The Hospital

OOC: wow time totally passes so that we don't have to write childbirth hahahahha WOW THE BABIES ARE BORN NOW

BIC: Twins. Twins. Holy f#cking shit, twins. Unexpected, but great. Definitely good. Cynder loved them already, and she hadn't even seen them yet. There had been a scare when the mortal nurses had tried to take Cynder's body temperature, which would have resulted in a horrible panic, but the doctor had sent them away and sent for another doctor who was in the ER to replace them, a Martha something. Apparently also a demigod, or maybe just a mortal who knew the secret. In any case, there had been another frightening moment when the doctor (she couldn't remember which one) had thought that the first baby was stillborn because of its cold temperature. They'd both turned out that way -- it was probably the reason that they had actually been able to survive in a cold womb.
One of the doctors handed the female child, the firstborn, who was wrapped loosely in a small blanket, to Cynder, and the other doctor held the second, the male, out to Lee.
The babies were, of course, slightly gross-looking and pink and, again, gross, but they looked incredibly beautiful and precious to their mother.

The pure, simple happiness of being a new mother pushed away all the fears that had been plaguing Cynder's mind since the day they found out she was pregnant. Namely the question of how they would keep their children safe at camp with it being such a violent place. That didn't matter right now. What mattered was that she and Lee had two beautiful children. Cynder turned her head to look at Lee, who was still holding their son, Cole. He was smiling even more than Cynder was, which was a feat in and of itself.

Dr. Jones decided that it was a good idea to leave the new parents alone for a minute or two with their children, and conveyed this idea to Dr. What. She opened the door, not expecting at all for anyone to be standing precisely outside it. A tall, severe-looking woman with sharp features, and the most agonizingly piercing gaze she had ever been unfortunate enough to meet. "Can I help you?" she managed, barely keeping her cool.
"Yes, I'd like to visit the inma- ah, patient. And company." She smiled, revealing even teeth. "Do not deny me."
The woman was either a goddess or a monster. It was hard to tell. Dr. Jones stepped back a little so everyone inside the room could see the woman clearly enough. "Do any of you know this person?"

Oh, a mother. Goddess, then? Dr. Jones grabbed Dr. What by the arm and dragged him out of there. They did not want to be involved in whatever was about to go down.

Cynder blinked in surprise, and her entire body went tense. The arrival of Lee's mother was completely unexpected, though she supposed that it was infinitely better than her own godly parent deciding to pay a visit...

Odyne continued smiling and stepped into the room, then close enough to reach out and snatch Cole from Lee or Ashton from Cynder if she so desired. However, she was feeling nice today, and since she only wanted to look at the babies, not snatch them, she held her arms out to her son in a give me that thing you're holding gesture, expression expectant.

Odyne put a hand over her heart in mock offense. "What, you don't trust me?"

Not in the least, Cynder thought, but said nothing. If she pissed Odyne off, it would definitely lead to trouble, and she didn't want any of that at the moment. So she just held Ashton close, and tried to keep her raging suspicions from showing on her face.

The goddess looked from her son to his wife, and knew full well what she was thinking. She looked back to Lee, and decided that there wasn't much harm in giving the oath, since she had no ill intentions... for the moment. "I swear, on the river Styx, that I will not harm your children."

Odyne squinted at the pinkish creature she now held in her hands. "I remember when you looked like this," she mused, and considered holding the baby upside down for a second. No, that was a bad idea. It might even violate the oath she just made. Hmph. She held the baby back out to Lee, and her gaze moved the the baby girl. She wanted to hold that one, too. Assuming Lee was holding on to the baby now, she let go and reached out for the other twin.

Cynder didn't feel so great about handing her daughter over to Odyne, but, again, it would be very bad to make her angry. So she let the admittedly frightening goddess hold Ashton. Only for a minute or so, she told herself. She wouldn't permit her daughter to be out of the arms of one of her parents for long.

"I like this one more," Odyne declared, and grinned at the baby girl. This one was more like her. She handed the baby back to Lee's wife, whose name escaped her, and then decided to impart a bit of wisdom upon the happy couple. "Neither of them will live very long as-is, you know."

"Sure you can," Odyne rolled her eyes. "Your wife hasn't fought in at least, what, nine months? She'll be so far out of practice, it'll take months to get back to where she was. Do you think you can fight off everything by yourself until then, with all the enemies you have?"

Cynder didn't like this conversation, and her distaste for the way it was turning out was showing. She didn't want to admit that she was highly out of practice, but Lee was still strong enough to keep the family safe until she got back into the swing of things, right? And that shouldn't take too long if she worked hard...

"My points is that the two of you obviously need some help. And, luckily, Hebe happens to owe yours truly a favor. Since I'd rather not see the first grandchildren I've had in centuries be mangled horribly, I thought I'd do something nice.

Wait... Hebe? Goddess of youth? What was Odyne getting at here? "What do you mean, precisely?" she asked rather cautiously.

"Was I talking to you? Anyways, I figured I'd have her make the kids grow up a little faster. You know, so they can hold a sword and fight for themselves a bit earlier than normal, not be such a liability. You can thank me later." With that, the goddess turned to walk back out the way she'd come.

Odyne stopped and looked back. "Oh, hmm... I suppose you have two months before they're somewhere around nine. The acceleration will stop around then." And with that, she was out the door and gone.

Cynder let out a very un-Cynderlike squeak. TWO MONTHS?! They'd be growing so fast! The baby clothes and supplies they'd prepared would barely last a week, if that. And, and they'd need to learn quickly, be constantly taught how to speak and which colors were which and how not to impale themselves on sharp objects. Holy f#cking shit, this was going to be... challenging, to say the least.

The Doctor had taken a moment to work out sone calculations. He had to figure out how fast these babies would be growing to proceed any further. He worked it out to be 9 years in 2 months, 4.5 years a month, 1.125 years a week... The babies would be able to leave the hospital before Cynder had even recuperated from giving birth. Hades, they might not even have to be incubated. Then, Doctor What looked at the babies and realized the growing must not have started yet. With a sigh, he stood up to address Cynder and husband. "Look, these kids are going to grow crazy fast, but it doesn't look like it's all going to start until tomorrow, as they haven't had any perceivable changes yet. Now, I would recommend you stay in the infirmary at camp; they could get sick, and if they get sick, it could detriment years of their development. It'll be the same eith them getting hurt; I don't know how the magic applies, so you have to be careful. They're growing at a rate of about a year a week, or a little less than two months a day. They cannot be without their parents for more than an hour. And I mean both of you. They coukd think of you being gone for half their childhood if you run to town to get then clothes... which will be useless. You might as well not even bother getting then clothes, as they'll grow out of them almost immediately. I recommend you have someone bring you whatever you need so that you are not out of their sight. " The doctor finally finished, and sat down. That was a lot to say, and it was nothing that either of his training times- Camp or mortal- had prepared him for.

Lee had absolutely no idea how to respond. Two months every day? They woukd eat a meal and be a week older in the time it took them to chew a bite. They'd probably crawl, run,  and walk on the same day. Lee would have to train them in how to punch whike their arms were extending before their eyes. They'd wake up from a night's rest and be a month older. It was... ridiculous.

Doctor What had waited a proper amount oftime, he presuned, so he cleared his throat and said "We need to take the babies to the ICU until they start growing tomorrow."

Lee looked over at The Doctor and frowned. He didn't want to give up his baby, but he figured it was necessary. He gave Coke a little kiss on the forehead and stood up, holding out his son to the doctor. The other Doctor, Dr. Jones, came in and walked over to Cynder. Lee went bacj over to Cynder as well. He thought about the implications of havingbRaf help them. Hopefully it didn't make Cole and Ashton think fondly of him...