Deer Country Network

[The video begins with Winter standing in front a fairly ordinary wall. Unlike most times she’s no longer wearing her Atlas uniform. Instead she’s adapted and now appears more like one of the native hunters of trench. She takes a moment to compose herself before speaking.]

It seems that many of us are starting to settle and adjust to this new place, but we all know that this peace and time of adjustment is only temporary. Before long there will be something that comes along and threatens it. The hunters of this world have already organized patrols, and have their own system of keeping threats at bay. But I believe that we all know that while they mean well, there are those that they can not expect due to our arrival.

I am Winter Schnee, I was a combat specialist for FEAR and in James Ironwood’s absence was responsible for running TRUST in Deerington. I also was a specialist in the Atlas military in a world called Remnant that quite a few of us are from. In that world there are creatures called Grim that Hunters and Huntresses protect humanity from, similar to what the hunters of this world do. I am not proposing the formation of another organization such as FEAR, especially not after the horrors that were revealed of its foundations. Rather I wish to gather a group of volunteers among those who are hunters, or who have combat experience, to come together to form special teams. These teams would respond to calls for help as a unit, fighting and supporting one another, and most importantly keeping one another in check. This would a response team specifically aimed as supporting other dreamers from any threat.

Secondly, I want to be able to offer combat lessons to any who wish to learn in a structured, secure, and safe environment. Because there will be times when we are not able to respond quickly enough, when you will need to be able to defend yourself long enough for help to arrive. Hopefully with adequate help we would be able to offer training in a variety of levels from basic combat to specialized weapon training for those that plan on becoming hunters or huntresses.

And finally, this group will serve to patrol ourselves. To mitigate and manage the threat that we pose to ourselves and to this world. The hunters talk about corruption, and I have seen what happens when too much power and responsibility lies in one place. I want to ensure that check and balance remains in place, so that we can fully support and protect all dreamers and natives of this world.

If you are willing to volunteer for this, please leave me your name, experience, and any other pertinent information.

Hey guys!

Your resident aspiring witch here just saying that I'm glad to see a lot of you who came back, and a big hello to those who I'm just seeing now! My name's Luz Noceda, and for right now I'm living in a pretty nifty house with some of the best guys you'll ever meet!

I also know that we're all kind of living pretty far from each other and we're only just getting used to where we live, but now we all live in fairly different places. So I figure why don't we take this time to give a quick rundown of the type of place we're living in and what you can expect to see!

Our house is located in Cassandra, which seems to be a little rich in magic. The disciples here are really into their faiths, and I think that kinda lends to strange things walking around the street. Kinda helps to have your omen around, I've learned. My wolf Tempest keeps most mean looking monsters away, so I'm usually pretty safe, but they also sell lots of incense around here too. I think its to help keep the beasts I keep hearing about away, and to ward off corruption. I'd say if you're going to Cassandra with a mind to focus on magic, you've some to the right place. As Fern's observed though? Not the greatest place to grow things.

But that's just one part of Trench! What does your city have to offer?

cw: poop?


[ Tuck's big face takes up the majority of the screen when the feed turns on. He looks, well, a little worried in spite of his attempt to look totally casual. His comically wide eyes are not helping the act. ]

He-llo, everybody. Soooo, we [ meaning Vyng who is speeding back and forth behind him in what looks to be the inside of a fully furnished yurt. ] are missing a vase, and it's really important that we get it back—

Don't open it! [ Vyng shouts from behind Tuck. ]

Yeah, don't open it. It's—

It's full of Tuck's shit.

[ Tuck's bug-eyed stare turns dead and resigned at hearing his friend dredge up that excuse again. ]

Yeah. I have... this compulsion, and I have to shit in this one vase. And I can't help myself! I need it back immediately. So, if you find a vase kind of lying around on the beach—

Remember don't open it! Do not open it.

It will kill you—the smell, I mean! It's been sealed for, like, months. It will fuck up this whole city. From, from the smell. Of my shit.

Just call us and we'll come take it off your hands! Figuratively, though. Don't touch it.

Don't touch it, don't fucking look at it—No! Look at it for, like, a second, then call us, and stop looking at it! You got that?

( Picture of the vase drawn by Tuck )

What's up.
Are we doing introductions now? I guess we're doing introductions.
Name's Anna. Professional city defender and mostly robot girl.
Coming here from a place called Recolle that I'm pretty sure no one here knows about, which is cool.

Never been much for stuff like this, so, like, I don't know.
Anyone needs a katana at their side, look me up. I'm pretty damn good at it.
I might not know what's going on here, but far as I'm concerned, this is where I live now and it makes sense for everyone if I actually try to keep it safe.

And since I'm in full spaghetti at the wall mode right now, lemme just throw out some words, see if it triggers anything for any of you guys.
Zee Carlisle. Clarence Vanderweele. Layers of reality. Retrospec.
The Geteilts.
Nothing?
Yeah, didn't think so.

Anyway, yeah, flag me down if you see me on the streets and need some protection or whatever. I'm five ten and I only have one eye. I'm hard to miss.

 Ah, so that's how it works. What a smart bunny you are...

[Oz brushes off his black overcoat, otherwise facing the 'camera' forward. He has finally figured out his Omni with the help of a rabbit omen. His smile and demeanor are quite bright and borderline childish after he bows towards the camera;]

Good day, everyone~! Wow, does this little jewel really have moving pictures? And I thought Uncle Oscar's camera has exciting... I have so much to catch up on that I don't even know where to sta~rt.

Oh but where are my manners? That's a good starting point, huh? I'm Oz Vessalius! From what I'm hearing, it seems I'm suuper new here! Anyone else in the same boat? I've never been a squid before and I don't know what the Trenches are, AND I don't know what to call this little Jewel.

[His energy levels come under control quite suddenly; His smile maintained and childish demeaner tucked away for a more serious conversation topic.]

From what I've gathered, this isn't the first time that some of you were taken away from home. It's going to be hard for me to make informed choices about the situation if I'm not informed. And I can't be helpful if I don't know what I'm doing, hm?

[Bubbly persona resumes;] Soooo WHOOO~ wants to fill me iiiin? Oooh~ We can even make a date out of it~! Sounds great, right?

[ The video flickers on to find Sara perched against her motorcycle on the edge of the woods, looking a little rough around the edges but mostly unhurt. ]

Alright, so... I can't tell if this place is better or worse than the last one yet, but judging from the creepy ambiance, the hopes aren't high. I've got some weapons with me from Deerington, though, so if you're in need of protection or a way to safety, let me know.

[ She chews on her lip a moment. ]

Also, anyone know where the hell to get a drink around here?

( On the network appears a man who looks more like a demon, with his red horns and red eyes. He's toying with a blue and silver mask, twirling it in his hands. )

Lots of people offering Hunter shit up here, huh.

( His voice is low and tone only a little sardonic. )

Ain't no thing. You do you. But I'm here to ask about being a Blood Minister. Friend of mine ran a clinic out of her place in Hakagemachi and I was real into that vibe.

( He doesn't expect that to mean anything to anyone, but its where he came from most recently; before that was home. )

I guess this is me putting my feelers out for someone who'd wanna help with a sort of clinic or mobile unit. Name's Samatoki. Get at me.

My name's Shouto Todoroki. I'm a student from UA and a recent arrival to Trench. I wasn't in the other place, Deerington, I think they call it, but I'm supposed to be a Sleeper like them. 

[ Not that he understands what that means exactly. Too many questions brew in his head. Too  many new experiences, including waking up as a squid in the ocean which disturbs him less than what he's found out about this place. Blood magic. At least that's what it seems to him. He's still grappling with all the information thrown at him and there's conflict in his eyes, not obvious but visible. Unwilling to reveal anymore he leaves it there. He needed to make himself visible in case someone from his world was here and with that accomplished, he falls back to something more mundane and easy to grasp. Besides, he needs a place to sleep. ]

The abandon homes. Someone said we can claim one for our own. Is that true? 

okay

what the fuck.

( that's it, that's all he's got. )

Welcome, to all arrivals, new and old. My name is Ozpin.

It seems our arrival has fallen on October's doorstep. It was, to put it lightly, a dangerous month in Deerington. Even here in Trench, I would be unsurprised to find that we are entering a season of bloodshed and Beasts.

It would be wise to prepare. Even should that degree of danger fail to arrive, many of us have been newly burdened by powers we have not yet learned to control.

In the world of Remnant - I do not think it right to call it 'home,' in light of our situation - I served as headmaster of a combat academy. I guided young people in learning to harness their powers and hone their abilities, even in the most dire of circumstances.

If you are interested in such training, I am now accepting students for private instruction. It seems our currencies won't be of much use here, so allow me to propose an alternate price: stories. I have always been a scholar of folklore and fairy tales, and I would like to hear what your own worlds have to offer.

[ Ozpin hesitates a long, long beat. Then: ]

I shall even trade you one in return. My favorite, as of late, is about an old hermit and the visitors who changed his life. For those who have heard some of my more recent tales, you may be pleased to know that this one has a happy ending.

[What appears on camera is a number of things in very short order. Someone is very clearly coming to grips with the technology. There is a flash of skirt, booted leg, of a woman's face tanned from a long time under the sun, and a mass of chestnut hair. Finally, a pair of deep brown eyes focus on it.]

What the bloody hell is this thing?

[She hasn't been pulled from any universe before - first time for her - and in any event, the technology is so advanced it's just one step away from magic for her. But it's not magic, because that would be silly.]

Is it on? That's what the light means, doesn't...? Right.

[She steps back a bit, moving this way and that as if trying to arrange the right angle. And then she begins.]

What the hell was any of that? I'd say someone slipped me some rather potent hash-hish if it weren't for that beach and those...odd ducks who welcomed me.

[She won't mention waking up naked. That had been an experience she wouldn't like to repeat. Or the part where she'd tried to run and had stumbled about like a toddler. None of that gets mentioned. Frankly, she's sitting at the junction of freaked out and amazed.]

So where am I? Who's responsible? And where the hell is my boat?

[She'll find the flying ketch soon enough - it just wasn't moored when the tide came in.]

Uh, hey. Mako here.

[ Nailing it so far, right? Mako's standing in front of a half-blue, half-green wall, dotted with small lunar sconces. Everything looks kind of dusty and half-finished, and the watery afternoon light illuminates yet more dust drifting around him.

Notably, a small dragon, red-scaled and content, is draped over his shoulders like a scarf, watching the Omni with bright eyes.

Mako glances momentarily off the screen, mouths something, and then looks back, clearing his throat. ]

It's come to my attention that a lot of you have been setting things on fire left and right since we washed up here. Obviously, this is dangerous to you and the people around you. If that's you, you need to make an effort to control it immediately before something worse than singeing your clothes happens.

For those of you who just washed up, I'm a firebender. That means I can do—

[ He holds up his left hand (scarred with strange marks) in front of himself and splays his fingers, making a small puff of fire appear and hold over his palm. It flickers there like a candle flame, dancing between Mako's fingers, before he drags it in a small arc and lets it go out. ]

—that, and—

[ Another flick of his fingers, this time producing little purple-bright sparks that zap between the tips and then dissipate. ]

—that. And a lot more.

So. If you need help learning to control your powers, and you do, come to the Raccoon Room in Cellar Door on Wednesdays. You'll see the sign. I've been doing this since I was a kid. Anyone else who wants to help, feel free to drop by too.

[ Finally, he looks up, his serious expression dropping just slightly. ]

Trust me. If a bunch of snotty six-year-olds back home can learn how to do it, you can.

[ The little dragon huffs in agreement, fire puffing out of its nose, and Mako reaches forward to cut the feed. ]