An experienced soap maker is treating the burns of someone new to the craft.
"I told you to add the lye to the water, not water to the lye!"
ow... that hurts... what's the difference?
"Severe burns and scalding hot water jetting back at you due to the reaction! At least pouring it in to the water rather than having it under the water allows the gasses to escape BEFORE you mix it!" -- Lessons
The tap was whining at Zienn as the water flowed over hir burns. And no wonder, it had a lot of acreage to wash. The shock of the accident had yet to kick in, so ze joked, "At least I learned what 'explosive exothermic reaction' really means, now."
"You're lucky it didn't get on your face," grumbled Maan as she directed the flow to a shower-like spray, getting a wider coverage over the effected area. "I'd have had to bundle you into emergency decon and hose you off. If I hadn't yelled for you to stop in time..." She shuddered. "You could have lost an eye. You could have lost your life."
Zeinn was still sailing high on hir own adrenaline. "I didn't think it was that bad. The ERT's are pretty quick."
"Lye. Eats. Flesh," Maan was clearly resisting her urge to shake Zeinn. "It's the part of the soap that dissolves the fats and oils. Having it burn your skin means that it near instantly sinks past that, eating all the fats and oils as they go. Destroying your muscles. If you're not careful, lye will eat a hole right down to your bones."
Zeinn hissed, noticing how much hir injuries hurt, at last. The adrenaline was wearing off. "So I shouldn't have yelled at you for yelling at me, huh?"
"We can play the blame game after the lye's completely neutralised," sighed Maan, checking a nearby chronometer. "Which is in four more minutes.
Zeinn was starting to shake. "We can do that on the way to Medical, right?"
"I'll get you a lev-chair when I'm certain I've done a proper job. Bounce if you have to. Breathe deep if you have to. Cuss if you have to, but we gotta keep hosing down this spill for the full countdown."
Zeinn spoke four languages outside of GalStand, so ze had quite a lot of cussing to go through. Finally, ze shivered hir way though saying, "I thought you used a mild acid on a base like lye..."
"Only if you want another explosive exothermic reaction," said Maan. "You numpty."
[Photo by Aurélia Dubois on Unsplash]
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