A different sort of inflation (Drifblim Tf)

For the average tourist, Nimbasa City was one of the best places to go. Musicals, sports, a theme park, subway battles, a gym...it seemed like it just about had everything. Everybody was smiling or laughing. So why wasn’t a young woman, Debbie, doing the same?

One might have understood if one had known Debbie’s background. Her job required her to do autopsies, which was a good job for her due to her fixation of death, wanting to know just what lay beyond the world. Her job was specifically Pokémon: whether or not their injuries were caused by wild Pokémon, neglect, abuse, illegal battling, accident and so on. She had to treat her job with a certain amount of distance: getting involved in cases personally would prove disastrous for her moral well being. That had slipped in dramatic fashion when, quite by mistake, she was given her mother’s Palpitoad to examine. She ran home, only to find a murder scene. Her father was later convicted of the double murder: he had been suffering from depression and hanged himself a few days later. So it was understandable that not even this happy setting could ease her grieving heart. Debbie was only here on advice from her boss, to have a break.

Flicking her long brunette hair away, she stared at the tourists with cold grey eyes. While everyone else was in some sort of party like gear, she was wearing her black suit and dress, complete with high heels. The sounds of screams from the roller coaster, the clunking of the Ferris wheel (that definitely needed repairing), a local busker playing a rather dreadful tune, hyper voices of children and Pokémon and even cries of applause from the gym flew by Debbie’s head. She needed a way out, but how could she? Suicide wasn’t an option for her: her mother had told her never to stoop lower than her father and she had promised. So, what now?

It was by pure chance that Debbie’s eyes rested on a figure further away, handing out balloons. She thought she saw someone, a figure that moved quickly but Debbie was sure it was a woman. This person added a balloon to the mix before running away. Now, rather than just the usual mix of Pikachu, Ralts and Riolu balloons was a Drifblim. Something about this balloon, maybe the irony that a balloon Pokémon was now a balloon, or maybe why it had been added, made her decide that she might as well investigate. It wasn’t as if she had anything better to do.

She strolled slowly over to the man selling them and, although he almost gasped at her sad features, was surprised when she enquired about the Drifblim.

“Huh? Don’t remember that being there. Sure, you can have it for 5 Pokedollars.”

Feeling like she was buying on impulse, she brought it and tugged it away. Wandering aimlessly, she somehow found herself exiting the city, travelling through one of the many adjacent routes and suddenly, she was in a forest. She checked her map. Lostlorn Forest. Well, Debbie was certainly feeling lost...

As if on some sort of cue, the balloon lunged down at her and placed its end into her mouth. Debbie gasped for breath and tried to yank the balloon off but to no avail. She felt herself filling up with weightless gas, as if her lungs were ready to explode. Before they did, the balloon dropped away, free of its air and shape to land on the ground. It was Debbie that lifted now, feeling that this was some incredible dream.
Even though the balloon had run out of air, she felt as if she had not. Her lungs were way past their limit, so Debbie felt within her body that it was now flowing to other areas: any organ, any muscle, anything that would hold it. She began feeling very lightheaded, clutching a hand to her head before she let if fall away. Still floating into the sky, flying above the tree tops, the young woman just closed her eyes feeling the gas within.

“This must be what death feels like...” she thought numbly, “So weightless...an endless void of nothing...”

So why wasn’t she dead then? It was at that moment that Debbie opened her eyes. Something was different, and not just the fact that she was somehow in the air. Gently she poked herself. Yes, she felt...different. Where was her skin? The texture wasn’t there, just something glossy. So, if she didn’t have skin, then what about...? She looked down. Debbie was still her pink self, but with no features bar her face; certainly no hair or clothes. This was...weird. Her mind felt too foggy to comprehend. It sorted itself out when a Pidove flew into her and out the other side, looking fairly bemused as it did so. Of course, she was somehow dead, well undead, and a ghost.

With that realisation out of the way, the real changes began. Debbie began to feel the air within her put itself into proportion to accommodate her new shape. Her head was getting increasingly large (and with so much air, did she have a brain anymore? Everything was feeling so distant now). This meant that what had been the rest of her body hung limply towards the ground. Her arms twisted to where her neck had once been, soon joined by her retreating body and then her legs, making it look like Debbie had four limbs. Debbie really did feel like a balloon, only a slightly larger one. In reality, she had actually decreased in size: from one and a half metres to one and a fifth. It might not seem like much, but it was there.

Debbie somehow felt that she was now changing in colour and was proved right as she looked at her new body. A brilliantly dazzling purple adorned the upper half of her head, lines running down it as if some sort of cloth was covering her head, a bit like a veil. The lower section was of a light lilac and not as much, for this was where her body had narrowed. Her end, for she did have one, spiked out in a flash of red to make what could be described as a very weird tail.

The slight feeling of change travelled along her arms and legs, so she held up the two closest to her to see. The lilac was travelling along, transforming the pinkness of her previous skin. While her limbs had once hung feebly from lack of muscle, now they were feeling flexible and strong. Each widened a little towards the ends as a curving yellow now entered the frame. Where once she had fingers, now she was gaining three new spikes. This accumulated into four hands in total. Debbie waved them around in the breeze as she travelled in the atmosphere: she found herself liking it.

It was a weird sensation that followed next. The polishing off of her ears, nose and mouth, becoming speechless in awe of everything. Where once she had a nose and mouth, now an X was growing across, a stamp of yellow. Her eyes travelled across her face, free without a skull, to sit just above the X and on opposite sides. They grew smaller turning into little red dots, for the air within Debbie was giving her enhanced feeling and the necromancy inside a sixth sense. Where once she had hair, now there was a foaming puff of cloud which wisped and clustered on top of her dome.

Debbie knew what she was now: a Drifblim. To anyone other than Debbie, feelings of fear, anger, uncertainty, sadness and so on might have filled the very clouds. After all, not only were Drifblim dead, but they also roamed in the skies without any direction, being carried by the air currents. Fortunately, Debbie wasn’t ordinary. She knew this was what she really wanted: her questions about death had been fulfilled, and alive Debbie hadn’t been able to move on after her mother’s own end. Now...now she could. Being dead actually meant that Debbie saw things in a new light. She wanted to travel, away from her previous misery, and see where it took her. Maybe her mum and her loyal Pokémon partner were somewhere here too?

She deflated herself a little, finding herself too high. The wind was strong tonight, travelling towards the sea, away from Nimbassa and towards Undella Bay. Debbie was enjoying the freedom of it all and closed her eyes happily to the breeze.

A figure on the ground watched her fly, picking up her fallen clothes, covering any traces of this transformation. Another happy person, but her work was never done.