THE BEYOND

"They can call it whatever they want: controllable quantum disturbances, string vibration induction, entanglement manipulation. Whatever mathematical model that does the best job of explaining the world around us, that's the label they'll use. But for us? The operators? We use simpler, more archaic terms that speak more directly to the heart of what it is. The sight. The voice. Or maybe even more taboo terms like magick."

"I know, I know." he says in faux apology "but do you remember the first time you pushed into the Beyond? Saw the world behind the world?" he whistles "Its hard to not be seduced by the less than 'clinical' reactions to it all, that's all I'm saying" He looks down at his drink and pours the rest of the gin down. It's his fourth one but you know from deep experience that he's good to six, after that things can get a bit dicey. Hell, heavy drinking is just par for the course. It's a general coping trait amongst first responders throughout the ages. Though you could probably argue that there aren't that many that have seen what you've seen. You nurse your neat whiskey. He motions the bar tender for another drink, then puts a dip in his lower lip, spitting into a bottle he had in his coat pocket.

"The point of the story is that it really doesn't matter what you call it, it sure as shit is real and the more I see of the Beyond, the more it makes me nervous that something is looking back at me" he says this, holding up his glass looking through it like a prism. "Like at that call earlier with the kid that got dragged under that bus. Mangled right down to the soul, couldn't do a damn thing for him except break the tether and let him just fucking dissolve into the Beyond. No moving to the next plane of existence, just done. Don't get me wrong, it was absolutely the right call and if some shit like that ever happens to me you don't think twice, cut me loose." you both clink your glasses together a nod to the explicit and implicit requirements between people that serve together. "I just got this feeling that there was something else out there, right at the edge of perception, that felt like…I don't know, coiling? Like a spring? Hard to say, and the feeling vanished when I started to notice it. Maybe, its time to replace Maude. She's been a good surrogate but she maybe coming to the end." He looks down, takes a sip of his drink and spits into his bottle. "Damnit, I've got to stop naming them" and wipes his eyes.