“Kick the left posterior superior temporal sulcus again.”
“Nothing, Steve, I think it may be burnt out.”
“It can’t be completely trashed, he was at work just yesterday, I swear he felt guilty about not getting that javascript done.”
“Look, the guilt centers just aren’t responding to shocks any more. I put a hot clothes hanger wire into the medial prefrontal cortex the other day, and all I got was a twitch.”
“We’ve got to do something, the last couple of stories, when he’s managed to post, have been crap. The guilt complex is the only thing we’ve got to work with now that the adrenal gland has shriveled up like a raisin.”
“I know, I know. You can only run so much guilt and self loathing through a brain before it loses it’s ability to respond, though. Maybe we could make him sick again? That fever a few weeks ago kept him in bed for days.”
“Yeah, but how much writing did he get done?”
“Point. Anything going on in the ambition centers?”
“Sleep.”
“What?”
“Sleep. Ambition centers are stuck on sleep, have been for a while.”
“Damn. Steve, I hate to say it, but I don’t think we have much choice, he’s running out of time tonight.”
“Well, push the guilt program, maybe he’ll get something done this weekend. If nothing else we’ll suck all the energy out of the system and make sure he doesn’t do anything else.”
“I just hope he appreciates what we’re doing for him.”

