Start Simulation (f) - full story completed!

[PollenFiend]

Hi all. Here's a story inspired by all the great hay fever stories others have written (particularly Starpollen and Chanel). I hope you like it. I feel like continuing, if you think it's a good premise.

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Start Simulation

The sneeze burst forth from the woman harshly, violently, wetly. “HhhrreEESSHHhhoo!!” It was a tellingly allergic sneeze, one filled with irritation, desperation, and overpowering itchiness. The sneezing continued for the young woman, her dark black-brown ponytail rocking and bobbing with each sharp jolt forward. “iIIISHhoo! Hhhii-IISHHuuo!! Huhh… herrRIISHHOOOo!!” The poor woman’s eyes itched terribly and she rubbed them with her fingers, while those in her other hand raised a ragged tissue to her twitching, glistening, reddened nostrils. Her hands dropped from her face, spreading the damp tissue over her hands as her eyes narrowed, brows furrowing and nostrils flaring as the next barrage of allergic sneezes built in her congested and excruciatingly irritated nasal passages. With watery discharge freely running from her nostrils to her quivering upper lip, she whimpered, begging for a respite from her suffering, “huhh.. n-.. not agai…hheh agaid.. hehhh-“

“Pause simulation.”

With a single male voice command, the woman froze in pre-sneeze agony. Her flushed complexion, seductively smooth curves and simple, close-fitting white garments all flickered with tiny shimmers of blue-white light.

“Still not quite right…” the male voice muttered quietly. “Not bad though. Not bad.”

Throughout history there have been periods of great medical and technological innovation - the study of anatomy during the Renaissance, vaccinations during the 1700s, the human genome project in the early 2000s. With the advent of rapid and groundbreaking technological advancements, combined with a new generation of brilliant medical minds, 2062 was shaping up to be the beginning of a new golden age in medicine.

There were alarming concerns in human health, however. The stresses of the connected age provoked new heights in psychological ailments. Unfettered globalization brought the rapid spread of airborne communicable diseases. And the climate scientists were right - the average global temperature had increased 5 degrees since the start of the millennium, which drove the inevitable surge in plant life, pollen production, and seasonal allergic rhinitis, commonly referred to as hay fever.

Hay fever became an epidemic. The rate of affliction climbed from an average of 20% five decades earlier to 60%. In addition to more hay fever sufferers, the overall severity of their suffering also increased measurably. The pharmaceutical companies could barely keep up. Doctors prescribed ever increasing doses of strong antihistamines and decongestants, and yet each annual allergy season brought more sniffling, itching, blowing, and sneezing.

Doctor Leon Barnes was at the forefront against this struggle. While a brilliant diagnostician, he was also a genius-caliber technologist. And he was nearing a breakthrough. He and a similarly gifted team of researchers had spent over ten years compiling medical data, gathering high-fidelity recordings, and building a deep database of conditions, treatments and reactions. In parallel they had also architected, programmed and built the most sophisticated holographic-imaging array tied to a simulation AI program meant to synthesize the medical database and present it as an astonishingly life-like holo-image of a patient who could be customized by age, gender, ethnicity, ailment, medical history, and hundreds of other parameters. While nowhere near a sentient AI (it could comment at length on how many times ‘she’ sneezed that morning, but not on who won the last World Series or who she would vote for in the next election), it proved 99.9% accurate in simulating patients’ reactions to medical consultation, testing and treatment. If it ever went commercial, the system would revolutionize modern medicine and how doctors diagnose any patient, with any condition, and subsequently apply any treatment regime. For the time being however, Dr. Barnes was finalizing the design from his lab at Johns Hopkins University. It was late. He was tired.

“Resume simulation.”

“hhhh-HHIIIHHSHHUUUuuu!!!” the young woman sneezed ferociously into her tissue, soaking it beyond the point of usefulness.

Dr. Barnes noticed that his simulated patient, indistinguishable from a living human being, had her uncontrollable allergic sneeze erupt before her tissue hit her nose, causing a fine mist of digital spray to be emitted in front of her. Barnes reached to touch his patient but his hand felt nothing solid as it caused a flickering distortion atop the woman’s bare shoulder. The doctor smiled, almost affectionately, as he reached for the projected image of a tissue box sitting on the holographic examining table. Again, his hand felt nothing though his motions caused the box to be lifted and presented in front of his sniffling, suffering hay fever patient. She nodded her thanks and took three large, fresh tissues which she promptly used to blow her tormented nose.

Barnes, while a brilliant diagnostician able to identify nearly any physical ailment, had a particular affinity for otolaryngology, the branch specializing in the ear, nose and throat. He felt drawn towards the female nose – specifically the red, runny, stuffy, itchy and perpetually sneezy allergic female nose. He had studied fetishism, and knew very precisely that he was a sneeze fetishist. He also knew that a significant reason in why he built his medical-technological marvel was to indulge his desire to see and interact with beautiful women afflicted with severe hay fever.

He had to calibrate the simulation perfectly. Something was still off about the intensity of the sneezing, the profusion of mucous, the desperate nature of the woman’s reaction to the multitude of pollen grains attacking her.

“IIIISHHhh!! hhHH-HHIISSSHH!! IIISHHMMPFFF!! EIIR-RSSHHMMFF!!! HHII-IETTSCHHUMMPFF!!!...”

The sneezes filled the folds of the woman’s white tissues – filled with violent spray and ceaseless dripping from her increasingly red nostrils. Again, the tissues dropped as her head reared back, red-rimmed eyes half-closed and staring blankly ahead. Her nostrils twitched and flared erratically as she fought desperately to end the allergy attack; a hopeless effort only resulting in continued misery.

"Huhh.. Ughh.. I.. kehh.. caah’d.. hhEEAAGSSCHUUOO!!! Ahh- huhh-HUH-HEIGGIITSHUUU!!! HHIII-IITSCHUOO!!! HEI-EARRSSCHHHUUU!!!”

The unrelenting allergy sneezes racked the woman’s entire frame, snapping her body forward with each desperate release, giving her no relief at all even after a prolonged fit of nine violent sneezes.

“Not quite right,” Dr. Barnes muttered again to himself. Forecasts were predicting pollen levels to nearly double next year. He had factored that into his simulated patient, with her parameters set to inflict her with misery yet unseen by current hay fever sufferers. But he had seen worse. In person. With real patients.

“Ss.. heehhh.. Ss-sorry? hhEEHH HEITSSCCHHUUUOO!!! HIIGGHSCHUUOO!!! Ughh.. Huhhh.. Oh god-HUURRSCHHUFFH!!!” The young sneezing brunette had no option but to again bury her allergic nose into her soaked tissues. The simulated peak pollen levels, wreaking havoc on her simulated highly-sensitive airways was causing a simulated hopelessly uncontrollable sneezing fit, the likes she had never seen in her programmed memory.

But Dr. Barnes had seen worse.

“End simulation.”

The holo-image of the woman, tissues, table, the entire examining room with open window and pollen-filled ‘breeze’ dissolved in a waterfall of light. Barnes would refine the program later. First he had some clinical recordings to review. He remembered one patient in particular. Her name was Dawn. Or something like that. Her hay fever was even worse.

[Hayley]

Ahhh! This was so good! I love the whole medical/simulation spin on things, and your sneeze descriptions are fantastic. Thanks so much for posting this!

[Heven]

Encore! Encore!

[Blah!?]

Excellent work! This already could have been a great story without the simulation element, using a regular patient, but your idea just feels so incredibly fresh and original. It's stuff like this that makes a great story into an excellent story. Keep up the good work!

I'd totally love to see a sequel, after he's done refining her. xD

[Chanel_no5]

Oh dear... this is fantastic. Keep up the work, I'm loving it.

[wannablessedbe]

OMGZZZ. I can't believe how turned on I just got by a fantasy about a computer simulation! this is super-hot. I can't explain why, but it totally works! I certainly hope you'll continue

[count tiszula]

Absolutely lovely! I wonder why these stories of non-real sneezes are so exciting. But I suspect and hope that a new motif is on the way...

[PollenFiend]

Thanks everyone! I'm really happy to see you all enjoy reading it. I have a few ideas on where to take the story next. As this was the first story I'd written here, I was unsure how to balance exposition with, well, all the hot and messy sneezy goodness.

Chanel, it's especially flattering to see your compliments. You truly are one of my favorite writers here and I hope I can live up to the extremely high bar that you've set for hay fever fiction!

Stay tuned. This is just the beginning for Doc Barnes and his sneezy patients.

- PF

[PollenFiend]

Oh, forgot to ask - how do I add tags to the story after I've already written it?

[matilda3948]

WOW!! This is just...wow. Incredibly good.

[Skiffy]

Oh wow, great sneezes, great idea for a story. Great job.

(btw...is my tricorder malfunctioning or do I detect a trekkie?)

[Dusty15]

Surprisingly hot! I can't wait for more

[zneeze]

pfsfs2010, This looks amazing! It sounds like you're about to interlude into Dawn's story - it'd be really cool to read back-and-forth between Doc Barnes' real patients and him updating his AI lady This is one of the most clever I've read in a long time! Keep up the great work!

[PollenFiend]

Here is part 2, with Dawn!

I'm working on part 3 now but after you're done reading, tell me who you'd like to see simulated, "Liz" the AI brunette, or a new model based on the appearance and behavior of Dawn.

Thanks again to everyone for the compliments! It's very encouraging. And oh, while I do enjoy Star Trek very much, many other scifi series and games gave me lots of inspiration too.

- PF

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Start Simulation

Part 2

Dr. Barnes watched the video intently.  Sitting in a comfortable tufted leather chair in his office, he studied the footage from a previously recorded series of clinical examinations and interviews which formed the basis of his medical simulation system.

“And for how long have you been having these symptoms?” Barnes heard himself as a disembodied voice coming from the curved, semi-translucent screen in front of him, ask.

“Since the start of the spring, around three weeks ago,” replied the closeup of the young woman on the screen.  She seemed agitated and restless, her hand frequently raising to rub her nose which showed pink around the rims of her nostrils.  She sniffled wetly, her pink nostrils flaring in the process, as her hand moved from her running, itching nose to brush a wisp of dark blond hair behind her ear. The woman’s breath hitched. “hehh-..” Her eyelids shut tightly over deep pools of bright blue, her thin eyebrows drawing together as her pink lips and equally pink nostrils quivered. “hehh-...het-schuoo!” she sneezed once freely, the desperate urge having taken her by surprise, before grabbing a tissue from a box on her lap and bringing it to her running nose before the next few sneezes threatened to expel the clear, thin mucous directly in front of her.

“Het-sschhummf! Hegt-SCHUUmff!! hehh-... haet-TSCHIIUMMFF!!” the young woman sneezed rapidly.  Her dark blond hair, flowing down in delicate curls just above her shoulders, shuddered with an intensity that matched that of her increasingly strong sneezes.

“Bless you,” Barnes said to the computer screen quietly from his office chair, shortly before his previously recorded voice added, “Itchy, runny nose. Rapid-fire sneezing.  Started with the onset of spring.  Sounds like a clear case of hay fever to me, Dawn.”

Dawn nodded as she squeezed and dabbed at her still-twitching nose with the tissue, its soft fabric crumpling and moistening as it soaked up the aftereffects of the diagnosed allergy-afflicted girl’s sneezes.  She gave a final productive blow into the tissue ball before sniffling, less wetly now, and tossing the used tissue into a waste basket in front of the examining table where she was seated. "That's what I thought it might be," she replied with a resigned sigh before raising her fingers to swipe again at her pink nose, which had already resumed itching. "Ugh, that itchiness just never goes away, does it?" Dawn asked with a concluding sniffle.

Barnes, the non-recorded one, cleared his throat. "Liz?"

"Yes, Doctor?" replied a synthetic yet clearly female voice, sounding like the brunette Barnes was simulating earlier.

"Recap the details for this recording and this session," Barnes instructed. Liz was the casual name he assigned to the voice control interface to his medical simulation system. He and his team of JHU staff wanted to honor the legacy of the ELIZA computer, by naming their system with a backronym that they somewhat inelegantly filled in. Encephalous Luminant Interaction Zone whatever-whatever. Barnes simply called it/her Liz.

Liz replied. "Recording dated March 18, 2057. Patient is Dawn Sivak, date of birth November 3, 2030. Female. American of European descent.  Diagnosed with seasonal allergic rhinitis. No other conditions documented. Later allergy testing performed via skin prick and nasal challenge testing resulted in positive reaction to birch, alder, grass, and ragweed pollen. Followed progress of patient for three years, with severity of symptoms increasing over that time from 4.3 to 8.9 on the Lee-Barnes scale.”

Doctor Barnes smirked, remembering how he and a fellow JHU colleague devised their now-standard measure of the severity of an allergy sufferer’s misery.  It scored multiple symptoms - the number of times the patient rubbed their itching eyes or nose in a 10-minute period; restriction of airflow through the nose as measured by rhinomanometer; amount of nasal discharge captured via absorbent pads held to each nostril and measuring the resultant increase in weight; various subjective measures relying on the patient describing their level of discomfort; and of course the frequency and intensity of their sneezing.

As if to demonstrate, the recorded image of Ms. Sivak pulled another tissue and raised it partway to her twitching nose, turning her head to the side and showing her in profile. “hehh.. huhh-.. ugh.. hih-heuuhh-...” she struggled against the deep, persistent allergic itch that pervaded her entire nose.  Barnes observed it to be a medium-sized, round-tipped nose topped by a slight bridge and flanked by oval nostrils that were pulsating as if torn between not wanting to suffer through another bout of sneezing and wanting to, if it held even the slightest hope of relief.

“ahh-.. huhhhHH-HIT-TSCHIIUUuu!! het-CHIUUUoo!! HIGT-TSCHHIIIUUOO!!”

Barnes deconstructed the expression of the allergic girl’s sneezes.  The excruciating itch tortured and tormented her nose. He remembered her later describing it as pollen grains coating, prickling and crawling over her smooth, delicate nasal lining. The itch, that terrible tingling, ever-present and all-consuming itch forced her to sneeze, convincing her that if only she let the sneezes explode forth, they would carry out the grains of sheer misery lodged deep inside. Barnes noted that is why she held the tissue an inch from her crinkling red nose, not wanting even the thin tissue to potentially block any possibility of pollen being expelled and relief finally coming.  But of course, relief never came.

“ugh... huhh-.. ahh-.. herru-UUSCHHIUUoo!! hhiiirRRIISSCHHHoo!! …. HEGHIISCHHUMFFF!!”

Each successive sneeze became stronger, less restrained, more desperate.  Dawn’s non-allergic sneezes were feminine, high-pitched singles that ended in the classic “ooo” sound. Her allergic sneezing fits were different, depending on how badly she was suffering.  As the sneezes wore on, all pretense of being cute or lady-like melted away.  While still ending in “ooo”, the irritated, itchy, relentless sneezing made her unconsciously shift her focus to the actual expulsion of air (and hopefully pollen) instead of the trailing sound. By the fifth sneeze, her sneezes became intense, spraying, forceful ejections of air and mucous. She felt some remaining semblance of self-composure and for the sake of the observing doctor, pressed her tissue firmly against her reddening, dripping, uncontrollably sneezing nose.

 “Challenge testing. Right, I remember we did that a few times. Liz, skip ahead to the most recent challenge test. Fast forward to when her allergic response was most severe,” Barnes commanded.

“Searching,” replied the computer.

The on-screen video faded and was quickly replaced by a new recording. A blur of images quickly flew by as the search algorithm intelligently zeroed in on when Ms. Sivak’s hay fever symptoms were the most crippling.  Finally, the video played at normal speed, showing Dawn in the center of a round chamber bathed in white light.  She stood barefoot, wearing an all-white, tight-fitting tank-top and a matching pair of knee-length pants. The simulation design team used the outfit to form the basis of the default holo-projected attire for their simulated patients.  Free-flowing clothes added unneccesary complexity to the simulated model. Besides, the tight attire looked good. Barnes thought it looked like a sexy yoga outfit. He didn’t mind. On Dawn the tight fabric accentuated her naturally toned body, particularly her firm thighs and buttocks (as all good yoga pants should). No, Barnes didn’t mind at all.

“iiIIISCCHHUU!!.. huhh-HEIGG-ITTSCHH-UUOO!! huhh.. ugh.. oh mby god.. it... hh-it ihtches.. hhHIIG-RIISCCHHH-UUOO!!! HET-TSCHHH-UOO!!!” without the benefit of tissues or any absorbent fabric to catch her sneezes, Dawn pressed the back of her hand against her scarlet-tinged nose. To Barnes it was a beautiful sight - a lovely young woman caught in the throws of a fit of intense sneezes, spraying pollen-soaked droplets from her flared, red, dripping and unbearably itchy nostrils.

“ohh..” A moan, thick sniffle, whimper, and another long, wet sniffle before the sneezes took hold of Dawn yet again.  “huhh... HET-TSCHUUOO!! hehhhh-HEGH-IIEESHHHH-UU!!! IIEEY-YSCCHH-UU!!! HEIII-IIIRRSCCCHH-UUU!!!”

Doctor Barnes waved his hand in the air, gesturing to move the perspective of the video to admire his sneezing patient from other angles. That was the technical magic of the recording - an array of extremely high-quality light field cameras captured all visual aspects of the patient, allowing the data to be converted into a perfect three-dimensional computer model used to feed the equivalently-scaled holo-projection array.  The cameras captured everything, from the spasming contortion of Dawn’s body with each sneeze, to the exact tint of ever-deepening red that colored her nose; the drops of spray and rivulets of discharge running from her eyes and nostrils, to the violent shudder of her blond hair and generous curves.

Liz’s voice broke the doctor’s trance in watching the helplessly sneezing girl.  “Recording is dated September 26, 2059. Ms. Sivak was suffering an allergy attack provoked by both the outside ragweed pollen levels that morning, 5,963 p.p.m., as well as a manually administered disk of birch pollen applied to each nostril for challenge testing with a length of exposure measuring one hour, twenty minutes by that time. Lastly, an additional disk of synthetic non-allergenic pollen was applied to each nostril, length of exposure eleven minutes.”

That was the key! The light went off in the doctor’s head and Barnes asked to clarify, “And why did we test with the non-allergenic pollen?”

“To measure the placebo effect of expected exposure to allergens,” Liz replied plainly, succinctly.

“What was the effect measured for Ms. Sivak?”

Barnes noticed a dotted line chart appear super-imposed atop the video of the still-sneezing Dawn.  Liz explained, “Nasal challenge testing of an added non-allergenic pollen provoked an allergic response scoring higher on the Lee-Barnes scale. Ms. Sivak’s score jumped from 8.9 to 9.3 in the hour after administering the second challenge test.”

“That’s it, Liz. Go back and comb through all other recordings for similar jumps caused by placebo effect and general expectation of symptoms. Average out the impact and apply to all subsequent simulations of hay fever patients. The more they feel they are exposed to pollen, real or fake, the stronger their reactions should be. Even if we tell them incorrectly that pollen levels are higher than they actually are, most should react, some strongly.”

Dawn was one such hay fever sufferer who reacted strongly. She was told the second challenge test would add alder and grass pollen, giving a cumulative effect over the birch and ragweed pollen already attacking her nose. Though no such pollen was applied, she believed it was, and it set off a spike in allergic activity. She never thought her hay fever, already very severe, could get any worse. She was wrong.

"hhegt-NNGGIISSSHHUu-uu!!! Huhhh!-.. Herr-RRIISCHHHUU-uuu!!! Hehhh.. I... I ndeed... Hehh.. Tissues!" Dawn begged, and gratefully accepted a handful passed to her by a sympathetic nurse. The hay fever-ridden young woman blew her nose strongly, repeatedly. She wiped the mess from her leaking face and yet it still wasn't enough. That terrible cocktail of pollen mixing and twirling in her nose had her completely at its mercy. She felt powerless as she held the soaked tissues hovering in front of her face, knowing that hundreds of cameras were capturing every square inch of her allergic body.

The itch remained as torturous as ever, burrowing deep into her eyes and nose. "Hehhh... Iiighh... Hihh-Hehhh... Ughh..." Compounding her powerlessness was how naked she felt, standing in the middle of the recording chamber, wearing the tight-fitting white clothes provided by the clinic. There was nowhere to hide from either the pollen or the cameras. Her nose began running again; damn it she had just blown it clean! How could mucous be produced so quickly? She had no time to think of an answer, as the trickle of nasal discharge leaking out from her nostrils to her lip brought the itch over the edge and her nose was convinced yet again that if only she let out the sneeze, all the suffering would finally end. Instead the itch ironically amplified, consuming her entire red and twitching nose, forcing it down into the folds of damp tissue that waited in front.

"HHEEIGTT-TISSSCCHHUU-Ffmm!!! HehhGI-IISSCHFF-FFmm!!! IIRRIIISCCCHFfmm!! IIISCCHfmm!! Iisschuffmm!"

The sneezing was exhausting. Dawn wanted to collapse, and her knees gave out, making her drop one to the floor as she fought desperately to regain control of her nose. But the hay fever was simply too severe. There was no way she could fight against all of her allergens at once, at such concentrations - or so she believed.

"iiIISSSCHHuu!! Het-TISSSCCHhuu!! HhhhiggIISSCHHHUuuuuu!!!

The tissues were useless, and Dawn had given up. Her body shook violently with each sneeze, her glistening red nose freely spraying her allergic ejections all over the floor in front of her, cameras be damned.

“I will design a new parameter. Ready to simulate in forty two minutes,” Liz responded, complying.

Enough time to get a coffee, thought Barnes as he rose from his chair and rubbed the drowsiness from his eyes.  Times like this, when late night rolled over to very early morning, he had the luxury of perfecting his hay fever simulation without interruption. He wouldn’t stop now, no matter how sleepy he got.

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Very nice story. Interesting concept. Thank you for sharing.

[count tiszula]

Golly, this just goes on giving; and I can foresee another lovely tranche to come.....

[Blah!?]

Once again your writing proves to be most interesting. I can't wait for part 3, and however many parts are left after that.

Also, in addition to either of the options you proposed, it might be interesting to have the Liz interface program (not the simulation) sneeze too. Maybe a glitch could cause her to copy some of the sneezing simulation onto herself instead of wherever it's supposed to go.

[Chanel_no5]

"iiIIISCCHHUU!!.. huhh-HEIGG-ITTSCHH-UUOO!! huhh.. ugh.. oh mby god.. it... hh-it ihtches.. hhHIIG-RIISCCHHH-UUOO!!! HET-TSCHHH-UOO!!!"

Guhh...

Great job. I love the desperation!

[NoV]

“Het-sschhummf! Hegt-SCHUUmff!! hehh-... haet-TSCHIIUMMFF!!” the young woman sneezed rapidly. Her dark blond hair, flowing down in delicate curls just above her shoulders, shuddered with an intensity that matched that of her increasingly strong sneezes.

Lovely! Have always loved the doctor and sneezy patient scenario, right from when I first started discovering sneezefics. Your writing is superb - looking forwards to part 3

[Kiwifruit]

Oooh, this is really really good! Excellent writing with a creative and fresh idea? I like

And Dawn, I love that name xD *Steals for one of her characters*

[PollenFiend]

Hello again! It's been some time since my last addition but here is part 3! I hope you like it.

- PF

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Start Simulation

Part 3

The small, circular cursor hovered over the image of a woman’s pink nose. As the cursor moved in precise, spiral motions, the image of the naturally pink nose and its slightly flared nostrils gradually adopted deeper shades of pink, followed by red. The image zoomed out to reveal the entire face of the woman, frozen in itchy, pre-sneeze torment and superimposed on top of a background of lush greenery and clouds of sticky yellow pollen. With her nose now artificially reddened, as well as her eyes which had been altered previously, she had the appearance of a terribly miserable allergy sufferer, made to endure the green field’s onslaught for hours on end. Her mouth was agape with a pre-sneeze gasp, a plaintive, submissive gesture against the merciless pollen and the hay fever it induced.

The cursor flew spastically over the image as its user succumbed to a sneeze of her own, and then another, and another. “hhhHIGGT-TSCHUUoo!! hhhih.. hhIEGT-TSCHHUUuoo!! HIGT-TISSCHHUUuuoo!!” With digital pen in hand, Dawn brushed the stray blond curls from her itching eyes and pressed the back of her hand against her own reddened nostrils. “Ugh.. dammit,” she groaned frustratedly as she continued to press and dab at her streaming nose. She sniffled wetly and reached for a tissue box on her desk, pulling one out and twinging as it came into contact with her sore, sensitive nostrils. She blew her nose gingerly, not wanting to honk out of courtesy to the colleagues around her and out of fear of aggravating the itch in her nose any further. It became aggravated regardless. “hhuhh-HEEGH-GGIISSCHHFFF!!” The sneeze exploded into her damp tissue, causing Dawn to utter a curse aimed at her miserable allergies.

With the balled tissue still clamped to her itching and running nose, Dawn deftly manipulated her digital pen over a tablet-like device on her lap and observed the result on a large semi-transparent screen on her desk. The image zoomed out further to reveal an entire grid of similarly allergy-stricken faces with lush, pollen-soaked backdrops. Nobody was spared and each allergic individual looked equally miserable. Regardless of gender, age or ethnic background, none escaped the itchy, runny, sneezy torment of hay fever, artistically amplified by Dawn’s computer. Each face was in a different stage of an allergic sneeze. Some had the glazed eyes and blank stare of sneezes just beginning to creep into their noses. Some had the wide, flared nostrils, shut eyes and contorted mouths of spraying, desperate explosions. All the others were frozen somewhere in between. The grid of sneezing faces was to be used as a magazine cover, and with a single click of her pen, Dawn brought to the foreground a layer of bold text that read, The Hay Fever Crisis: Is There Any Relief In Sight?

All around her, Dawn heard the sounds of allergic suffering. The design studio receptionist’s repeated wet sniffles seemed to match the image of a Hispanic girl on Dawn’s screen. The shuddering, hitching breaths of a graphic artist matched the image of a wide-nosed African woman. The desperate machine-gun sneezing of a young writer matched the image of a dark-haired Caucasian woman whose spraying, explosive sneezes threatened to make the glasses fall from their perch on her reddened nose complete with flared, glistening nostrils.

As instructed by her editor, a mature brunette who was also sneezing in her corner office, Dawn did extremely well with her artistic embellishments. However, the combined sight and sound of allergies caused her to completely lose control of her own. The tissues held against her twitching nose visibly quivered as she sneezed uncontrollably into them. “HHEEGH-IIIGGSSHHHUFF!! Huhhh-HIGT-TISSCHHUFF!! Ugh... heh... hhhIIRR-RISSCCHHHFFF!!! rrRRSSCHHF!! hirrRRSCHUUU!! ….” Dawn leaned her head back as she waited for one more lingering sneeze, revealing her red nose freely streaming allergic discharge matching the streams from her tearing eyes, the tissue ball far too damp to take in any more moisture. “hhhHHHH-HIGG-GISSHHUUUUOO!!!” Dawn sneezed ferociously, her head snapping forward and her flared, wet nostrils slamming back into the ragged, soaked tissue.

“Bless you!” chimed the slightly-congested voice of a young Asian woman who leaned an elbow on Dawn’s half-height cubicle wall.

“Thanks Lori,” replied Dawn as she discarded the overused tissue ball only to pull a new tissue, using it to blow her allergic nose, hard and loud this time. She had had enough. It had been a long day and even her prescription-strength medication seemed powerless to offer any relief.

Lori herself brought a tissue to her running nose, red but not as deep a shade as Dawn’s, and blew into it wetly in brief puffs. She then used the tissue to dab at her watering eyes. “Ugh, I’m so miserable,” she lamented while still sounding congested.

“Tell me about it,” Dawn said in a low voice, sounding battered and defeated. “This is the third day the building’s HEPA filter has been out of commission. We can’t work like this. Just look at us!” Dawn growled angrily, with a wide sweeping motion of her arm gesturing to the floor’s workforce, a large majority of which were showing clear signs of suffering from hay fever. “Ughh.. I.. hehh..” Dawn quickly pulled a fresh tissue and spread it over her nose and mouth. “hehHHGT-TISSCHHUUuuffm!!.. I’b so sick of sndeezig!” she exclaimed with the tissue still covering the lower half of her face.

Lori was too busy warding off a sneeze of her own to reply, but the effort was futile as the petite girl raised the back of her hand an inch from her nose, only to have it sprayed by a wet sneeze which quickly devolved into an unrelenting fit. “aaAA-AAASCHH! … hehh.. hhAA-AASCCHH!! HHAAH-AASHKKhh!! HHEEH-EAASHHCKHH!!!” The girl’s straight, shoulder-length black hair flew forward with each sneeze, partially obscuring her lightly tanned cheeks but not her small, red, upturned nose which twitched and flared with each violent sneeze. Though she clutched her tissue in her fist, it would have been useless to contain her allergic explosions.

Dawn offered Lori her box of tissues, the still-sneezing girl quickly grasping at one in order to catch two more prickly sneezes before the fit finally subsided. “HHEA-AASCHHKhhff!! hegt-GISSCCHFfff!... Oh my god. This is insane,” said the petite Asian, sounding similarly defeated by her allergies. “My pills and sprays barely help at all anymore. What are we going to do?” The only thing Lori indeed could do was to use her new tissue to dry her allergic nose and eyes, if only fleetingly.

Dawn sniffled and dabbed at her nose, not knowing when yet another sneeze would force its way out. “I think I’m going to call someone.”

“Your doctor?” asked Lori, who also sniffled thickly and deeply.

“No,” answered Dawn. “But another doctor I know. I met him during a series of clinical tests that I signed up for a few years back. He was researching allergies and was tracking my progress after I first developed mine. I was a bit... a.... hehh,” Dawn turned her head to the side and sneezed twice strongly, the fabric of her white blouse stretching across her chest at each shuddering gasp. “hhH-HH-HUHH-HET-TSCHHUUOOO!! hhUH-HHEH-HAHH-HAAT-TTSCCHHOOOO!!!” Dawn wiped her profusely running nose with the back of her hand while finishing her sentence, “A bit strapped for cash and thought it would be a good opportunity. But damn, he put me through hay fever hell. I never had it so bad, even now.” Dawn shrugged as she squeezed her nose in the folds of her tissue. “I dunno. He was kinda cute at least.”

Lori laughed. “So you think he’s made some progress with his research? Or you just looking for a date?”

“I just want this hay fever to end, that’s what I want,” Dawn answered, mostly genuinely.

“Sure Dawn. If he’s single, good luck. ha-..” Lori began to laugh but sneezed instead. “hhAA-AASSCHKKHH!!”

Dawn looked up at her sneezing colleague and snickered. “You know, he always looked a little strange when I seriously couldn’t stop sneezing. Like he was staring. Maybe... mehh- hehh- HHEHHT-TIISCCHHFF!! HET-TSSCHIIUUFF!! HEEGRR-RRIISSSCCHHUFFF!!!” Before Dawn could continue her thought, another sneezing fit overtook her allergic nose, forcing it to explode and spray and stream in a useless attempt at ridding itself of pollen. Her desperate yet futile allergic sneezes joined those of Lori, and the many others who had no choice but to submit to their hay fever.

[wannablessedbe]

ZOMGG. fan-bloody-tastic! so glad to see this story continued

[Chanel_no5]

Oh my... I'm hardly coherent after reading this... yum.

And I love how you write out the sneeze sounds, it's beautiful!

[matilda3948]

Hooray!!

Love this story!!

[Katsuo]

What a awesome story! Can wait for dawn and the doc get together, maybe some kissing/sneezing? :$