The Cure: A short story

[andrewducker]

"As you wish" the demon said, and plunged through his chest, carrying his soul with it.

They fell endlessly, past fiery pits, and walls of jagged iron, ever deeper into a pressure so crushing that even without a body he could sense that the world around him was being heated by the weight of it all.

Creatures swooped around them, their serrated wings cutting close as they plummeted onwards, until there was nothing but darkness and distant stars until at last they saw the end of near-infinite space, and awaiting them a writhing mass of teeth and tentacles which closed around him.
He jerked back to himself, startled to find himself in his body, the demon staring deeply into his eyes, awaiting a response.

"Well?"

The young man pondered silently for a moment, thinking deeply on his internal state.

"I think, maybe, maybe you might ha...hic...dammit."

"Ah well," the demon replied. "If that didn't do it, then let us try the beginning of time, and see if that works instead."

Comments

Say what?

[frith]

You've been playing with that AI text generator gizmo?

Re: Say what?

[andrewducker]

No - Sophia had the hiccups on the way home from nursery, and I was thinking of all of the ways that people try to cure hiccups, and had a sudden idea for a short story.

(I am only very academically interested in the AI text generators. I played with much simpler versions of the idea back in the 90s, and there's nothing new enough there to really grab me.)

Re: Say what?

[autopope]

I have had hiccups intermittently ever since I caught COVID in early June.

Not kidding: random solitary hiccups that come out of nowhere, isolated, and vanish again, every couple of hours, for seven months and counting.

Not as bad as continuous hiccups, but still disturbing! (It suggests vagus nerve damage.)

Re: Say what?

[andrewducker]

That does sound disturbing. I hope that it eventually goes away.

And in the meantime, I don't recommend the use of demons.

Hic transit gloria mundi

[hairyears]

That is disturbing: the list of things the vagus nerve does is both long and surprising.

...And it begs the question: what else is waiting to be be found, in all the people who believed "It's a mild 'flu"?

Re: Hic transit gloria mundi

[autopope]

I also have a persistent tremor in my right hand that wasn't there previously. Mildly annoying, emphasis on "mild" -- I have no loss of function, just degradation of fine motor control. (Grip is fine, strength is fine, if I'm lifting something heavy-ish the tremor is un-noticeable.) As I'm left-handed the day to day impact is minimal; if I could write at all with my right hand I expect my penmanship would be a bit shakier or require more force to hold the point on the paper.

Anyway, nerve damage (possibly CNS damage) is a thing. After that June infection I had brain fog severe enough that I didn't dare write or edit for 40 days afterwards.

Note that this infection didn't give me a positive LFT result at any time -- it bypassed my nose/throat/chest. But transient anosmia was part of it, so I'm about 99% certain it was SARS-NCoV-2.

In contrast the case of Omicron I caught in October was definitely COVID19 (multiple positive tests over a 12 day period), but mostly felt like a bad cold that outstayed its welcome, with no scary neurological effects and maybe a week of brain fog and lassitude total.

So: the fire, next time. And meanwhile, carry a mask ...

[melchar]

You made me smile with that.

Also, best hiccough cure I've found is to sit with a completely rigid and straight posture. Then slowly inhale to the extent of a single breath. Hold the breath as long as is feasible, but not until it hurts. Then slowly exhale while remaining rigidly upright and do this 3 times.

The hiccoughs are usually gone by the first exhale, but I do the 3 just to be sure.

[andrewducker]

That sounds like a good reset method.

[melchar]

I'm pretty sure it re-sets the diaphragm into a more proper place. ^_^