[TheDopp]

I know, static electricity would have to be able to like build up in arid environments. Like in the air. But then the air would have to be made out of atoms or something.

Imagine such a world where so much of it built up in the atmosphere that giant discharges of static could reach from the sky to the ground.

This is all so fucking crazy, man.

I should write a harry potter fanfic about magical electrical particles that are smaller than the eye can see that can charge and discharge in airborne particulates in low humidity, such as dust.

So you're suggesting the potential differences between the towel (or desk, or chair, or dust) can manifest so large with minimal movement, and have that potential not transfer to the case, then to me as I handle it grounded, but instead builds up like a giant capacitor made of balloons and felt, arcs instead to the case from the towel and into the power supply (or, for the sake of argument, through one of the ports and past its power bus) and shoot directly into something important on the motherboard? Or are you suggesting the towel is the manifestation of Storm from the X-Men?
In any case, the fanfic sounds like a shockingly dry read.