(aka a mix of thoughts and random scenarios that have been floating around my mind)
has vasomotor rhinitis ~ by this point in his life, he’s pretty good at recognizing the patterns of what sets him off, but sometimes things catch him off guard
never ever sneezes once. usually they come in little clusters, but sometimes when he’s sick there will be a mix of clusters and drawn out fits. the drawn out snzs tend to happen when he’s sleepy
can stifle well, but it tends to make him sneeze more. when he’s around allergens, the sneezes just get pent up and tumble out if he stifles for too long
chronic blesser. i’m a religious trauma wh/itaker truther and therefore he blesses every single sneeze almost compulsively. he can hear a sneeze from across the pitt and still say bless you even if it’s just under his breath (sometimes when tr/inity sneezes and he blesses her, he gets a “fuck you” in response)
tries to stifle around other people, and usually succeeds when he’s at work — but he typically gets caught/found out anyways since he sneezes in multiples
eventually people in t/he p/itt learn about his "sneezing quirk”, but at first it takes them off guard.
r/obby usually acknowledges the fits, if not by blessing him, then by touch — it might be a simple squeeze on the shoulder, but on occasion r/obby will lean down and murmur a blessing that only d/ennis can hear so as not to embarrass him. i’m talking close enough that d/ennis can feel his breath. close enough that HR should probably be involved.
i can also picture r/obby hearing him snz for the first time and raising an eyebrow while trying not to smile as the cluster ends in a soft, half stifled “ik’schew!”, doing one of the little half laugh/half grunts he does, and mentally noting that d/ennis’s sneeze(s) suit him
or alternatively, j/ack hearing him sneeze and going “jesus kid, you always sneeze like that?” ~ fond but almost strict/firm teasing that makes d/ennis flush red. he usually makes teasing comments about the fits because he enjoys seeing d/ennis squirm/blush
d/ana keeps an extra pack of tissues stocked at the nurses station for him. ofc they have so many tissues since they deal with sick people, but in the case that he needs tissues right then and there, she has them ready to offer
sometimes a patient’s perfume or cologne will set him off, oftentimes it’s not too bad, but on occasion he has actual allergic reactions to them
sneezy when it rains and storms (back to the vasomotor rhinitis)
covers with his wrist, elbow, or fist when he’s stifling — or, if necessary, his shoulder. tries to always cover with his elbow when sneezing unstifled, but sometimes the just sneak up on him and he can’t cover until the second or third sneeze
he doesn’t know how to take a day off for the life of him. oh he’s sick? yeah that’s a personal failure. now he has to work doubly hard to prove that he’s capable (i think this in part stems from his childhood on the farm. he was always “the runt of the litter”. plus, let’s be honest, that man has issues)
his eye bags get EVEN WORSE when he’s sick.
he’s a natural caretaker and doesn’t really shy away from germs. again, he was raised on a farm, he knows how to handle a lot of things that many people would consider gross.
tea drinker when he’s sick. his mom used to swear that a certain brand of lemon tea with honey was a cure-all, and despite leaving a lot of things behind when he moved to pittsburgh, he kept that superstition.
gets really avoidant when he’s sick, but once he gets caught he becomes clingy in spite of his wish to handle it independently. (d: “i can handle this on my own” — r: “i’m sure you can, but you don’t have to”)
sometimes all the warning he has before a fit is a half cough, half breath that kind of stutters out before he starts up.
has quite literally sneezed himself dizzy before because of allergies
his sneezes tend to be on the dryer side. maybe a little spray, especially if he’s been having multiple sneeze-clusters. plus his nose gets stuffy and simultaneously runny during the winter, so they tend to be a little wetter during colder months. when he’s sick they tend to get a little wetter too, often leaving little damp patches on his sleeve, but that’s more because of the number of sneezes than the intensity of the sneezes… if that makes any sense
his sneezes get more vocal when he’s sick, and when he has bad fevers they tend to end in little whines — same with his sleepy sneezes. he can’t really help it.
he doesn’t really ever pinch his nose to stifle since he can generally stifle hands free. plus he tried that a few times and his nose was not happy with him
