Spaghetti Eastern [Kei/Bambietta]

The former 3rd Division had been plenty appreciated in these troubled times, but the former SRDI had been even moreso. Bambietta, despite everything, had ultimately been the one to be given the reins on both institutions; she was simply more willing to do it than the former acting captain. Not that Bambietta would really hold that against him. If she'd had a family, she couldn't imagine prioritizing this over them.

Well, in a sense, she kind of could. She had one friend, at least, and this work was to his benefit. To the benefit of everyone who'd believed in her enough to give her a living here. That was why she was here, still working, hardly even sleeping, and why she was ready to open the door to the former SRDI with a faintly annoyed expression at the woman who'd been banging on the door.

"You are, but I'm inside, yeah. Can I help you?"

Bambietta was tired. She didn't like a lot of the people who had already come by her door. If someone was here to make demands of her, she wasn't interested in playing ball.

"I doubt it. At least, not the individual people who're still here. Anyone that's still here right now is working on trying to find the Captain Commander because they want to. We at least have money to spare, I guess, so they're being paid."

It could have been much worse here, Bambietta supposed, but she was hardly in a good mood. At the same time, though, she was almost glad that she was here to suffer through it. She had training for crises, she'd suffered far worse than this, and she had the personal drive to attach herself to fixing it. That was exactly why, however, she didn't really see any huge interest in what this Saionji woman was offering.

"I can maybe offer you a few researchers if they're willing to take time off finding the Captain Commander, but I doubt it. We've got equipment we're not using, though. I might be able to at least get one of the lab assistants to work with you, some of them might be willing to take some time off staring at dangai charts."

Bambietta rubbed her eyes briefly with her thumb and forefinger, not exactly irritated, but clearly not willing to play ball too much.

"What data are we even talking about here? I'm getting ahead of myself."

Bambietta wasn't stupid enough to not understand what it was Kei had been about to say, but she didn't really care that much, either. Not because she was detached from what it was that Urahara had done or anything like that; she'd just gotten very used to having problems thrown into her face that she could trace back to him. It made her feel uneasy in her own skin, like maybe she should have just kept what Vastime put in.

Maybe she'd have to figure something of her own out, but that was for later.

"I can give you a lab space and an assistant, then. Maybe two, if you think you're clumsy enough to mishandle something major."

Some might have called Bambietta callous in the way she was talking to someone potentially helpful. They would have been right, frankly. She was tired, however, and she wasn't in the business of trying to maintain appearances. Doing her best to seem quiet, unassuming, by and large amenable, that just wasn't what was important right now. She had work to do, and there wasn't anyone left who could come in and throw her back into jail because they didn't like the way she carried herself.

So the only thing to do was to handle things the way she knew how. Gesturing for Kei to follow, without really waiting for any confirmation that the woman would want to, she simply continued to speak.

"Most of our assistants are former 3rd Division, so they know what they're doing. They know their way around the lab, they know where things are if you need help. Don't be afraid to ask them to handle any heavy lifting. If you need more specialized equipment or another assistant, ask. I'll see what I can do. Sound good?"

That kind of tone wasn't lost on Bambietta, and admittedly, it did cause a feeling she could only describe as vaguely akin to static electricity in the base of her skull when she actually processed it. It was the kind of thing she'd avoided like the plague for the past few years, and she could certainly tell very well that the prospect of accepting that kind of offer might help her unwind. Unwinding, though, wasn't what she wanted.

"I'll think about it."

That was all she was going to say on that front, anyway, at least with regard to that first implication. The latter part, however, gave her something more concrete, and thankfully, it was something she was actually more willing to engage with on a less primal level.

"Considering the Gotei's no more, even being the SRDI is going to die pretty soon. We're going to have to focus on more than just serving as some subsidiary from here on, so if you have that kind of kido experience, then great. I was a researcher in 2nd Division until recently, so I'd be glad to have someone else in that field on board. Going independent means expanding, and the better expertise we have, the more people are going to understand they can't just go somewhere else. Not that they could, anyway."

There was confidence in spades in the way Bambietta spoke about the future of the institute she'd taken over. The captain had betrayed everyone, the vice captain had left for personal reasons. But she was still here, and she had no intention of letting that change.

"I'd want to see some credible work, of course. I'm not just bringing in anyone who says they're an expert. But I'm sure your work with this data will be a good opportunity to show me what you know about kido and the like. I don't really need favors or anything like that. What I need is competent people who are willing to commit to this place."

It wasn't just an offer now. If Kei wanted to help, she was free to. But Bambietta was going to use it as an opportunity to see what she was capable of.

"Good to hear. Those are credentials I can put some faith in. Let's hope the results match up."

Bambietta was not the kind of woman who assumed the best in most circumstances. It just wasn't in her nature, given her upbringing. She understood that many here in the Seireitei were born into wealth, whether because of noble standing or simply generational merchantry. She, on the other hand, had been a street urchin. She always knew to plan for the worst.

"For now, I won't ask you to go contributing out of your own pocket or anything like that. The SRDI was the source of a lot of the Gotei United's funding, and I'm sure the people fighting over who gets to succeed it are both going to be looking for our resources. They won't be getting them for free."

It was, in her view, a very easy way for them to continue operating. The SRDI headquarters were home to unfathomable amounts of the Gotei's computerized technology; huge swathes of its vital observation and surveillance systems came back to the displays here. Bambietta wasn't going to be giving any of that data away for free, because she couldn't afford to. The people who were analyzing it hardly deserved to keep being treated like soldiers.

"I can always use someone who knows paperwork. It's never been my forte."

She didn't need to elaborate beyond that. Reading and writing had not been vital skills in the gutter.