My stomach growl woke me up. My second job kept me up later than normal and I had to go straight to bed.

  I overslept. Again. Shit.

  I jumped out of bed and swiftly grabbed my toothbrush, standing before the toilet to multitask and save time. And of course, as I went to scrub my tongue, I dropped my toothbrush right in the damn toilet. Today was off to a great start.

  My disheveled dark hair, which resisted combing on a good day, absolutely refused to cooperate. So I just threw my clothes on and ran out the door.

  At least my old Toyota started. I was low on fuel, but had enough at least to get to work. No time to stop for breakfast.

  I pulled into the parking lot 15 minutes late for my shift. It was eerily quiet in the parking lot as I ran through the front doors.

  Into the gleefully malicious gaze of my manager and the resident asshole, Tim.

  “Dan, again with this?” Tim said.

  “I'm here, aren't I?” I said.

  “Late is late, so I'll be writing you up again.”

  “Go for it,” I was too hungry and annoyed to give a shit.

  I clocked in and walked through the factory to my station. I had the glorious job of watching the automated machines do their processes, ensuring the frozen meals were sealed correctly. It paid the bills, but was frankly a very shitty job. Alas, the plant was the only place to make as much as I did within 100 kilometers of my home, and I couldn't leave on account of my sick father.

  “Hey, did you get any further?” A woman's bubbly voice burst from behind me. I nearly jumped out of my chair.

  Jennifer had changed her hair color again, this time to a dark green. Her eyes glittered from under layers of well done eye makeup. She intentionally wore her shirt with the top three buttons undone.

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  “Yeah, a bit. Those hobbits are giving me the run around trying to get the town recipe thing.”

  “That's the point of the game, Dan. To go hang with your little stoner buddies!”

  “Sure, Jenny. Sure. Hey…uh… could you do me a favor?”

  Jenny looked intrigued, “That depends on what it is.”

  I scooped one of the meals off the track that had a jacked up seal, sliding it over to the belt that feeds the rejects away from the packaging area.

  “Ole Timmy face is writing me up. Can you talk him out of it? I know he likes your… buttons.”

  “You're damn right he does! Sure thing!” She almost skipped down to Tim's office.

  “Unleash the beast!” I called out behind her.

  “You got it!” she called back happily.

  Only Jenny could have fun in a place like this.

  A short time later, I received an odd signal coming from my machines. The food trays were beginning to arrive skewed and partially melted or overflowing. With how today was, it seemed about right.

  I sighed and slammed the big red STOP button. I made sure the systems were off then began the process of opening the stupid machine with the large wrench I always kept at my station.

  As I loosened the last bolt, the panel shot open. Pressurized and very cold mashed potatoes and gravy sprayed all over me. Honestly, this was maybe the best part of the day yet. I wiped brown sludge off my face and almost got to taste it before-

  “DAN! MY OFFICE! NOW!”

  Fuck.

  I decided to bring my wrench, just in case.

  Tim's office was as pretentious as the man himself. Frame management degree from bullshit university, old trophies from high school sportsball, a picture of himself standing next to a porn star he met at a convention, and some kind of arbitrary manager reward paperweight made of glass adorned the otherwise gray office. Jenny was still there and waggled her fingers at me before she noticed I was covered with cold food.

  “What the fuck is happening out there?!” Tim nearly screamed.

  “I could have told you that in a few minutes if you'd let me do my damn job!”

  “Jenny won't stop your write-up, no matter how hot she looks with the new hair.”

  “Thank you, Timmy!” Jenny said, still staring at me. “Are you okay?”

  “It's been a bad start to a worse day.”

  “It can't be that bad!” Jenny said just as the lights all went out.

  I took the chance in the confusion to get a taste of the food stuck on my fingers. Annoyingly, my hands were clean and the wrench I was holding was gone.

  The light above me turned on and I also discovered I was no longer in Tim's office. The walls were still grey, but now only a small table with two chairs was in the room. The closest chair was empty. The far chair was not.

  A humanoid with no hair, grey skin and solid white eyes sat wearing what looked like a tuxedo designed by a sci-fi fan. I felt my jaw fall open as the creature spoke. It sounded androgynous and strangely echo-y.

  “Welcome to the Initiation Tutorial for the 42nd Multiverse.”