Chapter Text
Born to Metal Music-loving parents Glam and Victoria Shvagenbagen, Reign Shvagenbagen was a quiet, but lively two-year-old, lovingly named Reign, in reference to the Slayer album, "Reign in Blood". She was the baby sister of Dee and Heavy Shvagenbagen. She was considered to have a perfect mix of both parent's traits; her mother's fire-red hair, freckles, and feisty attitude, with her father's blue eyes and nose shape, whereas her brothers each seemed to look more like one parent..
She was unplanned, concieved totally by accident, but still well-loved by her family. This accidental conception meant she was much younger than her two brothers.
She's just about a normal toddler, however, Reign wasn't quite like the rest of her family....
Very Ironically, for being born into a family who very heavily surround their lives with sound and music, she was born hard of hearing, almost deaf. But her parents didn't seem to be aware of this yet.
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It was a fairly average day in the Metal Family house, Victoria and Glam were just doing some stuff around the house, and Dee and Heavy were playing with their two-year-old little sister, Reign.
"C'mon, sis, just say 'Heavy', it's not that hard!" Heavy says to the small child, who seemed like she was staring blankly off to space. She was watching him speak, but not saying anything back. Despite being two years old, Reign had only just barely started babbling, and still hadn't started talking.
"Heavy, I don't think she can pronounce that. She hasn't even started speaking." Dee sighed, shaking his head a bit.
"I know but... she's almost three, you'd think she would be talking by now?" Heavy said, a bit worried.
"Well, dad always says that kids develop at their own rate, but... it does seem like she should speak by now." Dee said softly.
Dee looked back at his little sister. She always had this blank stare. She'd stare intensely at people who were speaking to her, sometimes it seemed like she.... didn't hear them. She'd seem to have this intense focus on the movements of their mouths as they spoke, unless they weren't looking directly at her, then it was like they weren't there. Dee always noticed how she seemed to just be reading their lips, but she never spoke, and never seemed to quite understand what was being said to her. She'd only recently sort of started the quiet babbling, but she never seemed to try forming any words... like something was stopping Reign from speaking.
Dee was worried for his sister's future, which might be hindered if she couldn't speak. Kids at school were never too nice to kids who were weaker or different. He didn't want his little sister to get hurt.
.... A few days later, Glam and Ches were watching Reign while Vicky was out. The young child was simply playing with some my little pony toys on the floor of the family room, and she was fairly quiet and peaceful, as per usual.
Glam was discussing his worries in his child's delay in speaking with his friend, when Ches mentioned something peculiar;
"Y'know, with everything you described to me, Glam, I'd think that, like, maybe she can't hear."
Glam raised an eyebrow at this.
"You know, maybe you're right. It almost seems like that could be the case." He said, looking over at Reign, who was still innocently and intensely focused on playing with the toy ponies, seemingly in her own little world and totally unaware of her surroundings, besides the toys in front of her. There was nothing seemingly important to her going on around her anyways.
What Ches said made a lot of sense to Glam. Why hadn't he thought of it before?
Reign only seemed to focus on people speaking to her if she was looking at them. She only responded to her name if Victoria shouted it, but at that moment, Glam wasn't sure if Reign actually understood it, or just responded to what sounded by a sudden loud noise. She was easily startled by people suddenly appearing next to her, and would cry. It seemed so obvious now. Glam vowed that he would certainly discuss this with Victoria.
At first Vicky, didn't really catch on to the idea of the kid having a hearing issue, there wasn't anyone with hearing problems in the family, and she was mostly normal, started walking and doing all the normal kid things at all the normal times like she remembered her brothers doing when they were younger. Though, eventually Vicky started to see the differences in Reign, and started to consider the possibility.
"So... maybe she can't hear... should we take her to a doctor?" Vicky asked.
"It would be a good idea." Glam replies.