Stories Of An Unusual Imagination

Cray

"Ughhh! I can't take it anymore!" Maya groaned in annoyance. "Can't you just get him to shut up?" She  slammed her axe a few inches into the ground.

"Calm down, Maya." The pale elf stroked the barbarian's muscly arm. "He's in a lot of pain right now. There's only so much we can do. We ought to try and help."

Electricity crackled and sparked around the demigod as he floated beside the couple. "I've tried, and turns out electricity isn't really his thing." Disappointment could be heard clearly in Ike's voice. "I'm sorry, Ree. I can't help."

"You tried your best." the elf nodded and gave him a kind smile. She then faced back to the two people sitting on a fallen log by the path: a wizard and a bard. Even from afar, you could clearly see that the wizard had seen better times. Distressed and panicked, his old and frayed wizard hat flopping up and down on top of his head as he took in large breaths, his fingers spread out as they hit the sides of his head repeatedly. Tears streamed down his face as he hiccupped silently, trying to contain himself.

"That's it," the bard said. "Take deep breaths." As Ashum was about to draw their instrument, they realized that it was probably not a good idea to do so. After seeing the wizard's alarming reaction to Ike's crackling sparks, creepy music would most likely not be ideal either for such a sensitive person. 

Ashum was not your typical bard. Despite playing music, as would any respectful bard would do, Ashum's taste in music was rather different from the usual joyful and merry music you'd hear from the gentle strumming of their harp or guitar, or any carry-on instrument. They preferred a rather ancient, eerie tune that spoke the stories of folklore and old tales. You could even see how they expressed it from their looks. Ashum's frost-colored hair was shaved till it looked like a plain of grass that had been covered in snow. Their entire outfit's palette was desaturated, considering that they had originally lived in the woods before tagging along with the group. Ashum's attitude was generally a rather all-rounded and easy-going person who cared a lot for others, but at times like this, even they seemed a little lost on what to do. A troubled teenage wizard with autism was not something that Ashum was used to, but nonetheless still wanted to help. 

The hitting was getting worse. Ashum could hear the strength of Cray's self-hits to himself getting harder and harder with each palm to his head. "Cray, stop, stop-" Ashum's hands frantically sprung out to grab Cray's arms, which only made the situation worse. Cray cried out in panic and tried to break free of their grip by aiming a kick at Ashum's waist. Fortunately, since they were sitting, Cray's position only made it impossible for his legs to reach Ashum's body without falling, leaving him grunting and struggling as more tears sprinkled to the ground.

"Woah! Buddy! Calm down!" For some reason unknown, Cray completely stopped all movement like a dog obeying their master's command. The only thing you'd see moving were the few tears that rolled down Cray's cheeks. Eyes wide, staring into Ashum's soul. 

"Everything is fine," Ashum said slowly but firmly. "Everything is gonna be okay. I know this trip has been a lot for you, and right now you're not feeling very comfortable at where you are. But we're gonna get through this, okay? We're gonna get out of this forest, and we're gonna get to Albetta where we'll get you someplace warm, okay?" Cray swallowed and nodded, the tears dripping lesser and lesser. Ashum let go, and Cray instinctively whipped out his book and started rubbing it in his left hand while the other hand flapped about. 

This action was called stimming, mostly meant and done by most autistic people to help calm themselves in times of overstimulation. Often times this would work, and Cray never had a problem with it up until now. Before this incident had happened, the group was fighting over who knew the fastest route to Albetta, where someone had accidentally shoved Cray onto the ground. The overstimulation from the noise due to the argument and the act of being harmed on by others caused him to go into full panic mode, and for the first time since their journey had started, Cray had a meltdown. It didn't help that the group had continued to argue, and only when the silvery liquid started to flow down Cray's face and began to slap his own head did everyone finally realize what they had done. 

As a result, everyone was silent during the continuation of the journey to Albetta. Even Maya found her place to stay silent without any snide remarks about Cray unlike her usual acts of name-calling Cray derogatory names prior to anything that Cray did that she found unusual. Ree smiled at Cray, knowing that he was better now. Seeing that Cray still looked a little down and unsettled, the elf genasi pursed her lips and gently blew into the air, creating a train of bubbles that floated into the bright white sky and popped. That got Cray's attention. Giggling, Cray popped an incoming bubble without barely touching it. Watching as a smile slowly widen on Cray's face made Ree more relieved and happier throughout the trip.

Ike couldn't help but sigh seeing that scene. He wanted to at least try to converse with Cray without him running away from him. But knowing that Cray was irritated by his crackling electricity made him feel quite useless. At this point, he couldn't even crack a joke. An elbow bumped against his arm, and as if they'd read his mind, Ashum said, "Hey, don't worry about it. You'll find a way soon." leaving Ike feeling better than he did before. 

Albetta was still a long way ahead of them... and with today's events shown, what other obstacles may this unlikely group face?

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Recently I've been quite interested in reading into certain mental disorders and whatnot... So an idea came of a D&D group with one of the group members having autism, which is not something that I see very regularly in terms off these types of groups. Of course, it required some research, and I found some interesting facts about the autism spectrum which you can also read up about at this helpful website called Spectrum:

https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/repetitive-behaviors-and-stimming-in-autism-explained/

 Perhaps it can help others gain more awareness to autism and how to react to certain events such as meltdowns when conversing with an autistic person. Though I've never actually met somebody with autism in my entire life, I do think that they should be treated with respect regardless of what they behave like. Some people, like Maya, in this case, don't have the patience to deal with such people and thus treat them with disrespect and loathing for them. Hopefully people like Maya can learn to have a better aspect or insight of people with autism, or any mental disorder for that matter, and learn to help them instead of looking down on them.