Just a short story I whipped together for  blue, featuring his alter ego, Tide! :3 All critters, personalities, and inflatables within are © their own end users.

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Tide and Moon


"Suitcase? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Snacks? Check..."

The vacation checklist. Always an important thing to have on hand, even if you're just going on a short trip. Forgetting things tends to be annoying, and can put a damper on an otherwise enjoyable holiday. Clutching a pen in one hand, and some paper in the other, a rather brightly coloured noodle dragon continued working through his list while fetching various items from around the house. The mixture of yellow and blue stripes about his hide certainly stood out, that and the bunch of fluff settled around his neck.

Absentmindedly tugging on one long moustache like tendril hanging from his snoot, the dragon whom everyone knew as Tide finally checked off the last item from his list, and zipped up his suitcase. He left a note for his housemates, namely another dragon and a bear / skunk hybrid with a dash of zeppelin mixed in for good measure. That done, it was just a matter of sauntering out the door with suitcase in tow, rolling along on its little wheels. His destination was a little resort on the coast, just a few hours away. It had a big pool, and easy access to the beach. What more needed to be said?

The somewhat floofy dragon only had to walk a short ways before boarding a tram, and was quickly whisked away to the local train station. Tickets had been purchased ahead of time, so it was a simple enough measure to check in, board his car, and stow his baggage up above his seat. The new passenger cars really were something else. There were holes in the seat for tails, and enough space between each row that you likely weren't going to wind up with your tail on somebody else's lap. Add to that, the seats were quite large, and had a sturdy table that could flip up from the arm rests. Handy if you wanted to use a computer while you travelled, or merely wanted to enjoy a meal.

Tide wasn't going all that far, merely a few hours total. That said, he still ordered a lovely cup of tea, and some little snack cakes. That combined with watching a show from the in-seat entertainment system, made for a lovely little journey out to his destination. It was still early in the day when the multicoloured noodle dragon finally rolled his baggage into the lobby of a lovely hotel, and got checked in. He had a ground floor room with a sliding door that faced a giant pool, plus a bed big enough for two, and all the usual amenities one would expect in a quality hotel.

Tossing his luggage up on the bed for the time being, he zipped it all open to fetch out a few things needed for a quality float in the pool before lunch. He retrieved a small electric pump from the recesses of the bag, and plugged it into a convenient wall socket. After that it was a small matter to fish out a tightly packed rubbery mass, hook it up to the pump, and stand back as a large alligator pool-toy took shape. While that filled, he fetched out a plastic bottle from one of many pouches on the luggage, and looked it over. He wasn't exactly sure what was inside, but the label said the stuff was “pool bubbles”. His housemates had encouraged him to fetch a bottle from the cabinet the next time he went for a swim, as they figured he'd enjoy some suds in the pool. He wasn't one to argue. Bubbles were fun, after all!

Mere minutes later, the blue and yellow striped noodle dragon was vaulting into the pool, and landing atop a properly large rubber alligator to enjoy himself for a while. Briefly pushing his sunglasses out of the way to take another look at the bottle he'd brought along, he shrugged and opened it up, and poured the whole thing into the water around him. A quick overhand throw sent the empty bottle flying into a rubbish bin not too far away, and it landed within with a satisfying thunk. Suds began frothing up quickly, and Tide noted they had a very relaxing scent.

The majority of the plus sized pool was soon coated in a thick film of silky suds, with larger bubbles puffing up here and there, rising upwards to drift around in the breeze. Tide was left floating on a rubbery island in a sea of suds, sighing contently and relaxing back against the float. A faint hissing noise combined with the creaking of well stretched vinyl likely should have alerted the noodle dragon a little sooner, but he was practically asleep in his zoned out state. The suds had continued to froth up, and were now spilling out of the pool, and spreading across the deck. His pool-toy was also expanding larger all by itself, rising up in the suds and getting transparent as the material got overstretched.

A bubble as big as he was drifting by and rebounding off his nose finally snapped Tide out of his stupor, and he sat up to find himself sitting on a ridiculously overinflated alligator that was absolutely straining under the pressure. It was clear that these suds were more than advertised, and he made a mental note to slip a little into his housemates bath and shower products the next time they weren't looking.

With one final and rather loud squeaky groan, the overblown pool-toy finally gave up, and blew to ribbons. Tide barely had a chance to emit a huff of displeasure before tumbling tail over teakettle into the frothy mass below. Splashing around in the thick fluff and well churned water, Tide soon found himself ballooning out of control, more or less mirroring the unfortunate pool-toy. Unlike the toy however, he was quite durable. So much so, he'd yet to find any limits for his infrequently inflated hide. Wriggling around, all he could do was flail his arms and legs around uselessly, as he took up more and more space in the pool. His whole body became more or less spherical, with large nubs poking out where his arms and legs used to be. His long tail was getting thicker and more pontoon like by the moment, flopping over the roof of the hotel, even as his body swelled to press against the exterior walls.

With a meep, he felt his neck distending into a huge ring, cheeks swelling up larger and larger to frame his face rather nicely. Whatever was mixed into those suds was obviously quite potent, as he just kept on swelling larger and larger, dwarfing the hotel below, and rising up over the beach and most of the town for the matter. Shock eventually wore off, and was replaced instead by the comfortable pressure of expansion, mixed with the euphoria of being so big. The huge striped blimp could only chuckle to himself around inflated cheeks as he just kept on swelling, creaking and squeaking rather loudly as he did. The constant rush of hissing and internal bubbling echoed across the countryside as Tide rapidly outgrew several city blocks, smooshing everything under his soft and stretchy hide.

His stripes were now distended to comedic degrees, wrapping around the spherical mound of dragon like the largest of circus tents. All the while the expansion continued, smothering most of the town under squeaky soft balloon dragon. Anyone with sense was probably sheltering in place, as the rising and spreading wall of blue and yellow flesh enveloped towns, and the space in between. International news was soon talking about the massive mound of dragon growing out of control, doubly so as Tide began encroaching on other countries. Some reporters were clearly exited by the situation, looking quite pleased with things as a shadow passed over their towns, all before their news feeds going offline. Other folks here and there could only roll their eyes at the situation, knowing it would likely be over before long. These events seemed pretty common these days, and rarely left any damage to speak of.

Tide meanwhile was locked in a cycle of growth and bliss, filling up like mad until he was practically the size of a small continent, and still he ballooned. His head was already well above the clouds and most of the atmosphere for the matter, peeking up into space and then some. Some rational part of his mind wasn't too surprised about what happened next, as his massively bloated frame started to drift upwards, tugged around by gravitational forces and the spin of the planet. Still swelling, Tide rose up off the mildly smooshed continent below, leaving it no worse for wear. Maybe smelling like a mixture of soap and exited dragon, but fine all the same.

Drifting upwards and outwards, all the while still swelling, he was captured in orbit, and began drifting around the planet below. He saw several satellites drifting by every now and again, some no doubt disturbed by his giant sized passage into high orbit. Blushing to himself, he figured there were quite a few pictures and likely high quality video of his expansion up into space. He'd have to source some for later. Might be fun to revisit the experience from an outside perspective. For purely scientific reasons, of course.

As he kept on ballooning out of control, approaching moon like proportions, the media down on the planet below was having a field day. A certain couple on a certain island nation were busy laughing their collective asses off at the sight of such an overblown noodle dragon taking up position as a new moon in the sky, and the Fyreworks company was busy using images of his expansion to advertise the potency of new and improved Wonder Bubbles, now available in extra-strength formula!

But all of this was currently unknown to the big moon sized stripey noodle dragon, whom floated about comfortably in the void, occasionally belching out suds the size of cities. His expansion had finally ceased, right about the time he rebounded off the moon itself, and assumed a slightly lower orbit around the Earth itself. He had no idea how he was going to get back down, but that was a problem for another day.

While not the simple holiday he had imagined, he was content to relax and float in space itself, bigger than he'd ever been before. There were a few critters down below that were in need of a talking to, but that could wait until he was done with being enormous.


Whenever that might be!















-Tombfyre, 2017
Tide © Blue