Alec wasn’t having a good day.
He checked the clock on his desk with a half-lidded glance. There was still so much to do for the board meeting to convince his director to fold in the price gouging match.
The sprawling numbers on the spreadsheet made him want to claw his eyes out. 11:56 PM. He'd been here since 8:00 AM, and had been the only one left in the building since all of his co-workers just dumped the rest of the presentation on him in lieu of worrying about their job security.
He sighed, reaching his arms up, he got the forbidden stretch in, before slouching back down in his chair. A crummy breakfast and no lunch was all that he had gotten today, and some sleazy takeout was probably the only thing he had to look forward to after he was done.
Being project manager was overblown. Sure, there were perks, and he’d accrued some vacation days, but there was also the fact that he likely wouldn’t get to use said perks and vacation days. Now that there were now two new firms in the area to manage data from, one of which the higher ups were trying to pressure into bankruptcy, Alec was left with more unpaid work to do.
There just wasn’t any logistical point to it really, if anything, it was actually counterproductive to attack a new business at such an exorbitant expense. Even so, he still had to compile and make an argument to crack through the director’s stubborn head.
Alec looked at his clock again. 11:57 PM.
He rubbed his eyes. God, it felt like such a waste of a Friday night to just be at work typing the day away.
It wouldn’t hurt to have just a small nap, right? Alec could barely focus on the shifting numbers as of the moment, so a bit of rest would do him good. Wasn’t like he didn’t have all night for this, no point in rushing a job he didn’t want to do.
He leaned back into the comfortable clutches of the chair’s cushion, the soft glow of the monitor pulsing behind his eyelids as he let the drowsiness caress his body.
An instant before he felt that sweet oblivion, a tremor jostled his chair, Alec jerking his head foreword in response. His forehead slammed into the glass in front of him, earning an angry bump and sending him staggering back, toppling over his chair, and onto the rough carpet snaking between each cubicle. Skidding his rear, he crashed the back of his head into the thankfully hollow wall behind him.
Alec groaned in pain. That had to be the single most convoluted and painful accident he had ever experienced in the last year, given the cartoon-like finish that left his rear end skidding on the floor. To be fair, it probably hadn’t been a good idea to try to sleep in the dinky Office Co™ chair to begin with, but he still felt irked nonetheless. Rubbing his head, something occurred to him. He had been pretty tired all day, and there was no way that the energy Alec felt at this moment matched his croissant breakfast and 3 cups of coffee that he sipped at throughout the workday. He experimentally leaned forward, back onto his feet.
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No tremor in his legs, no blood rushing to his head, it was as if he hadn't just spent the last 12 hours indoors without meaningful physical activity.
Yeah... he felt great!.
There WAS a decent chance he was having some kind of stroke or heart attack right now, and his brain was just coping with the stress, but that was just too outlandish to be true. Alec glanced at the clock. 11:59 PM. It seemed a little random, and entirely without fact, but he couldn’t help but wonder if they were related.
He shook his head, chuckling in self-depreciation; it wasn’t like he was about to “Awaken his destiny!”, or something like that. Alec dusted himself off, still chuckling a bit, and stood up his chair. Where was the fanfare? The lovely maidens that would call his name? The risque physique that every hero had certainly wasn't here, surrounded by sterile white walls and the overbearing scent of stale peanuts.
It certainly wouldn't be 30-year old Alec falling off the prime of his life, or so says everyone.
Alec sat down, and opened up the spreadsheet again. Wait. The screen was frozen. He frowned, jiggling his mouse up and down. It flickered, scrolling up, then blinked black, leaving Alec to stare incredulously at his reflection in the monitor.
His surroundings blinked dark, the underlying hum of the overhead flourencent bulbs disappeared along with the white light, leaving only sparse moonlight fall through the cracks.
? Loading?
Huh?
Loading...
Conscious Individual detected!
“What?”
Bold text was Alec backpedaled away from it, but it moved with him, blocking the center of his vision. Did someone slip acid into the coffee? He now had his back against his cubicle, the text staring at him, menacingly. It didn’t seem to be doing much of anything, though. Now that he was calm enough to take a closer look, it read, “Conscious Individual detected”? That kind of text was definitely not part of Windows 10.
What in the world was it?
Slowly, he raised his hand to try to touch them, but in spite of his perspective, it never got close enough to actually make contact. Hallucinations? Perhaps he really WAS having a stroke. He wiggled his arms, still felt them. Jostled his legs, nope, he still had control over his body. Alec turned to look at his butt. No probe.
Maybe he actually did manage to fall asleep? If he remembered correctly, a way people could tell whether or not they were lucid dreaming would be if the text was blurry. Though he DID just read it right?
Alec sheepishly looked back at the blue box obscuring his vision again.
Prepare for your testing
ETA 10 Minutes
Shit.