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      See "Offer you can not refuse", it is previous chapter.

This story features inflatable people. Unlike majority of inflation fiction writings, there will be:

* no magic.

* no magic, pretending to be science. Including no "comics science".

* no deus-ex-machina.

* no fetishist scientists who just want to become inflatable or inflate others.

* no fetishists at all.

  Hey, people are inflatable, but that doesn't automatically mean they like it

I.e. it is a pathetic attempt to setup a plausible sci-fiction plot involving inflatable people.

There will be history of future, love story, troubles and adventures, some whining about fate of humanity and consumption society and no porn both in ordinary and inflationist meaning, though lots of mild erotic is guaranteed.

Enjoy.

PS. I love comments.

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This time I awakened, with my face and rest of body spread over some even surface, probably floor. Sensations of air flowing into me, returning life, unwrapping my crumpled body were completely new.  I was somewhat inflated already, yet too weak to stand up. As the process was rather slow, I had time to look around, think through my situation and finally enjoy what was going on. Yeah, though a bit embarrassing, it was pleasant.

With some effort, I was able to move my head just a bit, to see something else then white featureless mat, that covered most of the floor. Room was hexagonal and not very large, there were no bed or furniture, besides some shelves mounted into walls, decorated with floral ornament. One wall was seemingly transparent, with beautiful scenery beyond: wonderful waterfall in the ochre-red cliffs lit by sunset. Too picturesque to be real. Then I looked over my shoulder: I was completely nude and still quite flat, inflation plug in my back was connected via thin silvery hose to cylinder in the hands of attractive blonde girl and that wasn't Loo. She smiled amiably.

"Nice to see you" - unlike Loo, this new girl had a definite accent.

She continued: "My name is Elly. I'm here to help you to settle. I studied ancient english and participated in the research on polymeric networks...". Girl blushed, she couldn't help glancing at my inflating body. Confused, she stopped talking and tried to look sideways on the fake window. Then I had a chance to examine her looks. Perfect skin, cute turned-up nose, greenish grey eyes, bob of fair hair, slightly plump cheeks. Nor slim, nor fat, with very notable curves. She had on something like mix of engineer's overall with athletic shell suit made of spandex or other stretchy and smooth material. If I'd still have a heart, in anatomical sense of course, it would skip a beat or two.

Pause was getting long, so I decided to say something: "Its a great pleasure to meet you, I'm Alex. But you, probably, already know my name. I hope, I did not offend you, did I?"

"No, no. It's my fault. I lack the self-control, never actually worked with boys before. Look, I'll put the tank here and your clothes" - she got some tightly rolled piece of rubbery fabric from her pocket - "And wait outside"

"There is no problem at all, please stay" - At that moment I was already inflated to normal, if  I could be referred with this word, of course. Air continued to flow, though, as Elly left air tank on the floor but did not shut it down. Pressure built within, notably inflation concentrated on my shoulders, arms, abs, a bit on legs and butt. And finally some air went to the most intimate part, lifting me from the floor. Elly hesitated whether to leave, or just don't watch, but this last detail was decisive. She ran away leaving me alone with a tank.

I stood up, flexing my inflatable muscles. As a matter of fact, they were springing on their own from internal pressure. That was not painful, just my limbs tended to straighten, bending, on the opposite, was difficult. I've gained some ten centimeters in height and bulk of torso, becoming blow up parody on bodybuilder overdoing steroids. I was curious, how far can inflation go, but didn't want to risk and meddle with things beyond my experience. I've got a surprise, when tried to reach my back to pull the hose out. My brand new wonderful flexibility has gone. Turning around didn't help too, as airtank just dragged behind me. I had to do something, all the limit for expansion was used, and my body was already inflating as balloon, i.e. mostly belly and butt. I felt first signs of building strain. With some effort I kicked the tank forward, so I could bend and get it at last. Air-tank happened to be smooth metal cylinder, no trace of valves or other controls. Though, twisting hose clockwise resulted in increased airflow, which almost made me panic. I quickly turned it in other direction. Hissing of air become lower, and then stopped. Still I was comically overinflated.

Elly's face has shown in the door. I quickly covered crotch area with airtank, not very successfully.

"You see, I have a problem. I'm not very used to all this inflation stuff" - I said, turning away.

Sight of my nude butt was less disturbing, so girl stepped in and unhooked the hose. Later I found there are clips for firm holding inside valve. Jet of air rushing out of my back forced me to step forward to keep balance.

She said: "Inflation should be stopped before you lose control. Did not you know that?"

- "In fact, I didn't know anything about that. Nobody cared to instruct me" - I said, as she plugged me. I've already deflated to the state of just a well pumped guy and this was just fine. Pumped may count as pun in this context - " I'm pretty new to it, according to Loo Mezich, I'm about twenty minutes old. I mean my present incarnation, of course. Or have I been deflated for a long time?"

- "Yes, I think, you are day or may be two older. When we are deflated, time passes quickly. I asked for somebody fresh, for an interview. We are developing these artificial bodies and want some feedback about performance, you see. Still I didn't expect someone that fresh. Now I understand why, they said you speak ancient english.  Don't worry, it wouldn't take long to learn, two, may be three nights with hypnopod." - jabbering continuously, she handed clothes to me, which I put on quickly. Suit, made of some stretchy grey material, was not completely obscene, still rather indecent: some kind of water ski garment, but accentuating torso. Not pornographic, but reminds about my new profession. Cute detail, a small hole on the back, right for the inflation valve.

Finally, we could speak without making Elly blush. I asked: "Do you mean, you are one of designers of this?" - I slapped my chest, making hollow sound.

She nodded: "I am. The project was so huge and I'm expert in only one area" - she paused, seeking for right words in archaic language - "my department did design for macromolecular transport: repairs and energy transfer require some analog of human circulatory system. We had not build it from scratch, though, just applied existing technology, still good work, isn't it? Well, now project is mostly over, but we seek room for improvements."

Strangely, I was not overwhelmed with importance of moment of talking to creator, well, one of creators, of my new self.  Image of pretty girl didn't get along with science guru. Nor she expected such an attitude. So I just asked: "What should I know … and first of all, why did you made such a weird choice?  I mean, not cloned humans, robots or cyborgs, finally, just computer with camera and manipulator. That would be a lot easier"

- "What do you know about branching?"

- "I hear this word for the second or third time. Loo Mezich explained it to me, but I hardly got everything"

- "Interesting … so you were branched before that term was coined"

- "I guess. At 2042. I was a lab mouse for the prototype, should I be proud?"

- "Sort of. You are one of the oldest people on the Planet. So answering your question would require some explanations. First attempts to revive branched minds were taken in the twenty first century. All failed, it is not known for sure what happened, there are different theories, but invariably emulating brain activity with computer memory led to panic and insanity. It is like awakening in the pitch dark void without even having body. Supplying branch with visual picture allowed to extend lifetime to hour or two, but final result was same. Thus it was experimentally proven, that human mind can not exist without body, preferably anthropomorphic. You mentioned clones, but this never was a good solution. Clones are not mindless drones, they are grown as normal babies. Implanting other mind in their own stead would be murder. And even if our society could tolerate it, complete overwriting is not impossible, result would be some kind of schizoid. Cybernetic bodies were really mastered, but anyway we never hoped to resurrect all the billions of people, who branched themselves seeking to cheat death. Some have even branched themselves twice or thrice. Procedure of branching was always rather cheap, unlike making adequate artificial bodies. In fact other ways to prolong life were found, particularly Shlechter-Fedynski reaction, which lifted natural limit for cellular duplications. It has a nasty side effect, rising chances of cancer and other deadly things. Anti-cancer techniques have advanced too, but at some point people start getting several new tumours each day, as their genetic code accumulates too much errors. With proper therapy women have potential lifespan of around three hundred years, while men only half of that. No surprise that since second half of twenty second century people preferred to birth girls. Women comprise majority of population, men are rarity. By the way, it is commonly regarded as blessing. We have no wars, no weapons, no homicide, stable population, no poverty. Anyway there should be no surprise: we have huge archives of branches, however very few could afford a new shell for their minds - even worst quality cybernetic bodies were outrageously expensive, not to mention inevitable distortion of mind placed in the body only slightly resembling natural. As to prices, they were result of very low solvent demand, lack of mass production and hence rising of costs for each single copy. Things changed a bit, when Polymerix bosses figured how to make profits on demand for men in the entertainment. There were many challenges, however. Firstly, artificial bodies  had to look very natural, sound, muscular and attractive. No cheap cybernetic stuff. And on the other hand, naturally strong men could be potentially very dangerous in our peaceful society, with no private arms and very few security specialists. Polymerix was not the first to come up with idea of reviving men for entertainment, but first one to invent inflatable bodies as a cunning move to solve both problems, adding ease of transportation and storage too. Not to mention, that was a first success at mass producing artificial bodies, which allowed us to lower prices, so even ordinary people, like me, can buy a new body"

Elly took a pause, noticing sour expression on my face after words "storage" and "transportation". A thought struck me, she said ordinary people, like she, can afford inflatable bodies, couple minutes before she referred inflatable people as "We", "When we are deflated, time pass quickly". I inspected her looks once again, noticing slight glossyness of skin, minor creases forming, when she bent her arms, her skin bulged where it was tightened by fabric, was she breathing? Elly caught my sight on her ample chest, which was not heaving, even slightly. She get confused  once again and I didn't found anything better then asking head-on question: "Are you inflatable too?"


To be continued