theres hundreds of different viruses that cause the symptoms lumped under the term ‘common cold’. because of this, i raise you contagion caused by the same virus causing suspiciously similar symptoms:
- character A catches a cold. it’s a light, sniffly one that leaves their head running and their throat scratching, but they’re still functional; at the height of it, their nostrils are pink, and their sniffles still sound wet and liquidy. a day or two in, character B starts sniffling with the same sound, and their throat itches and they borrow some tissues as their nose starts to leak relentlessly. cue character B warning people to stay back, they’re sick and it’s definitely contagious.
- character A catches a cold and immediately after a day with an aching throat and a runny nose, they start to sneeze. and sneeze. and sneeze. their nose is so sensitive, and that’s before the stuffyness comes in and theyre wet, too, and character B is unfortunate enough to be in the room when a fit catches them off guard. the next day they’re sniffling, and the day after that they’re sneezing in the same ticklish fits. they start to complain to character A about how they got them sick, but they get interrupted in the middle with a single hitch and another sneezy, drippy mess.
- character A catches a cold that immediately goes to their chest. it’s a wet, rattly cough that makes their voice sound a bit tender and soft when they speak, and quickly evolves into losing their voice completely while still hacking up disgusting phlegm. they don’t even have to see B to know when they’ve caught it; they just hear the same deep cough from down the hall, half-held back, steadily making its way into something wet and productive, and know.
- character A catches a cold that’s just snotty. immediately they’re dripping, and when the congestion settles in the sneezes are thick and wet. at the worst of it they’ve gone through an entire box of tissues. character B catches it (hard not to with that amount of snot) and just think they’ve caught a cold until they heave out a sneeze that sends snot running down their face, and as they clean themselves up they know it’s A’s.
- character A catches a cold that starts light. they’ve got a headache, their throat is a bit sore, their nose kind of sniffly. day two and they obviously aren’t feeling like themselves; they’re sniffling and blowing their nose, and their voice gets increasingly stuffy as the day goes on. day three and they’re sick, carrying a pack of tissues around with them and not always catching all the thick sneezes and nose drips and not washing their hands after blowing their nose. day four and they even look congested, their nose bright red and their lips chapped, they’re pale, they have a fever and pink, watery eyes, and halfway through the day they’re laid up in bed with an entire box of tissues breathing through their mouth, too stuffed to sleep and too miserable to do anything and developing a thick cough to go along with it all. character B starts to get a twinge in their throat and a drippy nose and thinks nothing of it until day two, when they wake up feeling definitely under the weather and they know. they try to fend it off with orange juice and tea, but it’s too late; it hits them full force, the full wet, drippy, stuffy, feverish experience. they’re still up and around in day three; they’re obviously sick, and people are commenting on it. “sday bacg,” they warn between awful, gurgling nose blows, “you don’d wand do cadch this…” (unfortunately, both A and B have left enough of the virus hanging around for everyone)
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