holtzmann headcanons
after spending years working in labs with constant exposure to noisy equipment, the incident with the ghost floats did permanent damage to holtzmann’s ear. the acute acoustic trauma caused a substantial and immediate hearing loss that only grew more significant over time.
visiting with doctors confirmed the NIHL diagnosis, and holtz (using the mayor’s secret funds since no one could file worker’s comp for a ghost sting operation that never officially existed) got fitted for a high-tech hearing aid.
more often than not, she totally forgets to wear it. the other busters usually have to resign themselves to listening to her shout around HQ because once holtzmann has put something somewhere in her mess of a bedroom (that’s really just an extension of her lab with a bed somewhere buried under the madness) none of them can find it. except for abby. sometimes. the one time erin found it in the fridge on top of kevin’s paleo-meals-at-the-ready baffled all of them, even holtz.
as a result of her workplace accident, holtz worked feverishly on making them all customized, weatherproof/waterproof/ectoplasm proof earplugs. she’s working on making them double-function as communication devices but hasn’t gotten that far yet.
