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riptide_asylumTitle: The Bozinsky Hypothesis
Rating: R
Summary: As a man of science, Murray always tests his hypotheses. Thoroughly...
Assumption makes an ass out of you and me. That's one of my dad's favorite sayings, and although it grates on my ears when I hear it these days, from time to time I have to admit, Dad was right.
When I first moved aboard the Riptide I assumed - there's that word again! - that my roommates were, well, sharing more than a bedroom, if you get my drift. I'd known Nick and Cody for years by then, although I hadn't seen a lot of them - our fields, at that time, were so totally different. When we first met, I just thought they were a couple of friendly guys. But the more I saw of them, the more I started to think - well, you know. And by the time I moved aboard the boat, I was sure.
It started with the protective way Nick stands guard over Cody. I expect you've noticed, especially if you've watched them working. But it's not just when they work, oh no. Girls, Quinlan, even me - anyone comes too close, says the wrong thing, and Nick's ready to take their heads off. It disconcerted me a little at first, but I got used to it.
Of course, there's also the fact that there are three staterooms on the Riptide, and when I first came aboard, two of them were empty. Nick and Cody never told me why they share a room, and I wasn't naive enough to ask. I just moved in my computers and my clothes, and acted oblivious.
I can't deny I was interested. Human sexuality is an under-researched field - there are so many ethical hurdles that it makes things really extraordinarily difficult for serious scholars, and funding is nearly impossible to obtain. It's really a disgrace - but I diverge.
Anyway, I cataloged a great deal. Did you know they have a whole language, just the two of them? It makes for extremely interesting, and somewhat complicated, observation. They do talk, of course, but they also communicate using a language based on touch, gesture and eye contact. Sometimes I can make a good guess as to the meaning, but other times, I'm left grasping at straws.
That was what led me to install the video and audio feeds. A good researcher has to be thorough, after all, and in a longitudinal study of this type, especially one without the luxury of a control or baseline - well, I've felt all along the liberty was justified. Naturally I didn't tell them, as it was imperative that the study was blind.
The results were nothing like I expected. My hypothesis hadn't led me to draw conclusions about their sleeping patterns, but I'd started with the assumption (here, again) that they shared a bunk.
It turned out that sometimes they did.
But more often, they went to their separate beds, talking, as friends do, about the events of the day. No more than a brush of arms, a glance in their secret language before the light snapped off and they composed themselves to sleep.
That, in and of itself, was fascinating. I learned the patterns of their breathing, and found that Nick never slept until Cody did. He was the lighter sleeper of the two, and every time Cody moved he came awake, listening, speaking or even getting out of his own bed and going over to Cody if something seemed amiss.
Sometimes in the daylight hours, Cody used to get a little snappy with Nick. But in their cabin at night, I've never once heard him less than receptive. He always let Nick calm him, touch him, sit with him, whether he was restless, dreaming or unwell.
Then there were the nightmares. They both had them - Cody more often, but Nick's were worse. Or at least they sounded worse, he would shout like the devil himself was on his heels. On those nights, they'd go topside - my video feeds cover the whole boat - and spend a little time in the salon or on deck. They'd drink coffee and sit together, really together I mean, arms around each other, holding on.
When the coffee was finished and they went back to their cabin, most times they got in the same bunk.
There were other times they shared, and it took me over a year of observation to figure out a pattern. Some nights, they went downstairs and instead of their usual chatting, they undressed in silence. They took turns in the head - Cody first, Nick second, it never varied - and when Nick came back from the bathroom, he'd sit on his bunk and just... wait. It took me a long while to figure out what he was waiting for.
Cody would look at Nick, after a while, and give him some kind of signal - it never seemed to be quite the same thing - and Nick would either go to him, or get in his own bunk.
Those nights, what they did never varied. They’d get in Cody’s bunk, together, and curl up close, Cody with his back to the wall, Nick with his back to the room. Sometimes before they slept, Cody would lay his palm along Nick's cheek, and the two of them would lie there staring at each other. Unmoving, but locked in each other's arms.
They held each other, sleeping only fitfully, exchanging whispered words and speaking their touch-based language all night long.
But they didn’t have sex. Let me tell you, that had me floored. Two people, spending the night that way - not once, but many times over the course of my observations - well, it beat me how they could do that and NOT have sex.
They did it every time they'd been apart - when Nick came back from Reserves, after Cody got back from a visit to his mother - and the other thing I came to realize was that they did it when someone or something had threatened their bond. It was, I guess, their way of reaffirming their partnership.
But interesting though my observations were, they didn't advance my project any. I was finally forced to conclude that my subjects weren't what could be described as typical, and that reporting my data was going to be challenging if not impossible.
Nick Ryder and Cody Allen were, by my own observation, physically intimate with one another - incredibly so - yet they weren't sharing a sexual relationship. And it was rare, extremely rare, for either to take an opportunity for a sexual encounter with anybody else. I found it hard to fathom two adult males in their early thirties willingly abstaining from sex, but I couldn't conceive an alternative hypothesis that fit my data.
Right up until the night Nick was shot.
Nick's okay, don't get me wrong, he made a full recovery. But it hit Cody hard - harder than even I imagined it would, and I at least have some idea of the bond between them. After Nick got home from the hospital, well, that's when everything changed.
They share a bunk every night now. Their sexual relationship took time to develop - Nick was nursing an injury, after all - but now, they're physically, emotionally and sexually monogamous. They're now enjoying, in fact, the relationship that I had begun by assuming (ha!).
So despite the slow start, I'm finally getting some excellent data for my human sexuality project. Publication's still dubious, but I wouldn't be a scientist if that was my only aim. There are times when, for the true scholar, analyzing the data and drawing conclusions are reward enough.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have the tapes from last night to study. The work of a man of science is never truly done...
Rating: R
Summary: As a man of science, Murray always tests his hypotheses. Thoroughly...
Assumption makes an ass out of you and me. That's one of my dad's favorite sayings, and although it grates on my ears when I hear it these days, from time to time I have to admit, Dad was right.
When I first moved aboard the Riptide I assumed - there's that word again! - that my roommates were, well, sharing more than a bedroom, if you get my drift. I'd known Nick and Cody for years by then, although I hadn't seen a lot of them - our fields, at that time, were so totally different. When we first met, I just thought they were a couple of friendly guys. But the more I saw of them, the more I started to think - well, you know. And by the time I moved aboard the boat, I was sure.
It started with the protective way Nick stands guard over Cody. I expect you've noticed, especially if you've watched them working. But it's not just when they work, oh no. Girls, Quinlan, even me - anyone comes too close, says the wrong thing, and Nick's ready to take their heads off. It disconcerted me a little at first, but I got used to it.
Of course, there's also the fact that there are three staterooms on the Riptide, and when I first came aboard, two of them were empty. Nick and Cody never told me why they share a room, and I wasn't naive enough to ask. I just moved in my computers and my clothes, and acted oblivious.
I can't deny I was interested. Human sexuality is an under-researched field - there are so many ethical hurdles that it makes things really extraordinarily difficult for serious scholars, and funding is nearly impossible to obtain. It's really a disgrace - but I diverge.
Anyway, I cataloged a great deal. Did you know they have a whole language, just the two of them? It makes for extremely interesting, and somewhat complicated, observation. They do talk, of course, but they also communicate using a language based on touch, gesture and eye contact. Sometimes I can make a good guess as to the meaning, but other times, I'm left grasping at straws.
That was what led me to install the video and audio feeds. A good researcher has to be thorough, after all, and in a longitudinal study of this type, especially one without the luxury of a control or baseline - well, I've felt all along the liberty was justified. Naturally I didn't tell them, as it was imperative that the study was blind.
The results were nothing like I expected. My hypothesis hadn't led me to draw conclusions about their sleeping patterns, but I'd started with the assumption (here, again) that they shared a bunk.
It turned out that sometimes they did.
But more often, they went to their separate beds, talking, as friends do, about the events of the day. No more than a brush of arms, a glance in their secret language before the light snapped off and they composed themselves to sleep.
That, in and of itself, was fascinating. I learned the patterns of their breathing, and found that Nick never slept until Cody did. He was the lighter sleeper of the two, and every time Cody moved he came awake, listening, speaking or even getting out of his own bed and going over to Cody if something seemed amiss.
Sometimes in the daylight hours, Cody used to get a little snappy with Nick. But in their cabin at night, I've never once heard him less than receptive. He always let Nick calm him, touch him, sit with him, whether he was restless, dreaming or unwell.
Then there were the nightmares. They both had them - Cody more often, but Nick's were worse. Or at least they sounded worse, he would shout like the devil himself was on his heels. On those nights, they'd go topside - my video feeds cover the whole boat - and spend a little time in the salon or on deck. They'd drink coffee and sit together, really together I mean, arms around each other, holding on.
When the coffee was finished and they went back to their cabin, most times they got in the same bunk.
There were other times they shared, and it took me over a year of observation to figure out a pattern. Some nights, they went downstairs and instead of their usual chatting, they undressed in silence. They took turns in the head - Cody first, Nick second, it never varied - and when Nick came back from the bathroom, he'd sit on his bunk and just... wait. It took me a long while to figure out what he was waiting for.
Cody would look at Nick, after a while, and give him some kind of signal - it never seemed to be quite the same thing - and Nick would either go to him, or get in his own bunk.
Those nights, what they did never varied. They’d get in Cody’s bunk, together, and curl up close, Cody with his back to the wall, Nick with his back to the room. Sometimes before they slept, Cody would lay his palm along Nick's cheek, and the two of them would lie there staring at each other. Unmoving, but locked in each other's arms.
They held each other, sleeping only fitfully, exchanging whispered words and speaking their touch-based language all night long.
But they didn’t have sex. Let me tell you, that had me floored. Two people, spending the night that way - not once, but many times over the course of my observations - well, it beat me how they could do that and NOT have sex.
They did it every time they'd been apart - when Nick came back from Reserves, after Cody got back from a visit to his mother - and the other thing I came to realize was that they did it when someone or something had threatened their bond. It was, I guess, their way of reaffirming their partnership.
But interesting though my observations were, they didn't advance my project any. I was finally forced to conclude that my subjects weren't what could be described as typical, and that reporting my data was going to be challenging if not impossible.
Nick Ryder and Cody Allen were, by my own observation, physically intimate with one another - incredibly so - yet they weren't sharing a sexual relationship. And it was rare, extremely rare, for either to take an opportunity for a sexual encounter with anybody else. I found it hard to fathom two adult males in their early thirties willingly abstaining from sex, but I couldn't conceive an alternative hypothesis that fit my data.
Right up until the night Nick was shot.
Nick's okay, don't get me wrong, he made a full recovery. But it hit Cody hard - harder than even I imagined it would, and I at least have some idea of the bond between them. After Nick got home from the hospital, well, that's when everything changed.
They share a bunk every night now. Their sexual relationship took time to develop - Nick was nursing an injury, after all - but now, they're physically, emotionally and sexually monogamous. They're now enjoying, in fact, the relationship that I had begun by assuming (ha!).
So despite the slow start, I'm finally getting some excellent data for my human sexuality project. Publication's still dubious, but I wouldn't be a scientist if that was my only aim. There are times when, for the true scholar, analyzing the data and drawing conclusions are reward enough.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have the tapes from last night to study. The work of a man of science is never truly done...
