A roommate

I wake up in some room.
I'm still in this weird place. I still don't know what's going on.
But now I can at least see pretty clear.

There's only one other bed in this room.
And somebody is lying inside.
It must be the smaller person from yesterday, 38.

Now that I can see clearly, it's obvious that he's really a boy.
He's a pretty young one, and kind of cute, but he's a boy.
He's still asleep.

I think it's time to get up for me.
But when I try to, it's even more difficult than yesterday.
I probably overworked myself, even if I almost didn't do anything.

But after trying for a while, I'm standing in my room again.
It looks like I'm really completely naked.

Whatever, they've seen me like this all the time already.
A bunch of people here already know what I look like down there...

Suddenly somebody opens the door and comes in.
It's a woman.

Good morning! Can you come and follow me, please, number 47?

So I must be number 47...

I look around for something to cover myself with, and find the scarf I got yesterday still lying in my bed.
I put on the scarf and follow her out of my room.

So we start walking through the corridors again.
Now that I can see clearly, I realize it's just a boring, brightly lit corridor.

I'm here to teach you something about this place.
But first you have to see our doctor again.

At the end of the next corridor, we enter a room.
It must be that room where I've been before.

There I see the doctor, a man in a white coat.
He's probably the same person I've seen the day before.

Hello!
I just want to check that everything is okay.
So how is it going?

I try to get a word out, but it still doesn't work.

Oh, sorry, let me have a look.
Please open your mouth!

When I open my mouth, he sticks some device inside.
It doesn't take long until he pulls it out again.

Now you should be able to speak. Give it a try!

Okay, I'll try.

That works pretty well, even though I remember my voice to sound differently.

He inspects my body again. I even have to remove my scarf, which is a little embarrassing, but he doesn't take long.

That's all for now!
If everything goes fine, we won't see each other anytime soon.
Good luck!

Thanks!

The woman leaves the room again and I follow her.

You can call me mom, by the way.

Sure, I will.

It's a little weird, since I doubt she's my real mom.
But the idea of having a mom makes me feel comfortable, so I just play along.

I follow her outside the building, where the orange membranes are.
They look very organic. They are basically bubbles filled with some fluid. But their surface is very uneven.

There are exactly three of them. And there are machines built around each of them.
There's also one similar place with only a machine.
Maybe that's the place where I've been before the membrane of my bubble got destroyed.

These are our breeding grounds.
We equip people here with machine extensions.
In order to implant these complex body extensions, we need these partially organic machines to keep everybody alive.
Don't worry, I won't explain any details.
We usually take young people, so that everything grows back together well after the operations.
Originally we almost exclusively used full grown people, but now our technology improved, so everything is integrated in a way that doesn't cause problems when you grow, so we also take children now.
Our goal is that people will be like this for their whole life, preferably even before birth.
You will hardly notice most of your inner changes. The most noticeable are a few new openings in your body, where you can plug in external extensions.
Follow me so I can show you how to use them.

We go back inside and continue walking through some corridors.
Soon we pass a room, where a boy tries to defend himself against some people.

He's going to be number 51.
Oh, I remember how difficult you were back then.
Something like that almost never happens. But now you're here, so everything is fine.

She giggles.
This seems very strange to me.
Did she turn me into a machine by force?
But there's probably no point in thinking about it, so I just continue folllowing her.

It doesn't take long until we reach our destination.
It's a room full of stuff.

Here's our storage for external extensions.
You can find various connections on your body.
Please undress so I can show them to you.

I drop my scarf.
Mom starts to explain various devices to me, and which of my connections are suitable for which of these devices.
And she shows me where to find these connections on by body.
There really are small holes at various places in my skin. Usually close to my bones.
They are very unconspicious. At some places I really wonder what I would connect there.

And if you want to know more, you can find information on all our devices in our digital storage.
Just use the screen in your room.
You can also use some device to connect your brain directly to the storage. However, the format cannot always be interpreted correctly, so I can't fully recommend that approach yet. You have to be careful.
But that's all for now. Just one more thing.

She hands me a small device.

Attach this to a suitalbe place at your body.
This will allow you to walk around freely.
Use this to open doors.
You can only open doors you have rights for.
This basically includes all public doors and the door to your room.
And these rights might change depending on various things. You'll find out soon enough.

Mom helps me to connect the small device to my hand.
Then she just leaves the room and walks away.
Now I'm confused what I'm supposed to do here.
I can't take the devices. There are some security measurements preventing me from picking them up.

So I look around and after a while I know what to do.
I use the new device to open the door again and leave the room.
Then I walk through the corridors, but I have no idea where to go.

Soon I notice a small screen on the wall.
I move closer and touch it.
Some buttons appear.
One seems to be a map, so I click it and actually get a map of all the corridors.

Using this screen is very intuitive and I quickly find my room there. It must be the one with my number on it.
It's easy to remember.

But before I go back, I check if I can get some proper clothes anywhere.
And there actually is a shop on my way back.
But when I reach the shop, it turns out that I need some points to buy things.
At least I already have enough points to buy a single slip.
Maybe I should ask my roommate what points are all about when I'm back.

I immediately head to my room and open the door using my new device.
Inside my roommate is awake now.
He's really young and kind of cute.
I especially like his smooth, blonde hair.

Hey, I'm back!

He looks at the slip I'm wearing.

That wasn't a good idea.
You could have bought delicious food for days if you didn't buy this.
I don't even have one myself.

Oh, and what now?

You'll get a little food each day. But I really don't like it.
So if you want I can buy you some better food until you have enough points again.

Nevermind, you don't need to.

I'll still wait anyway before I spend my current points.
You'll probably change your mind until you tried it.

So, how do I even get any points?

You have to accomplish missions.
Just look at them on the computer.

He points at some device, which looks like the screens I already saw in the corridors.

Oh, thanks. I'll look into that later.

Sure, no problem. I'll help you.

Thanks. But now I feel a little tired.

No problem. I won't bother you any further.

No, that's not what I wanted to say.
I just am too tired to learn about these missions right now.
We can still talk a little if you don't mind.
You seem really nice so far.

He blushes.

Oh, thanks.

He smiles brightly.

So we continue talking for a while and get to know each other better.