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[escapedpandora]

[Hope might sound a bit... strange. Not sick, but just a bit more mature. And are the cracks in his voice gone? Either way, the tone is clearly disgruntled.]

I thought that person in the news turned people into kids.

[There's a pause, the embarrassment thick enough in the silence that it's hard to miss.]Kind of glad that I was pretty much home

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[hybrid_prodigy]

Actually, she did make some people older, too. My friend Soul was one of those. He was back to normal after about a week, though.

[escapedpandora]

...At least I'm not the only one.

A week. [There's an altogether still too teenaged sigh of despondence.] I guess I'll have to get new clothes.

[hybrid_prodigy]

Do you have anyone you could just borrow them from?

[escapedpandora]

Um.

[Awkward, awkward.]

That's kind of-- [He makes a strangled noise.] Not really? I don't know?

[hybrid_prodigy]

[He doesn't get what's awkward about this. But he's more worried about that noise.] ... Are you okay?

[escapedpandora]

Yeah, I'm fine. Um. It's just that.

How do you even ask to borrow clothes? [He sounds a bit incredulous at that.] But I guess... I'm going to have to even if I go get more clothes just because I need to go out first...

[hybrid_prodigy]

Well, if they're your friend, you just ask. [He's still not sure exactly what the hangup here is. He's shy himself, but . . . He doesn't get it.] So you got a lot taller, huh?

[escapedpandora]

[He's awkward enough talking to people, and borrowing clothes from people he doesn't know all that well seems... strange.]

Yeah. [There's a huffed laugh at that.] Nearly a foot, I think. It's nice to know. Not so cool when I didn't exactly plan for it.

[hybrid_prodigy]

[See, this is where Gohan is assuming it's a friend that Hope could ask. You know friends pretty well, right?]

I wonder how tall I'll get when I'm older. [A bit of an awkward laugh.] Not that I'm in a big hurry to find out.

[escapedpandora]

[He's always been awkward around people other than family, though. Two friends as a kid was all he got around to.]

I'm just glad I got taller. For a while... I don't know. I've been here a few months and didn't grow at all.

[Not that his current height was all that impressive considering the people he usually stood next to.]

[hybrid_prodigy]

Huh. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've grown at all since I've been here. I never thought to check.

[But the point is, he's taller!]

[escapedpandora]

I know some people who did. But I was starting to think that being here might have stunted people's growths. Or something, I wasn't too sure. And most of us haven't been here that long to really know.

So, uh. One good thing that came out of this, I guess. That theory got disproven. I think.

[hybrid_prodigy]

Yeah, that'd be hard to tell, especially since most people that got brought here are grown-ups already. So it's not really like there's a big enough sample size, either. [He's edging into nerd-speak, here. Don't mind him.]

[escapedpandora]

Sample size...?

Well, I know there are a few kids, too. I guess I never really asked if they got any taller.

[hybrid_prodigy]

Yeah. You know, a big enough group of people to be able to tell if a theory about them is right or not. Like in this case, if way more newcomer kids didn't grow very much by the time they're adults than those who did, then that'd kinda prove that being Pulled is growth-stunting. But you can't make a good guess like that without a bigger group of people.

Yeah, I know some of the other kids here. Of course, there's things like genetics and diet and stuff that can also affect how tall somebody gets. [Does it sound like he studies too much? Does it? Because he does.]

[escapedpandora]

[...It really does.]

I'm... taller than my dad right now. I think. [Which was good because as much as he loved his mom, he didn't want to inherit her height.] Don't know much about the diet thing, though.