Too often, I don’t tell people (people I love) I am sad. I don’t think that’s something they would want to hear. Because they love me. Because I don’t want them to feel like the currency of their tenderness isn’t enough when it has been & will be again, but, well, if I’m being completely honest, today is hard. Today I miss people. Dead & alive. Far & near. I miss them all. & I think I’m boring you & well, that doesn’t feel too great.
Hieu Minh Nguyen, "Notes on Staying" from Not Here
yk i get so excited when i make new mutuals but idk how to be friends with them. like omg you're so cool and i wanna be your friend really bad but idk how. i try to interact but i feel im not cool enough ugh
To keep your big and small friends fed, a farm for growing giant crops was set up after grabbing some seeds from your inventory to grow. It's tucked away deeper inside the mountain you call home but the roof of the makeshift room caved in years ago and now has access to the sun up above. At night you all crawl into the cave home and he places a large boulder to block the entrance, he gets a soft bedding stolen from another giant's home, the sheep surround him to sleep and you get a cool loft on a shelf of the cave. No windows, and a major safety hazard since it's so high up, but it's free, so it's better than most New York apartments. Besides, half of those problems you can easily combat. You can fly and have access to the System for furniture, so your living life, scary dog privilege, and a hole in the wall home, what more could a little lamb ask for?
He's been really diligent in caring for you and the flock ever since you found all the scattered sheep, that it has started to become overbearing; this man really needs more hobbies. So, you
taught him how to use a pan flute to give him something else to do besides bother you. You carved it from some giant bamboo you magically found somewhere on the island, thank goodness for System, you would've been a goner with all this island living if you didn't have a tutorial option.
One day, while you were installing a stairway to your shelf loft home, a massive storm rocks the island, you fall off your little ledge and can hear worried baaah’s coming from your fluffy friends as your vision goes black, a death screen pops up.
•ᴗ•
‧₊˚✧[ You Died. Get Gud loser ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ ) ]✧˚₊‧
•ᴗ•
You shouldn't have taught System sass and passive aggressiveness, you are good friends, but that isn't very comforting, if you were on your first life you would've broken down. At least you put away your items for this world in a barrel somewhere in your loft home. You click 'Continue' and respawn back in the cave where you fell off, and look around. You notice a texture change; why does this look so funny, with so many lines and shadows? The heck happened when you fell? Did you accidentally change the settings or something? You can't seem to find what went wrong in the settings so you go to check on your friends.
Everything looks different, but hey at least your buddies are ok. They seem pretty content with your work on the stairway, it was for them after all, so you wouldn't have to keep lifting them up and down when they wanted to rest with you. It also has a slide when going down!
You and the sheep still look chubby and cute so that's good, but now your cyclops friend looks funny, what in the thirst trap?! He got pecs and muscles now, which is odd since he definitely isn't working out; he just looms over the sheep while you go either hunting or off-world to your normal life outside of System, at least you wrangled him into a makeshift shirt cover cause you ain't chilling around a half-naked man, especially now that he's buff. You might've even hissed at him at one point to get the idea across. Life continues as it did before with slight differences, but nothing substantial in your regard.
Until your friend gets a visit from daddy dearest do you realize what happened. Which leads you to your current predicament. A stare off with a random hottie who can't stop staring at you, or better wording would be glaring at you.
He approaches you and grabs you by your fluffy scruff and dangles you around, your bell tingling as you move, causing you to drop the wood you were lugging on your back.
Screw you dude, you just came out of the water and started having beef with a random sheep. What's your problem!?
“You walked on two-legs, and I'm sure you talked. What are you..”
Uh oh, Quick play dumb!
“Mheeee” not that dumb- wait this could work, just play the weird-looking sheep with thumbs.
“Father! What brings you here? Oh you have Lamby with you.” Your cyclops buddy approaches with thunderous footsteps the standoff between you and this oddly hot, but rudely staring jerk who still hasn't put you down.
“I heard rumors of you being here and came to check on you. Now answer me what this… thing is?”
“Oh, that's Lamby! My friend whose been with me ever since I lost my eyesight. They've been wonderful, they find me food and manage the other sheep, they keep them from wandering far.” He carefully crouches down and places a hand on the ground to try and find you. “I've been looking for them for a while now, and since I heard their bell sounding this way I came to check for them, I'm so happy you found them Father, I don't know what I would do without them. Lamby! Come here!”
You let out a bleating cry as you struggle being held in the air. Stupid jerk! Just let go of me! I'm just a weird support animal for a blind cyclops, nothing… You swing to the left, no dice.
Of interest here.. You veer to the right, DUDE JUST LET GO! You swing your body trying to get free, the final swing earns you getting snatched by a giant hand.
“Sorry for the rudeness Father, but Lamby was in distress, and they are more fragile compared to us.” He pets you as you fix your cloak wrapped around your shoulders, it got ruffled in the struggle and wha- a tear! That jerk ripped your cloak! Your grumbles come out as an annoyed mhee causing the cyclops to pet your head more.
The god of the sea looks at you in the hands of his son, what an odd creature. As a being of higher status he can usually read lesser creatures' minds if they are under his domain, and normal animals have instincts that usually occupy their small brains, but this creature has no thoughts inside its head that he can read but still functions somehow. Did Zeus get bored again and make another messed up creature that escaped? as if humans weren't enough of an abomination.
“Whatever that thing is, it isn't a Lamb. I will get rid of it for you-”
“No! Apologies for interrupting again Father, but Lamby is Lamby, even if they are a bit odd they are very precious to me I wouldn't dare get rid of them.”
Rude. These hoes ain't loyal sometimes man, he just backhanded a compliment at you. But wait, Father? But Poseidon is the father of cyclopes, not this rude jerk who belongs in a model agency. You discreetly summon a System window and check the world location.
•ᴗ•
𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 ↻◌◌◌
‧₊˚✧[Current world selected:Ẽ̷̼̭̹̗͋͆̏̈̏͝͝p̷̡͉̘̉͑̿̇͛i̸͇̟̇̑̊̍́̆̐͑̚c̶̡̛̛͈̤̬͉̲̹̀̅̓̚͜:̶̰̠̆́̌͆̑͒̉̈́͑͝ ̷̩̭̹͈̲̳̱͖̀͑̾̈͒̽̓͑̕Ţ̸͋̔͐̑̎̈́͊̅̚͝ḧ̸̨̤͚̱̙͓̙́͋̈́̐̏́̕͜ȩ̸͎̝̱͓͎̩̜̼̑̓̓̉̚ ̸̧͉̳͍͚̳̺͋̏͌͠M̴̢̻̱̻̫͇̮̗̬̈́̈͋̏̅̏͜ú̴̬̦̩̥̒̾̋́̚͝s̶͉̫̱͕͔̝̺̗͗ͅį̸̩̳̣̬̭́̉͋̊̍̒̃̓̑́ͅc̸̢̪̊̆̈́̉̀̇͘͠͝ą̴̪̫̯̖͓̫̠̝̎́́ͅļ̵̩͔̩̂̀͗̔̏͐̀͛̕̚]✧˚₊
𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 ↻◌◌◌
‧₊˚✧[New world: Record of Ragnarok]✧˚₊
‧₊˚✧[Previous world: Epic: The musical.]✧˚₊
‧₊˚✧[File Corrupted. Unable to retrieve previous save.]✧˚₊
𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞:✔
•ᴗ•
What the heck is this!? Record of what. You aren't familiar with this world and how the heck did you even end up here!? Did you just get shuffled like a Spotify playlist? Going from slice of life to thirst trap music was not in the plan.
You put in a System request for a world research, becoming increasingly more confused and frustrated, which the sea jerk notices. What could possibly be making that creature upset way up there?
•ᴗ•
‧₊˚✧[You are now in Record of Ragnarok, the anime and manga where humans and gods will fight in an arena to live for another millennium or destroy the other species completely.]✧˚₊
•ᴗ•
The System supplies you. A world where gods vehemently hate their creation of humanity and wish to kill all of it? System, contact Neru to get me the heck out of here right now!
•ᴗ•
‧₊˚✧[ I will do my best to get you out of here if you so wish, but for now, try to keep yourself stabilized.]✧˚₊‧
•ᴗ•
“And how do I do that?”
•ᴗ•
‧₊˚✧[ Simple, please avoid any more deaths that could lead to another reset and I should be able to pinpoint the problem soon enough!
( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ ) ]✧˚₊‧
•ᴗ•
Ok should be simple, right? Just avoid the guy while in his domain, on an island full of his children (which he doesn’t care for.), deep in his territory. Not gonna lie, this whole thing is kinda inconvenient for your plain ol’ mortal sheep act. Is this because you talked about a change of pace? Did you really jinx yourself or did the sheep tattle on you to Lady Karma? Stupid you and your stupid wishes.
Well, congratulations, past me. Now you have a challenge in the form of different beings, both godly and mortal, obsessed with your mysterious presence in their world.
