Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

… hungry. hungry. hungry. You are so hungry.

Ever since you ended up in this god forsaken realm, you've always been hungry. It's always been a struggle to get food. Really, you would take anything at this point… anything meat, though. You can't eat grown foods… something about your body rejects it.

But something interrupted your search; the distant sound of carnage. A well-known sound to you at this point. It was far. Farther than any creature should be able to hear. But you are no creature. You are a monster. Your body unfolds into a amalgamation of flesh, teeth, eyes, tendrils, and various other parts… a horrifying sight. The tendrils make it easy to fling yourself from tree to tree, reaching the loud screams of pitiful, pitiful fools at breakneck speeds.

You arrived. Stop. Look around. Has anybody spotted you? No. Who was fighting? Corpse, corpse, corpse... A lamb. A real, living lamb. You've never seen one of those before… you have overheard something about them before… back when you used that old tabby cat disguise. A shitty disguise, yeah… but it worked long enough to get information…

"Have you heard? The Bishops have ordered all lambs to be executed! It's something about a prophecy about… Him."

You responded, barely keeping the disguise up. (Manually keeping everything together is hard!!!)

"Really? Poor souls… I do wish that He guides them well."

Enough dillydallying on that old memory. You need to kill that lamb- wait.

You recognize that… thing on their head.

A crown.

Are they a bishop? Nobody's ever said anything about a lamb BISHOP before, so, no. It's red, and you know His crown was red, so… This lamb has to be the Vessel of Him, then. Lay low. Stalk. Strike when the time is right.

"You know, i can feel you?"

Shit. Disguise, now. uhh… the cat form will work. You start compressing your body into the general shape, biting into your own flesh to make it fit. You speak in a voice that is not your own, instead; one of your victim's voices.

"Y… Yes? Sorry, i- oh my bishops… what has happened here?!"

It's easy to fake terror by now. You've heard it enough from those scientists at relith. Their screams of terror, their fear, their pleas for mercy as you tore into them bit bY WONDERFUL BIT, LAUGHING AS THEY BEGGED FOR YOU TO JUST END THEM-

You're losing it again. Keep calm… Carrion. Ha, nice pun. The lamb responds, after finally getting their axe out of some poor idiot's skull.

"These are the bodies of heretics… of fools who thought they were above death."

You calm yourself at the thought. No god can ever grant wishes… you would know from experience. You begged for the experiments to end, yet none of your pleas were answered. So, you took it into your own hands. And now look at you. A thing to be FEARED… you calm yourself, and start speaking.

"Death claims us all. These idiots just needed… a blunt reminder on that, i suppose?"

A chuckle comes from the lamb.

"Yeah, they did. Say… would you like to join a… family?"

Cult. The lamb means cult. You can tell… might as well join. They'll just find out about you, and push you away, like always. That's how it always goes. You go into a town, act normal. They find out, somehow, and start screaming, crying, begging… nothing is ever left of them.

You respond, trying to keep up a normal pace. Don't respond too fast, don't be too slow. "Uhh.. Yeah, sure! I'd love to."

The lamb gets closer, looking into your bright yellow eyes.

"Alrighty then! Just stand still!"

Suddenly… a portal opens beneath you. You float up, eyes flickering red in panic.

"Wait, wha-"

And then, you're whisked away, to somewhere new.

A few seconds later, you pop out of the other side, now in some sort of circle. You can see… animals, all around you. you're so hungry- NO. Cut it out. Stay normal. There's farms, a temple, and some sort of residential area. What catches your eye(s), though, is… a weird, green bushy Thing in the distance, mumbling about something. You recognize them as soon as you see their front.

Leshy; The Bishop of Chaos.

Chapter Text

Okay, you need a second to think… First things first, HOW did Leshy, the fucking GOD OF CHAOS GET HERE? Isn't he the enemy of the lamb or something? You haven't really been up to date with this kind of stuff… and you're still hungry… Second, WHAT WAS THAT PORTAL ABOUT?! third, WHY IS THERE A COW SITTING IN HER OWN SHIT- Oh. the Lamb's here. Act normal.

"Hey! New member! Are you ready?"

You… kinda are. The smell of RAW SHIT is very strong, and… your nose is very strong, overall. All of your senses are. You respond, trying to fake the whole… "I'm sort of overwhelmed" tone.

"Umh… Yeah! I- I think i'm ready!"

"Great! Let's get you in the proper attire, and then you'll be free to do whatever you want!"

Okay… of course they have a dress code. You're lifted up again, and your bare body is now covered in a red shirt.

"Hm… alright, neat."

The Lamb seems to notice something about you, and stares at you for merely a second, before moving on.

"Well… You're gonna be assigned to… cleanup duty."

Great. Just what you needed. To be handling SHIT.

"Oh, ok."

You walk off, immediately heading toward Leshy, because he's the only damn face you recognize here. Unfortunately, he notices you before you get within reach.

"Back off. I don't need to hear it."

Rude. Anyways…

"Look, Leshy. I know who you are. I know that you're… well, not exactly able to see. If you ever need help, feel free to ask."

… silence. soon after, a response.

"And why would I want YOUR help? I don't NEED anyone's help."

Wow, this guy's a dickhead.

"Look, Leshy… If you're gonna ACT like that, then i don't HAVE TO HELP YOU. I just know how it feels to.. feel weak. I don't want anyone to feel the way I did."

Sob stories always work! And this one's true, so it's BOUND to work well!!!

"… Fine. Don't expect me to actually NEED it much."

Success. You've always been good with words. Violence was always easier, though.

"… Actually, you smell odd…"

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck you should have known he would find out-

"You need to clean up more."

Oh. You are kinda dirty. You should wash up.

"… Okay. Bye."

You leave. You peek into the temple, and… a book's on the altar. You shouldn't go read it WHO AM I KIDDING LET'S GO READ IT!

You remember Photokinesis… That old trick. Lets you go invisible, if you're light enough! Not a big deal, all you have to do is- uhh… god, this is going to suck… you can take it.

RIP… You don't really like doing this.

CRACK… it's therapeutic, sure, but it hurts.

SNAP… all done.

You've torn a solid chunk out of your body, your eyes now a bright green. The blood stains your faux paws, dripping down onto the floor.You stuff the glob of molten flesh and torn bone under the floorboards, trying to hide the beating heart and breathing lungs of it.

everything hurts still, but at least now you can go invisible! You do the aforementioned thing, going invisible, and start to read the book. It's mostly just notes on the lamb's ordeal, but you do get caught up on what's happened recently.

The one who waits is apparently.. here? He's marked as "OUTSIDE", and his real name's Narinder, which… Okay. Cool. Guess he's not exactly here right NOW, but the first chance you can, you're chatting. All five (including Narinder) bishops are dead, the lamb's gotta recruit them, bla, bla, bla. There is a whole page on… you. Not you, but the Carrion Monster, which is you- WHATEVER.

"The Carrion Monster. I've heard of it before, but it's… simply just a rumor! I mean, if it existed, then Narinder would have sent me after it. I could probably beat it, but… It still scares me."

Yeah, they're right. If you fought the lamb, it would be close, but you'd lose… unless you had Parasitism, but that's hard to land, and you REALLY don't like nuances- Oh shit someone's coming in. someone's going to find out oh god oh fuck oh god no

You put the book back, and unfold your body back in to the signature, disgusting Carrion Monster appearance. You're still invisible, but you're RUNNING OUT OF TIME. You slide under the floors, grabbing the bleeding chunk you ripped out earlier, and slip out the side, darting behind the temple… you brace, trying not to remember that god damn escape, and…

CRUNCH… you hate doing this.

SNAP… you hate being this.

SQUELCH… YOU WANT THIS TO JUST END!!!

It's over. Your eyes are back to yellow. You feel disgusting. You hate doing that, but if it's what's needed…

You dart into what is assigned to be your tent. You just… need a second. You hate this. You want to cry. You didn't want to be rushed, you didn't want to be sent into a GOD DAMN PANIC ATTACK, BUT HERE WE ARE!

Memories just keep coming back. That damn lab, Relith, EVERYTHING. YOU HATE IT! YOU WANT IT TO GO AWAY! YOU JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE! YOU DON'T WANT TO BE THIS-

You can hear Leshy walking up. The steps are… agitated? calm down. act normal.

"Hey. Idiot. I heard loud breathing in here. You ok?"

You're still not fully formed, but you quietly work on it while Leshy's blind ass is none the wiser.

"No, no.. I'm ok!"

please just fall for it. please, please, please you don't want to talk anymore it's all just too much…

"No, you aren't. I heard the flesh tearing, y'know? Don't think I'm not stupid."

fuck. Leshy grabs your arm, pointing at the scar you have yet to heal up. He can feel it on you.

"Don't do this again. I may hate everyone here, but I damn well don't want the first person that BOTHERED to talk to me outside of the typical rehearsed "WELCOME TO THE CULT" spiel being so rough on themselves. If I hear this again, i'm holding you down until you LEARN YOUR LESSON."

… that was kinda hot, plus it helped you calm down! Sexy and distracting from your horrible mental state!

"… alright, Leshy. I'm sorry."

Leshy scoffs. "Yeah, yeah. Shut it. Get some damn sleep. You're gonna be spending half your morning cleaning shit." And promptly, he leaves.

You curl up in the very shitty bed, and let out a sigh.

What a horrible first day.