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This story features inflatable people. Yes, such a crazy stuff. There are zillion of stories with  inflation into huge sphere on DA, I didn't want to write a zillion-first one.

Instead, I've set up a challenge. A set of realistic events that leads to creation of living inflatables. Not only realistic physics (no magic), but also realistic motives and no Deus-ex-machina, also I outlawed the assumption that my characters just like to inflate, that is too easy and not very plausible.

Alas this story does only contain very mild erotic, there will be sequels with more sexy stuff.

Enjoy!

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"Mr. Pratcher, Do you actually know, what are you signing up to?" - clerks voice was calm and almost robotic. Either she really did not care, or years of training at buddhist monastery taught her how to suppress emotions.

I shrugged : "Well, I've read your advertisement and this" - pointing at glossy booklet - "Though, I presume this is an advertisement too. So I just sleep for a week at your lab, and you give me the money"

"Yes. 40 thousands. But here is a some, let me say, moral aspect. You said that you are not religious, nor believe in existence of soul, that's right?"

"Yes, true. And why should I ever decline such a generous offer?"

Clerk thought for a second, showing some sort of affection at last: "Don't get me wrong, I'm materialist too. But there is an aspect, religious or just sensitive people may find it unacceptable. If everything goes smooth, in the end we'll hold here at the lab a neural network copying state of your brain. Actually a snapshot of your memory, feelings, thoughts at the moment. As we still lack a processing power to actually simulate brain activity, this image of your mind will remain static, also we wont be able to somehow decode and read your thoughts"

"Do you mean, I'm going to become merely data on your hard drives?"

She shook her head negatively : "Of course not, it is like taking a photo, it does not flatten you and turn into sheet of paper, right? You'll be totally OK, after the experiment. Only a week older and bald"

"And why should I sleep during the process?"

"Let me continue the photo metaphor. In the beginning of photography, photosensitive materials were not that, well, photosensitive. So it took several hours to take picture and photographed person had to sit still and motionless during the process. Same here. Process of querying the brain, analyzing the structure of connections takes long time, and state of brain is shifting, it is like motion-blurring the picture. So we need to freeze your mind"

"Okay, where do I sign?"

Frankly, I expected some bizarre, shiny machines with fancy monitors, but after shaving all my hair off and redressing, lab staff just led me to a small room: four pale walls, light falling from ceiling, a bed, dropper for intravenous nutrition and rope of thin wires ending with small electrodes. As far as I knew, these were few micrometers in diameter and could pierce scull bones without operation.

Two guys in white coats were not very talkative, they just helped me to get settled and injected anesthesia. I drifted into dream imagining  my forty thousands. Vision of money quickly faded, and was replaced by series of quickly changing pictures: me at bank, me driving, me talking to my little sister Annette, me watching the sunset in mountains, pace of changing pictures increased so I've quickly lost the track. I suppose, that dreams were induced by supercomputer, that interrogated my brain, creating its dossier.

Waterfall of impressions seemed to be continuous. From my perspective, it lasted for may be year or century. I could not concentrate on other things then pictures tossed in my mind by machine, like time, or my life before the experiment. I was too busy reacting to images and feedback in my neurons was dully recorded, then in the next instant another picture and so on.

I opened my eyes in entirely different place. Snow-white hall, wide, at least ten meters in each direction. Half of the room was occupied by huge bed, it was equally white, I happened to be on top of its sleek surface. Material was unknown to me, seemed to be very pliant, still it didn't bulge under me at all. At that point I still hoped that nothing really extraordinary happened to me and couldn't be more wrong. I finally noticed that it was not only different place around, it was different me: my body, at least from the neck and lower has changed completely. No traces of body hair, athletic, even muscular torso and hands, and only piece of clothes - white boxers, probably, made of the same pliant plastic. This looked rather indecent, for a scientific institution … I have also added some height, may be ten centimeters. I've got even tan all over my skin, that looked strangely sleek and slightly glossy. Not only my looks changed, I even felt differently: as if my body was immersed in water that supported my weight, besides that I felt tense and taut as if stretched within.

This could be yet another dream, induced by computer, of course, I haven't thought this through, as door opened in the wall opposite to me and woman entered room. Door closed quickly merging in the wall again, as if there were no arched pathway second ago. As to the woman, she looked rather odd too: flawless oval of face, no visible make-up, rather uncombed platinum blond hair falling to shoulders. Long salad-green dress of rather odd fashion, it didn't accentuated her figure, on the opposite it was rather loose-fitting. I felt slightly embarrassed, as I was almost naked, but she seemingly didn't care.

"Welcome. My name is Loo, Loo Meezich, but you are free to call me Loo" - She had odd accent.

I sat on the bed and replied : "Glad to meet you, I'm Alex … just Alex. Frankly speaking, I don't know where am I and how did I get there". I was about to ask a lot more questions, but refrained. Probably, she was going to tell me anyway.

"More important then place is the question of time. It is 2477 out there, fourth of April" - She enjoyed the thunderstruck expression of my face and continued  - "as to the way you've got there, it is simple: you were born there. I know, your mind is a little older then one day, but your new body is that young"

After recovering from initial shock I muttered: "One day, new body", and then in a more loud voice: "So, I'm in distant future and something did happen to my old self?"

She replied in a dull tone: "As far as I know, your old self died in 2113, we have more information in our archive, if you are interested"

"Died? In 2113? Are you sure? I've participated into some brainwashing experiment in 2042, and I don't remember anything then. Apparently something went wrong"

That was the first time she displayed any signs of surprise: "Interesting, so, you don't know what has happened. You have been branched on 2042 it was one of the first known successful attempts, by the way"

"Sure I don't know. And what is that branching thing you are talking about?" Apparently her answer was not clarifying anything. If it wasn't some kind of mistake and I really lived after the experiment, then why did not I remember anything after it?

"Apparently you are a very interesting case, well, lets explain: branching is a procedure of copying state of individual mind, it doesn't seriously affect the original brain, and subject continues to live in a normal way. The copy may be kept in a frozen state, or later reimplanted into another body, that's your case. You do not remember your life since branching, as it was not your life, but the life of your original and you are the copy. You spent last four centuries as a mere static sequence of bytes"

That was astounding. Lots of words crowded on the tip of my tongue, but I just nodded instead of saying anything.

She continued: "First attempts of reviving stored branches by simulating brain activity within machine had bleak results, awaking as a process inside computer, without actual body and senses, damaged sanity, simulated mind panicked and tried to suicide. Moral restrictions prevented using living bodies for implanting stored minds, technology enabled creating artificial bodies only recently. Still many people resorted to branching their minds in the past three centuries as a way to cheat death, especially men. We developed various techniques to extend normal biological lifespan, but for men it caused cancer more often, so the balance of sexes has shifted to women gradually"

I was now totally confused: "What do you mean by artificial body? It really looks a bit odd", I said, poking my leg with index finger. Result was really surprising for me. Finger only plunged a little and bent slightly, I pushed stronger, and finger folded completely, as if there were no bones.

She watched  this with amused expression not amazed: "I see you have just found what kind of artificial body you have. It is inflatable. There are good reasons for it, look, creating body with human anatomy never was easy, it is theoretically possible, but insanely expensive, also such an artificial human will have its own mind, overwriting it with a copy is also a murder. We tried various robotic bodies, your inflatable shell is kind of very advanced robotic body too. And for you and others we just had to follow demand. Men are present but in insufficient quantities, and we girls are somewhat missing, there is a great demand for men in " - she made a pause, seeking for a right word - "entertainment business. So the body should be appealing and matching standards of handsomeness, you see. On the other hand there is major public concern about men, well being stronger then women, potentially aggressive in the modern world with no violence and private weapons, so we at Polymerix Inc came to such a compromise"

"Stop stop" - I interrupted - "You imply that I can be dangerous and that's why I'm inflatable? Oh my... And why do you think I should work in that entertainment business you mentioned?"

"As to the first question, it is just a common prejudice. People tend to regard old days as dark days of crimes and violence, also female population is concerned as there are lots of feminists, we may not share their point of view, but have to take it into account just to make them shut up. As to the second question, we already have a contract, you just have to sign to become employed"

"And what if I refuse?"

She smiled once again, but that smile was not a pleasant one: "And what can you do to earn 1.3 million credits per year to repay the loan?"

"Loan? What loan. I didn't sign up for any loan"

"Really? Oh that's because you were unable to sign anything. Well, your body is not cheap at all. And you are now using it at Corporation's expense. Of course, we can revoke the deal, in that case Corporation reserves right to take its property back, for implanting another stored mind"

In a long and uneasy silence I pondered, weighting alternatives, as if I had any choice. Finally I asked: "if I agree to your job, what my role is going to be?"

"I don't think you'll be disappointed. You'll be sort of attending parties and other events. Entertaining guests, may be dancing and stripping. It may or may not involve other more intimate things, you'll be free to opt out that. Your salary will be rather good, more then mine, for sure, but it would mostly go into repaying debt"

"That's slavery, of course, but it doesn't seem very scary, I'll possibly accept that ... " - now I've paused, seeking for a proper word - "offer, I can't refuse. But I'd rather thought it through and look around a bit, can we return to that matter later?"

"I'm sorry, to inform, that your first payment is up to today, do you have 3651 credits readily available?"

Question was obviously scoffing, so she continued: "I have a form for you to fill".

The form was a thin frame made of some light alloy, it produced holographic text, it was open on the page one of two hundred and seventeen.

"Do you really think I'll be able to read all that text?"

"No, I don't think so", she made a gesture and last page opened. I signed the agreement drawing signature with my finger.

"So now the formalities are done and you are ready to move to your new quarters"

"Quarters? Am I supposed to go like that, half naked?", - I said, looking down at my pneumatic body.

She replied joyously: "You are not supposed to go", with this words she reached behind me with her right hand and I felt some tugging sensation in the small of my back. Immediately a hissing sound followed. Loo continued - "Don't worry, it is not painful at all".

I looked over my shoulder, not surprisingly, my new body was flexible, so I could see an inflation valve growing out of my back, and it was open. The girl was letting me down! My first motion was to plug the valve, but Loo has stopped my hand: "Relax, everything is fine".

My muscles were now visibly smaller, skin lost its taut, also I felt weakness. Even if I wanted to, I was not in condition to wrestle. As pressure inside decreased, I found difficulty in sitting upright, my legs started to sag, as did my whole torso, I fell forward. Loo took my deflating body and pressed the air out, hissing got louder and I soon lost the track of events, diving into unconsciousness.