The Mitsubachi lore doesn’t make it sound like “send Orochi personnel to certain death, repeat as necessary” is how he got Bee recruits.
“Our wisdom flows so sweet. Taste and see…
TRANSMIT - initiate the anima signal - RECEIVE - initiate the headhunter protocol - A COMPETITIVE SALARY AND FANTASTIC BENEFITS PACKAGE - when my enemy resembles me - WITNESS - The Mitsubachi.
Do they seem familiar to you, sweetling? Did you think the only Bees wear Red or Blue or Green? Samuel Chandra has talent scouts too. They are not cast as wide or have an infrastructure as intricate, but they are focused. And he is very convincing. He can talk and talk till molecules nod and let go.
Chandra has had more practice at this, but he was just as limited by the factored surprise. He had no more knowledge, no more head start, in regards to when this latest explosion of the imbued would occur. He had to dash out just as madly. But he does know what happens to those imbued in the long run. He knows what happens after the sunset. After the sun-death. He remembers. Thought that must be the haziest of blurs, by now, we would wager.
We see his scientists toiling like termites in grand termite mounds. They are trying to emulate the Third Age, trying to recapture that demiurge spark. Portable technology. Portable Anima wells. Anima on tap. Orochi’s Bees coming to life wherever they like.
What do you do with an enemy who can die as many times as you? What do you do when you understand the enemy as well as your reflection, and they you? What do we whisper in their ears? Do we whisper in their ears?
Sweetlings. Sweetlings all.”
The Orochi operations that have gone completely sideways have been part of the Promethean Initiative, which is big into Filth research. At least some of them directly disobeyed orders from Samael, which makes me think that the Initiative could have been more of Lilith’s project than his…