#animal!reader

You end up in ancient Greece for a project, but realize its a bust since you ended up in the fictional fantasy one, Epic: The musical. So, instead of stressing about your mistake you decide to enjoy your time there. 

Listening to the world, you realize musicals affect the world differently. Everything has a tune, the waves have a steady rhythm, the birds sing like a choir, communicating food, danger and directions. The ground has a slight hum, everything is singing in place of talking normally, you can't imagine what singing sounds like if the default is breaking out in song cause you stubbed your toe.

Following the loudest and most charming rhythm, it ends up being a fleet of boats. You realize that this is the one written by mister jalapeño, no wonder why the boat was so loud, the rest are background noise compared to the main symphony of the odyssey, Odysseus’ crew!

Ooohhh guess you'll stick around for the wonderful music, maybe you can try some holy moly, drug dealer grandpa, where are youuu??

You follow Odysseus on his journey back home, finishing your works in this world due to its inspiring atmosphere, must be because of the music intertwined into its very being. You float about the crew and even meet some gods, but they don't notice you since you're on a higher level as an Outsider. Shame you haven't been able to snatch some holy moly, Hermes only had enough for one great, great, smth, grandchild, and the gramps had favorites apparently >:( almost got noticed checking the man for more, so no magical drugs for you.

>:((( 

《◇》Timeskip《◇》

You followed the crew throughout their journey, dipping occasionally not wanting to see particular scenes. You grew to adore some of the characters, but had to keep an emotional distance, nothing good comes from becoming too attached in a foreign world, especially if you know that some of these characters are only heard from once then dip into oblivion, and that all of them die except one. It felt like watching an animal grow and die, and not being able to do anything because it was for an experiment. At least you know where some of them are, the underworld, Olympus, and for the few stragglers, with your trusty system map, it can locate anyone! 

See Odysseus? No need to tell me your name, address and social security number, I knew them already ;) maybe that could've helped you get home before you pissed off the fish man. 

You were so close too, just a simple whisper in his ear, mimicking the voice of his beloved Penelope telling him to shut up and board the boat, no time to attempt to be edgy just go! But then you remembered, No major canon divergence, if interference is not permitted at the start of the save, you can't do anything or it would be against the rules and could earn you a strike. 

Ughhhh why did you forget to set that as a default? How many more times will you have to abandon a save cause you can't interfere before you stop procrastinating and get it over with! It's just two minutes of reading a waiver and a flick of a switch!

Well you didn't, now, not bothering with two minutes of reading has costed you several saves and hours of crying over not being able to save your pookie the first time. So you stand back and watch Odysseus start his long Odyssey by leaking his personal info. You dumb blorbo >:(

Let this be a lesson to not procrastinate, or not, I'm not your keeper. You followed Mister, Penelope Why? You Know I'm Too Shy,  all the way to his home. Watched him slaughter the suitors and cry in the arms of his family and rule his kingdom with a lot of trauma in his eyes.

You were a little unsatisfied with your presence here, nothing gained, but nothing lost either. You had no impact throughout the odyssey and felt kinda guilty, but not enough to make a new save and help, you are here to relax from the world, not feel terrible about being less helpful than a sneeze. (Even that had a purpose! Expelling a foreign body while making others nearby feel gross and sick) 

You depart from Ithaca and fly about the world for perhaps the last time, the plot has finished so interference is now enabled but you feel no need to stay. So you fly and fly, zipping through the clouds, smacking some unsuspecting creature and stealing their stuff while they turned to see what had accosted them.

​

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

🇩​​🇮​​🇷​​🇪​​🇨​​🇹​​🇴​​🇷​​🇸​ ​🇨​​🇺​​🇹

You were the voice Odysseus heard during the song “Keep Your Friends Close” while he was dreaming of his wife and son while they were approaching Ithaca. You mimicked her voice so as not to have a major interference, but you were hoping to wake him earlier, to maybe help him get home quicker without the long journey. But alas, you were both too late. 

​🇪​​🇽​​🇹​​🇷​​🇦​ ​🇨​​🇴​​🇳​​🇹​​🇪​​🇳​​🇹​:

You were shaking him mentally, shouting “CHRISSY WAKE UP, I DONT LIKE THIS. CHRISSY WAKE UP!!!” as you furiously shake his astral body.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

You land on an island and are about to pull up your system screen and exit the simulation, until you hear rustling. You glance around while activating a Forgetful Mist and pull up a map of the land to check if this place has nosey locals. “The land of the Giants” it reads on your screen and you try to recall where that rings a bell, oh! You are still in the musical after all, so it must be the home of the Cyclops species! One of them appeared in [Act 1] you believe. Huh, what did they look like again? You were too busy bemoaning your past laziness and mutely yelling at the stupid edgy attempting captain to get a good look at the one eyed creature he injured, er- I guess now a no eyed creature? 

Poor thing, you kinda wonder how it's doing, you too would've thrown hands if someone harmed your beloved animal companion, perhaps not murder an army, but that's only because you can't hide a body convincingly.

You contemplate whether you should satiate your curiosity now that your going to leave the world, your choice is answered when you hear a sobbing wail

and witness a blind cyclops weeping next to a crudely made grave and feel a bit of pity. He looks worse for wear, you recall that back then people would abandon weaklings to fend for themselves, and given how this guy has been permanently blinded, no wonder he looks so thin and raggedy. You wonder how he managed to survive for so long, even his poor sheep are all gone. How unfortunate...

“Who goes there?” The giant changes from crying to defensive as he reaches for his club. Uh oh how did he sense you? You look around and see a winion scurrying away. Oh so that must've been the one to alert him, welp, might as well indulge a savior complex.

“It's me! Your beloved sheep friend, don't you recognize me?” You call out with a sweet voice at a distance you deemed out of his reach.

“Lamby? Are you a ghost? Why only now do you appear to me.”

He reaches forward and snatches you out of the bushes before you realize you're doomed.

“No no, I'm not a ghost, you're holding me now aren't you?” Even though I wish you weren't, now I'm covered in dirt. Does bro even wash his hands?

“You feel different Lamby, less round, less fluffy too and your limbs are weird now.” ok so Lamby is your name now. Well Cerberus is supposed to mean spot right?

He grasps your new form, a sheep on two legs with chubby fingers. Fluffy tufts of wool on your head for hair and a round, Fluffy body composed of softness with a wool texture akin to clouds.

Huh, that's how he survived, he has good hearing and he's quick. OK, we can totally do this. Just help this guy not die for a bit and then slip away when he doesn't notice. What's the worst that could happen?

“Where are the others? Did they leave you?” You fidget restlessly hoping to wiggle out of his hold.

“No, the others took them from me because I couldn't care for them properly. I only have my club and the grave I made for you.” He mourns as he pats your fluffy body after placing you on the ground since you kept struggling.

How could people be so cruel?! Or monsters in this case? That won't do, not at all! If you plan to leave eventually you need to disguise yourself inside a herd. A prompt pops up next to your head.

•ᴗ•

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 ↻◌◌◌

‎‧₊˚✧[ Would you like to return the sheep to their 

Really sad looking owner? ]✧˚₊

˙⋆✮ Quest Rewards ✮⋆˙ 

➤ No longer sad giant.

➤ Sheep friends!

➤New companion skin unlocked

➤.…… 

•ᴗ•

You scroll through the other obtainable items and quickly accept the quest. That's it you're gonna get them back. You have to do at least something or this save was even more of a waste.

“Don't worry friend, I'll get them back! To repay you for always caring for us, I will now care for you with my little hands- I mean hooves” You go to walk away but the giant blocks your path with his hand.

“Please do not leave, there is no point in getting them back, they are with Malcolm now. So they are better off elsewhere. If you do manage to get them back, who will care for them?”

“ I will! I'll be your eyes! To repay you for caring for us, it's now my turn”

So against better judgment (was it really tho? You've loved worse people.) You decide to befriend the blind outcast and transform into a fluffy sheep friend to comfort him and maybe eventually fake your death and leave permanently. 

But uh, he didn't let you. He always followed you around, worrying every time he couldn't find you near him. You quickly worked on getting the other sheep back to get his attention off you, but that majorly backfired since you were stuck as the main caregiver! 

➤Water the crops

➤find food for sheep

➤water sheep

➤feed sheep

➤find wandering sheep

➤Defend the wandering sheep

➤return to giant before he throws a tantrum

The list goes on and on! You were so close to just giving up if it weren't for the ridiculously cute sheep following you around, even when it was annoying, but one look into their eyes and you folded. 

You guard the sheep from predators as a small little shepherd when they wander into a crowded underbrush where the giant can't reach. It's very simple really, you baaa and the sheep listen, they understand you and you sometimes understand them. 

The giant has other means of helping you, you regularly guide him to do tasks too big for you, and the giant kinda grew on you, he does his best given his circumstances, he had heightened senses so he was the first one notifying you when a sheep got too far for him to reach. The other inhabitants may have thrown him away like trash, but you collected like the trash goblin you are, recycling people!

This proves you can totally chill as a sheep companion, you placed a bell on all the sheep so the giant can hear them and won't accidentally make one go squish and you even got yourself a cloak thanks to the System to differentiate yourself texture wise from the other sheep. Besides your ridiculously soft wool and the fact you stand on two legs with very cute eyes, you look just like the rest of the sheep. 

You've taken to a habit of announcing where you're going so the flock doesn't follow you or panic, they seem to understand you and it's worked out well. The giant almost stomped on you once when he was rushing to your location. Apparently, another giant was bragging that he found a wonderful sheep with the softest wool. He couldn't see what the sheep looked like and couldn't seem to find you so he panicked. He wouldn't let go of you for a few days after that, being carried was nice but nevertheless annoying in that situation, so you save yourself the trouble and tell them where you're heading.

You convinced him to move to a more secluded cave far from others to mainly keep yourself hidden, you don't have any more plans for people to shake the ground frantically looking for you whenever you go off to do something simple. One giant cyclops following you around is already difficult as is. Archons forbid the rest of the island finds out about you.  Euuuggh 

₊˚.༄🌊₊˚.༄₊˚.༄🌊₊˚.༄₊˚.༄🌊₊˚.༄₊˚.༄🌊₊˚.༄₊˚.༄🌊₊˚.༄₊˚.༄🌊₊˚.༄

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 System for furniture so your living life, scary dog privileges 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 storms 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, your 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 at and look around and notice a texture change, why the heck does this look so funny, 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 regards.

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 cyclopses, 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 and 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 being 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.

Welp, congrats 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.

໒꒰ྀིっ˕ -｡꒱ྀི১

Part 2.