BTC06 (Aug 14, 1988)
Summary of Receipt
Baltimore decides to call the Otherside 'Ottawa' and Customers 'Canadians', since they're similar to humans what with the whole cycle of death and rebirth. As for how the CaD's going to send these 'Canadians' back, they'll be relying on Baltimore's 'trusted associate'. Once a member of Astoria's Division Zulu - ostensibly investigating Cults and Esoteric Affairs - he knows how to work 'sigils' to crack open weak spots in the Boundary Lines (called Airports - cause you go through them to get to a Plane) between the Flipside and Otherside. Something like prying open a small crack in a plastic toy to see into it. As for where these Airports are, they generally form in places thought to be 'haunted'. And that's also where many cryptids and demons appear in. Though, mainly cryptids, since they're literally just animals. Demons, being sentient, don't (and can't, due to societal norms) enter the Flipside so easily.
Transcript
DINER RECEIPT
RECEIPT NUMBER: BTC06
RECEIPT DATE: X 14 19XX
MANAGER TITLE: BALTIMORE
RECEIPT NOTES:
I think I've got it… We can refer to the Otherside as "Ottawa" and customers as being "Canadians." Clever, isn't it? The way I see it, customers are not too dissimilar to us "Americans." Sure, they might have claws, wings, horns, forked tongues, and any other number of strange features, but we are still both North Americans as we share the same cycle of life, death, and rebirth. And if we, as a Cafe, will be in the business of serving coffee, we should also have an interest in making sure our customers get home safely.
That also reminds me... I don't believe I've mentioned how we'll be getting our customers back up to Ottawa yet, have I? That is where my trusted associate comes into play. He was once a member of the Astoria 23rd Agency under Division Zulu. The Zulus are, on paper, in charge of "Cult and Esoteric Affairs," though they often dabbled in much stronger coffee than that. One of the more impressive feats of the Zulus is their use of sigils to open weak spots in the boundary lines between the Flipside and the Otherside. In this sense, if we can find these "airports," we can “book our customers safe flights home.”
And, as luck would have it, airports are often rather easy to spot. They tend to develop around areas of extreme psychic distress. In layman's terms: haunted spots and locales. Anywhere that is said to be "haunted" is often a great place to open a rift between our dimensions. In fact, that is often how Cryptids and Demons end up in the Flipside in the first place. Cryptids more often than Demons, however. See, Demons often boast a higher intelligence than Cryptids and, as such, are held to higher standards of not crossing into the Flipside as they please. Cryptids, on the other hand, cannot help if they stumble between worlds. And I would much rather they make it home safe than under a Division Quebec's scalpel.
Ah! That was the other reason I thought Ottawa would be a clever code word. Division Quebec of the Agency's primary area of study is Cryptids. Being a bit tongue-in cheek never hurt anyone, did it?