The Estate, Sidra, Glacia, AHAHAHA LIKE ANYONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THE TIME

[glacial_queen]

Karla wanted nothing more than to lay back down. Her feet hurt. Her back hurt. Every single part of her hurt. But no, the Healer said that she had to walk around for a little while, that it would help the labor. Considering she had been in labor for hours already and had spent roughly three-quarters of that walking around the birthing room, she wasn't really seeing how it was 'helping.' But since no one would let her shiv the Healer, it looked like she was just going to keep walking. Probably until her feet fell off, because that was seemed likelier to happen than this child actually being born.

Apparently stubbornness was inherited through the distaff line.

"Raven," she gasped, clinging to her friend's hand until the knuckles were white. "Tell her that I'm the Queen and if I want you to take the pain away, you will."

"Ignore her, my Lady Healer," the older woman said, bustling about. "No more than one minute in every ten. The pain is necessary to the process."

"She's a bloody sadist," Karla complained, easing up on Raven's hand as the contraction eased. "Check her for ties to Hobart. She just wants me to suffer."

Raven had done her research and knew that on Earth, at least, many women chose to use medication to relieve the pain and delivered their children just fine. But she didn't want to start a fight with the Healer, and the people of Karla's world weren't entirely the same as Earth humans, so she merely nodded at the Healer and used her free hand to brush the hair from Karla's face...and took away her pain once every five minutes.

"I love you the best, shh don't tell Warren."

***

"Don't fucking touch me!" Karla snapped, glaring at Warren. "I think you have done quite enough already, don't you?"

"Oh, uh… My bad?"

Their shared bad. But right now, Warren was pretty willing to take the blame, re-claiming his hand and looking equal parts sheepish and terrified. Still.

For as long as Karla was the one actually delivering this baby, it was entirely his bad. "Why are you even in here?! What makes you think I want to see your stupid face? Ever! Again!"

"... Presumably you'll want me around if she ever ends up having a spring molt?"

Warren was just lucky that a contraction caught her mid-lunge, so she was doubling over, rather than murdering him the way she wanted. Her cursing, however, lasted straight through one contraction into the other.

The Healer looked at the two of them and then shook her head at Warren. "Why don't you go sit in the other room for awhile? Let her have some peace."

"Awhile? He'll be lucky I ever want to see him again!"

"That's what they all say, my lady."

***

"Where's Warren?" Karla looked up at Raven, her eyes filled with tears. "Raven, he needs to hold my hand! Someone get me Warren!"

***

"I AM BREATHING! I HAVE BREATHED MY ENTIRE FUCKING LIFE, I DO NOT NEED TO BE TOLD--Do you hear bells?" Karla looked around the birthing room, utterly confused. "No, seriously, have I been pushed into the Twisted Kingdom, or are there bells playing somewhere?"

"It's a special request from The General, My Lady," one of the Healers said, barely looking up from the task at hand. "He said it was a tradition that was very culturally important to his people. Something about Bow Bells, whatever that means."

"Raven," Karla demanded through clenched teeth. "I want you to share this next contraction with the so-called fucking General as thanks for his decision to share his culture with us this way."

"...you do not truly wish me to do that, do you, Karla?" Raven said.

Karla just looked at Raven. "Do it."

Raven's head was buzzing with the pain she was taking from Karla as well as the emotions she was picking up, so she wasn't inclined to disobey.

She waited for Karla's next contraction and pulled the pain from her body, pressing her hand to her own belly with a groan as she felt it. Instead of banishing it, she closed her eyes and sought out Jono's emotional signature in the Estate, and released the pain at him.

Sorry, Jono.

A moment later, there was a psionic pulse of shock and pain bursting through the minds of everyone in the building, followed by a loud thump from the room adjacent to theirs.

And then, spitefully, somebody turned the volume on the recording of the bells up even louder.

***

"I swear by the Darkness that the next person who tells me to push will be shaved," Karla hissed. "Believe me, I am fucking pushing."

***

"Again, my lady! Your daughter needs you to push again!"

"My daughter should have thought of that before she took so long to be born," Karla said, unable to work up the energy to yell. "First thing I'm gonna do when I see her is punch her in her bitty mouth."

"... Karla, you can't punch an infant in the mouth." It was a surprisingly mild protest from Warren, considering most of the bones in his hand had been halfway ground to powder by now. Having hollow bones was apparently not conducive to hand-holding right then.

"Watch me," Karla sniffled. "You just watch." She lolled her head to look up at Raven. "As your Queen, I'm ordering you to teleport this baby out of me and into a volcano."

Glacia didn't have volcanos. Karla didn't care.

"Of course, my Queen," Raven said soothingly. "As soon as you push one more time."

***

Sweat-soaked and exhausted, Karla smiled down at the little girl in her arms. Clean and wrapped up in one of the receiving blankets she'd gotten from her Uncle Priestly, her daughter lay peacefully, no sign of her earlier tears. "Look at her," Karla breathed, her heart so full she thought it might crack in two. "She's perfect. Utterly perfect."

"So…" Warren gave Karla a little, tentative smile. "We're calling her…?"

"Kayla," Karla said, looking up at him. "Don't you think?"

Warren looked so full of pride and happiness that it was entirely possible he might burst.

"Well," he said softly, "she's certainly not a Vasilia."

"Definitely not," Karla said, leaning against him while she continued to adore their daughter. "I think Kayla's the only name that will suit."

Beat. "...Now someone go find Jono and break those goddamn speakers."

[Co-written with the wonderful not_a_parakeet and amazing trigons_child! Snipped for length and cussing, no actual biology included! Shout out to all the real moms in game for going through this for realsies.]

Comments

[trigons_child]

Raven waited -- not entirely patiently, though she tried not to let that show -- for her turn to hold the baby. She cradled Kayla in her arms, looking into her eyes with a smile and a longing that was growing even more now.

"Welcome to the world, dear one," she said, rocking the baby gently. She looked across the room at Jono and tried to catch his eye. No reason.

[glacial_queen]

"Thank you for not taking me up on my suggestion to teleport the baby into a volcano," Karla said, smiling up at Raven.

Order, Karla. It had been an order.

[trigons_child]

"Oh, thank you for reminding me of that command," Raven said, taking a step back, still holding Kayla. "I will be back in a moment...."

[glacial_queen]

"Don't even think about it," Karla threatened, huffing a tired laugh. "Don't think for a moment that Julian won't hunt you down for absconding with the baby before he got to hold her."

[trigons_child]

Raven shook her head and laughed. "I could never do anything to harm her," she said.

She knew she would love Karla's child, but she hadn't expected her heart to swell with emotion this much. "She is so beautiful. You and Warren have created a treasure."

[glacial_queen]

"I never thought you could," Karla said, reaching to pat Raven's arm. "And isn't she? She's just perfect. I guess it was worth the extra week in there, to make sure she came out just like this."

[wwiii]

"Ten toes," Warren said, for what had to be about the hundredth time. "Look at them. Ten, and they're all perfect. And one nose... and two tiny ears... her ears are the smallest ears I've ever seen, Karla. Aren't they tiny ears?"

He was completely enamored. It was a wild discovery, that babies came with baby parts.

[glacial_queen]

"They are absolutely eensy," Karla said, just as pleased by their size as Warren was. "I make perfect babies, Warren, look."

[wwiii]

"You do," Warren agreed, grinning a little more. "And her little lips, and her sleepy little face. Her entire face."

A pause for consideration.

"She has your eyes."

Yeah, he was starting that now.

[glacial_queen]

"Yeah, but that's your nose," Karla said, with the surety that only parents have when it came to assigning genealogy to newborn faces. "Entirely yours, just all shrunk down to itty-bitty size!"

Karla was delighted by this face. Both that her nose was Warren's and that it was, well, the size of an infant's.

"She's inherited your caste, my Lady," the Healer said. "Well, she's a little Queen, she is. No sign of her being a Black Widow or a Healer, but it might take a few days longer for her psychic scent to grow strong enough to tell." She held out a cup for Karla. "Drink this, my lady. It will help you regain your strength."

[wwiii]

Well, now that Karla had pointed it out, Warren was pretty absolutely positive that the nose was, indeed, just like his but smaller.

...

"She wears it better," he decided, squinting a little before smiling up at the Healer. "Thank you."

For the input on the caste, for a start, because Warren certainly couldn't tell. And for the cup she'd brought for Karla, as well.

[glacial_queen]

"Thanks," Karla said, trying not to focus on how her hands shook as she reached for the cup. "I feel about as strong as Kayla is right now."

"It was a long and hard birth, lady," the Healer reminded. "You'll need to rest a few days before you're up and about again. You have a beautiful baby girl and everything has a price."

And that price was that Kayla's health came at the expense of Karla's own, a problem every strong witch faced. And, judging by Karla's expression, unfortunate-tasting tonics.

*You'll still need to be on guard for a few days longer, Prince,* the Healer told Warren on a private thread. *Mother and babe will need to eat and sleep a great deal to get their strength up.*

OOC

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

Yeeee!! Awesome!

Re: OOC

[glacial_queen]

THANK YOU!

RE: Re: OOC

[heromaniac]

Oh sure. Unicorn massacre, there's an immediate call and even a giant glowy Raven portal sent for her. But the birth of her niece and not even a phone call or text to poor Momoko?

Re: OOC

[glacial_queen]

OMG, KARLA NEEDED LESS HELP.

Also, take it up with the people who weren't giving birth! Karla was SUPER-BUSY.

Re: OOC

[sharp_as_knives]

HANNIBAL NEEDS A CALL TOO, OKAY? HOW IS HE GOING TO SET UP A CELEBRATORY ARTWORK OTHERWISE?

RE: Re: OOC

[heromaniac]

IT BETTER NOT BE MADE OF PEOPLE!

OooOOooh Are those snickerdoodles?!

Re: OOC

[furnaceface]

JONO IS NOT CERTAIN THAT THIS IS THE SORT OF OCCASION THAT NEEDS HANNIBAL'S PARTICULAR ARTISTIC INPUT.

RE: Re: OOC

[heromaniac]

And Kayla is a COCKNEY. Momoko may have to tell her mother that voids any Japanese ceremonies.

*harumph*

[furnaceface]

Jono was, if anybody needed him, doing the little 'awkwardly sitting on the other side of the room and attempting to avoid eye-contact' thing while he waited for his turn.

Okay, not that awkwardly. He was quite pleased with himself for playing those bells, thank you very much, even if he wasn't completely certain that having a contraction had been worth the satisfaction of being an annoying little shit through the process. Even so, any awkwardness was mostly because he was well aware that Raven was trying to catch his eye.

When it looked like maybe he wasn't going to be interrupting anything important, he stood and made his way over, a folder under one arm, a stuffed toy under the other.

//So, congratulations are in order,// he said, nodding down at the baby. //Welcome to the world, Kayla, Sunshine.//

[glacial_queen]

!!! The Music was here, too? Along with the Everything and the Kindness and the Rumble, too? That was pretty great. Not that Kayla could do much more than marvel at it; she was really tired. Being born took a lot out of a tiny baby.

"Thank you," Karla said, smiling up at Jono because she was too happy to frown at him. "What the Hell were the bells for?"

[furnaceface]

//Cockney tradition,// Jono explained, quietly amused at Kayla's marveling. //You have to be born within earshot of the Bow Bells in order to truly qualify as one, and, well, we're fresh out of London here.//

It had been stupid and annoying and he was totally willing to admit that he had been an ass. But, in Jono fashion, it was a little something he could tell Kayla later on. She totally counted. There had been bells.

[glacial_queen]

"Is this so you can take my daughter round the ree-raw or whatever?" Karla asked. "Why can't you celebrate your culture normally. Like by bringing me tea or something?"

[furnaceface]

There was a snarky comment about contraceptive tea that Jono was behaving himself and not saying, here. Mostly because eeeee, baby. But also because he'd been an asshole enough for one day.

//Re-ro,// he corrected, giving his head a slow, sad shake. //And I'd be far more inclined to celebrate with tea if I had ever actually liked tea. I'm far more a fan of hot bean water than hot leaf water, luv.//