Trained Both Ways

Craig does not think — “his training thinks for him”: a freak enters the field of view, the freak must be hit, and the eyes dart to the master for the reward. Bullying is almost never a solo act: it is a duet, “pass and receive”, where the sidekick executes and the leader pays in laughter and nods.

But the training works both ways: the one who learned to strike on a nod also learned to submit instantly when the master bares his teeth. Craig does not understand what he was punished for and does not try to — in his world there is no understanding, only rank. Group violence runs not on malice but on precisely this machinery.