A couple days late, but here's a little Halloween inflation story! Includes popping and mentions of hide scraps.

Raf decides to teach Rai a lesson at a Halloween party after the dragon decides to poke fun at his weight...

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Halloween Smoke Bomb:
By: IndigoRho

A playlist of cliched Halloween favorites played over the speakers of the massive great hall of the Zeta Nu Delta frat house, nearly drowned out by the laughter and conversations of all the guests. Everyone was in costume—at least to a certain extent—and the frat had gone all-out covering the place with décor that'd likely be wrecked and tossed to the curb by the next morning. Still, the effort would be considered more than worth it as long as the guests talked up the party for months to come. Amidst all the happy revelers, though, was a hyena who didn't appear to be enjoying himself at all. A permanent look of slight irritation marred Raf's face, his pink eyes doing their best to avoid eye contact with anyone while strategic glares fended off unwanted conversation. He'd begrudgingly accepted the invite to the party after two friends in the frat antagonized him for a grueling couple minutes, and was regretting it increasingly by the second.

Besides knowing very few people in the frat social circles, the obese hyena was also incredibly self-conscious about his weight, and his last-minute choice of costume did nothing to help. The zebra onsie had been somewhat ill-fitting when he'd bought it the year before as part of a couple's costume with his boyfriend, Zeke. Unfortunately, a lot had happened in a year. Late night snacks, frequent taste tests at the bakery he worked for, an excessive amount of take out. His waistline had steadily ballooned over the last few months, and the costume that had originally been a pain to fit into was now beyond skin-tight. The curves of his gut and love handles were outlined far too well for comfort, leaving no doubts about his size. He was also actively avoiding bending down or twisting around as much as possible, terrified he'd burst apart the seams instantly and expose himself even more to the crowd of strangers. Of course, instinctively grazing on every treat the party had to offer wasn't helping the situation at all, either.

While the party had been a major annoyance in Raf's mind so far, he was somewhat thankful he hadn't run into anyone he actually knew besides the two friends who'd invited him, both of whom were busy elsewhere in the house playing beer pong. He'd rather have a bunch of drunks glance him over in between dancing and drinking than get spotted by someone who'd be able to remind him of the shame on a daily basis. All he needed to do was spend a couple more hours humoring his friends and then he could sneak back home and hopefully not explode out of his costume.

“Oh wow, decided to go as stuffed zebra this year, did you?” a painfully familiar voice asked from behind Raf.

Raf cursed under his breath and carefully turned around, trying to prevent his belly from jiggling as much as possible. “Hey Rai. Forgot you were in the frat.”

A slim, white and lime-green eastern dragon stood grinning at Raf, his eyes obviously focused on the hyena's middle. He was dressed in a fairly plain cop uniform, with a cap squeezed in between the horns on his head. “Not sure how you forgot, I've been talking about the party the last two weeks straight at work. Though you have been rather busy gorging on cupcakes and cookies recently, so...”

“Well maybe if you'd settle on a recipe instead of burying the front counter with your 'experiments' I wouldn't have to eat them just to get work done,” Raf growled, his costume doing a good job of blunting his attempt at menace. “Or maybe taste test your own damn cooking for once.”

Rai didn't seem fazed. “Well if I did that then I'd be just as fat as you, tubbs!”

“Laugh it up, twig. I've seen you re-form this fat before,” Raf said.

The dragon's grin faded for a second before returning. “A rare occurrence, which is the opposite of what you've got going on there ya bellyena! You're only gonna keep blimping up, ya know that right? You should really just give in and start buying expandex clothes so you can finally have stuff that fits longer than a couple months!” Rai pulled at his button up, the fabric of which stretched dramatically before snapping back into position as if nothing had happened. “Even I wear it.”

Raf had had enough. Dealing with Rai at work was already annoying, but having to put up with the smug dragon's mockery in public was too much. He knew that if he tried walking away there was a chance Rai would simply follow him around to continue the banter, maybe even go out of his way to make Raf eat far more than he intended to. Though Rai did everything in his power to stay fairly slim, the dragon's love of flab on others was a very poorly kept secret; his favorite hobby was fattening others, whether they liked it or not. Raf had been a target himself quite a few times in the past, strapped down in the kitchen after work and stuffed with pastries, even force-fed entire vats of dough once or twice. He just wasn't in the mood to deal with that sort of thing tonight.

Raf quickly looked around in search of some way to deal with the dragon, but the only thing that caught his attention was a hefty smoke machine that no one had bothered to turn on yet. An idea formed in the hyena's mind, and Raf allowed a faint smile to break his usual grimace, though only briefly. While Rai managed to distract himself by rambling about how much Raf jiggled when he moved, Raf himself quietly picked up the smoke machine, stepped up to Rai, and shoved it right into his open maw mid sentence. The dragon's eyes bulged and he let out a muffled yell of confusion as Raf roughly forced the machine down Rai's throat after flipping the on switch. A couple bystanders stopped to watch the spectacle, though most were too busy partying to notice or care. The machine settled in Rai's gut—causing it to bulge out slightly—while a stream of foul-tasting smoke began rolling out of his mouth. His ordeal wasn't over yet.

With the first part of his revenge plan complete, Raf tore the belt from Rai's waist and wrapped it around the dragon's snout as tight as he could. Rai desperately swatted at the hyena's paws in a futile attempt to stop what was happening, but Raf put his excess bulk to good use and easily kept Rai at bay. The dragon was so distracted trying to push Raf away he didn't realize his middle had begun to slowly swell from the trapped smoke. Once he was confident Rai wouldn't be able to untie the belt Raf stepped back, smirking as Rai fidgeted and cursed, continuing to be unaware of the true danger he was in. Rai's belly was already as large as a basketball and—as advertised—his expandex costume easily stretched to handle his abrupt expansion. Finally giving up on the belt, Rai took a step forward to confront his attacker, only to stop in confusion as he felt his bloated gut unexpectedly wobble.

Rai almost jumped once he realized he was inflating. He desperately pressed his claws into his middle in a futile effort to force the smoke out, but only a tiny puff escaped his stomach and slipped out his shut jaw. Additional attempts didn't end any better, and every time he pushed against his gut it only seemed to rebound back bigger than before. The ballooning dragon was beginning to gain the attention of more party guests, none of whom intervened to assist him in his predicament. Instead they laughed and giggled, someone even making the joke that his costume was looking more realistic by the minute. Rai glared and grumbled at them underneath his bindings, but in his current state he wasn't about to intimidate anyone, and the act did nothing to impede his steady inflation.

While he was thoroughly enjoying the situation, Raf didn't show it. “You're right, that expandex stuff really does grow with you,” he said, poking Rai's taut and sensitive gut with a sharp claw.

Rai mumbled something in response and tried to back away, though doing so was difficult now that his legs were also beginning to swell. He tried to convince himself the smoke machine would shut off before things got too bad, but its sheer size had him worried.

“Having trouble walking, Rai?” Raf undid all the dragon's work with a single step. “Even I can waddle around, and I'm twice your weight!”

The once slender dragon was now round and bloated all over, every bit of his body swollen to at least some degree. He knew his expansion had reached the point where he couldn't walk on his own anymore, and he fumed over putting himself at the mercy of the easy-to-anger hyena.

“I wonder if that costume of yours can contain a blimp, though?” Raf pretended to muse, before giving Rai a light shove that caused the dragon to stumble frantically but still remain standing. “If you really want me to buy expandex clothes so bad I'll need to know they're durable, so let's see what tears apart first: the costume or you.”

More smoke crept out of Rai's mouth as the pressure within the dragon built, though not
nearly enough to slow down his inflation, let alone reverse it. His limbs were slowly being engulfed by his smoke-filled body, and he tried his bet not to move, fearful he'd topple over in the process. The fact his costume showed no signs of failing him was barely comforting at all; being turned into a balloon against his will was embarrassing whether he was clothed or not. Honestly the only lucky thing about the whole ordeal was that Raf's presence was discouraging drunk guests from approaching to poke and tease him. He'd wouldn't survive for long in a rowdy crowd, and Rai was certain he'd be punctured by a horn, claws, or maybe the sharp end of a piece of furniture. Then again, someone might just decide to use him as a trampoline.

By now the dragon had become a nearly perfect sphere, his claws and head poking out of his bloated body. Soft creaks and groans echoed from within him, though they were completely drowned out by the music and Rai's own whimpers. He could feel his hide being stretched beyond its comfortable limits. A pin prick would violently tear him to shreds at this point, and Rai was trapped in a room with far more dangerous things than that. The smoke machine was still somehow whirring away inside him, having not run out of fuel as Rai had once hoped and threatening to pop him on its own if it continued. Rai no longer had any delusions of leaving the party in one piece. In all likelihood Raf would personally burst him, getting revenge while embarrassing Rai in front of his fellow frat brothers.

Perhaps it would just be a simple claw poke to his belly button with enough force to break the skin, creating a tear that would instantly spread out across his fragile body and violently reduce him to a shower of green and white scraps. From past experiences he knew the end would practically be instant, a sting and the awkward feeling of your body bending in every direction before blacking out; he'd re-form by the following evening as if nothing had ever happened. Of course, there'd be nothing to stop party guests from taking home pieces of his ripped hide as souvenirs, or even his horns if they survived intact. He was admittedly fond of such acts himself.

Raf looked over his handiwork, and had to resist popping the obnoxious dragon right then and there. His coworker hadn't completely learned his lesson yet, and Raf was just lazy enough to let others do the dirty work for him. He circled his inflated prey slowly, teasing pokes with a claw and flashing his fangs as he did, Rai's eyes following him nervously. “Impressive, the costume doesn't look strained at all. If I didn't know better I'd assume it was custom-tailored for a blimp. You've sold me on expandex!”

Rai didn't even try to mumble a response.

“In fact, I bet you'd make the perfect advertisement for the stuff! Why don't you go show off to the rest of the crowd?” Raf carefully pressed his paws against the front of Rai's bloated chest. “Beachball time!” he yelled loud enough to get the attention of the nearest group
of guests, who all eagerly grinned as they saw the spherical dragon for the first time.

Rai realized Raf's plan the moment the hyena gave him a hard, parting shove. The dragon whimpered loudly as he rolled the short distance to the crowd, where he was quickly lifted into the air and bounced around as a drunk distraction. He wiggled in terror as his body was hit and nudged around by dozens of claws, palms, and heads, each strike feeling like a needle on his horribly taut hide. A little trail of smoke followed his path deeper into the room, creating the impression of a giant bomb rather than a beachball. The smoke machine was tossed around within the massive cavity of his inflated stomach, its rough edges digging into the overstretched lining every time Rai was passed above the rowdy crowd. An ambitious serve sent Rai far higher up into the air than he would ever have liked, and the sheer force of it was enough to hurl the hidden smoke machine hard into his taut chest.

The sensation of the fog machine poking through his hide caused Rai's eyes to bulge in terror and, just as he'd hoped, the end was instant. A single hole turned into a tear turned into a dozen as the pressure inside him attempted to escape in the fastest way possible. His costume swelled briefly as scraps of dragon hide and a billowing cloud of smoke rushed from the sleeves and pant legs. Awes and a loud cheer erupted from the crowd as the living smoke bomb went off, adding to the atmosphere and shrugged off as a planned part of the party. The costume swiftly reverted to its normal state—spewing a few straggling bits of dragon confetti in the process, before falling to the floor, perfectly intact.

Raf sighed. The sight of Rai bursting apart was cathartic to an extent, but it wouldn't
solve the problem of his waistline. Rai would likely avoid him at work for a couple days before teasing him and sneaking him fattening food just as usual; he might even plot a force-feeding session as counter-revenge. Perhaps a stricter diet or a gym membership was in order, though Raf had attempted both numerous times in the past. At the very least he needed to bring his binge eating under control so he didn't blimp up even more. While the hyena toyed with various solutions in his head, he neglected to notice that he'd cleared an entire plate of cookies all by himself.