The Benefits of Pepper Spray

[DogLover]

As some of you might know from my previous ones, I'm currently going through basic training in the IDF. (Almost done! Whoo! *dances*) Part of our training is how to deal with chemical weapons, like putting on a gas mask properly. As a practical demonstration, we did this thing where we put on gas masks and then spent some time in a tent full of OC gas (the same gas that's in pepper spray).

Now for two important details. The tent, being a tent, wasn't even slightly airtight, meaning that anyone standing downwind of it (which was pretty much everyone there) felt some of the effects of the gas. And aside from the handful of girls and forty-odd guys in my platoon, there was another full-size platoon of about ninety combat guys there.

Which is how I got to witness over a hundred guys have a collective sneezing fit.

With the stage now set, I can give a more detailed story.

***

I didn't even notice the gas at first. The first thing I noticed was one of my friends (G from previous obs) suddenly bent over and sneezed towards the ground. "SCHSSSHHHHH!!!"

He hadn't even managed to straighten up and sniffle before I blessed him, and I hadn't even finished saying the Hebrew word for "bless you" before I heard another sneeze: "Aaaah--HAASSHHAAAHHH!!" (Side note: I didn't have time to look over and see who it was, but I still know because I spend so much time with these people I can literally recognize them by their sneezes.)

As everyone around me started clearing their throat, sniffling and rubbing their noses and eyes, I felt my own face start burning and figured out what had happened: they'd opened the gas cannister.

The burning in my nose was weird. It burned like pepper does (what, no, I've never tried inducing with that ) which isn't exactly a sneezy sensation, but it was somehow less concentrated to the point where I could see how it might make some people sneeze. Not me, though my nose did run quite a bit.

As I concentrated on the sensation, I could tell that everyone else there was feeling the exact same thing, which was a pretty exciting thought for me. Meanwhile, the storm of sniffles, coughs and sneezes continued.

There were so many people it's sort of hard to describe properly, but I'll try. I was standing on a raised sort of step thing, so I was looking slightly downward at everyone. Not everyone sneezed from the gas (I didn't), but it looked like most people did at least once. I couldn't properly take in everything, but certain details jumped out at me:

Three guys standing right next to each other sneezed, one after the other: "uutschhhh!!" "hihh'KGXXsshhhu!" "ahh--IISSHHH!!"

One guy walked around with his hand over his nose and mouth, asking his friends for something which predictably turned out to be tissues. Having found some, he cleaned himself up and blew his nose profusely.

One of my friends, who has allergies and will sneeze whenever the wind blows anyway, had crumpled into a sitting position on the ground, eyes streaming and sneezing repeatedly with a few seconds' pause between them, stifling each time: "hhNGK!! . . . heh'kmmpt! . . . ahGXXT!" This continued until a double caught him by surprise and he failed to stifle the second one: "eh'NKT!! hehh'ETSCCHHHaahh!!!" He flushed bright red and embarassedly wiped his nose with his sleeve, but he stopped sneezing.

When the burning in my eyes got too annoying I closed them, but the soundtrack was lovely even without the visual, as there were enough people there for the sneezing to be fairly constant, though accompanied but plenty of coughing.

"ahh'ITSCHshoo!!"

"UUUTTTSSSCHHHHH!!!"

"ih'pshiew! ha'ATSCHyew!!"

"ISH!! IIISSSHH!! ISHu! ISHH!!"

Even better was the fact that I recognized people from my platoon sneezing even with my eyes closed. Seriously, I could probably catalogue everyone's sneezes.

Sadly, the whole thing only lasted for a few minutes before the gas dissipated, but still: whoa. I had a pretty hard time concentrating for the rest of that day...

[BananaTree]

My God...that is...wow. So did the gas masks not work or...?

But seriously...wow

[HoneyBunny]

Oh wow. I mean, WOW. That sounds absolutely amazing.

[DogLover]

Just to clarify, the sneezing happened while we weren't wearing gas masks (we put them on just before going into the tent in smaller groups because there weren't enough for everyone). If the gas masks hadn't worked in the tent, where the gas was much more concentrated, the results would've been far nastier and probably much less attractive.

[atchoum]

Wow, what a wonderful observation. Sneeze fetishist's dream come true. Thanks for being so specific as to the different people's individual sneezes.

[thethingof]

This. Is. Incredible. Like seriously I would die to see this.

[ukrsneeze]

This is so wonderful! Thank you

[XOsneezy]

Oh my god....a group of 40ish sexy, muscular men having intense sneezing fits....this is TOO sexy for me....um. Can I come visit by chance? This is AMAZING. What a show!

[AnteatersOnParade]

Haha, this is great! Pepper spray: perfect for saving lives and causing sneezes.

[HPG]

That's awesome. Also, chag sameach!

[gryffin]

Oh my. Oh my. OH MY.

[Shadestrike]

Haha, something similar happened to me at Blue Lake. Like, we had a concert one night (the whole camp saw one) and before the orchestra started, after the concert started but right before they started playing, which took FOREVER, FYI, like everyone in the existence of EVER started coughing simultaneously, like one after another which was so funny and weird and uncomfortable because what if it was SNEEZING (One of my friends was like, "What is everyone started sneezing like that" and then the people around us started fake sneezing and I was like "wut"). There WAS basically just TONS AND TONS of sand at Blue Lake and when we walked, dust flew EVERYWHERE, I was surprised there wasn't any very good obs.

Whale that was a ramble.

[Juniebee]

Aaahhh! That sounds perfect!

I feel bad for the allergy-ridden guy though.

I wonder if he keeps tissues on him...and what he's allergic to.

[Watercolor Daydreams]

Wow, this is a fantastic obs!!! And I have a newfound admiration for pepper spray...