2020-02-09 - Can You Hear Me Now? No?

The redhead was able to tell that it was probably one of those weird things. A Dream, capital D, to those more well versed in the veil, but to her, it sure felt eerily familiar to her other recent experiences, if nothing else. Meditations on what exactly was going on didn't last for terribly long, though.

Waking from the Dream had left Alison in a bit of state with her hearing. August had done.. well, he'd done something. Probably not intentionally. It made sense in hindsight - most of the group had been hearing a strange song, finding themselves pulled towards the source of it. He'd done something to their inner ears, she was able to tell at the time, but apparently for her, he did a really great job of doing that something. A little too great. It left her ears ringing so loudly that she wasn't able to make any sense of what anyone was saying.

Upon waking up near Addington Park in the attached pond, she found herself alone. No Diana, No Stephanie, no Itzhak, no August. Just herself, all by her lonesome in the snow. Already soaking wet, and then dumped into the snow didn't exactly leave her in the best of states. Plus her ears were still ringing. Faint noises occasionally, but for the most part, just the ringing. She pulled out her phone to try and call one of her friends in town for help, but found that it was quite on the waterlogged side from her dip into the water, refusing to turn on, and even if it did power on, it surely wouldn't work. So that basically left one option: walk home.

After getting home and getting herself dried off and warmed up from the chill of the river, she found herself still unable to hear, though the ringing had ceased. There were the faintest hints of sounds, but nothing distinguishable. Next up was the doctor, then. Communication had to be done by writing on a sheet of paper, then showing the other person. After a brief inspection, she was told that it looked like she'd suffered some severe, if temporary, damage - maybe from listening to music too loudly for too long? 'Everything should come back in a few days.' was the claim.

Which, frankly, fucking sucks. Sure, texting works well enough for communicating with people socially (if you have a functional phone, anyways), but she's not going to be able to work at the Grizzly Den Diner until she's able to hear what the hell's going on around her. And that also rules out Karaoke at the Pourhouse on Valentine's Day. Minor concerns, overall, but the thing that weighs most heavily on Alison's mind is whether or not her hearing WILL come back, no matter what the doctor told her. Time will tell. First thing, though? She needs to get a new phone and try to get in touch with Itzhak, the only person in the group that she actually knows, just to make sure that everyone else got out either before or after she did.