Deer Country Network

[Makoto had spent the last few days looking in the mirror several times, looking for a mark that used to be there, that was gone now. The one that had been placed when she’d formed her bond with Atsushi, back when the handprints had been clearly visible and easy to see. With time they weren’t as vibrant but the bonds and marks were still there, the one with Usagi, Minako, Vira-Lorr, and one or two others. But his was gone.

As the video started, her hand lingered on the pink rose necklace that she was wearing, as Makoto seemed to be nibbling on a few cookies, the inside of Flour and Bloom clear in the background along with the early morning light.]

A lot of things keep happening and changing, but then they haven’t really changed either. I mean I’m still who I was before, and I have those that I care about, and they’re still who they are, but we’ve all grown too. Gotten stronger.

I wonder though, now that it seems like more people are returning. What’s a way to remember someone who’s not around anymore, but will always be a part of you?

[Clearing her throat she brushed away a few crumbs and smiled.]

Sorry, I actually just wanted to share some of the new selections that we have coming in at Flour and Bloom. We still have plenty of roses and Lavender. But now we have purple passion flowers, cardinal flowers, and Rosy honeymoon blooms.

There are also a few recipes that Snow and I have been trying out, so we’ll have a few samples to see how everyone likes them. We’re open until it starts to get dark.

Man, fuck those CENTCOM assholes!

[He lets out a huff. There is a noise of a bobcat yowling] Hey, girl. Good to see ya again. [A short silence as he communicates to his omen] The fuck you mean it's been days? How long's it been?

All right. Fuck. So, uh, anybody make wishes durin' that festival? They... kinda work. I donno if anyone tried to contact me, but I was out of commission for a while. I woke up in some weird shit that I'm bringing to the Sanctuary.

Any Hunters wanna fill me in on the latest monsters we gotta take down?

CW: Violence against a teen, past child abuse and neglect

( The fairest of them all was certainly not looking that way today. )

[A masked man in stained robes stands before a dense wall of almost unnaturally healthy rose bushes. The view sways slightly, as his Omen's attention drifts in and out.]

Greetings to friends and strangers alike. It is so good to be among you, alive and whole again. [The man makes a slight bow, a bitter edge to his voice quickly replaced by an audible smile.] I am Varré, surgeon and former guide to the lost. Now, I am among the uninitiated in this land's secrets.

But I do bring a gift from my homeland, and from my Lord. Thanks to His blessing, roses bloom in Lumenwood.

[A flurry of motion, and the Omen lands on one of the stems, causing a velvety red rose to sway under its weight. At this distance, it fills half the view. Varré turns to address his audience, voice brimming with pride.]

They drink the blood from the soil, and transform its power into beauty and medicinal strength.

As a former guardian of the Rose Church, I am pleased to offer you all these beloved flowers and their refined extracts, at a price equal to the cost of their manufacture. These preparations can stanch bleeding, drink up rot from unclean wounds, clear excess blood collecting within a patient, and more besides.

And roses that have drunk sleeper blood take on beautiful new properties. By the grace of a Pthumerian I've yet to learn the name of, my own blood spilled by senseless violence has produced a bloom of vileblood roses.

[The view turns, revealing a gently rustling stem of pale roses, edged with streaks of green and pink.]

They've proven invaluable in dulling the pain of the suffering. But with these roses still so rare and fed by my blood alone, I'm afraid I can't part with much. My own patients require their service.

[The omen turns back to Varré.]

I would, of course, welcome the aid of any Sleepers willing to donate blood to such a beautiful cause. You would be compensated, deservedly. And any who wish to propagate the roses, do come see me. I would be pleased to furnish you with all the tools necessary to do so. These are blessings to be had by all.

[ooc: Varré's withholding a bit of information about these roses, which may be relevant to others. For more information, see here! If you want to contribute a new bloodtype to the roses, let me know, and more types will be unlocked and described on the page!]

[The video clicks on to show Shiro, sitting at a dining table - in the Mouse House, for anyone who's been there before. He looks... different. Hollowed-out. More exhausted than usual, which is saying something, for him. But the biggest difference? His greying hair has gone completely white. All of it.]

[His hands are curled around a mug, with the omni propped up on something else.]

Hey, feels like long time, no see.

[The smile he goes for falls flat. He reaches down with his left hand, the real hand, to ruffle the fur of his Omen, the lion with her head in his lap.]

First of all... I'm sorry for what happened, recently. [The Beasthood Incident.] I want to thank the people who helped me out. You know who you are, and - I'd rather not get into it more than that, please.

That aside - I've really noticed there aren't a lot of us left from the Dream. From Deerington. That's no one's fault. It's just a little alarming to realize. Maybe it's better forgotten - I don't know. But, I'm offering what I have to anyone who wants to learn.

Either what Deerington was, what happened there, who was involved. Anything I still have.

I don't think it should be forgotten. Not after what was done to get us here. After what people went through to make it possible to wake up here. And who we lost in the process.

[He takes a deep breath, and lifts up the coffee mug for a drink. You know, to get himself centered and everything.]

[Except... the mug stopped steaming halfway through his speech. Something heavy slides around inside instead, and impacts Shiro's face with an audible THUD. His head snaps back, which allows the object to go plummeting down to the tabletop.]

[It's a solid brick of frozen coffee.]

[It isn't even melting in the summer weather. Just sitting there. Mocking him. Another slow, deep breath, to keep his eye from twitching.]

... also, if any coldbloods out there want to... help with this... blood ability mess? I'm... listening.

[It took...a while for Ochako to find the courage to really start acting like herself again after all of what happened in July. Thankfully, she has some amazing friends, an absolutely wonderful boyfriend that she would do anything for, and is as resilient as she is stubborn. Moping about and feeling remorseful will get her nothing, she has to act if she wants things to get better, so this is exactly what she's doing today, despite how she's still very nervous and really, really ashamed still. The things she did and said, the people she hurt, the one she killed... That's going to weigh heavy on her for much longer than just a month. But the first step to growing and moving on is to address and confront it. To apologize.

So the video opens up with Ochako sitting in presumably her living room, which...anyone who knows her, or has been to her and Bakugou's home before, will notice is different. Different wall colors, different arrangement of furniture, just...overall different. But she makes no note of that. Instead, she just puts on a sheepish smile to the camera and bows lightly.]

Ehehe...hello, everyone. It's been a while since I posted to the network, ne? S-Some here in Trench might know me, but I bet a lot of others don't. My name is Uraraka--...um! O-Or Ochako, if you're from the Western hemisphere of Earth. [She rubs the back of her head, mussing up her hair a little. Anyone who knows her would know, again, this is a nervous tic Ochako has. She clears her throat and laughs awkwardly.] Last month was, eeh...p-pretty crazy, huh? I know I went, um...pretty crazy. Myself.

[Her smile falls, and so does her hand in her hair, settling into her lap as Ochako sighs. She then sets her omni down on the floor she's kneeling on, looking rather somber all of a sudden as she takes a deep breath in and out, as if preparing herself.]

It's true it wasn't really me, that it was all part of The Reckoning's...stuff, but. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, and I couldn't have tried harder to fight it. Neither does it make anything better, because it was still my body, my voice, that did and said all those things. So, I just...I--

I want to apologize. To everyone I hurt in some way. I am...deeply sorry, for everything.

[She gazes downward, and then bows as low as she can, a full dogeza. Ochako said nasty things, physically and emotionally hurt people she considers very friends. She even went and killed someone in cold blood at some point, among other things. She can still see the blood, hear the breaking of a neck, the splatter of a body on hard ground... Those thing's can't be erased, but she can at least admit they happened, and apologize for them. It's the first thing to do before she starts trying to make amends for it.

She rises, just for a moment, before bowing back down again.]

And to those that helped me overcome...thank you. Even if it was just for a moment, you really saved me. I'm grateful.