FTO Shorts and Ships

What if Inmo started going deaf

Originally Published: April 28th, 2021

Edited Ver: July 11th, 2023

After a bit of convincing from Devin, Ritchie agreed to do dinner with Divinus Magia as a group. He was hesitant, knowing how chaotic they got, but Devin insisted that it would be a good bonding experience. Particularly for him and Kit.

So there they were, having dinner that Devin had cooked with help from Kit (who he suspected just didn't want to sit at the same table as Ritchie until she absolutely had to, but her fire magic was helpful in the kitchen). As Ritchie had anticipated, it was very...chaotic, so that wasn't a surprise nor was it anything unusual.

"Who cooked this? This is great!" Lucas complimented, pointing at his plate with his fork.

"Wasn't Devin the one on cooking duty? Since this was his idea after all..." Brandon said with a slightly annoyed tone, quiet as he usually was, but loud enough that his guild could hear him. Devin rubbed the back of his neck shyly.

"Yeah, I cooked, b—but I had help from Kit!" He explained, nodding over to Kit at the other end of the table. She didn't say anything, but she did nod silently. "I'm glad you like it!"

The guild continued to eat and talk (or more like argue until Ritchie or Brandon shut it down) and such. Inmo had taken it upon himself to start bugging Brandon next to him (hence the guild leader's annoyance) and before he knew it, he had gotten up to show Brandon something and instead exploded himself across the room.

"Oh my days, Inmo would you stop it?!" David shouted, slightly annoyed as he usually was with Inmo. But Inmo hadn't gotten up from his knees...he seemed to have frozen in his spot.

"I swear to the gods Inmo if you destroy another thing that I have to fix I will personally—" Mario started, getting cut off by other members of Divinus Magia yelling. But oddly enough, Inmo still said nothing and hadn't moved. In a way he looked...scared?

"Inmo, what in the world are you doing?" Ritchie asked flatly, getting up from the table and going over to him. Inmo frantically pointed to his ears from his spot on the ground, now panicked since he could see Ritchie speaking, but couldn't hear anything.

"Mr—Mr. Ritchie I can't hear you!! I can't hear anything!!!" He cried, smacking the side of his head as if that would help.

"...what are you on about?" Ritchie asked, still somewhat thinking this was just another one of Inmo's crazy thoughts. Inmo shook his head no, trying to say he didn't know what Ritchie had asked, now panicked even more.

"What's wrong with him??" David asked, not having gotten up and was still eating, as honestly he didn't really care that much.

"I—I think he's gone deaf?" Ritchie said, leaning down, waving his fingers in front of Inmo, and then snapping his fingers near Inmo's ear. "Could you hear that Inmo?"

Inmo, still frantic, shook his head no. Ritchie sighed, standing back up straight and glancing over at his brother, who by then had gotten up and also gone over to Inmo. Lucas and Devin had gotten up as well, but everybody else pretty much just watched from their seats.

"I suppose it makes sense that his hearing would go eventually, don't you think?" Brandon said, "Seeing as his magic is explosions and he's constantly exploding..." He explained, trailing off.

Tears had welled up in Inmo's eyes, scared that he had actually gone deaf. His hearing had done something like this in the past, yes, but at those times his hearing would only dim. Everything around him would become muffled and that was it. But this time was different...something wasn't right. As opposed to the muffled noises he usually heard when this happened, he couldn't hear anything. It was just...silence. And he didn't like it.

"Has—wait, there isn't a point in asking, he can't hear...Devin, could you, uhm...I don't know, imagine up some paper and a pen??" Ritchie asked, not sure how to phrase a question like that. Devin nodded.

"Oh, yeah, sure!" He agreed, holding his hand out for a moment before a piece of paper and a pen appeared in it. He held his hand out to Ritchie. "Here you go,"

"Thank you," Ritchie wrote down his question. Has this happened before?

He handed it to Inmo, who read it and shook his head no. "W—Well—sort of—sometimes when I—I do explosions my hearing is muffled but it usually goes away after a tiny period of time."

"...he is so dumb—why did he just say something?!" Lucas asked, throwing his hands in the air.

"What do you mean?" David asked in return, his mouth full from still having been eating.

"We could've helped! Like gave him earplugs or something!"

"He does have a point, we could've done something...lemme ask him," Ritchie took the paper back and scribbled down something else. Why didn't you say anything?

"I—I don't know, it just never cross my mind." Inmo said simply with a shrug. "I didn't think it'd matter," Everyone else was silent for a split second.

"Oh my days—if only he could hear, I'd be able to tell him how fucking stupid that sounds—" David started saying, before Lucas cut him off.

"David! Ech is right next to you!" He hissed, nodding towards them. Ech themselves seemed oblivious to the situation, absorbed by their food in front of them.

"I'm just saying! And if he had said something I'd be able to tell him how stupid that sounds then help him out!" David said, slamming his hands on the table.

Lucas just sighed, pinching his nose. "I guess we all have our own ways of being sympathetic."

Ritchie rolled his eyes. "Anyways," He said with finality, glancing at Inmo as Brandon helped him up off the ground.

"Also your handwriting sucks Mr. Ritchie, can someone else do the writing—" Inmo said.

Clearly he was somewhat back to his regular self, even if he couldn't hear.