Magic Bubbles and Balloons

Written by Drackzahn

General Classification

When people in the universe of Slimea speak about bubbles and balloons, they rarely mean the ones we know from our dimension. What they mean are the magical spheres that most often defy physic and are the personification of childish dreams, playful moods, and kinky fantasies. The differences between the bubbles and balloons are fluent and it is impossible to draw a perfect, hard line between the two terms. It is not uncommon to hear the term "rubber bubble" for certain balloons, as they have more in common with bubbles than balloons but are still classified as balloons. When speaking about both, the term sphere is used.

Passable Membrane

Spheres of Slimea have a very magical membrane, that may be squishy and impossible to pass through in one moment and more liquid-like in the next one. The typical trapping scenario for them is that a victim first may touch the sphere, seeing the softness and being fascinated by it. In the next moment, the hand passes through the membrane and a strong sucking force pulls the victim fully through the membrane, into the sphere itself. After the victim passed through, the membrane becomes squishy and impossible to move through again, trapping the victim inside the sphere.

Common Attributes

There are certain things that both have in common and which are often found in the many different bubbles and balloons in the Slimea Multiverse. Not all these attributes fit and many species and characters with powers have their own variants of spheres. These attributes are nevertheless most often valid in one way or the other, but not universal.

Defy of Gravity

Floating weightlessly through the air, no matter how big or small they are and no matter if someone is trapped inside or not. The defying of gravity is very far spread under the magical spheres and leads to many interesting usages in daily life in nations and societies that have access to them. Transport of goods can become very easy when a sphere can wrap around a heavy object and just carry it safely through the air to the desired place. Many describe the feeling of being inside such a sphere as pure freedom. Seeing how your own weight means nothing inside the sphere and how many of them even reduce the weight of the trapped person as well can feel very liberating. It is not uncommon that such spheres also have a defying gravity inside as well, resulting in trapped people floating inside the sphere with no way to free themselves from zero gravity.

High Durability

Normal spheres of our dimension, no matter if simple soap bubbles or party balloons, most often have a high fragility. A simple poke or a needle is enough to burst them and destroy the wonderful spheres. The magical ones from the Slimea Multiverse most often have far higher durability than that. We have a very high variation here from the different species and ability users, but most spheres have a durability that makes it nearly impossible to destroy them with normal means. Poking a sphere with a needle will just let the needle bounce off and even piercing it with a sphere or shooting at it with a gun is often not enough to pop the sphere. Especially high-durability spheres like the ones from the Balloon Foxes can withstand most physical attacks with ease, making the rescue of trapped people inside a nearly impossible act. The most common weakness of these highly durable spheres is extreme temperatures. A direct and longer hit with a flamethrower or the breath of a strong Dragongirl can often burst the spheres. You must be careful with trapped victims inside with such high temperatures, as a direct hit with flammable gas is often not healthy for people. The same effect is for extremely low temperatures that can destroy the softness of the sphere and make it easy to shatter.

Air and Temperature Management

It is not uncommon that high altitudes mean low air pressure and low temperatures. People floating in spheres would have worries about freezing or suffocating inside such big spheres with no air ventilation. The magical spheres from Slimea seem to simply ignore this problem by managing the air and the temperature inside their bodies themselves. If the sphere of a species or an ability user can do this and to which extent is highly variating, but most are able to do it at least in simple matters. This means that being trapped inside a sphere for weeks does not mean that you will suffocate at a certain point, but you will always have enough air to breathe and a pleasant temperature to maintain your body. Spheres can submerge into water and still hold air for the trapped victim inside. Most spheres are able to either generate their own air or filter it out of air or water around their body. Due to extreme temperatures in space, most spheres are not able to exist under these harsh conditions and pop.

Unnatural Smoothness and Softness

Stroking with your hand over the surface of one of the magical spheres of Slimea can be quite addictive and pleasant. The unnatural smoothness and softness of most spheres feel like a dream come true. It is impossible to describe by materials we know from our dimension, but such a sphere has close to zero physical surface roughness, meaning that it is impossible to grab with your hand or to hold onto it. Your hand will always slide off and the extreme softness let it feel like you are touching a cloud of satin mellowness. The exact extent of these properties varies like most attributes. In some cases, the smoothness is high enough to see your own reflection inside the sphere when it is close enough for you. When such a sphere lays around you, sucking you inside its body and trapping you, most describe this as a very pleasant experience that nullifies all will to resist and struggle against it. A soft blanket of satin washes over you, laying on your skin, hugging you from all sides as it carries you deeper and deeper into the sphere. Depending on the needs of the caster of the sphere and the exact type of it, this smoothness may be combined with a stickiness, making it impossible to escape as soon as you have touched the sphere.

Controlable

Most Balloonmancer and Bubblemancer are able to control their produced spheres. This means that they can give them simple commands and decide who will be trapped inside or where they will float to. Such controllability is most important for the use of spheres in daily activities outside of playing around with them, like carrying objects or transporting people to a destination. Hunters who can control these spheres also use them to trick their prey and to play with them. It is not uncommon that you can see one sphere and have an easy time avoiding it, unknowing that a second sphere is sneaking onto you from behind, controlled by the creator of the sphere.

Silent and slow Movement

Spheres of Slimea make no sound while moving. While some balloons may create squeaky sounds when touched and squeezed, they move silently through the air while they are empty. Bubbles in general produce no sounds. Their smoothness and softness voids any sound. While such spheres move often very slowly and steadily, they do it silently. As long as you can see a sphere, you can avoid it easily. Simple walking is enough to get away from it. The dangerous side of such spheres used for hunting is that they can easily sneak onto you from any direction, even from above. This makes it very hard to near impossible to avoid touching such a sphere and being sucked inside if multiple are after you. Once trapped, it is also not uncommon that spheres are able to create a sound barrier, nullifying any sound the victim inside makes to the outside world. This means that the victim inside can't warn others nor will others hear their cries for help.

Stasis of Body needs

Many worries that sooner or later they would need a toilet, access to food and water, or similar body needs. The magical properties of most bubbles and balloons in Slimea hold the victim in a kind of stasis. They can move, think, and most often have the need to sleep, but the other body functions take a break and are not affected by time anymore. For many magical spheres, like the ones from Balloon Foxes, this also includes aging, meaning that one may be trapped for years inside without aging, without the need for a toilet, food, water and even without growing long hair or beards. In daily life, this effect is also used for storing food and other objects that may rot after a short while.

Transformative Effects

Highly depending on the caster of the sphere, they may include a transformative effect for all who get trapped in the sphere. An example of this is the blue bubbles of Saya Immerda. The variations of these transformative effects are far and a generalization is impossible. They may go from simple genetic changes like becoming a demi-human like a Cat-Human till becoming a living sphere yourself.

Hypnotic and Mind-AlteringEffects

The air inside most spheres is pleasant to breathe. A sweet, aromatic scent inside the sphere is not uncommon and many describe it as having a calming effect. Depending on the caster of the sphere and the exact type of it, this effect might be strong enough to be hypnotic or even mind-altering, like becoming a Bimbo during your stay inside of the sphere. Again, these effects vary heavily and are impossible to generalize.

Soul Binding

A very special form of a sphere is the living one. Very strong Bubblemancer and Balloonmancer are able to bind the Soul of someone to their spheres, creating a living one. Most often, the body of the victim is absorbed by the sphere, becoming one with it. The victim will experience it as a wonderful trip with a strong mind alteration during its fusion. They will be the sphere and have often a strong desire to follow the orders of their master/mistress and fill the void of their bodies with someone. These living spheres are the most dangerous ones, as they can act fully on their own, are highly intelligent, and can use tactics even with their master not around.

Bubbles

Magic bubbles are created either by certain items or by Bubblemancers. These people are able to not only create such spheres but most often also able to control them. Bubbles are made out of materials like soap, gum, or undefinable magic itself. They are often less shiny than balloons and are always perfectly spherical in form. Bubbles are often connected to childish dreams, playfulness, and a sense of carefree joy. You can group them into several categories.

Gum Bubbles

Bubbles that were created out of magical gums often smell very fruity and are rather matt and not reflective. Most of them are produced by chewing on a gumdrop and blowing it via your mouth. Most require not that you blow them up fully, but they swell and absorb air themselves, often meaning that you only need some breaths of air to inflate a gum bubble to a size big enough to trap a person inside. As this kind of bubble can be blown by anyone with the correct gum drops, they became the most spread ones on Earth. They come in many different tastes and scents and most often have mind-altering or transformative effects as well. There are not many who can control these bubbles after blowing them, often resulting in trapping yourself with these gum drops.

Soap Bubbles

The term soap bubble means not that they are produced by soap, but that they often lack a singular color. Instead they have a transparent film as their body with a rainbow tint when light passes through. These spheres are often made by bubble staffs, which can be used by the general population as well. They are highly reflective and remind you easily of your childhood by blowing soap bubbles, that's why they received their name. Bubbles of this kind are often very wobbly and hard to see when they float through the air, as they reflect surrounding colors and are rather transparent. A soap bubble coming from above, from the sky, is impossible to see before it is too late.

Pure Magical Bubbles

Most other kinds of bubbles are generally categorized as pure magical bubbles. They are produced by Bubblemancer with special abilities like Saya Immerda. Their exact properties vary heavily, but they most often have a singular or at most two different colors. They are less transparent than soap bubbles and easier to see. Most often, these bubbles are shiny, single-color, perfect spheres.

Balloons

Balloons are made from rubber, latex, or vinyl and have a scent that reminds of these materials. The magical ones from Slimea do have not the unpleasant, chemical scent that most party balloons produce after laying around for a while, but have instead a very pleasant rubbery smell mixed with a certain amount of sweetness. Depending on the balloon, this scent can become very strong, resulting in a mind-numbing state for those that breathe it in and often leads to daydreaming and a warm tingle in your body. People who are able to produce such magical balloons and control them are called Balloonmancer. Balloons are generally smoother than bubbles and way shinier than them. They are less transparent and often even hide what is inside their bodies. Differently from bubbles, balloons often do have not a perfectly spherical form, but one that reminds of party balloons, sometimes even with a clear point to enter them. Balloons are most often connected to the kinkiness, pleasure, and joy of parties. Similar to bubbles, you can categorize them loosely into the following types.

Pure Balloons

The purest forms of balloons with no special properties. They are often of a single color or at most two or three different colors. Sometimes they have a certain pattern on their spherical forms, like lines or dots. Most balloons of Slimea fall into this category and their exact properties vary heavily and depend on the Balloonmancer. Nearly all kinds of magical balloons that you can buy are also of this type. They are the classic magical balloons that you first think of in Slimea when hearing the term balloon.

Print Balloons

A very special form of a soul-binding balloon is the print balloon. They at first look like normal rubbery spheres, but the first victim that comes into contact with them is absorbed and merges with the sphere. Their grinning face appears big and centered on the balloon's surface together with thoughts and feelings of them written over the sphere as text. These thoughts and feeling texts changes and can vary over time as a print balloon. They have a strong desire to absorb and trap more victims, who will meet a similar fate as the first victim. Depending on the wish of the print balloon, they have three choices of what to do with their victim. They can transform them into another print balloon like themselves. Or they can let the victim become one with them, multiple minds controlling the same sphere in the union but all with their own personality and mind. Such multi-soul print balloons will have multiple faces on their surface. The last option is to simply keep their victim trapped inside their bodies like a normal balloon of Slimea.

Womb Balloons

In normal balloons, you can move rather freely inside, but not so with womb balloons. These two-layered balloons have an inner and one outer layer, which inflates both as soon as you get trapped inside. The victim will be squeezed by the tight rubber in a way that makes it impossible to move, but very cuddly and pleasant. These balloons were designed by their Balloonmancers to be comfortable and to hold a victim for longer durations. Most victims will fall asleep sooner or later inside the sphere and have pleasant, cuddly dreams while being trapped by their womb balloons. The name comes from the warmth and the comfort, which many could only describe as a motherly caring feeling that surrounds them.

Multi-Layer Balloons

Similar to womb balloons, these balloons have more than just one layer. Most allow their victims to move inside the inner layer, but some may also trap the victim between two layers, binding them between an outside and an inner layer and voiding any movement of them. A typical scenario is that the victim gets trapped inside a normal balloon but soon will receive a second balloon inside that inflates slowly, pushing the victim against the walls of their trap and slowly restricting their movements while cuddling them between the two incredibly smooth and soft surfaces.

Void Balloons

The special balloons of the Balloon Void are called void balloons. They are simply living beings of the will of the void and have a hunger for victims. Differently to most other balloons, these can act on their own, even without a soul-binding, and fulfill the greater will of the void as long as it is not overwritten by the Balloonmancer who summoned the balloon from the void. They are also not created but summoned, meaning they exist in the void even before materialization in our world. The summoner can store items or victims inside these balloons and let them be transported back into the balloon void this way.

Culture

There are rich cultures around bubbles and balloons in many places of the Slimea Multiverse. On Earth and especially inside the Federation of Slimea there are many Hunters who uses the spheres for the hunts and their unique culture. There are also religions that formed around goddesses of these spheres, like Larissa Mueller with her Church of Larissa or Sylvia with the The Church of Sylvia.
Besides the hunters and religions, the spheres are often also used in daily life. Many parties and playgrounds use them for fun activities like bouncing around on them or floating through the air with their help. Many companies like the The Mueller Balloon Moving Company use spheres to transport goods from one place to the other. The transport by spheres may be slow, but very cost-efficient as they can ignore gravity to a certain amount. Next to the practical uses, there are also those that use the spheres as a prank, blowing gum bubbles into other people's faces suddenly and trapping them inside the giant spheres for fun. The culture around bubbles and balloons has become a part of many societies on Earth and Bardor.

Species

There are species that are of the same or similar nature as bubbles or balloons. The Balloon Foxes are a good example of living balloons, while the Bubble Beauties is a good one for bubbles. Both species are far more than just living spheres, but share many attributes of the described bubbles and balloons.