Snippet 11 - Quiet Understanding
All the credit to NewFallenLeaves on A03 for this writing!!@ Shes such an angel I love her go support her
There's lots of tism in this one yall will love it
Snippet below the cut!!!⬇️⬇️⬇️
The next time one of the youngest bunny siblings traipsed into Donnie’s lab, it was not at all
within the parameters of any scenario that he had anticipated.
Mari came slinking in so quietly, even his sensitive hearing aids almost failed to pick up the
sound. Her padded steps were so soft and careful, it was as if she didn’t even want to hear her
own footfalls. He could even go so far as to say that she was as silent as any ninja, although
Donnie knew the Miyamoto clan had no training in that style.
When his sensors did pick up on her presence, she was almost already right behind him.
He swiveled in his chair abruptly. She froze mid-stride. Her ears were trembling and her eyes
were rimmed with red.
He knew practically nothing about the younger bunny twin, due to the fact that he hardly
interacted with her. With minimal data, all he could tell for sure was that she was extraordinarily introverted, and for some reason enjoyed Raph’s tea parties. Why she would
be coming to him unannounced, he had no idea.
“What’s the matter with you?” Donnie asked.
“You’re not sick,” said Donnie.
He tugged his goggles down over his eyes and activated a quick scan. It revealed an elevated
heart rate, minor congestion in her sinuses, and some light inflammation in her corneas.
Nothing that indicated illness.
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. Her eyes welled, and she swiped them with the
heel of her hand. “Yes I am. I need something…to fix me.”
“Fix what?”
“You make potions like mystics, right? Ishi-nii-san said so. And you made him better.”
Donnie resisted the urge to criticize her comparison of his science to the backward mysticism
her culture subscribed to. “Your brother has quantifiable symptoms that can be tempered with
the right admixture of medications. But I can’t create medicine for vague or nonexistent problems, so if you want something, explain it properly.”
She hesitated, and for a moment looked as if she might just turn and leave. Instead she said, slowly, “Riko was humming again. And when I told her to stop she got mad and called me stupid again.”
Donnie cocked an eyebrow. “It’s not stupid to ask someone else to allay their noise
pollution.”
“But only simple people have to have quiet to concentrate. I’m not supposed to get so annoyed when Riko sings or makes noise.” Mari twisted the lacing on her tunic between her fingers. “Usually I don’t mind too much, but…today I was mean and I asked her to be quiet
anyway.”
Donnie cocked an eyebrow. “Why is that mean?”
“Because she wasn’t even very loud like she is sometimes. But it still made my ears hurt and
my head fuzzy and my tummy all shaky.”
“Oh. That.” Donnie swiveled the goggles back up to the top of his head.
“Can you make it better?”
“Of course not.”
He spoke little too quickly and bluntly, based on the absolutely crestfallen look that overtook her.
Donnie added, “But only because there’s nothing to fix. Aversion to auditory stimulation isn’t
an illness that you take medicine for.”
He knew what it was like to feel overstimulated. And he’d read enough medical journals to
understand sensory issues and how to handle them. It didn’t mean that Mari was deficient,
just that she was more sensitive than most. She needed quiet and privacy more than noise and
social interaction.
He watched as her eyes began to fill again. Oh, Hawking. Of course no one had ever
explained this to her. From what he heard, the clan’s so-called ‘healers’ hadn’t even bothered
to treat Usagi’s wounds when he was a child for fear it would hinder the mystic tattoos. With
that level of incompetence, Donnie was surprised him and his siblings had survived for as
long as they did.
“Auditory hypersensitivity isn’t uncommon,” said Donnie. “Adaptability is optimal in
someone your age, and it’s just a matter of mitigating the stimulation to a tolerable level and
practicing coping strategies for moments when extenuation is impossible.”
Mari blinked.
Donnie sighed. “Your body doesn’t like loud noises. That’s okay. You’re not sick, and you’re
not stupid.”
“But Riko likes loud noises. And being busy. And being around lots of other people all the
time…”
“So?” said Donnie. “Twins can be different.”
Her face fell, and he wondered what the problem was. He and Leo had never really been
alike. He'd thought that sort of thing when it came to siblings and twins was obvious.
“Here.” Donnie tugged the headset loose from around his ears and plopped them onto her
head. One quick twist adjusted the headband and tucked the speakers in close to her ears.
In true Donnie fashion, he hadn’t been able to resist enhancing his hearings aids to adjust
volume and filter background noises. He spun the dial to what was essentially a ‘sound-canceling’ setting, and the fins retracted. (Strange to have that option for someone
who was nearly deaf, but versatility was inestimable.)
Mari’s eyes widened.
“Quieter, right?” asked Donnie.
She nodded.
Donnie tapped a button that would emit a low wash of white noise. He watched with
satisfaction as Mari’s shoulders relaxed and the faintest of smiles threatened to break through.
“Better?” Donnie couldn’t hear his own voice, much less her answer, but he could easily
surmise what her vigorous nod meant.
“Stay here where I can see you.” He pointed to a nearby stool. “And if you break those I will
make myself new ones out of your ears.”
She smiled and nodded again. Probably couldn’t hear a word he was saying. Perfect.
He turned back to his desk and flipped to a blank page in his sketchbook to begin the basic
design. It wasn’t a staggering challenge, but recreating his tech to fit a rabbit yokai and grow
with her would provide an interesting afternoon project. It should occupy him for a few
hours, at least, and the way Mari immediately hopped onto the nearest swiveling stool and snagged a book on the evolutionary processes of insects told him she could entertain herself
quietly for however long it took.
He would make hers smaller and lighter, of course. Fitted so they wouldn’t even be
noticeable once they were in place, hidden under the tufts of fur around her ears.
He didn’t bother to ask what color she wanted.
How fortuitous that she already wore purple.
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