icky sickies

Mirrani could feel the sneeze sitting at the top of her nose. It made her eyes water, and her face itch.

It just hung there, even as she tried moving her face to try to dispel it. She did not want to sneeze while she was trying to make a potion…

“Are you alright?”

She jumped, a terrible movement while squatting, and managed to lose her balance, tipping over into one of the stools in the workroom. It began to fall as well, but its movement was arrested by Violet’s firm hand.

Mirrani managed to get herself upright again, though her head felt like it was swimming in swamp water. As she got onto her feet, it finally struck - the dreaded sneeze. Snot evacuated her nostrils with force, and she groaned miserably.

“Oh, you’re sick,” Violet said.

It wasn’t fair that Violet would even realize… She was a lockette, and Mirrani was pretty sure they couldn’t even get sick…

“Why did you come in today? You should have stayed at home.”

“Well… I have so much to learn… and…” Mirrani quailed under the lockette’s level gaze.

“Haven has sick time laws, you know, you get paid sick days.”

“But I…” Mirrani didn’t know how to say she wasn’t good enough to deserve those, and her mouth closed under that continued gaze.

“They’re not something you have to earn. And they’re important since we work in a profession where people ingest the things we make. What if someone ingested this elixir you just sneezed into? They could get sick along with getting some new horns.” Violet crossed her arms, and shook her head at Mirrani. “Go home, get yourself some mushroom soup, and if you don’t feel better tomorrow, try going to a doctor.”

Mirrani made to begin cleaning up, but Violet stopped her. “I’ll clean it up,” she said. “Unlike you, I can fully disinfect myself.”

“How do you… know all this…?” Mirrani asked. She really had thought it would be fine. Violet wasn’t biological like a dextroluma, there was no reason she should have known about the flu or what to do about it…

“I read,” Violet said calmly. “Stop stalling. We can talk about it when you’re better.”

Mirrani sighed, and went to gather her bag to go home. She really didn’t think she should take a sick day… but she had learned that once Violet said something, it was pretty final. At least… bed and soup did sound good… She wished she could understand any of the books she had, so she could at least be productive, but it was what it was. She’d just have to live with the consequences of her own ineptitude, as always.