THE MOMENT
"Yes?" The pallid woman asked from behind the taught door chain. A tall, lean man with hints of salt and pepper in his forest-green hair stood on her doorstep. He was dressed neatly with a white coat and a smile.
"Mrs. Miller? My name is Doctor Mundo, I believe you were expecting me?" The woman nodded subtly, but her eyes focused on the young violet haired girl at his side.
"You.. yes. Who's she?"
"This is Vivi, my assistant-slash-intern," Vivi smiled and waved at the woman through the narrow opening. "She has an interest in the medical field and I thought she might learn something useful in this case," Doctor Mundo said. Mrs. Miller took several moments to consider the unexpected guess; her gaze flitted between the two of them. Finally, she nodded to herself and undid the chain.
"Come in," she opened the door wide and moved to let them in. Vivi entered first, then the doctor followed. Mrs. Miller almost slammed the door shut in her rush to close it. Then, she led them to the living room.
"What can you tell us about your daughter's condition?" Dr. Mundo asked instead of sitting down. She tilted her head slightly and narrowed her eyes at him.
"Didn't Dr. Lewis explain all that?" Mrs. Miller asked. Dr. Mundo nodded.
"He did give me a rundown that was laden with medical terminology. However, I like to hear things from the patient's perspective as much as possible. And, he might have missed details that can only be gleaned by living with someone. What have you noticed about your daughter?" Mrs. Miller accepted the answer with a nod.
"It started when she turned one. Three weeks ago," Mrs. Miller said. "We had to cancel her birthday party. Anytime her father or I were near her we lost our hearing, but it came back as soon as we left her side. We took her to Dr. Lewis and he discovered her hearing was okay, though he lost his whenever he was near her.. and now here you are," she said. Then, she glanced at Vivi as an afterthought.
"I'll go get her," Mrs. Miller said. Then, she left the living room.
[Have any ideas yet? - Doc] Vivi felt the Whisper on her wrist, under her long sleeves. It surprised her that he'd communicate that way. After thinking about it for a moment, she realized the doctor didn't want Mrs. Miller seeing their lips move, even if she couldn't hear them.
[No. - Vivi] she replied.
[Haven't seen the patient yet. - Vivi] Dr. Mundo smiled at her and shook his head.
[Remember where we are. - Doc] he replied as Mrs. Miller returned holding a 1-year-old child in pink baby clothes. Vivi didn't register what he meant right away. She was distracted by sudden silence when her ears stopped working. Luckily, Dr. Mundo had enough foresight to pull out a notepad and pen to converse with Mrs. Miller. The doctor scribbled something on it and showed the pad to Mrs. Miller while Vivi tried to guess what the doctor meant. It didn't come to her right away, and she didn't want to miss the doctor doing his job.
Vivi stepped closer to Dr. Mundo poking and prodding the child and tried to ask him what he meant. However, her Whisper didn't go through as intended. Instead, all she got was an error message.
[That action is unavailable.] It wasn't the first time she'd gotten the system message. It happened any time she tried to Whisper under the "Deaf" status effect. As soon as she got the message, the doctor's comment clicked for her. Her purple eyes widened in surprise.
"NO WAY!" She screamed in her mind, but nothing came out as she mouthed the words. Fortunately, Doctor Mundo was the only one that saw her try to speak, He smiled and nodded. Then, he scribbled something else on the notepad and showed it to Mrs. Miller.
She clapped her hand over her mouth as tears started to flow from her eyes. She nodded curtly, and gently handed the child over to Dr. Mundo before leaving the room. He smiled at Vivi, then winked. His hand began to glow with a soft, sinister red glow. She recognized it, but understood why he sent Mrs. Miller away. As he reached for the child with his red glowing hand, Vivi couldn't deny the doctor looked rather evil at that moment. He touched the child's forehead, and Vivi's ears were filled with the ambient hum of the ceiling fan again.
"All clear," Dr. Mundo said with a firm voice that wasn't too loud. Mrs. Miller dashed in from the other room with pink, puffy eyes. She scooped up the child in her arms and squeezed her.
"I .. .I can hear...," Mrs. Miller sobbed. Vivi's mind was blown. She'd never considered the possibility of what she just witnessed. But, now that she knew it was possible her mind began questioning what else was possible. She let her mind wander as Mrs. Miller thanked the doctor profusely.
10 minutes later they sat in Dr. Mundo's car pulling away from Mrs. Miller's home. Vivi had a million questions, but she knew where she wanted to start.
"Okay, I think I know what happened. But... how does that happen?" she asked. Dr. Mundo chuckled and shrugged.
"That's something we'll probably never know," he said. "But, it's not the first case I've seen. The AlterNet is a magical place that has a habit of making ideas real. If it can grant consciousness to A.I. like Helios and Wonder, it shouldn't be all that surprising to see NPCs generating a debuff Aura."