RP:All I Want To Do Is See You Turn Into A Giant Woman

Summary: After the unsuccessful mission in the Shadow Plane, Khitti's pregnancy is still speeding forward towards the end of her term thanks to a gem implanted into her stomach and Brand and the Tranquility's healer, Lennier, attempt to stop it.

The Tranquility, Cenril Wharf

Brand helped Khitti dismount from the Tikifhlee as soon as they arrived. Lennier had already gotten word of what had happened in the Shadow Plane and was waiting for them at the top of the gangplank, addressing them with urgency. “I’ve moved my tools closer, temporarily. The second room within, this deck. Dozla has put the crew on high alert, per your orders. I’m afraid I’ll need you to take the potion again, ma’am.” He passed another vial to Khitti. Another crewmate approached and took the beast to stable.

Brand followed healer and patient both to the makeshift infirmary, noting the miscellany hastily stored atop drawers and the chairs all pushed to one end of the room. The table had been cleared and sanitized, and Lennier guided Khitti to lay down on it. Brand stood anxiously at her side, opposite the elf. “It’s still goin’, doc. The faster you can get that thing outta her…” He swallowed, for want of water and a chance to catch his breath. “No one was expectin’ this. We’ve got no idea what it’s done to her, or to the kid.” In the last few minutes, the threat of loss had crystallized one thing for Brand: he -wanted- this child, genuinely. Maybe not so soon as they’d be seeing it, if Khitti’s size was any indication -- but sometime in the past weeks, he realized now, he’d actually come around to the idea for something more than just making Khitti happy. And what the frak did that say about him? Why did he only ever see what he wanted when there was a chance it was too late? Brand took one of Khitti’s hands in his own and kneaded a prayer into her palm with his thumbs. Gods, if you’re -not- gorram useless… if you give a frak about anyone here besides yourselves… please…

Khitti drank that horrid potion without complaint, though there was a bit of a face made at the taste again. Ugh. Olive-green eyes watched both Brand and Lennier quietly as they spoke, the redhead feeling rather useless right now. She laid down on the table as she was told, those same green eyes shifting from both males up towards the ceiling. What was going to happen? Did their child die? Was -she- going to die… again? Childbirth alone was terrifying enough and it had been one of those many worries she kept from Brand. Even when there’s not dark forces at work, women died all the time from having children. The color drained from her face as she thought about it. She tried -not- to think about it, but it was there in big bold red letters at the forefront of her mind: You might die. You might leave Brand. And this time, there’s no coming back.

Brand’s taking of her hand was a welcome distraction. It was Lennier she glanced at first, with a pleading look that said ‘please don’t let me die’--something he’s probably seen from most of his patients. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.” She tried to say it with conviction, but faltered a little. Will she be fine? Lennier was the best healer they knew but that didn’t mean he knew what he was doing with this. This situation was… something else entirely.

As Brand and Khitti watched, Lennier set up his viewing screen again. Tongs in hand, he prodded and pulled at the gem set in Khitti’s middle. On the screen it appeared as a bright, circular mass beyond which the bulk of Khitti’s womb was obscured. What they could see, however, were the tendril-like spokes that had pierced through her and tangled around her insides. Like some sort of feral, carnivorous plant, they lashed about when Lennier came too close to dislodging them. Brand caught sight of them writhing just under her skin and quite suddenly wished for a bucket to be sick in.

“Oi!” Dozla burst through the door without so much as a knock. She was breathless, frazzled, with a sheen of sweat lacing her hairline and an alien, high pitched droning accompanying her arrival. Dozla thrust the offending object at Brand: a very particular jewelry box. “This blasted thing’s been going off since y’got here. It was -loud- too, when I first heard it. -Totally- unrelated, but your door needs a new lock. Sorry.” She blinked down at Khitti, at her dome of a stomach, then snatched the box away from a bewildered Brand and thrust it out to Khitti instead. “Boy, you sure popped fast, huh? I know what the Cap’n said, but damn. You okay?”

As Dozla spoke, the whirring grew louder once again. The box began to vibrate and smoke in her hand. Lennier seemed about to herd the woman away from his patient when the gem beneath them splintered, as if in response. On the screen and under Khitti’s skin, the tendrils made a hasty retreat. And then all was stunned silence. The whole room held its breath in unison. Brand at last dared to nudge the contraption on Khitti’s stomach; it clattered easily now to the floor, broken. “...Huh,” said Brand, slack-jawed. “That sure as frak was a thing.”

This was a nightmare, right? Another one brought on by Facilier and his meddling. Well, it -was-, kind of. Except this nightmare was actually real and Khitti had this alien-like thing squirming around in her stomach. Was it going to burst out her at any moment and try to kill everyone? No, probably not thanks to Dozla’s interference with that box Khitti’d been gifted for Yule. The gem. The box. It was all enough to make Khitti pass out from shock and she looked like she might until a stop was put to those tendrils and Brand had knocked the device off of her entirely. “It’s a thing that we need to move on from right the frak now and figure out if this kid is alright.” Or if she was suddenly carrying dead weight. Red brows furrowed as she finally shifted her attention to Dozla with a frown, “I don’t know.” She didn’t -feel- alright, but it was probably more mental trauma than anything and it didn’t feel like there was any point in mentioning it.

Lennier picked up the mysterious device with his tongs and dropped it into a nearby basin for later study. With it free from Khitti’s stomach, he could finally see more clearly what was going on. “No lacerations, puncture wounds, burns or scar tissue. No visible point of entry at all. Curious. I have sensed a surge in dark magic throughout, but nothing distinct from your own signature. It remains now. I wonder…” The elf’s words faded to a mumble as he continued assessing her. Khitti’s womb appeared on the screen again, the bright mass replaced by the distinct image of an unborn child. Dozla put a tender hand on Khitti’s shoulder, and her other on Brand’s. Brand tried not to press his anxiety too hard into Khitti’s palm. Together, they waited with bated breath.

“...As far as I can tell,” Lennier said, at long last speaking audibly again, “both mother and child appear to be physically unharmed, beyond the obvious markers of stress. I see no signs of the organ strain I would expect from her hastened condition. In fact, by all indications, it seems that there was no rapid growth at all, as you described. Rather, Ms. Von Schreier and the child have aged several months -- and likely would have continued to do so for as long as the device was implanted.” Lennier squinted back at the basin, frowning. The jeweled contraption was no more revealing of its secrets than it had been a moment ago. “We will monitor you closely from here on out; I’d like to see you everyday for the first week and once a week afterward even if all appears normal. By my best estimate, you have merely another twelve to sixteen weeks to go… although, cases like this being as uncommon as they are, it’s difficult to say for sure.”

“So, I went from not aging at all a few months ago to aging pretty frakking rapidly in minutes today. I have the best luck, I swear,” Khitti snarked once the diagnosis was made and all seemed well (‘seemed’ being the keyword here). Despite Brand’s best efforts, she could tell he was stressed from the way he kept rubbing her hand (the top of her hand was starting to hurt at this point). She pulled her appendage free, but took up his own as second later and gave it a squeeze as she sat up, “I’m okay.” Khitti gave him a look as well, one that seemed to say that she was just as concerned about him as he was about her. He hadn’t gotten hurt like Lionel, but it was still so soon after her death and rebirth that the mental trauma was certainly there. “-We’re- fine. We’re not going anywhere.”

Khitti finally addressed Lennier, giving him a nod in thanks, “You’ll see me first thing in the morning then. The excitement with this pregnancy must be neverending for you, Lennier.” She attempted to make light of the situation, hoping to calm everyone’s nerves somewhat. It didn’t last long however as she shifted her attention to the gem, “If you experiment with that at all, please be careful.”

Lennier smiled kindly. “Every day’s a new adventure, for better or worse. It’s a nice reprieve from setting bones after brawls and cleaning up wounds from Dozla’s pranks gone awry.” The two exchanged a look, his severe and hers sheepish. “That was -one- day! One! And they were fine,” Dozla insisted. “Bit of a fall, nothin’ more.” Lennier softened, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. “One day, yes, and three people. They were… appreciative of your artistic capabilities, if not perhaps your intent.”

Brand filled Khitti in, trying not to seem amused himself -- though it was much needed relief from the earlier tension. “One of the days you were out on business, Dozla painted the floor of the main hall to appear blasted through. Gorram impressive, from the right angle. Not everyone saw through the ruse.” Gingerly, he assisted Khitti off the table. “If that’s all, then… Lennier, thank you. Dozla, what’s our situation up top?”

Dozla straightened her pose and expression, alert. “Right, yes. Plum forgotten, what with the box n’ all.” The thing had stopped making its awful noise, and she’d only just now remembered she was still holding it. She passed it off to Khitti. “The crew’s been notified, Cap’n, they’re prepared n’ at arms. Sundance has command in my absence -- thought you’d think it appropriate.” Brand nodded. “But I think we’d’ve heard somethin’ by now, dontcha think? If they were followin’?” Dozla looked to Khitti, chewing on a lip.

Khitti’s attention shifted between the three, a smirk of her own forming. She was grateful for the light these three brought to the darkness that continuously sought to overtake her, her head bobbing along in acknowledgment as Brand explained. Things were different now; the captain and his crew gave her the much needed hope to keep pushing on. “You'll never want for work, at least, Lennier,” Khitti finally said with a grin.

The grin would soon fade into a pensive stare as Facilier-related things were brought back to the forefront of the conversation. “It's rather odd that he didn't have Onyx follow us. Or that he himself didn't follow. They're both well capable of it, even moreso with that army of my copies backing them up.” She'd taken the box from Dozla inspecting it again as she had the day it was given to her. It was still closed. “So frakking weird.” Khitti looked to Brand with a frown, “What are we going to do about Onyx?”

Brand’s expression clouded over. “I’m still figurin’ that out. It doesn’t make sense, does it? Onyx, workin’ with Facilier? I thought they hated necromancers -- why team up with the biggest, baddest one? Unless sayin’ that was part of the plan all along… but then what was the gorram point of the box?” Attempting to puzzle it out was giving him a headache. It was exactly the sort of riddle he could have used Onyx’s wisdom on. “Well, practical matters first. Here’s hopin’ Dozla won’t take objection to bein’ First Mate, effective immediately?”

Dozla offered an uncharacteristically grave nod. “Can’t rightly fill those shoes, Cap’n. Onyx did a lot ‘round here. But I’ve got no hidden agenda, and you know I’ll give it my best.”

“It’s decided, then. Means you’ll have to tamp down on the pranks, though. Post someone outside our room for the next few days, would you? If they’re offering no show of power here, the next thing I’m worried about is some kind of infiltration. Onyx knows this ship bow to stern, not to mention they have a tendency to appear places unnoticed. And double the night watch, add someone to walk the halls.” A thought struck him as he nudged the door ajar. He turned and glanced apologetically at Khitti. “Oh, and… we’ll relocate to Khitti’s old room for now. No way she’s gettin’ up the ladder to our quarters. I’ll move what we need myself.”

“I don’t know, but I feel like there’s something deeper than just Onyx switching sides.” Khitti let the thought linger, but she was soon drawn away from it as Brand mentioned moving them to her old room. She looked down at her stomach and sighed heavily. “Yeah… I guess that’s a good idea.” That brought more worries to the forefront of her mind and that pensive stare only worsened (if that was even possible). She didn’t voice them just yet, letting Brand tend to whatever else he needed to with Dozla. Khitti moved away from the two, aiming on heading to their ‘new’ quarters, a slight waddle in her step now thanks to the sudden added weight.