Work Text:
Fulgur woke up to a cacophony.
In another timeline, maybe it would be because of his praetor, Chroma, messaging him. In yet another timeline, maybe it would be from the discord messages of his genmates, the rest of Noctyx.
Not this timeline.
In this timeline, Fulgur woke up to the raucous noise --
Of sheep bleating.
Blearily opening his eyes, he sat up and absentmindedly petted the brown cat next to him. Alban nuzzled into his hand, and licked it before leaping off the bed and running off into the kitchen, stepping on Sonny’s tail on the way there. The golden retriever awoke from the sudden impact, before leaping up to chase the tabby cat.
Fulgur shook his head at the sight and smiled softly. As he walked to the kitchen, he passed by a spacious bird cage, with a blue bird sleeping within. He threw a sandwich from a few days ago into the microwave, and gathered the food for the other resident “menaces” in the house while he waited for his breakfast to reheat.
He poured the cat and dog food respectively within 2 silver bowls, and walked towards the larger animals, who were now having a conversation in meows and barks. He placed the bowls down and gave the two a small kiss on the forehead. They each playfully batted at his face, and dug into their breakfast.
Taking the bird seed up next, he walked back to the bird cage, where Yugo, now awake, was bopping to the soft music playing in the background. He unlatched the cage door and poured the seed into his bowl, and the bird chirped back at him with appreciation.
With the last bag of food in hand, he walked to the side of the living room, towards an enclosure where a sleeping rabbit with curly fur lay with its ears covering its eyes. Softly unlocking the enclosure’s door, he placed the contents of the bag within the cage. He was planning to take a picture of the sight when he heard the beeping noise from the kitchen.
Robbed of the chance of taking cute Uki pictures, he huffed, walking back to the microwave and collecting his sandwich. As he sat at the kitchen table, he watched his daily entertainment in real time. Alban was chasing Sonny around and making a ruckus. Yugo joined in the fun as well, chasing Alban around with Sonny. When he was about to finish his sandwich, Uki bounded into the room, and they all started chasing each other around.
(In unrelated news, a new video appeared in his phone, titled ‘4 stupid kids part 24’)
Once he washed up and made sure the animals were behaved, it was time to get to work.
The ruckus outside got louder when he opened the door and stepped out into the field.
“You guys are a noisy bunch, aren’t you?” he murmured, moving closer to the source of the noise.
The calls, as if noticing Fulgur’s arrival, got louder, vying for his attention.
“Hello Bleep, hello Sheero,” he cooed, burying each hand into their black and white wool. “How was the rest of the flock?”
The sole black sheep of the flock made its signature bleat twice, while Sheero softly nuzzled his torso.
“Nothing much, huh? I’m glad,” he smiled.
Fulgur is a shepherd, guarding over a pretty extraordinary flock of sheep. For one, they’re all abnormally smart. Somehow, all of them act like they understand Fulgur perfectly, and follow his instructions really well, even without a sheepdog. (Fulgur originally did want a sheepdog, but Sonny, a usually unflinching dog, proved to be more scared of the sheep than they were of him.)
Another thing is that the sheep in the flock weren’t birthed -- they spawned. Sometimes, without any prior notice, a new member of the herd would simply appear from thin air. The first time that happened, which was after he got Bleep and Sheero, it scared the shit out of him [“WHY THE FUCK IS THERE ANOTHER SHEEP WHERE DID IT COME FROM AAAAAA-”], but after the 10th time, he started to take it as just another part of his life. Currently, his odd little flock is 90 strong, with Bleep and Sheero acting as de facto leaders of the group.
Because his sheep were so smart, most of the time he didn’t really have to do much. His sheep were very cooperative during shearing once they got used to it, and the sheep (usually Bleep or Sheero) would tell him if any member got sick or required care. This let him have a lot more free time to do whatever he wanted, including playing with the animals that weren’t just his 90 sheep, and writing his novel.
After eating their fill, the pasture was speckled with clusters of white dots (alongside Bleep’s accompanying black dot). The sheep were all tired from their playtime. Fulgur picked up his notebook and wandered towards the middle of the field, sitting down. Seeing this, the flock shifted slowly towards him, until there was but one man in a massive pile of sheep.
“Chapter Two: Min Headroom…” he started, reading off his own drafts. Despite his story not being the type you’d usually read to sheep, the flock liked it when they heard him reading his first drafts aloud to himself, so he decided to humour them.
As he read, he observed their reactions in the corner of his eye. At certain points, he saw a few different sheep perk up and nudge the sheep next to them, conversing in soft “baa”s. At other points, he heard their stomping after he revealed a particularly interesting plot point.
Distracted by his story, Fulgur failed to notice the scampering and fluttering sounds of his companions drawing closer. Before he knew it, Yugo had landed in his hair, Alban and Sonny had fallen into his lap and Uki fell into the pages of his open book, smothering him beneath their softness.
When he ended the chapter, the animals called loudly, with some lambs jumping and circling around him. He laughed, nuzzling some of them.
“I’m glad you guys enjoyed it!” he said, receiving animal fanfare. He tried to get up, but he was stopped by the inordinate amount of wool surrounding him. So he gave up and lay still in the sheep pile, buried in the fluff with his animal children.
At night, after a long day with his sheep, he dreamed. He dreamed of himself as a cyborg, falling to the past and into a new life as a part of Nijisanji. He dreamed of his animal friends as his kyoudai, helping him along every step of the way. He dreamed of his sheep becoming human, following and supporting him as he streamed. He dreamed of a different timeline, so different yet so similar to his own.
But as he woke up the next day, he was just Fulgur Ovid, the shepherd of non-electric sheep.