Part 8: TakwinFrom the Personal Accounts of Aurum AlchimiaSince the afternoon of my wedding day, Darleen has been feeling unwell. Symptoms such as sensory sensitivity, particularly to smells, and nausea seem to be her chief complaints.
While I suggested perhaps allowing for a more thorough diagnosis, she merely waved me off with a slightly green-tinted smile. She seems happy. Perhaps she knows something I don’t.
…Well, anyway, if she doesn’t think she needs my help, that’s. just. Fine. I’ll go help other people.
I will help zombie people. See how she likes it.
Is that…a grudge I see in Aurum’s notes? That last sentence was accompanied by a rather large ink splatter…Of course, I suppose I should not be in such a fit of pride… Apparently it was some manner of intuition that led her to not want my opinion as a woman of science. I envy proper humans and their intuitive knowledge… What she believed was correct:
She was pregnant with her and Darren’s first child. The coos and squeals of delight could be heard throughout the house.
She and Darren are intent on name possibilities, thrilled with love and excitement at the possibility. I hope to track her offspring’s development.
In the meanwhile, she is buried in books on pregnancy and child-rearing, an excellent course of action.
My studies of the odd creature Darleen pulled from the dryer continue. He appears to have attracted a friend. It moves, appears to possess desires. True Cognition possible, requires testing. They do not seem to eat, so I have no idea how to motivate them sufficiently to test. No linguistic contact has been made. I suspect that is because their mouths are painted on. They are capable of independent existence, but seem to also enjoy companionship. Electronic devices appear to fascinate them. They seem to teleport about, as my attempts at vivisection reveal.
No word as to whether or not their existence is magical or technological, or perhaps both.
My time for research has been slightly limited, however…Limited by an upset stomach.
I suspect contact with zombie flesh, which smells putrid.
In the meanwhile, I begin new studies into more conventional chemistry, an essential tool and daughter of alchemy, while testing my formula designed to improve career performance’s effects on essentially self-regulated careers. Results are *very* promising; I am back to my original posting within hours. However, my speedy intellectual developments may be a factor.
Somewhere into my studies, after another wave of nausea, I realize something, a possibility that slips quickly into a certainty. That what I am feeling is, more likely than a response to rotten flesh, (at least according to prominent schools of thought) the result of rapidly rising Human chorionic gonadotropin and similarly high levels of estrogen (well, at least in certain theories), both of which would be linked to…
Are the result of…
Perhaps disguising it will do me no good: plain simlish will suffice.
My findings reveal I am pregnant.
I admit, I am as disappointed as I am excited. I was sort of hoping…That I would take the time to uncover the methods Father used in my own creation. I hoped to be able to one day to create a child like myself, to perhaps understand the circumstances of my own existence… That I would not be alone in those circumstances…
Ah, well. I suppose it is rather more convenient for a dynasty heir to have a full childhood, yes? And anyway, the fact that my reproductive organs appear to have full human function is, in and of itself, a miracle of alchemy. And an opportunity to see what manner of genetic information I can pass on is certainly invaluable…
The fact that I am having a child is, itself, wonderfully exciting news. I am merely quibbling about the route destiny has chosen for me.
All the same, I rush to tell Jaycen the news.
“Jaycen…We’re going to have a baby. In the immediate future, I mean, as opposed to a more general ‘life-planning’ stage of thinking.”
”I’m going to be a legitimate daddy?”“Yes! Yes, we will be completely legitimate parents.”
”Woo-hoo!”We decided to take a conversation on the matter of our expectation outside. The air was sharp and biting cold, but it made no difference. We snuggled close, and for a moment, I pointed out promising constellations.
“That’s the llama. Its ruling planet is Jupiter, its ruling element is fire. It’s a powerful and promising sign for a child to be born under, I think. The beginning of a new cycle…That’s the promise of a winter child, I think.”
”Well, that’s good. I mean, it’d be sad if the stars were against this kid starting out. Hey, uhh… Do you think…He’ll be gold?”“We can’t verify gender at this time.”
I think Jaycen understood that Aurum was dodging this question. Because seriously, Aurum. That’s not subtle question-dodging.”Let a dad have his hopes, OK?...Anyway, I…kinda hope so. But I hope he has my cheeks. Maybe your eyes, but my color.”“We’re dissecting already?” I laugh.
”Only in our heads, Aurum. Only in our heads. We do not dissect family members.”“I know that! Anyway, he’d be an immortal, so dissection would be impossible. I was being metaphorical.”
I fell silent for a moment.
“…I wish I could tell my father. He’d be so proud.” So proud of his work…So proud of me, having made it this far…
”Yeah…Hey, what’s your dad’s name?”“It’s Ferrus. I think it’s meant to be a masculinization of the Latin
Ferrum, the term for Iron from which the periodic table’s symbol, FE, is derived. In the same manner that Gold is AU, Aurum.”
He gives this a moment of thought.
”Alright, then. If it’s a boy, we’ll call him Ferrus. For your old man.”I smiled and embraced him.
When I returned inside, I fell to studying the matters of childbirth and rearing. While I am well aware of the anatomical details of such events…I was never myself a baby, nor have I really seen long-term interactions with the young. I am grievously unprepared as a result.
But study will fix everything. If I can just gain a greater knowledge base, all will work as planned.
All Aurum had was an intellect-shaped hammer. All the world would just have to be nails of ignorance… Unfortunately, that’s so rarely the case. Still, you have to wonder how much of her approach was innocence, and how much was bull-headed stubbornness. How dare the world not be solvable when you do more science to it?
I informed Darleen of my pregnancy. The resulting sound startled Neon, Quicksilver, and myself. It was undetectable by normal humans, further exemplifying my range.
These lessons in the limits of my hearing are… always, just so… appreciated…
Jaycen had Sheila over for the day. No reason, just that he could. This is his first time seeing her as a child.
They played the afternoon away. She still looks very much like her father, but is growing into his features better than I would have expected. Since she is my child’s half-sister, I’m a little pleased by that.
As for me…
Sometimes the path to ultimate enlightenment is difficult. I thought I’d been keeping away from the more reactionary supplies, but chemistry has its own relationships; sometimes people break into pointless fights, and sometimes so, too, do chemicals.
Of course, this implies that these arguments happen on a cosmic level, as well. This is a thought I will file away to never mention to anyone; I do not think they would appreciate the thought of our universe exploding because I bumped my elbow into it.
Jaycen is attentive. I think he’s a little susprised by how excited he is; I think he rather expected to be frightened. The first time you see yourself clearly, having grown so much…It’s a chemical reaction in its own right, one I wouldn’t mind extending to the universe: when everything becomes crisp and bright and clear. That step, in alchemy, you could call that moment citrinitas, when the true, solar light of the soul awakens.
We are making some small additions, allowing the art room back to its original shape and size, and allowing me a room for my chemistry that’s near a shower. It’ll have other features soon enough, I suppose.
That night, Darleen’s water broke. The men behaved in about as sensible a manner one might expect. How composed.
Eventually, Darren pulled himself together enough to drive Darleen to the hospital.
She eventually came home with a little girl in her arms; to keep the alliterative theme alive, they have named her Diane.
I never got to meet Diane Dreamer; more’s the pity. I think we would have gotten along. I’ve heard that even from the start she was an Artistic soul, like her parents, and Excitable and energetic. She loved green, went out of her way to love something as random and obscure as Tofu Cheese-Steak, and loved indie music. I still have yet to compile most of the notes on her life – I’m hoping to get some more thorough information.In the meanwhile, I was still studying logic – I had time off work, so this was my only means of progression. I had recently reached level 8, and given a new piece of equipment to help. It purrs like a kitten, and has a much stronger attractor field for ectoplasm; it’s wonderful!
I was gleefully showing this off…
…When I felt a sharp pain. It was certainly the baby. I wove off an offer to visit the hospital – I was, pain-addled or not, determined to see this through myself. Also, it was snowing out there, anyway.
Hours passed. I’ll save the details for a separate section,
which I will simply not show, because Aurum is completely free of any squeamish instinct. Gentle reader, we do not want to go there.In order to rush to the details. I think I performed admirably in keeping my head, anyway, even if I didn’t get to try out some of my better ideas about easing the process.
In the end, it was worth it…To hold him. Ferrus Alchimia.
My little golden boy. My little golden witch.
By the time I met Ferrus, he was a grown man. Still, I can’t imagine that his temperament – Artistic and Neurotic both, high-strung and creative in equal measure – was anything less than an inborn tendency. He liked Spice Brown to begin with, but would later grow to like shades of blue, Egyptian Music, and Lobster Thermidor
