History Main / ResidualSelfImage

* In ''Literature/TheSkinjackerTrilogy'', the appearance of children in Literature/{{Everlost}} is based on what they think of themselves. If some can remember exactly what they looked like when they were alive, then they'll look that way in Everlost, but their appearance can change if they think about one of their features too much (for example, someone uncomfortable about a large nose might have it get even bigger, and someone proud of their long hair might see it grow even longer). There are two extreme examples of this: Nick had chocolate on his face when he died, and he keeps thinking about the smear until it expands and starts to take over, and [[spoiler:Mikey [=McGill=], when falling to the center of the earth, pictured himself as a monster clawing his way back out, and remained that way after he escaped. He reverts back to his real appearance after his sister shows him a locket containing a picture of himself.]]

* In ''Literature/TheSkinjackerTrilogy'', the appearance of children in Everlost is based on what they think of themselves. If some can remember exactly what they looked like when they were alive, then they'll look that way in Everlost, but their appearance can change if they think about one of their features too much (for example, someone uncomfortable about a large nose might have it get even bigger, and someone proud of their long hair might see it grow even longer). There are two extreme examples of this: Nick had chocolate on his face when he died, and he keeps thinking about the smear until it expands and starts to take over, and [[spoiler:Mikey [=McGill=], when falling to the center of the earth, pictured himself as a monster clawing his way back out, and remained that way after he escaped. He reverts back to his real appearance after his sister shows him a locket containing a picture of himself.]]

Compare to HealthyInHeaven and OutOfClothesExperience. Supernatural versions that shows a discrepancy between visible sex or gender often fall under SupernaturallyValidatedTransPerson. If the projection continues to sync to the characters changing self-image, that's SelfPerceptionShapeshifting.

Compare to HealthyInHeaven and OutOfClothesExperience. Supernatural versions that shows a discrepancy between visible sex or gender often fall under SupernaturallyValidatedTransPerson. If the projection continues to sync to the characters changing self-image, that's SelfPerceptionnShapeshifting.

Compare to HealthyInHeaven and OutOfClothesExperience. Supernatural versions that shows a discrepancy between visible sex or gender often fall under SupernaturallyValidatedTransPerson.

* In ''LightNovel/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation'', when Rudeus first meets Hitogami in his dreams, Rudeus perceives himself as the thirty-something Japanese man he was before he died, rather than as the boy he's been living as in the ten years since he reincarnated.
* In the ''LightNovel/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' anime, Kumoko still thinks of herself as a cute girl reincarnated as a spider. As a result she perceives herself as being a cute(ish) spider with a highly expressive face which in turn is how the audience sees her most of the time. Without that self-image, other humans view Kumoko as a horrifying spider.

* In ''Literature/AccelWorld'', duel avatars are something like a cross between this and PersonalityPowers - appearing as robotic beings with traits that represent the Burst Linker's traumas. In the {{Crossover}} story ''Versus'', a glitchy [=VR=] device results in Kirito from ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' becoming connected to Brain Burst; the system's attempts to normalise his data result in him taking on the appearance of his longcoated [=SAO=] avatar.

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': After two years of being trapped in a videogame and forced to fight for their lives, the survivors of the ''[=SAO Incident=]'' have internalised aspects of their avatars to the point where they reflexively attempt to reach for their weapon or open menus in real life (though the game also [[DeepImmersionGaming modified their avatars to reflect their real-life appearances]] in order to prevent too much dissonance). In the ''Alicization'' arc, this results in [[spoiler:[=SAO=] survivors being able to transform their Underworld avatars into their [=SAO=] ones through HeroicWillpower, as a side-effect of the [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve consensus reality]] system that Underworld uses to fill out its finer details.]]