Goal Oriented Leadership

It had been a while since Rhydderch had been back to the halls of Las Noches, long enough to forget exactly how long. He spun a sizeable link of chain on his index finger as he observed the expanse of the palace and the desert beyond. There were reasons including but not limited to the city's limited color palette for why he'd strayed from spending time in Heuco Mundo. But here he was, having specifically been summoned here by the king himself. It had been even longer since he'd seen Graven, but a summons by someone ballsy enough to call himself the king of a group like the hollows was something to pay attention to. Maybe he'd put the Arrancar and by extension, the hollows beneath them, on track to actually get something done. That was a prospect worth getting excited about. With that in mind, Rhydderch started humming along to a human song that'd gotten stuck in his head. It was discordant and ugly, but damn if it didn't get stuck in ones head easily.

The King of Hueco Mundo was lounging in his throne, an unreadable expression on his face as he watched the door patiently for the arrival of one of the handful of Arrancar that hadn't yet bent the knee to him. It was not an upsetting thing, necessarily. It simply meant that many of them were young, or hadn't actually been around much. Stronger Hollows tended to carve their own territories, and while beings such as they knew of each other, or have met once or twice, they tended to leave each other alone as a rule of thumb. Graven and Rhydderch were no exception to that.

Once the other man had entered the room, Graven's golden eyes would latch onto him, taking in the way he moved and his mannerisms. The wolf couldn't necessarily sense anything above his own reiatsu, but he had gotten fairly good at reading others, and he was pleased with what he saw. "Rhydderch. It has been some time. The sands have treated you well, I take it?"

"About as well as they can. Place is crawling with hollows, but at least they know their place and stay clear." Rhydderch's long strides took him closer to the throne, the chain link still spinning around his index finger. It was nice to see something more than just a Vasto Lorde with a go getter attitude on the throne, but what this man would do with the power that came with it was still up in the air. "And you can chill out. Not like I could get away with offing you, or rather even do it. We're both stronger than the last time but uh..." He took a second to scratch the side of his nose, scoffing at the idea of a fight at this moment. "Not like it would end particularly well for either of us, especially me. And the last thing Heuco Mundo needs right now is yet another damn power vacuum."

Rhydderch's gaze strayed around the room for a bit. Honestly, it had been a while since he'd seen a good fight in these chambers. The hall doubled, possibly unintentionally, as a decent arena for squabbles between near godly brings. "Suppose you're gonna expect me to bow or something." He mumbled as he came to a stop at a reasonable distance from the throne. He didn't bow yet, still trying to gauge if Graven's ambitions at this time were even worth the visit. "Been to the world of the living recently? Interesting times, these are."

Graven quirked an eyebrow at Rhydderch's comment. Apparently his strength had fallen farther than he had thought in recent years - recent being a relative term, of course. Then again, younger Hollows building their strength near-religiously was nothing new. As to the second comment, the old wolf snorted, a smirk spreading across his face that showed his elongated canines. "Now, why would I request that you bow? If you do so, it is because you have chosen loyalty. To force such a thing would be insincere, and I have felt enough betrayal over the long years to grow tired of such a thing."

At the other Arrancar's question, the smirk grew a bit playful. "It has grown difficult for me to wander the World of the Living in modern times, but I have managed to do so. In fact, I've built up quite the collection over my life, and I have been using that wealth to invest and slowly take over various companies in an attempt to exert some amount of influence. I will admit, I've considered the pros and cons of purchasing Disney out from under their noses as a majority stockholder, although I've mostly stuck to tech and pharmaceutical companies, along with private military corporations."

As always, Graven was playing his own game several steps ahead of anyone else. Ensuring his own power within Hueco Mundo was one thing, but Hollows were not necessarily capable of reproduction normally, and so there was a delicate balance that needed to be struck when devouring souls. Should they get a foothold within the World of the Living, then causing widescale destruction in order to take advantage of the resulting chaos was much easier.

Bowing was required. Good. As far as Rhydderch was concerned, this was a trial run, an interview of sorts. If it was like all the others who'd half-assed attempts at leading, he'd leave. If Graven was actually telling the truth, then maybe taking a knee would be on the table. For now though, on with the interview.

"Well I suppose that having economic shares in the living world is all well and good. But that isn't exactly the reason I asked. Don't know if you've noticed, but there's a lot more special humans running around. Not everyday someone can see arrancar and hollows you send to cause problems. And it's also not everyday that this many of them can defend themselves." Rhydderch took out a cigarette and lit it up. Not like lung cancer would be a problem. Strictly speaking, he was already dead anyway. "Oh, and I'm pretty sure we're both aware the Quincy never went away. And now their at a level where the Gotei Fun Police are gonna notice their mistake. Sooo the first big question is..." Smoke poured from his nose, drifting in the air around his head. He narrowed his gaze as he watched the man on the throne. "You got a plan to deal with that? Or is that just gonna fester?"

Resting his chin on his hand, Graven listened to Rhydderch's concerns patiently, his golden eyes betraying his amusement just as easily as they betrayed the fact he wasn't human. The issues he brought up were certainly ones that the King had thought about for quite some time, and as the wolf's nose twitched at the acrid smell of cigarette smoke he hummed in agreement with several of the points made. "You are absolutely correct. It is amusing to see the humans run around, struggling their hardest to carve their way into the spiritual realms. As for the Quincy and the Gotei, their battles are between each other. The most practical way to deal with the two groups would be to let them kill each other off, although in the end there are far too many factors for such a thing to truly work - the most glaring of which is the fact that the Quincy aren't as strong as they once were, while the Gotei is quite a bit stronger than the last time they fought. As it stands, the Espada are not powerful enough to break the Shinigami, as we are missing several members. As it stands we must regain our strength, both as a group and individually, while staying out of the Gotei's sight. The Quincy we can merely keep an eye on for the moment, and persuade weaker Hollows to go and challenge them, prevent them from growing too powerful by pruning their numbers every so often."

Crossing his legs and reaching into his kimono under his armor, the Cero Espada pulled out a small glass bottle and uncorked it, the distinct smell of human blood mingled with reiatsu filling the area. Tipping it up and taking a drink as if from a flask, the white-haired Arrancar sighed in a relaxed manner. Swirling it around, he would look at the deep red liquid as he continued to speak. "As for the humans, the economic success leads into my plans. It gives us a little more control over various things, and makes it easier to take advantage of their society. Ultimately, I wish to perfect a manner in which we can replenish the number of Hollows reliably. Tell me, have you ever heard of a Fullbringer, and how they come about?"

So far the plan wasn't that bad. Assessments of the current state of the Quincy was fairly accurate, since most of them were scattered. Even if an unnervingly large number were accumulating in Japan, there weren't enough of them to cause the Gotei any real harm. While Rhydderch couldn't attest to the Espada assessment, Graven seemed fairly confident on that regard too. Membership seemed to fluctuate and shift, making command structure somewhere shaky at best. That and the nature of arrancar honestly made an organized group difficult by default. He pulled out a flask that he'd filled with some kind of human alcohol. Normal alcohol was fairly weak, but he'd managed to find some that was strong enough even for an arrancar. He did find it odd that this kind was far from the normal booze but this Acetone stuff was the shit."Persuade, huh? Better than the old threat of death if they don't comply trick. I'm not saying lesser hollows need to be herded, but... They kind of need to be herded. They're like sheep, if sheep ate souls and had a penchant for violence." Rhydderch took swing from his flask, ignoring the wavering air from evaporating fuel as he screwed the top back on.

The rest of the king's plans made sense too, so Rhydderch mostly zoned out for a second, mind wandering for a brief period until fullbringer came up. His eyes narrowed as he thought for a moment, recalling a few instances in recent years, or even decades past. "Fullbringer. Sounds familiar, yeah. Found a few of em, fun to fight. Like other humans, their powers are unique but there's something off about em. Their Reiryoku smells... Like a hollow. Are you asking me about their origins because you're steering the conversation their way, or because you don't know either and are hoping I do?”

Graven barked out a laugh, both at Rhydderch's question and his current actions of drinking straight acetone. While it's certainly difficult to get drunk after one gets as strong as they have, the elder Arrancar has always preferred to drink for the flavor. Taking another drink of his bottle of blood, the King would lean forward, his eyes sparkling with amusement and mischief. "You DO know that acetone is what humans use to strip paint from their walls, yes? Regardless, I was in fact steering the conversation towards Fullbringers, and what they represent. You see, a Fullbringer comes about when a human survives a Hollow attack, and then reproduces. The Hollow reiatsu left in their bodies affects the newborn, allowing them to use abilities reminiscent of a Hollow's own affinity for souls and reishi. The potential this process has is...unprecedented."

Looking back at the bottle in his hand, the red liquid swirling as he studied it, the Cero Espada's plans would take shape as he continued. "Human children are more flexible and adapt faster, and that is why they are able to handle an influx of infectious reiatsu. For an adult, the process would be taxing, and would likely cause strain. With a bit of creativity and experimentation, we could create a virus that enters through the soul, replicating and ultimately destroying the Soul Chain while the soul itself is still in the body. Hollows born before Shinigami ever have the opportunity to perform Konso, and a reliable method of creating more of our kind...Within my personal repertoire of skills, I have become capable of doing something similar with blood, and thus I know that this is an attainable dream."

Standing, Graven would walk down the steps until he was on the same level as Rhydderch, standing in front of him and looking him dead in the eyes. "This is what I ask that you fight for; a better life for our race, a way to reproduce, and eventually a way to assuage our hunger without turning on each other. You need not bow unless you truly feel as if I have earned your loyalty, and even then I shall not ask. Hate me, use the position for selfish reasons, I don't care. All I ask is that you aid me in my goal, and if you do not wish to join me then I ask that you do not hinder me."

"What? Paint stripper? Well ain't that something?" With a shrug, Rhydderch took the last swig of an apparently very versatile beverage as he listened to Graven give him the rundown on Fullbringers. Sounded like abominations and accidents, but then again, who was he to judge on that front. He could only nod in approval of the following plan, though without testing there was a lot of room for error. "Interesting plan there, But keep in mind the power we gained by shedding our masks. Putting them on She may only create more problems that it solves. Either way, it's more than anyone else's come up with."

All in all, his return to Las Noches had definitely not been a waste. It seemed that this old Bastard actually had a feasible plan cooked up. He just needed enough dedicated people to pull it off. He'd certainly gathered enough powerful Arrancar to do the job, probably even enough to make the Gotei sweat. Of course this presented other opportunities. If for some reason Graven fell, there was a good groundwork set, and there were plenty strong enough to carry out the rest. With the right guidance of course. He met the Cero King's gaze and smiled, though his smiles often looked more like a smirk. "Well, I gotta say, I'm more than impressed. You've gathered a lot of talent and kept them from killing each other for a while. You've got an actual goal that I think is at least kind of realistic. That's the most progress I've seen from someone in your position in a while. And we've both seen our fair share of those who've tried." With this, he kneeled down, arm resting on his knee. The smile never left, nor did he lose eye contact. "It seems my skills and any advice I might have are at your disposal."

Tipping his head in agreement with Rhydderch's assessment, the Cero King listened to his words, and watched with a lazy smirk of his own as the other Arrancar knelt, never breaking eye contact. Reaching down a hand to help the man up should he take it, the wolf-like Arrancar chuckled lightly. "It is good to know that I have someone with a bit more experience willing to give me advice. The younger Hollows I have dealt with more recently can be...tiring. There are a handful that I trust, but the others?"

The rest was left unsaid. Changing the natural order of Hueco Mundo was a difficult endeavor at the best of times, and given that Hollows are born from negative emotions, they tended to find their place within the status quo fairly quickly and resisted change. The reason Graven had made it so far during his first reign - long ago, beyond the memories of most Hollows - and the reason he'd been able to gather the Espada today was because he stood at the top of the natural order, and had found those who believed in his vision. "Welcome to the Espada, my newest Tercera."