The Biggest Balloon in the World

"Good evening, I am Gail Winters, here with the living legend, the biggest balloon in the world and contender for the biggest of all time, Olympic inflation athlete, Elizabeth Garnet!"

The studio is filled with the sounds of the clapping and whooping audience, as Elizabeth waves to the audience. She's a tall, tanned, woman, with well defined muscles and a lithe frame, she wears her hair in a short braid.

"Please, Lisa's fine."

"Glad to hear it, so, Lisa. I'm sure we all want to know, what's your current record?"

"That's what everyone wants to know the second they talk to me, the next thing they want to know is where I can find clothes that will fit that size. The answer, you don't."

The crowd laughs as the screen behind the two shows a massive tan balloon hovering over a stadium, anchored down solely by a "net" of ropes anchored to the stadium's ringed roof. Black censor bars covering the approximate location of nipples and groin. One can practically see through to the other side of the stadium, stretched so taut and translucent.

"I don't think it's that photo specifically." Lisa laughs. "But, something like that. At my last measurement, I was pushing a diameter of 37 feet."

The crowd gasps and the host Gail looks absolutely shocked.

"That, is unbelievable, and if there weren't photos and videos of it, I doubt anyone would believe that. Most women explode before they even reach 6 feet in diameter. I know I would."

The crowd laughs.

"It is certainly something, though the record is 42 feet, and I'm not planning to pop until I break 50."

"Fifty feet.... that's amazing. Truly an impossible task!"

"It's only impossible if you never try." Lisa said smugly.

"So, tell us, how does one even begin to push their limits like you have? How do you even begin to push into double digit diameter?"

Lisa sat back and did a big stretch with her arms above her head. "I started young, before I could even inflate. I've always admired the athletes and inflation stars, and wanted to be just like them when I grew up. So even before I took my first experimental puffs, I started gymnastics. With the help of my mothers, I'd do stretching routines, cardio, and contortionist exercises to begin loosening my body, and strengthening my skin." Lisa demonstrated by bending her arm an unnatural distance with minimal effort.

"Fascinating, so a proper exercise routine "loosened you up"?"

"Exactly, but that was only the start. When I finally could inflate, I immediately tried to push my limits. My mothers were sure that I wouldn't last my first year as an adult with how frequently they'd find me already a perfect sphere. Even though I was already bigger than any of them could get."

"Could you tell us more about your inflation regimen?"

"An important part was gaining control over my breathing, as I'm sure some of you know. Inflationists are capable of inflating themselves through breathing in alone." Lisa demonstrated, taking a deep breath and with a single inhale dramatically stretching out her abdomen and chest. "It can also save you in a pinch, more than once I found myself at my limit and only survived cause I could hold my breath and actually exhale it gently enough that I didn't burst from the strain."

"But breath control wouldn't increase your limit?"

"You're right about that, that part came from sheer willpower and repeated inflation sessions. My mothers helped find me a trainer, and eventually, a career as a stress limit inflation athlete. I quickly built up a reputation for being a cowardly inflationist, cause I always turned back when I thought for sure I was going to explode. But, I had to, you don't increase your capacity by being at your limit for a few minutes, you have to be able to hold yourself at it for days on end."

"DAYS???"

"Days."

The crowd gasps in astonishment. The screen begins to shift through various photos of a younger Lisa in various training spandex, bikinis, or pasties, at various sizes of spherical balloon.

"My capacity tests would inflate me to my limit at the time, and then hold me there for as long as possible. During that time I'd be doing breath exercises, taking in large breaths to try to force my skin larger and then exhaling to give it a break. Doing that for days at a time, a few times even a week, did wonders for my skin's elasticity."

"Didn't you ever want to pop? I get a belly bigger than a beach ball and all I can think about, down there, is blowing apart."

The crowd nods and murmurs in agreement.

"Every damn day." Lisa said, almost dreamily. "It's hard to describe how good it feels to be at your limit for hours, days, on end. To constantly tease that with breath exercises. That little tremble of my body at my limit, was screaming out to just let go, to give in and let my body do what it was designed to do. More than once, I thought I was finally done when I couldn't hold the climax back and shuddered near my bursting limit. But, there was one thing I always wanted more than to burst, to be the best. The biggest."

"And this is the time that you started to enter into inflationist competitions, the ones where you actually were at risk of bursting." Gail stated.

"Correct, though, I wasn't in any serious danger until people realized how big I could actually get and eventually get put into a proper inflate-class. My reputation as an inflation coward shifted to being an inflation juggernaut that was unpoppable."

Videos began to play of a dozen spherical athletes getting bigger and popping one by one, until only the tan blimp that was Lisa was left.

"Now, I'm not even allowed to participate normally. No one is willing to challenge me, unless it's specifically to retire and blow into bits. So the only person I can compete with anymore is myself."

"And as you said, you may be the biggest now, but you want to be the biggest..."

"Of all time."

Gail nodded, and thanked Lisa for coming onto the show. "Have any last words of inspiration for our viewers and any aspiring champions?"

Lisa looked at the camera and gave a thumbs up. "Your biggest rival is your own body, the more you learn about your limits and how to control them, you'll always surprise yourself with how far you can go!"

"Thank you Lisa and goodnight!"

.....................................................................

Lisa burst a few weeks later, estimated at at a diameter of 39 feet.