It feels atmospheric right out of the gate, and it has pretty strong music. It starts with a poem of sorts that sounds pretty grim, and that leads to a man working at a slaughterhouse. It is pretty fast-paced and hard to follow as the MC freaks out and shows he has a gun.
Someone talks to him as he leaves, and he feels awkward about it. Normal animals are called lesser, and it feels like that is going to be related to the theme since a lot of the game kind of frames that the slaughterhouse is just cruelty and had an anthropomorphic lamb seeming to hide with the lessers from earlier.
The MC is talking about some decision he wants to follow through with this time, and it doesn't seem like it is going to be good, whatever it is. Something to do with sitting in his chair. The implication is that he is going to shoot himself. He tried to kill himself before but failed to do it with pills.
He lost his job because he missed too many days, and the slaughterhouse was the only place that would take him after that. We also get him talking to himself about taking his own life and his reasons. He tried to kill himself when he was 18 with the pills and feels like his time has been wasted since then. He is just empty and very depressed as he tries to talk himself up to committing.
Right before he is going to do it, he sees someone outside his window. It seems to be someone trying to get him, and he shoots the badger. Once in the neck, as the badger seems to keep going until he blows his brains out. He had zip ties on him, and he got in because the MC left his door open but wasn't the one at the window.
He just goes to sleep after, and the next morning nothing is there. He goes to work. Someone died on the night shift. This time really focusing on how horrible it is to work here with the screams of the lambs happening all the time.
He heads back home and seems to run out of steam while having a fall on the stairs. He bumped into someone and might have been drugged. He is kidnapped by a sheep that has been following him for a week. That was also the person outside his window. He is put into a cell for some unknown reason. The MC tries to punch the mirror but finds it to be steel.
The MC talks to the person in the cell next to him and confirms that he killed the badger that tried to attack him. He is fed and hates this, the best meal he has had in a while. The coyote, who is his cellmate, starts breaking down about how he is a fag for attention and how they are going to die. With them both saying that no one would miss them or look for them. Likely why they were targeted.
The next day he is dragged out to see his cellmates. The coyote and two others. He then gets to see a wild dog he has been having flashbacks about join them. The sheep is on a strict timer before he will answer some questions about what is going on. The first question answered was, are you going to kill us? And the sheep says yes.
The sheep admit they were picked because they had no one and want to end them for not turning things around. Targeting the suicidal, the ill, the retarded, the queers, and only men. The sheep claim they are doing God's work and don't have a name. He also killed the coworker of the MC while tailing him.
After that is settled, the MC talks to the coyote that has a wrapped-up wound on his head and memory problems. This is taking place in 2006, and he lived in Brooklyn, but where they are now is a mystery.
They are taken to another place with a restrained dead body, and the sheep has boxes for them and says one will be happy to get the gift. He also said he is going to make their deaths slow and painful, so this might be playing into that. The coyote feels the same way as bugs start to infest his wound. The wild dog, Ray, is staring at the MC as he pretends not to know him.
The sheep turns on a furnace as he tosses the MC's clothes in. He also has his gun out there. He burns the rest of their old clothes too. Keeping everything else they had. The MC focused on his gun and how he regrets not pulling the trigger before. The sheep went on about how the dead body rotted so fast because of his homosexual lifestyle. He then burns the body as well.
The coyote suddenly remembers that someone screamed, You're a fucking monster! At him like a dog, said the sheep. The coyote feels like he deserves the punishment, even his infected and infested wound.
The sheep is now going to brand them, and the rabbit freaks out first, making them go first. Ray tries to stop them but gets clubbed. He does it with a blowtorch. The coyote squirms and begs the most, and the sheep lets it drop that he hates the others too. The hare wins the box after everything is said and done. The sheep says they can share, but the hare keeps it to himself.
The coyote talks to the MC, looking much worse. He says he is a heartless person with nothing going on. He tells the MC his story, but the reader doesn't get to know. The MC agrees he is a monster and that he picked the worst person to be friends with. As they walk back, the coyote says he loves the MC. He didn't mean it but always wanted to say it. The MC really soured on him after his story.
The sheep leads them back to the place they were this morning, and the MC wonders why they don't try to overpower the sheep if they are going to die anyway. He looks at the bleeding Ray, and we get context that they went home together after meeting in a bar, and the MC asks why he can't be a fag. Suggesting Ray tried to have something more with him, but the MC wasn't into it.
The coyote says he is sorry and he shouldn't have said anything. He takes off his bandage and shows his wound, a huge gash right above his eye. He says he won't bother the MC again. The sheep are saying that they are going to meet their sponsors tomorrow.
There is also a weasel, and now would be a good time to mention that it is a tranny because of the sheep's earlier speech. The weasel tries to charm a waiter to help them, but it doesn't work.
They are served lamb from the MC's place of work as well as wine. The MC is still mad at the coyote for telling his secret. He starts to wonder if everyone did something so bad to end up here. He turns to the coyote and starts going off on him. His head wound is getting much worse every time we see him.
The MC doesn't eat the lamb as bugs are swarming it. The sheep was angry that he didn't touch it. The sheep pulls out a knife as he keeps refusing. Ray tries to step in only to be hit again. The coyote who was searching for the bones tries to stab the sheep with it. Only to pierce his hand. The Sheep doesn't like that and drops the nigger word on him. He then stabs the Coyote in the neck, cutting off his head.
The MC is returned to his cell, and he is upset that he cares more about losing his jacket than the coyote. We now learn that the coyote killed two people. Because two people were showing affection in a bar, he got jealous of their happiness. He ended up beating them to death.
The MC's main goal has been to get his gun back to end himself on his terms. That is the end of the content so far.
I know I didn't butt in much to talk about the story and mostly did a summary, but I wanted to save it for the end. I thought it was really good overall. To start, it is hard to have an FVN feel so raw and visceral. So unafraid to not pull its punches. It is also very gross and brutal at points. It also uses things like loud and droning music very effectively. It is funny because in the last thread I said I would rather there be stakes to someone's discrimination over just people acting like the end of the world after being called a fag. While this sheep really is an answer to that annoyance. It has more going for it than just a story about discrimination because the MC is pretty fucked up, and as far as the sheep are concerned, everyone is guilty of something, even if some of the crimes would be lesser than others.
It is also very fast-paced and doesn't really spare the details. I wasn't sure if we were going to hear the coyote's story, but we did in the end. The sheep is very interesting because he is a zealot of some kind. It doesn't really matter outside; he views the MC and his cellmates as degenerate scum and wants to make some kind of point with their deaths, to give it some kind of meaning. It is also strange to think about that the MC might have been in a better state if he had pulled off his suicide. It was a very hopeless and cruel life the MC had, and now all he wants to do is end it on his own terms before whatever they plan to do with him. It is also very rare to have an MC so clearly far gone that he doesn't really have a hope for a better future even before he was captured for this.
The sheep is also a good villain because it gives the MC kind of what he wanted but with a twist he didn't. He has been planning it for a while and wanted it to be "perfect." It was also nice to see that the writing didn't restrain him in any way. Since a lot of the slurs wouldn't fly even in this context with a lot of the greater FVN community. It feels brave even if it shouldn't be and really just gives the writing some sting. You could see him as the ultimate test for people that love evil men in a way. One thing I'm hoping is that we get more context for Ray at some point. Since he seems to be the person that stands up the most. He also stares at the MC a lot, like he wants to say something. It also makes me wonder if he is here just because he is gay or if he does have a darker secret as well. Definitely a good read if you don't mind it being more on the graphic side.