i will boldly assume this is a request for advice and not, say, you just making conversation. i’m pretty sure that’s the intention, so here i go.
a huge part of deafness is barely-controlled rage. hearing people will talk to you while facing, mostly or entirely, in a completely different direction. they will mumble, and, when you can’t hear, repeat themselves in that exact mumble. i mentioned this above, but they will joke amongst themselves and then claim that it would take far too long to repeat it.
most of them will do their best to be accommodating, and they can learn, but it is still incredibly frustrating to constantly remind them. if you take a character like post-redemption varian, who is already carrying a lot of anger/resentment, this concept comes with a final straw of sorts. everything that is infuriating him will come spilling out.
“hard of hearing” equals “still deaf”. having accommodations, like cochlear implants or hearing aids or whatever varian could invent, still makes you deaf. you are still disadvantaged when it comes to hearing. (this seems incredibly obvious, but ignorant people and/or ableist numbskulls will see an accommodation and declare you All Better.)
if varian is entirely deaf:
-cut out all description of sounds (of course), but fill in the gaps with his other senses. what does quirin’s voice feel like, rumbling in his chest as varian leans against him? how does rapunzel’s mouth move as she speaks?
-make others have to wave to get his attention.
-make him set up a flashing light to let him know when someone opens the door to his room/lab.
-make him miss words! lip-reading is not a superpower. words will sound similar, and every person will speak differently. he will miss things.
-when not lip-reading, and if others don’t know any signed languages, he can communicate through writing.
if varian is lower on the deafness spectrum:
-give him headaches from straining to understand people who don’t enunciate clearly.
-make him mishear things, most likely resulting in them laughing at him.
-make people have to say his name multiple times to get his attention.
-make him unaware that someone is walking up behind him, which would badly startle him (this goes for completely-deaf!varian, too).
-make him have to ask people’s names multiple times, and still not be sure he has the right one.
you don’t have to check off every box on this list! you don’t even have to use most of them if you have a different idea for the setting or plot. i just wanted to communicate a general idea, coming from someone who is fully deaf when i have my cochlear implants off.
if you’re frightened about being offensive, think of it this way: the biggest problem about being deaf is that the world is constructed by hearing people.
don’t treat varian’s deafness as a tragedy!
if an explosion gives him any degree of hearing loss, that’s scary at first, but he’ll adapt. if he was born with any degree of hearing loss, he knows how to navigate it.
if you’re incorporating a signed language into the fic, that’s wonderful.
sign languages are beautiful. we’ve got puns, we’ve got mispronunciations, and we’ve got so many words. spoken languages are not inherently superior.
yes, varian’s gonna miss things, but he also gets to easily tune annoyances out! maybe (if he’s fully deaf without accommodations), he doesn’t speak “normally”, but his loved ones take the time to learn the language he does speak. he’s extraordinary, and will have extraordinary accomplishments.
deaf!varian is still the same little guy we treasure.
