Bridal Balloons (Balloon TF) (Patreon)

Sequel to the commission "Inflatable Birthday" (https://www.deviantart.com/twinwolf1/art/Inflatable-Birthday-Pool-Toy-Balloon-TF-860453029)

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Lya took a momentary break to stretch, before getting back to setting up the morning display. Some of the merchandise was pretty light, but a lot of it was way heavier than it looked. She was worried she’d hurt her back if she didn't take a break.

It had been a few months since Lya’s birthday and, by extension, discovering magical powers and using them. So far as she could tell, they were really… strange, more than powerful. In that she could turn things into inflatable objects - balloons, pool toys, and so on. Really solid, unnaturally resilient and long lasting objects, but just inflatable objects. This included people. Admittedly, she hadn’t had a ton of practice with any part of it - she’d spent the bulk of the time since her birthday as a balloon after learning she could use that power on herself.

Eventually, Jess - the friend whose prank had led to Lya’s impromptu vacation from being a human being - had helped her turn back to normal. She’d talked big, but really, it was just because she found the scenario hot. Unfortunately the prolonged absence (Jess said she’d forgotten how to turn Lya back) had meant Lya probably couldn’t return to her old job, but Jess had offered to give her a decent paying job at her wedding-focused party store.

Lya carefully shifted over some boxes as she continued to set up the display, but as she was thinking about how she had ended up working there, she wasn’t paying much attention and tripped over. Unable to stop herself she landed right on top of one of the promotional balloons, and she heard a loud bang as it popped under her weight.

“Damnit, no…” she muttered to herself, looking at the balloon - there was no saving it, it was good and popped, and they didn’t have spares. Looking around, she saw none of the other employees were present yet. Jess was usually a nice boss, but she was very particular about the arrangement of the display - if she was missing a balloon, especially because she popped it, she’d get mad.

They didn’t have any extra balloons, but… she had an idea. She didn’t really like it, but it was an idea. She ducked away from the display and went into the store, trying to find a certain coworker.

She found the woman further into the store, checking stock. “Hey, uh…” Lya started to say.

“Sonoko.” her coworker provided. “What is it?”

“I have a bit of a problem… I was wondering if you could help?”

“You work here same as me. You should be able to take care of it yourself.”

“Well, the thing is, I’m trying to resolve it myself, but to do that I need a bit of help…”

A minute and an explanation later, they were in front of the window. “Are you sure this is the best way to take care of this?” Sonoko asked.

“I don’t want to mess up the opening, ok?” Lya said with a sigh. “Jess is nice and all, but you know how she is about the storefront. It’s embarrassing but I don’t want to get fired!”

Sonoko shrugged. “Fine then. It lets me see how these powers actually work at least.”

Coworker’s help secured, Lya put a hand to her own shoulder and tried to trigger the magic.

She’d been practicing (on objects, not so much on people or herself), so the change was faster than it used to be. Very quickly, she felt the magic flow out from her fingers and start to change her. Her skin started to turn a rosy pink, starting at where she touched and moving out from there. As she started to crumple, Sonoko caught her and eased her to the ground. “Yeah… that’s… about as weird as I expected, yeah…”

The transformation continued; Lya had fallen because the spaces covered in pink had become hollow and empty, leaving her unable to support her own weight. She’d never get used to the sensation of her insides just suddenly not being there anymore, although it didn’t feel as bad as it probably should have.

The coloration started to spread and as it did, covering her entire torso and creeping down her hips to her legs, along with up her neck, she felt herself starting to flatten. The air that filled her hollow body was carefully pressed out of her. Her limbs began to meld with her body as they flattened out as well, and soon she felt her neck and face sink inwards. Then there was black as she lost sight of… well, everything.

“You really do get put into a box…” Sonoko’s voice, a bit muffled, said from somewhere above her. There was a rustling, and suddenly Lya could see again as she was taken out of the box. “Where did it even come from? Your clothes…?” She shook her head. “Right, have to finish up here.”

Taking a nearby air pump that had been meant to be used on the original balloons, Sonoko pumped Lya full. The woman-turned-balloon felt herself expand and stretch as the air entered her, a surprisingly pleasant experience all considered - although she’d prefer not to have needed to do it in the first place.

Soon she was set up in the window, looking out on the early morning street. In balloon form, she was mostly round - but had a sort of drawing of herself on… well, herself. She’d managed to develop the ability to control what was shown on her front, and tried to make herself look like one of the store balloons, and managed to give the image of herself a wedding dress and create some text beside her advertising the store’s services in wedding decoration, in the form of a speech bubble.

Hopefully, Jess wouldn’t notice the difference between her and the normal balloon…

“Wonder why you didn’t just make something else into the balloon…” Sonoko muttered, but shrugged and left the display to get back to work. ...Oh, right, she could have done that. If she’d had hands, Lya would have slapped her forehead in exasperation with herself. Lya was suddenly really wishing she could talk…

Lya spent most of the morning like that, as people started to come in and out of the store. It was kind of weird being in the window like that, seeing them coming and going - and more specifically, looking at her and seeing nothing but a kinda odd balloon, part of a nice but otherwise unremarkable storefront display.

It was getting on in the day when suddenly Lya felt herself yanked back from the window. Was Sonoko coming to get her…? As she was pulled away from the window, she caught a glimpse of the one carrying her. It was Jess, with a mischievous smile on her face. She didn’t offer a word of explanation but she clearly knew the balloon was Lya.

She brought her deeper into the store, and Lya saw that ahead of them was a customer talking with her coworker. “It’s just a balloon, right? Why does the owner need to go get it herself?”

“She, uh…” Sonoko trailed off, thinking, “Really cares about making your wedding the best it can be. Yeah.”

“Sorry for making you wait!” Jess said, presenting Lya. “This is the type I mentioned.”

The bride-to-be looked over Lya. “Well… it’s nice, I guess, but not really exotic is it? What’s so special about it? Besides the drawing and advertisement I mean.”

“There’s a few things about it! It’s super durable; I haven’t had a single one of these pop! So you don’t have to worry about that. I can also make it have whatever design you want - we make them custom!” Jess said. Lya was suddenly quite worried - was she trying to sell her? For messing up the display? “And thirdly, they can change text on the fly, as long as nobody’s looking. Let’s try that… say ‘Hello’!” she said. She leaned into Lya, whispering so only she could hear. “Say hi~ Don’t worry, you’re not being sold. But you have to have some punishment…”

Jess did know about what she’d been practicing… so she knew that Lya could change the text on her balloon. Well… she might as well take the punishment. She focused and tried to shift her form a bit, and when everyone was looking away, the balloon’s text changed. It had started as “Welcome to the shop!”, but was now saying “Hello!”.

The customer gasped. “Ooooh, that’s so cool! Why can’t it do that while we’re looking?”

Jess shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d have to ask the producers. Still, that’s a memorable party trick, isn’t it?”

“It is!” The bride agreed. “Can you get two of those to the wedding along with the other stuff I asked for? Oh, and maybe get them to have pictures of me on them? I hope there’s enough time…”

“We can get them very quickly,” Jess assured her.”Even if your wedding was tomorrow we’d have plenty of time.”

Sonoko led the woman off to discuss any other potential decorations, leaving Jess and Lya together. Jess looked down at Lya. “Well… guess I’ll need to turn you back for a bit to make another.” she said, grinning.

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It was some time later, a day before the wedding that they were hired to help with. They’d set up all the decorations, leaving only one more thing to get - the balloons. And since these were supposed to be special balloons, that meant Lya… and one other person for the second.

“Nope, not doing it.” Sonoko said. “Sorry, boss, but that wasn’t in the job description.”

Jess sighed. “Well, we need two balloons. Lya’s going to be one, and if you’re not going to be the other…”

Lya fidgeted a bit in place. “I’m not going to do it if she’s not ok with it.” she said eventually. That was a boundary she didn’t want to cross. “If we need one more though… Why don’t you give it a try, Jess? Since you enjoyed having me as one for a while.”

Jess laughed. “Ha! Turning the tables, huh? Sure. I promised her two, she’s getting two.”

Lya breathed a sigh of relief that Jess wasn’t mad at the suggestion. “Alright then… once I change you, you’ll be able to kind of change what the text on your balloon says. We want to make it so it changes to whatever someone says to us, right?”

“That’s right. Get started, then! This will be fun for a change…” Jess said, spreading her arms invitingly.

Lya hesitated for a moment, before reaching out and putting a hand on Jess’s shoulder. Then, she concentrated hard, channeling her magic. Jess began to shift, skin rapidly turning pink as she started to flatten and stretch. The transformation went much as it did with Lya, and Jess started to deflate as she became hollow.

Soon, she folded up, and her box appeared around her - with a picture of Jess on it, as always happened.

Lya nodded to Sonoko. “You can handle everything while we’re balloons?” she asked.

“Yep! Don’t worry about it. Try to… uh… enjoy yourself?”

“I’ll try, I guess…” she said with a sigh, before once more putting a hand on her own shoulder. The transformation was quicker this time - the practice was making her magic more efficient. But it would never feel quite normal, or comfortable.

Soon she was in the darkness of her box. She felt weirder than usual even, for reasons she couldn’t at first get. But when Sonoo took her out of the box and blew her up along with Jess, she got it.

She couldn’t see herself, but she knew both she and Jess had images of the bride on themselves, rather than the usual self portraits. It felt somehow wrong, like she wasn’t herself even more so than the usual disconnect of being a balloon. “This feels weird…” the text on her balloon said.

Jess, on the other hand, seemed happy - while her image was unchanging, the text reflected some curiosity. “So this is what being a balloon feels like! Being filled with air like this is weird but nice…”

“Ok… I think we’re all set up now!” Sonoko said. “I’ll come back for you guys when it’s over. Until then, just switch to the text we wanted to start with, right?”

Sonoko turned on her heel and left the pavilion, leaving the balloons floating behind her. She brought their boxes with them - it’d be awkward to explain the person-balloons.

The wedding came and mostly went; it was beginning to wind down, people were leaving.

Lya had done her best not to pay too much attention, feeling like she was intruding or eavesdropping since they didn’t realize she was listening and certainly wasn’t on the guest list. That was easy enough; she was being distracted by the strangeness of not looking like herself. The balloons were a novelty that went over well with the attendees, who spent a lot of time getting the text to say whatever they wanted; sometimes something nice, lovey-dovey; other times something rude or bawdy. Still, it was nice to help them have a good time

As the decorations were being cleaned up, the bride and one of her friends took the balloons off to the side. “These were really nice, weren’t they?” the bride said as she started to get them packed up, as instructed. She let Jess deflate and folded her into a cardboard box, haphazardly shoving her inside.

“Hey, shouldn’t you be a bit more careful? Fancy balloons like this, with whatever weird stuff they do to make them change, those must be delicate right?” the friend asked, experimentally squeezing part of Lya. Lya internally squirmed, feeling kinda weird as her plastic got stretched and distorted. “They *do* feel really nice though, and the way the words change is really cool…”

“Apparently, they’re actually super durable.” The bride said. Lya realized she’d never really heard her name... “The owner of the place said she’d never had one pop before, apparently they’re nearly indestructible.”

Her friend raised an eyebrow, looking over Lya. “Is that so? That’s kinda impressive, I thought balloons had to be fragile… wanna test that theory?”

Lya wasn’t sure what she was doing, until she felt the cap on her air hole get taken off and the pump get inserted. “Hey, be careful! They’re durable, but I don’t want to risk it.”

“Oh, it’s fine, I’ll pay them back if it pops!” the friend said. Lya’s question of what she was doing was soon answered, as she felt more air being pumped into her.

It was worrying, but she knew she couldn’t be popped. So instead, she started to grow. Her body stretched well past her normal size. It felt strange to be certain, that kind of strain on her body that couldn’t go anywhere. The drawing on her started to get distorted as she grew, gaining comical proportions as it stretched across her increasing width and height.

“Woah… it’s getting really big… can it really not pop?” The friend asked, as she continued to stretch her with air.

The bride cautiously poked at Lya, then much less cautiously squeezed her, a soft squelching sound being the only noise made. As straining as it was, Lya still didn’t pop. “I’m starting to think so…” Lya’s thoughts were slowing. It was hard to think. She just felt so… much…

“H-Hey!” A new voice called. Sonoko walked over, now that the event was officially over and staff were moving in to clear the place and she was allowed in. “That’s- uh, it’s a rental! You shouldn’t be trying to damage it intentionally, even if it’s durable.”

The bride’s friend pouted, but nodded. “You’re right, you’re right… but you can’t just tout something as indestructible and expect nobody to test. Your boss was right though! Any other balloon would have popped by now!”

“Yeah, she was right.” Sonoko agreed hurriedly, pulling the pump out of Lya and letting her deflate. “Thank you for doing business with us. I’ll just be bringing these back now…”

Some hours later, Sonoko was at her home, dropping the boxes with her friends on the floor. “Alright! That went surprisingly well!” she said after a bit. “Now to turn you back!”

There was another pause. “...How do I do that…?” she muttered. “You… probably have to be blown up to do it, right?”

She blew up Lya a bit, and found that Lya had changed her text to say how to get her fixed - she’d need the box and to be put in it to do that.

“Crap, I didn’t realize those were important… I have to go!” Sonoko said, suddenly turning and bolting out the door, leaving the balloons alone.

Some part of Lya that could still think noticed something in the corner - that pool toy was familiar… Mini?

It seemed Sonoko had been the one who ended up owning Mini as a pool toy. But somehow, it was hard to worry about that…

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It had been a year since that wedding, and Sonoko still couldn’t find the boxes. The text on the balloons had disappeared at some point, leaving them as simply fancy balloons with nice drawings on them - Sonoko had them blown up to bursting to show off their durability and kept them around the store, now that she’d taken over in Jess’ absence.

The balloons were just that now. Balloons. They had some nice drawings on them, and their owner still cared for them, but both Lya and Jess had long stopped thinking overmuch - and when they did they mostly thought about how nice it was to be displayed, as balloons should be.

The bell tinkled, and a woman came into the shop. For a moment Sonoko didn’t recognize her, but soon she figured it out - the bride from a year ago. “Hello! I was here last year for my wedding. I was wondering if you could handle decorating for the anniversary…”