woah

So this was a cryptic pregnancy, AKA she did not know she was pregnant until... I'm gonna say she actually didn't know until she was already in labor.😭 She experienced few symptoms and, due to the way her body is built, barely even had a baby bump. (Most of the baby was hidden inside her, instead of growing outwards like most pregnant bellies.)

For what little symptoms she did experience: nauseoua, headaches, and occasionally being in a bitchy mood for seemingly no reason. As well as "food" cravings for a variety of different metals.

She wasn't completely unaware of these symptoms being abnormal; however, the last thing she thought it could be was pregnancy -- she actually thought it was build up for some kind of transformation that Mekhane wanted her to have. (Specifically due to the weird cravings.)

(Also, she did not have sex any time at all in the months leading up to it. In any other world, this would be grounds to immediately throw out a pregnancy diagnosis (as Roberta did). However, due to the fact that Mekhane wants to make more pieces of herself, she built this mechanism inside Roberta to have the capabilities of pregnancy, without the necessity of having sex. AKA, Roberta was in the same bed with Lovataar, and that was literally enough to get her pregnant.)

Ezekiel was the first to notice something was different, potentially even hearing the baby the moment it was conceived. But when he tried to subtly ask about it, Roberta genuinely had zero clue what he was talking about, and seeing as how she had very little symptoms in the first place, he didn't try to intervene again.

Lovataar was the next person to notice after Roberta snapped at her for seemingly no reason. It's extremely out of character for her to do that (unless you're Ion), so she started keeping tabs on whatever other symptoms she showed. Since there weren't many, she had a wide variety of potential reasons. When she tried to bring her list to Roberta though, she threw it out the moment Lova said the word "pregnant".

Then came the day when she went into labor... I still haven't decided where, exactly, this happened, but I know that I want both Ezekiel and Lova to be there. Roberta, in the middle of whatever she's doing at whatever place, realizes that she's suddenly feeling very strange (and almost in pain). She thinks "oh no, I'm having my glorious holy transformation right now??? In front of everyone???" And so quickly excuses herself to go hide in a closet somewhere, thinking that it can't be worse than her initial transformation from the ichor.

Ezekiel follows her shortly after, because even though he hasn't touched the subject further, he was still very worried. Thus, Ezekiel was the first one to find her going to into labor.

... And he damn near faints once he realizes what's happening, because he might've done a lot of strange things as an engineer, but delivering a baby is not one of them.