Mcyt -autistic- oneshots

Political ribena stimming (Wilbur and Phil)

TW- bullying, mocking of stimming

Wilbur's POV:

"Phil. Am I allowed to stim?" I had my fidget toy in my hand. I almost hated how they were called fidget toys. A toy shouldn't be the name of something I use, as a 24 year old man, to be able to get my shopping.

"Sorry mate. What does stim mean again?"

"Repeated movements or sounds or anything really. It helps calm me down and concentrate." That was the broadest description I could give. They calmed me down if I was frustrated, upset or overly excited. They calmed my brain if I was overwhelmed and underwhelmed. And there was little point in trying to concentrate, if I couldn't stim in some way, shape or form.

"Do you mean like your fidget toy?"

"Well, no, that's sort of a replacement for a stim. I mean like when I said political ribena over and over again. Or when I drummed on my leg with fingers, making the same beat each time." Political ribena was a vocal stim I had had since I could first say political. My GCSE history class would mock it, but the kids there would make fun of most things about me, not just my stims. To be fair, my social understanding was far worse back them, and continuing to say it even whilst someone else was answering a question, in front of the whole class, was very rude of me. I apologised, but they never really let me live it down. My friends stood up for me, and I stood up for myself. But it got tiring quickly, and they didn't stop. Neither were any of my friends in my history class, where it was the worse. To be honest, I didn't live a lot through my school years. I've lived more in the years of my YouTube and streaming.

"Oh, ok. That's stimming. I thought that was the other one. I always forget what it's called."

"Umm, I don't know what you're trying to say." I always got confused when people asked you questions about something they couldn't remember themselves. My mum was the main culprit as far as I knew.

"Tics! That was it. I thought those were tics."

"No, tics are involuntary, stims are voluntary. They help me to a degree which means I wouldn't be able to exist without them, but if someone asked me to stop saying political ribeena, I could. If you asked someone with tics to stop ticking, they probably couldn't. There is tic suppression but we don't need to talk about that. I stim, we're talking about stimming." I knew my stuff about neurodivergence, and tics did come with it, but I didn't really have any tics.

"Yes, we are. And if it helps you, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to stim. Why exactly did you think you wouldn't be allowed to?" I was relieved and dropped my shoulders a little, hoping he wouldn't notice. I'm not sure I could take another person saying I couldn't stim around them. Well I could, but it would just suck.

"Oh, no reason. I just thought I'd ask. It's loud sometimes and it annoys people. So I just wanted to know if it annoyed you or not."

"Has it annoyed people in the last?"

"Yep, and in the present."

"Who gets annoyed Will?"

"No one, it's fine. Thank you for talking but I've got to go." I had managed to avoid a conversation I wasn't ready to have, but then again, when was I ever ready to have a conversation? (It's a rhetorical question, so don't answer it.)

"Alright, see you."

"Bye."

Phil's POV:

When it came to things I didn't understand, I asked Kristen and Will. Kristen knew about life, Will knew everything in books. His knowledge of general things was through the roof. He just seemed to remember everything. And know I understood stimming, I thought I would have a conversation with Kristen about it, after all, she had worked with autistic children, and stimming was most likely a normal topic, within her field. "Hey Kristen. I had a question about stimming."