#Narinder the Cat (mentioned)

[mudtrash]

Took a few days but BEHOLD MORE NARI ANGST/WHUMP

Was thinking about trod Narinder being secretly in love with Lamb the whole time and the fact that Narinder most definitely has trust issue and fears of being mortal now

So with those two trains of thought combined, I wanted to explore… other hidden feelings he might have towards the lamb… 👀💧

Eat well, my flock, Cult of Nari Babygirls tm 🤲

[therekinperson]

wait…

what’s Nari doing back there?

as @bamsara put it, hes getting lost in the sauce

[aster-daydream404]

Posting some practice doodles because the COTL brainrot has taken over me

[thewitchoftheweed]

“Hi Leshy,” Kiki says. She sounds a little uncertain. Is she having second thoughts?

“Hi Kiki,” he says, trying to grin. He hopes it looks charming and not demented. The air around him suddenly feels strangely hot, though the temperature has already dropped significantly. It must be sunset already. Why is he sweating? Leshy clears his throat and says, “Still want to go for a walk together?”

“I do,” Kiki says.

His heart keeps pounding away in his chest, but it shifts abruptly from worry to excitement. “Let’s go, then.”

[spiderin-space]

Lamb unfortunately was Not dainty in their escape 😔😩

(Feat. @paintpaintpaintman’s Petra in the third sketch)

[viaviv124]

Cotl Orphan AU

So bc i would never in a million years finish writing this as a fic i'll just write everything i have so far here so its out of my head and y'all can also do whatever you want with it. This will be a long ass post so get a drink and get cozy. Of course i won't get on full Detail like characterizations etc, in this post at least, so feel free to ask questions! I'd love to answer them!

This post includes content warnings for all sorts of very dark topics, but especially murder, body horror, torture, cannibalism, suicide, depression, slightly implied sexual abuse, implied abuse in general and other stuff like that. If you're sensible to this please click off or proceed with caution.

It all starts with 5 siblings, Shamura(16), Kallamar(14), Narinder(13), Heket(10) and Leshy(8). When Leshy was barely able to walk they ended up on the streets because one of their parents killed the other before taking their own life. They struggled a lot but they got by.

One day, when Narinder was out looking for food, he found an injured lamb, around his age, in an ally. They seemed starved and the life had already left their eyes as they barely managed to look up at him. Being unable to just leave them there he knelt down to them, ripped off parts of his own clothes to wrap around them as makeshift bandages and left them all the food he gathered so far whilst telling them to keep living, that they shouldnt have to die like this. Once making sure the lamb will be fine alone he left, thinking he can just collect some more food anyway.

Around 3 - 4 years pass and in that time 4 of the siblings were gravely injured. Shamura suffered a devistating blow to the head from someone they stole food from, cracking their skull just enough to keep them alive but also to damage the brain. Kallamar's ears were ripped off by other homeless people that succumbed to insanity. Heket's throat was slit by an older, privileged child who thought it was funny after Heket expressed that she didn't want anything to do with them. Leshy's eyes were all shot during a heist, requiring his siblings to gouge out the remains. It's unclear how they survived all that. From then on the siblings, espacially Narinder, decided that murder is okay and justified if necessary.

More years pass and they reach their current ages. Due to a dispute they're chased out of the current ally they lived in for a long time. Now they're on the search for a new home, but it's very hard. Once they're on the other side of town, where they've never been before, yet still unable to find a suitable place especially Shamura starts to despair, blaming themself internally for being unable to help their siblings. Narinder and Kallamar do their best to try and reassure them.

One night, as they're wandering, they get found by a lamb dressed in rags, covered in scars and dirt and wearing a bag, they're around Narinder's age, who smiles kindly at them and offers a hand, promising a secure home and food. All of the siblings distrust this child, however out of necessity Shamura feels forced to accept the offer, they take the lambs hand. The lamb's smile turns gentler as they introduce themself as Belphy before starting to lead the way.

Belphy leads them to an old, abandoned factory at the outskirts of town, in which are several children of various ages and states, some coming to greet Belphy and asking if they brought new friends. At first the siblings don't trust anyone, keeping to eachother instead of interacting with the others, however eventually Leshy starts to get along with a yellow cat barely younger than him and with a missing arm. Heket becomes friends a bunny girl, who's quite the oddball, detesting touch in one moment and then clinging to Heket the next. Seeing their siblings get along with the other children Shamura and Kallamar also slowly start interacting with the others. However, Narinder only really socializes with Belphy, as they seem to cling to him whenever they're not busy. Seeing them first as an annoyance, Narinder soon learns to trust and appreciate this strange lamb. He also learns that this is the lamb he helped many years ago, being the leading cause of Belphy helping other children in need too.

However, Narinder notices some very odd behaviour from Belphy. He can't say what exactly it is, but it bothers him. But no matter how often he decides to trail them when they go out, they seem to always be a step ahead of him, greeting him with a sweet smile and going home with him before he could even get a rough glance of anything the lamb was doing. Whenever he asks questions Belphy smoothly avoids them or tells him not to worry about it, that everything is fine and nothing's out of the ordinary. Narinder can't help but get a bit scared, though. Because as nice and sweet as the lamb is, whatever they hide, he knows they must hide something, must be horrifying.

But one day, on the day he finds out. This time he wasn't even trailing Belphy, he was just out on a walk of his own when he suddenly heard a scream. He hid behind the corner and glanced into the back ally, having never seen something so horrifying before. In the ally was a bloodbath, Belphy in the middle of it, surrounded by two or three gruesomely mutilated corpses. Belphy licked the blood off their hand with a terrifyingly satisfied smile as the black knife in their other hand turned into a black snake with only a red eye as a face and curled around their arm, conveniantly hidden under the fleece. Confused by the transformation of the knife-snake they looked at their arm "Hmm? What was that for? I'm not done yet." As they look up again their eyes meet Narinders and Narinders blood runs cold as he freezes. His heart beats up and almost out of his chest as Belphys smile softens and they walk torwards him, covered in blood. The closer Belphy gets, the faster and louder Narinders heart beats as he squeezes his eyes shut.

Despite his expectations Belphy just gently cups his face, pulls his head down to their height and leans their forehead against his. They gently caress him and with a soft and gentle voice they attempt to soothe him, telling him that everything is okay, that he is okay and that he doesnt have to be scared. They tell him to breathe. To Narinders own surprise this works unexpectedly well and he manages to steady his breathing and calm down a little, however once he can move again he moves away from Belphy, opening his eyes only for a glare as his fear turns to fury. Narinder hisses not to touch him.

Belphy smiles and puts their hands in the air to show they're not a threat, the snake, now more exposed, stares at Narinder. When Narinder demands answers, Belphy complies with no hesitation.

They tell him that the snake found Belphy several years ago, not too long after their first encounter with Narinder. It said it needed blood and if Belphy provides it'll help them in turn too. So as proof it turned into a black crown with its red eye in the middle, its true form it said, and sat on Belphys head, healing every wound as good as it could it its weakened state. Once Belphy agreed to do it the crown now turned into a combat knife. Belphy only ever kills adults. When they first killed they let out all their pain and sorrows, following the crown's advice to make it easier, and as a result they came to like it. Torturing and killing adults, the ones that made their life so horrible in the first place. Now these despicable creatures are at their mercy as they scream and cry in pain, just like the lamb did too, before taking their lifes at last. Over the years they also grew fond of the taste of their victim's blood and flesh, what once was a necessity now was a guilty pleasure, allthough, they added, they cannot stand the smell.

Belphy reassures Narinder, who is a mix of heavily disturbed and (for reasons he doesnt quite understand) somewhat unfazed, that they won't ever harm him, the other children and his siblings, not now and not when they're all grown. They also make him promise to please not tell anyone, not even his siblings, before suggesting he can help them if he'd like.

With that Narinder is now Belphys partner in crime. He did come with them on a few massacres, he calls it that because of how messy Belphy is, and whilst he's still somewhat disturbed, mainly by Belphy's cannibalistic tendencies and a level of merciless sadism he didn't expect of them considering their sweet and gentle demeanour, he can't help but admit that he also bears a deep rooted spite for adults and that this is a great way to vent all this pain, it made him discover he might also be more sadistic than he thought. Maybe murder for fun was okay and not just a necessity.

Yet all of this still bothered him. Deep inside he was not only scared of Belphy but also himself. Shamura noticed Narinder's off behaviour and after weeks, maybe months, of observing him they finally asked what's going on. Narinder's deep trust in Shamura makes him forget about the promise he made and so he tells the everything. Everything about Belphy, the murders, his own sadistic tendencies, his fears and worries about all of this. Shamura didn't say much about it. They just held him close as he spoke.

It took less than a day for Belphy to find out. They're not happy. And Narinder is going to feel the consequences of a broken promise. Some cuts and bruises, maybe a broken bone or two, but nothing more than a severed finger. They care too much about him to do more. They cant bring themself to do more. So this'll do. It should teach Narinder to keep a promise next time.

They did it. They hurt him. As much as they hate seeing him scared, him accepting their embrace for comfort afterwards was very nice, considering how often he told them to not touch him. Maybe they'll ask the crown to heal Narinder, the message they wanted to send seemed to arrive so there's no need for him to be in even more pain.

AND THATS ALL I HAVE FOR NOW :D Thank you so much reading through this! If you have any questions about the AU and characters etc, feel free to ask!!

[altverse-invertverse]

A presentation I did on Cult of the Lamb for a grade… yes… I showed it off to my entire high school orchestra classroom.

Credits to artists that were put in the slides are on the slides, but you can @ them for me if you want 😭‼️(Im too shy to)

[messedupessy]

AYO IT'S THE ONE WHO WAITS (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ❤

So probably over a year ago I showed a wip of this, and then I just never fucking finished it so thought I should post the unfinished version as I haven't posted any art for ages and haven't drawn anything for ages as well xD

This is my old attempt at my take on Narinder, the one who waits, from Cult of the Lamb, as when it first came out I was stupidly hooked on it, but then there were some sort of game bug happening so I stopped and then I haven't played until a couple of weeks ago again and damn there is allot of new things now! Anyway my design of this guy was inspired by someone, I sadly forgot who if I ever remember I will edit this, who decided to make their own take of him and make him into a sphynx cat, and as my old followers know I love them and making Narinder into one just fits him so well xD

I also pictured he would be pretty darn malnourished after all the time he was locked up, and scars that might never heal and so on, and I don't fully remember where I got the inspo for his outfit but I recall I looked at allot of different art and ingame stuff to create something that looks like it fits the universe, so yeah got nothing more to say really except enjoy! This is really old and unfinished but I still like it allot! ❤

[justarandomlambblog]

Little brothers amirite

When your younger brother attempts to steal your food and his spouse just watches, enjoying the chaos

Enjoy this scribbled doodle <3

[c0de-xana]

Still fckin love this cat

[laserbobcat]

@androgynous-agent69 "Take inspiration if you want" bruh I have the whole thing in my head already, and you got in there somehow and spied. Admit it. I mean it's a game about life and death, resurrections and messy families, so it's not surprising similar ideas float around.

Ok it ended up being LONG. My file says 1780 words. Buckle up. ⬇

I did think about Leshy trying to find the sibling's remains in Darkwood with what little is left of his powers, asking the lamb for help, hopefully to bring them back. I need them to go over the whole "Hey I was miserable because of your whole stupid cult and they killed my sister because she was too soft" at one point in their relationship, probably relatively early. Note that Morgan's grief is centuries old, and at this point it's more old sorrow than vivid pain. Meeting and fighting Leshy, and seeing the Lamb so calm about his own past, helped him let go of most of his lingering anger. Which is why he doesn't mind telling him that he was absent for the day to visit a particular tree, not far in Darkwood. He chose this place to go and remember his sister every year. He does ask Leshy about his past life as a god though. The god of chaos was elusive, only showing up to cause havoc, kill some of his followers, rewarding others apparently on whims, and leaving again for long periods of time. Leshy admits that he didn't care about any of it. The whole cult wasn't his thing, he liked the powers of a crown but not the obligations. He did care about his siblings, and his siblings insisted he had to have a following. He visited the mortals when he needed something, or when he was bored, and they seemed to be happy making up their own thing in his name and waiting for him to come back and cause chaos. He saw mortals kind of like funny insects. Or pets, at best. Morgan points out that he has some nerve to admit all of that to him, and Leshy simply says that he won't add insult to injury by lying to him. "I didn't care back then. I didn't even know there was something to care about. I care now, but it's too late." Morgan ends the conversation after a silence by saying that gods really were selfish and destructive, and leaves. He's not even angry, he sounds sad and tired, which is a billion time worse. So Leshy swallows his pride, and goes to the Lamb to ask for a favor. Find his eye, maybe there's some lingering power there he could use to track the dead cat's remains in his former domain. But it doesn't. The lamb finds it, it's a relic now that is useless to him for the time being, and the initiative fails. Morgan's been a bit distant after the whole conversation, and Leshy goes to him and apologizes for failing to help bring his sibling back. Morgan is astounded that he even tried, and that's the thing that finally makes him openly admit that he's a dear friend despite everything. And that he will have to murder him for good this time if he doesn't stop burrowing near the tailor workshop, so he should really stop, because murdering a friend is sad and he wouldn't want another sad story would he.

There's another part for this way later in the storyline, where the Lamb sends Narinder to the afterlife (he knows how to navigate it better than them) by lending him their power. He's searching for Morgan's soul, who is in a coma after a resurrection, weirdly stuck between life and death, his body frozen. Lambie could not find a way to bring him back properly. Narinder finds the yellow cat sitting under a tree, brightly colored compared to the complete white of the place. Sitting next to him is a ghost that is obviously his twin. She's carrying chains around her neck and wrists. She is eerily serene, and it apparently had a calming effect on Morgan, as they're both very peacefully sitting there, not even surprised to see the former god of death. Narinder tells the cat that he's being a pain in the ass for everyone and no, he's not dead and he has to come back pronto. Morgan wants to stay, at least for a while, he never got to be dead and have a break. It's peaceful here. He missed his sister. He barely had time to enjoy her company. To which Narinder answers that time flows differently here, and that back home he's been out cold for almost two months. When he doesn't really seem to care, he adds "My lamb is worried sick. Your friends are worried sick. Leshy is worried sick. Literally sick in his case. He dropped a lot of weight, and Heket is battling him every day to force him to eat. There's not a leaf left in his coat. I heard him say it's his fault that you died in Darkwood. But he even stopped throwing fits, he's silent now." Morgan is immediately on his feet, panicked, asking how he's even supposed to go back. Narinder starts scanning him, as he turns to his sister apologetically, but she smiles at him. "I listen, and I collect stories. I was so happy to hear yours. And so relieved you found some peace and happiness. When we meet next time, we will both have so much more to share!" Before he can answer, he disappears, after Narinder finally finds that the source of the problem was a faulty skull necklace that he immediately crushes. He is left there, relieved that this whole situation is finally resolved. The other cat is still sitting near the tree, thoughtfully watching him. She asks him if he wants to rest for a while, he seems tired. He answers that no, now that her idiot brother is not causing troubles anymore, his Lamb will finally catch a break, and therefore him too. He's about to leave, but he hesitates. There's something about the peaceful soul sitting here, all white and chains and serenity, that offsets him. She reminds him of the Lamb. He softens and asks her, if it was possible, would she want to come back with her brother. He warns her not to hope, he does not think it's possible. But he offers to try. She smiles and silently picks up the long phantom chain dangling from her cuffs, and hands it to him. "My name is Anya." Narinder disappears like Morgan did. He's back in his body, in the temple, near an exhausted Lamb, with the chain in his hand. Meanwhile in the healing bay, Morgan suddenly jolts awake and start frenetically repeating "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so sorry I didn't realize I was gone so long I thought I was dead after what happened in Darkwood I'm sorry where's Lesh- Oh my Lamb you like like shit I'm so sorry why did you stop eating Narinder said that you stopped eating I'm so sorry I worried you-" and keeps apologizing as Leshy is silently crushing him in his arms. He does not let him out of his sight after that. Not that Morgan wants to go anywhere, he's constantly looking after him and making sure he's eating properly and recovering. The bettors are raging at this point. "Oh my Lamb- no I don't want to hear anything about proof they are obviously together now. No. No I don't care. "Nobody saw them kiss" I don't care. You owe me money. You already owed me money when they started "being roommates". Come on it's more PDA than 10 teenager couples combined. It's ridiculous. It's basically a romance novel at this point. And a cliche one. No shut up and give me my damn money."

Anya is brought back later after that. Lambie's been working hard on this kind of magic, and when the resurrection is successful, he's hopeful he can use it this way again to maybe find and bring back some of the sheep who were slaughtered to extinction. Narinder knows where they might be, despite being chained at the time, and Anya herself knows a surprising amount about them, since she spent her death traveling and listening. Maybe with time he can do it.

Narinder, Aym and Baal are calling Anya a warden. Some souls don't forget, or fade away, or merge, or change. They're exceptionally strong, and stay as solid and clear as they were the day of their arrival. They used to make them into helpers to guide the dead. Though they never noticed her, and she ended up helping in her own way, by sitting with other people who passed away and listening to their stories. She was distraught after dying, but rather quickly met someone from the Lamb's cult who thought she was Morgan, and ended up learning that her brother was safe. After that she decided to wait and listen for more. She ended up listening to everyone, for anything. When she realized that her brother was not joining her anytime soon, she decided to travel as far as possible to hear new stories. "Though the land of the dead is not a place that can be measured as you understand it. Everywhere is anywhere. But still, I traveled. I heard stories from all sort of people, old and young, sad and happy, kind and cruel. From places I will never know, from times long forgotten. Stories from fallen gods. They're all the same, and yet they're all different. Like currents in the same ocean." Because she knew the last Lamb saved her brother, and because the sheep she met told her about their fate, she paid attention to their tales in particular. She ends up spending a lot of time with Thena, the cult's scribe and record keeper, to put her knowledge to paper for them. Lambie is extremely grateful. They were only a child when the last sheep they knew was killed. They don't know much about them. Aym takes a liking to her, and ends up silently following her around like a guard dog. She appreciate his company. He says "She's the first normal person I met here" and he gets angry when people point out that the pale eerie cat who tells stories heard from dead gods is not normal at all, he's just as weird as her. Overall people like Anya a lot, she's such a good listener, and always know what to ask or say to help. What I mean by that is the cult now has a therapist. Aym's ace in this btw. Baal took all the horny, there was none left. Anya and him are platonically paired. I really need to draw her now lol

I also need to draw Morgan's dead twin sister. Might bring her back to life somehow.

[therekinperson]

A short sketchy comic i was going to put in the prev post but i felt like it shifted the tone too much

[krysmcscience]

It���s finally done, guys – five whole pages of Narilamb AU comic AND MORE be upon you! (If you have trouble reading any of the text, view the full-size! These pages are huge!)

Yeesh, this took forever. <:)

There’s probably a ton of inconsistencies and anatomy/perspective wonkeries, but this was mostly just comic practice, so Oh Hekkin Well, Lol <:D

(Yes, I am aware the Gateway’s door isn’t present in the Afterlife, and the actual way in is just a pentagram portal. Yes, I put the door in there anyway because Artistic License, i.e. it felt more impactful for there to be a prison door of sorts to walk through to freedom, rather than just a bland boring portal on the ground. 😠)

anyway, i hate backgrounds so much lmao

Alternate ending and a buttload of bonus art under the cut, followed by goofy AU rambles and headcanon stuff:

I’m calling it the Revival AU. It’s not all that creative a title, and someone else has probably used it already, but I am too lazy to really care, LOL

Alternate ending page, which you will Definitely need to view the full-size for, Whoopsie Daisy:

The alternate ending was actually the first ending I finished things off with, because I had a brief badbrain moment where I forgot the emotional beat I initially wanted the comic to end on, and I tend to write comedy, anyway. I later remembered and drew out the proper ending, but I preserved and finished this one, too, because it still makes me giggle.

They had to go back for the followers off-screen in the AU’s real ending. And by ‘they’ I mean just the Lamb, because they weren’t about to ask three newly freed cats to go back into what used to be their prison. The Lamb DID spend some time watching Narinder and the bois enjoying the outdoors first, though:

In other news, here’s the Lamb and me making fun of my anatomy-drawing ‘skills’:

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering why the Lamb is just a-okay with how things went down vis a vis Their Murder, this bonus comic should answer at least some of your questions:

Ah, yes, also this is how they get engaged outside of the alternate ending. Forgot to mention that bit. XD (I already refuse to believe that Narinder is capable of flirting normally, so why would his initial marriage proposal be any better???)

Oh, and before any of them get a chance to actually head back to the cult grounds, there is one potential problem:

And by ‘problem’ I mean something Narinder intends to ignore for At Minimum a thousand years. Cuz he’s a petty bitch like that. :D

what do you mean i drew the lamb too tall compared to the background? clearly they’re standing on top of baal and aym lmao, why else would you think those two aren’t in this one??? (aym and baal got way too excited about finally being outside, you see, and their silly modes are nothing to sneeze at)

And, speaking of heading back to the cult grounds, I’m sure y’all would love to know how the Lamb’s followers felt about the brand new change in management:

It all went better than expected. <:D Tiny ramble now, feel free to skip down to the next comic.

Before you ask, no, the Lamb does not have any actual powers anymore, other than the immortality Narinder definitely grants them. The Red Crown just thinks it’s funny to suggest otherwise, and Narinder does nothing to discourage this. Also, the Lamb and Narinder aren’t actually married here yet, but, uh. Pretty safe to say that particular ritual directly follows the events of this comic. XD

Given how quickly he mellows out in canon, Narinder probably chills out a lot in this AU once he’s in charge of the cult, too, if only because 1.) He’s finally free, and 2.) He’s equally smitten with and distracted by the Lamb. He’s definitely in charge at least 95% of the time, though, because the Lamb never actually wanted to be a cult leader and, now that their time as a vessel is done, they just want to be a normal(ish) sheep who’s wholly devoted to their hot new divine husband.

Some followers do still have some valid concerns about these two being together, though, which I’m sure at least a few of you might share…

Unfortunately for any such concerns, the Lamb is a bonafide masochist in this AU. :D

They’re also 100% a sub, obviously

Anyone at all: Your relationship is problematic and potentially toxic

The Lamb: fuck yeah it is, it’s so hot~ OuO

Here’s just the last panel, made transparent for whatever nefarious purposes y’all might have for it:

Additional exchange Narinder and the Lamb have at some point, probably after the Lamb does a fatal whoopsie while out on a mission trip or in response to things getting a little too sadistic in the bedroom, ahaha:

Look, there is a very important distinction between life and death, and if you don’t understand that, then you’re probably not worthy of being the God of Death, anyway. (At least, according to Narinder, and ONLY Narinder.)

Last but not least, have these shittens:

~Such creative naming conventions I have utilized, lololol~ :D Anyway, there's a few deets on them in the rambles down below.

The rest is all ramble, so before I get to that, I’ll just say – likes and especially reblogs are very much appreciated!!! :D If you happen to really really REALLY like my stuff, meanwhile, I do have a link in my bio to my ko-fi page, where I’m accepting commissions and donations if you’re especially generous… ÓuÒ

Now, BE FREE IF YOU AIN’T DOWN FOR READING MY GOOFY RAMBLES

First ramble is re: Baal’s question of ‘Did it really work?’, since I didn’t feel like expanding on it in the comic proper, and it’s arguably pretty vague? He doesn’t ask because he doubts Narinder or his capabilities, exactly, but because neither Baal nor Aym have ever actually seen their god at full power before (he’s still technically not at full power here, either). It’s not expressly stated how soon the brothers were brought to Narinder after his imprisonment, but whether it was early on or after a length of time for Shamura to (somewhat) recover from his attack, he must have already been weakened, since I have no doubts that there was a huge battle that accompanied the Bishops working together to trap him. So, between that fight with all four of his siblings, sharing his power with a variety of vessels over time, and being chained immobile for a thousand years, he must have been severely weakened by the time he lent the Red Crown out to the Lamb, which would have only weakened him further.

I like to think this is how the Lamb is able to defeat him if they refuse to be sacrificed, despite how it took all four Bishops working together to subdue and chain Narinder in the first place.

All that aside, the three cats have been trapped in the Afterlife for so long that Baal also wanted verbal reassurance that they are all, indeed, actually able to leave it now – something that I headcanon isn’t possible without a significant amount of power (i.e. the Red Crown’s cooperation with its bearer/vessel).

(On a semi-related note, I don’t headcanon Aym and Baal as twins. I like sweetheart big bro Baal and snarky little goth bro Aym too much to have them be that close in age.)

Ah, teeny thing: If you noticed I switched up the art style for Narinder on the second page, that was intentional. It's sort of a visual indicator that there has been a Big Change for him - that being, how much power he has after sacrificing the Lamb. As for why I changed up his arms in the grass rollin' pic, I don't really subscribe to the notion that his arms are spooky bones because they're horrifically injured (beyond chain-chafing scars, that is), but rather just because he's the Bishop of Death, so he can change how normal-to-spooky they look at will. At some point I might doodle out how I imagine his appearance to range between least to most eldritch... 🤔

Next ramble, regarding Narinder’s feelings towards the Lamb...he was initially too focused on being freed from his imprisonment to form any real attachment to them. They were a tool for his use, first and foremost, but he did notice their intense devotion towards him. It was impossible not to notice, because the Lamb was always very happy to see him, even if it was because they died during a crusade (yet again). He wasn’t originally planning to revive them once he was freed, either, because he saw no real point to it – after all, they were already dead when they first met him, just as any other mortal would be when meeting him in the Afterlife, so death has very little real consequence in his eyes. But, once the chains were off, and it really sank in that he stood to lose the most devoted follower he’s ever had, he decided…why put their soul to rest for good or leave them stuck in the Afterlife when he could just as easily revive them again? And why not reward them for their hard work, anyway? Not only would it cost him nothing by comparison, but the future devotion that could come of it would surely make up for his (bare minimum) effort in reviving them.

He wasn’t expecting to get a full dose of that devotion and a smiling face so soon after killing them, though~ :3c (because the Lamb is a bonafide freak, and not-so-secretly into the fucked up power dynamics going on here, lol)

I should mention here that I am firmly of the belief that any non-god/vessel who crosses through the Gateway and into the Afterlife just straight up dies. So, Aym and Baal? Also straight up dead, from the second Shamura brought them through. Their souls were just never put to rest so that Narinder could have some company – if only according to Shamura. Narinder kept the two around mostly out of bewilderment, because honestly, who are these kittens, and what is Shamura’s game here, anyway??? They never even explained anything, they just tossed these kittens into the Afterlife and LEFT!!! At any rate, Aym and Baal being dead is how I explain why their souls apparently become lost in the void if they’re killed, along with the added complications required to revive the two because of it.

So, with those deets in mind, and given a bit of time, if Narinder hadn’t chosen to revive the Lamb, and also hadn’t chosen to put their soul to rest, they still would have woken up at some point, despite being as straight up dead as Aym and Baal. Who, don’t worry, were also properly revived while Narinder was waiting for the Lamb to wake up. Because I am also firmly of the belief that, first, the dead cannot leave the Afterlife without the use of a ritual/relic (and can't stay in the living world for long regardless), and second, dead followers’ devotion isn’t anywhere near as potent as that of the living, given how much more the living stand to lose.

Final ramble, regarding the Lamb’s feelings towards Narinder, and why they’re so devoted to him…

Well, you don’t spend most of your life on the run with your steadily-dwindling herd, trying to evade the ongoing genocide of your species, without becoming a little fucked up in the head. Maybe a lot fucked up in the head. Life is suffering, so might as well have fun with it, right? Maybe start finding death and pain to be kind of hilarious, even a little bit hot, once everyone you know and love is dead and gone, leaving you all alone? And maybe after that, there’s something comforting in how, despite the cold, cruel uncertainties of life, at least you can always count on the inevitability of death, patiently waiting for you until your very last breath? Who knows. Either way, as soon as the Lamb was killed, and they learned that the literal God of Death was offering them a second chance at life and vengeance via effective immortality, they were 100% ride-or-die-devoted all at once. Turns out death is kinder than life – go figure. (Of course, it helps that Narinder is 100% their type.)

They weren’t put off by Narinder’s thinly-veiled sadism or manipulations, either – they’re not too different in those regards, albeit opting for vastly different methods. It’s a very ‘two sides of the same coin’ sort of deal. In order to stay alive once they were made the last of their kind, the Lamb had no qualms with using others to their advantage, and that did not change once they were revived and expected to run a cult. They didn’t care for the position of authority, though – being a sheep and all, they’re much more of a follower than a leader, and thus greatly appreciated Narinder’s need for control. With how they had to keep on their toes for so long, the Lamb was also pretty good at reading people by the time they died, so they could recognize that a lot of Narinder’s posturing was just that – posturing. Dude’s 95% bluster and only 5% bite. He could obviously be vicious when he wanted or needed to (the Bishops' injuries were clear proof of that), but underneath his outer layer of cruelty was a generous layer of tsundere, and underneath all THAT was a soft squishy middle sibling velcro cat in desperate need of attention and affection.

(Which, for the record, he Did Not feel comfortable getting from Aym and Baal – Narinder still has no idea why the fuck Shamura sent them to him, beyond acting as keepers at best or trying to sabotage his attempts to escape at worst. Which, he thought HE sabotaged in turn, by guiding the kittens into being his devoted disciples instead. He thought he was very clever for it. ‘I outsmarted Shamura!’ he thought, despite that there was never anything there to outsmart. ‘What do you mean, Shamura sent your kittens to me for company?’ he demands of Forneus later. It may or may not lead him to pull Shamura out of Purgatory just so he can shake them and scream about how they should have Fucking Explained that!!!)

But, getting back on track as to why the Lamb was so willing to be sacrificed, I cannot stress this enough – if you pay even a minimal amount of attention to what he’s saying, Narinder is REALLY NOT SUBTLE about his intentions. ‘Death is of little consequence.’ ‘Followers are for you to use to your advantage.’ ‘Sacrifice a follower to absorb more power.’ So, yeah, the Lamb knew exactly what would be expected of them once the other Bishops were dead. They knew Narinder would expect them to die for him one last time. But, after all, death is of little consequence (not to mention hot), so when the time came, they wanted to see him freed, even if it meant oblivion for them in the end.

He’d given them a second life, and the ability to avenge their kin, and they felt indebted to him for that – so, while they were still pretty glum about the possibility that they might not get to see him free of his chains, nothing beyond their devotion and debt to him mattered. They never wanted all the drama and expectations that came with the Red Crown’s power, anyway, so, better for Narinder to have it back so that he could deal with it. What he did with the Lamb afterward would be up to him, and seeing as he was their god, they’d accept his decision gladly.

Were they in love with him by that point? Oh, obsessively so, but only in the devotional sense – romance was nowhere on their mind nor radar. That is, until he unexpectedly revived them again, told them he still needed them, and then offered down his hand to help them up.

The Lamb fell HARD for him in that moment. :3c

And now, a tiny shitten ramble. Lu and Li are twins, because sheep tend to have those a lot, and are conceived not long after the Lamb and Narinder’s marriage ceremony. Lu is the minutes older one, but Li is much more mature. I have put no further thought into these two, other than that they are utter menaces, birthed by the Lamb, cling hard to both their parents but especially Narinder (who spoils them rotten), and they are both genderfluid, using whichever pronouns/names they feel like at any given time. They are also both intersex, same as the Lamb, who was initially infertile up until Something Something Vague Magic, which I have also put no further thought into ¯\_(シ)_/¯

oh, and before anyone tries to suggest i headcanon this AU’s lamb as trending more female due to them giving birth or whatever, no, no, a thousand times no, they might have a vag, but they've also got a dick, and even if it's not as big as they'd like, they still know how to use it

Finally, the very tentative name for the Lamb in this AU is Yazdi, which is really just another name for the Baluchi breed of sheep XD (Not that the Lamb is this specific breed, I just didn’t like any of the other sheep-related names I found, ahaha...)

THAT’S ALL FOR NOW (collapses into an exhausted pile of goopy limbs)

[alllgator-blood]

Does narilamb even exist in your au? I highly doubt lambert would be friends, much less lovers with your ego driven narinder.

I never want to say anything is impossible in my lore cause I do shit "because it's funny" all the time, but it's one of the most unlikely things to happen in my comics I think...I made a dumb ass 4-page comic in my sketchbook last month about leshy having a baby, so I considered trusting a child to the EX-GOD OF CHAOS before considering that the cat and sheep would hold hands even once lmaooo

This is a more recent development, but I decided my lamb straight up killed narinder after his boss fight, to wrap everything up in a nice bow and move on with their life. Cause frankly they were sick of that fuckin guy. But that didn't last long after they did some crusades in the purgatory version of darkwood, and accidentally wound up with leshy as a follower. Then they were like "fuck" and got heket to calm leshy down from his nonstop meltdowns, but heket needed kallamar's medical knowledge to stay alive very long, and KALL needed SHAMURA to even leave their shelter, but SHAMURA kept asking about NARINDEr and that's how he wormed his way back into the lamb's life. Someday I'll finish my very very very long comic about that whole ordeal.

BUT UNTIL THEN, I have a different one all sketched out about an interaction between only the lamb and narinder- no bishops besides a couple brief mentions, just these two finally talking one on one for a short while. I should finish it sometime, I made it ages ago for a different ask but it got way longer than a couple panels and I went on hiatus anyway. Here's some random out of order panels:

narinder is only an egomaniac because he feels that as long as he artificially inflates his self-worth, if that ego outweighs the feelings of betrayal and despair, life is tolerable. So he builds his walls up until they're basically impenetrable, because the absolute easiest way to make him hate himself is for him to feel abandoned by someone he loved, and what better way to avoid that then to not love anyone again? It just got REALLY bad in purgatory because solitary confinement would destroy anyone tbh. My lamb is kind of a shithead and loves dunking on the ex-gods, but they don't experience actual hatred towards anyone, not even narinder. They tried being a cruel dictator type "for the lolz" and just ended up learning cruelty makes them feel sick. So these two will find their peace someday, just.....not anytime soon :')

[i-eat-deodorant]

i feel a little personally attacked by this so just to reiterate many times, my narinder is part jackal and the tail wagging i draw him with is specifically supposed to evoke more canid traits.

also, pet peeve: FULLY lashing tails means your cat's upset. having just the tip twitch can mean a cat's interested or even that it's friendly. this is read in conjunction with the rest the cat's body. and personally i am owned by a cat whose tail lashes all the time, especially looking at birds. she's not upset, that is just Her Thing. varies between felines.

going by normal cat body language, the type of tail wagging depicted here actually means narinder is interested in something, perhaps seeing a heretic he can kill.

IMPORTANT PSA!!

i'm slightly peeved about this portrayal of narinder so i made a comic about it grrrrrr wagging means the cat is ANGY not HAPPY anyway have a good day c:

[bamsara]

I dont know if it was intentional but I love that Narinder when he sees Lamb throwing up he turns gentle and pushes their wool and ears back so they dont get stained with vomit and for some reason it reminded me of how when Nari was throwing up too after the nightmare he had when they were on route to fight Leshy, Lambert helped him with camellias for the nausea.

Ahh, parallels. I think.

IM SO GLAD YOU POINTED THAT OUT allow me to ramble for just a moment.

Narinder was trapped in the Afterlife for over 1000 years, with little social skills and plagued by wishing for vengeance and his only company being two kittens who become disciples under his rule. He has terrible social skills, if not lacking them entirely.

(I would argue that Aym and Baal also have horrific nonexistent social skills, so those three cat's can't really help each other communicate properly to anyone else outside themselves.)

It can be argued that since The One Who Waits had other vessels to pass time and try to kill /annoy his siblings before the prophesized Lamb arrival, that he would have developed them a little bit more, but I would argue that the power balance would have been oodles more severe since the vessels weren't the promised one. He didn't need them, so if they no longer were of service or disobeyed him, he got rid of them. Whether just sending them out or killing them, any how.

Lamb, however, knows they are the last Lamb, the prophesized liberator of The One Who Waits, and therefore his only option. They knew that they were his only reasonable way out of there (whether they asked for it or not) so they were oodles more comfortable than how a professional relationship would have been.

So they asked questions, bothered him, played and ran around him. Complained and vented to him. Yapped and yapped. What is he gonna do? Kill them? Find a new vessel? He can't. "You're as trapped into this prophecy as much as I am, so let's be friends"

Example parts from Chapter 3:

The power balance equalizes because Lamb did not see his presence a God, but rather a fellow prisoner and victim of fate. Rude and demanding, but in the same chains as they were. 'My lord' was simply formalities at first.

This puts Narinder / The One Who Waits in social situations he hasn't been in (or hardly been in) in over a thousand years, and frankly, he had no idea how to navigate them:

Example from Chapter 5:

The God of Death has not needed to comfort or 'be there' for someone in a long, long time. The Lamb's presence is what forces him to try, even if his first attempt aren't perfect. So in that same chapter, he'll ask them a question to distract them. Conversation. Like how they do it.

While I won't post a screenshot of everytime this happens in written format (not including the dreams/memories/flashbacks that haven't been posted yet)-

The One Who Waits is pushed outside of his bubble when it comes to socializing in a way that isn't just 'God-to-Lowly-Vessal' format. He has to talk to them like a person, because he's being talked to like a person, not a god on a pedestal.

Obviously after the final battle and betrayal (to both of them, otherwise known as the Grand Miscommunication) this means nothing for a while as tempers are still high and feelings are hurt. But overtime, this returns, and can show in small ways (ways that may not seem like comfort but is certainly an attempt) like just in Chapter 18:

Trying to bring them an 'offering' (breakfast) mirroring other times the Lamb has done the same for him:

Crudely offering to replace something they are upset at losing/later offering reassurance abet in a curt way:

And what you mentioned: earlier when the Lamb is throwing up, narration shows they're having trouble with keeping their wool, cloak, bell, ect all back at the same time. He can see that. He has a mental boiling pot explosion over the fact that helping them is even a want that he has after the denial crisis he's experiencing where the only answer a minute ago seemed like he needed to kill them, and he chose comfort.

It is intentional. Narinder is learning how to show care, and allowing himself to show care. Slowly, and not perfect, but learning.