Who: Maryanne and Other Miguel Where: Other Miguel's lab/home What: Leaving off some hearing aids When: Just after this network post
Thirty-three minutes had passed since his hearing had just switched off, and Miguel was doing his very best to stay calm. He had Lyla, after all, who was more than able to help him, and hadn't he been told that the things that happened on this station tended to be temporary annoyances? And Maryanne was bringing hearing aids in case they would help too. But he didn't even have the odd ringing in his ears that he'd experienced a few times when something had gone wrong in a lab and there'd been an explosion. There was just... nothing. He'd tried clapping his hands and yelling, and Lyla had played all kinds of different frequencies of sounds but none of them registered with him. He could feel some of the lower sounds, but it wasn't the same thing at all.
Obviously, he was covering up his panic with science, forcing himself to turn this situation into an experiment of sorts rather than dwelling on the extremely insistant thought that this would be like on the other station, and something was going to happen, something terrible and him being able to hear what was going on would have been an advantage. He did have enhanced hearing, although nowhere near as heightened as his eyesight was, so it was plausible, right? No, because there were other people with enhanced hearing (like Maryanne!) and they weren't saying anything on the network about going deaf, so it was a random thing after all! But what if it just hadn't affected them ye- Lyla buzzed on his wrist to snap him out of his thoughts and to let him know that Maryanne had arrived, the words flashing up on the screen of his watch when he looked down.
"Do you want me to raise the brightness in the room?" she asked as Miguel dropped down off the ceiling. He nodded his head, unsure of how loud his voice would be if he spoke, and waited until the lights grew brighter and his contacts adjusted before he opened the door and stepped back out of Maryanne's way so she could come inside. His lab had all the equipment Sarah and her Miguel had gotten for him, and a small pile of components and scrap that one of the Jakes had given him, and in the back corner there was a little bag for his personal belongings and a couple of blankets (he hadn't gotten round to getting a bed yet).
And it had Lyla, manifesting at life-size beside Miguel. "Please come in, Maryanne," she said, her words showing on Miguel's watch as she spoke, "can I offer you some water?"
Miguel didn't read the words, he just waited until his watch stopped vibrating before speaking. "Hi, and thank you. Am I too loud?" he asked. This was so shocking weird.