Chapter 2: Warm and Rosie
Her mind was buzzing when consciousness returned to her.
The Lamb groaned as she sat up, the bed she was laying on creaked as she moved. Using her arms to keep herself up, the Lamb tried blinking her eyes clear. When that failed she rubbed her eyes with one hand.
Man her head was killing her. Despite being a god hangovers were still a nuisance to deal with. Oh well, a remedy of camellia flowers would fix that right up.
When the Lamb stopped rubbing her eyes she expected to find herself in her quarters, the house of a follower, or sprawled out in a forest somewhere surrounded by dead cultists. Ya know, normal cult leader things.
Instead her eyes widened when she discovered that she was in, what she could only assume, some kind of temple. The color of the room was a mix of bright pinks and cozy reds with white trimming. Just about everything the cult leader laid her eyes upon followed that color scheme including the fancy looking furnishings. It was blinding to be honest, having been so used to more earthy colors with the exception of red.
Was she kidnapped? No, she doubted that as she wasn't tied down and this place didn't seem like any cell she'd ever seen.
Seeing that no answers where going to be found here, the Lamb got off the bed she was laying on and patted herself down. While she didn't usually have much on her at any given time it was still good to check. She was still clothed in her typical garments: a red sleeveless tunic that had her cult's inverted cross pattern at the center in white, around her waist was a red skirt that ended just above her knees and of course she had on her iconic red fleece.
The Lamb reach up to her neck and sighed with relief that her bell was still there. When she reached for the top of her head she noted that the Crown was gone.
She looked around the room for her companion only to find it on a table sitting in front of some kind of folded piece of paper with a cup of steaming tea next to it.
Noticing that its bearer was finally awake the Crown levitated itself back on top of the Lamb's head. When the Lamb looked up at it questioningly it grew a small arm and brought the folded piece of paper over and gave it to the cult leader.
The paper was in a script that the Lamb wasn't familiar with, but being the divine being that she was the language of mortals was nothing to her.
Apparently it was a "catalogue" and it showed things that someone could buy. The Lamb had no idea what to do with this information, although some of the furniture for sale would look nice in the temple.
The Crown's eye looked annoyed for a moment before taking the catalogue and flipping it over. This side of the paper was intricately designed and had what the Lamb could only assume was the seller.
Welcome to
Rosie's Emporium!
Inventory Catalogue
Rebranding event bonanza!
50% discount on Glazed Eyes and Pickled Tongue.
Sinner skin upholstery now 30% off!
Rip Franklin.
Couldn't run that fast.
The Lamb had no idea what a "bonanza" was, but it must have been a big deal.
The Lamb considered the front of the catalogue before coming to the realization that the Red Crown wanted her to understand.
The place that she was currently in must have been this "Rosie's Emporium" if she was reading this correctly.
Folding the catalogue and placing it on the table the Lamb clasped her hands and out two fingers to her mouth in contemplation. What was she to do next?
From what she deduced: She passed out after getting drunk at Marty's birthday party and ended up here, she wasn't a prisoner as far as she could tell, and she was now being held in some big market of she guessed right.
Hmm.
Much to think about. For now though staying idle was a fool's gamble.
Stealing herself the Lamb walked over to the door and opened it just enough to peer outside. It was a hall just as lavishly decorated as the room she found herself in and brightly lit. Whatever they were using in this place to light everything up it sure wasn't torches or candles.
The hall was empty and so the sneaky little cult leader stepped out of the room. With the coast clear and not hearing any types of footsteps or indication that someone was approaching, the Lamb swiftly made her way in a random direction.
While the Lamb had no doubt that if anything she encountered was hostile she could easily dispatch it, literal hundreds of years fighting deceptive cults made her cautious. Ambushes, sneak attacks, traps, and unwelcome surprises were common tactics used in the Cult Lands™, so being wary never hurt.
The Lamb made her way down the hall making a effort to silence her steps as best she could, senses at an all time high. A hand was wrapped around her bell to keep it silenced.
Cautiously she continued on looking for any sign or landmark that could be used, when she hear what sounded like footsteps and metallic squeaking.
Reacting quickly the Lamb jumped to the ceiling and grasped a chandelier in her hands leaving her dangling up above. Then the encroaching noise finally came around the corner she pulled her lower body up as to minimize her hanging profile, but what she saw was quite frankly a strange looking creature.
It was thin, almost looking malnourished, with pale skin. Its face was sharp with well groomed hair and a finely maintained moustache. It lacked a nose or snout (which was off putting) and its eyes were two black voids. The creature wore a snappy looking suit with black pants and jacket over a white ruffled shirt with a bow tie around its neck. The attire that it was dressed in looked like something Berith would make.
The creature was pushing a polished silver cart with wheels with an equally silver domed platter resting on top of it. This being made no indication that it saw the Lamb and went on its marry way down the direction she had just came from.
When it was far enough the Lamb let herself drop to the floor. Landing on her feet she made sure it wasn't coming back before marching off to where the creature came from. That way had to be an exit.
She continued down another hall until she came upon a door at the very end. The cult leader pressed an ear against the wooden door and listened closely.
It sounded like music, some kind of orchestra by the sounds of it. It was muffled, so likely behind a wall or a distance away.
The tap of footsteps was present also. It was a pattern that was predictable and constant, someone was pacing.
The lack of any words, muffled or clear, indicated that whoever it was had a lot on their mind.
The Lamb took note of her own surroundings and lamented that this door was the only way forward.
Now the question was try the sneaky rout or head straight in.
Hmming and tapping her chin, the Lamb decided a peek inside was needed. Willing the Crown to her hand, it shifted into its serpentine form and quietly snaked though the small gap at the bottom of the door.
The red eye of the Crown shared its sight with its bearer as it spied the room. It was a lounge room complete with chairs, a table, and a fireplace. In the far corner was a gramophone, again like Berith's, but in much better condition and resembled and art piece with how intricately designed it was. Over the fireplace were three mounted trophies: one a scare riddled wolf's head, the second a red skinned and horned creature, and finally something that resembled the creature she had evaded. All of them where trophies and if she had to guess the being pacing back and forth in the middle of the room was the owner.
Clothed in a pale maroon dress with puffed shoulders and a striped frill at the end. Upon their head was a large fancy sunhat.
Much like the creature she dodged earlier, the one pacing in the room was of ash pale skin and black void like eyes. Judging by the choice of clothing and the creature's general shape the Lamb assumed that they were female.
The being was obviously deep in thought with all the pacing and with her holding her chin. While normally a distracted person could provide an opening to sneak on by it was an impossibility in this room.
The Lamb sighed, looks like quiet option was out.
Recalling her companion back to her head, the cult leader readied herself for an encounter with the creature in the next room, only for the Red Crown to turn around and shutter in warning. Right as the Lamb turned to face her ambusher she was tackled by a sharp toothed blur.
The door burst open as the both of them tumbled through. The attacker was the same creature that the Lamb dodged in the hall, now in her face and trying to sink it's sharp teeth into her flesh, drool dripping from its mouth.
The Lamb held her attacker back with her arms and narrowly avoided getting her face bitten off by this enraged monster. Gritting her teeth and eyes glowing red she kicked her opponent off her hard and rolled away, coming to her feet.
Now standing before the opened door, the Lamb took a fighting stance as her crown shifted into its most basic sword form and eyed the creature as it stumbled to its feet. Behind the attacker was the other being, the woman, looked shocked and startled at what just happened.
Both combatants were poised and ready to fight, bodies tensed.
"Stop!"
And just before they lunged at each other the fancy woman got in between them arms out stretched.
"I will not have anyone fight in my study!" she turned to the other creature, "Benjamin, stand down, now."
The creature, Benjamin, stood straight and immediately calmed down. He took a moment to fix his appearance, straightening his bowtie and smoothing out his clothes. He licked his thumb and brushed his hair back neatly. He looked as if he and the Lamb hadn't just gotten into a scuffle.
The fancy lady huffed, "Now, any reason why you tacked my guest through the door there?"
Guest?
"Milady," Benjamin began, his voice refined, "I was on my way to bring your guest some refreshments and food, as per your request, I found the door to their room to be open. Upon investigation I found that they had left on their own accord so I immediately went searching for them. When I finally found them, they were spying into this room and believing ill-intent I reacted accordingly."
The Lamb raised an eyebrow at that.
The fancy lady sighed. "Right, well seeing as my guest isn't trying anything now and the fact that they likely woke up in an unknown place, I assume they were simply trying to gather their bearings," she turned to the Lamb, "right?"
The Lamb stood still for a moment, before dropping her stance and allowing her crown to flow back to her head. She straightened herself allowing her cape to cover her body and looked to the beings before her. Even with the Crown on her head, the two towered over her own mortal form. The lady was at least another half of the Lamb's own height taller.
Even at rest, the Lamb was still wary and ready to react in a moment's notice, her eyes watched the other two closely.
Seeing her "guest" relax a little, the fancy lady seemed satisfied. Turning to her butler she asked, "Benjamin dear, would you be so kind as to bring us some snacks and refreshments, I wish to speak with my guest alone."
Benjamin bowed, "Of course, milady."
With that he turned away and left the room to retrieve what was asked.
The woman turned to the Lamb and clapped her hands together, "Now with that out of the way, why don't you take a seat? There are things I'd like to discuss with you."
She walked to one of the fancy chairs facing away from the fireplace as she gestured to the other one.
The Lamb pondered her position. The woman's words weren't a request, but a well hidden order to someone not associated with her. Whoever she was, she held power. The Lamb could simply ignore the request, but that would likely cause more unnecessary problems especially when the woman was willing to at least talk. She could likely answer any questions the cult leader had regarding her situation, so the Lamb climbed into the chair opposite the woman with her legs crossed. Her attention never left the being before her.
"There, is that not better?" the woman waved a hand to the fireplace bringing the flames to life, "I'm sure you have as many questions as I do right now, so how about we start with introductions. My name is Rosie and I'm the proud owner of Rosie's Emporium, formerly Franklin and Rosie's Emporium, as well as one of the Overlords that you'd find down here in Hell. I'm also in charge of the cannibals here in the 'Cannibal Colony' as it were."
Okay, a colony of cannibals. Not the worst place to end up but she'd manage.
The Lamb listened intently. From the introduction alone she learned much, but still she needed answers.
"Now may I know your name, uhm…forgive me but I can't quite tell your gender. Are you a man by any chance?"
The Lamb tiled her head and raised an eyebrow at the question, before shaking her head no.
"Ah, a lady then."
A nod.
"Hmm, not one for words are you? No matter."
It was around this time when Benjamin returned with a porcelain 3-tier tower platter with an assortment of many well made looking foods hanging in one hand and a tray with tea cups and a kettle in the other. The butler set the porcelain tower down on a small table between the chairs the Lamb and Rosie were sitting on and then place the tray down next. Benjamin took the kettle and poured the steaming tea into both cups without spilling a drop of it. He then handed both cups to the room's occupants.
Rosie took the plate the tea cup was sitting on with a smile, "Thank you Benjamin, now leave us if you will."
The butler bowed and then left the room leaving the two women alone.
Rosie savored the tea before taking a dainty sip, at the same time the Lamb eyed the leaf juice before shrugging and downing the whole cup at once. It tasted a bit weird, different from what she was used too, but it was alright she supposed.
Rosie returned her attention to the Lamb as she lowered the tea cup back onto its plate. "Anyway, I believe I asked for your name yes? Would you be so kind as to enlighten me as to whom I speak too?"
The Lamb took a moment before bleating out her name and introducing herself.
Rosie's black eyes blinked. "I'm sorry, but could you try that again?"
The Lamb tilled her head with a raised eyebrow and introduced herself again.
Rosie set her tea cup back onto the table between them looking even more confused. "Oh, dear."
Irritated at the woman's confusion the cult leader was about to speak again, but her crown rumbled in her mind. She looked up at it confused before realization hit.
Her status as a divine being may have let her understand the languages and scripts of mortals, but her own words didn't translate for them.
It also didn't help that lambs, when they were still around, had their own language away from the rest of the inhabitants of the Cult Lands™. It helped them hide better.
"How about I just call you…Lamb for now."
Convenient.
The Lamb nodded Rosie's suggestion which brought a polite smile to her face.
"Very good, now then," Rosie steepled her fingers in consideration, "Seeing that this is going to be an issue how about we do basic 'yes or no' questions for now? I'll do my best to explain what I can for you."
A sigh escaped the Lamb's mouth as she nodded.
"Good. Now let's begin. Do you know where you are?"
The Lamb shook her head no.
"Well my dear, to put it simply we're in Hell. Yes, that Hell. All of us are down here for one reason or another, because we did something in our lives that the Almightily above, emm, didn't like."
The Lamb just balked at the woman's explanation.
Dead!?
She wasn't dead!
If she were dead then she'd be back home having to explain to her followers why she totally meant to get killed this time!
Rosie, having misread the Lamb's expression as shock, continued with a pitying nod. "It's sad I know, but happens to the best of us unfortunately. While I could figure out how, I won't ask what you did to end up here. Most everyone in Hell wouldn't care really and would happily gut you for the simple pleasure of it. That and the fact that you appear to have some language barrier which in it of itself is very strange."
The cannibal took a moment to think if she'd seen anything like this before in her time as an Overlord. This truly was a unique situation as in Hell all sinners were made equal in their suffering. Names, race, culture, and languages meant nothing in a place ruled by anarchy and power brokers.
The Lamb, however, was on a different train of thought.
Why was this woman, who clearly held power if the title of "Overlord" was any indication, having a pleasant chat with the cult leader and informing her of this new realm. And the fact that the Lamb was placed in a nice room instead of a cell or interrogation booth while unconscious also raised questions.
There was an angle here, but the Lamb didn't know what that was. For now, she'd play along.
Rosie waved her idle thoughts off, "Anyway, next question. The way you fought off my dear butler, Benjamin, tells me that you're no stranger to conflict. So I must ask if you had to deal with such things in the living world?"
Considering the Lamb's life even before her career as The One Who Waits' prophet , she would say that indeed she had to deal with "such things" in the world. After all life in the Lands of the Old Faith was short and brutal.
The Lamb gave Rosie another nod.
"I see," her host trailed off. "Well I can assure you that is something you're going to have to rely on with your time here."
Encouraging.
The questions went on for some time and the Lamb was able to pull some information to her current situation.
Hell was one of two possible afterlives in this realm's pantheon. Here, all evil and wicked souls would be brought to suffer, taking new forms that reflected their living life and how they ended up dying, according to Rosie.
Rosie herself, as explained earlier, was a cannibal. A type of sinner demon that a soul could become. She didn't specify what she had done in life to end up as such a sinner, but given how she was one now it wasn't hard to broadly guess.
However, on the point of sinners sent to Hell to suffer was something the Lamb raised an eyebrow at, seeing as her accommodations were rather lavish.
Rosie explained many things, but for the Lamb the 'why' of it all had yet to be answered.
"…and let me tell you it was quite a sight, seeing a fresh new soul get immediately devoured for interrupting her tea party. Though it wasn't really a surprise when one literally falls into Suzan's parties. Ugh, loathsome bitch…" She muttered the last part more to herself than anything else.
The Lamb, however, perked at the mention of falling into a party which the Overlord noticed.
"Ah, yes I failed to mention how new souls end up in Hell didn't I," she chuckled to herself, "Yes, when a person dies and enters Hell they fall right out of the sky. Bit of a poetic form of irony when you think of it."
The Overlords eyes became very tense.
"In fact you made quite the 'splash' yourself when you arrived," she took a sip from her tea, "Quite the splash indeed."
The Lamb's attentive audience instantly switched to a more focused gaze watching Rosie's every action.
The cannibal simply placed her tea cup onto the small table once more and rested her chin on steepled fingers as she crossed a leg over the other. A grin established itself on Rosie's face as she looked at the Lamb.
"You're no fool," she stated simply, "How you avoided my butler in my estate's hallways, the way you've watched every move I've made, and how you've allowed me to talk without interruption despite an odd language barrier. You're wondering why your even being well taken care of, hmm?"
The Lamb sat on the chair straighter and her gaze became hard as her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. This woman herself was no fool either.
They sat in a tense silence locked onto each other's eyes as if waiting for the other to make a move.
Rosie was the first to break the tension.
"I've held onto my power as an Overlord for quite a long time my dear, and I've lived down here for much longer than that," the sinner lean closer, "Power, is everything down here. Power is what ensures your survival. And you, have power despite just arriving here."
She stood from her chair and approached the fireplace staring into the whipping flames.
"There has only been one other occasion that comes close to your arrival," her head turned and both locked eyes again, "and his doesn't hold a candle to what all of Hell felt when you fell."
The Lamb still questioned her own state as a "sinner" and how she literally fell into this new afterlife.
"It was a good thing you landed in my territory. With the show of your arrival any other Overlord would have either put you down right then and there or made sure to 'acquire' you for their own gain."
The cult leader's response was to narrow her eyes at the tall woman before her.
The Overlord's smile became dangerous, "I'm sure you're wondering my own motivations. What can I gain from helping you? Well an Overlord doesn't become powerful for long by being headstrong and reckless. Most of those have long sense been…'removed' shall we say."
She was obviously hiding the reason why, the Lamb didn't like that.
"My motivations aren't out of the goodness of my dead heart no, look at this as a long term investment." She walked close her to the table holding the 3-tier tray and the tea they had been drinking, "Like a friend I encountered for the first time long ago, you're going to change things here in Pentagram city and I simply want you to remember me when you make your mark here."
Ah, there it was.
The Lamb appraised the woman in a new light now that her motivations where made clearer. An act of kindness to curry favor with her. Well, unknowing or not, this woman knew when to bow to her betters.
She stared into Rosie's pitch black eyes and then closed her own.
As a being of divinity it was only natural that mortals, well mortal souls, prostrate themselves to her. Mayhaps this could be the beginnings to spread her faith here. After all, desperate souls will look to anything for salvation.
Taking a deep breath and exhaling it out of her mouth, the cult leader opened her eyes and smiled to the cannibal Overlord.
Rosie's smile widened and her sharp, cannibal teeth began to show. "I'm glad we have an understanding."
-XXXX-
Rosie watched as the strange new sinner walked down the road away from her emporium. They were to open soon so the Overlord wanted to make sure that her new acquaintance wouldn't make a mess in her store.
While cannibals in the colony held themselves in a refined manor most of the time, many would jump at "fresh meat" so to speak.
"Milady, if I may?" Rosie's ever faithful butler, Benjamin ask behind her.
She looked over her shoulder and nodded.
"Would it have been beneficial to have worked a soul contract on that one if they had such potential as you say? Letting them walk away could be a potential risk to yourself."
"Oh trust me dear Benjamin, the thought had crossed my mind," Rosie replied, "I've worked my words around more stubborn sinner's before and still owned their souls by the end of a conversation. But I haven't existed as an Overlord for this long by potentially angering one with so much power."
The butler tilted his head in confusion, "Milady?"
The Overlord's gaze retuned out down the road, the Lamb had disappeared from sight by this point.
"Tell me, when a new soul arrives here in Hell, how do they appear?"
"Why I believe we all fall down from the sky Milady. It is the same with everyone, even yourself when I found you."
Rosie nodded, "Yes, as I told my guest, all souls damned to Hell fall from the sky and land in this pit of a city. Our new friend was no acceptation, only she didn't so much as fall as she rocketed down to the ground like a meteor. She left a crater in her wake and any cannibal not caught in the blast that dare approached where skewered by black tentacles."
She shifted as she spoke, almost as If she was uncomfortable.
"I happened to be nearby when the little Lamb struck the ground. Never in my unlife have I ever felt such power in one being," she turned fully to her butler, "I've been near Lord Lucifer once many, many years ago and I can tell you this."
"He is barely even a candle when compared to the inferno that was that Lamb."
Our lord and savior: the fluffy little Lamb has arrived in Hell. Praise be my fellow worshipers.
So yep, she got to stay at Rosie's place, ain't that just grand.
Let me know how I did. I subsist off of your engagement like the cave dweller I am.