The Offscreen Life of Hideki Tang & 'Friends' - Aversion Therapy
Blame a mixture of Game of Thrones and my own writer's block. There's gonna be a lot of stuff that you don't see but is alluded to (whether because it's waaaaaaaaaay OTT/dark, or just because it isn't necessary for it to go into greater detail for the main purposes of the story (or I couldn't stage it anyway)) where Hideki & co are concerned, but I think I'll write some anyway since why not, and it might help me write the main stuff. Spoilery, but if you're the kind of person who reads this stuff of mine, it's probably not much you don't know/haven't guessed.
Relates to: 16B Part 1
Characters: Hideki, Trick
Rating: PG
Word Count: 790
"So, are you, like, a trained psychologist?" Trick asked him nervously, looking around the small room which held only a table and chairs.
"To a degree." Certainly not an official degree, but it was the practical experience that really mattered, Hideki thought. "And this isn't very complicated as treatments go. At the minute your brain associates grilled cheese with good, pleasurable things; we just need to change it so that your brain associates it with bad things instead."
"And that doesn't require, like... brain surgery or anything does it?"
Hideki felt tempted by the idea for a moment, just imagining what one could achieve if they messed with the physical actuality of somebody's brain. But, while you might be able to wing psychology, winging brain surgery would likely lead to serious brain damage, if not death. Just look at what happened with Jayapalan, and that machine hadn't even entered his head itself.
"No, no. Just think of... You know how pets can get excited by the sound of tin openers? That's because the sound often precedes food, so they associate the sound with eating and are happy, even though the sound in and of itself should do nothing for them. If you pair two experiences up enough, eventually the brain will come to expect one with the other."
"So we pair up grilled cheese sandwiches with something that's bad? Like what?"
"Physical pain." Willing torture, the fools.
Trick didn't look very happy at that. "Does- does it have to be that?"
"Could go a more psychological route."
"Psychological pain? Is there such a thing as psychological pain?" he frowned.
"Sure: shame, for one. That's another option, if you'd prefer it..." Would you prefer it? he wondered, surveying the other man. I could work with that; if anything far more interesting than the brain itself, drawing out the personality from it and seeing how that works, and you could do a lot more damage with a lot less evidence...
"Well, technically, isn't there shame anyway? Especially now it's being said that there's that link with what happened to Jasmine Ryman - who was my cousin, by the way - and that obsession. Probably anyone would be self-conscious and embarrassed and worried about their habits around that now, so mightn't it all just sort itself out without people having to go through... pain and things here?" he was trying to worm and reason his way out of it now, but with entirely the wrong person.
"The thing is, the psychological method is weaker in the end. Think, for example, of all the ways society shames people sexually: to wait until love or marriage, not to do things on their own, not to even think about it... But they do it anyway. They feel the shame and carry on. In fact, you get shame spirals where people do something and feel bad about it and then do it again because of the shame they feel. I doubt it'll stop anyone. Pain, on the other hand..."
"But is it really necessary?" he whispered desperately, as though he didn't want to be overheard by the people enforcing it. "I swear I don't think I've ever had any thoughts or inclinations or out-of-control moments that might suggest I'm like that, and I was never anything much like Grandpa Seth, and... I don't understand what the link is anyway. Is it really necessary?"
Oh dear, he was practically begging Hideki to save him from this. Sorry friend, no sympathy or mercy here. "Did you read the evidence?"
"No... Did you?"
He nodded solemnly. "Trust me."
Heaven help the poor sod, he actually did, though he looked thoroughly miserable doing so. "Okay... So what do we have to do?"
"Well first we're going to have to some grilled cheese sandwiches made."
For all his anxieties, Hideki could still see the slightly suppressed signs of desire on Trick's face at that. Well, they'd soon get rid of that...
"And in the meantime, I'm going to go and sterilise a very sharp knife."
Now that's the face we want to see.
Relates to: 16B Part 1
Characters: Hideki, Trick
Rating: PG
Word Count: 790
"So, are you, like, a trained psychologist?" Trick asked him nervously, looking around the small room which held only a table and chairs.
"To a degree." Certainly not an official degree, but it was the practical experience that really mattered, Hideki thought. "And this isn't very complicated as treatments go. At the minute your brain associates grilled cheese with good, pleasurable things; we just need to change it so that your brain associates it with bad things instead."
"And that doesn't require, like... brain surgery or anything does it?"
Hideki felt tempted by the idea for a moment, just imagining what one could achieve if they messed with the physical actuality of somebody's brain. But, while you might be able to wing psychology, winging brain surgery would likely lead to serious brain damage, if not death. Just look at what happened with Jayapalan, and that machine hadn't even entered his head itself.
"No, no. Just think of... You know how pets can get excited by the sound of tin openers? That's because the sound often precedes food, so they associate the sound with eating and are happy, even though the sound in and of itself should do nothing for them. If you pair two experiences up enough, eventually the brain will come to expect one with the other."
"So we pair up grilled cheese sandwiches with something that's bad? Like what?"
"Physical pain." Willing torture, the fools.
Trick didn't look very happy at that. "Does- does it have to be that?"
"Could go a more psychological route."
"Psychological pain? Is there such a thing as psychological pain?" he frowned.
"Sure: shame, for one. That's another option, if you'd prefer it..." Would you prefer it? he wondered, surveying the other man. I could work with that; if anything far more interesting than the brain itself, drawing out the personality from it and seeing how that works, and you could do a lot more damage with a lot less evidence...
"Well, technically, isn't there shame anyway? Especially now it's being said that there's that link with what happened to Jasmine Ryman - who was my cousin, by the way - and that obsession. Probably anyone would be self-conscious and embarrassed and worried about their habits around that now, so mightn't it all just sort itself out without people having to go through... pain and things here?" he was trying to worm and reason his way out of it now, but with entirely the wrong person.
"The thing is, the psychological method is weaker in the end. Think, for example, of all the ways society shames people sexually: to wait until love or marriage, not to do things on their own, not to even think about it... But they do it anyway. They feel the shame and carry on. In fact, you get shame spirals where people do something and feel bad about it and then do it again because of the shame they feel. I doubt it'll stop anyone. Pain, on the other hand..."
"But is it really necessary?" he whispered desperately, as though he didn't want to be overheard by the people enforcing it. "I swear I don't think I've ever had any thoughts or inclinations or out-of-control moments that might suggest I'm like that, and I was never anything much like Grandpa Seth, and... I don't understand what the link is anyway. Is it really necessary?"
Oh dear, he was practically begging Hideki to save him from this. Sorry friend, no sympathy or mercy here. "Did you read the evidence?"
"No... Did you?"
He nodded solemnly. "Trust me."
Heaven help the poor sod, he actually did, though he looked thoroughly miserable doing so. "Okay... So what do we have to do?"
"Well first we're going to have to some grilled cheese sandwiches made."
For all his anxieties, Hideki could still see the slightly suppressed signs of desire on Trick's face at that. Well, they'd soon get rid of that...
"And in the meantime, I'm going to go and sterilise a very sharp knife."
Now that's the face we want to see.