#GtWAC prompts

[creatorofuniverses]

Day 23 – Monster

Today's prompt is "share or short: a story with a nonhuman/monstrous character". And I know the challenge said "short", but this prompt took hold of my imagination earlier in the month and I may or may not have ended up with a new story's inciting action, which is (checks notes) over 4k words long. Enjoy?

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Casper knew that working the night shift wasn’t going to be much fun. He knew that working the night shift as a janitor was going to be even less fun. He had expected some long nights and some dull work from the start.

What he hadn’t expected was to be cleaning fucking Area 51.

Not that he was allowed to call it that. They’d been very specific on that point, actually, amongst others. This was an alien-free facility, and also a joke-free facility. It practically said so on his contract- the long, complicated, very intimidating contract he’d read through and eventually signed; and that was only after signing the NDA. He should have known that there was a catch when he saw how much they were willing to pay him for what would otherwise be a minimum-wage job. By the time he could work out whether he was getting cold feet or not, he was in too deep. The pay was very good. He tried to repeat that to himself as he clocked in for his first real day (night) on the job, his shoulders a little tense as he swiped the key card and wheeled the cart with all his cleaning supplies out into the hallway.

The dark, empty, extremely foreboding hallway. He’d been trained by the daytime staff earlier in the week, but he hadn’t gotten to see much of the place then, and it certainly hadn’t looked like it did now. Something about the building being empty, like a dead husk-

“Okay, wow,” he muttered aloud to himself. “No. You gotta cut that shit right out, man.” Casper shook his head, admonishing himself as he set off at a clipped pace towards his first room to clean. The last thing he needed was to let his brain go off on wild imaginings when it didn’t have to. Just because he was the only one on the nighttime cleaning staff until the early morning didn’t mean that he was alone in the building. There was a security office… somewhere… and he was certain that they were keeping an eye on things.

They had to, because this place was full of monsters.

Which was a fact that Casper’s brain kept trying to remind him of, and one that he kept pushing away, lest it encourage the aforementioned wild imaginings. He hadn’t believed it, not even after all the paperwork and the almost dramatically serious briefings, not until he’d seen it for himself. Monsters were real, and they were housed here, studied and contained lest they be a danger to the world outside. Creatures of myth and legend from around the world, all under one massive roof in a facility buried deep in the hills of Bumfuck, Nowhere.

Where one new and extremely nervous janitor was tasked with cleaning up the place. Not the enclosures themselves, thankfully, or Casper would have run screaming, NDA or not. No, he was just here for the normal, human areas, or so Casper kept telling himself. No need to freak out. This was practically like any other job.

Telling himself that about once a minute, Casper put in some headphones, started a playlist, and did his best to ignore his anxiety. He did a fairly good job for a while cleaning up the offices- wiping down desks, vacuuming and mopping, restocking the cheap coffee supplies and such. Same with the break rooms, the meeting rooms, the lobby. He did the basics in the labs, careful not to touch anything but his mop and the garbage cans. He then worked on the hallways for a bit. He even cleaned all the bathrooms, on every floor, before he had no choice but to face the areas he’d been dreading the most: the observation decks and prep rooms.

He approached the entrance to the nearest enclosure with his cleaning cart, his hands clenched, white-knuckled, along the handlebar. Even the soothing music playing in his ears couldn’t distract him from his nerves at the thought of going in there. “Nothing’s gonna get you,” he promised himself under his breath, willing himself to stop being such a scaredy-cat. Sure, the rooms on the other side of that door looked out into one of the many monster enclosures in the building, and sure, the prep room beneath the observation deck could lead out into the enclosure… but he wouldn’t have to go out there. And the rooms were secure, they had to be, because all those important scientists and guards and whatever were in them all the time without being in danger of whatever beast they were studying. So Casper would be perfectly safe.

He would have to deal with maybe seeing one of the monsters though. Out in its huge enclosure. In the dark. There was no getting around that.

Casper let out a long, shaky breath, mumbled, “Fuck it,” and opened the door.

The sight inside was, thankfully, underwhelming. He flicked one of the light switches and a single row of fluorescents kicked on, revealing a truly mundane setting. A handful of chairs lay scattered about, and a row of countertop stretched across a long wall made up mostly of windows. That led out into the enclosure, of course, but it was dark out there, and with the light on inside, Casper couldn’t see anything but his own reflection.

Heart pounding, but knowing it would haunt him if he didn’t, Casper inched up to the windows and peered out into the enclosure, cupping his hands around his eyes to block the light and see a little better. He was half expecting a jump scare, but nothing leapt up. Nothing even really moved. In the dim light from the observation deck, he could just barely see a large lump out in the far corner of the enclosure, still and likely (hopefully) asleep.

It took him a little while to peg which monster this was; the label on the door read “M-9” but that didn’t mean much to somebody who had only recently been hired. He wracked his brain for the creatures he had recognized in the briefings in an attempt to discern the true shape of the far-off lump. Eventually, he realized it looked like a lion out there, curled up asleep- a lion the size of a small building, of course, with an uncannily human set to its slumped shoulders. Probably the sphinx, then. Not the most terrifying thing in here, but that bar was set pretty high. He still wouldn’t want to see it up and about.

Casper inched away from the windows again and let out a long breath. Okay. He was going to do his best to clean quietly, and maybe if he was lucky, it would stay asleep and he could get through this task without any trouble.

Of course, that was easier said than done. He did still have to clean, and there was a set amount of noise that was bound to go with that. The tables and floor of the observation deck were cleaned fairly quickly and quietly, but that wasn’t the only area he needed to attend to. Getting his cart down the wide stairs leading to the prep room below made enough of a cacophony to wake the dead, and his heart was trying to beat its way out of his chest by the time he got down there. He cast a quick look towards the enclosure, but there were no windows down here to see out of- just shelves full of containers and tools, a large chest freezer that hummed out a low drone, and the sickly-sweet smell of raw meat. This must be where they kept the sphinx’s food; because a butcher’s shop was exactly what he wanted to smell when he was already crawling out of his skin with nerves.

Shaky hands hastily grabbed the mop out of the cleaning cart, followed by a number of swears as an assortment of similarly pole-shaped cleaning apparatuses came free along with it and fell to the side. Whatever- he would grab them later, he needed to smell the overwhelming scent of cleaning solution now or he was going to lose his nerve entirely.

Casper dunked the mop into the bucket of soapy water attached to the end of the cleaning cart, his shoulders relaxing a fraction as the sinus-clearing smell of bleach beat back the raw meat stink. The wet mop slapped onto the laminate floor and he pushed it back and forth vigorously, as if he could thereby push away his own fear.

He tried to focus on the music coming through his headphones, the feel of the mop pushing against the floor, the embarrassment he would feel if he let himself be scared away from a solid job after only one night of work. This was fine, he was overreacting. He was safe in here, he literally just had to clean the floor and then he could drag his cart back up the stairs and move on. Maybe he would figure out a better way to do that in the next enclosure. Maybe he’d ease into this whole thing. Maybe…

Maybe he could hear something behind him.

Casper whirled around, heart in his throat. He whipped off his headphones and slung them around his neck, straining his ears to listen. At first all he could hear was the quiet, tinny sound of the music still playing, the thumping of his heart against his ribs, his shallow, almost-silent breathing. But then he heard it again, a scraping sound, coming from the big metal door that would lead out into the enclosure.

Calm down, he told himself, feeling just this side of a panic. It’s probably just that… that thing, moving around outside. I’m sure it can’t open the door. He looked, just to make sure, and his breath caught in his throat, his eyes wide and his pulse pounding in his ears.

Sure, the door was too small for something the size of that sphinx to get through, and he doubted they’d made a doorknob that a monster could use on the other side. But inside, in here, instead of a doorknob there was a long push-bar… and right now a bunch of brooms had fallen against that push-bar… and the door was cracked.

Casper barely managed to think Oh shit, I fucked up before a couple of long, sinister claws the length of kitchen knives scraped through that crack and dug into the door.

What happened next happened in seconds. The door was ripped off its hinges with a horrible, metallic shriek. Casper dropped the mop and bolted, scrambling to get around his cleaning cart and back up the stairs. He’d barely made it to the bottom step when an enormous paw – no, hand, clawed and padded but long, strangely human despite being the size of a bed – thrust itself through the door and into the room.

The paw-like hand whipped back and forth rapid-fire, like a cat batting at a toy, and one of the sweeps caught Casper full on. He was thrown from the stairs and into the shelving, crumpling to a heap on the floor with a wet gasp as heavy containers rained down around him, banging into him mercilessly where he lay.

Get up get up GET UP his mind screamed, but his body wouldn’t respond. His shoulders and back were throbbing angrily from where they’d smacked into the shelving, and his legs and arms stung in multiple places from getting hit with the contents of the shelves. He shifted, trying to get one arm under himself so he could push himself upright, and bit back a whimper. If he could just stay quiet, maybe it wouldn’t be able to find him, to get to him…

He pushed himself up onto one elbow and had to pause, sucking in as silent of breaths as he could. He froze as the giant, clawed hand that filled most of the room retreated as quickly as it had come.

A sudden, reckless hope flooded through him. It couldn’t fit in here, of course it couldn’t, maybe this was the end of it.

Then a golden, gleaming eye came out of the darkness beyond and filled the doorway. A cat-like pupil stared straight at Casper as a low, rumbling growl, something more out of Jurassic Park than anything else, filled the air from the ground up. Casper’s mind went blank with fear even as the eye retreated and the hand returned, reaching for him.

Casper rolled over onto his side, twisting away from that giant grasp with an exhalation that would have been a noise of fear had he been any less breathless. His movement tucked him closer to the shelves but couldn’t get him far enough- a claw snagged against the back of his shirt, scratching a line down his back that did pull a high noise of pain from him. Then that claw pulled, dragging him across the floor, the laminate still slick with cleaning solution and offering him no purchase even as his hands desperately scrabbled for something, anything to hold onto.

It was no use. The enormous hand behind him pushed everything out of its way by dint of its sheer size, before dragging him out of the prep room entirely.

Smooth laminate gave way to gritty sand, and Casper’s skin grated against it painfully for a few agonizing moments before all the movement stopped. Heaving for breath, he scrambled to his hands and knees, eyes locked on the ragged square of tepid light defining the open doorway a few yards ahead of him. He only managed to crawl a foot or two in that direction before that huge, paw-like hand batted at him again.

It felt like being hit by a truck. Casper’s body rolled across the uneven ground, flipping him over to his back. His lungs burned, heaving to suck breath into his battered chest, and he couldn’t move for what felt like an agonizing length of time, but what was probably only a few seconds. Eventually his eyes opened, though he immediately wished they hadn’t.

The sphinx loomed over him. He could just barely see it, its contours faintly limned in the weak light coming from the observation deck above, the prep room he had been dragged out of. Powerful, furred haunches, eerily human shoulders, glinting golden eyes amongst the outline of a large mane, all bigger than he could ever have imagined. The clawed fingers digging into the ground next to him were nearly as long as he was tall.

Even though he knew it wouldn’t work, sheer fear and panic made Casper scramble to his feet the minute he had his breath again, frantically backpedaling only to be knocked over within seconds by those huge, sharp fingers. He landed on his side, curling up and throwing his hands over his neck as an enormous index finger nudged harshly at him with the back of one knuckle, pushing him around with ease. Casper’s mouth tasted like blood and grit; he was pretty sure he’d split his lip at some point, god knows when, and the sand was getting everywhere.

At this point he was fairly certain, in the cold, detached way of somebody immersed in shock and terror, that he wasn’t going to live long enough for the sand to be a problem. The sphinx’s motions reminded him of nothing more than a cat toying with a mouse, before…

Oh god, he didn’t want to be the mouse.

The air above Casper was displaced, and he could all but feel the monster looming overhead. As much as he didn’t want to, he couldn’t help but looks up at his approaching death, his eyes wide and wet behind an arm still thrown across his neck. Closer now, mere feet above him, the features of the sphinx’s face were suddenly thrown into clarity. An enormous but distressingly human face looked down at him, almond-shaped eyes with those cat-like pupils staring dispassionately, a human mouth flat and uncaring. Hair grew out from every side of the face, forming a mane. The nose looked caught between human and feline, curved but stubby at the end, the texture and curve of a cat’s nose growing seamlessly out of what otherwise might be considered skin.

That strange nose, wide as one of the crates in the prep room, got so close to Casper that it eclipsed most of his view. He froze, heart rabbiting in his chest, as it sniffed him, great gusts of air sucked into unfathomably large lungs.

 Then the enormous face above Casper tilted, and his vision was filled with huge lips, which drew back to reveal long, sharp teeth, that parted and-

“No!” he screamed, curling up into a quivering ball again, as if that could protect him from certain doom. “No, no, god please, no!” His voice was ragged, higher pitched than he’d ever heard himself sound before, tight with pain and fear. “Please, don’t… oh god, please…”

The begging devolved into breathy sounds of terror as he waited for teeth to stab through him, waited for the monster in the dark to gobble him up.

It didn’t happen.

Shaking and tense, Casper uncurled a minute amount, making himself look up again and fully expecting to see those teeth closing in. Instead, the face of the sphinx had retreated somewhat. It was looking down at him, head cocked to one side, as if… confused? Well, that would make two of them.

But a moment of confusion was better than a moment of painful death, and Casper’s terrorized brain frantically tried to figure out what had changed. Was it his begging? He supposed he hadn’t talked to it, why would he have talked to it… were the words what had caught its attention?

“Do… do you…” he stammered, still curled up. Even so, he flinched tighter as it leaned down closer. Wetting his lips (oh, gross, definitely blood and sand) he made himself talk more. “Do you understand m-me?”

It didn’t seem to, at least not as far as he could tell. Its brow was furrowed slightly, but no trace of understanding passed across that oversized face. It opened its mouth – it took all his willpower not to close his eyes again – and emitted a series of horrific sounds. Growling, low enough to shiver through Casper’s chest at this proximity, was modulated into a variety of tones- a warped kind of speech, or music maybe, if music made you feel like you were about to be the first person killed in a sci-fi horror movie.

Regardless, it explained nothing at all to Casper.

“I,” he squeaked out, shaking his head frantically. “I-I don’t-”

He didn’t get to finish. Letting out a huff, the sphinx leaned down, closing the space between them in a fraction of a second.

Then it opened its mouth and clamped its teeth around Casper, lifting him off of the ground entirely.

Casper screamed, any thoughts of communication disappearing in the wake of this new, life-threatening development. His hands scrabbled at the teeth pinning him, sliding off of slick enamel before hitting gums. He was too far gone to even be disgusted, he was only afraid, afraid of those teeth closing in and piercing straight through him, of being swallowed up by the monster that already had him halfway in its mouth. “No, please,” he sobbed, tears flowing from eyes wide and unseeing. It didn’t even matter- the monster had turned away from the light, plunging him into darkness. He could only tell they were moving by the rush of air. “Oh, god, please…”

Another shriek was pulled from him as he suddenly plummeted, still caught between sharp teeth, only to be unceremoniously dropped onto the ground. He lay there limp, limbs numb and buzzy with adrenaline, tears still leaking out of his eyes. He pinched his eyes shut and sobbed, curling up and weakly shielding his head. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take. If it was going to eat him, he almost wished it would just get it over with.

He felt rather than saw it lean in close, felt its warm, humid breath wash over him. A yelp of surprise blurted out as, instead of teeth, he felt a tongue licking over him; it was rough, and dry, more like a cat’s tongue than a human one, though big enough to cover his entire side with one swipe. He shuddered beneath it, uncomfortable and terrified, so unsure of what was happening.

A low rumble started up behind him as the sphinx licked away the sand covering him, a sound deep within a cavernous chest somewhere in the dark; but this wasn’t the growl from earlier, nor was it the attempt at speech.

It… it sounded like… purring?

While Casper’s heart still did its damndest to put him in cardiac arrest, the terror ebbed away from his mind a minute amount, making space for confusion once again. Purring was a good sign, probably, right? It would mean the feline monster was content with this in some way, even though he wasn’t being eaten. Actually, maybe the licking didn’t have anything to do with eating him, or at least he hoped not. It seemed less about tasting and more about… grooming? Was that what was happening here? Was the enormous monster with the razor-sharp claws and huge teeth now just grooming him?

It was so ridiculous that Casper actually blurted out, “Ha!”, a bark of a laugh that bordered on the hysterical more than the amused. He flinched as that huge tongue sought out his face, licking along his cheek and up into his hair, accompanied by a feline vocalization that almost seemed to be in response to his little outburst. Hell, maybe it was.

 He couldn’t do anything except lie there and hope for the best, not with the monster’s mouth so close to him. He weathered the tongue bath, only breaking the silence with quiet sounds of pain when that rough tongue scraped over new cuts. Tears from his brief but fervent bout of sobbing dried on his face, and the longer things went without him dying horribly, the more space his mind had to consider the possibility of escape.

There had to be a way out of this. Maybe the monster would let him go after this, or he could sneak away once it fell asleep. His heart lurched in his chest, hope flaring so suddenly and so keenly that it almost made him nauseous, as he suddenly remembered the fact that there were security guards in the building. All the enclosures had cameras, surely by now somebody had seen what had happened to him. They could come help him, or even call somebody who could figure out a way to rescue him before things went south again. They had to.

He strained his ears, trying to hear if anybody was coming. All he heard was a low, rumbling purr, so close and so pressing that it almost felt like a physical blanket of sound around him. Hard to hear anything through that, he told himself, and tried to stave off the sharp disappointment that a rescue wasn’t happening yet. Soon, surely, somebody would come.

Right?

A noise of surprise squawked out of him as something wrapped around him – fingers this time, not teeth, thank god – and lifted him up. He winced and leaned away as best he could as that catlike tongue swiped over the side of him that had been on the ground and therefore inaccessible moments ago; he couldn’t actually go anywhere though, not with giant, padded fingers locked around him like a vice grip. He didn’t want to tear himself to shreds on its claws trying to wiggle away, either, especially since he couldn’t see a damn thing. It made his heartbeat pick back up just thinking about it.

He expected to be put down after it was done licking him, but he still gasped as he was swept backwards and deposited on the ground. The sand felt gritty and blessedly solid beneath his shaky arms.

Casper tried to get to his feet, entertaining a fool’s hope that he might be able to make another run for it, only for his surroundings to suddenly constrict around him. He was uncomfortably pressed into the thick fur of… its arm, maybe. When he flinched back he nearly got tangled up in its mane, which seemed to surround him, rough hair full of animal stink and suggesting a very close proximity indeed. It was with no shortage of panic that Casper realized he was trapped, tucked close against it where it lay. There was the sound of it settling all around him, and then a long sigh as the purring faded somewhat. It snuffled out one last huff and then seemed to quiet completely.

His mind whirled. It was probably going back to sleep. It was going back to sleep with him surrounded by it.

He shakily felt his way back towards its arm, wondering if he dared trying to climb up and out over it; but after only a short, panicked scramble, his head hit something solid above him, and it scared him badly enough that he lost his grip and all but fell back to the ground with a pained exhale. It was on top of him too, oh god it was just too big. He wasn’t going to get out of this on his own, not without it moving.

After a few moments letting this fear run its course, he sucked in a shaky breath and risked piping up. “Um?” he said out into the quiet dark. “Could you, um, not?”

The sphinx did not reply. It seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be totally asleep; that, or it was content to ignore him now that it had him where it apparently wanted him.

Casper curled up on the hard, packed sand beneath him and did his best not to panic. He stared out with wide eyes towards a monstrous limb he couldn’t see, in the darkness of an enclosure he was never supposed to be in. Somebody would have to come eventually. Even if the security guards somehow hadn’t noticed his near-death experience, by early morning the rest of the cleaning staff would show up, and somebody would wonder where the hell he was.

He just had to wait.

[taters169]

GtWAC day 2

Post a prompt/scenario you wish you saw more often

For me I can't get enough ordinary day to day life of giants and tinies living together. Give me all the tiniest details of the adaptations made to make life work. Does the tiny have accessibility things set up to get around? Do they live in the same space or does the tiny just drop by? What about meals? Does G do all the cooking or does T have some kind of setup to do it themself?

G&t being so comfortable with each other and what a day in the life looks like

Honestly I'd read 500k that was just big and small going about their business and I'd still be hungry for more

[andtheyreonfire]

trope i'd like to see more? mmmmm being stuck with a giant while they're still in feral mode. the most pressing danger is over, but the larger doesn't recognize that. in fact, they're solely focused on you. being cradled to a chest with a clawed hand. held precariously between two fingers and inspected for injuries, pinned under the gaze of two massive, clouded eyes. trying to sneak away only to be met with a sharp, booming growl. all that stuff.

maybe some progress is made, and you're able to walk away long enough to retrieve some supplies, pretending like you don't hear a whine echoing behind you. coming back, and whatever new materials you have being sniffed curiously, cautiously. eventually, you settle down. neither of you are sleeping tonight. not the giant, clutching you to their chest or neck, ready to pounce at anything that so much as twitches towards you. certainly not you, flight-or-fight still roaring, both from the altercation and the presence of this behemoth. you can only pray the lucid, reasonable person you knew soon returns. but...

in the meantime, it is kind of nice to be cradled to a massive, warm chest. to know, like your own name, that anything that tries to harm you wouldn't be around to do so much longer.

[entomolog-t]

🖋 G/t Writer Appreciation Challenge🖋

Just in time for February! Let's show the writers in the community some extra attention and engagement and let them feel our appreciation 💕

This challenge involves interacting with others, so please remember to be respectful and have fun! This is a great opportunity to interact with new creators or a wonderful excuse to leave some extra love on a fic that's near and dear to your heart!

[eightyuh]

I like how there's just two types of people

1 - Glen is so cool omg wanna cherish him let the guy have his pride

2 - Glen is so cool omg wanna put him in a cage and feed him nuts or something

SO happy to hear you're deranged over him 🖤🖤

[reborrowing]

a couple people mentioned dolls/figures for the uncommon prompt and I also saw horror

so now I keep getting an almost idea for a living doll who belongs to a collector/customizer. She’s generally passive and not over eager to reveal that she’s alive to the collector, instead taking in the idea that she’s most beautiful when she’s dressed and well posed. She has no nerve endings and learns that the frequent adjustments to her limbs or face are an expression of love. She feels close to the collector, like she’s bonding when she’s being held and prodded and posed and photographed.

It’s a very warped view of love, but she’s not really supposed to be alive in the first place. Maintenance and customization and display are signs that you care for a decorative object, so it mostly works out for her. (But it does feel incomplete, somehow?)

It does not, however, work out great when she comes across a tiny half her size and tries to show she cares with the same methods

I’m not sure who I’d want as the tinier tiny though—another doll who’s just a litttttle more alive? Borrower who was pumped to get some scaled tools? Doll customizer who’s been shrunk somehow?

Whoever it is they’re about to have a bad day

[sucker-for-shifters]

For Day 2 of GtWAC:

Post a prompt/scenario you wish you saw more often.

~~~

[If you look at the blog name, you already know where this is going.]

Sizeshifters. Just in general. I feel like there’s not enough of them out there, and when they’re implemented, it’s usually just the basic formula. Why not play around with it a bit?

What about a sizeshifter that has trauma related to their powers? Not that shifting itself is what puts them off, but due to some sort of situation, their powers almost got themself or someone else hurt, and they don’t want that scenario repeating again.

What about sizeshifting that hurts? Like bones snapping and reforming as a person grows, or their body feeling like it’s melting when they shrink? How about tying this into emotion/stress-related shifting?

What about monstrous shifting? Not just growing bigger or shrinking smaller, but adopting certain characteristics, like fangs, or claws, or other animalistic traits?

What about shifter fighting? (Because LORD, there’s not enough action at times. Sure, fluff and tame stuff is nice, but also, KAIJU BATTLE!) But also, seeing this in regular G/T stuff would be cool too.

And lastly, what about forced size changes? Be it a shrink/growth ray, some sort of potion, etc., I think it’s a neat idea to play with.

[stupidgtblog]

GtWac Day 2: Prompts

A prompt/scenario that I wish to see more of is like... exploring the more serious effects of sizeshifting? Specifically like perma-sizeshifting.

Like I really enjoy born giants as much as the next person, but humans cursed into giants??? DELICIOUS ANGST TROPE.

Life is great! You're excelling in your field, and you're getting praise from all over the kingdom! Even the capital! You notice some jealousy and animosity, but overall, everything's fine!

Until it isn't. You are alone. You are monstrous. The society that once praised you as one of its very finest now rejects you. Hates you.

And you hate them too. They think of you a monster? A monster they'll get.

ok thats it lol ty

[imber-rose]

GtWAC day two: Post a prompt / scenario you wish you saw more often.

Honestly anything with platonic relationships. Romance is good and dandy but I need more friendships, found family and platonic affections

As far as scenarios.

I’m a sucker for scientist ends up in the fae wilds or abducted by aliens or such. Flip side is fae or alien getting discovered by a scientist (but not like the cold movie scientist like the actual field scientist who get way to excited over tree core samples and tiny frogs and the like)

[clumsiestgiantess]

Part — what is this.. four of the ‘tiny in the cold’ story! (wow that’s a lot more than the oneshot I intended it to be; thanks for the support!) @entomolog-t it’s back!

[Alice’s pov]

My alarm clock buzzes obnoxiously to my left, but for once I’m not annoyed by it.  I need to get up; it’s exam day.  The exam starts… NOW!  “What?!  I-  Oh my god, I set the alarm for the time I needed to be there!  I’m going to be so late!”  Dashing through the house, I shove a blueberry muffin into my mouth, throw my coat on, grab my bag, and speed out the door.  Jabbing the elevator button every half a second, I practically pounce into the empty space once the doors open.  Thank goodness there was no one in here.  From the moment I step into the lobby, the rest of the trip is a blur.

My brain only finally starts working about a half-hour into testing.  Miraculously, they made an exception and let me in.  I’d blamed my lateness on the slick ice lining a few of the roads instead of my own confusion, and the proctor believed me.  I mean, technically it is the truth.  I was a bit slower coming here because of the ice, though not by much.

Thankfully, this is one of my easier exams.  Even with my grogginess, I have extra time to look through — and redo — the parts I’d done in my half-asleep mind.  I finish the edits with a mere minute to spare.  There are a few quick celebrations between me and a few of my friends who were also taking it, then I head back home.  One final down, four more to go.

My schedule from then on would be to rinse and repeat over the next few days — eat a meal, study, eat another meal, study, maybe sleep, then go back for another test.  When I go to bed that night, I double check that I changed the alarm to give me some time to actually get up.  

That next morning, I have enough time to eat breakfast and glance over my notes before heading back out to yet another exam.  It had snowed overnight, and I hurriedly brushed it off the windshield before heading out.  I actually made it here a bit early!  Maybe I can go see if Terri-  

“Wait!”  I flinch.  Who’s voice is that?  “Please!  I-”  The strange voice stops as abruptly as it started speaking.  Immediately, I turn in my seat, scanning the back for any sign of another person in here with me.  A tiny-sounding whine directs me to the floor.  “What the hell?”  There’s.. a small.. thing moving around down there, halfway tucked inside a beanie that I’d lost a while back.  “Am.. Am I hallucinating?  I can’t!” I yelp suddenly, remembering where I am, “I have exams; I can’t be hallucinating during exams!”  The little — very humanlike — thing collapses to the floor.  I knew I should’ve gone to bed earlier.  This isn’t real, right?  That’s a palm-sized person on the floor.  I rub a hand tiredly over my face and look again.  They’re still there.  “Holy shit.  You’re.. real.”

Leaning down over the console of the car, I twist myself around so I can see them better.  They’re shaking so badly.  “Are you alright?” I ask, worry beginning to gnaw at my stomach.  “How long have you been in my car?  You must be freezing!”  Their little head nods very slightly.  “Are you another person?”  They flinch, and I regret my last question.  Of course they’re a person.  They just spoke to me.  Quietly, their voice rasps out, barely audible.  “I’m a person.  Please don’t leave me out here again.  I- I don’t know if I’ll be able to survive this time.”

My stomach sinks horribly in my chest.  How long has he been stuck out here in the cold?  He’s so small; he’ll freeze so easily.  “O- Of course, yes; I won’t leave you in here to freeze!” I gasp.  “Do you mind if I.. umm.. pick you up?”  I don’t have time to try to warm him where he is on the floor.  I doubt he really needs the extra fright of me trying to handle him, especially because he already seems so desperate, but if I don’t leave soon, I’m going to be late twice in a row.  One time I can get away with, but twice and I’ll probably get in trouble, or worse, kicked out.

A tiny head shake — no, he wouldn’t mind it.  I let out a relieved breath.  I honestly have no idea what I would’ve done if he’d refused.  Leave him here?  Out of the question.  Pick him up anyway?  That would be horrible of me.  Give him the choice to either come with me or be left here?  That just sounds like a threat.  Thankfully he’s either willing enough — or desperate enough — to trust me.

Carefully, I reach down for him, sliding my fingers gently beneath him and guiding his tiny body into my hand.  He squirms against me as I tighten my grip slightly in order to lift him.  My heart skips a beat; his hands grip my finger tightly — shaking and icy cold.  Poor thing.  I wish I had more time to help you.  I lift him upright and slide back into my seat slowly so I don’t jostle him.  Hesitantly, he chances a glance up at me.  “I’m gonna keep you in my pocket, ok?” I ask, though I know it’s more like telling him what I’ll do with him than actually asking.  It hurts my heart in a strange way, recognizing that.  “I.. really don’t have time to deal with this right now, but you’ll be plenty warm there.  I’m so sorry, but I have to go.”  A quick apology will have to suffice until later.

Lowering him into my pocket and dropping him carefully onto the bottom, I reach for the door handle.  However, I flinch away from it as a cry tears through the car.  “It’s ok; you’re alright!  I’m not gonna-”  “It’s too hot!  I need something colder!  Please!  It burns!”  His cries get louder and more pained.  In an instant, I reach in to pull him out and he rushes for my fingers, clinging tightly to them.  I freeze, unsure if I should move with him so close.  “Th- Thank you,” I hear him gasp.  Still, I’m frozen.  What do I do if I can’t leave him in there?  He’s shaking so awfully against me.  His little body is almost drenched in sweat from struggling with the pain for so long.  Will he be alright?

“You’re.. you’re ok now?  Like that?” I ask worriedly.  He nods, face nearly pressed against my palm.  “Ok.  Try not to yell like that anymore unless it’s an emergency.  I don’t need to be kicked out of the testing room and searched.  Who knows what the punishment is for sneaking a tiny guy into the room, or what they’ll do with you for that matter.”  Now is really not the time to find a tiny person struggling for life, but I’ll do my best to help him.  If that means leaving the testing room on account of some fake ‘emergency’ to help him, then so be it.  I’d rather keep him alive over anything else.

Once I’m sure he’s comfortable, I step outside.  Every single movement I make becomes calculated with him in my pocket.  What if I walk too fast and hit him accidentally?  What if I sit down and crush him?  Did I put lotion on my hands this morning?  He’s sitting tucked right against my palm.  It would feel so cute if it wasn’t a literal tiny human sitting there.  My hands are peeling from the cold; is that the one with the torn skin or is that-  No, it’s this one.  My worries just start to fade as testing time officially starts and I focus on the questions in front of me instead of the ones in my head.

However, about an hour later, I feel light pressing against my fingers.  The tiny person’s hands shove at me until I move away.  Confused and worried, I take my hand out of my pocket and inconspicuously glance down.  His little face peers up at me and nods slightly, assuring me I’d done nothing wrong.  Oh, he’s probably warmed all the way up by now!  Returning to my work, I try not to dwell on anything.  Still, relief floods my system knowing that I’d saved him from what might’ve been the end of him.  He’ll be alright now.

Finishing the exam, I’m one of the first people out the door.  Finally, I can talk to my tiny stowaway.  Once I’m in the car again, I gently pull him out of my pocket and hold him out in the palm of my hand to get a good look at him.  As soon as I unfurl my fingers, he tucks himself into a tight ball — his heavy frightened breaths press against my palm.  “Hey, little guy?  I’m sorry about basically ignoring you earlier.  Finals are this week and I really need them to go well,” I try to explain.  “Are you alright?  You’re warmer than before; that’s good!  I hope my pocket wasn’t too claustrophobic for you.”

In small hesitant movements he gets up from his fetal position and sits on his knees on my palm, staring up at me with wide eyes.  It’s strange — his clothes seem to be hand-stitched — his hair mussed and tangled.  Bringing him just a little closer, I can count at least two different scars by just glancing over him.  How long has he been small for?  Did he shrink, or is he just.. something else entirely?

My thoughts are interrupted by his voice.  It’s much stronger now, and a lot clearer with him held up closer to my head.  There’s still a strange smallness about it that makes goosebumps dash along my arms.  “I- I’m ok,” he answers me.  I exhale in relief, and become entirely conscious of how the single breath ruffles his hair like a slight breeze.  “Thank goodness; I really hoped you weren’t beyond saving.  You were super cold when I found you, barely moving.  Speaking of which, why were you in my car to begin with?  And how in the world did you manage to shrink?”  Compared with his few words and tiny voice, I feel almost like I’m speaking over him talking so much, though it doesn’t seem like he has much to say.  The guy’s probably stunned enough by the scale of everything.

I watch his brows furrow in deep thought, and for a moment I believe he’ll tell me he didn’t even shrink.  Perhaps he was magic.  But if he is, wouldn’t he have been able to save himself?  “I.. don’t remember.  I can’t remember what happened before I shrank, but I’m definitely a human.  Just smaller.”  Oh.  Oh!  Oh no, poor thing.  He’s probably been stuck so small for so long because he doesn’t even know where he is!  No memories, stuck small, freezing weather — no wonder he was desperate for help.  And now he’s begging me just to see him as a fellow human.

“Of course you’re still human!  Being smaller won’t change that!” I assure him, inadvertently cupping my hand a bit closer around him.  “I promise I don’t mean you any harm; I just want to make sure you’re ok.  Come on, I’ll take you back to my place — get you something to eat.”  I reach to put him away, but pause.  “Oh, I’m Alice, by the way.  Do you.. remember your name?”  He looks frightened for a moment.  “I don’t really remember much.”  That’s horrifying!  Not even your own name?  I don’t say that, though.  He probably already knows.  “I can try to help you remember it, but if you can’t, I guess you can try out a new one for the time being.”  He nods, relief settling some of his features.  Placing him down in the cupholder beside me, I head for home.

The drive is horribly silent — which I can’t stand.  I know my little companion probably needs time to think through some things now that I’ve finally noticed him.  Why haven’t I noticed him before?  Has he been in my car for a while?  Realization dawned on me that he’d really have to be an excellent climber to be able to get in.  He’s so small that the space between the edge of the car door and the ground must be over twice his height.

“Soo..” I begin awkwardly, “I do have a question you might know the answer to.”  The little guy looks up at me, seemingly startled out of thought.  “How did you get in my car?”  His face pales, and he looks.. frightened?  “I.. I snuck in yesterday morning.”  “You climbed up all the way into my car?  Why?”  He turns guilty away from me, like I caught him in a lie.  But why would he lie about how he got in here?  “Uhh.. it was cold outside.  Your car was warmer.. at the time.”  Is he just embarrassed that he got stuck in here?  It must’ve been rather freezing when it snowed yesterday.  He.. could’ve died in here — alone!  I’d have found his body whenever I next went to clean out my car.

“Oh!  I locked you in here and then everything froze last night!  Poor thing!  I’m so sorry!  I wouldn’t have left you here like that if I’d known you were in the car!”  I feel so awful for believing he was trying to lie.  Poor little guy was probably just having a hard time talking about it.  The thought of his near-death while I wasn’t even there just occurred to me now, but he’d actually experienced the bitter cold that had likely come close to killing him.  Of course he’d be nervous thinking about it.

Trying to change the subject, I begin ranting about finals.  It’s the next thing on my mind I can think to talk about.  I make it all the way back to my apartment, then turn to my tiny passenger.  Flattening out my hand, I leave it gently on the center console right beside the cupholder he’s sitting in.  “Here, hop on and I’ll bring you inside,” I tell him, “Would you like something to eat?”  He nods, climbing up and sliding slowly and hesitantly into my palm.  Even if he’s been tiny for quite a while, getting picked up by someone so much bigger than you must be a crazy terrifying experience.  I slip him in my pocket as I step outside.  I can’t risk someone seeing him, it just.. feels wrong to flaunt him around in the open for people to ogle at.  He probably doesn’t want the attention drawn to himself anyway.

I let him out again when we’re safely behind the closed door of my apartment.  Gently, I set him on the counter by taking off my whole jacket and putting it down.  He’d been so frightened when I’d plucked him out of my pocket earlier, and I didn’t want to frighten him again.  Patiently, I wait for him to come out to the countertop.  “What would you like?” I ask kindly.  He glances around the room, then points to the pantry.  “What do you have in there?”  Shrugging, I wander over and peer in.  “Well, let’s see.. we have soup crackers, some cheese puffs, popcorn, mac and cheese — but I’d have to cook it first, obviously.  “Oh!  But I think you’ll like- ” Glancing back at the counter to see if he was interested in any of it, I find that he’s disappeared from view.  

“Hey, umm.. little guy?  Where’d you go?” I ask, stepping around the counter to the other side.  He’s not there, either.  I lift up my coat, but he’s still not there.  “Where- Where’d you go?!  This isn’t funny!  You can’t just disappear!”  Unless…  I gasp and quickly scan the floor.  Please don’t tell me he fell off.  I- If he fell…  “Hey!  Please come back!  I- I’m not that scary, am I?  Why’d you leave?  I don’t-”  I don’t understand; there’s not a trace of him on the floor or the counter.  “Come back!  Whatever it is you’re frightened of, I’ll change it!  Please don’t run off and get hurt somewhere!  If you want to take care of yourself, that’s fine!  Just.. please let me know so I don’t think something happened to you!”

Hours tick by as I scour the floor and countertops, searching for my little missing guest.  All the while I call out various comforting things, trying to convince him to at the very least let me know that he’s alive.  Still nothing.  I can’t find him, and something tells me he doesn’t want to be found.  By 4:00 in the morning, there’s still no answer, and I go to bed without one.  I try to go to sleep, but all I can do is lay down and stare at the ceiling trying to listen for the sounds of something small moving around.  Only at about 6:00 in the morning do I finally fall asleep for a good two hours before my alarm startles me awake.  At least I don’t have an exam today.  I just have to study.

I trudge down the hall to the kitchen and freeze.  He could still be on the floor somewhere.  Continuing my trek with much more caution than before, I make a bowl of cereal and sit down numbly.  I stare out at nothing in particular; thoughts jumble in my head.  My lack of sleep and my severe rise in anxiety combined to cause an awful feeling in my head.  My stomach also started to feel the effects, and I left the kitchen only a few spoonfuls of food fuller than I had when I walked in.

Studying didn’t help my mood much, but every time I took a break from it, my mind would wander back to the tiny person potentially wandering around my home, too scared to ask for help when he likely needed it.  Lunchtime came and went — I wasn’t hungry.  I tried studying again by watching a few videos my professor posted.  Those didn’t seem to make sense to me, and my anxiousness morphed into an ugly frustrated anger.  “No!  What?  How?!  I used the same formula and everything!  What the heck?!”  Crumpling my paper in a messy ball, I can already feel an angry scream building in my throat.

As quickly as my anger emerges, however; it fizzes out.  My scream comes out as a sob and I fall against my desk.  Nothing had gone right for me.  Finals week is the absolute worst week for my luck to run out.  “I’m gonna fail,” I whisper, “I can’t do this.  Why is everything going so wrong?  I just wanted to help him; why’d he run away?  I feel sick.  What if he’s hurt somewhere and can’t call for help?  What if he’s too scared to call for help?”  Tears fall down my face and sobs wrench out of my throat in gasps.  My empty stomach roils painfully as I cry.

“Alice!  It’s ok, I-”  At the sound of a voice too small to have come from any normal person, I whirl around in my seat, furiously rubbing my eyes so I could see through my tears.  I can’t find him on the floor, just like the night before, but I know I heard the tiny person I’d rescued.  “Hello?” I call into the seemingly empty room.  A voice responds.  “It’s.. It’s ok.  It’s me, the ‘little guy’.”  I gasp a relieved breath, then stand, peering around the room for where he might be.  His voice is so small I can’t tell where it’s coming from.  “You’re… alright?” There’s a long silence, then: “Yeah.”

“Oh thank god!”  I breathe fully for what feels like the first time in days.  “You made me so worried for you!  Are you hungry still?  I- I know you haven’t eaten in a while since you.. ran off when I tried to get something for you.”  I myself felt like I was starving.  I could only imagine what he might be feeling.  I’m kept waiting for a long time — so long that I’m afraid he’ll leave if I don’t say something.  Steadying my voice with another deep breath, I offer an apology.  “Look, I’m sorry I scared you off…  I don’t know what happened, but I’m willing to work with you to try and get your memories and your old life back.  I can’t imagine how terrifying it is to suddenly be so small, not even knowing how you got that way-”  “Stop.”

I do, though I’m scared of how hollow his voice sounds.  “That’s.. a lie.  I remember everything just fine.”  Has he given up on finding a way back to normal?  Does he remember something awful that he hasn’t told me?  No wonder it felt like he was lying to me.  “So.. you just didn’t want to tell me how you shrank?” I ask, a bit confused.  “No.. Alice, I- I never shrank.  I’ve always been this way.”  My mind goes blank for a moment.  “Y- Wh-  H-” I stutter, only half-words forming on my tongue.  “I’m not human, Alice.”

He’s…  He’s what?  Slowly, I approach the bookshelf in front of me — where I can hear his voice now that he’s spoken enough for me to locate it.  Kneeling on the floor, I gently bend down to peer beneath it.  I’d already checked all the shelves to no avail.  There’s a small crack in the baseboard of the wall behind the shelf.  “Is that why you left?” I ask softly, “I promised I wouldn’t hurt you.”  His voice becomes a bit harsher.  “You promised the tiny human me that you wouldn’t hurt me,” he corrects.  I blink confusedly, slowly connecting the dots.  “You thought I would go back on my word if I knew you were lying to me?  Or you just.. thought that I wouldn’t care because you’re not human?” 

But that’s awful!  Does he really think I would do that?  My distracted gaze flits back to the crack in the wall.  He’s there — standing in a position like he’s ready to flee at any sign of aggression, but he’s there.  “I promised you that I wouldn’t hurt you.  You.  No matter who or what you were.”  His expression shifts guiltily, and he glances away from me.  “I’m a bit upset you wanted to lie to me about… everything.  But I can’t be mad at you for being scared of me.  I won’t ask you to talk to me anymore if you don’t want to, but just know, I’m glad you’re alright.”

A small smile edges along his face as he turns back to me.  Carefully, the little.. person steps out of his hiding place.  “You- You really mean that?” He asks, “You don’t care that I’m not one of you?”  I exhale a tiny laugh and shake my head.  “Of course not, don’t be silly!  You’re safe here, I promise.  I understand if you want to go home, though.  You probably have others of your kind to get back to, and I’ve accidentally trapped you in my house.”  His steps falter and guilt briefly dashes across his face again.   “Well, about that…  I kind of.. live here.”  

Do I know anything about you?  As he relayed what really happened, it turns out I really don’t.  The only thing I do know about him that’s correct is the fact that he can fit in the palm of my hand, and of course the fact that he’d been freezing to death when I found him.  Beyond that, it’s like a whole new world just opened up to me.  I guess that makes sense, though.  He is an entirely different species, which is insane to think about.  I always thought we’d find human-intelligent beings on another planet before we ever found it here again.

“I actually did remember my name,” the little being — he told me he’s a borrower — confesses after talking to me about his life beneath my floors.  “It’s just.. not really a human-sounding one, so I couldn’t exactly give you it.  My name’s Fennel, but I mostly just go by Fen.”  “Fen?” I ask.  Well, it certainly isn’t a human-sounding name.  I offer Fen a bright smile.  “Nice to finally really meet you!  How long have you been living here.. with me?”  His eyes trail off in thought, “I moved in after you were already here, but you were still unpacking things, so I don’t think it was very far off from when you moved in, too.”  So we’ve been living here together the whole time?!

“Where were you living before?”  Fen shrugs, “Eh, another apartment in this building.  The new people were too loud, so I moved out.”  Wow, I wish I could’ve done that in my last apartment.  I had to wait for the lease to expire.  “I wish I could just pack up and slip into a new home whenever I have problems with the neighbors,” I tell him, mind already wandering to what I would do at his size, with his freedom.  

“It’s harder than it seems,” Fen sighs, “I have to rebuild a livable space for myself every time.”  Oh, right.  Maybe I wouldn’t want to be a borrower after all.  I sit back upright and my back cracks loudly as I do.  “Hey, if you don’t mind, can you maybe come out from beneath there?” I ask, “It hurts my back to try to bend all the way to the floor to look at you.”  

He’s hesitant, but Fen slowly makes his way over to the edge of the bookshelf.  When he finally steps out from beneath it, I gently lay my hand in front of him palm-up, like I had in the car when I took him inside.  “Can I hold you?  Please?”  This feels like a dream.  Did I even find you, or did I fall asleep trying to study?  To my relief, he gives me a slight nod.  I watch in awe as he climbs up onto my palm — hands and feet no bigger than a fingernail.  With Fen safely in my palm, I slowly and carefully lift him up to my face to ensure I’m really awake.  

Concern crunches my eyebrows together.  He has an empty fearful look, staring blankly through me with tensed muscles.  “Fen?”  His hands dart to his head, ducking beneath them for a tiny bit of safety.  “Are you ok?” I ask softly, “You look sick.  If this makes you uncomfortable, I can put you back down.  You didn’t have to get on.”  I can hear him breathing hard, but he stammers: “I- I’m alright.”  Shaking my head, I cup my other hand around him gently.  “You aren’t, though.  You’re shaking.”  With all the caution l can muster, I lower the pad of my finger against his chest.  Just as I thought, his breaths rise and fall heavily against my finger — even his heartbeat thunders rapidly against it.  He’s so.. delicate.  Sitting in my hand like that, I just can’t describe the feeling in any way besides tiny and fragile and alive.  

My eyes water in a sudden rush of relief, and I gently bring him to my chest, hugging his tiny form the best I can without crushing him.  I finally feel relieved for the first time that week.  “It’s alright now,” I exhale.  Holding him there, I can feel his breathing slow and he relaxes in my light grip.  Guiding him out in front of me again, I watch him curl up sleepily in my palm.  His back presses softly into my cupped fingers as he blearily looks up at me.  Awww, why does he have to look so cute like that?  I’m sure he’s exhausted.

Glancing around the room, I notice that one of the smaller blankets on my bed had fallen to the floor.  I scoop it up and place Fen down on my desk.  He stumbles off, and I have to quickly grab him and lower him down before he falls face-first on the wooden surface.  I bundle up the blanket so it’s reminiscent of a little mattress and pillow, then place it in the corner of my desk.  Fen sleepily trudges over and slides into it.  Checking to make sure he wouldn’t fall over the edge of my desk by blocking off the side with a book, I settle down and begin re-working the math problem that had gotten me so worked up earlier.   Just as I finish it, Fen rolls over in his makeshift bed and mumbles something quietly.  Get some sleep little guy; goodness knows you need it.  I need it too, but more than that, I need to eat.  After checking the problem against the key — I’d solved it correctly that time — I snuck off to the kitchen to make myself a quick meal before returning to my work.  With Fen sleeping on my desk, I had to plug in my headphones to listen to the videos, but that didn’t bother me much.  I had to stop yelling so much to avoid waking him, but I needed to calm myself down anyway.  It wasn’t long after finishing the worksheet that I fell asleep right there against my desk, with my tiny roommate sleeping soundly beside me.

[awkwardgtace]

ok so for a prompt/scenario keep in mind i've been offline a lot lately, but:

more stuff where a giant is forced to trust a tiny they've been talking to while hiding their own size would be fun.

Could be like a giant that's been in hiding met someone in the woods that they talk to, everyone knows the woods are weird so the small doesn't question it until maybe the giant gets sick and needs something from a spot in the woods only a human could reach.

or instead of being sick a hunter is coming and they need help to get away.

i'll reblog this again if i think of more

[gt-jar]

GTWAC DAY 2

Hah! I bet all of you were thinking that I was gonna say parental g/t but nope! That would be too obvious.

What I want to see is a tiny willingly coming back.

The tiny doesn't know the giant, doesn't know if they can trust them.

Maybe the giant found them hurt/unconscious previously, and the first thing they did when they woke up was to run away. To safety.

But... is it safe?

What if they realize that they aren't gonna make it on their own? What if the giant really means well?

Just...

Putting your trust in someone you don't know.

Top tier!

(This might or might not play a role in the second part of the short story that I submissioned for @gigagendergt 's g/t zine heh heh)

Or just a tiny asking a giant they don't know for help in general.

[might-be-tiny-gt]

G/T WAC Prompt 2:

Scenarios I Want To See More Often

**Cracks knuckles**

Oh baby get ready cause I’m about to freaking rant.

Shrinking: it is my favorite trope of all time. NO ONE UTILIZES IN ANY FUN WAY. Ok I’m sure there are but I hardly see it. Normally a shrinking scene in a fic or show or movie just happens then we move on. Worst off it happens off screen or while the character is passed out or something. Like yeah it’s good for tension but 0 fun points.

But enough complaining time for me to pitch ideas. First of all my favorite kind of shrinking usually happens in universe over the course of a couple minutes, maybe a few hours max if it’s written right. Why? Let me tell you why. Desensitization. If the scene goes on too long the audience and or the character is no longer freaking out over the actual shrinking happen. That being said if it happens over a few second then audience certainly doesn’t have enough time to invest in it. I think a few minutes in universe is the sweet spot.

What is the character doing as they’re shrinking? A lot of the time, especially in visual mediums, they just stand there and let it happen. Maybe they’re freaking out in their heads but that’s the most we ever get. No! GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO DO AS THEIR SHRINKING! What if they decide they need to climb up stairs as they’re shrinking? Will they make it? How much does it take to reach each step the smaller they get? What if shrinking is the solution to a problem? The character shrinks down maybe to hide from someone or something, are they prepping their hiding spot, trying to reach their hiding spot? Maybe they’re holding something that isn’t shrinking with them. Usually see this trope in Alice in Wonderland adaptations with the bottle she drinks staying the same size as she shrinks. Does the character notice it getting heavy? Do they put it down while they still can or drop it and see the aftermath of drooping said item as their shrinking?

What’s the shrink process like? Personally when I write shrinking I love to write it as sudden burst of shrinking rather than a straight forward one. I think it makes the scenario much more fun and chaotic. The character won’t know when they shrink each time, it just suddenly happens. Maybe they shrink an inconsistent size each time, the first time an inch the second time half a foot the third 4 inches, have fun with it. I also love when the shrinking can somehow be controlled. For example I love the idea of someone shrinking whenever they sneeze or hiccup. Like they’re gonna shrink no matter what but maybe if they can hold back that sneeze or hiccup it’ll give them just a little bit more time. Time for what? Something, anything! Open a door, Climb a table, call for help, anything! Also love when this specific trope has the character sneezing/hiccuping in rapid succession and instead of it combining into one burst it individual shrinks them each time. Side note: just have fun reasons/conditions that’ll cause a person to shrink. Every time person A sneezes they shrink or if they say the wrong thing they shrink, or their height is tied to something like a cursed candle that will shrink them when it’s lit. I want more creative scenarios for shrinking.

Another thing, I really like the trope of shrinking out of clothes, I just think it adds more chaos to the whole deal. I don’t like nudity though? It’s weird. Anyways, I like when people can creatively come up with ideas around that. I have a comic I drew in October where the person shrinking has a towel set to the side so when they shrink out of their clothes they have something to immediately change into. Obviously this doesn’t fit every scenario, if the person shrinking didn’t plan for it how will this problem be resolved. I’ve seen scenarios that have characters wear clothes under their normal ones specifically designed to shrink with them to give you the fun of shrinking out of clothes with none of the nudity. I appreciate ideas like that.

My friend @sucker-for-shifters suggested forced shrinking which is one of my favorites. Forced shrinking/not knowing why your shrinking is another one of my top their shrinking tropes! Let’s throw ideas shall we? I like when persona A is actively being shrunk by person b against their will and person A is putting up as much of a fight as they can. Maybe not physically but person A can be trying to keep a level head and not give the satisfaction of seeing them panic. Maybe A is readying the space for their inevitable fate or doing everything in their power to keep person B from capturing them when they get too small. Like it’s a super villain scenario and I think it’s so cool. Also like is someone shrinks cause they were tricked into doing something that triggers it. Drinking a weird potion, wearing an experimental piece of technology, reciting a spell. There’s a lot of ways to do it. Love the sub trope of the size shifter that is normal height then suddenly shrinks under certain circumstances and has to wait it out til they turn back to normal. No control over when or how it happens but can at least prepare for it.

I think I’ve said everything I wanted to on the shrinking trope. Share your shrinking stories or ideas, I’d love to see them.

BONUS PROMPT:

Give me more tinies in G/t scenarios with super powers that aren’t size shifters. No hate to size shifters at all, love them to death. Just think it’s more fun for a tiny to have a random power that gives them an edge over their giant. Love Ant Man, but give me a tiny with super strength or that knows magic or that can duplicate themselves.

[thetinylittlespider]

8! Unconventional Character Duo!

I was playing with the idea of "Dangerous and highly intelligent futuristic tiny." X "Dumb, gold hearted giant that mess their plans unintentionally"

Maybe becayse of time travel? Or an alien invasion! Who knows uwu

But that could lead to some funny setting I think.

Actually I'm planning something kinda similar in a future story of mine but I'll let you all know later bleehhh

[entomolog-t]

GtWac Day 2: Prompt

I would go absolutely feral over an emotional size shifter with a sort of reverse dynamic. So instead of the typical - angry go big, sad go small, have that flipped.

The angrier they get, the more they shrink. If they're sad, they grow.

As for the other emotions?? Coin toss. Maybe when they're feeling cozy and comfortable they grow? Or when they're smug/confident they shrink?

Maybe thats just the way their powers manifested, or perhaps its some sort of curse- they lacked control over their emotions and were cursed to have some sort of built in regulator to keep them in check. Can't get mad at customer service if you're a whole 6 inches tall, now can you? Trying to just bottle up how much someone hurt your feelings? Try hiding those tears when you're 30ft tall. Get bigged, idiot.

What its like the first time it happens? How effective are they at controlling it? Did their friends/family/loved ones find out right away?

AFKFDJFG

This is just such a fun concept to me???

[eightyuh]

How do you come up with such interesting characters?

other recommendations:

I personally like to design as-if for TV animation!!! characters should be easy to draw repeatedly. this includes keeping their outfits, details, and color palettes simple. at the same time, what details are included should be memorable enough to develop an accurate first-impression, keep the viewers attention, and distinguish them at a glance against the rest of the cast.

incorporate asymmetry if possible! makes them look more dynamic, interesting, and natural. (from a former adventure time animator, can't find source :C they used marcelline's outfits as reference!)

mindset: put more focus on the character's volume than their shape. for ex: with an hourglass-figure, focus more on the individual curves and tucks than the "shape" of an hourglass. ( ^ same source)

every piece in your lineart is one of 2 options: curvy or straight. Lean into this with intention. (from Lauren Faust, mentioned during a Them's Fightin' Herds development stream)

have a crush on your characters!! "... You think of your absolute favorite movie and it was probably full of characters that felt like they were someone's favourite thing to wake up and play with. Like someone went to work and said 'I'm gonna make everyone love this f***er as much as I do." (Kelly Turnbull)

write around their personality flaws! providing the character's challenges up front presents a better lense for character growth, but it can also make them more endearing if their imperfection resonates with the audience. i would much rather watch a character actively clash with their struggle than eventually one day find out 'their weakness' (ahem shounen anime does this a lot).

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thank u so much for this ask!! i'm very flattered :"""D hope this helps!