AN: I have a midterm this Thursday, and I've been trying to pace my study sessions by taking short breaks to write fun stuff, as a way to keep myself from getting too stressed out. Aaaaand before I knew it, I had finished this thing. Wasn't expecting that, but I figured I might as well post it since I have it. Definitely not planning on getting anything else close to written for at least a few more weeks though, this was just a weird anomaly.
As the sun worked its way into the skyline of Great Lakes City, a single ray of light shot down into the city proper. Its journey through clouds, an assortment of flying vermin, trees, and six or seven different reflective surfaces ended with it gracefully touching down inside one particular room, of one particular apartment, and finding its final destination upon the face of one would-be sleeping girl.
Ronnie Anne Santiago greeted her ephemeral visitor with all the deference it was due. She groaned aloud, rolled away from the invasive light, and pulled her pillow over her face. And for a moment, it seemed like her attempt to hide away in slumber for just a little longer, may have actually worked.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
However, as it so often did, reality had its own plans.
Ronnie Anne groaned and flopped onto her other side, the movement dislodging her protective pillow, and amplifying the sound of her alarm clock that much more. The temptation to hurl the pillow at the clock, forcibly shutting it up was strong, but she'd promised her mom that she'd stop doing that. It was actually the fifth time she'd made that promise, but if she didn't start following through with it at some point, eventually she was going to start losing credibility, and that was something she was hoping to have a decent stockpile of before report cards were issued. Thus decided, however reluctantly, Ronnie forced her eyes open, and peer blearily at the still screeching device, relying on her final hope, however minute it was, that some sort of mistake had been made (other than setting an alarm in the first place).
"Too Early", read the display.
Ronnie sighed and began the process of extracting herself from her bed. She hated when her subconscious decided to be a smart ass. With a little trial and error she managed to exchange her pajamas for her trademarked shirt, shorts, and hoodie, and it only took two more tries to get her hoodie on frontwards and outside-out. Now more or less dressed, Ronnie maneuvered out of her room and into the apartment proper.
By this point, the youngest Santiago's brain was firing on at least a few cylinders, enough for the organ to suggest a possible solution to her current dilemma: food. And seeing no reason to disagree with herself, Ronnie wheeled into the kitchen to begin taking stock of what sustenance could be thrown together with the minimal amount of awareness and motor skills that were available to her. A quick perusal of the refrigerator revealed that there was very little in the way of food, being mostly ingredients to make food, which was...disappointing. But some leftover sausage and the copious amount of eggs and tortillas her abuela kept on hand at all times would suffice as the bare minimum for a few breakfast burritos.
As Ronnie set the soon-to-be delicious innards of her eggs to cook, and threw her meat in the microwave, she grabbed the remote and thumbed the power button, activating the living room TV. Seeing as she'd have a little time to kill, waiting for her not-food to become food, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch up on the episode of Adios Ana, Adios that she'd recorded the previous day, but hadn't yet had a chance to watch.
The scene opened where the previous episode had left off. The titular Ana Ronalda forced to the ground, bound by thick, heavy ropes, while a crowd of rough-looking banditos jeered at their captive. The young girl struggles against her bonds as her captives look on, mocking her efforts, a mixture of faux encouragement and outright mockery raining down upon the prisoner. However, never one to let adversity keep her down, Ana Ronalda dug her heels into the ground, squared her shoulders, and strained against her bonds with all her strength. The seconds dragged on, the music swelling in intensity as Ana Ronalda struggled on, the words of her captors falling on deaf ears as she focused on her task. Until finally, a loud snap rings out. With one final jerk, Ana Ronalda's arms swing outward, the ropes that had bound her tearing apart and falling to the ground. And with a smug, satisfied smile, she climbs to her feet and draws herself to her full height. The camera pulls back, revealing that said height is something in the realm of a 30-foot difference between Ana and her captors, and as she looks down upon her significantly less confident foes, a wicked smile blooms across her face, and she cracks her knuckles.
A few minutes later, Ana Ronalda was still chasing her tiny captors around, and it was at this point that Ronnie shut off the TV, and shook her head. The abrupt change in direction the show had taken some months earlier had its share of good and bad points, but a definite negative that came with the retooling was that the fights just didn't have the same tension they used to.
It had been about a year since the phenomenon began. Scientists were continually at a loss as to how the particulars might be explained, but the outcome was fairly difficult to argue with. Periodically, but thankfully not routinely, forces, the exact nature of which were still hotly contested, would begin to gather around a living being. The technology being developed to track this process was, even now, still in its infancy, providing less of a warning, and more of a heads-up that the phenomenon was occurring. A benefit which was often derided as being all but useless, because once the process had run its course, the subject was left having grown to many times its original size. The end result being that it was always fairly obvious when the phenomenon had taken place.
The media had dubbed the phenomenon "Upscaling", a term which quickly fell into regular, and then semi-official use, with the affected individuals being broadly referred to as "Upscales." It wasn't only humans that were affected, which was an issue that was becoming more and more problematic as time went on, but when it was, a few fairly iron-clad rules always seemed to come into play. The subject was always within the state of Michigan when it happened (something that had been proven when this year's Adios Ana, Adios Fandom Fiesta had proven far more eventful than anyone would have dreamed), and they were always female. Save for the noteworthy anomaly that was the pale-haired doofus which official records referred to as "Patient 1."
Life had become...challenging, to say the least, once it had become apparent that the Upscaling wasn't going away any time soon, and with no cure in sight, it had fallen upon the populace to help their brobdingnagian brethren reintegrate into society. But now, nearly a year hence, daily life had once again regained a sense of normality. Or so that's what people had kept on telling themselves, anyway.
Shaking off the unanticipated bout of deep thought with a flick of her head, Ronnie gathered up the figurative fruits of her labor and constructed a couple of burritos, chomping nearly half of one burrito off in a single bite, and quickly polished off the remainder with a sigh of contentment. Now her brain could think good again.
TAP TAP TAP
And right on time, it seemed. Snatching up her remaining burrito, Ronnie Anne made her way over to the latest addition to the Casagrande apartment; a balcony, a feature which, in recent times, had become something of a trend to add to city buildings that rose above a certain elevation. Throwing open the balcony doors, Ronnie stepped outside to greet the day, among other things.
"Heya, cuz," Said Ronnie, giving her guest a little salute with her burrito.
"GOOD MORNING, RONNIE ANNE," Replied Carlota, a giant smile plastered across her less figuratively giant face.
Ronnie had found that she always suffered a little vertigo when interacting with Upscales. She wasn't a scientist or anything, not even close, but she suspected it had something to do with the difference in height, which was somehow exacerbated by the balcony putting them at relatively even heights. Emphasis on relatively. Carlota had always been on the tall side, and even as an Upscale, she still remained in that upper echelon. Her giant-sized cousin was forced to lean against the apartment exterior and slouch a little to get within speaking distance of anyone standing on the balcony, and even then Ronnie was still mostly just getting an eyeful (or twelve) of her cousin's cavernous cleavage, something that was extra-emphasized by the tank top she'd chosen to wear. A quick glance over the railing revealed that she'd paired the top with a hip-hugging skirt, which clung so tightly to the girl's generous figure that it might as well have been painted on, to complete the ensemble, prompting Ronnie to discretely roll her eyes.
Admittedly, even though the Upscaled population was still fairly low, even today, clothing for them was forever in high demand, and they couldn't exactly afford to be choosy about what was available. This was, after all, why Carlota had managed to find herself gainfully employed even after her transformation. But it really seemed like every Upscale instantly took their new state as an excuse to do the bare minimum when it came to clothing themselves. Sid had once suggested there might be some kind of body heat issue at play, but to Ronnie, it generally just felt like they were showing off.
"EVERYTHING OKAY RONNIE ANNE?" Carlota asked, bringing Ronnie back to reality. Suddenly her vision was full of Carlota, as the older girl leaned down to give her a once-over.
"Yup!" Ronnie replied, slamming down the rest of her burrito and swallowing it in a single, herculean swallow.
"Totally fine!" She added, choking down the vestiges of burrito still lodged in her throat, and suddenly wishing she'd brought out something to drink as well. "Just...you know. Letting the old bean warm up. Haven't fully woken up yet."
Carlota winced sympathetically. "YEAH, SORRY ABOUT THAT. BUT THIS WAS THE ONLY TIME I COULD MAKE THIS WORK."
"It's fine, really," Ronnie Anne assured the older girl. "But...you were kind of vague about the details. Why am I here, exactly? Or...why are you, here, I guess? You said something about a client who was coming to see you, but I'm not really sure how I can help you. Don't you normally do this kind of thing at your office?"
"NORMALLY, YES," Carlota affirmed, producing a smartphone the size of a small car from...somewhere (Did her skirt have pockets? Where would she put them?). "BUT THIS IS KIND OF A SPECIAL CASE."
"Special how?" Asked Ronnie, giving her hoodie a demonstrative tug. "I amount I know about regular clothes could fit in...something...really...small?"
"NICE ANALOGY," Carlota commented, as her thumbs danced across her touch screen.
"I'm running on burrito," Ronnie offered as an explanation, "Cut me some slack. The point is, I know even less about Upscale fashion. There are other people better qualified to help you with...whatever this is."
"SO YOU SAY. BUT I THINK YOU'LL CHANGE YOUR TUNE WHEN...OH! THERE THEY ARE!"
The exclamation was accompanied by the giantess drawing herself up, the combination of her pulling away from the apartment exterior and planting her feet on the ground causing mild vibrations to reverberate throughout the structure, momentarily numbing Ronnie's legs. As the youngest Santiago attempted to steady herself, she heard her cousin calling out.
"YOOHOO! OVER HERE!"
Which...seemed somewhat unnecessary, given the four-ish-story tall girl standing right outside the apartment building. Unsurprisingly Carlota succeeded in catching her target's attention, as immediately afterward, Ronnie could hear (and feel) heavy footfalls clearly signaling an approaching Upscale.
"SORRY I'M LATE," Boomed another voice. And this one, caused Ronnie Anne to freeze in her tracks. Despite lacking even an ounce of bass, this voice was decidedly masculine. And unless another world-changing event had taken place without her notice, that dramatically shortened the list of who Carlota's mystery client could be.
"I'VE NEVER WALKED THIS FAR OUT," The voice continued. "IT'S PRETTY DIFFERENT FROM DRIVING OUT HERE."
"DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT," Said Carlota, waving one hand dismissively. "YOU'RE ACTUALLY RIGHT ON TIME. NOW GET OVER HERE! SOMEONE'S BEEN DYING TO SEE YOU!"
"SOMEONE...OH!"
The older girl took a big step back, just as Ronnie's feet came back online, and every instinct in her body screamed at her to whirl around and dash back into the relative safety of the apartment. But before she could act on the half-baked plan, a large, freckled, buck-toothed faced loomed into view, now occupying the space where her cousin had been only moments earlier.
"H-HEY THERE, RONNIE ANNE," Said Patient 1, scratching the back of his head nervously.
There was a beat of silence, as Ronnie briefly considered the potential benefits of fleeing while in full view of the person she'd been putting off talking to for months on end, and whether or not it would still result in a net loss of embarrassment overall, or merely compound it.
"H-hey yourself," She replied, reluctantly concluding as to the latter. "Lincoln."