#i like talking about sounds and hearing for l'aiha because she has a very similar situation to mine irl

[thefinalwitness]

14. is there a sound that drives them crazy? ( like the sound of nails on a chalkboard, styrofoam rubbing together, cardboard boxes, etc?)

(SORRY IM SO LAAAAAATE ive been fibro hurty again v_v)

l'aiha actually really hates the sound of snow crunching underfoot! it irritates the shit out of her. it might be slightly informed by the fact she hates snow and the cold in general, but trekking around in coerthas and garlemald were incredibly unpleasant for her, and that sound didn't help. :'D

aside from that, she doesn't like it when people chew with their mouth open, or tap their pencils on desks and tables and such... lots of little every day noises can get on her nerves when she's in a bad mood. she has extremely sharp hearing, so everything is intensified in a way that's sometimes difficult to deal with. she's learned a weird trick where she 'charges' her aether, internally, without releasing it—this is something she learned as one of her exercises to help it not stagnate, but it also produces an internal sound, not unlike blood rushing, that allows her to 'drown out' irritating external sounds.

y'shtola can visibly see when l'aiha does this because of her aethersight, and thinks it's INCREDIBLY funny. especially in situations where someone is talking and pissing her off, and l'aiha just starts ignoring them by churning her own aether. similar comical effect to when somebody tells the guy on the tv to shut up and mutes them.

tangentially related, but i think l'aiha has a bit of an auditory processing disorder too. she can't mentally 'filter' sounds based on importance, so she hears everything at the same volume—and because her actual hearing is so good, that's a lot of stuff! it means it can be hard to reach her in loud or crowded spaces, but it also makes her REALLY GOOD at picking up new sounds through the din.

for example, she can hear people moving even in the middle of busy conversations; so she's really good at picking up sneaky intruders even at moments when she should be too busy to hear them. or, an example based on my own life with an auditory processing disorder: she can hear linkpearls and other electronic alerts go off, even when others in a conversation don't. (the number of times i've let people know a timer went off mid-conversation because i was the only one who heard it LOL.)