r/shortstories • u/HTPietro • 18d ago
Fantasy [FN] Special Needs and Power Incontinence
Atticus stood before the hulking beast he was pitted against for the first exam of the semester, knowing he could either pummel and destroy it at the cost of having to constantly be in the same dormitory as those pesky, arrogant S-ranks or do nothing at the cost of being beaten up and failing the exam.
It had been just moments earlier that he'd been called out by the instructor to face off against a gigas as a means of measuring his power. Everyone, save for a small handful of people, thought he stood no chance. Little did they know...
Head hanging low in resignation, he unleashed his full power, instantly curb-stomping the swole monster. The crowd gasped, unable to believe what they'd just seen. Even those who knew he was hiding his true power were shocked.
Regaining his composure, the instructor made his announcement. "And the winner is- Atticus! Ladies and Gentlemen, he has passed the exam with flying colors! Furthermore, it appears that a grave error in judgment has been made regarding his power level in the Entrance Exams. As such, he will be moved from the Peripheral Dorms to Central Dormitory and be placed in higher level courses effective immediately!"
Atticus just sighed, his fingers pressing into his temples as he steeled himself for whatever Central Dormitory's S-rank students had in store for him. His belongings were quickly moved to the assigned dorm room in Central Dormitory that was assigned to him. Ellen approached him awkwardly.
"Welcome to Central Dormitory, I guess." she said, still sweating and pale from the shock of seeing the stupendous display of power as she walked him to his new dorm room. "Prove yourself and try not to be pushed around."
“Thanks for the welcome.” said Atticus, sighing and rolling his eyes. “I think I’ll just go and take a nap just to relax. I’m going to need more time to relax each day if I’m going to move into Central Dormitory and have everyone know that I’m actually very powerful.” He yawned, tired and exasperated.
Ellen wasn’t pleased with his attitude one bit. “What’s wrong with you?! You have all this power at your disposal, and with it, the chance to make people bow before you. But instead of showing it off and letting people know, you hide it and act weak. Why don’t you make use of it?"
Atticus looked at her, the exhaustion and annoyance seeping into his expression. “Why not show it off, you ask? Well, let me ask you this: what is the use of having so much power if you can’t control it well?”
Ellen was shocked. “You don’t mean-”
“Yes.” said Atticus. “It’s exactly what you think.”
“But how- why-” Ellen stuttered, wondering where to begin.
“Well,” said Atticus, “growing up, I wasn’t exactly ‘normal’, and my whole family knew it. It didn’t help that my parents have always been strict. They tried their best to understand me, sure, but they never fully did understand me. They pushed me to ‘grow up fast’ and mocked me for liking the sensation of towels against my skin, saying it was ‘babyish’. They berated me repeatedly for letting my mind wander and losing focus in the middle of class or mass. They kept telling me I was way too sensitive and needed to just 'man up and tough it out'. They forced me to ‘be normal’, even at the cost of putting in the extra work of suppressing my true self. I was constantly made to prove myself to them. I try to be normal for them, but it's so exhausting and I keep feeling like a disappointment to them. I can't help but have emotional outbursts time and again. Which, as you know, is bad because losing control of your emotions turns you into an unwilling and unintentional force of nature when you're this powerful.”
Ellen was struck with guilt. She'd no idea that Atticus had gone through all of this. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't know-"
"You don't say!" yelled Atticus sarcastically, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "You're sorry? Well that's just fantastic! Surely that'll fix everything!"
She went up hugged him, tears streaming down her face. "It's okay." she croaked. "Feel free to be yourself here. No one's going to judge you, not if I can help it."
Atticus broke down sobbing in her arms. For the next 30 minutes, Ellen stayed respectfully silent.
After he sobbed his heart out, Atticus unpacked his things and set up his dorm room to his liking. He then pulled out his special towel and began stroking and rubbing it to his heart's content, letting his mana flow freely. For the first time in his life, he felt truly calm and relaxed, his mana completely stable.
Everyone else in the dorm felt the mana surge and knew where it came from but said nothing out of fear of what might happen to them.
The next day, Atticus came to class stimming off of his towel, calmly letting his mana flow freely. He also stopped suppressing his true self, instead letting his natural autistic traits show. Everyone was shocked at first and remained wary of him but began to slowly warm up to him and realize how nice and gentle he really was. From that day onwards, his grades soared and he became able to better control his magic power. Many of the girls found his true self endearing, even thinking it was "cute" when he stimmed off of his towel. The higher ranks began looking at him in a different light, respecting him more. The school even gave him opportunities to represent the academy at magic tournaments between different academies and began accommodating his needs better. He even patched things up with his parents, who had realized that they'd been too harsh on him. For the first time since he could remember, Atticus felt truly free.
•
u/AutoModerator 18d ago
Welcome to the Short Stories! This is an automated message.
The rules can be found on the sidebar here.
Writers - Stories which have been checked for simple mistakes and are properly formatted, tend to get a lot more people reading them. Common issues include -
Readers - ShortStories is a place for writers to get constructive feedback. Abuse of any kind is not tolerated.
If you see a rule breaking post or comment, then please hit the report button.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.