Madison’s ears pricked slightly in delight as the muffled, almost mute sounds of struggle resumed again somewhere above him. He craned his neck skywards, enjoying the view of his new balloon as it once again protested against his new station in life. With most of his limbs gone however, all he could manage was the occasional wiggle of a bloated digit, which traveled in vibrations down the lines he was tied by and translated into a slight swaying of the basket that the hefty rat was occupying.
“Still going, aren’t you?” He finally commented. “But while your tenacity is impressive, it’s your buoyancy that’s more of an issue” He chuckled, glancing over the side of his newly christened airship and noting the ground a foot or so beneath him. The crafty rat’s attempt at taking a brief flight to the west coast was encountering difficulties, and they weren’t even all that airborne. Really, it had been Johns initial idea, his alter-ego was just carrying it out in the most fun way he could think of.
“I admit” Madison finally relinquished “Part of this is my fault” He grabbed a handful of his own hefty, hairy belly. “We’re gonna need a lot more lift if you want to get all of this off the ground” he laughed again, slapping his exposed gut and feeling it wobble slightly. Madison’s gaze drifted downwards into his thatched cockpit kicking around the piles of chips, soda cans and snacks that he had packed until his paw collided with what he was looking for. The would be aviator grunted as he reached down and picked up a vial about half full with swirling green liquid, he fingered the cork and called upwards “I’m afraid one of us is going to have to lose a few pounds, and since you’re so far ahead of me already…”
Another round of muffled complaints and wiggling ensued, and as if on cue, the tight skin of the balloon creaked slightly in protest.
“Oh, don’t be such a baby” Madison scolded, already formulating a mechanism that would allow him to circumvent the wide expanse of his balloons belly in order to reach his head and get the rest of the chemical compound into his mouth. “Once we actually build up a little steam, you’ll be having just as much fun as I am. Wait and see.”
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And a very Merry Christmas to  JWB
I'm your Secret Santa big guy, and I thought I'd try my hand at a little drawing for y'all. I don't have a tablet or anything, so this is all by hand, coloured with pens, pencil crayons and a little computer enhancement here and there. Hope you enjoy! And I hope you enjoy the subterfuge involved when it came to sneaking this thing onto the scanner without my parents noticing as I stay with them during the holidays. It was no picnic.
Anyways, I know this isn't your usual thing, but it seemed fun and I think you'll like it. Merry Christmas!
And if you feel like it, I'm uploading a colour background version to my scraps.