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Description
A short story in the genre I never touched before.
Warnings: male inflation, pop.

“Tonight is the final day of our tour, you guys know what should happen.” - said Tina, the vocalist of the band.
For a few seconds thick silence hung in the room. Of course, all the guys knew that this day was coming. Some of them secretly dreaded it, others were waiting with anticipation. All inflatable boys in this world knew, that they are in fact balloons and being burst is not a question of if, but when. However, the question of when is still very important, one thing is to know that your girlfriend may pop you this year, or the next one - it's safely distant and comfortably undecided. Other thing is that you know that you are going to blow tonight because the diva of your rock band set up such a tradition few years ago.
Jimmy, the bass guitar, argued: “But you said yourself, that we are a great team, we were better than all of our popped predecessors, aren't we?”
Tina wasn't easy to argue with: “Jim, yes, you guys are popular, but it's mostly thanks to your pumped bodies rather than skills. They are our fans particularly because they know what's going to happen tonight. Did you ever check what our female fans post on our website?” The diva browsed it with her smartphone, “Look here, user fluttershy1999 wrote: can't wait to see these hot lads inflated, especially Nathaniel, he's my favorite!”
Nathaniel, the solo guitarist, had long fair hair and used to go to the scene wearing a leather vest, revealing his pumped up chest. He seemingly was pleased by the attention he got: “These fangirls, they’re gonna absolutely love the show tonight!”
“Yeah. Let's do it. They'll remember us as the best rock and pop band ever. “ added Stan, the piano guy.
This was a classic example of balloon hubris: Tina hardly remembered the names of all the popped guys from the past years, nor did the fangirls. But it is an important rationalization for them to inflate voluntarily, so she wasn't in a hurry to burst Stan’s bubble.
Vik, the drums boy, agreed grimly: “I just want to go with a loud bang already.” - he was well known for his pessimistic ideas. Vik disagreed with the public opinion and common sense, arguing that men shouldn’t be treated as balloons, bursting is murder and other nonsense. Of course, his extreme ideas were usually met with laughter, mocking and even bullying. Eventually he accepted the idea of inevitability of bursting, though, unlike normal balloon men, who find it tempting, he sought release from this absurd and surreal life.
“That's all cool, but aren't we just repeating the old tricks? I think changing the script a little tonight won't hurt. “ said the raven-haired second guitarist - Jake.
“What do I hear? Is someone afraid? “ taunted Tina.
Jake shrugged: “No. I just want this evening to be different and special.”
“Okay, you have my attention. Go on.” she replied.
“That’s what I have in mind” Jake started his explanations ...

Three hours later:

The crowd of fans was singing after Tina, waving their hands; ecstatic from the last song and anticipating even more.
Tina took her microphone and announced: “ And now we are going to present you the Farewell! It is the last song this night and in our entire tour as a band. As you might know, there is going to be a very special event this time! “
The crowd exploded with cheers and ovations.

At first, all the band played their parts as usual, but this time eyes of the audience were watching boys of the band carefully, so there were loud cries and cheers when fangirls noticed Vik’s motion: he quickly put something into his mouth and swallowed. Loud music covered the low hissing sound going from his body, yet there could be no mistake. His belly and chest bulged outwards stretching his drummer’s shirt, Vik skipped two or three beats and then stopped trying as the drumsticks slipped from his fingers.
The sounds emitted from the electric piano ended abruptly after Stan missed few notes, he also started to inflate and got a little clumsy. In half a minute, all the males in the band stopped playing, only contributing a chorus of hissing as an accompaniment to Tina's singing... As if anyone cared about it, for these few minutes Tina wasn’t in the center of attention.
Vik, who was the first one to take helium pills, inflated ahead of his fellows, his belly and butt were globes of flesh coloured rubber, tearing clothes apart. Drummer smiled eerily. Soon this absurdity will end forever. Stan and Jake were already losing their manly shapes and becoming rounder, while Jim and Nathaniel, who started last were in the phase of growing muscles, their chests, abs, shoulders inflated making them look even more handsome for a moment.
Some men in the crowd started to inflate, apparently their girlfriends wanted to support their favorite rock band in such an amusing way.
Then something unexpected happened, boys of the band reached into their pockets and produced some rolls of red fabric. It turned to be satin bands used for decoration, wrapping flowers and tying balloons. The latter was the most correct guess.
Boys tied the ribbons around their wrists, which took some time and their time was short. Jim and Nat, as well as Jake only reached the beer-gut phase, they looked somewhat fat with air and their clothes started to stretch, but that was manageable, they quickly tied the knots around their wrists and attached second ends of their ribbons to the microphones standing on the stage.
Not everyone was quick and lucky enough. Vik and Stan were already quite inflated, with their arms starting to fatten and fingers getting clumsy. They managed to tie the ribbons around their hands, but this took too much time and inflation was progressing quickly. Both gave up attempts, when their pants started to split at the seams, their butts grew large ballooning upwards over the belts and out of the clothes. Soon all the balloon musicians were quite shirtless, Vik, Stan and Jake - also pantless, which attracted huge appreciation from the audience. Underwear held, though, because it was made of a stretchy material specially for such cases.
Tina continued to sing as usual, but walked around the stage and patted Stan’s butt. All he could do in return was to smile sheepishly and inflate, because his limbs ceased to be useful, getting too fat with helium and spreading apart uncontrollably.
She then cheered Vik and Jake in the same fashion. From her slap balloon boys hovered above the floor for a moment and descending slowly, this indicated that they were quite close to buoyancy.
Vik was the first to soar, he lost all the clothing except his stretchy swims, that were almost weightless, his body became a wide sphere of his belly about two feet in radius, with big inflated ass and his swollen arms and legs that were gradually sinking into said belly and butt. Drummers inflation valve protruded from his back, just a few inches above the pants, Tina could pull his plug and let him deflate and avoid his doom, but that would totally spoil the fun. Instead she picked up the loose end of his ribbon, before the balloon boy could drift too high.
She picked up Stan as well, when he started to fly and towed both of them across the stage. As she dragged them, inflating balloon guys’ sides collided producing hollow boom sounds and squeaking.
Vik reached a threshold: for a while his body stopped getting bigger,as the material of his skin struggled to defend the last line - limit of elasticity. You don't cross this threshold, unless you are serious about bursting, because there is no return beyond it, even complete deflation will not help, as your skin will stay overstretched forever, so say goodbye to the human shape. Others caught up soon: Jake and Stan reached Vik’s size and stopped, Jimmy and Nat were close - all getting rounder, stripped to the underwear and smiling. Their bodies ascended, pulling the red ribbons, their fears were no more, boys of the band enjoyed the show even more then all the fangirls. Indeed, late stages of inflation are pleasureable, survivors reported that they were unable and unwilling to stop, even if they didn’t intend to burst initially.
Finally, building pressure of helium won, Vik surged in size quickly, in mere seconds his round belly grew into big sphere seven feet in diameter, absorbing most of his arms and legs. “Yess” - He celebrated this. Soon others followed and started ballooning rapidly, as their skin gave up the fight. Stage projectors highlighted the balloons - red for Jake, green for Nat, Purple for Jim, white for Stan and yellow for Vik. Their overstretched skin got somewhat transparent already, intense lights easily went through it, scattered within and radiated outside, making boys shine like huge fantasy lanterns, casting fancy shadows all over the hall.
Crowd was ecstatic. A sudden loud boom and a rain of rubbery shreds made everyone turn they heads. No, the thing you were waiting for didn’t happen yet: all the five stayed one piece so far, it was a fanboy that popped. He wasn't that big, usually men reach at least seven feet radius before they can't hold it anymore. Most likely, some of the girls was annoyed by the fact that poor guy blocked all the view by his inflated body. A single jab of a hairpin or even nail and the obstacle was no more. People around him were somewhat stunned by the sudden explosion, as they didn't cover their ears. One more inflated boy burst in the crowd shortly after, the rest were spared for a while - they started to float upwards safely away from the hands of the women, also flying men didn’t block the view. They didn't last long, however.
Tina knew, what everyone was waiting for. Diva used to finish the Farewell amid the rain of confetti. Singer just let Vik and Stan slip away from her hand and drift upwards to the ceiling. Grim drummer was silent, while Stan shouted: “It was so much fun to be with you, I wish ... “ - his words ended with a thundering boom, when Stan’s distended skin touched something sharp: ceiling decorations had some edges. Diva finished her party when the remains of Stan fell to the floor around of her.
His explosion also produced a wave of helium and torrent of rubbery shreds, which threw Vik away from scene and towards the fans. He drifted in the air rotating wildly, somewhat distracted from his philosophical thoughts. Fangirls covered their ears, expecting one more explosion, but it didn’t happen: some tall blonde girl jumped high enough to snatch his ribbon and pull him down, before he ascended towards the roof and out of reach. Also, he and the rest of the band took just the right amount of compressed helium to reach the limit, but not to burst. Fanboys hovering near the ceiling exploded one by one, but all the musicians slowed at the threshold. The slightest poke could burst them now.
Fangirls were apparently puzzled, some whistled disapprovingly.
Tina took the microphone again and announced: “Tonight we are singing our farewell to five fabulous boys, it was a pleasure to work and play with them, hope you all enjoyed their music!”
Crowd exploded in cheers and ovation responding to her words.
“They are: Jake, our second guitar guy” - the projector highlighted the black haired balloon.
“Jim, our fantastic bass guitar!”
Storm of applause.
“Vik, our drums guy just popped to entertain us, thank you Vik!” - she shouted and everyone, agreed, except Vik himself, who was somewhat annoyed to learn that inflated balloon men are all the same, indistinguishable, while women don’t really care who’s who. His protests weren’t heard, so Tina continued: “Stan, our piano man, was a bit luckier and he didn’t burst so far.”
Blonde girl that caught Vik and still held his ribbon was in the middle of a crowd now, some other girls even tried to seize the stripe of fabric from her hand.
Tina mentioned Nat last: “And never forget our adorable and sexy Nathaniel, his bare chest, his locks, his guitar and his voice have been driving a lot of you crazy, now he's not so shapely as usual, but still undeniably cute. I know, watching him inflate was a wet dream for lots of the girls here. Tonight it came true.”
While Tina was entertaining the crowd of fans, Jim, Nat and Jake could exchange a few words. They all floated close to each other, with the stubs of their hands tied to the microphones on the stage.
“Now, do you think she will stick to the plan?” - wondered Jake. - “Or just burst us, right away?”
“She can do anything. I'm ready to go pop, so tired of pressure, it's just begging for release. There is no return for us, anyway. It felt so good to inflate, but now, what's the point of staying blimp?” - Jim answered.
“Don't you want to take a last look on the city from above? She said, about farewell to us and that's going along the plan, I hope, she'll follow it further.” - said Nathaniel.

Air currents were constantly moving and twisting them, interrupting talks, when boys weren’t facing each other. Tina continued the show, meanwhile: “... So, tell me, who wants to let them free?“
Crowd roared.
“Okay, anyone wants to pop them instead?“
Crowd roared again.
“I see.” - said Tina - “Both options are popular. Then let's do both. We have four balloons here, two of them are so eager to please their fans, they are about to explode.”
This Solomon's judgment was met with cries of approval.

Jake spat an obscenity hearing that. “I knew that she'd screw everything up.”
Nathaniel had more of a philosophical attitude: “That's a fifty percent chance for each of us. It could be worse.”

Tina untied ribbons of the three balloon boys from the microphone stands and held them tightly in her grip, everyone headed outdoors. Tall blonde, that caught Vik managed to keep his ribbon, despite some rude attempts to wrestle him from her. She went with the crowd, guards let her walk near Tina, so all four balloon boys were hovering close and accidentally bumped into each other, with typical squeaking sounds. Vik exchanged a few words with the trio carried by Tina.
“This takes longer than I expected. I thought, I'll be dead already” - Vik was notorious using this taboo word regarding burst boys. Usually, people avoided calling it death. - “But this girl was so nice to me, she protected me from the other brats that wanted to pop me. I even feel sort of gratitude. Shame I won't have a chance to get to know her better. At least her name.”
“Vik, were you ever, well, close with a woman?” - asked Jake, as a sudden guess, about the nature of his friend’s grief.
“Nope. Now I somehow regret it...” - he answered.
“No girlfriend? Really? But we were popular, lots of fangirls. You could easily have some relationship.” - Jake was sincerely surprised.
“Difficult to say. Maybe it's because deep down I envied and hated them all. Oh, maybe I was wrong... ”
Conversation was interrupted, as another blow of wind swept them apart.

Crowd was passing the hallway, when some girl shouted: “Pop! Pop!“ Others quickly followed and soon their cries fused into demanding roar.
Tina stopped and rose a hand demanding silence, but fans got totally out of hand, she couldn't simply outshout them...
Jim felt his ribbon pulling him down. It could only mean one thing. “Bye, dudes. See you on the other side” - he said. Diva quickly pulled him closer to her face and watched him in the eye, then she jabbed her nail into Jim’s inflated shoulder. BOOM. His explosion made her ears ring for a while, as she could not cover them.
Order was restored, fans were satiated for a while and followed Tina and three remaining balloons till the gates. Some tried to collect rubbery scraps remaining after ex bass guitarist, as a souvenir or a token of remembrance.

It was early evening outdoors. Weather was calm and nice. Trees in the park around the concert hall stood still, three helium filled balloons trembled in the mild wind slightly. Fans still poured through the gates, as there were thousands of people, despite quadruple prices.
Vik felt a yank: he was quickly pulled down. “My turn, finally” - he thought. Yet once again his guess was wrong. Blond girl didn't jab him, she spoke instead: “Uh, hi, I'm Tess. And you, you are not Stan? Vik? Am I right? When you are so inflated it's hard to be sure.“
“True. Stan did burst in fact.” - confirmed ex drummer.
“Victor. Yeah, I'm your fan. Never thought we'd be talking tet-a-tet.” - she smiled to him, - “Nor did I expect to hold you like balloon.”
“It's a pleasant surprise that you care about my name.” - he said. - “I prepared to explode, when you caught and saved me. Thank you.”
“You are sweet... Wish I could avert the end, but you are going to pop. I didn't give it a lot of thought, like bursting is a bad thing. What emotions you boys have, when inflating and you know, you are going to pop? “
“You know, I'm not a typical boy here, they all tend to take it easy, even anticipate the day they go pop, as a final adventure. I always thought it is unfair and wrong, men are not just balloons we’re people too. That's what I think, I know, it probably sounds stupid to you. I got tired of all this waiting for inevitable, so tonight I actually looked forward to fly away and put a loud full stop in my stupid balloon life.“
Blonde was somewhat perplexed by his words. Vik went on: “I was counting down last seconds, when Tina let Stan and myself drift upwards. He burst and you caught me... I thought, I'll be gone already, but I talk to you instead and it is wonderful. I'm so grateful to you for these few precious extra minutes. I'm afraid, I didn't answer your question about my feelings about bursting. But that's because I don't know it myself.”
“It is much more complicated, than I expected.“ - said she.
Their chit chat could last longer, but all the good things end prematurely. Fans gathered around Tina, most of the people passed through the gates and were anxious to see and hear the finale.

“Fine. Time to say bye bye to our lovely boys.” - announced diva - “Are you reaaady?!”
The crowd of fans responded with a thousand of voices fusing into a single uninteligent roar. They demanded yet another sacrifice.

“Yes, yes, my dear friends, I promised to pop one of them. But who will it be?”
Fangirls cried the names of Jake, Nat and Stan, but it was impossible to understand anything in the whole cacophony.

“Say, who wants me to pop Jake?” - yelled Tina, trying to outshout her fans. Her microphone was useless now. Majority of the girls didn't hear her. Balloon boys, however, were close enough and could understand the words of their diva. Jake and Nathaniel were particularly nervous.

Tess dragged Victor closer, to speak to him in a low voice: “Hope, she won’t choose you!”
“You are so sweet, Tess. But I'm done already, there is no going back for me.” - replied Vik.
“Why? I can pull your plug and let you deflate.”
“I'm overstretched. I can't return to human shape. But... thank you. I'm not afraid of what's going to happen. I just regret, that I didn't met you before this day and can't stay with you for a little bit longer.”
“This is so unfair!” - said Tess.
“Everything will be fine. I'm ready to burst, every man goes pop eventually. I'm happy and grateful to my fate for I met you before... “ - Vik tried to calm her down. - ”Just promise to remember me, when I go. Because I'll remember you for the rest of my life.” - he smiled to his plain joke.
Tess smiled in return, although there were tears in the corners of her eyes.

Meanwhile, Tina tried to yell even louder: “Shut up, you bitches!” - fruitlessly. Crowd got seriously out of hand. Tina used to be the center of attention, in charge, in control. Needless to say, she was mad. She waved her hands, violently tugging the red satin ribbons. Once, twice, and then snap! Huge weather balloons have serious air drag. You can slowly tow them, as you walk, but when you yank really hard, and the other end of the ribbon holds loosely on the puffy bloated wrist of the inflatee... Well. Ribbons just slipped off. Jake and Nat started to float upwards. At first slow, but gaining speed with every second.

Tess turned her pretty head from the Vik’s face to see what's the matter and why the beautiful opera voice of the rock diva is now spitting obscenities. She realized the situation and its consequences in a fraction of second. Not wasting any time for the kind words, she released Vik’s ribbon and then pushed his puffy cheeks up and away. “Bye. I'll remember you.”
“Thank you, Tess.” - he replied.
Distance between them grew quickly, Vik could not hear her reply.
A dark haired woman, that stood close to Tess, leaped after him, her fingernails barely... grazed the escaping red fabric. But it was too late to bring him back to the ground. His joy didn't last long, though. Angry brunette and two other girls attacked Tess. Vik was completely helpless since he bloated into a helium blimp, barely having any limbs. But he felt it really acutely, when his new friend, who was so kind to him, got into trouble. Vik could just watch as Tess was beaten. This was so painful. Fortunately, bullies were soon dragged away from Tess by other girls.
For a little while he could still see from above the blonde locks of Tess. Then she lost her in the crowd. Still, image of her face stood in his mental sight. Wind carried away Vik’s balloon body, he slowly tumbled on his way to the stratosphere. A crowd of people on the ground shifted out of his sight as he rotated. Then he could see two other balloons, Jake and Nathaniel started their rise earlier and were lighter, as they lacked an additional weight of the ribbon, thus they were a hundred feet above Vik now.

Soon the city was left below, even the tallest skyscrapers. Buildings, parks and streets were vanishing in the milky myst. Air got cooler. Vik felt his skin slowly stretching again. He was dangerously close to his limit, and hadn't much time left. But he didn't think about it. He thought about Tess, about sad and joyful moments of his short life, about music, and again about Tess, her beautiful face, luscious air, her kind heart, her brave and selfless move... Memories filled him with warmth despite the freezing chill outside the sphere of his body.
Boom! One of the balloons above him was gone. Sound wasn't very loud due to the the distance and low air pressure. “Was it Jake or Nat?” - wondered Vik.
Of course, he couldn’t know, but the answer soon became irrelevant: Boom! Second balloon burst.
“Now I'm the last man in the band. “ - he thought.
He ignored the disturbing squeaking of his overstretched rubbery skin and thought about the brave girl once again. In dreams he could speak to her once more, touch her face, her tender lips, and...

And then Victor opened his eyes. Early winter morning, still dark. “What a weird dream it was. Two years of an inflatable guy’s life in just one night.”
Usually dreams are woven of a fleeting and fragile substance that melts before your eyes when you wake up. But this one was persistent. Victor could recall the tidy streets of Breezeville, his inflatable friends and fellows, Tina, and of course Tess. The whole experience was creepy and psychedelic. A fantasy about a place where men are mere expendable toys for the entertainment of women - disturbing, but sweet in a very special way. He thought : “Wait, do I really like it? Hope nobody finds out.”
He struggled to recall his actual mundane life: “Today must be Thursday. Or not, it's Friday. Shit, I have a biology test! Wish I popped like a balloon instead.“
His smartphone’s alarm clock started to buzz. 7AM. Time to get up. He was going to linger in bed a bit more, so he reached with his left hand to shut the alarm down. The buzzing stopped, but Victor noticed something in the dim light of the smartphone screen. There was something on his wrist. “What the...” His jaw dropped when he realized that it was a red satin ribbon.

Description
A short story in the genre I never touched before.
Warnings: male inflation, pop.

“Tonight is the final day of our tour, you guys know what should happen.” - said Tina, the vocalist of the band.
For a few seconds thick silence hung in the room. Of course, all the guys knew that this day was coming. Some of them secretly dreaded it, others were waiting with anticipation. All inflatable boys in this world knew, that they are in fact balloons and being burst is not a question of if, but when. However, the question of when is still very important, one thing is to know that your girlfriend may pop you this year, or the next one - it's safely distant and comfortably undecided. Other thing is that you know that you are going to blow tonight because the diva of your rock band set up such a tradition few years ago.
Jimmy, the bass guitar, argued: “But you said yourself, that we are a great team, we were better than all of our popped predecessors, aren't we?”
Tina wasn't easy to argue with: “Jim, yes, you guys are popular, but it's mostly thanks to your pumped bodies rather than skills. They are our fans particularly because they know what's going to happen tonight. Did you ever check what our female fans post on our website?” The diva browsed it with her smartphone, “Look here, user fluttershy1999 wrote: can't wait to see these hot lads inflated, especially Nathaniel, he's my favorite!”
Nathaniel, the solo guitarist, had long fair hair and used to go to the scene wearing a leather vest, revealing his pumped up chest. He seemingly was pleased by the attention he got: “These fangirls, they’re gonna absolutely love the show tonight!”
“Yeah. Let's do it. They'll remember us as the best rock and pop band ever. “ added Stan, the piano guy.
This was a classic example of balloon hubris: Tina hardly remembered the names of all the popped guys from the past years, nor did the fangirls. But it is an important rationalization for them to inflate voluntarily, so she wasn't in a hurry to burst Stan’s bubble.
Vik, the drums boy, agreed grimly: “I just want to go with a loud bang already.” - he was well known for his pessimistic ideas. Vik disagreed with the public opinion and common sense, arguing that men shouldn’t be treated as balloons, bursting is murder and other nonsense. Of course, his extreme ideas were usually met with laughter, mocking and even bullying. Eventually he accepted the idea of inevitability of bursting, though, unlike normal balloon men, who find it tempting, he sought release from this absurd and surreal life.
“That's all cool, but aren't we just repeating the old tricks? I think changing the script a little tonight won't hurt. “ said the raven-haired second guitarist - Jake.
“What do I hear? Is someone afraid? “ taunted Tina.
Jake shrugged: “No. I just want this evening to be different and special.”
“Okay, you have my attention. Go on.” she replied.
“That’s what I have in mind” Jake started his explanations ...

Three hours later:

The crowd of fans was singing after Tina, waving their hands; ecstatic from the last song and anticipating even more.
Tina took her microphone and announced: “ And now we are going to present you the Farewell! It is the last song this night and in our entire tour as a band. As you might know, there is going to be a very special event this time! “
The crowd exploded with cheers and ovations.

At first, all the band played their parts as usual, but this time eyes of the audience were watching boys of the band carefully, so there were loud cries and cheers when fangirls noticed Vik’s motion: he quickly put something into his mouth and swallowed. Loud music covered the low hissing sound going from his body, yet there could be no mistake. His belly and chest bulged outwards stretching his drummer’s shirt, Vik skipped two or three beats and then stopped trying as the drumsticks slipped from his fingers.
The sounds emitted from the electric piano ended abruptly after Stan missed few notes, he also started to inflate and got a little clumsy. In half a minute, all the males in the band stopped playing, only contributing a chorus of hissing as an accompaniment to Tina's singing... As if anyone cared about it, for these few minutes Tina wasn’t in the center of attention.
Vik, who was the first one to take helium pills, inflated ahead of his fellows, his belly and butt were globes of flesh coloured rubber, tearing clothes apart. Drummer smiled eerily. Soon this absurdity will end forever. Stan and Jake were already losing their manly shapes and becoming rounder, while Jim and Nathaniel, who started last were in the phase of growing muscles, their chests, abs, shoulders inflated making them look even more handsome for a moment.
Some men in the crowd started to inflate, apparently their girlfriends wanted to support their favorite rock band in such an amusing way.
Then something unexpected happened, boys of the band reached into their pockets and produced some rolls of red fabric. It turned to be satin bands used for decoration, wrapping flowers and tying balloons. The latter was the most correct guess.
Boys tied the ribbons around their wrists, which took some time and their time was short. Jim and Nat, as well as Jake only reached the beer-gut phase, they looked somewhat fat with air and their clothes started to stretch, but that was manageable, they quickly tied the knots around their wrists and attached second ends of their ribbons to the microphones standing on the stage.
Not everyone was quick and lucky enough. Vik and Stan were already quite inflated, with their arms starting to fatten and fingers getting clumsy. They managed to tie the ribbons around their hands, but this took too much time and inflation was progressing quickly. Both gave up attempts, when their pants started to split at the seams, their butts grew large ballooning upwards over the belts and out of the clothes. Soon all the balloon musicians were quite shirtless, Vik, Stan and Jake - also pantless, which attracted huge appreciation from the audience. Underwear held, though, because it was made of a stretchy material specially for such cases.
Tina continued to sing as usual, but walked around the stage and patted Stan’s butt. All he could do in return was to smile sheepishly and inflate, because his limbs ceased to be useful, getting too fat with helium and spreading apart uncontrollably.
She then cheered Vik and Jake in the same fashion. From her slap balloon boys hovered above the floor for a moment and descending slowly, this indicated that they were quite close to buoyancy.
Vik was the first to soar, he lost all the clothing except his stretchy swims, that were almost weightless, his body became a wide sphere of his belly about two feet in radius, with big inflated ass and his swollen arms and legs that were gradually sinking into said belly and butt. Drummers inflation valve protruded from his back, just a few inches above the pants, Tina could pull his plug and let him deflate and avoid his doom, but that would totally spoil the fun. Instead she picked up the loose end of his ribbon, before the balloon boy could drift too high.
She picked up Stan as well, when he started to fly and towed both of them across the stage. As she dragged them, inflating balloon guys’ sides collided producing hollow boom sounds and squeaking.
Vik reached a threshold: for a while his body stopped getting bigger,as the material of his skin struggled to defend the last line - limit of elasticity. You don't cross this threshold, unless you are serious about bursting, because there is no return beyond it, even complete deflation will not help, as your skin will stay overstretched forever, so say goodbye to the human shape. Others caught up soon: Jake and Stan reached Vik’s size and stopped, Jimmy and Nat were close - all getting rounder, stripped to the underwear and smiling. Their bodies ascended, pulling the red ribbons, their fears were no more, boys of the band enjoyed the show even more then all the fangirls. Indeed, late stages of inflation are pleasureable, survivors reported that they were unable and unwilling to stop, even if they didn’t intend to burst initially.
Finally, building pressure of helium won, Vik surged in size quickly, in mere seconds his round belly grew into big sphere seven feet in diameter, absorbing most of his arms and legs. “Yess” - He celebrated this. Soon others followed and started ballooning rapidly, as their skin gave up the fight. Stage projectors highlighted the balloons - red for Jake, green for Nat, Purple for Jim, white for Stan and yellow for Vik. Their overstretched skin got somewhat transparent already, intense lights easily went through it, scattered within and radiated outside, making boys shine like huge fantasy lanterns, casting fancy shadows all over the hall.
Crowd was ecstatic. A sudden loud boom and a rain of rubbery shreds made everyone turn they heads. No, the thing you were waiting for didn’t happen yet: all the five stayed one piece so far, it was a fanboy that popped. He wasn't that big, usually men reach at least seven feet radius before they can't hold it anymore. Most likely, some of the girls was annoyed by the fact that poor guy blocked all the view by his inflated body. A single jab of a hairpin or even nail and the obstacle was no more. People around him were somewhat stunned by the sudden explosion, as they didn't cover their ears. One more inflated boy burst in the crowd shortly after, the rest were spared for a while - they started to float upwards safely away from the hands of the women, also flying men didn’t block the view. They didn't last long, however.
Tina knew, what everyone was waiting for. Diva used to finish the Farewell amid the rain of confetti. Singer just let Vik and Stan slip away from her hand and drift upwards to the ceiling. Grim drummer was silent, while Stan shouted: “It was so much fun to be with you, I wish ... “ - his words ended with a thundering boom, when Stan’s distended skin touched something sharp: ceiling decorations had some edges. Diva finished her party when the remains of Stan fell to the floor around of her.
His explosion also produced a wave of helium and torrent of rubbery shreds, which threw Vik away from scene and towards the fans. He drifted in the air rotating wildly, somewhat distracted from his philosophical thoughts. Fangirls covered their ears, expecting one more explosion, but it didn’t happen: some tall blonde girl jumped high enough to snatch his ribbon and pull him down, before he ascended towards the roof and out of reach. Also, he and the rest of the band took just the right amount of compressed helium to reach the limit, but not to burst. Fanboys hovering near the ceiling exploded one by one, but all the musicians slowed at the threshold. The slightest poke could burst them now.
Fangirls were apparently puzzled, some whistled disapprovingly.
Tina took the microphone again and announced: “Tonight we are singing our farewell to five fabulous boys, it was a pleasure to work and play with them, hope you all enjoyed their music!”
Crowd exploded in cheers and ovation responding to her words.
“They are: Jake, our second guitar guy” - the projector highlighted the black haired balloon.
“Jim, our fantastic bass guitar!”
Storm of applause.
“Vik, our drums guy just popped to entertain us, thank you Vik!” - she shouted and everyone, agreed, except Vik himself, who was somewhat annoyed to learn that inflated balloon men are all the same, indistinguishable, while women don’t really care who’s who. His protests weren’t heard, so Tina continued: “Stan, our piano man, was a bit luckier and he didn’t burst so far.”
Blonde girl that caught Vik and still held his ribbon was in the middle of a crowd now, some other girls even tried to seize the stripe of fabric from her hand.
Tina mentioned Nat last: “And never forget our adorable and sexy Nathaniel, his bare chest, his locks, his guitar and his voice have been driving a lot of you crazy, now he's not so shapely as usual, but still undeniably cute. I know, watching him inflate was a wet dream for lots of the girls here. Tonight it came true.”
While Tina was entertaining the crowd of fans, Jim, Nat and Jake could exchange a few words. They all floated close to each other, with the stubs of their hands tied to the microphones on the stage.
“Now, do you think she will stick to the plan?” - wondered Jake. - “Or just burst us, right away?”
“She can do anything. I'm ready to go pop, so tired of pressure, it's just begging for release. There is no return for us, anyway. It felt so good to inflate, but now, what's the point of staying blimp?” - Jim answered.
“Don't you want to take a last look on the city from above? She said, about farewell to us and that's going along the plan, I hope, she'll follow it further.” - said Nathaniel.

Air currents were constantly moving and twisting them, interrupting talks, when boys weren’t facing each other. Tina continued the show, meanwhile: “... So, tell me, who wants to let them free?“
Crowd roared.
“Okay, anyone wants to pop them instead?“
Crowd roared again.
“I see.” - said Tina - “Both options are popular. Then let's do both. We have four balloons here, two of them are so eager to please their fans, they are about to explode.”
This Solomon's judgment was met with cries of approval.

Jake spat an obscenity hearing that. “I knew that she'd screw everything up.”
Nathaniel had more of a philosophical attitude: “That's a fifty percent chance for each of us. It could be worse.”

Tina untied ribbons of the three balloon boys from the microphone stands and held them tightly in her grip, everyone headed outdoors. Tall blonde, that caught Vik managed to keep his ribbon, despite some rude attempts to wrestle him from her. She went with the crowd, guards let her walk near Tina, so all four balloon boys were hovering close and accidentally bumped into each other, with typical squeaking sounds. Vik exchanged a few words with the trio carried by Tina.
“This takes longer than I expected. I thought, I'll be dead already” - Vik was notorious using this taboo word regarding burst boys. Usually, people avoided calling it death. - “But this girl was so nice to me, she protected me from the other brats that wanted to pop me. I even feel sort of gratitude. Shame I won't have a chance to get to know her better. At least her name.”
“Vik, were you ever, well, close with a woman?” - asked Jake, as a sudden guess, about the nature of his friend’s grief.
“Nope. Now I somehow regret it...” - he answered.
“No girlfriend? Really? But we were popular, lots of fangirls. You could easily have some relationship.” - Jake was sincerely surprised.
“Difficult to say. Maybe it's because deep down I envied and hated them all. Oh, maybe I was wrong... ”
Conversation was interrupted, as another blow of wind swept them apart.

Crowd was passing the hallway, when some girl shouted: “Pop! Pop!“ Others quickly followed and soon their cries fused into demanding roar.
Tina stopped and rose a hand demanding silence, but fans got totally out of hand, she couldn't simply outshout them...
Jim felt his ribbon pulling him down. It could only mean one thing. “Bye, dudes. See you on the other side” - he said. Diva quickly pulled him closer to her face and watched him in the eye, then she jabbed her nail into Jim’s inflated shoulder. BOOM. His explosion made her ears ring for a while, as she could not cover them.
Order was restored, fans were satiated for a while and followed Tina and three remaining balloons till the gates. Some tried to collect rubbery scraps remaining after ex bass guitarist, as a souvenir or a token of remembrance.

It was early evening outdoors. Weather was calm and nice. Trees in the park around the concert hall stood still, three helium filled balloons trembled in the mild wind slightly. Fans still poured through the gates, as there were thousands of people, despite quadruple prices.
Vik felt a yank: he was quickly pulled down. “My turn, finally” - he thought. Yet once again his guess was wrong. Blond girl didn't jab him, she spoke instead: “Uh, hi, I'm Tess. And you, you are not Stan? Vik? Am I right? When you are so inflated it's hard to be sure.“
“True. Stan did burst in fact.” - confirmed ex drummer.
“Victor. Yeah, I'm your fan. Never thought we'd be talking tet-a-tet.” - she smiled to him, - “Nor did I expect to hold you like balloon.”
“It's a pleasant surprise that you care about my name.” - he said. - “I prepared to explode, when you caught and saved me. Thank you.”
“You are sweet... Wish I could avert the end, but you are going to pop. I didn't give it a lot of thought, like bursting is a bad thing. What emotions you boys have, when inflating and you know, you are going to pop? “
“You know, I'm not a typical boy here, they all tend to take it easy, even anticipate the day they go pop, as a final adventure. I always thought it is unfair and wrong, men are not just balloons we’re people too. That's what I think, I know, it probably sounds stupid to you. I got tired of all this waiting for inevitable, so tonight I actually looked forward to fly away and put a loud full stop in my stupid balloon life.“
Blonde was somewhat perplexed by his words. Vik went on: “I was counting down last seconds, when Tina let Stan and myself drift upwards. He burst and you caught me... I thought, I'll be gone already, but I talk to you instead and it is wonderful. I'm so grateful to you for these few precious extra minutes. I'm afraid, I didn't answer your question about my feelings about bursting. But that's because I don't know it myself.”
“It is much more complicated, than I expected.“ - said she.
Their chit chat could last longer, but all the good things end prematurely. Fans gathered around Tina, most of the people passed through the gates and were anxious to see and hear the finale.

“Fine. Time to say bye bye to our lovely boys.” - announced diva - “Are you reaaady?!”
The crowd of fans responded with a thousand of voices fusing into a single uninteligent roar. They demanded yet another sacrifice.

“Yes, yes, my dear friends, I promised to pop one of them. But who will it be?”
Fangirls cried the names of Jake, Nat and Stan, but it was impossible to understand anything in the whole cacophony.

“Say, who wants me to pop Jake?” - yelled Tina, trying to outshout her fans. Her microphone was useless now. Majority of the girls didn't hear her. Balloon boys, however, were close enough and could understand the words of their diva. Jake and Nathaniel were particularly nervous.

Tess dragged Victor closer, to speak to him in a low voice: “Hope, she won’t choose you!”
“You are so sweet, Tess. But I'm done already, there is no going back for me.” - replied Vik.
“Why? I can pull your plug and let you deflate.”
“I'm overstretched. I can't return to human shape. But... thank you. I'm not afraid of what's going to happen. I just regret, that I didn't met you before this day and can't stay with you for a little bit longer.”
“This is so unfair!” - said Tess.
“Everything will be fine. I'm ready to burst, every man goes pop eventually. I'm happy and grateful to my fate for I met you before... “ - Vik tried to calm her down. - ”Just promise to remember me, when I go. Because I'll remember you for the rest of my life.” - he smiled to his plain joke.
Tess smiled in return, although there were tears in the corners of her eyes.

Meanwhile, Tina tried to yell even louder: “Shut up, you bitches!” - fruitlessly. Crowd got seriously out of hand. Tina used to be the center of attention, in charge, in control. Needless to say, she was mad. She waved her hands, violently tugging the red satin ribbons. Once, twice, and then snap! Huge weather balloons have serious air drag. You can slowly tow them, as you walk, but when you yank really hard, and the other end of the ribbon holds loosely on the puffy bloated wrist of the inflatee... Well. Ribbons just slipped off. Jake and Nat started to float upwards. At first slow, but gaining speed with every second.

Tess turned her pretty head from the Vik’s face to see what's the matter and why the beautiful opera voice of the rock diva is now spitting obscenities. She realized the situation and its consequences in a fraction of second. Not wasting any time for the kind words, she released Vik’s ribbon and then pushed his puffy cheeks up and away. “Bye. I'll remember you.”
“Thank you, Tess.” - he replied.
Distance between them grew quickly, Vik could not hear her reply.
A dark haired woman, that stood close to Tess, leaped after him, her fingernails barely... grazed the escaping red fabric. But it was too late to bring him back to the ground. His joy didn't last long, though. Angry brunette and two other girls attacked Tess. Vik was completely helpless since he bloated into a helium blimp, barely having any limbs. But he felt it really acutely, when his new friend, who was so kind to him, got into trouble. Vik could just watch as Tess was beaten. This was so painful. Fortunately, bullies were soon dragged away from Tess by other girls.
For a little while he could still see from above the blonde locks of Tess. Then she lost her in the crowd. Still, image of her face stood in his mental sight. Wind carried away Vik’s balloon body, he slowly tumbled on his way to the stratosphere. A crowd of people on the ground shifted out of his sight as he rotated. Then he could see two other balloons, Jake and Nathaniel started their rise earlier and were lighter, as they lacked an additional weight of the ribbon, thus they were a hundred feet above Vik now.

Soon the city was left below, even the tallest skyscrapers. Buildings, parks and streets were vanishing in the milky myst. Air got cooler. Vik felt his skin slowly stretching again. He was dangerously close to his limit, and hadn't much time left. But he didn't think about it. He thought about Tess, about sad and joyful moments of his short life, about music, and again about Tess, her beautiful face, luscious air, her kind heart, her brave and selfless move... Memories filled him with warmth despite the freezing chill outside the sphere of his body.
Boom! One of the balloons above him was gone. Sound wasn't very loud due to the the distance and low air pressure. “Was it Jake or Nat?” - wondered Vik.
Of course, he couldn’t know, but the answer soon became irrelevant: Boom! Second balloon burst.
“Now I'm the last man in the band. “ - he thought.
He ignored the disturbing squeaking of his overstretched rubbery skin and thought about the brave girl once again. In dreams he could speak to her once more, touch her face, her tender lips, and...

And then Victor opened his eyes. Early winter morning, still dark. “What a weird dream it was. Two years of an inflatable guy’s life in just one night.”
Usually dreams are woven of a fleeting and fragile substance that melts before your eyes when you wake up. But this one was persistent. Victor could recall the tidy streets of Breezeville, his inflatable friends and fellows, Tina, and of course Tess. The whole experience was creepy and psychedelic. A fantasy about a place where men are mere expendable toys for the entertainment of women - disturbing, but sweet in a very special way. He thought : “Wait, do I really like it? Hope nobody finds out.”
He struggled to recall his actual mundane life: “Today must be Thursday. Or not, it's Friday. Shit, I have a biology test! Wish I popped like a balloon instead.“
His smartphone’s alarm clock started to buzz. 7AM. Time to get up. He was going to linger in bed a bit more, so he reached with his left hand to shut the alarm down. The buzzing stopped, but Victor noticed something in the dim light of the smartphone screen. There was something on his wrist. “What the...” His jaw dropped when he realized that it was a red satin ribbon.