Tales of a Child Eternal [NSFW]

[Helene Dakesh]

They nod. "There are options. This one cannot go to Draslina. Beinn Varric has expressed strong opinions against Glaley. This one could work with Summerhill but this one has serious concerns that this will be sufficient. This one could -- will - send for a copy of the treatment guidelines from Draslina to give to Summerhill; this one could keep a copy, could teach Clan members."

[Tethras Clan]

"Abo-" 

"We can look it over," Varric overrides Zevran's instant rejection. "There might be... parts of it that are usable. We can't tell until we can look it over."

[Helene Dakesh]

They sigh. "This one does not understand why this one is not believed as to the, the merits of the program."

[Tethras Clan]

"It's not the merits exactly, it's the cost. It's... Moonbeam!" Varric snaps his fingers, pleased to have finally pinned down that niggling thought. "Do you know much about training animals? Merrill explained a bit of it, I wasn't entirely paying attention to be honest, but she explained how it's cruel to punish animals during training. And less effective. Use force, sure, sometimes, to stop them from hurting you or anyone else, but if they mess up a trick, you shouldn't hurt them. Instead, you reward them for getting it right, or at least trying. People are animals too, mostly."

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene blinks. "This one has seen many books suggesting using punishment to train animals. They do not understand human speech, and so, reward and punishment are used to make them understand what to do or what not to do."

[Tethras Clan]

"Not saying it doesn't work, just that for most animals, reward works better," Varric explains with a shrug. "You'd have to talk to Merrill for more, I wasn't really paying attention like I said."

"It does makes sense," Zevran muses. "I served as required for fear of pain and suffering, but never so well as I would act for love."

[Helene Dakesh]

"Query: Is there truly no difference between the instinctive obedience of animals and the choice to serve in a complex way?"

[Tethras Clan]

"Eh, yes but also no?" Varric waggles his hand from side to side. "Mortal can reason out decisions, sure, but our first reactions are almost entirely emotion or habit based, just like most animals. You can train in a desired habitual reaction that you picked with logic and reason, sure, but you don't actually think about it in the moment, you just do it. Most subconscious behaviors fall into that sort of thing." 

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene nods. "Precisely. Therefore, the techniques used on animals are most applicable to retraining the sort of, of missteps this one is likely to make."

[Tethras Clan]

"Right and according to my animal expert, kindness and rewards works better," Varric agrees.

[Helene Dakesh]

"This one was rewarded," they agree. "But this one learned faster when punished for missteps."

[Tethras Clan]

"Doesn't seem to have stuck though. Once the threat is removed, a person will start to revert. The same for rewards, yes, but at least you did not have to suffer. And rewards are easier to continue," Zevran opines.

[Helene Dakesh]

"One decade of suffering for one hundred good years is acceptable."

[Tethras Clan]

"Orr... orrrr how about ten years of not suffering for one hundred good years. Or even ten for fifty," Varric counters. "If you can do a program here that's not painful or punishing, then you could do it more often without any real cost." He waves this all off. "But we're spinning shadows into text. We need more information and testing before we can come to any real conclusions. We need a copy of the Draslina program, we need to talk with the Doctor a whole lot more and we should probably interview other people with conditions like yours, both those who've undergone similar programs as you and those who have not."

[Helene Dakesh]

"Those who have not would be in the Danvers Center," says Helene quietly.