System Sizes
Both members of our system have an unusual relationship with our size. This page documents the rules with which these relationships operate.
Our Body
Default height: 6'7"
Proportional equivalent height: 6'7"
This is an example entry for our physical, meatspace body, as opposed to the way each alter sees themselves.
The “proportional equivalent height”, here, refers to the way that a person’s proportions change depending on their height. Say, for example, someone who was 5 feet tall was evenly scaled up until they were 6 feet tall. They would not have the same proportions as someone who was naturally 6 feet tall. They would have (among other things) an unusually large head, as that’s something that doesn’t generally grow proportionally with height. The “proportional equivalent height” is the height that you’d have to evenly scale an unusually-sized person to for their proportions to be “normal”. Since this entry refers to our physical body, to which no unnatural size-changing events have occured, this is the same as our actual height.
Holly
Default height: 82'2" (Not including ears)
Proportional equivalent height: 6'7"
Holly grew up much taller than her peers, though not unnaturally so. By the time she reached her “final” adult height, she was 6'7"; very tall, but a height that people very much do reach. This changed a few years later, when she experienced a sudden, massive growth spurt. Over the course of a few minutes, Holly grew to be 82'2", her whole body scaling evenly such that her proportions were maintained.
Holly has a semicanonical* ability to increase her own size. In particular, she can cause herself to grow (again, scaling evenly) until she reaches a exactly twice her height before the growth began. The clothes she’s wearing will grow with her, for reasons that Holly simply hasn’t interrogated. This process takes a variable amount of time, usually less than a minute but sometimes up to five minutes. Once complete, this can be repeated, doubling her new height. This eventually “wears off” at some point after Holly is done whatever she’s doing. She’ll find herself at 82'2" and in a safe location somewhere near her home. This “wearing off” is not a shrinking process or any kind of event with a cause or duration. It’s more analogous to a TV show with no continuity wrapping up an episode; once the “story that is being told” ends, things are simply reset. Nobody has any memories of how Holly returned to her default size, but they would generally agree that it happened “in a pretty normal way”, should they remember her growth at all.
*“Semicanonical” in this case refers to something that has either always or never been true. In this instance, Holly doesn’t “gain” or “lose” her ability to grow larger. If the situation calls for her to be able to do that, she’s been able to since her first growth. Otherwise, she’s never had any control over her own size. This is less of a retroactive or paratemporal event, and more of an adjustment to the “narrative”, much the same way returning to her default size is.
Amy
Default size: ~4.25"
Proportional equivalent height: 5'4"
Amy has always found herself much smaller than the people around her. This generally manifests as being about 1/15th as tall as “you” are, where the word “you” in that sentence is contextual. 1/15th is generally a good size for riding around on your shoulder, so that tends to be how she gets places. Her size being defined relatively this way causes it to shift around often, but her proportions are preserved.
Amy’s relative size is one of the reasons she likes to hang out with Holly. While she very much enjoys being small, there are a lot of things that are more convenient at a more normal human size. Amy being exposed to Holly puts her at right around her proportional equivalent height, making it possible for her to exist at a normal human size for as long as she’s able to hang onto it. She has to be careful, though. If she’s not, she can accidentally enter a scenario in which this relative definition can “cling” to someone of a more normal size, resetting her to being too small to easily complete her task.
Specifically, Amy’s size has no “conceptual inertia”. While she’s being actively and intentionally perceived, her size is fixed. However, if the concentration of the people around her is broken, she’ll reset to a relative size based on the people around her. (Her clothes will change size with her, due to being part of how she’s generally conceptualized. In general, you don’t see Amy and think “There’s Amy and the clothes she’s wearing”, you just think “That’s Amy”. The lack of conceptual inertia applies to the size of the objects that are part of that conception.)
For example, Amy could expose herself to Holly to become a normal size, and then leave to have a one-on-one conversation with somebody. As long as that conversation is going and the other participant is engaged, her size won’t change. However, if they’re distracted and lose focus on the conversation (it could be anything, even just their phone ringing for a moment), Amy’s size will no longer be fixed and she’ll reset to something based on theirs.
For this relative definition of Amy’s size to kick in, the person it’s defined relative to must somehow be engaging with her “as a person”. This is a very loose and fuzzy rule, but it generally means that someone has to be actively understanding her as a person with thoughts and feeling as opposed to just “a human being who I can see”. This means in practice that things like Amy walking down the street and being seen by others won’t cause her size to reset. However, if someone bumps into her and starts to apologize in a way that’s not strictly instinctive, it probably will. The understanding that they just slightly inconvenienced a real person would cause the shift before they began to actively percieve her in a way that would prevent it. Even something like trying to find Amy in a crowd because you want to talk to her may trigger it.
When Amy’s size changes, she doesn’t “grow” or “shrink”, but it’s also not retroactive in any way. She will simply find herself at whatever new size she’s become at some point “between thoughts”. At this point, she’s rather used to it, but her size changing so suddenly can be jarring for someone who doesn’t know her and has inadvertently caused the change by being momentarily distracted.
Deca
Default size: N/A
Proportional equivalent height: N/A
Deca has simply opted out of having the kind of identity that’s implied by something like this. They don’t look like anything, including not being a particular size.