As usual, Penance awoke to a pain in her groin. The odd worm-thing that was burrowed into what was once her clitoral complex is being active, feeling like it's trying to branch out again. The uterine "micro-creepers" are also complaining more than usual, adding to the sharp abdominal pains. Also as usual, she has to wait for the horribs to finish chewing her out of her sleeping cocoon.
"Ow ow ow ow, geez, stop it down there!" Penance whines, winces, and squirms from her alcove. "I've been good, you shouldn't be hurting me!"
"You alrights in dere?" comes a familiar ratty voice from the corridor. "I got you some corpse-beetle porridge. I think it has rice in it, or else steamed maggots. I can't taste no difference."
"I'm ... ow ... uncomfortable!" Penance claims, "And I'd really like to be out of this alcove now. The horribs don't move very fast! As for, er, the food ... I think I'll pass!"
"Are you sure you aren't hungry?" Crabs asks, holding out the bowl of brightly colored bug-porridge. "I couldn't getcha anything fresh. 'Sides, you're eating for two now right?" he asks, and pats Penance's exposed belly.. which is a bit more swollen than she remembers from last night.
"I can't get pregnant," Penance points out, then looks down at her belly, bare brow raised. "So I'm just eating for one. But ... ugh I guess I could try to eat that." Then she gets one hand free and rubs her belly, and then her annoying little nub-companion.
Both seem to squirm under her touch. For Nubby, that squirm is deep down. For her belly though, the squirming feels very close to the surface. Crabs repositions so one of the horribs can finish chewing away the resin wrapping Penance's left thigh, and offers up the bowl again. "I hears that up where they get daylight, people put seasonings on food. Can you imagine? Extra flavor you add?"
Penance pulls her other hand free, then with some reluctance, actually teats a little. "Sure, I know about seasoning ... somehow. I don't know why, but I do," she admits inbetween bites as she decides if it tastes horrible or not. She also tries to figure out if she really does look, er, fatter.
Having black skin does tend to make it difficult to tell by sight, at least until she can move again. Crabs actually pokes at her belly, with.. jiggles.. but not in a natural way. It's not motion from the poking finger so much as something moving the skin around.
"What is going on down there?" Penance has to ask, and reaches down to cup her belly, to feel what is moving, and just how, er, pudgy, she is. And since she hasn't thrown up, she tries to eat a little more with her other free hand.
It doesn't feel like the pudginess is her. Something just under her skin seems to be causing it.. and is very squirmy. Something pokes her palm even.. and not something soft.
This makes Penance blink, repeatedly. "Is something outside of my womb now?" she wonders, then spreads her legs more, which of course means her harness stretches the girl painfully wide open (moreso than normal). Taking a break from eating, she uses her fingers to feel up inside herself to see if she can feel anything odd(er).
She meets some resistance. A plug? It might explain why Otto hasn't been by with his bucket yet.
Penance blinks, and feels around to see if it is actually a plug ... and how secure it actually is (if she can get a grip with her fingers and pull). This is entirely undignified, but Yodhgorphat don't have any dignity after any period of time of being one.
"Are you tryin' to feed it porridge?" Crabs asks, and actually helps to pry some of the larger layers of resin off of Penance. The plug isn't exactly solid. More like very thick mucous. Push into it too far requires more effort - both going in and pulling back out.
"I'm very sticky inside, and I don't know why," PEnance admits, ears splayed out.
"Err, you get pumped up by a half-dozen guys twice a day.. how could ya not be sticky?" Crabs has to ask.
"Not that kind of sticky, this is much ... stickier. It's not uncomfortable, it's just odd," Penance admits, sounding disturbingly calm about it. She feels again and hmms. "I like it," she declares. "I don't know why, but it feels right to be thickly gooey in there. And it means I don't have to worry about infections from the spreader for a while. I guess this is from the creepers. Do you remember anything in the book about this?"
"De notes weren't well organized, so there could be more that I didn't find," Crabs notes, then kneels down and sticks his nose up close and personal. "Don't smell like puss or infection. You got some skin irritation 'round the leather though." The last of the resin is chewed through, leaving just a few patches that stick to Penance's bare skin, but those usually peal off easily.
Penance actually grabs Crap's head and pushes his nose into her and up against the goo. "See! Sticky," she points out. "And yes, the skin is irritated down there, but I'm used to it and I can ignore it most of the time."
The rat struggles for a moment to pull his nose free with a sucking 'splop' sound, but he doesn't seem too worse for it. "We better find somethin' that describes this. What if you pop?" he frets.
"Then it's Gorphat's will?" Penance suggests and shrugs a little. "It's not that painful, though, and it makes me feel kinda weird-excited .. so I don't want to panic, you know? The sticky is ... fun." She pats Crab's shoulder and then peals off the remaining bits of shell. "Lets go see what we can find, hmm?" she asks, then pats her belly, "And maybe it is all three of us?"
Walking to the archives is still awkward. Eeee want to swing their long legs, but the stretcher-harness still makes that uncomfortable. And the creepers are still being pinchy. But while moving her belly isn't squirming as much.
Penance sways her hips instead of taking longer steps so she gets some movement with shorter movement. "Another nice thing about being all sticky inside, I'm not dripping anymore," Penance tells Crabs. "See, there are good sides to anything."
"But.. dat stuff gotta go somewhere don't it?" Crabs asks. The tunnels are surprisingly quiet, which probably means the new acolytes are doing something elsewhere in the temple complex. Probably cleaning out other chambers under the direction of Fon, Sil or Otto. Some of the lanterns are still lit in the library when they arrive, meaning Crabs was probably working through the night (it isn't clear when, where or if the Skreek sleeps).
"So, do you sleet?" Penance then has to ask as she heads for the tables and starts to look for the book and notes on her fun internal 'friends'. She also idly reaches down and tug-plays with Nubby, just because. She seems she's in a weird mood today; might be sleep deprivation.
"Pretty sure I do," Crabs claims. "That's when you sort of fall over and then black out for a bit, right?" He clears some space on a table for a new batch of books and scrolls.
"Something like that," Penance admits as she helps clear some space ... when she's not playing with ol' Nubby.
Nubby squirms around, a bit painfully, from the attention. There are more sharp internal pains, but Penance has gotten used to them. It's not like the creepers can be fed while she's all plugged up anyway.
At one of the space, Crabs sets out the original information on the creepers and the Nubby worm, then starts going through the newer sources.
Penance makes a small sort from the pain, then quits messing with things. Her attentions return to the sources too, with only the idle stroking of her belly going on as she tries to read through the various scrolls.
The Yodhgorphat comes across a page with a sketch of the y-shaped worm and some notes. They confirm that the worm is yet another 'creeper' variation, and specifically the male form. Of course, it doesn't say anything about the female or mention thick gooey plugs.
"Well, I already knew that," Penance mutters and taps at the page for a bit. "Moving on ..." she turns a few more pages, looking for any mention of host-plugging.
"I foun' sometin'," Crabs announces, sharing a page that talks about the other creepers. "They can make the plug when they's spawnin'," he points out helpfully. "Now gotta find what happens next.."
Penance also idly feels inside herself again to see if the plugging is getting any worse, or remains about the same. "Really? Spawning? Inside me?" she asks as she leans over to reads the page some too.
Apparently the 'goo' that they normally produce changes once they've been fertilized, creating something their larva can flourish in while they grow. It's described as 'yolk' in the old symbols.
"What fertilized them, though? I haven't been bedding the other sex any," Penance notes as she continues to read onward.
"Maybe one o' the guys was a host?" Crabs offers. "Didn't inspect 'em or anything."
"Maybe? Don't remember seeing any with any obvious infestations," Penance notes.
Nubby starts flexing again, causing muscle pain in the same area as the goo-plug.
Penance winces and reaches down to pat Nubby. "What's your problem?" she asks her, er, companion.
Crabs sets the new sources aside. "Gotta copy all this down into sometin' useful. It's like a dozen diff'rent Yodh wrote this stuff years apart."
"That's probably very true," Penance agrees. "When they felt like writing anything down."
"Mebbe they only did it when they was sick or hosts," Crabs suggests, and starts going through the next bestiary, searching for anything that seems connected.
"They were hosts a lot, or so I've read. But, maybe," Penance agrees. She goes back to feeling around on her belly, and wondering if they've escaped her womb, or are just filling it a lot.
There's another prick on her palm, this time drawing blood. There's also blood where whatever it was poked out through her skin. It doesn't last long though, since it was just pin-sized.
"Ow!" Penance complains and then licks her palm, then looks at where she was poked ... to see if she was somehow 'stung'. And by what? Her ears splay flat and she looks down at her belly to look for where it cane out.
There are a few speckles of blood where the skin might have been broken from inside. They seem to cluster around her navel though, which is also swollen.
Penance's brow furrows. She pokes around her navel a bit.
Something seems to grab her fingertip briefly before letting go.
Penance's ears shoot upward! She moves closer to the light so she can examine her navel a bit better. "Is something coming out of me here?" she murmurs to herself.
"Hmm?" Crabs asks, not looking up from his book. It's easier to see in the better light, since the glossiness of Penance's skin adds definition. There's some sort of bulge around her belly-button, which moves, along with radiating structures that also seem to move beneath her skin. Like.. subcutaneous tentacles.
"That's ... weird. Is there anything in the book about belly-button tentacles?" Penance asks as she pokes herself right in the middle of her navel. she's also shifting from one foot to the next nervously.
This time something pokes back before retreating. "Not from what.. Oh! Heyyyy.. that other creeper is what fertilizes the womby-ones. They don't look anything alike though. Hmmm. HMMMM. That doctor you know.. she can do surgery yah?"
"Yes, she can. Why?" Penance asks and looks up. Her ears splay out again.
"Well, unlike yer boob-bugs, the creeper ones don't have handy.. uh.. burrows. Dey gonna chew they way out, but it says you gotta harvest them before that or it would be bad. No mention of biting tentacles though."
"Wait, what? They'll chew their way out? Are you sure? How long do I have?" Penance asks, now sounding nervous about this!
"Well.. uh.. got some time, I think... maybe.." Crabs says, shuffling through papers and papyrus. "Just got blocked up, so.. depends on the yolk. You probably got some good stuff, so.. ten or twelve days I think.. maybe."
"But.. they ain't what squirmin' under your skin, that's for sure," Crabs claims.
"Does it say how big I'll get?" Penance asks as she goes to look now. "And is there anything like what's under my skin in any of these? I don't know where this could have come from."
"It doesn't say anything about size.. I guess it depend on how many mothers you got in there?" Crabs guesses, then comes over and examines Penance's belly in the light, occasionally poking to see if the tentacles react. "It got a ring, I think, and three stubby arms and three longer wigglier ones," he reports. "I haven't seen anything like it in the library yet. But it ain't anything we installed."
"Maybe I need to ask Gorphat directly what it is, then? And I think there are at least four, maybe six, mothers within me," Penance admits. "Can we clear out the plug so they can come out more, er, naturally?"
"With like a wooden spoon?" Crabs asks, before going back to the book.
Penance also feels around the strange belly-thing surrounding her navel as she waits for Crabs to check about clearing her out. "Yeah, like that," she admits.
"It doesn't say," Crabs admits. "But.. it wouldn't make sense to kill the host, aye? So.. maybe the tentacle thing is a midwife, for.. uh.. spitting them out through your belly-hole. I.. don't see anything like that mentioned, but you know how badly organized dis place is.."
Penance sighs and rubs her forehead. Then she takes a long, deep, breath and closes her eyes. "Mother Gorphat," she plays silently. "What is this growing within me, under my skin? I know what is in my womb and I accept and host them in Your honor, and gladly accept my Wound to be plugged with their ooze ... but I don't know what this thing around my navel is... Can you enlighten me?"
It's barely a whisper, but Penance thinks she hears: The child of your lover.
"My ... lover?" Penance prays. She isn't sure who her lover is!
The one who makes you feel good, and cares for others, is the only other hint.
Penance opens her eyes and looks confused. She feels around her belly some more. "Are you safe?" she asks her own navel. Either she's crazy ... or just your average Yodhgorphat. "And I guess I need to go see the doctor soon about my other ... issue and work out a treatment to keep me alive..."
"Or you could just put your faith in Gorphat," Crabs notes. "Did.. you have your prayers answered?"
"Sort of. I think I should go see the doctor and at least get her advice. I have ten to twelve days you said, so time to get checked, then decide based on what I am told," Penance notes as she starts to collect the pertinent things to her condition. Though she does pause halfway and think-pray, "Should I let this take its course, or is visiting the doctor permissible by you? I do not wish to violate Your desires of me."
This time there isn't even a whisper.
"It doesn't hurt to ask. I don't have to do anything yet," Penance says after being disappointed. "I'm going to dress and go see the doctor now, while I'm small and not in too much pain. Then we'll know as much as we can, and I can make a choice."
When Penance arrived at the medical tent on Mt. Blakat, she found Dr. Sesstha up to her elbows in gore, while Swix was boiling water and cleaning off the surgery table. There was no sign of the patient, however. "You have returned," the Naga hisses, stating the obvious.
"I have. I need your advice. Well, I also want you to check the harness spreader you fit me with ... but the main reason is I have an infestation that may require your services to clear," Penance explains as she sets the bag of scrolls and notes on the creepers on a somewhat clean table. "These are the notes on the condition, and I'm only day one of a ten to twelve day gestation ... so I should have time before it's dangerous. will you offer your services to Gorphat in tending to Her daughter?"
The long tongue flicks in and out slowly as the doctor seems to consider this. "That dependsss," Sesstha finally admits. "Isss thiss contagiousss?"
"It shouldn't be," Penance claims as she starts undressing as if the decision was already made.
"Sssss," the Naga hisses. "I need sssomething," she says while Penance unwraps herself.
"Such as?" Penance asks as she climbs on a clean(ish) exam table amd then lays back, and even spreads her legs. Quite the pushy Eeee, but then she doesn't expect someone to refuse a Yodh.
"Ssssalve," the Naga says. "The kind only available at the Temple of Gorphat Hosssspice. The one that pulls infection out of sssomeone."
"Is that all? I can get than for you," Penance says and bobs her head a little from where she lays.
"How much can you ssspare?" the Naga persists, slowly circling the table to get a look at Penance from all angles. "You have insects in your mammaries," she notes.
"I know, but they can't be removed safely right now. Or, can you remove them safely? As for the salve, how much do you require? I can check with those tending the tents and send as much as we have no immediate need for," Penance offers.
"Assss much as can be spared," the Naga says, finally looking through the information that Penance has brought. "You have both of these parasitesss?" she asks.
"I do," Penance admits as she looks up at the ceiling. "I will have as much as we can spare of the salve sent over."
"Swix, fetch the ssssalad tongss," Sesstha asks her son. "That isn't what they are, but it isss easier for him to remember them that way," she notes to Penance.
"I don't want anything removed yet," Penance notes, "I want to know what my risks are, and how long I can bear them ... and if I can bear them exiting on their own ... or if you shoul remove them."
"Ssssso many quesstions," the doctor comments. "Firssst.. iss it acceptable to kill them?"
"I would vastly prefer if you did not kill them," Penance admits.
"And the inssside of an Eeee isss their preferred environment?" the Naga asks, sorting through the jumble of information. "Would they need to be implanted into another hossst? I may have isssssues with that."
Swix returns with the 'salad tongs', which are a good indication that Naga generally do not get within hissing distance of a salad. They look far too serrated for one thing, and almost certainly came off of a giant insect of some sort, unless they are part of Zelak anatomy that nobody talks about.
"The inside of an Eeee is preferable. They can be stored, and do not have to be implanted in anyone else," Penance notes. "I am only asking that you make sure I survive this, not inflict anything on others."
"You have a ssstorage vesssel for these creatures then?" Sesstha asks, as she continues to decipher the often terrible penmanship of the notes. "These creaturess come from the Tower?"
"I do. And I believe they did originally," PEnance agrees.
"This deformation on your lower abdomen iss not documented," the Naga points out next, and points to the hexapoidal bulge. "Isss it decoration?"
"I ... don't know what that is," Penance admits. "Gorphat only tells me it is the child of my lover."
"Iss that a religiousss euphemism?" Sesstha asks as she picks some bits still clinging to the salad tongs. "I will take a ssample of the mucouss. That can tell me about the acidity that they find comfortable."
"All right. Just, try to be gentle?" Penance requests. "I'm still tender down there.
"I am very gentle," Sesstha claims. "Comparatively." The tool that looks like it was meant for scooping out organs is not comfortable, and comes out with surprisingly little of the elastic mucous. But that seems to be enough for Sesstha's needs. "It may be posssible to encourage the creatures to leave via the direct route given a proper stimulus."
Poor Penance hisses and grips the tables as that horrid-looking instrument probes into her. When she feels it come out, her expression quickly changes to shock at seeing so little actually removed. "That stuff is really stuck in there," she says, dumbfounded.
"Such creaturesss ssseem to ssspecialize in producing durable subssstances," Sesstha remarks, and sets the probe down in a dish. "That may have been their original purpose." She then leans over Penance (although it might seem like looming) to more closely examine the belly-beast. "Is thisss parassite causing you pain? When did you firssst notice it?"
"Just today, and no, the one there isn't causing me any pain, I don't think," Penance admits. "How deep is it in me, do you think?"
"An inch or ssso at leasst, jussst from the sssurface disstortion," the Naga says. "No telling without knowing the normal ssstructure for the creature. Hasss it done anything other than exisst yet?"
"It stung me when I poked at it," Penance admits and holds up her hand to the serpent.
"I do not see a blister, sssso it probably iss not poissonous," the Naga notes. "Wass it a defenssive reaction?"
"I guess? I wan't being particularly aggressive, I was just feeling it," Penance admits. "Can you remove it?"
"I do not know what it iss, but it iss not ssmall," Sesstha says, and does push on part of it, trying to get a reaction. "Ah, I almosst saw the the tooth that time. I do not ssee an impression of ssssuckers though. Sso perhapss a thorn or needle, but you do not report pain. Do you know if this iss animal or vegetable?"
"A tooth?!" Penance squeaks! "I think it's kind of both animal and vegetable, but I'm not really sure. I'm sorry. So, you don't know if it can come out or not? Will it keep growing?"
"If you do not know what it isss, I certainly do not," Sesstha points out. "You only noticed it today, sso.. either it grew overnight to thisss size, or wass more compact and deeper before. Do you know where it came from? What iss your lover?"
"I ... don't really have one? I don't know what it could even be from ... unless Maybe Blarf ... the producer of the salve you desire," Penance admits and starts poking at her belly again.
"What iss a Blarf?" Sesstha asks.
"A huge tentacle tree-like thing," Penance claims, "It is the child of the High Priestess."
"Eeee do not normally give birth to tentacle treesss," the doctor notes, with a straight face. Which is the only face Naga really have. "Otherwise there would be one on every balcony, ssswatting away those who fly too close. If the Blarf isss not dangerousss, then thiss spawn should not be. But if you feel a desire to take root, that could be a sssign of trouble. But having it where it iss would make surgical extraction of the creepers problematical. Try to get it to move to a different spot."
"Like where?" Penance has to ask, "I don't have many options on my body!"
"Sssleep on your sstomach, perhapss," the doctor suggests. "Have you been hanging upsside-down enough?"
"I'm not allowed to. I am coccooned in every night to rest in a horrib's lair," Penance explains.
"Do they drag you off then?" Sesstha asks.
"Sometimes, yes," Penance admits, "I serve them and their queen. As sort of ... their pet."
"Jusst hang upside-down before they take you," Swix speaks up. "Then maybe they will cocoon you in that position."
"And they do not sssurround you with paralyzed people hosting larva?" Sesstha asks for further clarification.
"I will try ... but I'm not sure it would help. And no, they don't surround me with people like that,," Penance claims, then pauses and remembers something else. "Oh, and that reminds me ... how is the spreader harness healing you ... fitted on me? It still hurts a lot," Penance asks.
"It seemsss to be fusing to your ssskin," Sesstha notes after some tugs. "Doess it.. itch?" she asks. Naga probably itch when they shed their old skins. "How doess it hurt?"
"It stretches me a lot and it makes it hard to walk, and sometimes it itches, yes," Penance says.
"And any sex is painful," she adds.
"People have sssex with you?" Sesstha asks, apparently surprised by the revelation. She probably hasn't had any consensual intercourse in her entire life.
"Well, yes, some do," Penance admits, "But I suppose that's probably the point of it, to mutilate me down there and make it always hurt to use it for its original purpose."
"Then why do you use it at all?" Sesstha asks, looking Penance in the eyes (and possibly the scalp worm feathers).
"BEcause I have to, to serve Gorphat in the manner she wishes of me," Penance answers simply. "And another question, if I may ... I am treated and ... milked often. But, I don't produce a lot of milk, and it doesn't come out very fast. Is there anything you know of that could be done to make these," Penance asks while hefting her breasts a little, "Work better, or at least flow easier?"
"Besides removing the insectsss?" Sesstha asks, and looks at Penance's breasts as if really seeing them as breasts for the first time. "Rughratsss have udders. I will look into it. You should return no later than ssseven days hence sso that I can check your progress."
"All right. But for now I should just leave things as they are and remain plugged, then?" Penance asks.
"I do not see any other choice," Sesstha says. "Alssso be sure to have the vesssel ready to receive the creaturess."
"Do you know how big I might get? I worry travel may be difficult," Penance points out.
"Pregnant Eeee fly all the time," Sesstha points out. "You will not be larger than that, because Eeee cannot expand very much before sssomething breaks."
"Hopefully that is true," Penance agrees and sits up, then slides off the table. "Well, thank you for your time; you are now the Yodhgorphat official doctor. I will see you for all my needs," she claims and smiles, then dresses. "And yes, I will get you the requested salve, and anything else you might need. Thank you for your help and for all those you continue to help."
"Don't you have your own hosspital though?" Swix asks.
"But not a surgeon," Penance points out and even pets Swix head a little. "Plus, I like both of you."
"We appreciate giftss that are not parassites," Sesstha replies. "You Yodh all ssseem a bit ssstrange to me, I admit. The Yodhblakat do not admit to liking anyone. Perhapsss it is reserved as a threat?"
"That's just them; they're grouchy and unpleasant," Penance admits. "Pay them little mind. I shall not keep you any longer. I will see you in seven days, if I have not died by then."
"If you have died, you may cancel the visssit," Sesstha notes. "But I still expect the sssalve."
This makes Penance laugh. "A naga with a sense of humor! What wonders reside in this world," she declares. Then the crazy Youdh turns and heads her way back out of the tent, and from there, back home to ... bloat up and ferment, or ... something. She's at least proud of herself for not panicing too much and even enjoying parts of it; like being plugged. Maybe she's growing into her role. Or maybe she just finally snapped....