It’s a lovely day on the hermitcraft server the sun is shining, birds are singing, scar hasn’t accidentally blown up any redstone it’s a good day! Well that’s what Doc would say if there wasn’t the small tiny issue of the fact he and Ren are having to help Gem through an asthma attack. This shouldn’t have even happened?! Now as much as Ren and Doc like testing the boundaries of what reality can allow without it all come crumbling down like it did in s8. Which they will admit not their finest moment as a pair. They take the safety of their other partners very seriously especially since it’s been learned Gem was a bee hybrid!
Which in hindsight made a lot of sense now that gem thinks about it. Why she enjoys honey based desserts, why she randomly found herself stuck to her ceiling sometimes after a nap, and her insane dancing skills. Sorry Mumbo this year she’s taking the dance competition trophy! But it also explained why her eyes always hurt when she was near smoke and fires it’s because her lungs weren’t designed to process it! Which led to the current situation of where she tried to help Doc and Ren make a tnt cannon to help clear some rubble around Tango’s base. One minute everything’s fine the next minute she’s having an asthma attack!
Ren and Doc don’t know what went wrong?! They didn’t use any sort of fire or smoke in the construction they made sure tango kept a safe distance, and they made double sure that the tnt blocks were kept dry as possible before being loaded! Until it clicked it was summer and they were building on the hottest day of the year with a bee hybrid who is known to overwork herself. How can they be such huge idiots! They rushed Gem over to Tango’s base where it was nice and cool letting everyone know what happened with Gem saying she was fine all the while. Gem you can barely see and you’re coughing so hard it hurts you are not fine young lady!
But luckily for all the attack passes and Gem is now under strict supervision by Doc and Ren to make sure she doesn’t overdo it for the rest of the day. For Pete sake’s she isn’t defenseless people?! Now she knows how scar feels every time Grian and Cleo worry over him.
They hadn't realised the effects the weather would have, combined with the smoke from the TNT and the debris it kicks up. Usually it would only give her a slight cough and make her drowsy, but everything combined into the perfect poison for her delicate lungs.
As annoying as the lot of them are, it's not terrible having Doc and Ren trail after her like sad puppies all day (in Ren's case, literally.) Very useful for carrying heavy things. They don't want her to overwork herself, do they!
Either way, she'll try and remember to stay more hydrated next time... Try, at least.
I have no idea why this didn't register with me at all, but seeing Roman feeling little too on the IC blog actually breaks my heart! Like I just never considered that he'd also be really stressed out with them arguing or that he would feel better little! Just AAH! He's just a prince doing his best!!!! WAAAH! (Haha, but seriously this is amazing!) -T
he is a lil stressed but hes only little bc he wants to be ! but it did scare him to see patton go thru an asthma attack bc he obv cares abt him a lot and yeah it might be easier to feel scared when hes little bc then he feels he has an "excuse" for his feelings
Lucas Boyd had forgotten to take his inhaler for almost two weeks, and he woke up in the middle of the night, breathing like his lungs were filled with gravel. He did what any frightened child would do; he went to his mother. For the rest of his life, he’d ask himself why he didn’t note the smell of vodka on her breath.
Florence Weber didn’t call an ambulance, because she’d lost her health insurance last month, and she couldn’t think straight, and her little boy’s lips were turning blue.
She picked him up, forgetting to lock the apartment door behind them, nearly dropping her car keys down the steps. She sat her son in the passenger’s seat, patting a hand over his curls and cradling his face for a split second, before she shut the door and circled around to the driver’s seat. It all happened so fast, Lucas nearly forgot to buckle his seatbelt.
(Later, he’d learn his mother had forgotten to do so entirely.)
She kept one eye on the road, and one eye on her son and how the air grating its way into his system. He could hardly see out the window, through the darkness and the rain. “It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay,” she assured, voice harried and breathy, fingers shaking on the steering wheel. “Just breathe for me, baby, it’ll be okay.”
Lucas was trying, keeping his head up and his hand plastered to his chest. Every breath was a chore, like he was drowning, like he was breathing through glass. One caught in his throat, and he gave a hacking cough around it.
Florence reached out to him with one hand, other hand shifting on the wheel, to steady him, to comfort him-.
(Later, he’d learn that his mother had been doing 65 in a 40 on impact.)
He felt it before anything else, the most sickening jolt he’d ever experienced (the one that haunted his nightmares for years to come), the seatbelt going taut and his neck whipping down and his nose, just his nose, slamming against the dashboard. Then came the deafening smash of glass, the crunch of metal, a bloodcurdling thwack, the blinding light of the other car’s headlights.
When it was over, Lucas woke up slumped over the dashboard, the rain tap-tap-tapping on the surface of the car, unsure if it had been moments or hours. He looked up, seeing nothing but their hood crumpled right in front of him. Over his ringing ears and hitching breath, he realized that the airbags in their old car hadn’t gone off.
Lucas did what any frightened child would do; he went to his mother.
Her mangled corpse faced away from him, which was probably a good thing. He got enough of a picture by how much of her was painted on the shattered windshield.
(Later, he’d learn that his mother died on impact, her skull piercing her frontal lobe.)
Fully unreal and shaking to his core, Lucas barely managed to unbuckle himself. After an eternity of grasping for the car door with his feeble fingers, the fresh night air hit him, and he poured himself onto the concrete.
On the cold pavement, he was real again. His head pounded, his neck ached, his ribs throbbed with every desperate inhale. Lucas Boyd watched his blood drip onto the ground with the rainwater and thought, This is real. He tried to scream, tried until his throat went raw, but the weakness in his lungs tapered out every cry.
The paramedics found him twenty-seven minutes later, a trembling, wheezing, sobbing, coughing, wretching mass of skin and bones: lips turned blue, pajamas painted red, clinging to life with every agonizing breath. And, for better or for worse, Lucas Boyd was still alive.
Characters: Bella and Nora (OCs)
Warnings: none
POV: Third Person
Word Count: 2455
Just 2,000 more words. That’s all she needed. 2,000 more words and her final paper for Accelerated Women’s Literature would be complete. If only the words would stop moving on the screen. Or if only her bones would stop aching. Or if only it was not so damn cold in her bedroom.
Bella adjusted the blanket around her shoulders, suppressing a shiver as she frantically typed on her keyboard. The little clock on the corner of her laptop read 1:53AM. She had been working on this paper ever since she came home at 9:00PM after closing the coffee shop for the night. It was due the next day, and somehow she had completely forgotten about it.
The past week had been stressful. She had taken on five classes this semester as well as juggling full-time work. Between early mornings and late nights at the coffee shop, and hours upon hours of reading and writing and studying, she was burnt out. Now, finals week was upon them. She had three papers to write, one project, and four exams. Luckily, everything was mostly done as a result of little to no sleep. Bella could not even remember the last time she went to bed before 4:00AM, and most days she was awake by 6:00AM.
Everything was mostly completed by now, except for this stupid paper. Bella stared at the screen, trying to make the words stop floating away. She was absolutely exhausted. Her eyelids kept trying to droop closed, but she forced them open each time. Her body felt like it had been run over by a truck, and then the truck reversed and backed over her again.
If she was not mistaken, she would think she was getting sick. But that was impossible, because she never got sick. As a result of living with three older brothers, her immune system was strong and capable of handling anything. She was confident her symptoms were from nothing more than exhaustion, and after class tomorrow, she could sleep for twenty-four hours straight and everything would be fine.
There was a faint knock at her door, and she turned in her chair to see Nora peek in.
“Bella? It’s 2AM, you should be asleep,” Nora said, her voice thick with sleep.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” Bella apologized, wincing at how rough her voice sounded.
Nora shook her head. “You didn’t. I had to pee. Don’t you have to wake up in a few hours?”
“I’ll be fine,” Bella turned back to her paper. “Go back to bed.”
“Bella…” Nora walked in and put her hand on Bella’s shoulder. “You have barely been sleeping all week. You need to rest.”
Bella waved her off. “I need to finish this paper and then I’ll go to bed.”
“Bella…”
“I’m fine!” Bella did not mean to raise her voice, and she lowered it to a whisper. “I’m sorry. I just really need to finish this. It’s due tomorrow and I completely spaced it.”
“Just please try and get some rest,” Nora squeezed her shoulder before leaving the room.
Bella sighed, holding her head in her hands once Nora was gone.
She would rest after graduation.
Bella finally finished the essay at 4:07AM. Without even bothering to edit it, she printed it out and tossed it into her book bag before collapsing into bed. Within minutes, she was asleep, but it did not last long.
Her alarm blared at 6:00AM and she groaned. She reached over and turned it off before rolling over onto her back.
That’s when it hit her.
She felt miserable.
Her sinuses were pounding, her nose was blocked, her throat was sore, and the aches and pains were increased tenfold.
I think I’m dying, she thought, rubbing her hands over her face.
Chills shook her frame as she crawled out of bed, and she wrapped her arms around herself as she made her way into the bathroom her and Nora shared.
Nora would not be awake for another hour, which gave her time to be miserable in peace.
Bella turned on the hot water, filling the room with steam. She tried to breathe it in, but it just made her sputter and cough as she placed a hand on her chest. The coughs rattled her lungs and she tried to gulp in air, but it was hard. It felt like her lungs were closing in, and for a moment, she thought she was going to have to grab her inhaler. But finally, they opened back up and she was able to breathe again.
Her asthma never proved to be an issue except when she was sick. Except she was not sick right now. Nope, she was fine. Just fine.
Bella chose to drive the short distance to the college today. She honestly did not think she would have made it if she walked, and would have ended up collapsed in a ditch somewhere, and so far during the eight-minute drive, she had counted ten increasingly desperate sneezes. Each one tore up her throat and did nothing to alleviate the pressure in her sinuses. Worse, she had no tissues and had to resort to stifling and wiping with the sleeve of her jacket. It was disgusting.
She finally made it to campus just as another sneezing fit had her breath hitching.
“Hih… hih… h’etchu! Hi..e’sch! Hih-tchh!”
Bella sniffled thickly, just barely moving the congestion in her nasal passageways. She leaned her head against the headrest, trying to alleviate some of the pressure. It didn’t help.
Grabbing her bag, she got out of the car and was met with the cold, damp air. The walk to the classroom was about fifteen minutes, and she found herself wheezing on the way there. She had not wheezed for years.
That’s weird, she thought as she struggled to pull air into her lungs. A coughing fit took over halfway to class and she had to stop as she doubled over from the hacking. Her wheezing grew more prominent, and for a second, she almost started to panic.
Relax, Bella, you’re fine. Slow, even breathes…
She took a couple slow breathes through her mouth, since her nose was useless at the moment. She ignored how they made her lungs crackle, and instead focused on getting the wheezing under control. It was still there, but not as loud.
The walk took twice as long as it should have, but she slid into a chair just as the professor walked in. After this lecture, she was home free.
Nora quickly silenced her phone without looking at the screen as if began to vibrate during her Marketing class. Even on vibrate, it was still loud as it shook in her bag. But not even a minute later, it was vibrating again. She chanced to peek when the professor was not looking, and noticed Bella’s face in the caller ID.
She glanced at her watch; it was only 8:34AM, and Bella’s class did not end until 10. Something wasn’t right.
She remembered walking into Bella’s room last night, noticing the dark circles under her eyes, her complexion that was much too pale for her normally tanned skin. The way she snapped when Nora suggested she go to bed, and how stressed out she had been the last week.
Without thinking, Nora grabbed her bag and left. She ignored the inquisitive looks from the other students and the glare the professor gave her as she left. This was important.
She picked up when Bella called her the third time.
“What’s wrong?” She quickly asked.
“Nora…” Bella’s voice sounded on the other end, but it sounded forced and rough.
“Bella, are you okay?”
“I… I c-can’t…” Nora could hear her wheezing through the phone, and her heart jumped into her chest. She knew Bella had asthma. She had seen the inhaler in the bathroom cabinet when they first moved in together. She had grilled her on the topic, wanting to know why she had it. Bella had told her she had not needed it for years, but kept it just in case.
“Bella, please tell me you have your inhaler with you.”
There was silence except for the audible wheezing. Then there was coughing, the deep, chesty hacking that made Nora wince. This was not good.
“N-No…” Bella rasped. “Nora… I can’t…. breathe.”
Nora knew where Bella’s Women’s Literature class was. She immediately turned and started walking in that direction, keeping Bella on the phone.
“Just stay on the phone, okay? I’m on my way.”
She didn’t need Bella to talk, she just needed to hear that she was still breathing.
She found Bella sitting outside the classroom, her back pressed against the wall and her knees pulled to her chest. Her head was resting on top of her knees, and her whole body was shaking.
Nora knelt down beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Bella?”
Slowly, Bella lifted her head. She had tear marks streaming down her face, but no new tears were flowing. Her eyes were red and puffy and stood out against her stark white face. Her mouth was slightly open as she struggled to pull air in and wheezing with each breath.
“Okay,” Nora said, contemplating their options. Bella needs to go to the clinic. They should have inhalers or something to help. “Okay, this is what we are going to do.”
Bella watched her as Nora stood back up. But then her nose crinkled up and her already wheezy breath started to hitch.
“Heh… hi-heh… h’ketchu!” Bella ducked her head into her elbow. “Snnnff…”
“Oh, darling…” Nora shook her head. “We are going to the clinic. Can you stand?”
Bella nodded and pushed up from the floor, but she nearly crumpled back down before Nora caught her. Even through her shirt, Nora could feel how warm she was. Once Bella was standing, she pressed the palm of her hand against her forehead, and was greeted with a burning heat she had been expecting.
Bella was sick, and possibly on her way to having an asthma attack.
Bella leaned heavily on Nora the entire way to the campus clinic. Her entire focus was getting air into her lungs, a task that was becoming increasingly difficult. She felt so winded and out of breath, and no matter how many breaths she took, it was never enough. Her chest hurt and her head was pounding and every time she sneezed or coughed, it felt like someone was running knives down her throat.
Nora whispered encouraging words to her as Bella did her best to put one foot in front of the other. Finally, after what felt like hours, they made it into the clinic.
“We need help! She has asthma,” Nora told the front desk as soon as she settled Bella into a chair. “She doesn’t have her inhaler, and she has a fever!”
Minutes later, a volunteer and a nurse were beside her and taking her into a room. The nurse put a cold stethoscope to her chest and she shivered at the contact. After listening to a couple different spots on her chest and back, the nurse shook her head and removed the stethoscope.
“Go grab one of the spare inhalers,” she instructed the volunteer before grabbing a thermometer out of her pocket. She slipped on a probe cover and slipped it under Bella’s tongue.
A full minute later, it beeped and the nurse retracted it.
“102.1,” she said, giving Bella a sympathetic look. “You are one sick puppy, my dear.”
Bella was barely paying any attention. The room had begun to spin, and she was still wheezing as they waited for the volunteer to return.
“Can I… can I lay down?” She asked, feeling as if she would pass out right there.
The nurse helped her lay back against the vinyl bench in the exam room, and Bella closed her eyes as she listened to her own breathing.
Where is Nora?
She noticed her friend had not followed them into the room. Pushing herself up a little bit, she looked around.
“What’s wrong, hun?” The nurse asked.
“Where is…” she had a pause to wheeze, coughing as her lungs rattled. “my friend?”
“She’s in the waiting room. Would you like me to go get her?”
Bella nodded, leaning back against the bench.
The nurse retuned with Nora the same time the volunteer returned with the inhaler. Nora kept a hand on Bella’s back to keep her upright as the nurse helped her push down the plunger. The medicine flowed into her lungs and opened up her airway. It was followed by a second puff that opened everything up even more, and when the nurse pulled the inhaler away from her lips, Bella let out a relieved sigh.
“Thank you…” she breathed.
“We will keep you here for a little while longer to keep an eye on you, and then you can go.” The nurse told her before pulling the curtain and leaving the room with the volunteer on her heels.
Bella laid back down and took deep breathes, pulling them in and out through her mouth. She still felt horrible, but as least now she could breathe.
“Bella?”
She turned to look at Nora, who had been holding her hand.
When did that happen? she thought, looking at their interlaced fingers.
“Hmm?” She replied after noticing Nora was waiting for a response.
“Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling good?”
Bella turned her head to cough, trying to clear her throat and make her voice less raspy. It didn’t help. “I thought I was fine.”
Nora rolled her eyes. “Obviously not.”
“I know,” Bella croaked. She tried to sit up and Nora helped her. “I thought I was just tired.”
“Well, look where not sleeping has landed you,” Nora said, gesturing to the tiny exam room. “You really need to take care of yourself.”
“I know…”
“You scared the hell out of me, Bella.”
Bella winced, almost as if Nora’s words had physically hurt her. “I’m sorry, I really am. I should keep my inhaler with me. It’s just that I haven’t needed it for so long.”
“Not just that,” Nora gave her hand a squeeze. “You need to sleep. You need to eat. All this stress isn’t good for you.”
Bella stared at her shoes, not meeting Nora’s eyes.
“As soon as they let you go, I’m taking you straight home. And I am going to go and buy you tissues and medicine and we will just cuddle on the couch and watch the Little Mermaid. And you are going to sleep. Okay?”
Bella smiled and gave Nora a sheepish look. “Promise?”
Warnings: descriptions of an asthma attack/panic attack
It happened right after school, when really, all that Dustin wanted to do was to escape from that hellhole and get back home.
Today, he was even more excited about the weekend. Instead of some vague plans involving his computer, research and some practice with his mother, he actually had real plans. To hang out with someone. With an actual human being. Hopefully Quinn didn’t just ask him if he wanted to hang out this weekend because he felt like he had to after the Christmas present. Although technically the other boy was the first to give him a present.
What he wasn’t excited about was going back to school next Monday. If he was unlucky, is French teacher would be quick at grading the unannounced French vocabulary test she gave her students today. A test that Dustin no doubt had done very poorly on. How the hell was he supposed to remember all those strange words that looked nothing like their English equivalent?! French was the most useless subject ever. When was he ever going to use the language? He didn’t even know any French people.
When he noticed something move in the treeline, he stopped dead in his tracks, squinting his eyes. Was this a person? An animal? For a moment, it seemed like nothing was there but the trees, but then something moved again. It’s wasn’t the leafs, definitely not. Dustin tried to make out the shape of the thing that moved, but failed. What was going on?
Now, the safest thing to do would be to keep on walking home. Maybe take a picture with his phone and then try his luck with google. Dustin wasn’t a fan of things that were safe.
Without thinking, he made his way towards the treeline. Whatever this was, he had to get a better look at it, and the only way to do that was to get closer. He’d be careful. If anything looked like it could attack him, he would retreat. Definitely.
Once he was finally standing in between the first trees, he was a little stumped. No matter which direction he looked at, there was nothing moving except the branches in the wind and a couple of birds flying from tree to tree. But that thing hadn’t been a bird. That thing had been strange. He could feel it. Sighing, he pulled his scarf closer around his neck to shield his skin from the cold January breeze. He had a been to this part of the forest a thousand times before, but today it didn’t feel safe. Far from it.
Dustin couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment it appeared in front of him, or where it had even come from. Suddenly, it was just there, looming right in front of his face. He couldn’t say what it was. It didn’t even have a solid shape. It was… Like mist. Pitch black mist. Completely black, except for the two small, evil white eyes that stared down at him.
His feet were running away before his brain had time to register what the hell was happening. He didn’t care what this was, he just needed to get away. As far away as possible. He became aware of how bad an idea it was to run deeper into the forest when trees kept blocking his path, but it was too late to turn around. He just needed to run as fast as possible.
The books in his backpack kept hitting his back when he jumped over a log. He ignored the pain. That was one thing he was good at, just not giving a fuck about pain. His breathing was loud in the quiet forest. He couldn’t hear the creature at all. Was it right behind him? He was too scared to look.
He kept running, his heart beating like a drum inside his ribcage, the pain in the side of his stomach becoming almost too much to ignore. His breath was becoming ragged, almost like this thing was sucking out all oxygen from the forest, but he knew that wasn’t true. No, this was just his own sucky lungs. He tried to keep running.
In the end, he had to stop before he could suffocate, his knees hitting the wet forest ground as he took in a couple of fast, shallow breaths. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
The only thing stopping him from screaming out loud when something touched his neck was the fact he didn’t think he had enough lung capacity to scream. Whirling around, he faced the thing that touched him – but there was nothing. His heart was still racing. What the actual fuck?! He turned around, then round again, until he was almost dizzy, but there was nothing strange out there anymore. It was just gone. The only reminder that something had happened the pressure on his chest and the wheezing sound escaping his mouth every time he tried to draw in a breath. This wasn’t good. This was very, very far from being good. He was somewhere into the woods, with no idea how far it was to get back to the road, with a monster without a clear shape somewhere roaming around the trees. And it had touched him. Fuck, what had it done to him? He knew that it probably hadn’t taken his breath away, no, that had been stupid idea to run away into the forest.
Dustin tried to draw in another deep breath, but it felt like no air was reaching his lungs. Fuck. This was it. This was how his life was going to end: taken by an asthma attack after running for a few minutes. And despite the monster gone, despite the hope that it probably would not come back, his heart was not slowing down. If anything, it kept beating faster and faster. Sinking to his knees, Dustin took off his backpack, closing his eyes for a second. Calm down. You’ve never died from your asthma before. Calm the fuck down. He exhaled in between coughs, his hand reaching for his inhaler from the front pocket of his backpack. You’re not going to die today.
*OOC. ------ I'm currently sick, not sure what with. All I know is that I had an asthma attack last night and got really achy, then woke this morning to an incredibly chesty cough that really hurt my throat and my chest is all rattly, but I've also got a killer headache too. I'm not sure how much, if any writing I'll get done over the next few days to be honest.
had an asthma attack that triggered a panic attack since im teaching kids in the middle of a pandemic that attacks the fucking respiratory system so i’ll be in ims only today. i’m fine, didn’t get tested bc my breathing and temp were fine, just asthmatic, but im shaken up and tired af lmao
