Neuro Testing
Please, comment on what I did right, what I did wrong, what you like and what you didn't. Hopefully, it'll help make me a better writer!
Tiar kept her wings firmly tucked against her sides so they didn't knock any of the humans over. There wasn't really enough space for both her and the lines of people to be on the same path and they grumbled under their breaths as they were forced to move onto the street to let her pass. Here, the streets were too narrow for them all so the dragoness kept as close to the wall as possible. It wasn't her fault that the building she was trying to find didn't have an entrance on the roof. She was forced to be on the ground like everyone else.
Her life hadn't played out quite like she had been expecting. She had moved into the city a couple of months ago but had hit a little snag. It was difficult for Tiar to gain work and for that matter, money. She hadn't needed such things when she was living with her traditionalist parents out in the mountains but the moment that she left the nest and came here, it seemed to be all life was focused on. Of course, she didn't have many of the skills that would actually get her said money.
Now she didn't have enough to pay for her apartment, tiny though it was. Even though it was pretty much a single room, it cost more than she thought it was possible for her to make. Tiar had flitted from one temporary job to another, most of them manual labour of some kind. It wasn't that she couldn't keep the work, it was just that they were one time jobs that didn't pay well, meant to supplement an income, not provide it. She couldn't get a permanent position which was why she was in the streets now.
She had caught an advertisement in a newspaper that was aimed specifically at dragons. There was the usual building and hauling work, as well a couple more specialised things, but there was another ad, down at the bottom page. It was for a clinical trial, testing some kind of new technology and at the moment, it was exclusively dragon. This was a common thing; dragons were much hardier than humans and could normally throw off the effects of new drugs and chemicals. The reason the ad was so tempting was the pay it came with. It was enough to pay for her home for a long while, as well as food and electricity and all of the other bills that kept piling up.
The paper didn't specify how long the trial would last but money was money, that was the important part. That was where she was now. The building to which the address led was tall, at least twenty stories with the front coated in glass. The main doors on the street were also glass but reflective so she couldn't see inside. They were double doors, dragon sized so that she could enter comfortably without lowering her head too much. In the centre was a small round disc to which Tiar pressed her nose to gently. There was a small ding, like a bell, and the glass slid apart smoothly, revealing the interior of the building.
The floor was covered in clean white tile that clacked beneath Tiar's claws and the room itself was quite large with pillars rising at regular intervals to the ceiling. Dotted around the space were various sized chairs for the humans and padded sections of floor for the dragons to sit or lie on. It was almost empty, just a couple of humans and no dragons at all. There was a long desk at the opposite end of the room and it was to this that Tiar headed. There were three receptionists placed evenly along the length of the desk and when she saw the dragoness approaching, the middle one waved her over.
"Hello," Tiar said. She dropped her head closer to the receptionist so she didn't tower over her so much. "I'm here about an ad in the newspaper. A clinical trial I think it said?"
"Ah, yes," the receptionist said, typing quickly into the computer that sat in front of her. "Just go to the room at the end over there," she said, pointing to another door, "and a doctor will be over in a minute to ask you some questions before you are admitted to the test."
Tiar did as the receptionist asked and went to the room. Inside it was almost bare with a single chair and another padded area for Tiar. It was also a lot smaller than the lobby and had a much lower ceiling, forcing her to drop her head to avoid scoring the plaster with her horns. It wasn't like she could pay for repairs. She sat on the padded section and waited for someone to come. She didn't have to wait long. A smaller, human sized door off to one side opened and a man in a white lab coat entered, holding a clipboard.
"Hello," he said, sitting down on the chair opposite Tiar. "We have a questionnaire that needs to be filled out before we can proceed. If it's OK with you, you can say the answers and I'll fill it out for you. Just so you know, it does go into, ah, delicate areas of inquiry. Is that fine?" Tiar indicated her assent and the questionnaire began.
It started off pretty normally. The test asked for the usual things like her name, age, weight and height and then got more specific. There were questions about her diet and what exercise she did, how much she flew and even how she flew. Her hobbies, what she did in her spare time was also asked about. After near fifteen minutes of questions, they started to get really personal. There was a question on how often she masturbated, the last time she did so and whether she used her claws, tail or something else. Tiar felt heat rising beneath the scales on her face as she squirmed around on the padded seat. When the man asked what position she liked when being mated, she interrupted the question. "Are all these really necessary?" she snapped at him, a pink tint visible beneath the silver scales on her face.
The doctor glanced up from the sheet of paper on the clipboard, looking uncomfortable himself. "Yes, it is," he replied. "There are several different parts to this study and we need to be very thorough to determine which part you're most suited to."
The questions continued, an inordinate amount of them, in Tiar's opinion, relating to her sexual preferences and history. The scales on her face were a dull pink by the time that the test was finished and the doctor left. He still hadn't explained what the trial actually was yet, although the questions that he had asked put a little bit of doubt into Tiar as to whether or not she actually wanted to be here. The money kept her from walking out but it was a close thing. Anyway, he had said that there were multiple parts to this trial.
After ten minutes, the door opened and the doctor came back, this time without the clipboard. "OK Tiar," he said. "The trial that is taking place at the moment is a ground-breaking stride in brain mapping and neuron stimulation. For several reasons, dragons are more suited to this stage of the trial due to the differences in your nervous systems. If you want to participate, you will be entered into the study which will involve testing several aspects of this new technology. We will record your neural impulses and then recreate them in the second part of the test. For example, some of our subjects move a limb, we record the signals in their brain and then recreate them to move it ourselves. Are you open to this?"
Tiar could hardly believe that such things were possible. Sure, there were a lot of advancements being made but this was practically science fiction! If it was possible though, she didn't see the harm in it. "OK," she agreed cautiously.
The human's face split in a wide smile and he clapped his hands together. "Excellent! Now, there is a small contract right here..." He pulled out a sheaf of papers covered in tiny writing and laid them out of the floor in front of Tiar. "Here, just sign on the last one and we can begin."
The letters were tiny and even when she bent and put an eye right next to the page, Tiar could barely make them out. She struggled through the first paragraph but kept reading the same thing without really understanding. She glanced up to see the doctor waiting patiently and turned back to the paper. There were still another half dozen pages and she gotten through one paragraph. Eventually, she just scratched her mark in a little box and nosed the contract back towards the doctor.
"Great," he said, picking the papers back up and seemingly oblivious to the fact she hadn't read it. "Follow me to the laboratories and we can begin settling you in."
They both went out back into the lobby and the doctor led the way over to a large elevator around a corner. It was a heavy-duty one, designed to take a dragon's weight and was large enough that they could both fit quite comfortably. There was a ding as the doctor pressed a button but to Tiar's surprise, they moved down, not up. She must have made some sort of noise because the man laughed. "It's mostly offices and storage above. The actual labs are down beneath us."
The elevator descended for what felt like a couple of floors before dinging again. The doors slid open to reveal the same white tile as the lobby above them. It was a long corridor, wide enough for them to both walk side by side, and there were windows and doors set a regular intervals. The doors all had keypads with small red lights beside them and the windows were dark, tinted to block all view of whatever was behind them. From the scents that still lingered in the air conditioned space, Tiar could tell that there were near a dozen dragons around here somewhere, and at least twice that many humans.
The doctor led her past all of the doors and windows until there was one with a green light next to the keypad. The window for this one was clear and showed a bare room lined with cupboards and drawers. There was already someone waiting for Tiar as she padded inside. The man didn't enter with her and the door slid shut on its own when she entered.
The other person inside was female and wearing the same white lab coat as the other man, as well as an identical clipboard. "Hello!" the woman said happily, her delight throwing Tiar a bit. "Another tester? Excellent! You must be Tiar. My name's Danielle and I'll be supervising your trial. We have the perfect set of tests for you based on your answers to the questionnaire. There's just a couple of things we need to apply to you first..."
She asked Tiar to stand still in the centre of the room then got straight into her work, flitting from cabinet to cabinet, taking out various items. The first was a metal circle that the doctor lifted carefully from a case and then placed on Tiar's head. It looped around her horns and she could hear it humming slightly, the vibration tickling her skull. "This is what we call the neural integrator and it records the majority of the electrical impulses in your brain. It is far more effective than an EEG but the important part is that it can stimulate the same responses that it records, recreating them near perfectly. It's the whole reason we're here."
There were also other pieces of equipment that the doctor took out. There was a series of other metal circles that around the ankles on her fore- and hindlegs, as well as the tip of her tail. Another went at the base of her head, where it joined her neck. As she placed them, Danielle explained that they recorded the nervous impulses in her extremities and helped take some of the processing load from the circle. The last thing was a series of stretchy bands that were looped around her wings, keeping them furled against her back. The dragoness didn't like the feeling of having them contained, not that they were much good this far underground. The doctor said it was to protect them from damage during the tests but it was still unpleasant, the instinctual dislike of have her wings contain making Tiar fidget.
Danielle stepped back, a smile on her face. "Well, that's all done now. All that's left is..." Her voice trailed off and she walked over to the door where there was another key pad. She typed something into it and Tiar felt the metal circle on top of her head whir a little bit louder before dying back down. Tiar was about to ask what it was doing when the human typed something else into the keypad. There was another hum from the circle but she had no idea what it was supposed to be doing. She tried to say something but for some reason the words wouldn't form and she could only whine instead. She tried again but it was like her tongue was thick and her throat wouldn't let the sounds come out right.
The real panic began when she tried to move her head. Her muscles wouldn't respond to her commands. It was like she was paralysed, apart from her eyes and breathing. It was like being buried alive in concrete. Tiar heaved in great gasps of air, her heart beating frantically. She'd never agreed to this! Danielle noticed her behaviour and came around to her head.
"It's okay," she said in what was clearly supposed to be a soothing voice. She failed magnificently. "The integrator has simply dampened and blocked the signals that come from the parts of your brain that control speech and movement. It's nothing to worry about and it is certainly not permanent. It's just there to make the testing go faster and easier, especially in this case."
Her words were not as reassuring as she had probably hoped, especially the last few, but Tiar's panic died down a bit. She was certainly still not happy. It seemed a bit much to paralyse her and stop her from talking. What possible purpose could that serve?
"The test has begun now," she said calmly, speaking into a small microphone she had taken from her pocket. "The impairment of the speech centres of the subject's brain appears to be successful, as does the impairment of the motor centres. Continuing to Phase Two." Danielle put the microphone back in her pocket and then spoke directly to Tiar. "The tests that have been performed already, or are being performed, all relate to different parts of the brain to see what works and what doesn't. As you already know, influencing motor function has been a resounding success but the senses are more difficult. We've been unable to do much with sight and hearing so we are moving onto touch now. First, we'll give you stimulation and record your nervous response and then we'll try to replicate it, OK?"
She didn't wait for an answer, not that Tiar could have given one. The dragoness couldn't even move her head to follow the doctor as she walked around the room. When the human did come back into view, she growled loudly, baring her fangs. The woman ignored the fearsome display and instead just hushed her. "Stop that," she said, "or I'll disable that as well. You're getting well paid for this so make it worth it."
Moving off again, Danielle walked around Tiar's body. The urge to turn and see what she was doing was overwhelming but she stayed in her sitting position. She hissed in irritation. At least she could still do that freely. There were several clanking noises and the sound of something being assembled. Curiosity about what exactly what was happening filled Tiar but she was left staring at the door. The clanking, metal sounds continued for a couple of minutes before Danielle appeared at her line of sight again.
"All right," she said. "I'll leave the room for a bit to give you some privacy but there's not actually anything that you're required to do. Just let the integrator do its job." She went to the door but before she left, she input several commands into the keypad besides it. Nothing happened immediately and the door slid shut as she left.
Great, she thought. Alone and paralysed in a room. How is this supposed to be good for science? There was silence but after a moment, the device on her head buzzed loudly and she began to move. To Tiar's horror and confusion, her chest was lowered to the ground while her hindlegs refused to bend, leaving her rear in the air. Lastly, her tail curled over her back, leaving her exposed to anything that was behind her. She snarled and tried to move out of what was obviously a presenting crouch. What possible reason could exist for forcing this humiliation on her?
The answer to that came soon after. A quiet whirring sound appeared behind her and a smooth, blunt surface touched the lips of Tiar's sex. In her head, she jerked forwards and twitched her tail down but in reality, neither of these happened. The words of the doctor came back to her. She had said that they were going to give her 'stimulation' but were they serious? Did that really have to be to her sex? The thing, whatever it was, stayed still for a moment, poised at her entrance.
Time seemed to stretch, making the time between the initial contact and the actual movement. She tried to move away, even slightly, but she was paralysed. Then, it started inching forwards, spreading her vent open slowly. Tiar snarled again and strained to move forwards as the integrator started to hum quietly again but still nothing happened. She still couldn't move away. The dildo continued its slow entry into her sex. She clenched down on it, at least able to move those muscles but it didn't change anything. In moments, the length was buried in her vent. There was a small prong at the base of the dildo and it was this that rubbed against her clit, sending a thrill of pleasure up her spine.
The machine, or whatever was, stopped to let Tiar get used to the dildo inside her. For some reason, the situation was starting to get to her, arousal building in her belly. She wasn't in any danger her and the instinct that came with being in this presenting crouch was coming on strongly, the invitation that seemed to go with it at the forefront of her mind. With the dildo, it felt like the invitation was being accepted and her instinct was telling her to lift her tail high and let the dragon who had claimed her thrust long and hard...
Tiar snapped herself out of those thoughts with a growl. The damned thing wasn't even moving and already she was getting heated. Still, the sensation reminded her that it had been a long time since she had last been mated properly, by an actual dragon. This wasn't a dragon but it was good enough. Maybe it wasn't that bad after all. She could use a release.
As soon as she thought this, the dildo began to retract slowly, rubbing along her walls and making her moan involuntarily as it did so. It really had been a long time. Still going at the same slow pace, the dildo retreated until the tip was nestled against her entrance. Tiar whined and tried to thrust back herself, no longer trying to escape the sensation but to get it back. For a few tense moments, she thought that that was it, that that was the end of the test.
She needn't have worried. As soon as she thought about it, the dildo began moving again, this time at a quicker pace. Tiar closed her eyes and imagined that it was a real dragon, one that she had presented to and one that had accepted the offer. She tried to push back, to grind hard against the length that was filling her but was frustrated time and time again. She could smell her own scent on the air, heavy with the smell of arousal.
To Tiar's surprise and delight, the dildo started to vibrate powerfully and after a couple of thrusts, it buried itself in her vent and stayed there. The protuberance on the end was pressed up against her clit again and the vibrations travelled along it, right to the most sensitive point of her sex. She whined loudly as the stimulation brought her closer and closer to the climax she now desperately wanted.
Finally, her climax came. Tiar wanted to lift her head and roar out her ecstasy but she couldn't. Unable to move it felt like the pleasure wasn't dissipating, just going around and around inside of her. Her sex rippled along the dildo, her body trying to take seed that wasn't there. Tiar's orgasm seemed to last for an age but when it did end, all of the strength left her body. If she could have, the dragoness would have flopped to the floor. As it was, she simply stayed in the presenting crouch, panting heavily.
With another whir, the dildo in her vent withdrew, this time completely. The circle of metal on her head hadn't stopped humming quietly the entire time but it got a bit louder for a second. On its own, Tiar's body settled down onto her belly in a more comfortable position. Warmth blossomed again in her cheeks as Tiar felt the wet spot on the floor beneath where her vent had been. She couldn't even make herself move away.
Tiar was forced to wait there for a while before the door slid open again and Danielle came back. The heat burned beneath her scales a little bit more strongly. Humans had weak noses but the smell of her arousal was so strong in the confined space that even she had to be able to smell it. She didn't make any indication of embarrassment though as she came in. The doctor was carrying the clipboard again and she consulted it while standing in front of Tiar. The dragoness growled loudly, trying to catch her attention. The test was over now, wasn't it? She didn't need to be trapped like this anymore!
The only sound was that of Tiar breathing and of the pages on the clipboard flipping as Danielle read them. Eventually, she stopped and looked down at Tiar. "Right," she said in a businesslike tone. "The first part of the trial is complete. All of your brain activity was successfully recorded and we don't need to repeat it." Tiar growled at this and the woman laughed. "Well, a lot of you seemed to enjoy it and they don't complain when we need to repeat. Anyway, on to the next part. This is the practical application and I will remain here for this part, so sorry about your modesty." She withdrew a little tablet from the pocket on the lab coat, along with the recorder.
"Phase Three beginning now," she said, clipping the microphone to her lapel. "Beginning reconstruction of neuron impulses now." She tapped the screen of the tablet and after a couple of moments, it beeped loudly. "Reconstruction is complete. Beginning neural stimulation now." She tapped the screen and it beeped again.
Tiar waited apprehensively. She didn't quite understand what the doctor was saying but it didn't sound particularly good. The metal on her head started humming again and Tiar waited nervously for something to happen. For a tense moment, there was nothing and then an orgasm shot through her. The climax took her by surprise; there was no lead up to it, no growing arousal and not even any stimulation, just the overwhelming feeling.
Like the one before it, Tiar was unable to move and that made the climax all the more powerful. It reverberated inside of her, growing and growing until her mind was blank except for the feelings. She whined and moaned, squeezing her eyes shut as it went on and on. Finally though, it did end. Tiar opened her eyes, panting heavily, to see the doctor staring at her intently. Her close attention made Tiar want to feel embarrassed, but she couldn't muster the energy or will to care.
"Test appears successful," the woman mused, staring down at the screen. "Excellent brain activity. Re-enabling speech centres now. How was that?"
It took Tiar a moment to realise that the last part was directed at her, not the microphone. She tried to speak again, but this time was successful. "Let me out!" she roared at Danielle. Whatever else the device had been doing to immobilise her was still in effect. She didn't need to be contained like this any longer!
The woman ignored her demand. "Could you please describe what you just felt? How close to the original feeling was it?"
Tiar felt anger getting the better of her. She snarled and tried to thrash around, roaring her demand to be freed, to be allowed to leave. "Let me go! Take this off and let--"
Danielle touched the tablet again and her tirade was cut off, the dragoness once again unable to speak. The doctor sighed and began speaking into the microphone again. "As you probably heard, the subject is a little too unhappy to answer questions right now. Moving on. Phase Four will begin momentarily." Tiar was getting really annoyed at how she kept switching between the microphone and her, her irritation only feeding her anger. "Okay, last Phase for you. You'll be able to move again for this one and I'll leave the room. This is the more intense Phase, although I've had some subjects come back because of it!"
Tiar grunted but her heart leapt when she registered that the paralysis was going to be lifted. Yes, that was what she wanted! The doctor tapped a couple more times on the tablet and then headed for the door. As it slid shut, she turned back and tapped the tablet again. The door closed as Tiar's head dropped suddenly before she supported it herself. She shook herself out, rising from the floor. Movement! She could move again! She wanted to flex out her wings and stretch those as well but they were still forcibly furled from the straps.
Tiar headed for the door but it wouldn't open for her. She nosed at it, but there was no pad for dragons to use, just the keypad off to one side. She nosed at that as well but without knowing the code, she couldn't open the door. She pressed a couple of buttons but the light flashed red and it beeped loudly. There was another sound underneath it though, a buzzing. Realising that it was coming from the circlet on her head, she bent her head to scrape it off with one paw.
The moment she touched it, another orgasm ripped through her body. Now that she was able to move, Tiar fell to her side, her paws going to her sex out of reflex. Her tail twitched and she howled as her vent spasmed for the third time in the last few minutes. Just like the other two climaxes before it, this one died suddenly, leaving Tiar gasping on the floor. She clambered to her feet, just as the fourth orgasm hit. Her body acted on its own again, not from the device on her head this time but from her own instinct. The pleasure filled her mind and her body sank back into the presenting crouch of its own accord.
The next climax happened the moment the previous finished. The time between them got shorter and shorter until Tiar couldn't tell them apart anymore. It was a never ending cycle. Tiar bucked and roared and whined but it wouldn't stop and she couldn't get enough control to reach the thing on her head. She couldn't make it stop!
Her entire body was sore and aching. At some point, the relentless pleasure had stopped. Tiar wasn't exactly sure when it had stopped as the last few hours were blurry and indistinct, but it had. She got up haltingly, her muscles not really wanting to move. She looked down at her body and snorted; the floor and the area around her vent was a mess. The lips of her sex were puffy and ached slightly and her scent was still heavy in the air.
Tiar looked around the room. The main door was still closed but another section of wall had slid up, revealing an extra section. There was nothing much in it, except for a shower head. She stepped into the little alcove and immediately, the water started pouring from the shower. The dragoness stepped back off the floor and the water stopped again. Tiar stepped into it again, this time putting her entire body under the spray. It was hot and there was good pressure. It soother muscles and washed away the remnants of what had happened during the tests.
When she was a clean as she was going to get from the shower, she stepped back off the pressure sensitive floor and the water stopped again. The droplets of water slid off her scales onto the floor, leaving her reasonably dry. Her wings wouldn't dry without her fanning them but there was no way that she could do that with them bound. Even with the shower, the smell of sex was still thick in the air and there was no way that she could rid of that either.
Suddenly, she remembered the circlet on head and went to tear it off. She didn't want them activating it again but as soon as her paws got close to her head, they refused to move again. Her body just wouldn't obey her when they got there. She growled but gave up quickly. There was no point and she already knew that she couldn't overpower the technology. She'd tried often enough. Going over to the door, she tried to push some of the buttons again with the tip of her nose. This time though, the light flicked green and the door slid open. Tiar snorted in surprise. Had she actually just guessed the code? The elation left quickly when she say that it was Danielle standing in the door. Before the human could say anything, Tiar jumped out of the door, sending the doctor stumbling back and sending the clipboard flying from her grasp.
"Whoa," Danielle cried, hands held out placatingly. "Calm down! I was just coming to open the door for you. Your trial's over now."
Tiar didn't run off but growled and stayed tense. She didn't trust any of them now, especially after what they had done. Her growl intensified when the doctor reached for her, but when she saw what she was reaching for, she bent her head a little lower to the ground. The metal circle was unhooked from around her horns and was, finally, removed. She felt a little better now that it was off. At least now they couldn't paralyse her now.
"Wings too," she growled. The woman obliged and removed the straps that kept her wings furled. The space was still too cramped for her to spread them fully but she still shook them out, stretching them for the first time in what felt like days.
"All good?" the woman said. Tiar nodded and the woman set off down the wall, motioning for the dragoness to follow. She followed, cautiously. Tiar was led back to the elevator that she had come down in and it travelled back up to the lobby. The doors opened with the sound of a bell.
"Just go back to one of the receptionists," said the doctor. "They'll make sure that you are paid and sort everything out for you. Thanks for participating?" The doors closed again and the woman was taken out of sight. Tiar growled again and stalked back to the desk at the front.
Seemingly oblivious to her bad mood, the girl behind the desk was as cheerful as ever. "Hi! Tiar, wasn't it?" She didn't wait for an answer, but typed quickly into the computer in front of her. "All right, everything here is finished. Your payment for participation has been transferred. Here, I'll just..." She turned the screen around so that Tiar could see the number on it. She snorted in surprise; that was more than enough to pay her rent for months, not weeks like she hoped.
"Th--Thanks," she stammered. "That's a, ah, lot."
The woman laughed. "Well, we have very generous donors and they insist of giving our participants a sizable sum. Anyway, that will be in your account by tomorrow and we have your contact details if we need them. When the study is done, you'll also get a free copy of that as well. And...that's it. Have a nice day!"
Tiar thanked her and headed for the door, eager to leave. Still, she was elated that, for the moment at least, her money problems were solved. She felt free again, for the first time in months, light enough that she could fly without wings. She went back out onto the street. From the amount of light in the sky, it was late afternoon. She had been there for a day and a half!
She waited for a gap in the crowd to appear, when she wasn't surrounded by people, and then launched herself upwards. Her wings snapped out to catch the air and drove herself up with powerful beats. The roads and buildings gave off pillars of hot air that carried her higher, above the skyscrapers, and Tiar turned for home. Being in the air was soothing and it gave her time to think. She was torn about whether or not she was angry with those humans. She didn't like the immobilisation bit but the rest...
There was a cautionary roar and Tiar's attention snapped back to the present, just in time to avoid another dragon flaying past. She paid more attention after that but couldn't help thinking back to that device that they had put on her head. Maybe, if there was another trial...