I take it your date is in there with the wankers.”“I don’t have a date, but my husband is in there salivating.”“So he’s just a disinterest...d bystander.”“That’s what he’ll claim, but if I asked him to take me back to one of the private rooms, he’d stall for forty-five minutes, at least.”“Recovery time?”“Takes longer than he used to, and it’ll be a weak second run.”“What an idiot!” he said.“I suppose that I should jump to his defense, but at the moment I’m leaning toward your point of view.”“He’s. “Oh, when?”“This will sound crazy, in fact I am wondering if I am going crazy. I saw it in a dream.”“I asked you if you’d been dreaming.”“Well, I have.” I took a swig of the brandy. “What is going on? I feel like I’ve lost my sense of reality.”She moved to sit on the arm of my chair and stroked my hair away from my face. “Don’t be worried. You’re not going mad. Nothing that is happening is supernatural, but it may be super-natural.” She stressed the pause between super and natural. “There are. When his consciousness takes flight, his body falls into a deep Delta state, like a coma, so when he returns to his body after even a few hours it's completely rested. As a teenager, he used the nighttime hours to study, to learn more than the schools taught with their watered-down curriculums. Because he needed to understand his ability, he became an expert on consciousness, more knowledgeable about the subject than most scientists, even those who specialized in consciousness. He also studied. BP: 144/102 Temp: 37.2°C Pulse: 90.7 BPM Respiration: 39.8I can’t focus on anything but the Machine for long, though. The way it touches me is so knowing – some days even loving – and I can feel that it cares about my experience here, even if that’s not really the main goal or function of what’s happening. In keeping with her actions, a simulated tongue has slithered from the ceiling, behaving at first just as hers. It licks me from balls to tip, making me feel powerful and taken.