Buzz
Tags: Angst, Tinnitus
Published: 14/06/2022
Word Count: 721
Summary
Sometimes, projectile weapon fire leaves a high pitched sound buzzing in your ears. It's from the abruptness and volume of the noise, but knowing why it's there doesn't stop it from being fucking annoying. It would go away in under an hour.
Except it didn't go away.
Sometimes, projectile weapon fire leaves a high pitched sound buzzing in your ears. It's from the abruptness and volume of the noise, but knowing why it's there doesn't stop it from being fucking annoying.
It didn't matter much, I could still hear around it, and the ringing sound would be gone by the time I took down these assholes and got my humans back to ART.
I hacked the power armour of Target 3, deflected the stupid tiny malware packet that Target 1 threw at me, and ripped Target 2's gun away from him.
The ringing hadn't died down.
I was curled up on my chair on ART, and had been for the last two hours, and somehow it had only gotten louder .
I had already been repaired by ART's MedSystem, if there was damage to my ears then it would have been fixed already, which meant there was nothing to do but try and wait it out.
I pulled up episode 265 of Sanctuary Moon, and sunk into it.
It wasn't that I couldn't hear, I could hear just fine. Conversations with ART happened inside my feed and weren't affected by this high pitched screaming that had infected my inputs, but even talking out loud was just normal, even though it felt like the ringing was louder than Karim's voice, I could hear her perfectly fine.
It was annoying, but it was fine. I could still do my job.
It got worse. I don't know if the buzzing itself was louder or if I was just getting less capable of pulling my attention away from it, but I was struggling not to flinch at other sounds now, like this one had me at my limit for how much noise I could handle.
It had been nine cycles. Nine fucking cycles, and this fucking noise would not give me a fucking break.
Maybe that malware packet had managed to do something to me? I didn't fucking know. What I did know was that there was a tight angry coil in my chest and ART was chewing me out for snapping at Iris. I didn't need to deal with this bullshit.
I pulled up episode 27 of Valorous Defenders, because focusing on media was basically the only time I could drown out this stupid fucking buzzing sound.
ART shut down my episode.
What is wrong with you? it demanded.
"Nothing. Fuck off."
Bullshit. There's something wrong, and there has been ever since you came back from that job. Just tell me.
"What's wrong is you and your crew pestering non-fucking-stop, and now you won't even let me watch my show!"
We can watch media after you explain why you've been so snappish
I was angry because the buzz was loud and the buzz got louder when I was angry, and all of that was making me stressed as fuck, which of fucking course was making the buzz even louder.
I pulled the cushion out from behind me and screamed into it until I ran out of air. It helped a little.
ART blanketed itself over me in the feed, its attention softening. What's wrong? it asked.
So I told it.
I didn't even really mean to, but I needed to complain about it. So I talked. It sounded so stupid to say it out loud, it was just a little noise that didn't even stop me from hearing shit. But ART didn't mock me like I kinda thought it might, it just settled itself around me solidly, listening.
I think I can help.
By help I had thought that ART would run me through the MedSystems again. But the problem wasn't in my ears. It wasn't something a MedSystem could fix.
I leaned my head against ART's engine casing, pulling the blanket it had given me tighter around my shoulders.
The sound wasn't gone, but the low constant hum of its engines dulled the sharpness of it, pushed it to the background.
My feed was set to Do Not Disturb, the engine room was off limits save for emergencies, and no one would so much as find me here.
ART draped itself over my shoulders, and pulled up episode one of Worldhoppers.
Slowly, carefully, it combed through my systems, searching out the malware that was causing the screaming. It didn’t find any.
Slowly, carefully, it combed through my systems, searching out the malware that was causing the screaming, and crushed every piece.