Garcia-Lane

Merry’s earliest memories, while vague, left a significant enough impact on his psyche to affect his present persona. Born with a hormonal abnormality, Merry’s body matured faster than any of his peers on the farm. Within the first week of his birth, Merry had already passed his weaning stage and his body was equal to that of a grown male sheep. He could hardly be considered a lamb. Despite this, however, he was not finished growing and by the first month of his birth, Merry towered over adult sheep and his size only served to intimidate his peers. Though his body was that of an adult sheep, Merry’s mind was still of a lamb, yet his mother failed to recognise him as such and he was left to abandonment. [break][break]

Seeing his disconnect with the rest of the herd, the farmhands took him in and brought him to a young girl named Chloe Zanika. She was the heiress to an enormous fortune but suffered from a lack of parental attention due to their busy schedules. She connected with Merry instantly, knowing they both shared the commonality of failed parenthood. Chloe cherished him above anything else, often singing “Chloe’s had a little lamb” despite his enormity. They spent many of their days passing listlessly on the Zanika estate, Chloe making flower crowns and Merry lightly snoozing. [break][break]

Yet peaceful days could never be everlasting. As Chloe started school, she spent less and less time with her animal playmate. Memories of abandonment and neglect bubbled to the surface of Merry’s mind and while he was still an object of Chloe’s adoration, he was no longer her first priority. She studied and socialised as normal children would. No longer did her parents’ backs cause her loneliness. No longer did she require the constant reassurance of Merry’s company. Because now she had friends and when she discovered the world of dating and romance, she was pulled even further away from Merry. [break][break]

Merry spent his listless days alone, waiting for what snippets of Chloe he could obtain, no matter how fleeting. His animal mind couldn’t quite comprehend the reason for Chloe’s absence and he fell into a spiral of loneliness and depression. If only I was human too. A single seed was planted. [break][break]

In high school, Chloe dated a college student seven years her senior, a matter considered of an immense grievance to her parents. Yet young love clouded her judgement, and she turned a deaf ear to the very figures she had been vying attention from since before the moment she had Merry. Perhaps it had been this very desire spurring her rebellious stage. The irony was that her parents had never before devoted so much attention to Chloe before. Only Merry could see the reality and emotional pain Chloe was carrying. He could see she was slowly turning to the wrong path and he was determined to bring her back before it would truly impact her future. [break][break]

At this point in time, Merry had reached his full physical maturity and he weighed over a whopping 500kg, standing full height at 1.9m. Without realising it, he had attracted the attention of intellectuals and mad scientists alike. The barrier Chloe had built to shield Merry from such attention grew more fragile by the days until it finally shattered. [break][break]

The boy she had been dating had only approached her with the intent of getting closer to the specimen he had grown interested in. When Chloe was least suspecting, he stole into the stable where Merry was housed, drugging the sheep. His aim was to perform a procedure commonly used to create reverse shifters: animals who could shift into human form. However, while in the process of transporting the drugged Merry, Chloe discovered his plot. Acting swiftly, the boy struck her to unconsciousness and he threw her next to Merry’s drugged body. [break][break]

Given his sheer size, the drug was only half as effective on him and he struggled to escape with Chloe. Trapped in the back of a truck and his judgement impaired by the drug, Merry’s attempts yielded little results and by the time they had reached their destination, the drug had fully circulated his body, rendering him in a completely delirious state. What transpired after is still vague even in Merry’s memories. The experiment went underway and by the time Merry had completely regained his mind, he was in the form of a man wrapped in a sheep’s fleece. With Chloe in the cage beside him, Merry’s mission was unchanged: he wanted to save her. However, unused to his new body, Merry was clumsy. He was the sole focus of their captor and Chloe knew this better than he did. He was still naive, failing to grasp the complete gravity of his situation and Chloe understood that the procedure was the only beginning: experiments would be next and would continue until Merry’s body completely gave way. [break][break]

Desperate to save him from such a fate, she plotted to free Merry, even if she couldn’t follow. Promising that she would be close behind, Chloe pushed Merry to escape on his own. However, as he snuck away, their captor discovered their plan, lashing out at Chloe. ”Run, Merry!” Her desperate scream filled the night as blood pooled from the knife in her stomach. Arrested by fear, Merry fled.[break][break]

To this day, Merry relives the moment he abandoned his best friend every night. Unknowing of whether or not Chloe still lived, Merry is constantly pained by his own cowardice. What he will do from now on, only time will tell...[break][break]

“Chloe had a little lamb, [break]
Little lamb, little lamb, [break]
Chloe had a little lamb, [break]
His fleece was dark as coal, [break]
And everywhere that Chloe went, [break]
Merry was sure to go...” [break][break]

fun facts

- He doesn't smoke tobacco. It's just harmless grass. Don't know if you can smoke grass in reality, don't care. It's funny. Don't judge me. End of discussion. Period. *peeks back in* It's legit grass, get your head out of the gutter.[break][break]

- Caffeine makes him sleepy, which is one of the reasons why he loves coffee. [break][break]

- He has a fear of ninjas and it’s completely irrational and totally not because I thought it would be hilarious. [break][break]

- Loves the beach but hates the sand. [break][break]

- He isn’t much of a singer or musician, but he has real musical talent when it comes to writing music scores and songwriting. Even if he’s never played the instrument before, he can normally read a music score fluently after some studying and he’s really good at creating original pieces. [break][break]

- He finds romantic and sexual relationship completely burdensome and will actively do everything within his power avoid them. Or as “active” as he is capable of being anyway. He’ll probably just go to sleep to avoid a problem to such an extent. [break][break]

- Loves libraries and museums but is banned from them because he uses them for the purpose of finding good naps as opposed to their actual purposes. [break][break]

- While he lacks ambition, Merry would choose to be a barista/cafe owner is he absolutely had to work for a living. [break][break]

- His nickname “Happy” is of his own making. He thought it was funny. It really isn’t. (“ Says the one who thought “ninja phobia” was amusing.”)[break][break]

- While all his clothes are made from wool, the only exception is his shoes. He received them as a gift from his owners before he became homeless. He takes very good care of them. [break][break]

what is that shift?

Merry’s original form is that of a black sheep standing almost two metres tall. He is a monstrously sized sheep due to the abnormal developmental and hormonal state of his body. His fleece grows relatively fast and thick, adding more volume to his already enormous size. His eyes are generally invisible, buried deep under the thicket of his woolly fleece, but as per typical of sheep, his eyes are small, beady and black. There isn’t a spot of colour on his body, but when he sheers his fleece, his pelt underneath is actually white. His face is white too, but due to the thickness of his wool, it is sometimes impossible to see such a contrast splash of colour. [break][break]

His human form is equally tall, though due to the lack of wool, he appears much skinnier and lean. Due to the upright position of humans, Merry actually stands taller in human form than his original form, measuring to 2.2m. His eyes are still dark, but there is a hint of crimson like a blood moon against the dark backdrop of the night sky. His hair is a wild tussle of black curls, reminiscent of the woolly texture of his fleece. He normally secures his curls with a beanie.