Deer Country Network

[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!]

[Oh hey, it's anonymous sender time again. Jun's been doing some thinking in the last few days.]

What does family mean to you? Like... what counts? Is it your blood family? What if you're adopted?

What if you don't know you're adopted? Does family become something like a lie in that case?

Do dead people stop being family?

I don't really know what family means anymore. It's confusing and there's too many emotions tied up in it.

how do you do magic if you're not a mage

fake magic for not mages?

where do you buy meat for dogs

[These are not, in fact, incorrectly-aimed omni searches, this is simply how local not-a-mage Carver Hawke chooses to communicate. He has all the grace and poise of a preteen trying to google puberty, when it comes to Doing a Magic, but he also doesn't know how to be anonymous, so here he is.

Also if you've ever received a message from a one Palamedes Sextus and are wondering what's up with this severely different un: warden post, oopsie doodle? The click-through userid is different, if you make the effort to check.]

[A two-part video is uploaded to the network.

Part one opens on Varre's house in Lumenwood, now covered up to the eaves in roses with the front door blocked by an especially large, almost human-like bush. The stalks seem unusually mobile even before the camera zooms in on an upstairs window, where a collection of vines are holding a backpack in mid-air and...apparently...stuffing things into it?

A borderline-panicked, disturbed young man can be overheard muttering 'what the fuck?' over and over, just outside camera range. 

The camera holds more or less steady while the vines load clothing and several personal items into the backpack, including but not limited to a folding fan and one of Remina's memory boxes, before wrapping the entire backpack in a couple blankets and ungently throwing it at the camera holder's feet. He jumps. Really violently. It's scary, okay??

VO: Okay! Okay, thank you! That was very helpful. I'll be leaving now, thanks -- thanks again!

End part one.

Part two opens on Shen Yuan's pale, thoroughly-freaked out face.]

So, I...I hope this uploads okay. That was Varre's -- the creepy surgeon with the mask, always dresses in white? Some of you know him, I think -- that was Varre's house, which is apparently now being completely taken over by his fucked-up blood roses.

[Shen Yuan shudders.]

In the interest of disclosure, I had a qi deviation on the 5th, just before that big thunderstorm? And we ended up in a dispute.

I. I think I might've killed him.

[Several seconds of silence accompanied by visible emotional processing. This is not a man either used to or proud of his sudden descent into murder.]

I'm fine now [he says, like a liar] but I had to come back to get my stuff, and...you saw. They wouldn't let me into the house. I got them to do all of that by giving them some of my blood, but I'm not up for a second experiment. I don't think anyone should go near the place for a while. 

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

[End video.]