Challenge #04945-M196: The True Impediment

A hellkin runs a special school for those who are disabled, helping them learn how to overcome the prejudices and misconceptions people have of those who are not considered "normal". None of those there are treated as lesser, but instead, shown just how strong they can be. -- BKF

There were two entrances to the place, depending on what kind of parent wanted their child there. One side was bright, open, colourful and soft. The other side was stark, dark, and oppressive. It's the inside that counts.

It's always the inside that counts, but the parents who leave their children at the relevant gate never care to step inside.

They all believe that they're doing what needs to be done, and that their children are in the hands of "better help". Only a rare few write to ask how the children are doing, though most ask if their child is "normal yet". Anisolys, the Hellkin who ran the place, never got over the fact that parents on both sides wrote with the same enquiry.

They promised to take their child back into their homes once that impossible goal was achieved. They did not like Anisolys repeatedly telling them that the aim of the school was to teach these children how to cope in a world that hated them on sight. Anisolys, and other Hellkin like them, were perfect for that job. Each and every one of the devilborn had been through it all before.

Normal was not achievable.

The teachers and staff at the school could no more restore sight to eyes that had never seen than they could erase the horns from their own heads. They could not straighten or strengthen a limb that had formed stunted or crooked in the womb. They could not make anyone walk who lacked that strength or the ability from their beginnings.

What they could teach was managing the people that made their lives worse. As well as various methods to managing their impediments in a world seemingly determined to do the same.

If they had magic, it could help. If they did not... there were always clever devices. There was an entire workshop dedicated to customising devices for those who needed them.

The rest of the curriculum covered essential lessons - and snappy comebacks to prejudiced idiots.

Graduates of Anisolys' school rarely reconnected with the families who left them there. They left with skills and techniques that would serve them well in their adult lives, and clever devices that would do the same.

Anisolys themself gained great pleasure in overhearing their students in the more ordinary everyday places.

"Oh. It's so unfortunate that the gods cursed you with such an impediment," declared one 'ordinary' citizen about a teen in a wheeled chair. "How can you expect to live a fruitful life with such a disadvantage?"

"You manage with the curse of that mouth," riposted the teen. "I think I'll manage much better than that."

[Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash]

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