Ruffled Feathers (female, allergy)

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

Yeah so I was thinking about modern day actors having to wear historical clothing for movies/theatre, and specifically corsets, and that worked for me.   (I'm not into historical settings myself, but that... oh yeah.  ) So I brought it up for discussion with a dear friend that... hey, hot sneezy actresses in corsets? Hot?  and she sent me a pic of our mutual actor crush in a dress like that. And the accompanying hat had feathers. Aaaaaaand circumstantial evidence points to her maybe probably being allergic to feathers, and I got very inspired. 

I got so inspired my brain came up with an original scenario along those lines and then I wrote it.  

Not making any promises because it's very dependant on my moods and what I feel gives me the most reward with the least effort (yes I'm lazy), BUT there might be a part two... on stage... allergy meds forgotten...  

But for now, this is what I have.  

*** 

 

“Right, we want this to be as authentic as possible, so you may want to hold on to something while we lace you up,” the costume designer said once Alexandra had the corset on.

“You’re gonna lace it that tight?” she asked.

“I’m sorry about that, but it’s about this area,” Delilah said, gesturing vaguely towards her own chest. “We need to know if it’s enough to lace it tightly or if we need to add some, uh, padding, to get the right visual effect for the neckline.”

Alexandra sighed.

“I understand,” she said, and braced against a doorframe as the other woman imprisoned her into this outfit. Jesus, it was so tight she couldn’t draw a full breath.

“You don’t feel like you’re gonna faint?” Delilah said.

“If I say yes, will you stop pulling my strings?” Alexandra joked in a breathy voice and then let out an equally breathy laugh. “I’m fine.” She tried to take a deep, full breath and the corset creaked forebodingly in response. “But it might need to be a little looser if I’m gonna be able to say my lines and actually move around on stage.”

Delilah loosened it a little bit. She still couldn’t take a deep enough breath to completely fill her lungs without the corset constricting her, but she didn’t think there would be any problems with that; it wasn’t a musical so she wasn’t going to be singing or anything like that.

“Good?” Delilah asked. Alexandra nodded.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

“Ah, and here is my assistant with the dress. It’s absolutely stunning, it’s going to bring out the green in your eyes brilliantly…”

The dress was truly worth Delilah’s pride, it was stunning. Both the neckline and sleeves were decorated with green-dyed faux feathers, and the accompanying hat had even more of them.

“It’s gorgeous,” Alexandra said, and she meant it. Delilah and her assistant beamed at her, and began putting the very elaborate outfit on her. It took both of them, and Alexandra tried to be as still as possible. They ruffled the feathers as they moved, even though they clearly tried to be careful, and some of the fuzz came loose and floated in the air around them. Alexandra thought she might have gotten some of it in her nose, because it started to tickle slightly. She tried to raise her hand to her face and rub her nose, brush the tickle away, but she was immediately chastised by Delilah and told to put her arm down before she wrinkled the dress – the… period outfit with lots of ruffle… of course we couldn’t have that become wrinkly, good heavens no!

Alexandra smiled to herself as she followed the direction – she was an actress, she was used to following directions – but the tickle in her nose remained and she tried wiggling her nose instead.

It didn’t help, and now her nose was starting to feel a bit runny too.

She sniffled. It sounded watery, itchy, like…

Don’t even think about it, Alex.

… like hayfever sniffles. Yes. The kind of wet, itchy-sounding allergic sniffle which would soon be accompanied by fits of violent, harsh allergic sneezes.

It’s not allergies. what would I even be allergic to? I just got some of that fuzz up my nose, if I only sneeze it’ll be over with.

But she didn’t want to sneeze when people were working on the dress she was currently wearing.

At the same time, the sneeze was already building and she didn’t have much of a choice. She held it back, holding her breath and trying to will the urge away, and it seemed to work in that she didn’t sneeze, but she still needed to.

She sniffled again.

“You okay?” the assistant asked, frowning.

“Yes. Uh, actually…” her breath hitched. “I think I’m gonna sneeze…”

“Oh. Um. Could you just… we’re pinning up some fabric on the sleeves so please don’t move your arms right now…” Delilah said. “Just… sneeze straight ahead, okay, don’t bend down either because you’ll sneeze on the dress then.”

Well, duh, Alexandra thought and hitched again, finding that this dress, or rather the corset, was not going to cooperate.

“Hhehh… ISSH! TSHH! Tsssch! KTSH-sshh-Itssh!”

“Bless you. You good?”

“Thanks. Yeah, I’m good.”

She sniffled again, wishing she could rub her nose, because the tickle was still there. Teasing her.

“I’m sorry about that. I think I got something in my nose.”

That something was probably still there, she feared, because there had been no relief whatsoever. But she couldn’t sneeze again, that would be mortifying.

The assistant laughed, but it was a kind laughter.

“Probably some of that feather fuzz, it gets everywhere when you work with it. Probably would have been better with plastic, but someone wanted it authentic,” she said, giving Delilah a wink.

“We need to use less plastic altogether, and this dress is my absolute masterpiece, you bet I’m going authentic,” Delilah said.

“Authentic?” Alexandra said, suddenly alarmed. “You mean… these are real feathers?”

“Yes ma’am. Oh, they’re vintage, though, we haven’t gone out and ripped feathers off any poor birds now!” Delilah said, misinterpreting Alexandra’s concern as being for the birds. Well, in part it was, because she wasn’t big on things like that, but the more acute issue was her feather allergy.

“Well, this sleeve is done,” the assistant said.

“Good job,” Delilah replied. “So is this. You can move your arms now, Alex, but please be gentle.”

Alexandra wasn’t sure if it was the awareness of an allergen so close to her sensitive nose that made the itch so much worse, or if it actually was getting worse, or maybe a combination, but she had to sneeze again.

She brought her hand up to her face – gently – and pinched her nose, not gently.

“Nkkt-nkt-nktt-NNGThh! I’m… s-sohhry… ktssh-tssch-TSSH!”

The second batch of sneezes were caught in her cupped hands, it was instinctual, and she had no idea what to do with her soaked palms once the fit was over.

Which it didn’t seem to be yet.

Oh God she still had to sneeze. The corset was so tight that her lungs couldn’t expand to their full extent, but the need to sneeze simply wasn’t soothed by these rapid, soft, small sneezes.

“…hihhTSSHH! TSSHH! Ihhtssshh! TsschIEW! Oh God… TSH-tshh-TSSCHHeew!”

“Oh my gosh, bless you again! Aww, that’s the cutest sneezes I’ve ever heard,” the assistant cooed, and it was only Alexandra’s naturally gentle and sweet disposition that kept her from slapping the younger woman on top of her head. Her real sneezes were absolutely not ‘cute’, and the only reason they were this soft and kitten-like right now was because she couldn’t draw a deep enough breath in this stupid corset to sneeze normally.

“I need a… ahh… a t-tihh…. Tihh-ISSSHHu! IiiiSSHHew! I need a tissue… ktssh-tsschh-tsshh-TSSH! Ugh… uhhhISSSH!”

Good grief, were they blind to the distress she was in… because of ‘dis-dress’, oh God she had been sneezing so much she was oxygen-deprived, that had to be it, no one could have that bad a sense of humour, not even her.

“Oooh try not to get anything on the dress,” Delilah said in an urgent tone as Alexandra rubbed her nose with the heel of her hand, watery mess running down her upper lip and visibly streaking her wrist and arm. “Hold on, I’ll… I’ll get something for you to cover with… just a second…”

“Hehhhh…iihgtsh! TSSH!-TSSCHH!-GTSSCHiew!”

Delilah handed her an extravagantly embroidered lace-lined handkerchief.

“Here you go, we’re gonna have to wash that before the show anyway…”

Alexandra gratefully took the handkerchief and blew her nose, trying to do it softly at first because she felt she had really embarrassed herself more than enough for one day, but it did very little of anything, so she took as deep a breath as the ridiculously tight-laced corset would allow, and blew hard.

That’s when her mind fully registered what Delilah had just said. The handkerchief had to be washed before the show anyway, so she might just as well use it to snot all over… but why would it need to be washed? It was painfully obvious to her now – because it had been sitting in the storage and gathered dust. She was essentially putting a dust rag to her face.

Great. Feathers and now dust. Why didn’t someone drop a pile of freshly cut grass on top of her, and finished it off by sprinkling some tree pollen on her too? Just to cap it off.

“Okay, we’re going to get you out of the dress before you get snot all over it,” Delilah said, and while there was no venom in her voice, there wasn’t an overabundance of compassion either.

The assistant, who had cooed over how cute Alexandra’s sneezes were, seemed more concerned; she gently stroked the other woman’s upper arm with a warm hand.

“What’s setting you off, poor thing? Are you allergic to something?”

It was admittedly a pretty dumb question, how would she not be allergic to something if she sneezed like this, but Alexandra only nodded. She was pressing the dusty handkerchief over her runny nose and parted lips, knowing it was a really stupid thing to do but opting for a worse allergic reaction over the embarrassment of snotting all over this elaborate outfit.

“What are you allergic to?”

Alexandra tried to answer, but between the congestion and sneezing and the cloth muffling her speech, the assistant didn’t understand her.

“What’s that?”

Alexandra only meant to lower the handkerchief long enough to reply, but the tickle was so strong and she didn’t really have any control over her poor itchy nose at this point, so the inevitable happened.

She sneezed mid-word.

“FeatheehhRSSSHoo!”

She could have given a whole litany of things she was allergic to, but feathers seemed to be the most important one at the moment, so she even excluded the dust. The sneeze was unfortunately uncovered, and even more unfortunately it was very wet, and most unfortunate – Delilah had moved and was right in front of her at that exact moment.

The sneeze sprayed all over the blonde, who recoiled with a disgusted expression, wiping frantically at her face with the sleeve of her blouse.

“Oh God, you sneezed on me, Alex! Eww, that’s gross!”

“I’m so sorry,” Alexandra said, sounding like she was on the verge of tears, but even crying would be shoved aside for sneezing right now, she was so itchy!

She sneezed again, and again, and again, tickly, wet sneezes into the damp handkerchief that really couldn’t take much more before it was oversaturated.

“She’s allergic to feathers, of course she’s gonna sneeze! Have you fucking seen this dress?” the assistant hissed, as if the designer didn’t, you know, design it. “It has more feathers than a fucking pillow factory!”

That was a pretty big exaggeration, but the way Alexandra felt right now it didn’t feel far from the truth. Her eyes burned and watered, her nose streamed, the itch in her throat, ears, nose most of all, was so intense she wanted to claw her whole face off, and she was breaking out in an angry red, itchy rash all over her chest and neck. She scratched at the hives before she even realised what she was doing, and the assistant grabbed her wrist to stop her, almost apologetically.

“Don’t. It’s only gonna get worse if you scratch at it.”

“If you had said anything sooner, we could have avoided this whole mess,” Delilah grunted as she began unlacing the corset locking Alexandra into the sneeze-restricting grip of this dress.

“I didn’t think they were real feathers!” Alexandra defended herself, helplessly out of breath, and sneezed again, another round of ‘cute’ rapid wet sneezes that were woefully inefficient at actually doing anything about the overwhelming prickle. “Aaahihh-KTSshh! Ksshhh! KtSHhih! Oh God… I hardly thoughtTSSHH! The costume budget had increased lately…! hiih-TSSH! tsSCHIih! TSSCH-SSCHH-ISSSHHoo!”

Had her nose ever been this itchy before? Probably. Like pain, you forgot just how bad it was after it was over, it was just a vague memory, but with her hayfever and all the outdoors movie shoots, flowers at awards, photoshoots in lush gardens or underneath flowering trees… yeah, she had been dealing with allergies in work settings before. Many times. That was actually how she had first learned of her feather allergy; when she was doing a model job while in college. It had been one of those angel/devil themes, and Alexandra had had the angel role. She was supposed to sit in a pile of fluffy white feathers while even more floated lazily in the air around her. She had been so itchy after just a little while in that, all over her body, and so miserably sneezy, that she seriously thought she would go insane.

“I’ll go get you some fresh tissues,” the assistant said and left the room.

Delilah struggled with the lacing; Alexandra’s irregular, hitchy breathing and ongoing sneezing fits didn’t make things any easier.

“I’m sorry,” Alexandra managed between sneezes.

“It’s alright,” Delilah sighed, “but if you’re this allergic to commonly used materials, maaaaybe let us designers know in advance?”

Good point. And she often planned to. Too bad she usually forgot.

Oh thank God, free at last, Alexandra thought as the lacing loosened enough that she could draw a deep, full breath, fill her lungs completely…

She doubled over, both hands stapled over her nose and mouth, and let the violent, pent-up force of her allergic sneezes rush through her, unhindered – she wouldn’t have been able to stop it if she wanted to, they were that strong. The sneezes tore mercilessly at her itchy throat as she screamed out the next fit.

“hehhh… HEEEAAASSSSHHHHOO! AAAAERRRSSSHHHEW! HEEEAAARRSSSHHHUH! AAAERGSSSSHHHUH!”

After a full out fit of really massive and powerful sneezes, she finally managed to stop, sniffly and pitiful, and opened her teary eyes.

Delilah and the assistant both looked a little shocked. The assistant held out a handful of tissues, and when Alexandra took them and blew her nose, the assistant also produced a water bottle and a pill.

“Antihistamine. It’s just over the counter, but it should be better than nothing,” she said.

Alexandra was touched by this kindness.

“Thank you, so much. I really apologise about this…” her voice cracked and she had to make the apology again. Her voice wasn’t just thick with congestion, it was also raspy from the throaty sneezes. She sounded like she had the worst cold of her life.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s alright,” Delilah said again, but she looked tired. “I’ll see to it that the feathers are removed.”

“Thank you. Can I go…?”

Delilah waved her off, still looking tired. The assistant helped her get changed into her own outfit and then followed Alexandra – who still sneezed, albeit not with quite the same frequency or volume – to the door. The back door, so she wouldn’t have to face a lot of people on her way out.

“Are you sure you can drive?”

“Yeah. In a few minutes.”

“Okay. That was quite impressive.”

“That’s one word for it. Mortifying is another.”

“Aww, you couldn’t help it, it’s not your fault. Take care of yourself, okay?”

“Thank you. I’ll try.”

“Lee, you’re my assistant, come here and assist, stop flirting with the actors!” Delilah called.

Lee shrugged and smiled sheepishly at Alexandra and then headed back to the main room.

“Lee, please make a note somewhere… no real feathers in any costume or prop for Alex. I don’t want to deal with that again.”

That makes two of us, Alexandra thought as she snuck out the back door, heading for her car, hoping there were tissues or at least some napkins somewhere in there, because the ones Lee had given her were all but used up already.

At least I can skip cardio tonight. That was quite the workout.

 

 

[FireFlower3013]

This was AMAZING! Absolutely loved it! 

[sneezefan222]

1 hour ago, Chanel_no5 said:

***Note***

Yeah so I was thinking about modern day actors having to wear historical clothing for movies/theatre, and specifically corsets, and that worked for me.   (I'm not into historical settings myself, but that... oh yeah.  ) So I brought it up for discussion with a dear friend that... hey, hot sneezy actresses in corsets? Hot?  and she sent me a pic of our mutual actor crush in a dress like that. And the accompanying hat had feathers. Aaaaaaand circumstantial evidence points to her maybe probably being allergic to feathers, and I got very inspired. 

I got so inspired my brain came up with an original scenario along those lines and then I wrote it.  

Not making any promises because it's very dependant on my moods and what I feel gives me the most reward with the least effort (yes I'm lazy), BUT there might be a part two... on stage... allergy meds forgotten...  

But for now, this is what I have.  

*** 

 

“Right, we want this to be as authentic as possible, so you may want to hold on to something while we lace you up,” the costume designer said once Alexandra had the corset on.

“You’re gonna lace it that tight?” she asked.

“I’m sorry about that, but it’s about this area,” Delilah said, gesturing vaguely towards her own chest. “We need to know if it’s enough to lace it tightly or if we need to add some, uh, padding, to get the right visual effect for the neckline.”

Alexandra sighed.

“I understand,” she said, and braced against a doorframe as the other woman imprisoned her into this outfit. Jesus, it was so tight she couldn’t draw a full breath.

“You don’t feel like you’re gonna faint?” Delilah said.

“If I say yes, will you stop pulling my strings?” Alexandra joked in a breathy voice and then let out an equally breathy laugh. “I’m fine.” She tried to take a deep, full breath and the corset creaked forebodingly in response. “But it might need to be a little looser if I’m gonna be able to say my lines and actually move around on stage.”

Delilah loosened it a little bit. She still couldn’t take a deep enough breath to completely fill her lungs without the corset constricting her, but she didn’t think there would be any problems with that; it wasn’t a musical so she wasn’t going to be singing or anything like that.

“Good?” Delilah asked. Alexandra nodded.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

“Ah, and here is my assistant with the dress. It’s absolutely stunning, it’s going to bring out the green in your eyes brilliantly…”

The dress was truly worth Delilah’s pride, it was stunning. Both the neckline and sleeves were decorated with green-dyed faux feathers, and the accompanying hat had even more of them.

“It’s gorgeous,” Alexandra said, and she meant it. Delilah and her assistant beamed at her, and began putting the very elaborate outfit on her. It took both of them, and Alexandra tried to be as still as possible. They ruffled the feathers as they moved, even though they clearly tried to be careful, and some of the fuzz came loose and floated in the air around them. Alexandra thought she might have gotten some of it in her nose, because it started to tickle slightly. She tried to raise her hand to her face and rub her nose, brush the tickle away, but she was immediately chastised by Delilah and told to put her arm down before she wrinkled the dress – the… period outfit with lots of ruffle… of course we couldn’t have that become wrinkly, good heavens no!

Alexandra smiled to herself as she followed the direction – she was an actress, she was used to following directions – but the tickle in her nose remained and she tried wiggling her nose instead.

It didn’t help, and now her nose was starting to feel a bit runny too.

She sniffled. It sounded watery, itchy, like…

Don’t even think about it, Alex.

… like hayfever sniffles. Yes. The kind of wet, itchy-sounding allergic sniffle which would soon be accompanied by fits of violent, harsh allergic sneezes.

It’s not allergies. what would I even be allergic to? I just got some of that fuzz up my nose, if I only sneeze it’ll be over with.

But she didn’t want to sneeze when people were working on the dress she was currently wearing.

At the same time, the sneeze was already building and she didn’t have much of a choice. She held it back, holding her breath and trying to will the urge away, and it seemed to work in that she didn’t sneeze, but she still needed to.

She sniffled again.

“You okay?” the assistant asked, frowning.

“Yes. Uh, actually…” her breath hitched. “I think I’m gonna sneeze…”

“Oh. Um. Could you just… we’re pinning up some fabric on the sleeves so please don’t move your arms right now…” Delilah said. “Just… sneeze straight ahead, okay, don’t bend down either because you’ll sneeze on the dress then.”

Well, duh, Alexandra thought and hitched again, finding that this dress, or rather the corset, was not going to cooperate.

“Hhehh… ISSH! TSHH! Tsssch! KTSH-sshh-Itssh!”

“Bless you. You good?”

“Thanks. Yeah, I’m good.”

She sniffled again, wishing she could rub her nose, because the tickle was still there. Teasing her.

“I’m sorry about that. I think I got something in my nose.”

That something was probably still there, she feared, because there had been no relief whatsoever. But she couldn’t sneeze again, that would be mortifying.

The assistant laughed, but it was a kind laughter.

“Probably some of that feather fuzz, it gets everywhere when you work with it. Probably would have been better with plastic, but someone wanted it authentic,” she said, giving Delilah a wink.

“We need to use less plastic altogether, and this dress is my absolute masterpiece, you bet I’m going authentic,” Delilah said.

“Authentic?” Alexandra said, suddenly alarmed. “You mean… these are real feathers?”

“Yes ma’am. Oh, they’re vintage, though, we haven’t gone out and ripped feathers off any poor birds now!” Delilah said, misinterpreting Alexandra’s concern as being for the birds. Well, in part it was, because she wasn’t big on things like that, but the more acute issue was her feather allergy.

“Well, this sleeve is done,” the assistant said.

“Good job,” Delilah replied. “So is this. You can move your arms now, Alex, but please be gentle.”

Alexandra wasn’t sure if it was the awareness of an allergen so close to her sensitive nose that made the itch so much worse, or if it actually was getting worse, or maybe a combination, but she had to sneeze again.

She brought her hand up to her face – gently – and pinched her nose, not gently.

“Nkkt-nkt-nktt-NNGThh! I’m… s-sohhry… ktssh-tssch-TSSH!”

The second batch of sneezes were caught in her cupped hands, it was instinctual, and she had no idea what to do with her soaked palms once the fit was over.

Which it didn’t seem to be yet.

Oh God she still had to sneeze. The corset was so tight that her lungs couldn’t expand to their full extent, but the need to sneeze simply wasn’t soothed by these rapid, soft, small sneezes.

“…hihhTSSHH! TSSHH! Ihhtssshh! TsschIEW! Oh God… TSH-tshh-TSSCHHeew!”

“Oh my gosh, bless you again! Aww, that’s the cutest sneezes I’ve ever heard,” the assistant cooed, and it was only Alexandra’s naturally gentle and sweet disposition that kept her from slapping the younger woman on top of her head. Her real sneezes were absolutely not ‘cute’, and the only reason they were this soft and kitten-like right now was because she couldn’t draw a deep enough breath in this stupid corset to sneeze normally.

“I need a… ahh… a t-tihh…. Tihh-ISSSHHu! IiiiSSHHew! I need a tissue… ktssh-tsschh-tsshh-TSSH! Ugh… uhhhISSSH!”

Good grief, were they blind to the distress she was in… because of ‘dis-dress’, oh God she had been sneezing so much she was oxygen-deprived, that had to be it, no one could have that bad a sense of humour, not even her.

“Oooh try not to get anything on the dress,” Delilah said in an urgent tone as Alexandra rubbed her nose with the heel of her hand, watery mess running down her upper lip and visibly streaking her wrist and arm. “Hold on, I’ll… I’ll get something for you to cover with… just a second…”

“Hehhhh…iihgtsh! TSSH!-TSSCHH!-GTSSCHiew!”

Delilah handed her an extravagantly embroidered lace-lined handkerchief.

“Here you go, we’re gonna have to wash that before the show anyway…”

Alexandra gratefully took the handkerchief and blew her nose, trying to do it softly at first because she felt she had really embarrassed herself more than enough for one day, but it did very little of anything, so she took as deep a breath as the ridiculously tight-laced corset would allow, and blew hard.

That’s when her mind fully registered what Delilah had just said. The handkerchief had to be washed before the show anyway, so she might just as well use it to snot all over… but why would it need to be washed? It was painfully obvious to her now – because it had been sitting in the storage and gathered dust. She was essentially putting a dust rag to her face.

Great. Feathers and now dust. Why didn’t someone drop a pile of freshly cut grass on top of her, and finished it off by sprinkling some tree pollen on her too? Just to cap it off.

“Okay, we’re going to get you out of the dress before you get snot all over it,” Delilah said, and while there was no venom in her voice, there wasn’t an overabundance of compassion either.

The assistant, who had cooed over how cute Alexandra’s sneezes were, seemed more concerned; she gently stroked the other woman’s upper arm with a warm hand.

“What’s setting you off, poor thing? Are you allergic to something?”

It was admittedly a pretty dumb question, how would she not be allergic to something if she sneezed like this, but Alexandra only nodded. She was pressing the dusty handkerchief over her runny nose and parted lips, knowing it was a really stupid thing to do but opting for a worse allergic reaction over the embarrassment of snotting all over this elaborate outfit.

“What are you allergic to?”

Alexandra tried to answer, but between the congestion and sneezing and the cloth muffling her speech, the assistant didn’t understand her.

“What’s that?”

Alexandra only meant to lower the handkerchief long enough to reply, but the tickle was so strong and she didn’t really have any control over her poor itchy nose at this point, so the inevitable happened.

She sneezed mid-word.

“FeatheehhRSSSHoo!”

She could have given a whole litany of things she was allergic to, but feathers seemed to be the most important one at the moment, so she even excluded the dust. The sneeze was unfortunately uncovered, and even more unfortunately it was very wet, and most unfortunate – Delilah had moved and was right in front of her at that exact moment.

The sneeze sprayed all over the blonde, who recoiled with a disgusted expression, wiping frantically at her face with the sleeve of her blouse.

“Oh God, you sneezed on me, Alex! Eww, that’s gross!”

“I’m so sorry,” Alexandra said, sounding like she was on the verge of tears, but even crying would be shoved aside for sneezing right now, she was so itchy!

She sneezed again, and again, and again, tickly, wet sneezes into the damp handkerchief that really couldn’t take much more before it was oversaturated.

“She’s allergic to feathers, of course she’s gonna sneeze! Have you fucking seen this dress?” the assistant hissed, as if the designer didn’t, you know, design it. “It has more feathers than a fucking pillow factory!”

That was a pretty big exaggeration, but the way Alexandra felt right now it didn’t feel far from the truth. Her eyes burned and watered, her nose streamed, the itch in her throat, ears, nose most of all, was so intense she wanted to claw her whole face off, and she was breaking out in an angry red, itchy rash all over her chest and neck. She scratched at the hives before she even realised what she was doing, and the assistant grabbed her wrist to stop her, almost apologetically.

“Don’t. It’s only gonna get worse if you scratch at it.”

“If you had said anything sooner, we could have avoided this whole mess,” Delilah grunted as she began unlacing the corset locking Alexandra into the sneeze-restricting grip of this dress.

“I didn’t think they were real feathers!” Alexandra defended herself, helplessly out of breath, and sneezed again, another round of ‘cute’ rapid wet sneezes that were woefully inefficient at actually doing anything about the overwhelming prickle. “Aaahihh-KTSshh! Ksshhh! KtSHhih! Oh God… I hardly thoughtTSSHH! The costume budget had increased lately…! hiih-TSSH! tsSCHIih! TSSCH-SSCHH-ISSSHHoo!”

Had her nose ever been this itchy before? Probably. Like pain, you forgot just how bad it was after it was over, it was just a vague memory, but with her hayfever and all the outdoors movie shoots, flowers at awards, photoshoots in lush gardens or underneath flowering trees… yeah, she had been dealing with allergies in work settings before. Many times. That was actually how she had first learned of her feather allergy; when she was doing a model job while in college. It had been one of those angel/devil themes, and Alexandra had had the angel role. She was supposed to sit in a pile of fluffy white feathers while even more floated lazily in the air around her. She had been so itchy after just a little while in that, all over her body, and so miserably sneezy, that she seriously thought she would go insane.

“I’ll go get you some fresh tissues,” the assistant said and left the room.

Delilah struggled with the lacing; Alexandra’s irregular, hitchy breathing and ongoing sneezing fits didn’t make things any easier.

“I’m sorry,” Alexandra managed between sneezes.

“It’s alright,” Delilah sighed, “but if you’re this allergic to commonly used materials, maaaaybe let us designers know in advance?”

Good point. And she often planned to. Too bad she usually forgot.

Oh thank God, free at last, Alexandra thought as the lacing loosened enough that she could draw a deep, full breath, fill her lungs completely…

She doubled over, both hands stapled over her nose and mouth, and let the violent, pent-up force of her allergic sneezes rush through her, unhindered – she wouldn’t have been able to stop it if she wanted to, they were that strong. The sneezes tore mercilessly at her itchy throat as she screamed out the next fit.

“hehhh… HEEEAAASSSSHHHHOO! AAAAERRRSSSHHHEW! HEEEAAARRSSSHHHUH! AAAERGSSSSHHHUH!”

After a full out fit of really massive and powerful sneezes, she finally managed to stop, sniffly and pitiful, and opened her teary eyes.

Delilah and the assistant both looked a little shocked. The assistant held out a handful of tissues, and when Alexandra took them and blew her nose, the assistant also produced a water bottle and a pill.

“Antihistamine. It’s just over the counter, but it should be better than nothing,” she said.

Alexandra was touched by this kindness.

“Thank you, so much. I really apologise about this…” her voice cracked and she had to make the apology again. Her voice wasn’t just thick with congestion, it was also raspy from the throaty sneezes. She sounded like she had the worst cold of her life.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s alright,” Delilah said again, but she looked tired. “I’ll see to it that the feathers are removed.”

“Thank you. Can I go…?”

Delilah waved her off, still looking tired. The assistant helped her get changed into her own outfit and then followed Alexandra – who still sneezed, albeit not with quite the same frequency or volume – to the door. The back door, so she wouldn’t have to face a lot of people on her way out.

“Are you sure you can drive?”

“Yeah. In a few minutes.”

“Okay. That was quite impressive.”

“That’s one word for it. Mortifying is another.”

“Aww, you couldn’t help it, it’s not your fault. Take care of yourself, okay?”

“Thank you. I’ll try.”

“Lee, you’re my assistant, come here and assist, stop flirting with the actors!” Delilah called.

Lee shrugged and smiled sheepishly at Alexandra and then headed back to the main room.

“Lee, please make a note somewhere… no real feathers in any costume or prop for Alex. I don’t want to deal with that again.”

That makes two of us, Alexandra thought as she snuck out the back door, heading for her car, hoping there were tissues or at least some napkins somewhere in there, because the ones Lee had given her were all but used up already.

At least I can skip cardio tonight. That was quite the workout.

 

 

@Chanel_no5 Muy Bueno!!! I hope there’s a part two 

[orcar615]

14 hours ago, sneezefan222 said:

@Chanel_no5 Muy Bueno!!! I hope there’s a part two 

Me too 😁

[maddragon]

Awesome sauce!

[a-and-b-snz]

This was so so good! 😊

[derangest]

Good stuff!!! Thanks for sharing!

[AntheaHolmes]

Oh this is lovely! Really liked those rapid sneezes. Poor Woman! So itchy. 

[pepperbreeze]

On 7/4/2023 at 7:56 AM, Chanel_no5 said:

Alexandra only meant to lower the handkerchief long enough to reply, but the tickle was so strong and she didn’t really have any control over her poor itchy nose at this point, so the inevitable happened.

She sneezed mid-word.

“FeatheehhRSSSHoo!”

This whole story was amazing, but I particularly enjoyed this. Thank you for sharing ❤️