(no subject)

[sinnabird]

 I can't sleep thanks to my chronic tinnitus so here have some advice on writing TV Hartley with a realistic case of chronic tinnitus (with the caveat that this is all based on my personal experiences) bc I have read exactly 1 fic that engaged with the whole chronic tinnitus thing in the whole 3+ years I've been in the fandom

 

- so we're just gonna assume that the implants he gave himself reduce the tinnitus to manageable levels rather than just making it magically go away bc magic tech cures are boring and kinda ableist

- white noise and/or music is so essential oh my god I nearly failed a class when I first got it bc there were long periods of silent work in a room designed to be soundproof and I could not concentrate.

- soundproofing is bad I haaaate it

- Hartley's lab has massive super high quality speakers and zero soundproofing and I will not budge on this. He plays music while he's working. The Flash can absolutely track him down by the noise complaints. 

- Headphones are a mixed bag. But it will be headphones, not earbuds, although the latter will be acceptable in a pinch. I prefer large over-the-ear headphones with good sound quality that are NOT NOISE CANCELLING. that bit is super important. Remember background noise is your best friend with tinnitus. Take all that away and all that's left is the ringing in your ears. It's not pleasant. Again, its manageable in a pinch, but you'd make sure the music is on before putting the headphones on and also it would be less pleasant.

- as mentioned, sleep is hard. My room has an air purifier and a quiet but audible filter in my fish tank. Those help. I still need to put on music or a podcast to get to sleep.

- silence is bad I gotta emphasize that

- Hey wanna think about how his cell in the pipeline was probably soundproofed and how that was probably pure constant torture??? I don't, bc that's pretty high on my list of worst nightmares, but hey its 1 am and i'm thinking about it anyway. 

- there's probably an angsty fic there but I'm probably not gonna write it for the aforementioned reason of "worst nightmare"

- I can't blame him for exploding his way out of there. TV Hartley is the most relatable supervillain.

- like I respect those who prefer the comics incarnation bc tbh I do too but sometimes it's really nice to have a single positive association with my dumb chronic disability bc everything about it sucks