It might not be Janus, but the more Justin stared at that lazy smile, the more similarities he could detect in the face and posture. There was a definite family resemblance, which meant it was at least still one of the governing AIs and not an actual in-game character.

"Err, hello." Justin began.

"Yes, hello." The figure replied, giving a small wave to the his camera before becoming distracted by his own hand. Justin just stared as the avatar wiggled his fingers in fascination, before braking off with a sheepish grin. "Right, sorry if I'm a bit distracted," he said, his smile turning into a yawn, "but I don't get to come over here very often."

"Somnus?" Justin asked uncertainly. Deciding that the God of Sleep and Dreams would explain the sleepy antics and lack of familiarity with the game world. It was also the only other AI name he remembered.

The man grinned, and straightened his laurel wreath which had started to skew. "I am indeed the ubiquitous and hebetudinous," he said, bowing floridly and nearly losing his circlet. "the vicarious and the torpid, the hypnagogic entity known as Somnus." He yawned again and blinked a little owlishly. "Come on then, as interesting as all this is, I had no idea being awake could be so tiring."

"Err, what?" Justin felt like blinking back at the strange man before him, not at all sure what the hell was happening.

Somnus hit himself on the side of his head, once again dislodging his wreath. "Right, right. The great over-seeing Eye wants you awakened." He grinned as if this explained everything, and pointed two fingers at Justin's camera like a gun, "Pow," he said, firing off an imaginary round.

Forced Logout Initiated.

What the shit? Justin thought as his consciousness faded away.

----------------------------------------

Justin had been awake and out of the pod for over an hour now, and was still no closer to figuring out what the hell was going on.

Awakening directly in the metal coffin of the pod rather than the lobby had been disorienting, and feeling the sticky gel receeding from his face had been more than a little disturbing.

Despite the rude awakening, he'd stumbling out of the pod, his limbs feeling a little strange but nowhere near as bad as he'd expected. Apparently being human was liking riding a bike, or maybe there was something in the pod's architecture that protected the player's sense of body and self.

He did need to lean against the wall as he pulled on the badly fitting robe, trying to regain his equilibrium. And once he was dressed, he'd opened the outer door expecting to see  a floor tech waiting to explain everything, but was instead greeted by an empty corridor and the same identical doors he remembered from before. After waiting a few minutes to see if anyone turned up, and to see if any of his neighbours had been kicked out of their pods too, Justin had grumbled to himself while hobbling to the refresh rooms since being awake had bought on a desperate need to pee.

After using the facilities, he'd found the room also contained a shower, and still feeling tacky from the gel, he'd stripped down and to enjoy a hot soaking, stepping out afterwards feeling a lot closer to being his old self once more.

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Wandering further down the corridor, he'd found a call button outside the lobby, and waited impatiently for someone to arrive.

He was now sat in a small office, drinking a mediocre cup of coffee, his eye twitching as the cheap customer service bot in front of him smiled in confusion.

"I am sorry, sir. But I am not sure I understand your issue." It said in a voice tailored to sound both sincere and sympathetic. "Could you restate your problem?"

"I don't have a problem," he said slowly, really wishing he was back in the game so he could feed the stupid bot to Chompers. "I want to know what the problem is."

"Yes," the bot nodded happily, "Please tell me what the problem is, and I will attempt to solve it for you."

"I've told you already three times," Justin growled. He thought he'd done quite well at staying so polite up till now, he knew it wasn't the bot's fault his issue was outside its parameters, he just really wished the drone would realise that and kick Justin up the administrative ladder.  "I was awakened from my pod by Somnus."

The robot frowned in sympathy, as it had the last few times Justin had explained the situation. "Please go on." It said nodding in encouragement.

Justin was in the process of deciding whether to pour his coffee over the bot, when the door behind him opened and Ted, the technician who'd dumped him here earlier, frowned at him. It was just as well, customer service droids where pretty resilient by nature, their designers obviiously considering it a necessity for their line of work.

"Found who's after you," Ted growled at him. The tech had been grouchy ever since Justin explained his problem, somehow managing to blame Justin for the strange issue that had landed in his lap. Now he seemed even more irritated, though whether it was with Justin or the world, he really couldn't tell. "Some Lawyer on twentieth. I've got him from here numbnuts." He threw at the bot, waving Justin out the door.

"Thank you for raising this issue with me today, if you have any other..." Justin could hear the droid still talking as Ted hurried him down the corridor.

When they arrived at the designated room on the upper floor, an attractive, conservatively dressed young woman stood from behind an expensive looking, real-wood desk to greet him, "Hello, Justin" she said, apparently recognising him from his file, extending a  hand in greeting. "I'm Amanda Sherrington, a lawyer with Imagitech's IP department."

"Hi," he said, fumbling the disposable coffee cup as he moved forward to shake the lawyer's hand. Trying to subtly check that his thin robe wasn't riding up or clinging in places it shouldn't, and hoping to so in a way that wouldn't actually draw attention to his state of undress. His attempt apparently failed, since a small blush rise to her cheecks. Justin sighed in resignation as she shook his hand firmly and gestured for him to sit in the chair opposite her.

"Sorry we didn't arrange things better," she said, waving vaguely at Justin as if to encapsulate all of his current woes, before seating herself once more behind the large desk. "My office has always been more concerned with legal technicalities than administerial ones."

"It's fine." Justin said pleasantly, waving away any concern. He wasn't sure it actually was fine, but that was no reason to be rude to an attractive young woman. Which is probably why it's her and not a portly middle-aged man, he thought cynically, trying to decide if it said worse things about them if the manipulation was intentional, or him since it had worked either way.

He resolved to grow up and ignore the woman's beauty, while also admiring the hint of auburn in her short, professional hair.

Dammit man, he thought, annoyed with himself. It wasn't all that surprising though, since he'd just spent an indeterminate amount of time playing a bodyless ball of alien code. He was really starting to wish he'd made better use of his earlier shower.

"Don't worry, you're not in any legal trouble." She said, misinterpreting the signs of his internal frustration for concern. "The reason we asked Somnus to wake you is to discuss your recent design for a solar panel."

Justin blinked in confusion. "Right, the solar panels," he said, hoping she'd explain the issue. Had he broken some game rule he wasn't aware of?

"Yes," she smiled at him warmly, "we'd like to market the design."