This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/CycloneDensity on 2024-10-29 03:48:02+00:00.
Author’s note: Here’s what made this story happen: A Pikmin 1&2 back-to-back playthrough while I was jamming to Sabaton and Avatar and VERY caffeinated (the Swedish metal bands, not the armored boot or the air bender/blue alien). As always, enjoy!
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One week has passed since Andrew awoke within the strange metal room, and for him much has changed. The first and most important change was him regaining his own autonomy, at least for the most part. As Doctor Thast had briefed him a few days after waking up, he wasn’t fully acclimated to his newly regenerated body and would suffer some slight motor function troubles, but with some time his brain would fully map his regrown nerve endings and come to recognize it as his own body in due time. The simple cure-all was time and exercise, two things that made Andrew slightly annoyed putting up with but were nonissues now that he was finally allowed some freedom to roam the hospital halls.
The second development was the things he was able to see and do now that his legs could take him places. At first he merely explored his room with the assistance of Trina, inspecting all of the hidden features that made his room a fully functional house on its own. Once he was able to move about with only a pair of crutches he was granted access to the halls, which were always filled with a marching line of Trinas going from room to room, checking on patients and carrying meals to them with the same uncharismatic smile. The building was more of the same as his room: bland gray walls, blue floors of varying shades, and bright lights that made his eyes sting looking at them. It wasn’t until he wandered a fair distance from his room that he finally found a window to look out of, the view of which took his breath away.
Blue skies, white fluffy clouds, and great silver spires that rose to touch them like colossal metal fingers. Small dots of chrome drifted through the sky all around the futuristic city outside, no doubt some kind of drones or hovercrafts, as bright flashy billboards flew through the air on their own like confetti. The whole scene of a bustling, lively city that shimmered and changed colors was wreathed by a sea of green grass and lush forests, as if the grant innovations of man had simply pierced through the ground in the middle of an ancient forest. He wondered where on Earth he was, given how he had never seen a forest so magnificent or a range of flat mountains capped with snow.
Lastly, the third major development in his week of recovery was being given his own smart device, similar but not entirely like a smartphone in many ways, that was able to adhere to any surface regardless of material and be recalled by the one linked to it. Although he had only just begun to use it and explore its features, he was encouraged just by having something that he understood the functions of and could pass his resting hours with. Already it had helped him learn the date, the year, and the day that would begin his first day of what William had called advanced physical therapy. It would begin the next day, Monday, the fifteenth of November, thirty-eight-nineteen (15/11/3819).
The next morning, Trina awoke him with a gentle nudge. “Andrew, the doctor requests your presence in the rehabilitation center. Please follow me.” She made her request in that same thick accent of hers, hiding away the soft sounds of her words and giving them a rough sound.
Andrew groaned and pinched his eyes towards the bridge of his nose, hissing through his teeth as the glaring lights responded to his awakening by hitting him with a harsh beam of unforgiving shine. “Alright, shit, I’m getting up! Ugh, can you dim the lights? I can’t see.”
His request was met after a moment of delay, but not before he had already pushed himself up and moved to the foot of the bed. He ignored the fact that the lights had taken so long to dim and instead just left the bed, grabbing his crutches and turning to the robotic lady who would lead him to where he needed to go. “Alright, I’m good to go.”
He hobbled after her as she went through the portal to the hallway, followed her as she took a left, a right, two more lefts, and another right in order to guide him to their destination. Andrew noticed along the way that some of the Trinas were now standing idly by the doorways to some of the rooms, an unnervingly remorseful look on their faces with their eyes completely blank. Their lifeless state made him uneasy as he followed the active Trina towards a set of doors that were distinct from the others, as they were square, had a detailed frame around them, and were thick like some kind of bulkhead.
Trina led him to the doors and stepped to one side, gesturing to the door before him invitingly. “The doctor is inside, along with your fellow patients. Please enter and begin physical rehabilitation.” She then blinked once and began to droop slightly, becoming a mirror of all of the deactivated copies they had passed along the way.
With no real option to pry further, and a gnawing sense of curiosity eating away at him, he staggered forwards to the door until he passed some kind of threshold where a sensor could see him and unlock the metal doorway. As the doors opened, he was able to make out many details of the place he was entering just at a glance as it was almost like a gymnasium. Sleek white floors with red dots and lines to show a court and a track, a row of stands that came out from the very wall to offer dozens of seats for those gathered, and visible marking along the walls and ceiling that would undoubtedly dispense some form of equipment like the features his room was capable of providing him with.
He let his eyes roam the room for a moment before he realized that he was not alone in this chamber, and in fact he was now the object of everyone’s focus. Seated on the bleachers were two dozen or more people of every size, shape, and varied nationalities giving him looks of annoyance or concern as he shuffled towards them. Each of them wore one of the seamless hospital gowns like he did, their forms hidden by the knee-length hem of the long,clinical sheets of cloth.
Andrew was able to pick out a few that looked unique compared to a majority of the others. One of them was a man of obvious Asian descent, perhaps Japanese given the knot of hair kept atop his head and the thinly trimmed facial hair that gave him a strong appearance, who stared at the others around him with mild disinterest. Another was a rather fidgety girl with bubblegum pink hair, a tattoo of a rose on her cheek, and a scar on her forehead that gave the impression that she had been shot recently. Another was a woman with short fiery red hair and a depressed look on her face, who sat off to one side with her arms crossed over her chest. Then finally, the most jarring of all was a large bearded man with fierce eyes and sun-darkened skin, his body a wall of thick muscles that stretched his patient gown around his barrel sized chest. Sure, there were plenty of others in the group that stood out or had noticeably distinct features, but these people had an air about them that made him keep his guard up.
At the front of the collective was none other than the doctor, who stood in his usual hunched stance as he popped a few more pills into his mouth. He cast a sedated yet joyful smile towards the newcomer, sticking his thumbs into the loop of his pants as he began to speak. “Alright, that’s everyone. Andrew, if you would kindly take a seat…thank you. So, hello everyone, you all know me already: Doctor William Thast, or just Will for short. Welcome to your first day of physical rehab. Now is when I’ll go over things like ground rules, the purpose and process of this program, and also the different ways this program ends. Afterwards, we will begin session one. Let’s get started.”Will then snapped his fingers to make a solid white panel appear from the wall and hover over towards him, like a holographic whiteboard already listing the rules on it. He extended his hand and pointed to them from top to bottom, listing each one with a tired smile. “Rule number one: no skipping out on rehab. I know most of you would like to stay holed up in your rooms, poke at the tv and watch the news, and just avoid working out, but your bodies need exercise before you can be discharged. Rule two: no fighting. There might be some exceptions to this rule, such as sparring matches or some activities that get hands-on, but trying to start something outside of those specified events will end with the culprit going into private rehab with Miss Trina, which is not as good as that sounds. Trust me, a machine doesn’t know what it means to be exhausted, so you will just suffer. Third rule: no stealing or smuggling. I know you might like some of the fun gadgets from the gym, but they stay here. Same goes for everything in the halls, the cafeteria, and any other rooms you can access. If it isn’t yours, don’t take it, it’s that simple. Anyways, that’s about it. Questions?”
The room was silent for a moment until a person from the crowd stood up, and a shy woman with braided hair spoke up in a rich Spanish accent. “When can we go home?”
The doctor looked at her with an unwavering smirk, leaning from one hip to the other and pointing his finger at her with a snap. “Great question, Gabriela, and one that is probably on everyone’s minds. As I told you all before, sending you bac…
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