As Leland stepped out of the shuttle into the evaluation room, he found himself looking forward to hearing S speak. To praise him for how hard he's been working lately, and with the new project being launched, maybe he even wanted to impress S. Just a bit.
And was Leland delusional for believing maybe there was something... Strange between the two of them? The favourable treatment, for starters: food, more free time, a new hat, the list goes on. And the pavlov clicker training? What the fuck was that about?
As he looked at the television, he was practically beaming at the grade projecting from the screen. An A+. It'd been a while since he'd received one of those. Plenty of A's and A-'s, but A+'s were few and far between.
He walked out of the elevator and into the transitional room, and there he was. S, standing at the window with a clipboard in hand.
It was a rare occasion to see S in the flesh, especially during evaluations, but Leland wasn't complaining. Far from it, really.
With a shit eating grin on his face, he looked up at S through the glass, offering a proud, "...so, doc, how'd I do?"
S was inside the small room, leaning on one of the many mechanical devices of blinking lights. His hand scribbling over the clipboard. His eyes flickering up. Pleased.
There was a new addition to his outfit. A small, plastic clicker tied onto his apron. He smirked with his eyes, titling his head for a second before -
He put his clipboard down. Putting his full attention on Leland. And god that was rare.
"You've been.. very good." He grinned, reaching down and tapping that clicker once.
He smiled behind his mask, looking back down to his clipboard and motioning towards the exit hall. And god that was just like him. Give Leland the scraps of attention that he so desperately wanted and then depriving it the next second.
