Employee of the Multiverse and His Darling Cat

4| Log 001 Pt. 4

"It's the apocalypse," Darcy said. "We're fucked."

"Wait, wait." I leaned towards them, trying to get a peek at the level of despair on their face. "How did you get to that conclusion? Why are you mentioning other worlds so easily? Apocalypse?"

Darcy stood up, brows shaped like an A. "You obviously came through a reality rip! God knows what can come through next." They clutched their head, shoving their blunt bangs into the air. "I should report it but ugh, I don't feel like working during my off-time." Darcy stomped their feet.

I processed every word Darcy said. "Does a reality rip connect worlds?" My voice was likely too eager. "What institution do you work for?"

The dryer buzzed and our clothes settled down to a stop. I jumped up to quickly put on my shirt, anticipating needing to move the conversation elsewhere to get more info.

Darcy stared at me like a teenager fed up with a parents' old stories. "CenUMR."

My eyebrows shot up. "What?"

Darcy briefly flattened their mouth. "I work for... the Center for Utilitarian Management of Reality," they pouted.

As each word registered in my head, a reassured smile surfaced on my face. "Which department? What's your position?"

Darcy's pink lips bulged. "Technical Assistant in the Tech Department. I'm just a bottom feeder who runs errands and fixes jammed printers; I've never even witnessed a reality rip let alone repaired one." They pointed to themselves squeaking out, "And now my first encounter is the catalyst that's going to destroy the world? And I have to be the messenger?"

I placed a hand on their shoulder as I handed them their pants and said consolingly, "I tripped into a machine designed to travel parallel worlds."

Darcy's eyes widened and they glanced me up and down. Quickly, their eyes moistened and lips spread into a wide smile. "Tripped, eh? Into a portal? So you came by accident from an intentional portal?"

I nodded.

"And you come from another technologically advanced world that travels across worlds?"

I hesitantly nodded.

"Not a reality rip. So I don't have to report it?"

I vehemently shook my head. "Absolutely not." Had I been the one to witness this happen in my own world, I would absolutely report it. Every institution in the realm would know by morning. But in my current position, there were too many unknowns. My first step was assuaging Darcy's worries so that I could further question them for more information.

Darcy slipped one leg into their pants then glanced me up and down again. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital? Never mind the skin on your chin, don't you want to check for internal bleeding?"

I reached for my chin only to find it stinging as soon as my finger made contact. A health checkup to assess the effects of the TTD was a good idea, but I didn't want to cause myself nor Darcy any issues as someone without any identification. Or in the instance that someone was tracking my movement and waiting to ambush.

After Darcy fastened their pants, they seemed to glean the direction of my thoughts. "How about I take you to the clinic of a friend of mine? She's pretty low-key about things and has some equipment to do a basic screening."

I agreed and Darcy pulled out a device from their jacket that closely resembled a narrow flip phone then made a call to their doctor friend whose clinic had already closed for the day.

"Hey, hey. Someone got hurt, can we come in through the back door?" was all Darcy said. I figured their relationship was quite good for the friend to tell us to stop by without any fuss.