Chapter Text
Pomni couldn't hold back a gasp - had Caine really reached THAT level?! She watched helplessly as Jax howled and squirmed in his seat, both arms wrapped around his swollen stomach.
"Someone help him!" She screamed , her throat hoarse. "Anyone!"
"Aren't you supposed to do that?" A voice echoed behind her. Pomni yelped as she jumped almost a mile into the air. It was an NPC dressed as a healthcare worker, carrying what seemed to be a file in his wooden hands.
"You're the head of the staff! Move it!"
Pomni stared at him for a while, then looked at Jax. God[BOINK], he really needed help, even if all of this was a stupid simulation with an even stupider plot. Pomni sighed, pinching the bridge of her non-existent nose.
"On it."
She didn't know what to do in the slightest - what the hell are you even supposed to do when someone - especially a [SPLAT]ing male - is about to deliver?! She didn't have any past experiences of herself working in a hospital as far as her memory stretched, and she certainly was NOT going to develop special skills by some divine intervention. The only thing to do now was to wing it as best as she could.
Another blood-curdling scream sent shivers down her spine, and Pomni knew she had to act. NOW. "Kinger! Ragatha, Zooble?! Where are you guys?!" She cried, to no avail- no one known to her was around her to answer. All she could hear were Jax's whimpers, and she was perfectly certain that Jax whimpering was something she DID NOT ever want to hear again.
Pomni ran through the bustling corridors, looking for someone - anyone - who could get her out of this mess. After what felt like a week, she came to a stop in front of the restroom. She considered washing her face and taking a well deserved break, but erased that thought as soon as she hears footsteps behind her.
Suddenly she felt a gloved hand on her shoulder and felt her hopes rise.
"Good grief, Pomni! I turned this place upside down looking for you!"
Ragatha almost yelled in relief at her, nurse's hat askew over her button-eye, her face the definition of mixed panic and relief. What she has been doing all this time, Pomni didn't know. However she was ready to forget her momentary anger at Ragatha.
"I - uh - I'm just- being here."
"Me too, apparently," Ragatha laughs timidly, adjusting her cap, "I guess we really aren't cut out for this - eh - healthcare thing."
Pomni nodded absentmindedly, staring off into the distance, her head reeling. Why were they even here? And what did they have to do to get out?
There was another yell of agony from the room downstairs and Pomni was immediately snapped into reality.
"Ragatha," she said, tugging at her pristine white sleeve to catch the doll's attention. "We - need to help - Jax - he's- uh- ready to give."
For a moment, Ragatha froze. Pomni had a feeling that she was appalled upon learning this, just like her, when she felt a pull on her hand - the same one she'd tugged at Ragatha's dress with. "WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!" Ragatha was yelling as she dragged - yes, dragged- Pomni through corridors and rooms and down staircases.
"Kinger, to the ER, this instant!"
Pomni felt herself growing indignant - had they been in contact with each other this whole while? Without her? Who did she even mean to them?! But there was no time to think about that. Ragatha seemed to know what she was doing, or at least she did to Pomni, as she led her through floors bustling with hundreds of Caine's NPCs.
After what felt like a hour and a half, they stopped moving, coming to a half in front of the Emergency Department itself. Fortunately for them, Kinger was already waiting there. "Thank goodness, Kinger, we were so worried-"
Ragatha proceeded to let him in on what was happening, and Pomni was left to listen. She really, really didn't want to be a part of this. It all felt so... real. And yet it wasn't. It shouldn't feel real, then why was it...?
However, as Ragatha droned on and on, trying to explain everything to the chess piece, Pomni was starting to think she should remind them why they were there in the first place.
"So that's how we rushed here," Ragatha finished with a breath. "Anyways, what about you?"
Before Kinger could speak, though, Pomni decided she'd had enough. "Guys, we should help Jax..."
"Oh, right." Kinger yelped. "Of course. Where's he again?"
Pomni was about to facepalm in defeat when Ragatha spoke up. "Right here." She gestured to the ER with her fabric hand.
Without futher conversation, they pushed open the door to the room before them, and were instantly met with a horrific or a comical sight, whichever way you look at it.
There was Jax, lying down on the examination bed, crushing the bedsheet with one hand and howling while the NPC healthcare worker Pomni had met earlier examined his unbelievably large stomach with what looked like a stethoscope. [SPLOINK], Caine really needed to work on his perception of what seemed real and what did not.
Pomni immediately shut her eyes - this was an image that was going to haunt her nightmares from now on, while Ragatha and Kinger moved forward, determination radiating off both of them. Remembering she ought to join them, Pomni hurried along.
"We need you both to prepare the theatre for surgery while we work on keeping the patient as calm as possible," an NPC doctor said to Ragatha. She nodded solemnly, perhaps to play along until this nightmare of an adventure ends. Pomni had to admit, she really admired Ragatha's 'can-do' attitude in times like this.
Kinger, meanwhile, was already making his way to the room the NPC specified in his instructions. Ragatha watched him for a while, then leaned closer to Pomni. "See that room over there? All we have to do is follow Kinger into it, then follow the instructions the doctors give us. Easy enough, right?"
Pomni could tell that Ragatha was trying her hardest to cheer her up, to make everything seem a bit less imposing and complex and mind-boggling, but for the first time in her life, she didn't know what to say.
Nevertheless, she and Ragatha started walking over to the Surgical Theatre.
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Everything hurt. God[BOINK]it, why was everything dark? Jax felt the edges of his vision come into focus as he slowly came to his senses. There was something wrong about him, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. Something was really, really wrong...
And that's when he looked down at himself.
Him. With a comically large belly. So large that it burst through the flimsy buttoned hospital gown that apparently he had been wearing for who knows how long.
And before Jax could stop himself, he SCREAMED.
He was pretty certain he'd drawn attention of quite a few people around him. However, the reason behind his reaction was something else entirely.
The PAIN. Raw and unsettling. Piercing his insides like scorching fire. Jax didn't recall ever feeling so much of it before. He was used to all kinds of it generally, but this. This was terrifying. It was like someone - or something - was scraping him from within to get out.
All of a sudden, he was hit with a realisation.
He was PREGNANT. Him. Carrying. In a fucking DIGITAL WORLD. How the hell is that even possible?!
However, any thoughts he had at that moment had to wait. The pain was really starting to take over his self-control. He was going to look PATHETIC. In front of a bunch of strangers. How extremely humiliating.
Even in the throes of incoming labor, Jax made a mental note to shower Caine with some of his best insults the moment they were transported back to the circus.
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