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Something widely known among the redstoners of Hermitcraft was that Etho was not solely an enderian.
Sure, it looked like one, acted like one, and sounded like one, but it was a breezeborn at its core.
What that means is that Etho was a construct of a sort, driven by cold magic and drawn to everything chilly. Etho would rather go far north as to live with emperor penguins than live anywhere else.
Still, it must persist in the mild heat of mid spring while wrapped in a thick cold insulating jacket. It had designed it itself, keeping them cool even in the dead of summer.
So, Etho's mechanical, what's the issue? Well…
"I want to have a baby." Beef says late one evening as they look up at the stars. "I have for a while, but I was deciding whether it'd be with you or xB."
Etho is silent for what feels like far too long, simply staring at its husband as he plays with a ring around his finger.
"Etho?" Beef asks. "Do you need a reset?"
Again, Etho is quiet, nothing but a near silent whir of the mechanisms inside of it.
"Do I need to rephrase or—"
"Oh… oh…" Etho finally says as its thoughts unblanks. "Oh, snappers."
Beef sighs, shifting awkwardly where he sits.
"Why me?" It asks just a bit too urgently.
"Because we've been married almost a decade now?" Beef laughs, still playing with the ring around his finger.
Etho stares on again for a moment, as one thought after another wars within its head.
"Is this a no or…" Beef eyes dart about its frozen face for a moment.
"How?" Etho's tone presses on desperation and confusion.
"I assumed we would adopt, actually." Beef shrugs. "Unless your artificial organs can work like an actual womb?"
"Oh, right…" Etho murmurs. "I think I'm banned from doing that after helping some pig guy burn down an orphanage."
"You what?" Beef nearly shouts.
— ❁ - ❁ - ❁ —
So the obvious answer, the one that would have cost money and months of time but been worth it in the end, was apparently out of the question. Looking into it, Etho wasn't even allowed to foster for fear of being a harmful adult. So option two, the one that would be hard and take gods know how long, was now the main and only choice.
Etho collects Doc and Tango one afternoon on the Hermit Hub while Beef sits at the bar not too far away.
He's listening into the conversation even as the trio sits in a booth far to one side and Etho probably knows… probably…
"So… mind telling us what you've brought us here for, big guy." Tango asks after taking a sip from his beer.
Etho's sleek tail swishes, it'd been planning over its words again and again, scripting them out as best it could.
"Beef and I want to have a child of our own." Etho explains smoothly. "I would be the one having the baby if my false organs are physically able to carry one."
Etho looks up from its paws to see Doc and Tango staring at it. Tango's mouth is slightly ajar and Doc soon falls into snickering.
Tango joins moments later, giggling as he sits there.
"Please don't laugh at me." Etho says pathetically.
"I'm sorry, but a glorified robot is asking me if they can get pregnant." Doc says between laughter.
"You're not being serious, right?" Tango asks, still laughing.
"Why would I be joking about this?" Etho sounds truly indignant as it asks. "It's what Beef wants after all."
"Aw, that's adorable." Tango cooes, although his laughing has started to settle down.
Despite the netherborn calming down, Doc continues to laugh.
"Sorry, it's just that you reminded me of something Ren said in season six." Doc explains with fondness.
"Which is?" Etho asks curiously.
"Nothing important, probably." Tango says with a laugh. "Probably something stupid."
"He asked me if he could get pregnant. " Doc explains with a shrug. "For him, it'd be too complicated. Oragan transplant, fighting code, things like that. For you, well…"
The chimera looks Etho up then down before nodding.
"If I can take a look at what we're dealing with, I might be able to figure out if you can." Doc says as he finally calms down. "May I look at your internals?"
Etho sighs but nods, watching as Doc gets up from his side of the booth and comes around to its.
The panel that makes up its front — something made out of a squishy material that mimics skin and fat — is popped open by the seam in its side.
Doc hmms and hahs as he messes with Etho's false organs, making the breezeborn flush a vibrant verdigris color as it sits there. The organs themselves are the same color and translucent alongside it, you'd be able to see its body pumping fake blood around itself.
"I don't see… huh…" Doc pauses, his eyebrows scrunching up as he does.
"What's missing, Doc?" Etho asks with a tilted head.
"You have an opening here, but it leads to nothing." Doc explains. "Which means you can't currently bear. It's possible your model was made with it as an additional function rather than a primary one."
Doc leans back, pinching a hand through his goat-like beard as he does.
"It's an easy fix, I can order a uterus to place into you so you can hold the pregnancy, but then comes the next issue." He goes on.
"Which is?" Etho asks.
"Breezeborn only have a uterus, no ovaries or fallopian tubes." Doc shrugs. "Which, in plain terms, means they're infertile but able to act as a host for pregnancies. Glorified surrogates.
"You'd have to need a donor egg to have a kid, like what me and Ren did." Doc says as he stands.
"Wait, you used a donor?" Tango asks as he speaks up.
"My genes are incompatible with life and cause errors when the splicing phase hits." Doc sighs as he sits down. "Cywren will likely be my only biological child.
"Anyways, why don't we call Beef over and tell him everything?" Doc says before taking a sip from his drink.
Heavy hooves clack against the stone floor before Etho turns its head to see its husband.
"Already here." Beef says with a smile.
"Just the guy we wanted to see!" Tango cheers.
Beef ducks his head in mild embarrassment as if the cheering would attract a crowd even when the bar is empty.
Before Doc has a chance to make a sound from his open mouth, Beef is speaking.
"I caught most of it." He tells them. "Etho needs a transplant of sorts and we'd need to go to a donor bank to have an egg."
"Let me worry about ordering everything." Doc tells them in reassurance. "The uterus, the egg, everything."
"Are you sure?" Etho asks.
"Working on Cywren taught me a thing or two about IVF and storing eggs." Doc says with a nod.
Etho doesn't question it, simply shrugging along as it looks up at the confused face of its husband. Beef looks on before sighing and shaking his head as he smiles.
"Never explain your ways, Doc." Tango laughs.
— ❁ - ❁ - ❁ —
It's a few weeks later when calls then back to work on Etho. He's quiet, focused on he concentrates on what comes down to a messy game of Operation.
The new organ settles in place and Etho is given a month before it cat get inseminated. In the meantime, Etho can't have sex with anyone and must rest.
It is a bold move to tell any hermit to rest, honestly. Stubborn workers never take a moment to themselves. This being said, Etho takes it relatively well… relatively…
Oh, who is it kidding. Beef and Bdubs have to keep Etho occupied as its base as to not face Doc's wrath.
In the end, it does make it through that first month of having a new organ.
Now, the insemination part? That's easy. Etho just has to stay still on a table with its legs up as Doc sticks something up its entrance.
It's uncomfortable, but luckily not painful.
Which just leaves a few more months of waiting… great…
— ❁ - ❁ - ❁ —
A few months have passed when Etho starts to notice a change. The clothes it'd made for itself and worn for nearly two decades are starting to not fit. Or at least the belt and pants are feeling tight.
That's weird…
When if goes to Beef with the complaint, the ravager-minotaur smiles brightly before tugging him into standing in front of him as he sits on the couch.
Large hands are on the little, growing bump. They're uncomfortably warm to the ice based construct, making it want to squirm, but Etho manages to stay still for its husband.
He's staring so lovingly up at it with warm, sapphire eyes as a smile touches his lips.
Beef leans in closer, kissing the cold panel where his nose swishes into it.
It's warm, too warm, and Etho starts to shift uncomfortably under the affection.
"Too warm!" Etho complains as it shifts from one paw to the other.
"Me holding you is too warm?" Beef asks with a laugh.
"You're hands are too big and warm." Etho adds on in complaint.
"You usually like that." Beef pouts.
"Just let me go already." Etho grumbles.
"Alright." Beef sighs as he takes his hands away, but those eyes of sapphire still look it over like he's ready to feast.
From there, Etho wordlessly flops down onto the couch and puts its head in Beef's lap. After a moment, its husband starts playing with its hair, tugging it gently as he runs his fingers through.
Etho doesn't even realize it's falling into sleep, simply that it is and that it feels rather welcoming in a moment like this.
— ❁ - ❁ - ❁ —
The next few big milestones go off without a hitch as the middle section that make up Etho's belly starts to distend further.
Thinking about it, shouldn't it be bigger for this far in? Martyn is certainly way bigger than it already, but it is also enough of a dryad to have a shortened pregnancy.
Etho quietly wishes it'd gone based on nature spirit pregnancy instead of a human one. Six months over nine any day.
Especially since what the little rascal — or 'spicy meatball' as Beef has come to call them — has been up to.
Kicking and kicking and kicking. Sure, Etho doesn't usually notice it as the placenta cushions most of the kicks in its front, but the ones that manage to land on its organs? Awful.
Luckily for Etho, those are few and far between and have rarely happened. Sadly for Beef, it can't feel the baby at all.
There's a sort of sadness and pity that course through Etho at seeing its husband not be able to join it, but on the other hand it means Etho gets to hold this all over Beef's head.
Either way, Etho's nine months will be up soon and it will be carved open by Doc to see if all the work was worth it. Hopefully it will be.
— ❁ - ❁ - ❁ —
Etho wakes up in the middle of the night to a jolt in its side. It feels like a malfunction with its pain receptors, nerve-like things all along its false skin.
Beef is behind it in bed, having begged to stay in the same server as the season came to a close. So they were on Beef's farm in a far corner of the Hermit Hub. It isn't too far away, but exists in a place between the old hub from before season five and the new one from season six and onwards.
If Etho was right, they were working on a new area, something affectionately called 'The Suburbs' as it would be—
There it is again! A harsh zap against Etho's middle as its body clenches down around something.
The already pale construct is white as a ghost as it sits up in bed. A splayed hand goes over its teeny, tiny bump and presses down to earn the same placidity as always.
It flops back onto its back before turning to Beef.
He's still asleep, as peaceful as ever. Heavy, but gentle breaths spread his chests before making them fall again.
Seeing its husband sleep so nicely helps Etho calm down. It lulls itself back into sleep—
For a third time, its body clenches down around its belly and makes it wince.
When it sits up, a pool of gathers under. It's chilly, like frozen water. Was Etho melting? Had its fear finally been found out?
Etho leans over, shaking Beef awake who grunts and grumbles and groans as he's forced to open his eyes.
"Etho?" Beef mumbles.
"Something's wrong." Etho says as it shakes him. "Something's so, so wrong."
"What do you mean?" Beef asks as he sits up.
Etho can't say anything, simply looking at Beef with wide, terrified eyes as its breathing turns sharp.
"What happened, Etho." Beef tries to get through to it and take its hand to squeeze it.
"Pain." Etho's throat feels like its strangling itself. "Melting?"
"Melting?" Beef echoes in question.
Etho nods its head with wide open eyes.
"Do you want me to call someone?" Beef's voice is gentle yet worried.
Once again unable to speak, Etho nods its head quickly.
Beef fumbles for his comm in the dark before taking it and dialing someone.
Etho can't move and yet can't stand still, it crawls out of bed, paces to a corner of the room, and stands their swaying as Beef goes on with his call.
It's then that he notices the spot of wetness of the bed, settling his hand down into it just to feel how cold it is.
"Hi, Doc." Beef greets. "Yeah, sorry it's late, but Etho has a problem.
"It says it's in pain and is leaking something like water, but it looks a little pink to me." Beef goes on before pausing to hear the other side. After some sound om the other line, Beef looks over to where Etho is sway. "Etho, where's the pain at?"
Etho draws up one hand and pulls it across its belly with a soft tremble as another jolt passes through it.
"It's around its belly." Beef replies to Doc. "I don't think I can ask Etho that, it's too scared to speak.
"Okay, alright." Beef nods despite being in call. "I'll get ready then."
Beef throws his feet over the bedside, drawing Etho's attention as the ravager hybrid walks over to it.
"Doc said he might know what's wrong." Beef says with a smile. "He might be able to fix it."
Etho sighs before Beef settles a hand on its back, slowly guiding it out of the room and down the hall.
Doc is over to Beef's house in the span of only ten minutes. He has a small duffel bag with him that he sets onto the couch without another thought.
"So you said you knew what's going on with Etho?" Beef asks as he directs the still not talking breezeborn onto the couch.
The chimera is digging through his bag, taking out a set of surgical tools as he does.
"It's simple, Etho is in labor." Doc explains.
Etho freezes up even further somehow.
"Labor?" Beef echoes. "So the little guy has to be delivered now?"
"Mhm." Doc hums plainly before sitting up. "I would have preferred to do this in the safety of my lab, but I think the baby has other plans."
Doc turns from Beef to Etho, as solid as a statue and frozen beyond belief.
"Beef, can you help it onto the recliner? I'll clean up the mess after I'm done." Doc's voice softens, becoming quieter than it had before.
"Oh, yeah." Beef gently takes Etho, moving it slowly until it is laying down in the end seat of the couch.
Doc is over it after a moment,but Beef is at its head and kissing Etho's forehead softly.
Etho doesn't look down, but it can feel the poking and prodding as Doc works on opening its middle from a panel that creates a seam at its side.
Its opened completely. Squishy, false organs on display as Doc makes an incision into its makeshift womb.
After a moment, something that was not yet alive breathes air for the first time. Something that was not yet alive cries as it is rubbed down with a cloth. Something not yet alive becomes alive.
And through it all Etho is scared and frozen. It looks to Beef to see his reaction, to see how he feels, and he's grinning from ear to ear.
"That's a good sound, right?" Beef asks softly.
"Very good sound." Doc answers. "Do you want to hold—"
"Of course I do." Beef answers before Doc is even finished.
There's something so very alive and squirming passed over Etho as it stares on. As Doc gets to work stitching it back up, Beef looks about ready to cry.
"Look at him, Etho." Beef laughs as he lowers the bundle down to where it can see them. "Look at our meatball. He looks like you."
So the egg donor was a farlands enderian then… interesting.
There are white little curls of downy feather-like fluff in symmetrical patches on their body. Their skin is light but not pale. Peering eyes are light blue in color.
They barely look like the ravager hybrid at all.
"Do you want to hold him?" Beef asks.
"I want to pass out." Etho says as it temporarily breaks through its frozen state.
"Can it?" Beef asks Doc as he puts the last stitch in.
"I don't see why not." Doc replies as he clicks the front panel back into place.
Beef kisses its forehead again. "Rest well, alright?"
Etho doesn't reply, letting its eyes fall closed and fake lungs take in air. It doesn't take too long for the breezeborn to drift off to sleep.
— ❁ - ❁ - ❁ —
Etho doesn't settle for a week, panic leaving it frozen in a way it can't fully understand.
Beef, on the other hand, is far above the moon as he clutches onto the baby. Or, well, he goes from being over the moon to nervous for Etho to happily chugging along again.
No one visits for that week, safe for Xisuma and Keralis, both of who greet the baby in the same bittersweet way they always do.
(Etho wonders if they'll ever truly be happy when meeting new Hermit babies.)
"What's their name again." Xisuma ask as Keralis holds Etho and Beef's son.
"Um…" Etho and Beef share a desperate look before looking around the room as they hmm and ha.
It looks from one household object to another before finally announcing. "Liter."
"Liter?" Goes around in an echo.
"Yes, Liter." Etho nods just a bit too confidently.
"Liter, alright…" Xisuma echoes. "I don't see the problem with that."
Keralis doesn't give further reaction or word, simply giving the baby now named Liter back to his parents once Xisuma and him decide to leave.
"Liter? Seriously?" Beef yells in a whisper after the door is closed.
"He's liter sized." Etho shrugs.
"Okay, I can't fight with that." Beef sighs.