#raspberry-sheep

sweats//

Probably a tie between Larson and Neirru tbh

In the coldest months of the year it becomes common practice to start burning anything one can get their hands on. But burning a phoenix orchid, growing up to three feet high regardless of the surrounding weather, is a fatal mistake.

Phoenix orchids have a very peculiar life. From a seed on up they grow dozens of large, flat leaves that can cover a large area of the ground, serving to catch as much sun as possible. Their root systems are also greedy, being made up of thin but wide-spreading strands that can choke the water out of surrounding plantlife. All of this serves to help fuel the production of not only three beautiful flowers, but a unique chemical stored in the stems, leaves, and flowers that makes the orchid extremely flammable… And even, in some cases, explosive.

The orchid’s weed-like nature, its practice of shedding leaves every few weeks, and its extreme toxicity if eaten or pollinated assures that there will be many dried out and dead plants (among other things) for kindling when it enters its dramatic reproductive stage. One by one entire flowers will fall right off the stems and undergo a chemical reaction upon a solid surface that causes them to go up in flames, often catching their fallen leaves alight, which starts to further spread to the surrounding area. The resulting wildfire triggers a growth pattern not seen in any other form of life, the workings of which baffle even 'seen it all' botanists.

Fire does not harm the plant in the least, the hottest flames engulfing the entire plant not even making the flowers brown over. Rather, fires seem to provide nutrition to the orchid, far more than any other source, not only causing any lost leaves and flowers to regrow at a pace observable to the naked eye, but causing it to produce a completely new growth: a seed pod. If exposed to a large enough fire that lasts long enough, an orchid can produce a seed pod in under five minutes. The pod subsequently detonates, spraying seeds hundreds of feet in every direction.

Seeds quickly grow into new plants if exposed to fire, growing mass from apparently nowhere as they undergo perigees worth of growth in minutes. There doesn’t appear to be an upper limit to how many of these plants will grow, with entire groves of them discovered after wildfires burn down whole forests, and so long as they have access to water and sun, they will flourish in any environment and on any surface their roots can safely cling to. Notably, they can grow without water if planted in a thick layer of ash, but their normal non-fire-fueled growth is dramatically slowed until they find the life-giving liquid.

Without fire, it can take up to 8 sweeps for the plant to mature and grow its own seed pod, depending on the weather. They are capable of living indefinitely in any environment if a careful caretaker stimulates the leaves with a small lighter, promoting controllable growth and health in the plant, and is careful to discard fallen leaves. The lighter fire prevents the orchid from dropping its own flammable flowers, and even perks up and restores a withered and dying plant. Dried up and long-dead specimens spring back to lush life if set alight, effectively making the plant immortal if not ground to mulch.

These beautiful, colorful, and fragrant roses are some of the most sought-after plants by botanists, collectors, and trolls who have seriously screwed up a relationship in the whole of the Empire. The longevity of clipped flowers, when placed in a sugar water solution, makes them excellent decorations as well. However, many trolls do not realize just where these plants come from.

Growing in cave mouths, dark forests, forgotten alleyways, and other such gloomy locations, the sweet fragrance of the flowers smells like fresh fruits, which draw in wide varieties of creatures seeking an easy meal. Once they come close, the strength of the scent and colors of the flowers may prompt them to physically investigate, which is when a gas pocket right behind the bloom lets loose, firing a volley of needle-sharp seeds as small as gnats into the flesh of the investigator.

Its parasitic seeds grow in the body of its prey over the course of several weeks, flourishing in the dark, moist, nutrient-rich grounds of the body as it feeds ravenously on its victim’s fluids. Its tendency to severely lower the victim’s blood sugar is where it derives it’s name, and in fact the plant itself seems to have a sweet tooth, rewarding a hosts indulgence in sweets by secreting a chemical cocktail that causes euphoria; incentive to keep eating.

Infection rarely leads to death, but should the host expire the plant will undergo a dramatic transformation, roots and vines and leaves rapidly sprouting from and entangling the corpse as it extracts every bit of nutrition it can to try and enter its primary reproductive stage once more.

Should the victim survive the initial growth period during the first five to six weeks of infection, though, the rose undergoes a transformation of a different kind, slowing down its feeding process to more manageable levels. Pimple-like growths will sprout painlessly from the skin of the infected, eventually growing into buds, then stems, and finally flowers. The blooms grow from the victim, stems reaching up to two feet in length, wrapping around limbs and horns like vines. The end result is a “walking garden,” a being with as many as ten flowers growing from points on their body. Removing these growths is not advised, as the plant will ravage the host body as it tries to repair and regrow.

Common places include upper arms, upper legs, the base of the neck, and the base of horns. In rare cases, they may grow from the tips of fingers, eyes, joints, or reproductive organs.

In the walking garden stage, the plant reproduces by firing seeds at any organism that draws too close, though these seeds are noted to be coated in a natural anesthetic, making it harder to detect when one has been “shot.”

The Suc Rose bears colors unlike any other plant. It lacks all chlorophyl and appears pale, but its petals take on the coloration of its host’s blood. Not only that, but it is mixed in with the coloration(s) of the parent plant. The end result is a flower that can have rainbow-striped petals from generations of blooms, carrying with it the sweet scent of candy and fruit. Its colors, scent, and longevity (it lives as long as its host does, not being able to enter it’s ravenous “desperation” state) make it a prize to many botanists, with more questionable ones having living farms where they can continuously gather bouquets. Some may even willingly turn themselves into walking gardens, using seeds from plants fed on blood from higher castes, or quadmates. There is no limit (aside from nutritional) to the number of plants that will grow in a single host, though each will have no more than ten blooms (depending on size and species).