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Karma tried hard not to stare as she knelt at Sati's other side. She was largely unfamiliar with Fa'e biology, but had had it explained to her that both parents quite literally gave up a part of themselves for the child, revealing, leaving both half-human.

"You're doing fine." she assured the younger woman. "This is all going to be over very soon now." whipping her head over her shoulder, she looked in the direction of the kitchen. "Arkie, hurry!" she called.

He emerged back into view a moment later, a cup of ice in one hand and a can in the other. Lingering a short distance from the couch as the chaos seemed to go into overdrive, he popped the tab on the beer he'd pilfered from the fridge. If he couldn't escape the ongoing insanity, maybe he could at least take the edge off of it. It had worked for the worst of Sati's mood swings, after all....

No sooner had he taken a drink, however, than the can was slapped away. He blinked stupidly at his now-empty hand, and then found himself eye-to-eye with a glowering foxcoon.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"I was just--"

"If there's one thing I suggest you take seriously in your entire life, its this." she interrupted.

"Yeah, but--"

"I mean, what, do you think this is some sort of joke??" she went on. "Arkie, she's having YOUR baby! I--" She found herself suddenly showered in ice chips as the cup was flung at her.

"LEAVE ME THE ******** ALONE!!"

The words, like they were their own entity, tore out of him before he could even think them. For the last two years, he'd been yelled at, been called names, had things thrown at him, had threats made at him, and more or less been forbidden to do anything except exist. And now, inopportune of a time as it was, that long-stagnant pot was finally boiling over.

"Arkie--"

"NO! Quit yelling at me, just shut the hell up!" His hands went to his head, grasping either ear in sheer frustration and giving them both a yank "I don't wanna DO this anymore!"

Karma gave a strangled, horrified gasp, and for a moment, he felt vindicated. Good. He WANTED her to be upset. It took a moment to realize that her eyes weren't on him, though, and moreso on his hands. Which were now at his sides while still....holding....his ears.

He blinked, the anger deflating out of him as quickly as it had surfaced, and then dared to look down. In either hand, sure enough, he held the floppy bovine ears he'd had since his rebirth. Huh....and here he'd have ventured a guess that pulling your own ears off might HURT or something... As he watched, they seemed to shimmer, dissipating into strands of nether that twinkled out of existence entirely until he held nothing at all.

Puzzled, his hands then returned to his head where rounded, human's ears now perched as if it was their rightful place. He stood stark still, able to do little else for the moment. The shock of going from righteously pissed to the realization he was falling apart had, for perhaps the first time in his loud, hyperactive life, left him speechless.

When she had gotten over the momentary shock of the ear incident, Karma felt badly for him. It hadn't occurred to her that all of this was, most likely, hardest of all on him. He didn't operate on the same wavelength as most everyone else did, after all. To him, it probably very much DID feel like everyone was yelling at him for no reason. She suddenly wished she hadn't slapped his drink away, and under better circumstances, would have gone and fetched another for him herself.

However, there was no time for that now. And there was no stopping what had already been set into motion. They would have to talk later, she decided, as she took him by his upper arm, steering him gently back in Sati's direction.

"C'mon." she said, feeling him put up only a little resistance before following after her to resume the tense vigil at her side.

"Here." Arkie said, still shaking off what had just happened as he took Sayuri's spot near Sati's head. He was dimly aware that as he reached to grasp one of her hands again since that's what he'd been told to do, the membranous green fins on his arms began to fall out, vanishing before they even hit the carpet.

This was like being trapped in some sort of horror movie you couldn't just change the channel on. And there wasn't even the vague hope of seeing some girl running around in her underwear screaming. What was gonna fall off next, he wondered?

As the baby began to crown, Arkie's curiosity got the better of him and he leaned down to see what was going on at Sati's other end, only to recoil quickly. Holy s**t...!

"Don't act like you've never seen her down there before, Arkie..." Karma gently chided, seating herself on the couch, and readying the linens that had not been used to cushion Sati as makeshift swaddling blankets.

"Yeah but it wasn't doing TRICKS before."

As soon as this was over, he was going off someplaec and having a drink. Lots of them.

'I can see the head!' Sayuri called from down at Sati's legs.
'Keep pushing, the baby's almost here!'

Sati had moved position slightly, one set of hands supporting her body as her upper half tilted, her head falling back, teeth gritted as she pushed again. Her fingers balled up the sheets beneath her, knuckles now white as her old skin colour continued to travel across her body, banishing the black skin as it spread.

Luckily for her, she was supporting herself on her upper arms, for as Addie slithered out into Sayuri's waiting hands, her other two arms slowly faded, greying, before going transparent. There was little more than an outline of what they had been to be seen, before that too faded, and she fell back, looking very human, as she'd never been before. The hair fanned out around her head in damp tangles was a deep brown with faint golden highlights, and when she stirred, the eyes that looked blearily around her before closing for a while were also golden once more.

'It's a girl..' Sayuri said, her voice sounding a little choked. She'd cut the cord already and moved carefully over to Karma to hand her the baby so that she could clean and cover her.

The as yet un-named little girl decided to test her lungs for a minute, letting out a cry before looking with her crimson eyes at the big shapes.

Sati bought a hand up, rubbing at her eyes. She stopped, looking at her hand, flexing her fingers. Was this it then? She went to move her other arms, and slowly sat up when she realised they weren't responding. She looked down at her body, biting her lip hard.
'Gods..' she looked at Arkanti, not yet noticing that he'd changed some himself.
'What else is different about me?' she asked him, in no way ready to stand and go to a mirror.

Sati wanted to see the baby, but she was also slightly alarmed by how much of herself had gone with the birth. She had given up so much...and she wasn't even sure if their little girl had a Guardian yet, which was another worry.

Sayuri started to clean up, taking the soiled linens away that Sati wasn't directly resting on, or that were wrapped around the baby. She would have to help her daughter move soon, get her into clean clothes. They would also have to go to the clinic, for a check up for the both of them.