Marcus was suited and booted, casually strolling to his next meeting at Pawnee City Hall. He had a little bit of time to kill, but he didn’t want to spend too long wandering the corridors, lest he be ambushed by the notorious Leslie Knope - the Parks director had been on his case for days trying to get some new legislation through, and he knew that she’d wear him down before long.

*thump*

“Crap,” Marcus thought, as he realised that he’d been keeping such a close eye out for Leslie that he’d casually walked into someone in the corridor.

“Are you ok? I’m so sorry, let me grab that.”

Marcus reached down and grabbed the book he’d knocked out of his unwitting victim’s hands, a thick and broad volume coloured deep purple.

“NO!” a female voice shrieked out, and Marcus felt himself pushed, quickly losing his balance and falling to the ground. Not difficult given he was half way bent over already, and he quickly lost his grip on the book.

“What the hell?” Marcus thought, and looked up just in time to see a dark-haired woman scoop up the book before throwing him a death stare that sent an icy chill down his spine.

“Don’t you know not to touch things that don’t belong to you? Ugh, why do I have to work in a place that has other people!”

Marcus finally recognised the girl he’d bumped into - that was April Ludgate. She worked with Leslie in the Parks department, and although he’d never find her bothering him for anything like Leslie so frequently did, April did give off a certain intimidating aura that meant Marcus normally kept his distance - until now of course.

April narrowed her eyes at Marcus before turning and walking away. She’d not gone more than a few steps though when she stopped, turned around to give Marcus yet another death stare, before pointing a finger towards him, wide eyed.

“Llams Eb Lliw Uoy!”

Marcus took a deep breath outwards. He’d seen April do this sort of thing to other people in City Hall as well, pretending to summon the devil, casting a spell or some other nonsense. It was part of the reason people didn’t mess with her - they were either scared by her antics, or just couldn’t be bothered to put up with them. Either way, it worked for her, as it kept people at a distance.

April began to spin on her heels again to walk away before she stopped again, this time wide-eyed in surprise rather. Marcus was confused, but he didn’t really have time to think, as a wave of nausea came over him all at once. His vision was blurred, he felt woozy, and he knew he was about to fall. With no one else around, he reached out a hand to April, before crashing clumsily to the ground.

“Well that’s embarrassing …” Marcus thought, rubbing the back of his head as he slowly came to. He’d only passed out once before in his life, and as his vision returned and he stared at the ceiling of city hall, he contemplated how irritating it was that the second ever time it had happened, it had done so in front of a woman who’d likely mock him for it for weeks. Now he had another Parks department member to avoid every day.

Things suddenly got really dark, as if all the windows had been covered up, and Mark sat up slowly only to see something that boggled his mind. In front of him were two absolutely giant brown combat boots, each about the size of the car he drove to work that morning. His eyes followed them upwards, past the laces, past the completely impossible legs rising out of them. It was completely impossible, utterly unthinkable, but crouched above him was the towering figure of April Ludgate.

She stared at him, her eyes glinting with a fascination that was somehow far scarier than the animosity they had held only moments ago. He saw her begin to speak, and her voice boomed above him

“No. Way.”

Marcus was panicking now. “This surely must be a dream, or some sort of concussion-induced hallucination. That’s how head injuries work, right?” If he was being honest, he had no idea.

He saw April glance quickly over her shoulder and ahead at the corridor behind him, before one of her enormous hands moved impossibly quickly and grabbed him off the floor. Marcus felt the nausea return to his body as he was lifted high into the air at an unsettling pace, and deposited into the darkness of April’s handbag.