InsaneJournal

Who: Darcy & Strange
What: Darcy Meets The Welcome Wagon
When: This afternoon
Rating/Warnings: green


A lot of weird things happened in Darcy’s life, especially since that night in the New Mexico desert when they’d hit Thor with their van, but watching half of the people around literally turning to dust was by far the weirdest thing she’d ever seen. It was also the scariest and she immediately pulled her phone out, intending to call Jane and see if she had any idea what was going on. Before she could place the call, she found herself standing on a street corner in New York City, which still wasn’t as weird as the dust thing.

She took a few moments to try and get her bearings before looking at her phone and attempting to call Jane. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get the phone to connect and she frowned. What the hell was going on? Darcy was starting to get a little anxious and she wished she had her taser.

All of a sudden, there was a weird swirly thing and a strange looking man stepped out of it and stopped in front of her.

Darcy stared at him, waiting for him to speak.

***

Stephen looked at Darcy looking at him, and managed not to sigh. He hoped that, this time, he wouldn't be accused of running a sex dungeon in the basement of the Sanctum. Which it wasn't. It housed demons, like any good Sanctum should.

He cleared his throat. It was time for introductions.

"Hello, Darcy Lewis," he said, the portal closing behind him so that no interlopers snuck in while they were talking, and played with things that could consume their souls and leave behind a veritable husk that craved human flesh. "I'm Doctor Strange. You may be wondering why you're here all of a sudden. And that is because...don't laugh...you are in an alternate universe. Here. I have some literature to explain some of it."

Stephen held out the glossy color pamphlet to her, while the cape raised one lower corner up and gave Darcy a jaunty little wave of hello.

"Stop it," Strange told the cape, under his breath.

The cape sagged back down slowly, looking very much like it needed accompanying music from a sad trombone.

***

Darcy took about ten seconds to glance at the pamphlet before focusing her attention on the man in front of her. She could read later. “Doctor Strange, huh? Appropriate.” He looked like some failed stage magician and the cape waving at her did nothing to dispel that thought. She waved back, thinking that the piece of cloth already seemed to be the more personable of the two.

“How’d you know my name?” she asked. She would definitely remember if she’d met him before. He may not be cut like Thor, but he was memorable nonetheless. “Did I walk through some sort of warp thing like Jane did in that building in London? Does this have something to do with why a bunch of people turned to dust in front of my face?”

She had a lot of questions and she’d prefer to have them answered by a person instead of a piece of paper.

***

"You were here twice before. Due to this universe being unstable, you disappeared and have reappeared now." It was probably better to refrain from overloading her with the knowledge she was once dating a reformed super villain. "So in a sense, yes. There are now two Darcy Lewis. This universe is a divergent timeline. So you've...branched off, through a rift that is still connecting the two. And one of you is here. Again."

There really was a lot of weird things happening lately. Strange considered that there might be an incoming event, but the warning signs weren't there yet. As for the dusting, Strange frowned only briefly and shook his head.

"The dust. That was Thanos," he said slowly. "He killed half of every living thing in that universe. If you were watching it happen, that means that you were one of those left living. That universe is on their own path now. They'll have to right what happened there now. Here, it isn't the same. Thanos has been thwarted."

He was being a bad welcome committee.

"Would you like some tea or coffee while we talk, Ms. Lewis?" he asked her.

***

“Got anything stronger than coffee?” Darcy asked. She had no idea who Thanos was, but if he killed half of the universe, he clearly wasn’t a good guy and she didn’t understand how Thor and his buddies didn’t stop him from whatever he did. If anything called for a drink, it was a moment like this.

She rubbed her temple at the sudden headache she was developing. Two Darcys? There were some people who might appreciate that, but it was a lot to take in. “Who are you, by the way?” she asked. “I mean, what’s your deal? Is Thor here? What about the other spandex clad hotties that he usually saves the world with?”

***

Strange conjured a festive mixed drink and held it out to her. He wasn't sure if it was wise to let her drink on contact. At least with Darcy Lewis, no one needed to worry about super powers running amuck. And she hadn't pulled a taser out on him yet. Good signs.

"Hope this will do for now," he replied. "There's a welcome pack from Stark, and it includes a card loaded with money. For things like...drinking to cope."

When in Rome. Or in another universe, he thought to himself with a dry-as-a-bone facial expression.

"I'm Doctor Stephen Strange." It was a lot of questions, a lot of which couldn't be answered with the depth he normally would have liked. A lot was always going on. "Former neurosurgeon, now a Master of the Mystic Arts. I defend this reality from interdimensional threats. Thor is here, along with quite a few Asgardians. There are several spandex clad hotties. You can find them on the network Stark created, once we get you the welcome pack. There's also an apartment building for new arrivals to stay in. You'll be given a key to one."

He wondered if Darcy was going to use the network as a dating app.

Before he could fall too far down that vaguely terrifying rabbit hole, he needed to disclose some information that he knew would be important to Darcy in particular.

"Jane is here, but you need to know she's been very ill and is up at Columbia Medical right now. We'll get you set up so you can visit her."

***

Darcy knew she probably ought to be suspicious of a drink that was conjured out of thin air, but she didn’t care and eagerly took a big swig as she listened to everything that Dr. Strange was telling her. A Master of Mystic Arts made him sound like some David Copperfield wannabe with a kinky side and she was going to make a few quips about that, but was immediately distracted when he mentioned that Jane was here and ill.

“What’s wrong with her?” she asked, setting the glass on the nearest flat surface. As shallow as she could be at times, and she certainly had some thoughts about all those spandex clad hotties, she could be serious when she needed to be and hearing that Jane was ill and in the hospital was a moment that called for seriousness. “I want to see her immediately.”

***

Stephen eyed the drink which was now on top of a pay box for newspapers. He wasn't about ot leave that there for long, but in case she needed to pick it up quick after the next truth bomb dropped, he wasn't about to portal it out of there either.

"Leukemia," Stange replied, in what could only be described as ripping off a bandaid. He excelled at that, where he failed at bedside manner. "From having the Aether inside her. I can portal you over there right now, but let's step through to the apartment first. That way you have a phone, money, and your apartment key. You might need that, too."

He nodded to the drink.

***

It probably wasn’t the smartest idea to just trust everything this guy was saying and step through one of his magic holes, but Darcy often preferred to act first and think later, so she grabbed the drink and looked at him expectantly. Now that she knew Jane was sick, there wasn’t time for idle chit chat. Her best friend was her number one priority.

“Okay, Magic Man, let’s roll,” she said.