hawkeyowa | 010: The Monster Study

[Jack kept himself relatively busy today. He knows with spring high in the air, there's cleaning to do...and flooding. It's got him nervous, certainly. Even in HQ, he still has some kind of paranoia, so he re-caulked his bathroom just in case. It's been a big job, especially what with checking for cracks and whatnot in his room, and going so far as to check the plumbing because god forbid anything gets through.

So when Day One of the flood preparation project is done, he slumps down on his bed for what he thinks is a well-deserved rest. Rolling on his side, he yanks off one of his work gloves and going to put it on the bedside table beside his alarm clock. However, he spots a slip of paper just at the base of the clock...something he doesn't remember seeing earlier, and he's walked by that area countless times today. Maybe someone thought he wasn't in and left him a note? Curious, he picks it up, reading over the contents. Suddenly, his face goes pale and he feels an icy sensation creeping in the pits of his stomach. His hands start shaking as he reads it over again.]

[This had to be a joke. Someone had to be playing a sick...sick joke on him. It was a part of his history he wanted to ignore more than any other part. Considered to be one of the top ten worst human experiments of all time...and one of the very worst psychological experiments, the Monster Study took dozens of orphans around Iowa and examined their ability to learn speech. Positive remarks and rewards were given to half the group of orphans, and the other half were belittled and punished for even the smallest speech flaw. Many developed horrible stutters, and some went mute.

And he was a part of it.

He remembers it all too clearly, and he doesn't--

Wait, he remembers it. He's never remembered anything so negative before. Usually all the traumatic experiences--being war, fighting, bad storms--all went past him and into that demented fallback he had cackling somewhere in his mind. Then why, of all things, does he remember the Monster Study? If it was Hyde who did all the fighting and killing, and picked up on all the horrible things of his past, how come Jack is left with something so sick as this?

'Shit, Jackie. I've done some shitty things before, but to orphans? Now, that is messed up.'

Not even bothering to shut his other side up, it disgusts him deeply that there was one thing he actually did. Even from something in 1939, it reverberates through him now, and images of children--barely even adolescents yet--crying and apologizing in shivering stutters for things they didn't even do wrong...it's haunting him now.

Then there's another thought that stings deep and causes that cold nausea feeling to intensify. Is he any worse than Hyde, really? Is there a crack in that mild-mannered farm boy persona that hints that all is certainly not well?

His first response is to crumple up the paper in his hand (his scarred hand, as if he needed insult to mental injury) and fold one arm across his eyes, fighting back the nauseous feelings shaking him. Sleep certainly won't come easy now, what with these realizations and the memories he hoped so badly that he would forget. One comment from a spokesperson for the school where it was conducted haunts him:

"This is a study that should never be considered defensible in any era...In no way would I ever think of defending this study. In no way. It’s more than unfortunate."]

[ooc: Okay, basic summary here: in 1939, a professor at the University of Iowa wanted to see if positive and negative remarks would cure children of stuttering. They took orphans into the study, believing that no one would care, and ran the tests. They rewarded half the group, even if they slipped up. The other group was punished rather harshly for even the tiniest slip up in their speech. Yes, a lot of kids developed stutters or chose not to speak at all, and some of those orphans were committed to mental institutions later in life, where some still are.

What I think makes this a little disturbing and why it's considered such a terrible human experiment is because the children ranged from ages 5-15, and were almost disregarded as people and more like little tests. It's a little frightening that it practically happened in our own backyard, and the University just apologized about it in 2001. That, and now the type of study that the professor used is called the 'Iowa Study Method'. I think that would mess Jack up quite a bit, for being a state where supposedly nothing happens.]

Current Mood: nauseated
Current Music: Monster - Skillet

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[ Gabe now had the nerve to talk to Jack again, after all he figured he made an idiot of himself. It was cruel to play such a game on Jack after all, to hint that he killed someone when he knew the truth. Even if it was an idea he thought of while he was a little buzzed (aka, drunk) at the time.

No gifts. That'd seem insincere and seems like you're trying to to suck up to them. He didn't want to give off that appearance, not to mention he'd likely over do it and carry some weight on his chest. It was a miracle on some level that he was able to function the way he did without any outward pain to those unobservant. (Even if his movements were most definitely strained.)

He peered into the room, actually genuinely curious. He wasn't worried, he just wanted to apologize and be sincere as possible then never talk to him again since ... The blood began pumping. Don't think that way. Don't. ]

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010: The Monster Study

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