Rory's karmic reward (reality shift, pregnancy, WG)

[Junketh71]

Rory Gilmore was feeling despondent. No, rather, she was feeling unsatisfied – and not just in a sexual manner. Oh sure, her love life took a dive now that she was pregnant, for all sorts of reason, but it wasn’t just about her love. Rory Gilmore was feeling unsatisfied with her life in general, period, ever since she and Logan broke up for real.

Oh sure, subconsciously she knew that this was not to last, Logan had Odette, (seriously, what kind of name was that?) while she had Paul, (sort of, but let us assume that she had him; he had less personality than a Wookie, but still), so there was that, but somehow losing Logan proved to be unsatisfying…in all sorts of ways.

…Coming home had made it worse, actually, especially due to Grandpa Richard’s death – he and Rory had never been so close, but somehow lately Rory couldn’t shake the feeling that with his death, not just her, mom and grandma, but the entire town of Star Hollow became orphaned somehow – she just didn’t know how exactly, and that was bothering her for some reason.

Of course, she had more important issues to be bothered about – she and Lorelei have grown distant from each other, as their argument with Rory’s not-yet-written novel about them showed. They were still close, they were still friends as well as family, but Rory had to admit that the two of them have developed different values over the year; poking fun at the other people at the resi-dent swimming pool had been fun, but not the sort of fun Rory would have chosen if given a choice, while Lorelei would. Rory still loved her mom, (even if the latter still acted more like a big sister that Rory never had on occasion), but…

“You know, I think it is time that we had a talk,” Paul called out off to Rory’s side.

There was a pause as Rory blinked and looked to one side, and indeed, there he was, her boyfriend. …There was something wrong with the statement, including the fact that he was not real-ly boyfriend; in fact, given their relationship, Rory could not help but to wonder if she had imagined him out of thin air to compensate whatever inadequacies Logan’s relationship with Odette provoked in her. Right now, though, Paul was fully real and was beckoning her to join him. Considering that Rory simply could not remember him arriving in Star Hollow this was what bothered her for real.

Rory was feeling out of sorts, but neither was she truly looking for a fight, so instead she walked over and sat at the café table of her…potential significant other.
“I don’t remember you getting here,” she said instead of greeting.

“Mmm, it was tricky, but it is worthwhile,” Paul said, looking somewhat insecure himself. “Rory, we need to talk about you.”

It took several tries before Rory could honestly reply to this statement. “…Paul,” she finally was able to control her voice and make it do what she wanted. “Yeah, Logan is with Odette, and Jess…I like him, I really do, I just also feel that me going out with him and – everything is just slightly too similar with what my mother has with Luke, in a creepy sort of way. Yes, we’ve been also going out, you and I, but I’m not sure where we were going either-“

“You misunderstand me,” Paul did not sound disappointed, more like something else. “I came here to talk to you about your family – and your town.”

Rory took a deep breath and prepared herself to tell Paul that their relationship actually was not of the sort where she discussed her family or Star Hollow with him, (which was actually somewhat sad), when something in her brain just flipped and she had an epiphany – several of them, in fact. One was that the man sitting across from her wasn’t her boyfriend, second was that her relationship with Logan was much more intense than what she remembered, third was that the man sitting across from her somehow didn’t look fully human-

“Here,” a glass of… something was thrust into her unresisting hand and Rory just gulped it down.

“What was it?” she asked once she got her voice to do what she wanted again.

“A family recipe of Ms. Kim the elder, Lane’s mum,” Paul/not Paul said brightly. “Sorry about this, I’m not very good at this sort of thing yet-“

“What are you? An alien of some sort?” Rory asked.

“I, mademoiselle, am a rakshasa!” Paul/not Paul said grandly.

“Is it like a guardian angel sort of thing?”

“…More like the other kind of guy,” Paul/not Paul winced. “Sorry? In addition – can we go now? I need to show you something, really.”

“What in the name of h-e-double-sticks is going on?” Rory said flatly even as the two got up and walked away, looking almost like a young adult couple in love or – something like that. “You don’t come across like a good tempter or seducer, or even a demon lover-“

“I told you, I am a rakshasa!” Paul said huffily, “and you wouldn’t like meeting any actual demons, BTW. They are firstly about chaos and random sinful destruction, and this is so not your thing. Me and the rest of us? We would rather work with humans than have them work for us in exchange for no credit whatsoever.”

“And what would have me do?” Rory spoke archly as they approached the family grounds of the Gilmore family – with Richard gone and Emily leaving to live in Nantucket soon the home appeared to be rather abandoned now. “Isn’t it all about the soul?”

“No,” Paul rolled his eyes as he made a gesture and revealed a secret passageway of all things. “It’s more about your humanity, I would say.”

Rory blinked – she did not see too many secret passageways before but still followed him. This particular secret passageway had led them to a secret chamber, (duh), that actually looked…kind of homey. “Okay, how does this work?” Rory muttered as her not-boyfriend led her to the table in the middle of the secret room, where a large, old-fashioned thick volume of a writing journal was located. “I need to do what? Or rather – you want me to do what?”

“First take a look,” Paul muttered wryly and Rory complied. The journal was old, even worn with time; some things had been written in it, but time has diluted and worn down the ink into being indistinct and impossible to read. The name on the title page of the journal, however, was still legible – it was of Rory’s grandfather, Richard.

Feeling almost physically stung, Rory shifted back to face Paul – and saw that he now didn’t even look very human, more like some sort of a furry humanoid. “It’s not how it looks!” he spoke quickly, sounding actually nervous, as he was the scared party. “You actually have a choice!”

“Keep talking,” Rory grated, feeling as if she was Paris at her worst.

“A long, long time ago the first ancestor of the Gilmore family acquired this book; he made a deal – he and his family will owe Star Hollow, the whole nine yards, and in exchange he and his descendants will become the town’s genius loci instead!”

“Excuse me? Grandpa Richard was smart; I am smart, but we’re no geniuses!” Rory disagreed.

“Not a ‘genius’ genius, more like a genie, a spirit of the place,” Paul exhaled. “Basically, it works like a variant power sink. People move into Star Hollow and here they and their families remain, like forever. This includes the Gilmores, but the Gilmores – well, the head of the Gilmore family in question – can sort of impose their view of the world over Star Hollow and its’ inhabitants; for example, your grandfather was a rather old-fashioned Republican, and-“

“I got it,” Rory snapped. “It’s crazy and insane, but let’s say that I believe you. Now what? You want me to write my name and sell-“

“I want you to make a choice,” Paul looked Rory right in the eye. “The truth is that someone has to write their name down, or the deal is over, and Star Hollow will transform, in a matter of generations, to an ordinary New England town. Your grandmother and mother are out of the question – they are finally living the lives that they want, so it’s your call.”

“…What do you mean about mom and grandma?” Roy felt like clarifying things.

“Essentially? Each one got what the other one wanted. Lorelei is actually quite happy being a wife and a mother, even if she and Luke are bourgeois rather than aristocracy, but the thing is that Emily was not quite happy in the same position. Yes, she was trained, raised and taught to be a wife and a mother, but the thing is that you cannot defeat biology, and somewhere in her brain, your grandma would rather be with a woman instead.”

“You don’t make any sense!” Rory snapped. “Grandma Emily loved grandpa-“

“She did,” Paul shrugged. “But you cannot beat biology. All those women on your family staff, you know?”

Rory blinked as some sort of a realization did appear: Emily Gilmore was a good woman, even if sometimes she was unpleasant, but… But the turnover for the staff at the Gilmores’ family mansion was high, and while most of the men stayed there for the duration and usually retired from old age, the women didn’t – they got dismissed quite quickly, not fired and with good references, but still…

“Grandma Emily has some real issues with women, especially those who aren’t related to her and – stuff,” Rory muttered mostly to herself.

“Yup, one’s kink can be denied, but it isn’t much fun,” Paul nodded, “but this has nothing to do with the book or your family’s situation…and everyone else’s. The people of Star Hollow unconsciously follow a Gilmore’s lead as they always did. Without you – well, any Gilmore, really, or any other – they will recover, in time, but it’s all about you.”

“Right,” Rory muttered. “If this is a salespitch, then I used to hearing better ones from my friends in Yale. What’s with the writing in the book itself?”

“It’s its’ ‘other’ power,” Paul spoke with some reluctance, that somehow seemed fake to Rory, (and apparently she was not as good a judge of character as she used to think). “Whatever you write in it will come true – think the magical computer from Stephen King’s short stories…”

“Oh,” Rory nodded wisely, (with all the weirdness in her life, why not an almost cameo Mr. King?). “Got it.” And she wrote down: Everyone gets his or her karmic reward instead- and the world changed.

In particular, Rory found herself standing in a room, dressed in clothes that just had to be fore-play – short skirt, long socks, a blouse that was more symbolic than anything else, and – pregnant. Okay, she used to be pregnant…that is, she was pregnant before, but now she was further into her pregnancy and feeling it. The baby’s kicks felt good, but they also hit her bladder; she realized that she needed to pee rather than to feel sexy and the mood swing kicked in, and she started to cry-

“Hey, hey Ace,” her husband carefully lifted her up. “No tears, okay? Everything is fine-“

“I just wanted to surprise you! I just wanted to show you that I am still spontaneous!” Rory wailed.

“You are!” Rory was silenced with a kiss, which was very nice, and carried to the bathroom – she could do it by herself, of course, the baby was still fairly small, and this was also somewhat nice, so she did not protest. “It’s just that you need to make peace with your mom too-“

“I will! I don’t know if we really fought, or if it was just a stupid mood swing,” Rory muttered as she sat on the porcelain throne… “Logan! Close the door!”

Logan grinned and closed it. Then he waited. Then he waited some more. Finally, the water flushed. Then he waited some more. Then it flushed again. Then he waited some more, and finally Rory emerged from it looking flushed. “I didn’t even have a big breakfast!” she wailed. “Where did all of the – this liquid come from?”

Logan opened his mouth, changed his mouth and just kissed his spouse again – this time on the cheek. “Is mom here already?” Rory muttered. “Let’s go and make peace.”

“Aren’t you going to change? The rest of your family – except for Lane – are here-”

“Logan, who are my parents and grandparents? Do we even do sane?”

“No,” Logan admitted, “and you do-“

Before he could finish Rory realized that she needed to go – either downstairs or back into the washroom. She did not really want to pee so she steeled her backbone and went downstairs.

“Oh, there you are!” Lorelei said brightly as Rory stomped downstairs, feeling ridiculous (and not caring). “Nice skirt.”

Rory shot her mother a look. In this reality, the junk food habits had caught up with Lorelei at last. She was noticeably overweight with long, dark hair, an oval face and chubby cheeks that merged at the neck leaving behind only a faint trace of the jaw line. Her shoulders were bulky, her breasts – ponderous, and her stomach noticeably sagged over her pants – well, it tried to. So far, the pants were restraining it. Even her arms were flat and flabby, while her legs were noticeably massive.

“Mom!” Rory said faux-brightly. “How are you? Sorry about the fight-“

“Dear, stop,” Lorelei moved across with noticeably less grace and energy than she did in – the old timeline or whenever. “Your father has explained everything – he talked you in trying to scare me straight-“

“Mom, you and junk food have this relationship, but-“

“I know, I know, at my age I need to change my priorities,” Lorelei exhaled, and her entire body shook. “Maybe I shall. Your father did take me to the doctor, and apparently my organs aren’t what they used to-“

“Mom, don’t, it was just a stupid fight; I mean, I would like the little bundle of joy to meet you too, and-“ Rory felt tearing up and her body refused to be controlled by her brain-

“Oh, dear,” Lorelei just hugged her. “I remember when I was pregnant, I was the same way. Your father,” she shot a glance at Luke, who was just standing there, looking sheepish, and slapped him – well, pretended to. “Thought it was a good idea for you to scare me straight. May-be it is,” she looked down. Even pregnant, Rory noticed, she was skinnier than her mother was, quite a bit. “Maybe it worked.”

“Mom,” Rory felt no control over body, she hurt, especially in the – chest, and teared up. “Don’t-“

“Don’t you worry,” Lorelei flicked some moisture from her own eye, “it all will be okay. Mind you, before we decide anything regarding me, maybe we should get your grandparents into the mix.”

“Grandparents?” Rory frowned. Her new memories told her that there was something fishy about them-

“Yeah – Mrs. and Ms. Kim. At least Emily allows us to call her by her first name-“

It was a good idea that Rory was pregnant – more pregnant than before – right now, because she sort of froze here, revelation of Paul’s aside, (did he even exist?), about her grandma’s relation-ship with the female portion of their old staff – yes, most of them were P.O.C., and, um, Mrs. Kim, for all of her adherence to the ‘old family values’ never seemed to have a husband in tow – right. “And the disclaimer is because?” she asked Logan instead, sharper than she intended.

“He’s just trying to keep the heat of Luke,” Lorelei said, as she ruffled Luke’s hair, again. “Now let’s go – and maybe we’ll hear more of Lane’s great adventures, though for some reason I thought that you’d be the adventurous one.”

Rory just shrugged, eyeing the family photos: yes, some of them featured her grandparents engaged in political activism when they were younger, others included her, and Lorelei, and Lane, and yes, Lane had some Caucasian blood in her, while she and Lorelei had Korean, her mother more so. This was shaping up to be a weird world; but on the other hand, this was her karmic re-ward, so she left with her family.

End

PS: And then they returned and Logan took her upstairs to change – she did not currently wear anything that was appropriate for the public.

PPC: And when they left again, Rory did notice Paul standing in a distance, giving her a thumbs-up with one hand, and hold a very disgruntled Odette with another – and Odette had dark wings… but that was clearly another story.

[Matt L.]

Well done, very enjoyable.

Cheers, Matt

[Junketh71]

Thank you!