They probably would have been ordered or pulled apart, had anyone heard what they were saying to one another. Heard that they were daring to agree that their handlers could possibly have performed an error that they were merely suffering for. But since there was no evident, physical sign of malfunction - since they stood there, calm and docile, since the other man's muzzle masked and muffled any signs of speech - the technicians unthinkingly spoke over them, sparing them only the occasional glance.
After all, their keepers were looking for ways to turn their persistently lingering affection to their advantage. There was clearly some small, deeply hidden part of the emotional center of the brain that the chair couldn't reach, like the instincts for pain and reward. So if those impulses were indulged in carefully controlled environments, it was thought that it would give both weapons, both soldiers, less reason to struggle against their new roles in life. The need for one another's company was somehow just that - a need - and so like their needs for food and water, it would be carefully managed and leveraged, to ensure performance and obedience.
He knew he would be punished further, later, but that wasn't the only reason he found he didn't want this moment to end.
When it was time to move, it took him a few steps to realize that the soldier was setting a deliberately slow pace. It took him a few steps more to realize why - after all, it couldn't be due to injury - and when he did, he bit the inside of his mouth in an attempt to keep from smiling, feeling a surge of something like joy at the indisputable knowledge that the impulses that drew him towards this man were understood, returned. They fell into step easily, and it felt right.
Still, it was something of a relief to finally be permitted to get off his injured leg. He made no sound to betray as much as he was gently settled onto the operating table, but it was there in every line of his body. He looked up at his companion one last time, just before he was released, and saw there the subtle signs that betrayed even an attempt at a smile.
It was an attempt he returned a little more easily, before the doctors came to shoo them both apart once more.
It would be a long while before they would be permitted to see one another again, but for that particular theory, at least, the test had been deemed a success.
no subject
After all, their keepers were looking for ways to turn their persistently lingering affection to their advantage. There was clearly some small, deeply hidden part of the emotional center of the brain that the chair couldn't reach, like the instincts for pain and reward. So if those impulses were indulged in carefully controlled environments, it was thought that it would give both weapons, both soldiers, less reason to struggle against their new roles in life. The need for one another's company was somehow just that - a need - and so like their needs for food and water, it would be carefully managed and leveraged, to ensure performance and obedience.
He knew he would be punished further, later, but that wasn't the only reason he found he didn't want this moment to end.
When it was time to move, it took him a few steps to realize that the soldier was setting a deliberately slow pace. It took him a few steps more to realize why - after all, it couldn't be due to injury - and when he did, he bit the inside of his mouth in an attempt to keep from smiling, feeling a surge of something like joy at the indisputable knowledge that the impulses that drew him towards this man were understood, returned. They fell into step easily, and it felt right.
Still, it was something of a relief to finally be permitted to get off his injured leg. He made no sound to betray as much as he was gently settled onto the operating table, but it was there in every line of his body. He looked up at his companion one last time, just before he was released, and saw there the subtle signs that betrayed even an attempt at a smile.
It was an attempt he returned a little more easily, before the doctors came to shoo them both apart once more.
It would be a long while before they would be permitted to see one another again, but for that particular theory, at least, the test had been deemed a success.