An autistic woman has reportedly performed a daring feat of extreme bravery by answering “Fine” to the question “How are you?” in a social setting when, in fact, that response does not entirely encapsulate every nuance of the truth.

Avery Mann, 25, had been preparing for the monumental act of courage for months by slowly and painstakingly removing details from her answers to hollow socially-required questions until the moment finally arrived at a work drinks event last week.

“It took some doing,” said Mann, who was still recovering from the endeavour at time of interview. “A few months ago, I managed to condense my recap of everything that had happened to me recently, along with every internal feeling and thought process that led up to those events, to a mere 25 minutes, and I realised I might be onto something.”

Mann has since trained tirelessly to surpass her inbuilt reflex to tell the exact truth and nothing but the truth, but she says that the road has not been an easy one. “It’s like trying to stop your leg from swinging when the doctor hits your leg with that little hammer. Do they still do that?”

“At first I thought she might be having an affair,” said partner Noah Michaels, 26. “But then I remembered that there was no way she could manage to orchestrate an affair without immediately telling everyone she knows the details of it –  myself included.”

When asked what was next for her, Mann confirmed that she was working on being able to check in a heavy piece of luggage at the airport without explaining every scenario that led to the bag being overweight. “The dream is to be able to provide a simple ‘yes it is’ when facing down the barrel of a ‘that’s quite a heavy bag’ by the end of 2027.”

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