R.B. Ashton
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Sensus Supra: The New Girl (Intro)
🕑 Added 2021-11-17 10:01:00 +0000 UTC***This is the introduction to Sensus Supra: The New Girl, my next Tier 1 serial, set in a college for size-warping women...The serial is now also coming to Royal Road.***
A Brief History of Xm-96 by Prof M. Lindsey
In 1996, a group of asteroids broke up in the atmosphere over Mexico and brought a big change. Scientists detected alien spores, dubbed “Particle Xm-96”, but could say nothing about their properties – except that they quickly spread, and could soon be found in the air all over the world. For four years, studies produced no useful results on the nature of Xm-96, but at the turn of the millennium, something remarkable happened. People started to change size, and it was quickly noticed that those who were afflicted (dubbed “changers”, in the English-speaking world) had a high concentration of the alien spore in their system.
The changes were unpredictable both in effect and in duration. It affected more women than men, mostly across adult ranges between 18 and 50, with some variance, and was linked to both hormonal and emotional triggers. During the year 2000, it is estimated that between 15 and 20 people grew, with heights varying between 9ft and 100ft. Over 20 people shrank, to between 1ft and a microscopic level. The shrinking number might be much higher, as it is likely many changers fell victim to the much smaller size and disappeared.
These size changes have been known to last days, weeks, or even longer. The shortest recorded change was Agatha Brundi, who grew 20ft tall for only 8 minutes. On the other hand, some changers have never returned to normal. This was not a huge problem, with the small number of giants and tiny people taken care of as they were studied or otherwise put on show, but in 2016 the number suddenly started increasing. From a few dozen annual cases, globally, we suddenly saw dozens each month. The explanation was evident in their ages: the bulk of new changers were 17 or 18 years old. This has remained true for the last two years.
The conclusion is simple: children conceived around the time of the spores’ arrival, or since, have started to reach adult maturity, and something is activating to hit them with a greater incidence of this affliction. Yet there is no telling who will succumb to these changes. Young adults are growing or shrinking without warning, all over the world.
The international response has been fairly uniform: even in the most progressive countries, it is considered best to segregate size-changers. In the worst cases, they are confined, even imprisoned (which the UN and various activist charities have vigorously protested). Many are afraid of these changers – and with good reason. A high percentage of changers develop strong personality shifts and many become aggressive. Most famously, waitress Bell Sanchez stormed through Mexico City in March, 2018, on what could only be described as a rampage.
For the most part, however, the international community strives to deal with the changers in a calm and responsible manner. They have been grouped together in colleges where they are trained to control themselves (alongside their regular studies). These colleges are rare and highly secretive, for the students’ own protection: as far as is publicly known, there are two in Europe, three in America, two in Africa and at least three in Asia. So far, no students have “graduated” from these schools, as it were, and many lose contact with friends and family back home (some go in with such expectations), but in the three years since their establishment there have been many positive reports from them.
The public, of course, is enthralled by the prospect and the colleges have to be fiercely defended from tourists and anti-changer activists alike. For the most part, however, the students and teachers only wish to be left alone, with the promise that the success of their isolated communities will one day help wider integration. Of course, only those on the inside know exactly how successful these communities currently are – or how dangerous.
I am particularly interested, myself, in St Fiacre’s College for Women of Unreliable Size, which is the most local institution to me, said to be secluded in the Scottish Highlands. Reportedly, the women there live in an idyllically situated chateaux, but there are rumours that the college also has an incredible structure specifically for those of size. It is, however, an anomaly that has not been photographed (or the photographs have been classified), and we are yet to see any so-called “students” return to wider society. There may be as many as 300 young women living there, perhaps more, with a small and quiet faculty of teachers and custodians. What are they doing? What has become of them?
It is nice to think, of course, of all these afflicted women getting the help they need, and preparing to lead more robust lives once they are ready to return to society. But they are isolated, shrinking and growing all together relatively unchecked by the outside world. Wouldn’t you like to take a look behind St Fiacre’s doors? I certainly would.
— Prof M. Lindsey, 2019
***Sensus Supra: The New Girl charts one such story, following Alicia Vincent as she arrives at St. Fiacre’s College for Women of Unreliable Size . . .***
