Well I wrote a thing while I was drunk, in one of those artistical deliriums. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed those beers!

Cheers!

Another day in the facility, same lonely halls, same dim white light… ah yeah that lightbulb
should have been changed long ago, but it remains burnt out. The silence reigned, nothing new
for our protagonist of today, who calmly wandered through those empty halls. However, he was
not concerned about the loneliness or the monotony of that place, he found it rather cozy. After
all, he was who designed it.
A metallic door opened, allowing the subject to cross it. The golden scales shone slightly under
the lights. The dragon, named Yandrak, stepped into the room, he clearly seemed tired, with
half closed eyes and carrying a mug of coffee.
- Good morning Syni – Said the dragon with a yawn as he sat on his desk
- Morning Dr Drak. You have to adjust your sleeping schedule; I appreciate visible facial signs of
tiredness. The chances of suffering a collapse are around 33%.
- Uhhh lovely, means I just have to stay on the 67% side of the odds – Yan smiled, with a lost
look as he stared at the bottom of his, now, empty mug – Alright, let’s get started shall we?
Tossing the mug aside and getting rid of his usual lab coat the golden scaled dragon stood up
again stretching out. He headed to the room next to that one, where there was a bunch of
drawers and shelfs with lots of papers and books, a desk with a conventional computer on it and
some pictures and diplomas decorating the walls. But what really drew the attention of that
chamber was the huge armchair in the middle of all, it was made of metal plates that supported
the structure, it almost looked like one of those dentist chairs (cause in fact that was the original
design Yan based on to make it), but it was slightly modified, for example the head of the
armchair had been replaced by some kind of helmet, it was big enough to fit a dragon’s head,
what also changed was the presence of cuffs on the armrests and the footrest, there was a small
screen on the side of the armrest as well.
- So, ugh load the training session number 10 – Yan ordered as he sat on the armchair – Let me
just adjust these… - Monitoring everything with the screen pad that was on the armchair he
programmed the time and intensity of the training
- Session 10 loaded and ready. Please do not move till the end of the starting process – Replied
Syni.
After her voice the dragon leant backwards resting his head on the top cushion of that fancy
chair. He knew the deal; he’d been through this routine again and again for the past weeks.
Yandrak closed his eyes and let the machine do its job, the mechanical cracks coming out from
it warned about its rebooting program. Soon the helmet started to move downwards until it
locked itself around the golden dragon’s head, then the cuffs conveniently shifted their positions
to adjust to the wrists and elbows of the captive dragon. Strange noises came from the crazy
machine as it proceeded to secure the lower limbs of the dragon, his ankles got locked in steel
cuffs and metal plates kept the legs half spread and with the knees slightly bent.
Going for the torso Yandrak let out a deep sigh as a leather strap crossed his chest pushing him
against the back of the chair.
- Oof- Syni it seems I have gained a few kilograms; next time loosen a bit the chest strap, I wanna
be able to breath freely - Said the dragon as he felt a bit of pressure each time he inhaled deeply
and knowing what was gonna come he definitely would need to breath a lot.
However, there was no answer, the machine kept working on restraining the dragon, securing
the left limbs, like the tail, who had a hole specially designed for it to fit and stay trapped; Yan
had to install it after that time when he made mess with his swinging tail, quite an embarrassing
memory. Finally, the last bit of the dragon’s body, his wings, were secured, this was more of a
comfort issue, it was better for them to stay behind the back of the armchair so the dragon could
leant his back on the soft cushion without anything in his way, so the joint between the wing
and the back of the dragon fit through a hole carved in the chair and the membrane part got
slightly spread in the back.
- Step 1 completed, Bon Voyage Dr Drak – Replied Syni when the restraining process finished
With that our fellow dragon closed his eyes and relaxed his body, several minutes passed and
everything remained in silence. But then, a bright light blinded the scalie making him keep his
eyes shut.
When he could reopen them he found himself lying down on top of a stone table. Yan gritted
his teeth as he tried to move but he couldn’t, he was merely strapped down to the table by some
kind of vines and roots that wouldn’t allow him to move, they were quite strong even for him.
Looking at his surroundings he could distinguish more details. The walls seemed to be made of
stone as well, with some kind of runes carved on them. The dragon figured out that some of
those drawings represented snakes.
- Oh great… Of course – Yandrak sighed and tried to struggle to get free from there. He has
always hated snakes, since he was a little hatchling he had nightmares with them, those long
bodies, their cold eyes. It seemed that the session of that day was thoughtfully chosen.
A freezing hiss resonated in the room, the hisses came one after another, soon becoming an
orchestra of creeping sounds and hisses. A couple of snakes crawled up the stone monolith
where the dragon was. At first they sniffed the air using their forked tongue to study the
surroundings, scan the subject that was in front of them. They got closer and closer until one of
them poked the dragon side with his head, then it followed with a deep sniff with the nasty
tongue.
- Ah! Wow so rude! – Yan jolted aside, he didn’t see that one coming, the angle he was lying
didn’t allow him to look left, right, or down, he was forced only to look up to the ceiling of that
room – Didn’t you know it’s not nice to sniff someone you’ve just met!
The dragon wiggled and struggled trying to shake that snake off. But unfortunately, that didn’t
succeed, instead it got the snake more curious, and it started to crawl onto the dragon’s chest.
Creeping in zigzag the sensation annoyed Yandrak, especially the fact that it was unwanted.
However, the dragon didn’t have much more time to complain since he felt something poking
his left side of the ribcage, hip and the right thigh.
More and more snakes had started to get curious for the dinner of that night. They moved
towards the dragon body poking with his heads, licking with their tongues. It felt terribly bad
that it made Yandrak grit his fangs in a curved half smile. Those snakes knew where to aim at,
since after those first sensations a bigger one overwhelmed the dragon, it was the one coming
down at his golden soles, the snakes were sliding between his big bubbly toes, their long smooth
body wasn’t really a big deal, but their pointy tail and their tongue was certainly a pain. Those
who successfully could get to the soles started to squeeze and stroke in circles the beans and
pads of the dragon, running their forked tongues between the toes and on the arches.
- GOSH! They had to be snakes right! – Screamed Yan before taking a deep breath and trying to
calm down.
It tickled, yes it tickled like hell. But that’s what he had been training for, to overcome those
sensation and become totally immune. That’s what he had designed that machine for, trying to
ignore the physiological reactions or get used to them as much as possible. He knew how tickling
worked, if he was able to control the emotional/psychological part he would be able to reduce
the impact of the inevitable physiological stimulus that he would get. Like now he was being
tickled by hundreds of snakes, in an isolated room totally alone and helpless. He could feel every
poke, every tongue running on his paws and body, those nasty tail poking wherever they
wanted. But our scaly protagonist tried not to flinch and keep his breathing under control.
- Ha! N-nice tryhy! But now I will be immune! – The dragon tried to boast between fits of giggles.
Yandrak knew those snakes were not dangerous, overall, he knew all that was a simulation
created by himself…. but God the sensations were pretty real, and he had designed all that to
trigger the deepest fears of the dragon pushing him to the most extreme situations and making
him lose control. However, to keep things totally fair Yandrak avoided thinking of all that being
a simulation and diving into the hallucination the machine had created. That way he would be
prepared if that ever happened in real life.
Everything seemed to be more or less under control. The machine was analyzing the dragon’s
vitals, breathing and heart rate, to check if he was able to control his “ticklishness”. But then
something made the dragon jump in place and struggle a lot more than before.
Yan tried to regain his composure when he felt hundreds of forked tongues hitting straight
behind his wings, that had always been a nasty spot for him and with them being trapped inside
that rocky altar there was no chance he could avoid that. He struggled and tried to flap his wings
free, but it was futile. He knew the only way was to calm down.
Once again he slowly calmed down, this time with a grumpier smile on his face he focused again
on breathing and get used to that. Although there was a moment where he almost lost it when
a snake hissed right into his ear, making a chill run down his spine.
After some time, the dragon was exhausted, his muscles had been in tension for a while before
he could manage to relax them and abandon himself into the tickling. It was not easy to get used
to something like that, to give yourself to that annoying urge to laugh when certain spots are
touched. Guess that’s the part the dragon wanted to control, to be able to choose whether react
or not if the stimulation was allowed by him or not.
- Session completed – A feminine voice announced, and the helmet was removed from the
golden dragon’s head – Final duration 30 minutes and 54 seconds. Average heartbeat ratio 150
beats per minute. Levels of dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline, between the normal
levels. Overall qualification: Success
But Yandrak wasn’t fully listening, even though he managed to succeed he felt worn out. He just
stayed on the chair as all the restrains were disabled one by one. His limbs were still numb after
a while.
- Ugh… Syni. Remind me to adjust the Session number 10. That was a bit intense. Holy scales… -
Said Yan with a hoarse voice – Anyways, glad to hear it was a success. I think I’m going to take a
shower