Can you imagine being in a coma for like 10 years or whatever, and you have family in the room visiting one day, then you wake up to scratch an itch on your butt, then conk right back out?
I remember something like this from a Bruce Coville book where they’re trying to get a character out of suspended animation or something. The protagonist of the book enters the room alone and the suspended character “slowly” winks at them. This “burst of activity” brings scientists rushing into the room because it was so unexpected, but the suspended character is back to inactivity by the time they get there.
Unfortunately, that’s all I remember.
Reminds me of that SCP Buddhist monk who has been in deep meditation for over 200 years, except he doesn’t troll people, and he can be roused if absolutely necessary. The hardest part is communicating because Japanese has evolved beyond the language he speaks.
Edits: … As a reply points out, he’s SCP-1520 and he’s apparently more aware of his surroundings and more interacted with than I remembered. Still mostly meditating though.
Thanks for finding him. I’ve amended my comment with better details.
In some details, he sounds like that one guy from The Acolyte.
Yes.
For me, somebody just had to walk in and crinkle open a bag of chips. The sound alone of the crinkling plastic would be enough to wake me. The noise is both terribly annoying and like Pavlov’s dog, it immediately makes me salivate for chips.
change the tv channel.
Eh. That’s just a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest-moment.
