#and then Claggor is born at like nearly 12 pounds

[goddessofroyalty]

I was so intrigued by your Zaun family idea, and I'd love to ask your thoughts on what Silco's pregnancy and birth with Viktor was like. You've already mentioned what Vanco was like with baby Vik, but what about when Silco's body was growing a baby at a young age while they were busy leading a revolution? Obviously Silco isn't the type to let Vander do all the work just cos he's pregnant, but how would their dynamic change during such a high-risk period, esp during the birth itself? Thank you!

So for some reason my brain is really set that Silco gets bad morning sickness with his pregnancies. I don’t really know why seeing there isn’t anything directly about him that would generally be the kind of thing that would indicate it to me. Maybe because it’s kind of funny to picture him being halfway through verbally tearing someone a new one and having to pause while he hurls his guts up before just continuing on.

But I think for the pregnancy itself that was his One Bad Symptom. Yes he did get the general tiredness + aches from the additional weight of a baby on his body but that was all very much in the expected level (at least for his pregnancy with Viktor). So he can just keep doing most things he was doing before and he (possibly unfortunately) learns that being pregnancy seems to magically draw a lot of suspicion off him. So if they need something smuggled past an Enforcer checkpoint or something he always volunteers because what are the Enforcers going to do feel up a pregnant person? Which yes is very stressful to Vander but, hey, it works every time.  

Generally I think it’s like the First Big Trial of their relationship and as such is what really solidifies their trust and how they work together. Because they both step up for it and also because of Narrative Symbology it’s also their period they get their first few Wins (whether that’s successfully setting up their first smuggling operation or stealing some enforcer weapons cache or probably a mix of those kinds of things). So while there’s a lot of stress there’s also a lot of excitement and a lot of realising that yeah they think they can do this.

I think Silco would back and forth a lot throughout the pregnancy between “I’m pregnant not incapable I can do the thing” and “I am pregnant with your stupid child do the thing for me Vander”. With a lot of other factors determining exactly when he’s which that Vander never fully figure out. 

I do talk a bit about Viktor’s birth in the previous post but basically because this is my verse and I like to explore class differences in things like this, Viktor was breach, absolutely should have been a C-section but was not and it generally was not a good time for Silco. Little more under the cut though (tw for traumatic birth stuff). 

Funnily enough though I don’t think Silco was that nervous about the birth before/during the early part of labor - he’s lived a rough life he figures he can handle it and is kind of over the pregnancy generally so will be glad for it to be over. It’s when the midwife advices him that he might want to brace himself because this is probably going to hurt a bit that the panic and the this is how I die is it? kicks in.

I don’t actually think Vander was there for especially Viktor’s birth (father’s being there for the birth is a VERY modern idea (like 1980s modern) and I think it’s maybe maybe starting to come in when Viktor and Jayce are expecting) but I do see Silco getting to a point by possibly Mylo’s birth where he just makes Vander stay with him so Vander can see what he has to do for their kid. But for Viktor’s birth Vander is probably near enough to hear Silco’s screams at it, so he does have some idea that it’s not a good time for Silco. Plus he knows Silco and knows Silco has a pretty high pain tolerance, so the fact that SIlco basically stays lying in bed in shock for two days after also tells him that it wasn’t good. So he takes a lot of the baby-care for the first couple of days (other than feeding obviously) while Silco recovers a little.