[EVENT] Summer Sniffles

[Arcane]

An illness is spreading through the Fort Weyr dragons. Some merely have fevers and lethargy but others...others are making the most horrific sneezing sounds I've ever heard and leaving snot everywhere. I haven't slept a wink since this started! What if humans start catching it next?

[Dragon]

Salle winced at the sound of Geth's sneeze; they'd been dealing with some truly nasty snot. They were particularly miserable, and Issalle had dragged a dragonhealer in to see them since the sneezing seemed to be the worst of whatever was going around. She wasn't really worried about catching it herself, but she was quite worried about Geth.

This one will be fine, Geth interjected wearily. This dragon just needs to rest.

[Windra]

E'lis was at least keen to wrap a shawl around his face. That wasn't going to do much for his hands ... But Pern had not invented rubber gloves. He was not about to use his riding gloves when dealing with Plemeth's ugly snot bubbles. Several handkerchiefs formed a pile in his weyr. He scooped them into a knapsack and sauntered his way down the hall while Plemeth sneezed horrendously behind him.

He came back with a fresh pile of scrap cloth, heaving a sigh. "Don't know if we're gonna get it too. We already got somethin' like it, don't we? But Faranth I cannot keep up with them boogers." E'lis opened the door to his weyr and was immediately blown back by a hocked loogie.

S-so sorry E'lis I j-just can - ha - haa hhaaAAAAA - !

"Nope!" E'lis slammed shut the door. It rattled from an impact on the other side. He hovered his fingers over the slick film covering his face and groaned. "Awww Plem!"

[Dragon]

Wrinkling her nose, Issalle looked over the now snot-covered greenrider dubiously. "Urgh, I'm so glad that Geth hasn't done that to me! Yet."

This dragon would never be so uncouth, Geth interjected primly.

Smiling at her dragon's telepathic voice, Salle shook her head slightly. With their longer-than-average memory - four days! - Geth could actually remember not being sick, and so it was easier for them to accept that it would eventually be over.

"Uh - do you need help getting cleaned up?" Issalle asked. "That's ... kind of nasty."

[Windra]

"Yet," E'lis added to Issalle's statement. He pressed his fingers flat against his skin and squeegeed off some of the snot from his flesh. He dared not stick out his tongue left some of it land there. He had no desire to get sick, too! Let alone taste the gunk! "She means well! The sick's been ridin' her ass harder than when Keither branded a herdbeast while ridin' it! Bucked him straight into a barrel o' cod oil. Still don't know why the cod oil was there! But Keith tried climbin' out of it, lost his grip and fell over! He was so clicked up that he started sleddin' down the embankment and right into some herdbeast shi - "

E'lis, is now the time?

"Ho-kay! But he couldn't wash the stink off for a whole month!" He gestured to the clean pile of rags at his feet, dropped by the impact of Plemeth's raging sneeze. "Could you get a handful and just, like, throw it on my face?"

[Dragon]

Issalle waited patiently while the greenrider rambled about someone branding a herdbeast and getting tossed into a barrel of fish oil. When he asked her to throw some rags at his face, she chuckled softly. "I think I can manage a little more than that."

Grabbing some of the rags, she moved in, then hesitated briefly before actually helping. "May I? I think I can get at least most of this off of you."

[Windra]

”Awww hey, fire ‘way! If’n ya don’t mind the muck! I’ll never shy from a helpin’ hand!”

E’lis didn’t really pucker up or anything, but he squeezed his eyes shut real hard and made a weird little pinch with his lips. He was going to try really hard to avoid getting the mucus in his orifices (and that sounded worse now that he actually thought about it). His hands were up in the either to either side of his face though there was no sense in avoiding touching his own cheeks. Everything was covered, so what did it matter?

After a beat, and after plenty of time to allow Issalle to reach his puke-worthy features, he blurted, ”Ya know, if’n this stuff can get us folks sick, I reckon I’m pretty screwed right now!” And he laughed.

You sound almost hopeful. Plemeth sounded amused despite her sorry state. Even her mental voice was congested. Is it because you want Ronica to play ‘doctor’? she added privately.

E’lis’ face turned bright red.

[Dragon]

Issalle smiled gently, lifting one of the rags to wipe gently at E'lis's face, doing her best to get as much of the mucus off of him as possible and laughing when he pointed out he was screwed if he could get sick from contact with it. "Yeah, you're screwed if it's transmitable between dragons and humans." She paused, then observed, This stuff is - really sticky." Her nose wrinkled he nose in distaste.

His blush was a curious thing; Issalle didn't know what she could have done to cause it. Was it something, perhaps, that his dragon had said? Geth wasn't prone to teasing, but she knew there were other dragons who were. She decided to ignore it. "Ah - I'm Issalle, by the way. In case you didn't know. You're E'lis?" His dragon had called him that. She paused in her ministrations and inspected his face critically. "That'll have to do until you can wash properly. Anyway, my dragon's Geth - they've got this, too."