Let's find out!

The consulting physician sat across the desk and eyed Penny and Matt carefully. He glanced down at their paperwork, then back up at them. Penny lounged cheerfully and Matt sat rigidly, nervous but smiling.

"So if you don't mind me asking, Mrs. Norman, why do you want the booster? You certainly don't seem to be in need of any further mood enhancements."

"No, but as you can see, my husband is a grumpy." He shot her a glare and she winked at the doctor. "He hates that word. Anyway, I've wanted one for a while but Matt's been pretty opposed until recently."

"I guess I just finally understood how happy it made her," Matt interjected. "It was nothing but positive, and so I figure the next step can only be more so."

"Are you ready to to care for a Boosted?" the man asked Matt. Matt squeezed Penny's hand and nodded.

They had read the paperwork in great detail. The booster was a follow-up shot to the anesthetic. Most people chose not to take it, as the effects were more **** than the base dose, but a handful chose to. The effects made it difficult but not impossible to live independently.

Simply put, if the anesthetic erased suffering from one's future, the booster erased it from their past. This meant they don't have any instinct to avoid negative consequences.

Consider this, the pamphlet said: June and Sam both want to cross the freeway. June has taken the anesthetic, but she knows that she shouldn't cross five lanes of speeding traffic because she could end up dead or in the hospital. She doesn't fear those things, exactly, but she still understands that they are an undesirable outcome.

Her friend Sam has taken the booster. Sam understands that if she gets hit by a speeding car she may be injured or die, and that many other people may get injured or die. It just doesn't occur to her that those outcomes are undesirable. Not only is she now unable to suffer, she is unable to perceive suffering. She could still possibly work out on her own that she shouldn't cross the street, but she was just as likely to walk into traffic.

They read further about the dull, flattened affect and perpetual stupor of the Boosted. "With no psychological friction, the mind becomes a bit more hazy," the doctor explained. "It varies from person to person but there are some things virtually all Boosteds have in common."

He turned to the nude woman sitting next to him. She broke out in a beatific smile and placed her hand lightly on the doctor's shoulder. "Note the glassy, dull eyes, parted lips, and slack facial muscles," he said as he gestured to her. She continued staring dully into the middle distance.

"Her skin is flushed and she's breathing deeply. Her posture is relaxed, as if she's taken a muscle relaxer. Her movements are languid and slow - ah, dear, please stand and turn for them - and uncoordinated. As you can see, her pupils are slightly dilated. That's the infamous 'Booster Stare.' You will have that."

"And what about the cognitive effects?" Penny asked.

"Most people's favorite part. As you know, cognitive tests have shown no change in ability after the booster is administered. They aren't diminished in any way intellectually. They - you, Mrs. Norman - will just be a little hazier. The mind moves slower without anxiety, and more so without even comprehending what anxiety feels like."

Penny looked hopefully at Matt, who smiled and nodded.

"Without any real friction, your mind will sort of atrophy. There's a threshold that varies from person to person. Some people remain mostly how they were but others really lose a lot of function. There's no current way to predict the outcome at all. Take Megan here, for example."

He patted Megan's back and she smiled broadly once again. "She got hit hard. So hard that her husband couldn't care for her. Isn't that right, dear?"

"You got it, swee- uh, sweetie pie..." she muttered, scrunching her brow with effort. "You, uh, you got me instead."

"The company got her, that is. I'm just her custodian. I keep Megan here safe. Isn't that right?"

"Yeah," Megan said distantly. "You keep me safe. You help me try to be old me and I think I'm getting better."

"That's right," the doctor said and she beamed at the praise. "Care to demonstrate?"

Megan furrowed her brow for a moment. Suddenly, her posture straightened and her eyes swam into focus. She spoke again, this time clearly and quickly.

"I'm able to slip back into my non-boostered state for minutes at a time. Like most who receive the booster, with effort and concentration I can still think clearly for intervals if necessary. Some are able to maintain it for hours or even days, but others struggle. The two primary factors are how hard the booster hit you, and how much you practice. When I first got the booster, I could barely speak a couple sentences, and now... I'm, um, better at it."

Her speech was faltering. There was an uncomfortable pause, then Megan let out a long sigh and slumped in her chair. Her expression relaxed back into dull contentedness and the doctor laughed.

"You see, Megan has been practicing a lot. We're hoping someday soon that she'll be able to actually give this whole talk! But for now, she's just a demonstration subject. Now, let's discuss the psychological effects. You may have noticed that Megan here is completely naked."

Penny chuckled and nudged Matt. "I think Matt noticed."

"Not that it bothered you," he said sarcastically.

"Megan," the doctor said gently. "Please stand for us."

The woman silently did as instructed, standing and swaying slightly. The doctor continued. "One of the hallmarks of the booster is total docility. Megan will do anything she's told without question right now. She's technically able predict and understand negative consequences if she tries, but she usually won't try without prompting. Megan, would you please walk into that wall?"

"Of course," she said dreamily before striding briskly into the solid wall. Her nose collided with the drywall loudly and she stepped back, staring listlessly at the wall.

"I think we need another demonstration," Penny snickered. "Matt was distracted by her ass."

The doctor laughed heartily. "Megan, could you please come sit here again? Thank you. Now, Megan, how did it feel when you hit the wall?"

"Fine," she said and smiled up at him.

"And while you were doing it, Matt here was ogling your ass. How does that feel?"

"Gooood," she said thickly and laughed. The doctor and Penny laughed too. Matt rolled his eyes.

"Can you think of any reason you shouldn't have walked into the wall? Or any reason Matt shouldn't have objectified you?"

Megan's brow furrowed. "Um. I, uh, I think the wall... hurt... my nose? My nose is hurt. Is my nose broken?" She reached up to feel her nose. "I can't tell. I don't think it hurts, but I'm not sure. If my nose is broken, I should go to the hospital, right?"

He patted her arm reassuringly. "No, no, don't worry, dear. I'll tell you if your nose is broken. What about Matt staring at you? Any reason he shouldn't do that?"

"That... hmm." She paused, lost in thought. "He... that's his wife. He shouldn't be looking at me like that in front of his wife?"

"What about you? Did it bother you?"

"No," she said. She beamed at Matt. "No. I liked it. I want him to like me. Do you like me, Matt?"

On a whim, Matt shook his head. "I fucking hate you, Megan. I wish you were dead."

Megan looked slightly surprised, then shrugged. The doctor continued.

"Now you get it, Matt. Megan can't understand that that's bad. If we were to walk her through it she would eventually arrive at that conclusion, but independently she wouldn't even consider it. It's like asking if your choice of breakfast has any impact on the weather. It's not that you can't imagine it, it's more that you, uh, wouldn't... sorry, you wouldn't think of it."

The doctor sighed heavily and leaned on Megan's chair. She didn't react.

"I think we covered everything," he said, suddenly sounding exhausted. "Now, remember when I told you that some Boosteds can keep up the... uhhrmm. Sorry, keep up the old thing for a while?"

Matt rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you're Boosted. You can relax."

"Ahh, now you can, uhm, try it out." The doctor's eyes swam out of focus again. "You can take Megan home to try if you wanna. Or me. Just tell Missy."

"Who's Missy?" Penny asked.

"She's the lady at the front," the doctor told them with a dopey grin. "She's really pretty."

"Uh-huh," Megan echoed lazily. "Great boobs. She's so cool."

Penny looked at Matt. "Your move, chief. Wanna take 'em for a test drive or get right to it?"