, arrogant fool Kuchiki. How dare he command her! Blodeuwen knew her place very well; it was firmly above most captains of the Gotei 13, especially ones that were relatively inexperienced such as Kuchiki Byakuya. She had been a shinigami many years before he was a twinkle in anyone's eye, and in terms of rank, she sat at the same level as the captain-commander. The idea of such a proud ignoramus as Kuchiki, who had almost murdered his own sister because of his "pride" coming to lecture her annoyed her to no end. Of course, there was no way she would leave Shio; Kuchiki be damned. He had no right to stick his pointy nose into others' business; Shio wasn't even in his squad. She'd have to talk to Genryuusai about his subordinates stepping out of line. On the other hand she realized that Aoi hadn't been the best messenger to send. She had given the task to Nobura to pass on and he had clearly just pawned it off to the most bully-able looking kid that he'd found.

Either way she wouldn't take her ire out on Aoi. She took a moment to exhale, and rub her temples. She was glad she wasn't getting wrinkles from this job because she felt like she ought to have.

"Yes I think that would be a correct deduction. I advise you to keep your distance from Shio as well as Captain Kuchiki for the forseeable future. Are you hurt? There will be blood if he's harmed any of my subordinates." she said, with a rare venom in her voice. She was becoming motherly. "Aoi, how do you feel about the prospect of a promotion? I really appreciate the work you've been doing for us." she lied democratically. "There are a number of engineering opportunities available. I think I have an idea of where would suit you." She suggested, with a warm smile.

Aoi occasionally did this; seemingly zoning out. She didn't really know what he was thinking about but to be honest it made even more sense for him to be the designated butterfly boy. She was happy to wait patiently for him, his information hadn't exactly been pleasing but it was delivered dutifully, and he hadn't been as difficult as she'd anticipated; she'd booked the afternoon off because she thought she might need to fight for specifics. In that regard at least she was proud, and that pride shone through her beautiful face. The sunny disposition changed to a frown, however, when she saw him crying. She gently retrieved a silk handkerchief from the drawer before her, and passed it over to him, to dry his eyes properly.

"Well Sora-chan I'm glad that you're unharmed. All the same, please take the next couple of days off; it sounds like you've had a tough time. After you return, you will be working as the new Jigokuchō Officer. It will be your responsibility to ensure the Hell Butterflies are bred correctly, and trained well. You will have a contingent of shinigami working for you to help with feeding and exercise and other menial tasks. Thank you for your service, I hope you do well. I expect you shan't disappoint me." Blodeuwen told him, rather businessline, but her eyes still glimmered with kindness.