Challenge #02551-F361: You Hear Me
“Get back to work and if I see you with something in your ears again you’re fired!”
The human just stared blankly
“Do you understand me? Is your universal translator even working?”
It took the human a moment then wrote something down
‘My translator is with my hearing aids you took’ -- Anon Guest
In all things, communication is important. This is why any given traveller will find far more accessibility options available in Galactic space than many other places. It is also why many Alliance polities despise working with, or for, any of the Greater Deregulations. Mostly because those in positions of power in any given Greater Deregulation has never been very involved in communication. They insist on yelling at people until they give up.
They also insist on applying their moral values to everything that offends them[1] and yelling about it until they get their way. Such an exchange has already happened between CEO of CEO's Hal E. Burridin and one of the Alliance's Ronin Humans named Quo. Unbeknownst to Hal, Human Quo is wearing assistive devices. One among many that help those with hearing disorders. Hal has just processed these particular devices as 'headphones'. Let's watch the chaos.
"YOU!" Hal bellowed, marching over to the offending Human. "Are you listening to music on company time?" Without any heed to Galactic laws concerning approved personal interactions, interference with physical being, assault, and removal of equipment, Hal reached up and removed what he saw as an offense. "If I see you with something in your ears again, you're FIRED!"
Human Quo stared at him, as if trying to piece together a puzzle just by looking at a photograph of the piled-up pieces.
"Can you understand anything I'm telling you?"
After a moment, they put down their burden and took out a notebook and pen. This, Hal nearly understood. If Quo had dared use their datareader then it, too, may have been illegally confiscated. The exercise took some time, as Quo had to mentally translate between GalStand and Deregger English.
The end result was in block letters and without punctuation. It read, I CAN NOT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING YOU HAVE TAKEN MY TRANSLATOR AND ASSISTIVE HEARING DEVICE.
There was more paperwork, kept folded in a pouch and containing brief infobullets about Quo's aural filtering technology and how it helped improve communication by reducing the incidents of their Auditory Processing Disorder. There was also a bullet about how it was illegal to remove them from Quo without their prior consent.
Hal slammed them back into Quo's hands with, "Stupid damned Alliance snowflakes, I don't know why our commander in chief decided to accept their help!"
Quo picked up their burden again, earpieces on once more, and said, "No food for starving workforce. Your peoples desperate hunger." They continued on, whistling as they went.
[1] Also known as the entirety of the Galactic Alliance, which they insist is just one good sneeze away from total collapse. This repeatedly stated in spite of the fact that it has been running for millennia and shows no actual signs of breaking apart.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Rosinka79]
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This reminds me of an employer I worked for, it was a temp job. One supervisor actually grabbed the glasses off a woman and screamed at her for wearing them, they were yellow-tinted and he was screaming she should not be wearing sunglasses indoors. That, that was something "hippies do to hide the fact they're stoned". Unfortunately for HIM, his supervisor heard the shouting from their desk and came down to find out what was going on. Needless to say, we didn't see that supervisor anymore.
Yep, really really do wonder with some people XD
Trufax, the hearing aids thing is based on a true story. Teaching temp accused a HOH kid of listening to music via airpods and took their hearing aids. Fast forward to roll call and the kid didn't respond.
Teacher gets angry at the kid.
Fellow student: "You took their hearing aids, of course they can't hear you."
Education regarding assistant technology is vital.
I really do wonder with some people.