Procedure 23 aims to make assets unfit for reconditioning less expensive to deal with via the induction of permanent damage to the subjects' nerves in order to inflict chronic pain. This act by itself would only serve to wear down the assets, as seen in Procedure 16B, but that is not the entire scope of Procedure 23. Instead of focusing in how pain affects the subjects, it is the pain relief that has become the object of study.
When a body is exposed to prolonged pain, it naturally reaches a sort of resistance to it. To deal with that problem, a potent painkiller has been administered to subjects after having experienced constant pain for three weeks, thus relieving their pain and reminding them what it is like to be free from it. The desperation inititally observed after the damaging of the nerves was incomparable to that which took over the assets when the painkillers started wearing off. They got to experience normalcy for about three hours, during which they went through the following cycle of emotions:
At first, they rejoyced. Their painless existance became a source of positive reinforcement.
Then, they understood what would happen when the effect of the drugs ended. Their joy was tainted with anger and fear.
After that, subjects C34 and J3 pleaded for the continued administration of the painkillers, while F18, U88 and C35 experienced a state of mania followed by complete silence.
In the end, as the pain returned, all assets became more pliant, and their response to previously-failed reconditioning became positive.
The only subject unaffected by Procedure 23 was F5. She had been previously tagged as unusable, and her presence in the test was her last chance at redemption.
F5 has been properly disposed of.
