The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Marissa

When Marissa woke up on Tuesday, she groggily went through her normal routine. It was a struggle to get out of bed, but she managed it. After a ten minute doom scrolling session on her phone, admittedly, but she still got up.

As she brushed her teeth, took a short shower, and had a very small breakfast of a single pop tart, she couldn't help but feel sluggish and drained.

The last four days had been rough. Starting with Friday, it just felt like she couldn't catch a break. Julie had gotten sick on Thursday and not come in for work - which was good, because Marissa didn't want anyone near their food while sick. And she didn't really mind working alone on Thursday - the solo work was fine once in a while during the week when they weren't super busy.

Friday was the start of the bad news, however. Julie called to let Marissa know that it was the flu, so she'd probably not be back until sometime the following week. Which, again, Marissa thought was for the best because no one wanted to see someone sneezing, coughing, or anything of the sort in a bakery where they were buying food.

When Saturday rolled around, though, Sarah also ended up sick. The woman had even tried to come in and work anyway, knowing that if she called out it would leave Marissa alone to handle the weekend rush. But when she showed up, she was so clearly ill that Marissa had to send her home. There was no way that Marissa would let her work looking half dead.

And so began Marissa's weekend from hell. It wasn't the first time she had to work the entire weekend on her own, and she was sure it wouldn't be her last.

By the time she closed up on Sunday, she felt so physically exhausted that she wasn't sure she'd be able to even open on Monday. But she did anyway. She was taking extra precautions to make sure she wasn't overworking herself, making sure she closed for some time to eat meals and take short breaks when she could. If nothing else, she knew that if she also got sick, she would just have to not open at all.

So, she took the small breaks in stride wherever she could, and worked through the extended solo weekend. She even opted to take a long, hot bath on Monday night to try to loosen up her muscles and relax so she wouldn't lock up or end up overly sore on Tuesday.

It didn't help, in the end. As she hobbled down the stairs toward the bakery on Tuesday morning, her back was killing her, her shoulders were incredibly tight, her legs were practically wobbly with soreness, and she had the beginnings of a headache.

Trying to look on the bright side as she opened up the door to the bakery's kitchen, she told herself that once she was actually working and moving around, most of the soreness would probably go away. She just needed to move the muscles.

The worst part, however, were her feet. She had barely gotten started yet, and her soles were already on fire. She wasn't sure what it was that had started them hurting, either; she hadn't gotten new shoes or socks recently, and she already spent most of her work day on her feet even with Julie and Sarah around.

In the end, though, it didn't really matter. It had gotten to the point that standing and walking genuinely hurt, so she had to just do her best to keep it out of mind.

By the time 6 a.m. rolled around and she needed to open the bakery, she was in a slightly better mood. Sarah and Julie had both called - they would be working the next two days to allow Marissa a break now that they were both feeling better. She just needed to get through Tuesday, and she'd be alright.

Getting through the full day of work was simply impossible for her in the end. An hour and a half after she ended her short lunch break, Marissa could no longer feel her feet. Whether it was from her body finally getting used to the pain or just general numbness, she wasn't sure - but she took it as a sign that she needed to get off her feet for a while.

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She opted to finish helping the last few customers in the store and flip the sign to "Closed" a little early. It was around two hours early, but she had gotten past the lunch rush at least. She quickly did the clean up in the front and went over her closing checklist in the front so she wouldn't be in the storefront when more people came by.

She did make sure to write a quick note and post it on the door, letting her regulars know that they had sick staff and would just be closing early today. Wednesday and Thursday would be back to normal.

With that done, Marissa went back to the kitchen to clean up. She was pretty sure that if she sat down again she wouldn't be getting back up, so despite feeling run down she forced herself to get through the clean up. Half an hour later, she had the kitchen fully cleaned for Julie and Sarah the next day and was able to shut everything down and muddle her way back upstairs.

It was around quarter to two when she got upstairs and plopped herself down on her small sofa. When she closed her eyes and leaned her head back to take a deep breath, she immediately regretted sitting. Before she could actually settle in, she fought back to her aching feet - she desperately wanted out of her work clothes.

As she slowly stripped off the layers of professional wear, she made the executive decision to take a bath. A good one, too, with one of the bath bombs she had gotten as a gift and had never used. She fought her way out of her pants as she wondered whether bath bombs can go bad; she couldn't even remember when she had gotten the ones that sat uselessly under her bathroom sink.

When Marissa finally got to peeling her socks off, the cool air hitting her feet was an immediate relief. It felt so nice to have the socks removed that she actually mildly concerned something was wrong and she inspected her feet. They seemed alright, maybe a little puffy and red, but her socks had left a bit of a texture on them. It wasn't too concerning on its own, but she was glad that she wouldn't need to work the following day. It seemed like her feet needed a solid break.

With most of her clothing discarded into a laundry basket, she hobbled over to her bathroom. The older apartment didn't have that many newer amenities, but one thing it did have was a solid bath tub. It wasn't anything fancy - just a standard bath and shower combo with a shower curtain - but it was big.

Or at least big enough for her to fit inside comfortably. And perhaps more importantly, it was shaped in such a way that she could actually relax in it. No awkward bends against her back or neck. It was just a nice, simple reclined back.

She started running the water. One other nice thing about being above a bakery was that she had access to a pretty intense water heater, which meant minimal waiting for hot water. Once it was running near-scalding, she put the plug in the drain and waited for it to fill.

It didn't take long to fill, so she used the time by digging out the bath bomb. She groaned as she leaned forward, her back creaking with the motion of accessing the under-sink storage. She was able to retrieve the apparently lavender scented bomb, and unwrapped it. It was pretty well sealed in a tight plastic that she hoped would mean it had some efficacy left despite being probably a few years old. At least.

With the hot bath filled, she dropped the little ball into the water before gingerly climbing in herself. Slowly, she settled in with an absolutely sinful sounding moan as the heat from the water immediately helped relax some of the tension in her body. She took a minute to just relax, eyes closed, head back, with some deep breaths.

She opted to not just take a nap in the bath, despite feeling positive that she could. The bath bomb fizzed somewhat pathetically, so she guessed to herself that they did indeed have some kind of expiration date. But it smelled nice, and that was enough to at least make the bath more pleasant.

She did have the foresight to prepare some entertainment. She reached over to grab her phone off the closed toilet seat; she had put her phone into a little plastic baggie to avoid it getting wet, and set up a waterproof bluetooth speaker by the bath. It took just a moment to get her phone connected and play one of her favorite audiobooks. It was one she had listened to more than once already, but she loved the series and it was a perfect, feel-good read to relax with.

With another deep breath and a slight, full-body shiver, she settled into the water and let herself drift idly.

By the time 4:30 rolled around, Marissa was no longer sure whether the bath had been a good idea. She felt, generally speaking, much better than she had when she went in. She felt clean and refreshed, but the weekend's soreness hadn't really gone away. It had been soothed a bit by the hot water, but when she eventually had to stand and move again, she found herself stiff despite the heat.

She was pretty sure that a hot bath was supposed to help with that, but didn't exactly have anyone to blame for it not working for her. Once she was more or less towel dried, she gathered up some loose pajamas - an old, oversized tee shirt and old, worn-out pajama bottoms - and threw on a loose fitting robe over them. It wasn't exactly pretty, but it was comfortable.

She did have to put a little effort into drying her hair before sitting at her PC because she didn't want her headset getting wet. But once that was done, she all but collapsed into her desk chair. She had to poke the power button on her PC with her foot because she simply had no desire whatsoever to get down on the floor to get it with her hands.

Once everything was booted up, she did her best to sit up somewhat straight. Just enough to get her hands on her mouse and keyboard. It may have been more relaxed, but she really didn't care for playing with a controller.

As she clicked through the log-in process for Mag Mell and selected Hibiscus, she took a few more deep breaths, just trying to relax and calm her pounding head. She had taken some medicine for her headache earlier, but whether it was the unintended nap in the bath or something else, she hadn't managed to shake the pounding behind her eyes.

When she slipped on her headset and joined the Clan Nettle Tea chat server while Hibiscus loaded into the game, she couldn't help but smile.

"You bet your ass we're not starting until I'm done eating." Jazz said petulantly.

"We don't need Aleister anyway," Evan chirped, "You've got me to tank. All Aleister ever does is look like an edgy pretty boy while throwing shade everywhere. Pun intended."

"Hey, Bisky. How's it going?" Kieran asked, trying to change the subject.

"Do I have to answer that?" Marissa said, adding a bit of rasp to her voice, trying to sound extra tired. Maybe a little sick, even.

"Oof. You sure you're okay to play?" Evan asked.

"I'll be alright." Marissa said, happy at least to talk to her friends. "I've just been working alone all weekend, and I think it's finally catching up with me."

"No Julie or Sarah?" Kieran asked, concerned.

"They were both sick, so no. Just me."

"Damn. You really need a break, Bisky. Don't overdo it."

"I won't. They're both coming in tomorrow and Thursday, so I'm going to have two full days off to rest."

"And you're actually going to just rest." Kieran said, clearly unbelieving.

"Yes."

"You're not going to just go work anyway?" Evan asked, joining in the fun.

"No." Marissa said, then continued before anyone could add more, "You guys, I honestly feel like death right now. I don't think I could work even if I wanted to. I closed up early today as is."

"You." Kieran said, astonished, "You closed up early?"

Marissa let out a weak chuckle. "Sure did. Then I failed to take a nice bath because my bath bombs are all several years old."

"Oh, yeah, those only last a few months, usually. Not that they won't work after that, but they definitely don't work right after it." Evie said.

"Well, we've got the whole team here now." Ash said, as Marissa finally felt like she was coming back to life a bit. The bath and relaxing had been nice, but the inane chatter from her friends had done in two minutes what she had failed to do all day.

She felt relaxed and at home.

"What's the plan?"

"Well, Allie said no doing anything until she's done eating." Evan said, returning to the previous topic. The only response to Evan's prodding was Ash suddenly snorting with laughter.

"What?" Nyx asked, clearly confused. Marissa was in agreement with the question.

"Aleister might be a bit. She's currently fighting against a big burger. Looks like she's losing." Ash said, between fits of giggles.

The group was still set up basically where Marissa had logged off the previous Thursday - on the top of the [Dagda's] small mansion, ready to use their new flight capabilities to fight back against the Fomorians.

"Well, Aleister can catch up," Kieran said, clearly sounding impatient. "We should at least get moving off the roof here."

"I don't mind waiting," Firo said.

"Me either." Marissa croaked. She was honestly just enjoying listening to the chatter.

"How long you think you'll be, Allie?" Evan asked.

Marissa heard a click, as if Jazz had unmuted her mic, to just respond with a single word that was barely understandable through her mouthful of food.

"Hamburber."