- After a woman is promoted to hotel manager, the nature of her reality is called into question.
- A woman, Michelle Weaver, gets a promotion to hotel manager. Then everyone around her goes into a trance, and a giant red sphere appears in the sky. Michelle soon discovers that her life has been a lie, and she must come to grips with her new reality.'—Gislef
- A woman, Michelle Weaver, checks herself in her mirror before going to the hotel where she works. She meets with her supervisor, Reginald, and says that her customer satisfaction is higher than anyone else. Reginald keeps staring out the window, and Michelle tells a story about a person wanting to buy half a head of lettuce and the clerk who handled him. Michelle eventually tells Reginald that she deserves the promotion, and Reginald tells her that the job is hers. and gives her her new name tag. She thanks him and says that it means a lot to her, and Reginald tells her that she picked the right life. Michelle wonders what Reginald is going to do now that he is retiring, and he jokingly says that he's going to become a CEO or a rock star.
Some of the staff members are outside in the hallway, and applaud Michelle as she comes out. She runs into a bellboy, Bobby, who says that he learned from her and congratulates her on her promotion. Michelle hears a guest, Desmond, and his wife complaining to the front desk clerk, Geoffrey, and goes over and introduces herself. The guest says that they paid for four windows and only got three, and upgrades them to a penthouse suite and gives them a complimentary drink coupon. The Desmonds are satisfied, and Michelle tells Geoffrey that she's going on her break and he had an attitude.
On her break, Michelle calls her husband Carl and says that she'll be home late because she isn't going to half-ass it. Once she hangs up, Michelle suffers a pain in her chest. Everyone in the restaurant stares out the window and some of them walk blankly outside. The pain for Michelle, and she goes outside to see that people have all stopped and are staring at the sky. A giant red sphere is floating in the sky, and a loud trumpeting noise sounds. Only Michelle and the birds hear it, and all the other people stare passively at the sphere.
A woman comes up to Michelle and asks if downtime is ten seconds. She then stares up at the sphere, entranced. Everyone else has frozen and is staring as well, and Michelle runs off. Michelle goes home, and everyone she passes is similarly frozen. No one responds to her except a police officer, who says that it's world maintenance and it was scheduled. He tells Michelle that they're just supposed to wake up, then goes into a trance as well.
Michelle goes to her home, calling to Carl, and he comes out the bathroom. His wife hugs him, relieved that he's okay, Michelle tells him about the sphere, and Carl starts speaking with an Irish accent and says that it's the downtime signal. She has no idea why he's speaking differently, and Carl says that the downtime has been scheduled for a while but he forgot.
Carl says that his name is Danny and says that he's going to "wake up". Michelle wonders what he means, and Carl realizes that Michelle doesn't remember who she really is. When Michelle describes their life, Carl tells her that she might want to wake herself up, walks out, and says that he'll contact "them" to send help. He looks up at the sphere and goes into a trance like the others, despite Michelle begging him not to leave her.
Michelle goes back inside the house and locks the door. A few minutes later, two men comes in and look around. Michelle grabs a knife and asks who they are, and they say that they've heard she is experiencing an issue. They say that they're customer service and they need to diagnose the issue. The men realize that Michelle doesn't know who she really is, and one of them says they should lose the knife. The knife disappears, and the two men play a video on Michelle's TV.
On the TV, the two men play a promotional video of a spokeswoman, Kelly Fox, welcomes Michelle to her sleepaway package, the newest in identity tourism. Kelly explains that Sleepaway is an alternate reality and their subsonic technology linked to earbuds link the sleepers' brains up to the computer. Once the sleeper is engaged, they can create an avatar or select a pre-made one at random. The only rule is that they have to stay in character. They can live a different life, and when their character goes to sleep it's time for them to wake up and enjoy their own lives.
The transmission derezzes, and Michelle tries to work out that she's a character played by someone else. One of the customer service men says that she's actually S. Phineas Lowell, a man. All of Michelle's life was put together by and customized by Phineas, then shaped by his choices. Michelle wonders why she doesn't remember it, and the man says that Phineas synced up at his home and then had a heart attack. She realizes that the pain she felt earlier was Phineas' heart attack, and the man explains that the heart attack sent Phineas into a coma. Phineas is still synced up and is being monitored, and they don't know how much of Phineas is inside of Michelle.
The man says that they'll have to perform a forced unsync from the Sleepaway reality end, and Michelle wonders if it's safest for her or Phineas. Michelle panics and asks what it means for her, and says that the men are talking to her, not Phineas when one of them call her "sir". She insists that she's fine and wonders if everything will go back once the downtime is over.
One of the reps talks to someone, saying that Michelle doesn't want to unsync. Phineas' wife Ellen comes in and addresses Michelle as Phineas, and the customer service reps tell Ellen that Michelle doesn't remember the "emergency contact" that Phineas designated. Ellen tells Michelle that they're married, and then complains to the reps that no one understands how the service works. She insists that no one is doing anything to Phineas, and asks to just talk to Michelle.
Ellen and Michelle go for a walk, and a voice announces that world maintenance ends in 20 minutes. Michelle says that she's not going anywhere and is going to wait until the downtime is over. Ellen says that she understands why Phineas wanted to be Michelle, because she's strong and brave, and they both sit down. When they do, Ellen talks about how she and Phineas first met and Phineas later proposed to her in a park like where they're sitting. Michelle says that it sounds corny, and Ellen laughingly agrees.
Ellen tells Michelle that if she doesn't unsync, Phineas will be gone forever after downtime. Michelle says that it feels like she's known Ellen her entire life, and Ellen says that she can feel Phineas and he doesn't know how to get out. When Michelle insists that Phineas isn't in her, Ellen asks how she knows and says that they've been married fifteen years and have two children who are waiting for Phineas.
Michelle says that she might be Phineas and she'll try to bring Phineas back. They look up at the sphere together and Ellen's avatar goes into a trance. Michelle says that she can't and walks off.
Customer reps search the VR for Michelle, unaware that Michelle is posing as one of the tranced avatars. Once the reps pass, Michelle goes back to the hotel as the VR changes around her due to the maintenance. No one is in the hotel, and Michelle grabs a room key and hides in the penthouse suite where she sent the Desmonds. The couple are staring out the window, tranced, and the husband, Clyde, falls over when Michelle pushes him.
Michelle lies on the bed and stares at the ceiling. She hears a pigeon tapping at the window and goes to investigate the noise, and then the bid emits an alert. It flies off, and Michelle sees the reps \running into the hotel below. The voice announces that world maintenance ends in five minutes, and the reps enter the lobby and split up to search for Michelle.
As Michelle goes to an elevator, she hears it arrive and goes down the stairs. She goes out onto the roof and an escalated customer rep, Tom, appears. Tom apologizes for the inconvenience during the downtime, and says that they're all trying to help with the unforeseen error. He says that they're not sure what happened with Phineas, and when downtime is over millions of people around the world will log in.
Tom says that Phineas can stay and continue as Michelle, but they just want him to sign a waiver indemnifying the company of any liability. Michelle figures they just want to get rid of Phineas, and says that she's going to wake up because she can't stay in a world she knows isn't real and neither is she. Tom tells her to forget about Phineas, and says that Phineas killed himself before syncing up. Phineas died 45 minutes ago, and if Michelle logs out then there's nothing to go back to.
Michelle thinks that she can still feel Phineas, and Tom tells her that if she stays there, she can run the hotel and go back to normal. All she has to do is not break character. Michelle signs the waiver and Tom thanks her, then leaves. He says that it's up to her whether she logs out, and she has until the end of downtime to do so. Michelle wonders what happens if she doesn't want to play anymore, because there's no point, and Tom disappears without answering.
The sphere count down to the end of downtime, and it fades away. The avatars start up and go about their business. Michelle resumes her position. Ellen checks into the hotel for a few weeks, and a smiling Michelle greets her.
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