Ai Love Therapy Ch. 01 (Patreon)

Ai Love Therapy Chapter 01: Experimental Therapy

     Ai never wanted therapy.

     "I'm sure this is a perfectly reputable procedure," Irene said, Scottish accent making what she said sound both like optimistic encouragement and thickly veiled sarcasm. "I mean, they wouldn't advertise it unless it was reputable, right?"

     Ai tried not to let the grimace on her inside show on her outside. Irene, still dressed in judo outfit from classes earlier and towering over Ai by eight inches, looked like she would break a man's arm in three places and then bake him cookies as apology. Brown curly hair to her shoulders frizzy in the early morning mist, she pushed up her glasses before pushing Ai towards the large concrete building before them.

     "Get in there! I'll pick you up in a few hours."

     Ai didn't reply, but Ai rarely did, and Irene knew that. Fixing her neon green scrunchie and peach skirt, the small woman psyched herself up. You can do this! she thought, flexing hands to feel hard veins along her arms pump up under the sweater. Frumpy red Christmas sweater that didn't match her skirt was a smoke screen: Ai loved to work out. Even over forty years old, Ai was more likely to bench press a stranger as talk to them, which is to say she was capable of both but unlikely to do either. Not that she liked to talk, or make eye contact, or...

     Ai huffed, ignoring stupid thoughts. She was delaying. Biting her lip, Ai stepped forward and walked into the building that looked more military ammo depot and less like a place of cutting edge techno-therapy.

     "Hello, and welcome to Mental Conception!" The only part of the receptionist Ai could make out behind the tall metal and stone desk were green eyes, wildly curly red hair and a bubbly personality. 

     Ai choked back a growl, hating being short, and shuffled over as quickly as she could, the edge of the desk level with her nose. "Ai Love, I have an appointment."

     The receptionist must have had great hearing, because even with the muttered monotone Ai…muttered, she quickly clack-clack-clacked on her keyboard and replied with more cheerful than a person should reasonably possess. "Ai, you are just in time! Dr. Galore has the Machine all warmed up and ready for you right now!"

     It took a few minutes, but Ai eventually obtained from the girl - who's name was Britney! (of course it was) and she was loving Ai's hair (who loves messy ponytail scrunchy?) - directions to elevators, went down to level B12, walked through what felt like a mile of creepy empty hallway and ended in front of a massive steel door that would make bank vaults feel insecure.

     Standing there, hearing something that sounded like the Its Alive! scene from Frankenstein crackling behind the doors despite their thickness, Ai paused and regretted every decision she had ever made, ever.

     "This is a mistake," Ai mumbled, pulling out her phone and playing a few rounds of Solitaire to calm nerves. She might feel silly, standing there for ten minutes in front of a vault door while mad science happened behind it, but no one was there to see here, keeping anxieties to a minimum. Eventually, though, she put the phone away and pushed the little call button on the side underneath the nametag reading Dr. Deloris Galore.

     "Yes?" came staticky reply, though with an unidentifiable European accent making it sound more like a Ves than affirmative.

     Ai pushed the button again and held it down. "Ai Love, here for my appointment."

     Ai didn't get a reply, and after another few minutes of nothing Ai pushed the button again and repeated herself. Silence. Wondering what to do, Ai slowly walked towards the elevators when warning lights flashed, loud claxxon blared and with hissing sealed gasses, the vault swung open. Squeaking a bit and flattening herself against hallway, Ai was not ashamed to admit that she thought some kind of monster had escaped and she was about to be eaten, but all that came out was an older woman in her sixties, gray hair in a severe bun and wearing a lab coat stained in various blue and green colored slimes, which Ai didn't know what to make of. Her face had the distracted look of someone so far into an ADHD focus/distraction look, she appeared surprised when she caught sight of Ai and appeared as if she had to think about what to say for a moment.

     "Oh, good, you still here," the older woman said, smoothing lab coat but managing to spread the goop smeared further on white surface. "Not going to lie, most of the volunteers run screaming at this point." Her English was perfect, but her accent was thick enough to clearly indicate a second language. Slavikese, Ai thought.

     Also, while Ai dwelt on linguistical musing to calm herself, she made no reply nor moved away from the wall. Once she realized that, she eased away from the wall but continued to say nothing because now she didn't know what to say.

     "Well, won't be doing any science in the hallway, so you better come in," the old woman said energetically, motioning impatiently for Ai to enter the vault. "I'm Dr. Galore, no need to worry."

     Ai fixed her skirt, her hair, then shuffled to the aperture and peeked inside. The room - rather classified as a large open laboratory filled with wires and electrical equipment - all centered around a large white tube likely once upon a time an MRI machine, if medical equipment was designed by H. R. Giger. Nodes and holes and fixtures Ai had no reasonable comparison to jutted out and around the entire thing until the chaos gave impression of more hardcore sides of science fiction.

     "I know it looks frightening, but as we discussed on the phone, all perfectly safe." Dr. Galore stepped forward and moved with the stride of a woman preparing to fire the Death Star when ready. "I just finished a session myself, all kinds of good! However, I am a bit rushed so if you'll strip, I'll get you connected and we can start this party."

     "Strip?" Ai asked, yelping suddenly when the vault door boomed closed and locked with a sucking sound to indicate a tight freshness seal on this Ziplock prison. "I didn't...I don't..."

     "Pish posh! I'm you're doctor and the Machine works better with more skin contact." She fiddled with a dial and something that sounded like a turbine whirled behind the back wall. "Don't have any cameras in here as everyone needs to get naked."

     Ai shivered, the room suddenly very cold. Under the expecting gaze of the doctor, Ai turned around with a blush red enough to power Vegas and slowly took her clothing off. It took a few minutes, but eventually Ai stood naked in the room, arms creating comical modesty, the woman unsure where to go or what to do.

     "Girl, what do you eat for breakfast? Other weightlifters?"

     Ai blushed again, but this time not entirely from embarrassment, parts of her rushing heat. While short of stature, Ai spent a lot of her week in a gym and she looked it. No shredding like people expect from a bodybuilder, that kind of appearance actually unhealthy and Ai built her body for herself, not competition. There was no hiding the bumps, cuts and mass all over her body, a double dose in her thighs making skirts the only practical form of legwear available.

     The only bumps she lacked were those related to feminine curvature - the arm covering her breasts not needing to cover much of anything - but that would hopefully be addressed soon with this therapy.

     "Also the scrunchie."

     Sighing in frustration, then giving up, Ai reached up and pulled it out to let her hair loose, posing full monty at this point. Ai was going to embrace the naked.

     Dr. Galore nodded, flipped a few more switches, then strode to the MRI thingy and pushed some buttons on a panel there. A table slid out with some straps and it didn't take a degree in rocket dentistry to figure out where Ai was supposed to lay down. This was, actually, all explained to her before, it just felt different reading it in an email and standing naked mounting a strange device.

     "This feels...cold," Ai mumbled, getting wrists and ankles fixed into place, distracting herself with thoughts of ice cream.

     "Once I get you into the goop, you won't feel a thing," the doctor assured with her pleasant accent, working the straps professionally. "Really, the next hour, you'll be relaxing on a beach with a drink in your hand and feeling the most amazing tranquility because neurally, I'll be able to shut off all your anxieties. A month of weekly sessions, and your brain will be trained to handle stress normally just like everyone else. Whole new you, one that isn't afraid of crowds or worried about what your mother thinks of you." Last strap tightened, the doctor stepped back and gestured to Ai with a genuine smile. "The you that you always wanted to be."

     Ai nodded, giving a thumbs up, but she didn't understand why as the table slid back into the machine and things grew dark. The opening closed and she was left with only a few blinking lights in the tube. A panic attack set in, but she spent the last month dunking herself in her bath at home to prepare for what was to come and keep from losing it. The "goop", as Dr. Galore called it, flooded the chamber and thankfully, it was quite warm. It was also filled with liquid oxygen, so after holding her breath, Ai gasped and gulped it down into her lungs, forcing the reflex back and breathing liquid in and out. Still terribly panic inducing, those gasps kept on and on until Ai regained control, but after that she took in the sensation of losing all sensation.

     Ai knew there were some drugs in the solution as well, feeling calm wash over her. Mostly it was peaceful in the soft blue and green light filtered through the goop. She had some buoyancy and would have floated, but the straps kept her in place.

     "Alright, still with us?" Ai heard, or felt, or imagined, she wasn't sure, but words came to through the process. Regardless of the how, Dr. Galore spoke and after a moment Ai realized she couldn't reply, settling for a nod. "Good, I'm turning on the secondary process, so lay back and--"

     *KA-KUUM!!*

     Like tossing around a riptide in the ocean, Ai felt she were a small goldfish in a plastic bag and a vigorous toddler started shaking. Lights flared sharply before everything went completely black and then nothing. The goop manifested sound dampening effects because the only thing Ai heard was a frantic beating of her heart.

     Doctor?! What is happening? Ai tried to scream yet couldn't, not even bubbles escaping, unable to break the restraints as she strained and thrashed. Another massive crash shook the tube and she felt the rush of falling. Help!! Help help helphelphelphelp!!

     The feeling lasted for only seconds before another flash and she blacked out, losing all sensation.

****************************************

     Hmm, this sand is warm...

     "Oi, d'ya see dat? Ya reckon we got a breather?"

     The sand was warm, but the cold and wet stick poking Ai in the butt woke her quickly, opening blurry eyes with a shock.

     "Ah!" she cried, solid whiteness stabbing into her head as she immediately shut her eyes and threw her hands up, trying to block out the painful light.

     "I knew it, knew dis sector was 'e winner!" The thing poked harder and Ai tried to shy away, but she couldn't see, only vaguely hear someone. "Git 'ver 'ere, Melody, an' 'elp me slave 'er."

     What? Ai asked herself before a pair of rough hands held her down and a tight metal collar clicked around her throat.

     Suddenly her entire body went limp, like a limb falling asleep only all of her. Ai could still feel, though, when those same rough hands picked her up and then tossed her onto a pile of rocks. She would have cried out from pain, but all she was capable at that moment was to force her eyes open and power through the brightness until it changed into sight. Fortunately, at the angle she fell, she got a perfect view of where she was.

     To paraphrase Dorothy, it wasn't Kansas.

     If Dr. Seuss ever needed an open graveyard filled with the bodies of every crazy and wacky thing that could pop into or out of his head, dumping them into macabre rotting piles like rainbow vomit across a desert made of craggy white salt, the sky a slowly swirling lightning vortex, this was it. Dragons split into gory pieces next to whales with tentacles, hundreds of humanoids mixed with thousands of spattery goblinoids mixed with ambiguous rotting fur. The smell was enough to gag a dockworker yet Ai didn't even have the reflex available, cold metal around her neck preventing anything. Every few seconds another body fell from the sky to land in a shower of blood and ichor on another mountain of bodies.

     "Not of'en we git a live 'un, eh, Melody?"

     The face slithering into view was most definitely not human, green scales molting around yellow eyes and a long snake tongue tasting the air. Those eyes bore into her the same way she looked at a cut of prime pork. All she could do was scream in her head when three fingered claws reached out and fondled her hair.

     "Gonna git a gud price, eh?"

     It was then, as the lizard man wandered off, leaving the bit of bangs across her eyes, that Ai latched onto the first thing she could in all this nightmare to distract from this obvious psychotic break.

     Why is my hair purple?