Transformed into a Pool Inflatable

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

A transformation mini-story.

Artie sighed softly, a little more of the tension slipping from his shoulders as he floated in the middle of the private pool, a holiday let that he had booked out for the weekend just for him. Sure, it was a bit of a splurge and something that he didn’t really need to spend money on but a recent break-up meant that, well, it wasn’t as if he had anything or anyone else to spend that money on anyway. Why not spend it on himself? And his blonde highlights didn’t need topping up soon anyway...

So, a pool and a getaway it was, the inflatable orca that he was perched on soft and warm, yielding to the pressure of his body and yet supporting him enough so that he did not sink or slip into the pool. It was, perhaps, something childlike but it reminded Artie of younger days, brighter days, days when the long summer seemed to stretch on forever, out into a distance that he could not even seek out with the very tips of his fingers anymore. It just wasn’t so for a man who had to keep working to pay his way in the world, though that most certainly didn’t stop him from longing and wishing for simpler times, lighter times, times when he didn’t have to worry so much.

Artie sighed. If only, if only... Life would never be like that, he was sure, not for him.

Maybe that time was due to come to him sooner than he realised, however...

He didn’t realise that the inflatable was growing softer and softer until it was far, far too late to say or do anything about it. It was wrong and it was right but he wriggled, trying to get comfortable. Something was wrong but he didn’t know what, arms outstretched, flopping loosely over the edges of the inflatable. Yet he didn’t feel stable, as if he was closer to the water, connecting with it, bobbing and dipping, floating and swaying.

Artie blinked, the sun beating down on him. His sunglasses lifted as if there was no substance left on his face to support them, lifting his hand weakly, fingers thick and heavy. His head swam. What was wrong there? Oh, it did not bear thinking about, not when it was such a lovely, sunny day, the sort of day that was well worth enjoying, regardless of any modicum of little discomfort that may or may not have been present.

Deeper and deeper... He could not feel scared as the gel-like substance of the inflatable taking a greater shape and form, seeming to grow larger as he fell smaller and smaller than ever before. Down and down and down, there was no substance to him as his features smoothed out, taking on the blue and white sheen of the inflatable that not even Artie could have said that he was any longer perched upon. No, they were one and the same, not air within the inflatable, even though he’d blown it up himself with the old bike pump, goo swelling over him, pouring forth in a way that simply could not have been controlled.

Maybe he would have wanted to control it if he had been scared at all, yet there was nothing that concerned him in the slightest, warm enveloping him as he sank down and down and down, he was within the inflatable before he could truly come to terms with what was happening to him as he moaned, the skin of the orca inflatable closing over his lips, sealing him away forevermore.

Yet that was not all that was to be, what was to happen to him, twisting and turning, his limbs soft and wobbly as if they were no longer made up of any substance at all. For the world and most certainly the inflatable that he had been resting on had far greater plans in the world for him, whimpering and groaning, though no true sound passed the barrier of his lips. They were no longer any lips that he recognised as his arms shortened, pulling back up to his body and then fattening into fins, his legs fusing together, thick and unwieldy, never again to be under his control.

Ah... But that was not for Artie to worry about, no, not one bit. Everything was going to be okay, even if he didn’t know that. His head smoothed over, hair slipping away, never to be there again. In fact, his entire body was perfectly smooth and almost rubbery as his stomach swelled and pushed down, giving him the shape and form of a creature perhaps like a dolphin, although his transformation was not yet complete.

As heavy as he felt, he was light, so very light, his insides hollowing out, skin stretching and squeaking as it fused with his blue orca inflatable, eyes wide and flat, unseeing. He saw nothing, knew nothing, sensation his only friend, lungs expanding and expanding until he could not feel them at all. There was nothing to be had there, of course, nothing that he would need, as he bobbed and floated, dipping and swaying back and forth atop the water. He could not sink into it – he was too light for that, oh no. He was far, far too light and even though he had a tail there was no sense of movement that he could generate, water lapping up his sides and slipping off again like water off a duck’s back.

Artie could not blink, could not breathe, but he could still be as he floated, an inflatable to any human eye. The blue skin of the orca fused softly into a new violet, the white underbelly a light blue, something more suited to him, even though he no longer had any say in the matter. He was an inflatable and there were no more concerns or worries in the world for him, his rubbery lips stretched wide in a faux grin that would be plastered across his rounded face forevermore. There was a painted blowhole in the back of his head but even that was not truly needed, merely something to be looked at and perhaps used from time to time on a hot summer’s day.

Dipping and bobbing, Artie’s eyes were blank, peaceful in sensation.

There really wasn’t any more than that for the happy life of a pool inflatable.