Deafness

A/N- This fic was created due to frustrations I had been having several years ago.
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Jack Thompson Log Entry 1043

20 years after "The Event"

Society still maintains as much normalcy as it can ever since "The Event."

"The Event" was when the entire world, mysteriously, became deaf. Everyone with natural hearing lost all of it, unable to hear anything. Those with artificial hearing, and were completely unable to hear otherwise; such as those with cochlear implants, were still able to hear but the hearing will never be perfect.

When it first struck, it was like a wave. Within twenty four hours, everyone was struck deaf. No one knows what happened, the cause couldn't be traced. But when it did happen, chaos and confusion followed.

Those doing jobs which required being able to hear panicked and tragedy happened. Some didn't and tried to keep a sense of calm but were drowned out by the ensuing panic.

Planes crashed due to loss of communications with the airport control towers. Not all did, as they did still have their eyes.

Emergency services were impacted as well, as they had required good hearing. And often used radio and handheld communications devices. Without hearing, they were unable to use them. Therefore service was severely disrupted.

There were too many other instances to count. But to put it simply, chaos reigned in the early days. Now, those jobs that required hearing have adapted to be able to still function in this new world.

The criminal elements were able to thrive for a while. Some panicked, but others saw opportunity and chances. Taking advantage of lack of hearing, they would, in some cases with night vision goggles, move about the night like invisible people. Invisible assassins, ninjas as I like to call them, when they aimed to kill. It became frighteningly easy for criminals to take revenge, due to being able to approach unheard.

It was soon found out, however, one could still gain artificial hearing through cochlear implants. Those who had them at the start weren't affected, but those who had minimal hearing without them completely lost what remained of their natural hearing when "The Event" struck.

Those who had embraced deaf culture, and the many various versions of sign language they had, spread their knowledge. Sign language has proven, and still continues to be, extremely helpful and allows easy communication. I had embraced deaf culture despite being able to hear naturally before "The Event". Some of my friends are deaf and others hard of hearing so I wanted to make sure we all had equal access to communication.

There were those who had no empathy towards the deaf and hard of hearing. And when they got stricken deaf, some lost it. Some got cochlear implants while stubbornly believing it would give them perfect hearing. It may give near-perfect hearing in cases, but it will never be perfect. In cases, this drove them to further madness.

Captions and subtitles became even more important. Yes, some considered them an annoyance, but I always found them valuable. Even if one could hear, it can help catch the missed things. Especially if I have to have the volume turned down. They can also reveal missed audio cues, names of characters and locations, and the spelling of words unique to the show or words in general.

As the years went by, some people utterly lost it. There's been mass killings. I heard of a sad case where someone with a cochlear implant, after being told to 'change the setting' one too many times; most likely was a person that had no empathy towards the deaf and hard of hearing and got a cochlear thinking it'll give him perfect hearing, snapped. Shot a bunch of people including relatives that he claimed in a note bugged him. And then tried to take some police officers with him. They killed him before he could, thankfully one of them was a trained marine before "The Event" struck.

Apparently, animals could still hear just fine, seems only Humans were affected. Makes it sound like some kind of curse.

What was the cause of this? Some kind of natural event? Caused by someone? Something? Extraterrestrials? Whatever it is hasn't ended even after twenty years. May never end. But I won't allow it to drive me to despair. After all, I, like many others, have adapted.

We must not give in to despair. After all, there is still hope. There are ways to adapt.

Jack Thompson signing out.

End Entry
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{A/N- For those concerned, I am okay, after all I have writing as an outlet.

A little trivia- the idea of the whole world becoming deaf was inspired by the movie Blindness, where the entire world apparently becomes blind.