The year is 2027

The year is 2027; ears have become a highly valuable organ. It all began six years ago when the Covid-19 virus mutated in infected and recovering persons triggering a reverse-growth and withering of the ear cartilage as an aggressive response to humans’ fight against the spread by wearing masks. 

It turned out the virus was highly intelligent, one never exposed before to the human race. In retrospect, the period between when the first case was recorded and the subsequent mass spread and infection was just a learning phase for the virus, monitoring and projecting various human behavior based on various demographics.

What we thought was a shit-show was just the opening act for the real performance. Over the course of sixteen months, both active and apparently recovered cases started recording abnormal regression of the auricle – the outer ear. This led to a new wave of widespread panic amidst rumours of an alien attack.

Conspiracy theorists believed that the virus was collectively responding to general programming from a sentient host, a notion which wasn’t completely discarded as a result of hushed covert operations from inter-governmental defence bodies, all the while being paraded as left-wing propaganda by high officials.

In the face of the new crisis, extremist factions fanned the flames of anarchy as society was hit with yet another system of classification: The Eared, Earless and Meardium (a term coined by a scientist with a poor sense of humour).

This deepended the incidences of discrimination the world was already battling with in other forms. Extremist groups rapidly gained support from aggrieved persons. With ill-placed objectives, they went on a sickening spree of harvesting ears; for profits, to “level the ear’ing field”, or both.

The year is 2027; the Eared population is less than the combined number of the Earless and Meardiums. A pair of cleanly cut premium human auricles fetch anything between USD60,000- USD100,000 on the Int-earnational Black Market.