Buoyant aliens · 11 of 15
The Phafflings
Round, colourful, balloon-bodied aliens who inflate when they're excited, scared or embarrassed, and then float away.
ConfirmedPhafflings have elastic bodies and unusual internal gas organs. A startled Phaffling puffs up and drifts to the ceiling; an embarrassed one can swell until it's wedged in a doorway.
Their towns have tall ceilings, floating platforms and furniture with tethers. To a Phaffling, floating off mid-sentence is completely ordinary, and so is the occasional bufa. They have never understood why visitors find it so funny.
01
Built to float
Phafflings inflate and deflate quickly, depending on how they feel. Excitement, fear and embarrassment all add air. Their homes are made for it: high ceilings, open roofs, floating platforms and tethered chairs.
Never let a Phaffling ambassador speak last. Or near a vent.
02
Diplomacy, with altitude
Visitors struggle to keep a straight face at Phaffling ceremonies, especially when a highly respected official starts drifting upward halfway through a speech. Phafflings don't see what's funny; to them this is like anyone else clearing their throat.
Signature gag: a dramatic silence, a well-timed bufa, and a Phaffling slowly ascending out of view.
03
Phafflings and Zamfyr
Zamfyr tries very hard to stay dignified. Phafflings make that nearly impossible. While he gives a solemn address, an ambassador quietly inflates behind him, and Onobo has to catch him before he floats into the Wobblenaut's air vents.
04
Not like Boofzilla
Every Phaffling knows the name Boofzilla: one enormous rogue who weaponises toxic bufas. Ordinary Phafflings are mortified by him, and many happily help the Buds tie him to something heavy.
Homeworld
Native to the Hanging Canopies of Floopadoon. The Oolamara sky-docks are a visiting colony.
Development note
Known characters: Boofzilla (villain and social outcast). Homeworld and diplomatic history in development. Comedy stays mostly about floating, not noises.