As always, any and all criticism and support is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
Apo
* * * * *
People like to think of themselves as static. You are you, you've always been you, and always be you. But really, who you are changes with every passing moment, even if only slightly. Who you are right this second is a completely different person to who you were ten years ago. Who you are is sculpted by your experiences.
The brain, be it human or Ortian, is plastic. Input the correct information in the correct way and it's putty in your hands. How do you think slot machines work? Algorithms are designed specifically to condition people to keep coming back for more. With the right stimuli in the right conditions, you can turn a productive member of society into a helpless gambling addict.
Pacification is this process but turned up to eleven.
* * * * *
Amaki's progress has stagnated since her little slipup a week ago. After her two hours in paradise to release some tension, and a good night's sleep, the reality of what she had done seemed to hit her. The next morning, and the week since, Amaki had been careful not let to her will relax. Deciding to see how far she could go, I didn't make any attempt to discourage her behaviour, and instead just continued her treatment as I had been planning on before.
I didn't subject her to more sensory-deprivation conditioning however, as I wasn't confident that she could maintain her determination given her previous reaction. My end goal of course was to break Amaki. Reduce her to an obedient pet. But unlike Vogler, I was more concerned with the journey than the destination. The fun of effortlessly breaking a mind had all but worn off after forty years.
The last week hadn't been wasted though. I'd been working on a special new program to help me with Amaki's training. For the purposes of Pacification, a general idea of Ortian brain structure is more than sufficient. By just looking at their outer appearance each Ortian may seem wildly different, on the inside they're usually quite similar. However, I wanted to go that extra mile to see what I could do.
For each of Amaki's daily sessions, while she was doing her best to resist the mind-numbing pleasure the machine forced upon her, I set about mapping her brain more accurately. This was actually easier than I had expected for large parts of the mapping, as many sections of the brain were being lit up dynamically during each session. All that was left was to book time with a Level Two A.I. and have it interoperate the information and presto! I had an in-depth, working model of Amaki's brain.
And so, after seven days of mapping, a day of A.I. processing, as well as keeping on top of my responsibilities as Head of Production, I was pretty eager to test out the accuracy and applications of my new project. And having been watching Amaki resist and then give in to please for eight days straight, I had just the test in mind.
* * * * *
Waking up the next morning, I took my time washing up and getting dressed before heading over to my office to get started on the day's paperwork. By now, the handlers knew that I liked to get Amaki's treatment started at around 1pm, and so would have her ready for me by the time I arrived unless told otherwise. By 12:30pm I had already caught up with the little backlog of work I had and was ready to go to my Pacification room.
Walking leisurely through the Pacification wing of the facility, I took a quick look into a couple of the different observation rooms I passed. The first batch of Ortians were nearing the end of their training with only a couple days of quality assurance left before they would be shipped off to be sold. Therefore, all the hard work was already finished and most of the staff I was supervising were busy preparing for the next batch to come in. Therefore, the product that had their training completed were given some basic reinforcement sessions while we worked through reviewing each one. After a cursory inspection, I continued on.
Finally arriving at my Pacification room, I input my code and walked in. Sitting in the lone chair in the room was the blue-skinned Ortian I'd been working on for the last two weeks or so. From behind, I noticed that Amaki's dark blue hair had grown down almost to her waist. From just above her hairline, I could see the peaks of her stubby, inky black horns peeking out. For the first time, I wondered if haircuts were difficult for Ortians since they had to work around their horns.
Walking around to the front of the chair, Amaki raised her head to give me a dirty look. By now she had learned to recognise when it was me who entered the room.
"Good morning Amaki. Did you have a good night's sleep?" I asked, baiting for a reaction from her.