Item from Severance by Dan Erickson
An emergency protocol that activates an innie's consciousness outside the building — designed for evacuations, repurposed for revolution.
The Overtime Contingency is a Lumon emergency protocol designed to temporarily activate an innie's consciousness outside the building — originally intended for workplace evacuations. It requires two people to operate the switches simultaneously. The MDR team repurposed it as a weapon. By activating the protocol, they woke their innies in the outside world — giving Mark, Helly, and Irving minutes of consciousness in bodies they'd never controlled, in a world they'd never seen. Dylan held both switches alone while Milchick tried to break in. It was used once as intended (by Milchick, to interrogate Dylan at home). It was used once as rebellion (by the MDR team, to expose severance). Both uses proved the same thing: the wall between innie and outie is not as solid as Lumon wants everyone to believe.
Two switches on a console in a restricted area of the severed floor. The mechanism is designed for two operators. Dylan held both alone.
Also known as: OTC, The Protocol