Back To You

Chapter 1: A Rude Awakening

Powerup complete.

The glass pod lit up in sync with your waking. The cold surface that touched your skin was an unfamiliar sensation, you could not remember anything but you knew you hadn't felt anything like this before. You felt.

A voice interrupted the air of peace that surrounded you. "Oh, oh, oh—it actually worked! I'm a bloody genius," he cheered. You could hear the smile in his voice as if he didn't have these eureka moments regularly. Trying to focus back to the new sensations, you kept your eyes closed.

"Hello, hello? Can you hear me?" He pressed on, tapping on the glass in the process.

I definitely can. But you didn't want to hear any of this.

The pod opened with a hiss, earning a frightened gasp followed by a nervous chuckle from same voice that had been interrupting your moment.

Without joy, you finally opened your eyes, already glaring and ready to be aimed at the babbling twat.

"Oh! Good, you're awake," your eyes set upon the bright, blue optics of a metal ball attached on the ceiling, he doesn't seem to notice the slight disdain on your face. "To be honest, I was about to pull the plug on you if you hadn't responded... you know, for energy saving purposes," he continued. From what you have observed, you weren't quite sure how he'd 'pull the plug' on you but you decided not to question it.

"Well, thank you for not doing that," you replied monotonously. "You are very welcome," he proudly said. This dense piece of talking metal was either overly optimistic or overly naive but this deduction didn't limit itself to these two choices, it is possible to get something that is a bit of both. What you are indeed sure of is that he is certainly loud. Nonetheless, he is company and you are at least lucky enough to have someone to fill you in with the information that you're missing, especially on the place you woke up in.

You only have the artificial memory of a place where you were supposedly made and it doesn't look like this. You shifted your eyes around the room, only to find ruin, dark and damp. Moss had formed on the moist areas on the walls. Cracks riddled every corner. It almost looked like you woke up after an apocalyptic event that drove humanity to extinction. The mug on the off-white desk bore the name of this place:

Aperture Laboratories.

This couldn't be it, right?

Your thoughts were once again replaced by the voice you have grown to dislike in the shortest span of time. "They really did a good job making you look human, look at those... fleshy limbs," he took a glance at your arms "must be quite usefu–"

"Could I have a minute, please?" you sweetly interupted. Now, you knew it was rude to interrupt people when they are talking but something tells you that it would've taken a long time to let him finish. You aren't exactly comfortable with the wires on your body ever since you gained awareness of their existence.

"Oh, sorry. I'll let you deal with that," he gestures to the attached wires. He got the message, that's good. "I'll be in the hall, I think I saw a directory for the initiative that you were made for," he continued.

"I'll come with you," you leaned out of your pod.
"I'd prefer if you just sit tight, don't take it all in at once. You've been inactive for quite a long time," he slowly glides towards the doorway "Let me handle the research."

You didn't like to admit it but he was right. You might damage something vital if you don't pace yourself. You weren't exactly sure how long you have been there or how durable your parts are.

The spherical robot disappeared to the hall way only to pop back in for another announcement "If anything goes wrong just yell out," you nodded in response. "The name is Wheatley by the way, if you wanted to know."

You paused, name? I don't think I have one.
An array of names crossed your mind, but none of them seemed right to you.

Until that is, one seemed to roll out of your mind's tongue and unto your real one.

"My name is (Y/n)."