Inventive, not exactly the first slice-of-life or coping with becoming a giant type story but it still managed to be very original in it's take on it. Namely with over how much time it took place over. A lot of stories where such a thing takes place also tend to start long after giants are commonplace, not during the beginning. Nice to see a somewhat realistic take on it that dosen't involve the giants being hunted down, forced to go into hiding, or going on a rampage. Then again, that might be just because I prefer the non-violent stories.

I admit, it almost feels like time was moving a bit too fast near the end to get at the point where shes dozens of feet tall, but I don't really see how the story could have been too entertaining in between those periods without just being very slow-paced and boring to read through if they were added. Besides, for a "short story" its long enough

(One thing to note, yes, it would cause problems if one could create more gold, diamonds(actually, we CAN do that already, have been able to for a decade now), platinum, etc..... but thats mainly because they are used are currency for finite goods... if practically any material could be made infinite and non-rare I think the impact would not be as severe.... though it WOULD cause a large change in the world would be shifting away from the barter/money system its been using for millenia..... Then again, these materials could just be used for manufacture and NOT money. Thats how the diamond industry is handling it anyway, claiming manufactured diamonds are fakes and worthless as jewelry, which suites me just fine as they are useful for tools and even technology, more useful than "real" diamonds as they can be made with higher purity than natural ones actually. Gold is also one of the best conductors of electricity after all so "fake" gold would be useful in the technology sector.)

Well damn, that was a rather lengthy and incredibly informative side note. Can't say that the smashy violence that can typically be found in many macro stories appeals to me all that much, and I'm glad that this rather tame story made for enjoyable reading!

It was fun trying to work some amount of science and realism into the story, even though growing to gigantic sizes is as implausible and unrealistic as it gets. I'm pleasantly surprised that it provided such a fresh and original presentation as a result.

As for feeling rushed towards the end... ehhhhhh that may have had a little something with me getting impatient. I felt like I had already performed enough time skips as it was and was getting antsy about wrapping up the story on a somewhat vague but cheery note.

Your very articulate and well thought out comments are always greatly appreciated, and thank you very much for reading! Hopefully the rest of the stuff I put out continues to hold your interest!

"Can't say that the smashy violence that can typically be found in many macro stories appeals to me all that much"

Me neither, I am far more interested in seeing how giants or tiny people deal with being around each other rather than just giants going Godzilla, whether its them living peacefully, a strained co-exsistance, or the emergence of giants and how the world tries to deal with it. I mean, there are a few violent stories that have some interesting twists or taken from a different angle that can hold some interest with me if they are well written and make you think, but generally I am not a fan. And far too many of them are of the "I have become giant and for some reason I am basically invincible now, so I will now crush this building/city/planet for no reason" variety, which I really couldn't care less about, it has become far too generic and cliche a plot even if I did like such a thing.

"As for feeling rushed towards the end... ehhhhhh that may have had a little something with me getting impatient."

Yeah, thats kinda the feeling I got while I was reading it, but truth me told, around the part where he was able to make the device not grow living people anymore but he claimed he was not able to stop or reverse her growth, it was pretty much cemented that she would reach such sizes and everybody would be waiting for that part of the story from then on. At one point, I don't really see what else you could have really added between the years you focused on without just dragging the story on, but then again, I am wonder if I can't see any other angle you could have added merely because I was also getting excited to read about when the story would reach that part as well. Didn't help that I was a little impatient myself because I had just come home from work eager to watch this once-a-year show my DVR had recorded and decided to quickly check for updates "Oh, a short story from RaddaRaem! I guess I can quickly read this before I watch my show"

And I apologize if this next part is a bit off-topic but:
"Well damn, that was a rather lengthy and incredibly informative side note."

Reason being is because I had thought about this many times before over the years, as well as been reading up on 3D printing/rapid prototyping tech. I was excited to see it mentioned somewhat in a story like this. Lots of stories and settings deal with the superpowers/technology ruining the economy angle, I think there was even a comic once where Superman tried to use his powers to do things like this but kept making the world worse off, such as crush coal into diamonds and ruin the economy that way. But I think that is a grossly oversimplified way to look at it.

Its funny, I remember when I watched the Carmen Sandiego cartoon when I was a child and they mentioned making diamonds, since its basically just superheating and compressing coal. I wondered why people didn't actually do it if that was it..... and that's pretty much exactly how people can make diamonds now. Said diamonds were also used in the show for computer tech rather than jewelry.

Gold, Platinum, etc are used as money because you can't (for now) make them, they are elements and you can't really make most elements since they are the most basic form of matter, though of course most of us here know that. Current 3D printers just make designs out of a type of resin, but now can use plastic, metal, nylon, and some can even print out of chocolate or melted down sugar. I have no idea how advanced its scientifically possible to make such things, but these things might one day be able to build things at an atomic level. Of course, this STILL dosen't solve the problem since you still need said elements to build it, but it would seriously impact manufacture of physical goods since you can essentially download and "print" an object like you can do with software now..... but if these things can get down to electrons... well, they can build atoms then... which means all scarcity is out the window since now we can make any element we need. Hell, if you can take apart atoms too you can literally disintegrate landfills and turn them into anything on the periodic table. Again, I have no idea how scientifically feasible such a thing is, especially the power required to operate at such a nano-scale.... but its not actually that out there since I have seen a few examples of how it could be pulled off.

Problem is........ now what? The world wouldn't accept such a drastic change in how people have been operating for thousands of years, if it can accept a change (frankly, I don't see how I could accept such a change either) since now the only thing worth anything are the ideas or blueprints of how to design something since anyone can get the raw materials and print/replicate one now.... but the benefits would be massive, its not something one can also just shrug off either. Lots of people would not want to create for free (Although there are many that would.... Linux anyone?) but there isn't really much you can use for money since you can make any element.... even research and development could be advanced though because you can re-print any prototype that got destroyed in testing and any rare materials it uses are a non-issue now... as well as the cost of manufacture and shipment... which would now be zero. A lot of tech out there is physically possible but dosen't exist because its not economically feasible or profitable to make it. And it wouldn't really work for everything. Anything organic would probably be tricky and likely unsanitary to pull off.... not to mention lots of people just plain would find "printed" food disgusting and just want to eat "real" plants/meat... which of course would cost money to farm/grow, prepare, etc... in a society where what money is and is worth is now becoming somewhat undefined. Pretty much anything living would be the only things of value.... it would reduce everyone to farmers.... farmers who can have any physical object they want from a dinner plate to a jetliner at pretty much no cost. Well... that and energy now that I think about it.

Sorry for getting off track a bit... ok ok, a LOT off track. I sometimes tend to way-overanalyze things, its just that you seem to have put a lot of thought into the whole making rare materials issue/economy problem with this story and I was kinda happy I could talk about this with someone.

.... seems we both have a problem with writing too much eh?

It would appear so, heh. I mean, a primary reason markets exist for objects is because of scarcity. The wants and desires of people in any given society are subject to limited resources. Due to these limited resources, it's impossible to satisfy every person's wants and needs. As a result, trade-offs or some kind of barter must be made when scarce goods are in demand. If you remove the scarcity, well there go the markets more or less, at least in the traditional sense. I'm sure society could still exist with markets that aren't built around scarcity, but I imagine it would be quite the transition.

And as for getting a lot off track, don't apologize for it. The possibilities you brought up are fascinating and provide many reasons to ponder what the future may hold. Also allow me to apologize, for misleading you into thinking this was a 'short story.' This thing turned out to be longer than just about any single chapter in "Shady Impressions" thus far. It was fun at least trying my hand at a growth story. At least now I can say I've taken a crack at it and promptly proceed to never touch it again as I delve back into my main story.

For most of my stories, not all, but most, I usually try to create worlds with a logical flow to them that people can follow. I just tend to reel back from building worlds with strange and unique phenomenon and provide no explanation or reasoning behind it. Magic is certainly pushing it in say "Shady Impressions," but I've been slowly striving to make it so that its use and functions make sense and are realistic given the world setting. Hopefully I can find the proper way to address the source of it all too. Heck I'm planning on doing the same thing with giants too in that story. Explaining why they're big in a manner that makes sense given the rules set up in that world and not 'just because.'

Again, your comments are always appreciated and it's a pleasure hearing your thoughts and critiques on my work! Thank you.

Congratulations, Radda, this story turned out awesome! Great work! :3=

Thank you, VDO! I'm happy that you enjoyed it. :3

I Would Hope That Most People Do
Read The Keywords Because They Are
Normally Quite Helpful

Hahaha oh man. Major props to you, that comment is just amazing.

Thanks

This was hands down the most interesting and fun to read piece of macro fiction I've ever read. Give yourself a pat on the back!

I... umm... goodness! I'm not used to such high praise! Thank you very much for the kind comment and I'm extremely pleased you enjoyed what I wrote. I really do appreciate the comment, again, thank you!

Love this story but I do have two questions


1- You outright confirmed that the growing is sexually transferable. So how come Nick didn't grow once Trace was confirmed to be pregnant? (Is it like STD's in which there is a chance the other person might not get it? or are some furs just immune?)

2- I seem to remember you saying that non-living tissue is affected. (I might be wrong) will the growing stop after they pass away? Or will their bodies continue to grow even after death? (I apologize for the dark question )

1.) In this case I treated the growing more like something that's passed down genetically. Trace was already growing, so her kids would too. With Emi, figured it might just be a side effect of carrying a child that would be even growier then its father!

2.) May not have specifically mentioning non-living tissue, but inorganic matter was up fair game for being enlarged for the sake of limitless resources. I hadn't actually given much thought to that scenario, potential growy after death, to be perfectly honest! Don't really have a very clear-cut answer to be honest, though I will probably defer to no just for the sake of it being convenient and not macabre. XD

Thanks for reading and glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks, I enjoyed it <3

Btw, the did the growing ever reach it's limit at some point?

Probably not, the intent was that Trace and everyone else carrying the growy would continue to steadily grow year after year. XD There's a reason I ended it where I did, just barely peeking at the third generation. Sizes would have started getting a bit massive following that point and I'm not terribly confident writing those sizes.

Hmm...

Anyway it was interesting that's for sure. And to think, the entire world drastically changed, because someone accidentally ate a cookie :3

Those world altering outcomes always tend to derive from the most innocuous and seemingly inconsequential actions. Again, I'm very happy to hear you enjoyed it and thank you for the comments!

^_^

Did Trace wear earrings or at least have pierced ears before she started growing?

I'm personally just curious, if at the very end, she was big enough that Nick could actually fit inside the hole?

Wonder how things would've been different if he had also ended up growing...

Can't say! Guess the story would be more about a couple growing giant and old together and exploring the difficulties of doing so! X3

I read this and I am going to be honest... It's freaking awesome. I love the characters, they are great! I did not know what to expect with a title like that, and with the tags not really saying what to expect except growth and VDO, I feel it was a strong little short story. It makes me want to explore the idea of that growth-JRPG-like idea I had a while back and writing the story of it. I tend to do that and think of ways to make it work, and then I realized... the one thing I never focused on was the characters. This shows that with ANYTHING the characters need to come first, and I have been failing to do that with some of my things I've been working with.

Personally, I think there would have been a different ending, but it works either way with this kind of story, and I like the way you left it. It's a great read and I wish I could do something like it, but I get bored writing something where it has no action because of my ADD @~@ oh well, I guess everybody has their strengths and weaknesses.

Anyway, it's something I wish I had discovered earlier, but I'm happy to have discovered it!

Really happy to hear that you enjoyed it as much as you did! My goofy growy ideas are executed through my characters after all. It's important that they aren't just a means to an end but fun people to read about as the growy goodness gets going!

It's been a while since I've done a story purely around an idea like this, slow and gradual growth in this case, but I'm likely to take another whack at it sooner than later. Did like leaving the ending a bit ambiguous if not on a happy note to boot.

Again, really happy to hear how much you liked it and thanks for reading!

Well, I had an idea of like an RPG where experience causes player to grow or character to grow for a story thing. I'm going to find a way to use it somehow. I might as well start using it to practice writing.

You're welcome!

Good luck! Sounds fun if you can figure out a neat way to tackle it.

Hey. Don't know how odd it is to be getting praise for older work like this is, but I've been thinking a lot about gradual growth situations lately and I was glad to find this again as it was one of the examples that stuck out in my head. It does hold up well, though admittedly it is somewhat more disjointed than I remember it near the end. However, I think that doesn't matter much because you did an excellent job at implying a lot more than is shown. I've always wanted to do something in that vein myself but I've never really been able to satisfactorily...

Comments on these older works are a treat! Always glad to see people still enjoy these even after all this time.

I definitely could have touched up the ending a bit but I was eager to get it finished at that point. Like you said, those large gaps of time between scenes did wonders to help imply and let people imagine just what all went on over the years. Gradual growth was definitely the intent while writing this and I'm happy it can be called back to as an example of such!

Appreciate the comment and thanks for reading! :3