An RP by NekoLen and Tachigami

L-4 never had a real name. Names, he was always told, were meant to be given to humans. And the doctors were always adamant to remind him that he was not, in fact, human. No matter how much he tried to tell them otherwise, begged and pleaded and cried real tears, he was simply ignored, and the steel plaque on the side of the door outside was imprinted coldly with "L-4: Genetic Failure # 3351.1" So, a failure, was he? A failure. After his creator worked so hard to perfect everything about him! After L-4 was chiseled to be neither too scrawny nor too muscular for the eyes, neither too short nor too tall, his eyes of precise, perfect height and distance apart and his nose small enough to be unobtrusive, white, clean, straight teeth and elegant fingers that didn't look misplaced. Although at the expense of physical perfection, L-4 had little room for pigmentation. His skin was almost porcelain white, as was his hair, and his eyes were an odd silver that unnerved his overseers as they glowed in darkness and had a silvery sheen to them.

Due to his low threat L-4 was allowed freedom to walk the asylum, which was full of failures like him. Or what humans would consider failures. All the patients were like him, almost human or not at all human. Not all of them were allowed to walk about unsupervised, and some weren't allowed outside at all. L-4 had garnered enough pity to be allowed outside to roam, but only for an hour a day. And his hour was over. Now he sat on the sill of his window and stared at the door opposite him. It was open and he could see people in white go by. He also wore white, a tight sleeveless shirt and pants that left little to the imagination, but also left no space to hide anything from any of the doctors. While he wasn't considered a threat, it was still a possibility that L-4 might hide some weapon to use against a human. Now, however, he stood and went to the chair in the middle of the room. Normally it sat at the desk, but now it faced the window, and he sat in it and regarded the sky with silver eyes that gave the impression that he was blind.

Settled in the chair, he didn't make a move. His hands grasped his knees gently, his eyes didn't blink. His hair, which used to be straight-cut above his shoulders and now hung uneven and a little below his shoulders, only swayed in a very, very slight breeze that came from the activity in the hall outside. The sky was so beautiful. He only saw it personally for an hour a day. L-4 used to be outside all the time. His creator used to joke that he'd created a puppy instead of a perfect human. Until L-4 was taken away and called a 'cyborg representing humanity' and not a human at all. He was too much of a machine, they said. Too much of a machine to be considered human. A tear slid down L-4's cheek, though he still made no move. He was something of a statue in the middle of the room.

Bells. Bells ringing. Where? Why? The cheery ringing hurt his ears and made him want to lash out, to hurt the soft things around him. He blinked and looked about the small white room for what felt like the millionth time. Why had they locked him up here? He was happy with his Father. Not only did they drag him into this brightly lit room, where he had no shadows to hide in, but they tied his arms up in a straitjacket and placed a bracelet of bells around his foot.

And the ringing annoyed him. Every movement was calculated, every tiny twitch so quiet not even the most highly tuned animals could hear him. He was Silence, in both name as well as being. He moved his head, a slight smile playing on his lips. It was about time to be dragged into the main room, where he would salivate at the sounds of the other's hearts. So many things there others would consider monsters. But not him. He heard the orderlies approach from the end of the hallway, staring hard at the door in anticipation.

He was lifted by two burly men wearing green and dragged down the corridor. He kept his smile playing on his lips as he heard the heartbeats as he passed the different rooms. As they passed one room, he glanced into, curious. No heart was beating in that room, only a curious ticking noise. His dark eyes fell on the pale man for a brief second before continuing down the hall and being placed on a sofa.

Silence was dangerous. Made for killing. He had assassinated many a politician and rival scientist for his Father before he was taken from him. He moved slightly, freezing when he heard the bells ringing. No, that was wrong. He had to be quiet. He moved his lips slightly, still not used to the freedom removing the stitches had given him. He had been terrified when he felt his tongue lick his lips for the first time in his life, but now he did it often, enjoying the stinging sensation whenever he touched a scar.

He remained on the sofa, rocking slightly and listening to the different heartbeats. He could never get enough of hearing them, though he preferred it when he heard them struggling and then slowly, before stopping altogether. He heard the ticking again and looked up, trying to locate where it was coming from.

"L-4."

The voice was clear as a bell, some of which he'd heard ring by not long ago. But this one was a voice, a female voice, and when he turned and wiped his eyes, he saw her. A young woman that wasn't as mean as the others. She didn't try to convince him he was a broken machine and instead simply smiled and patted him if he cried, which he did, quite a bit and quite often. He stood at his dictation, turning to her and walking to the door. "Shall we go to the activity room?" She asked him.

"Of course." L-4 replied easily. He didn't sound like a calculated machine. He sounded human. Like his father! He sounded like he had a heart and not just metal click-clicking in his chest, like a clock. There was much to do in the activity room, from cards to board games, but everything with soft or plastic edges or makeups, so that no one could use them as weapons. And there were a lot of soft chairs and benches to sit on as well. The young woman held out a hand as he approached and L-4 gladly took it, and was able to walk with her as if she was his friend. But the doctors and nurses and orderlies weren't allowed to befriend the patients.

His hand was released as they entered the main room, where L-4's calculating eyes regarded everything swiftly. He was left alone then, as he recognized everyone's faces, everyone that had been there at least as long as he had, and some that had been there longer. And one that he hadn't logged away yet. This one was in a straitjacket and looked... strange. Odd, but in a fascinating way. Maybe this could be a friend...? He had been here for years, and L-4 had never had a friend. Had never been able to find friendship in any of these... soulless machines. He wasn't a machine like them! And they just... regarded him passively, as if he didn't exist, or matter, or...

He shook his head, biting back a wave of crippling sadness until he could make it to that couch and sit on the other side, and double over with his head in his hands. They called this a 'short circuit', a tendency to cry at the drop of a hat, but they didn't know what he thought. They just thought he... was broken.

The clicking... Like a clock. Silence had heard many clocks in his life, but this one was so interesting. It came from the pale man that sat opposite from him, on the other side of the room. He couldn't simply have a pocket watch on him, else he would still be able to hear the man's heart beat.

He stood suddenly, causing a few of the others to glance over at him. A few of the nurses and orderlies watched him closely as he made his way over to the pale man, completely silent if not for the constant ringing of the bells wrapped around his ankle. He stopped before the man and sensed his sadness. Good. These creatures were easily killed when they were feeling down. But... He couldn't do such a thing while every one was watching. That was the opposite of what he was taught.

He sat next to the man, listening to the ticking, longing to rip his chest open to see why his heart ticked and didn't beat like all the others. He licked his lips, but no sound. Silence had never spoken in his life.

L-4 cried like any human would. He felt the hot tears and felt that they were human, just like anyone else that might be sad enough to cry. They had a salty taste to them like human tears and dried like human tears would, and made the world blurry and difficult to discern even with his overly-perfect vision. And if he cried enough his silvery eyes would become bloodshot and bleary and red, and his nose would run and his jaw would clench as if he were biting back the urge to keep going. He just didn’t understand why they said he wasn’t human. Just because he had a little ticking thing in his chest... He’d never been able to understand the method his creator had used for that. But he’d told L-4 if it stopped, so would he. Just like a human’s heart.

Those bells again. L-4 managed to look up just enough to see the bell bracelet around the foot of someone in front of him. The one in the jacket, the straitjacket, had come to look at him. They once tried to put L-4 in a straitjacket, but he’d effortlessly broke that cloth and those weak steel buckles and leather straps. He hadn’t meant to, it was just the way he was programmed---his creator had used exceptionally powerful metal for his framework---his ‘skeleton’, as he called it---and as such could simply snap most things in half without much effort on his part. And that was yet another reason he was ‘less than human’. Not human enough, because humans weren’t as strong as him. Couldn’t learn as fast as him. Remember as much as him...

Hesitantly, L-4 opened his mouth. “H...hi...” He muttered. This person... was he like L-4? Similar in some way? The strange pockmarks around his lips... they looked like scars. Were they?

Silence remained quiet, looking about to see who was watching them. It seemed a number of nurses were studying him closely. He had been here for a little more than a week, and this was his second time being put in this room. The first time he went crazy and tried to kill the others, so he could taste their juicy hearts.

He tilted his head. This one's voice... It sounded so sad. He smiled, moving closer and resting his head on the pale man's chest. He could hear the ticking louder than ever now.

"Silence!" a nurse cried as she walked towards them. He started slightly, not used to loud noises. His dark eyes moved from the man to the nurse coming towards them. She grabbed him by his elbow and pulled him off the man. "Sorry about that L-4, he is usually not like this." She pulled him away from L-4, setting him back down on his sofa and showing him a small black-and-white tv.

L-4 sat up straight, a little surprised at the form's movement. It was quick, but quiet, in a manner that didn't even allow the bells to ring around his ankle. He couldn't be human, no human could move with such precision. Maybe that was why he was here... L-4 looked around at the nearest nurse and shook his head. "He did nothing wrong... Why do you take him?" His tone was despondent, like a depressed child questioning the death of his beloved pet.

"He's a dangerous one, is all. Don't you see the straitjacket?"

"Of course I do. But he did nothing bad. Can he not near me?"

The orderly sighed, turning a bit. L-4 often annoyed humans with his manner of speaking, which seemed pre-set to some. To them it was as if a child were questioning set rules that he ought to know by now but just wouldn't accept. L-4 turned his gaze away from the man before he spoke and looked instead to Silence. The one they called Silence. He wanted to know this person, but didn't know how to ask.

The flickering box that the others watched bored him. He glanced about and realised a few of the nurses now stood near him, as if preventing him from moving from the spot. This annoyed him. He wanted the use of his arms back, he wanted to be able to move without the ringing around his ankles. He wanted to lurk in the shadowy corners and kill... He blinked as he stared hard at one of the other 'patients'.

It seemed a lot of these creatures were trying to be human, or at least were human once. Some had robotic parts, others were part animal. This one seemed to have a layer of moss growing over its naked skin, and leaves growing from out of its head. Yet, he could hear its steady heartbeat as it stared at the tv. He wondered what this one's heart would taste like. He could break out of the jacket. Yes, why hadn't he done that before?

A loud ripping noise broke the calm and peacefulness of the room. Silence moved quickly, before the nurses could even comprehend what had happened. He stood over the dead body of the creature he had killed, while the others screamed and ran away from him. He hated the noise. He would have killed more, if the orderlies didn't tackle him to the ground and pin him. It took 5 burly men to hold him down so they could tranquillise him. Soon, falling into a groggy half-sleep, they dragged him back to his room while the others quickly removed the body from the room.

L-4's eyes widened immediately, his mouth opening but responding silently, as if he were crying out in shock only in his own mind. His hands gripped the couch's seat immediately in response as Silence's arms broke free. In his hands L-4 could see tiny blades, thin, not small, but thin like glass, and immensely sharp. And in all the white were sudden bursts of blood and orderlies in green and blue and white swarming, and he collected data in minute amounts through minuscule instances of time. Silence breaking out, the rip of a regular straitjacket and not one reinforced with steel thread. Blades slicing through anyone nearby, including a couple nurses. They were immediately tended to, as were the other injured patients. One would be dead in forty seconds due to blood loss. One would die of cardiac arrest, his heart was throbbing far too quickly and one of its chambers would burst in fifteen seconds. Those two nurses would survive, but need two blood transfusions apiece.

L-4 gasped when Silence was finally apprehended and knocked out with a sleeping drug. L-4 had never had the need for that. In an instant he was yanked up by the arm and pulled away by one of his own nurses. "Come on please, it's time for you to go back to your room. We'll bring you dinner soon." He didn't respond as she pushed him, not until he was almost to his room.

"He did it because he's programmed to."

"What...?" The nurse stopped him.

"It's what he's supposed to do. You don't know?" The nurse shook her head. Apparently she didn't know what Silence was, specifically. "Silence is not human. Silence does what he does because he is supposed to. Please don't blame him. Be kind. Tell them not to hurt him... I want to see him..." L-4 felt that sting again, behind his eyes, that indicated he was about to cry. Luckily the nurse turned him around and hurried him along, closing him up in his room. His room with the big windows that could see outside. The big bed, and the bedside tables and lamps, and the table by the door to the bathroom, and the door to the closet full of clothes. The chairs that he used to sit in and stare at the sky. And feel like he could get out and see his creator again.

Silence finally came too after a day. He jerked awake, sitting almost instantly and wincing in pain. He found his arms tightly bound once more in a straitjacket, but this time with heavy chains constricting him tightly. He moved slightly, annoyed at the bells that rung around his ankles. His stomach grumbled and he felt weak. His Father would give him various nutrients via his veins, as his mouth was always sewn shut.

But now, the nurses had left food for him to eat. It was a type of cold soup, so he didn't choke or hurt his jaws while he chewed. He slowly swallowed it, hating the feeling of it sliding down his throat. He gagged slightly, but didn't throw up. He returned to his bed, staring at the door with a slight smile playing on his lips once more. He thought about his Father and a strange feeling came to his heart. It hurt. But he wasn't wounded. He blinked and felt something hot fall from his eye. He glanced down, shocked to see some water had fallen from his eye.

His attention returned to the door as he heard someone approaching. The door opened and a doctor stood there with a few orderlies. It seemed they had no idea what to do with him. "Silence, you have been very bad," the doctor spoke. "Killing patients is not allowed in this facility. You have to be punished."

Silence was confused. How was killing a bad thing? His Father used to always praise him when he came back successful. He supposed it was because he had done it without being asked, and in front of many witnesses. Yes, that was why he was going to be punished. He was lifted by the orderlies and dragged to the end of the hallway. They took him to a small room, where a chair with straps to hold someone down sat. He was placed on this chair and tied down tightly. The doctor shoved a bit of soft wood into his mouth before placing strange wires on his face.

Before he could wonder what they were going to do, he felt a electricity shock through his skin, burning and hurting. He moaned, staring at the doctor in horror. The treatment lasted only a few minutes, but it was enough for him to scream for the first time in his life. They then took him from this room and placed him in a tiny padded cell that had nothing inside it. There he remained for a week.

His obsessively clear vision of the form wouldn't leave him for more than seven days. More than seven days and L-4 refused to leave to go outside, refused to eat, refused to do more than sit in the chair in the center of the room and stare at the door as people came in. The day came that he had to meet with his 'therapist', and he had yet to move. He hadn't even spoken to anyone that had come in before then. The man, he was called Doctor Peter, as his name was Peter Langden, sat on the foot of the bed.

"You need to stop this obsession with people, L-4."

The creation stared at the doctor and shook his head. "It's not obsession. I think of him in relative terms. I think of him because you harm him."

"Now we haven't harmed him, L-4, we---"

"You harmed him! I sensed the lapse in electricity four days ago. The lighting dimmed momentarily in twelve-second intervals. It was soon after his outburst. You---perhaps not you but another doctor, harmed him. You used electricity to deter behavior he was preprogrammed to do. As you are attempting to convince me that I am anything less than human!"

Peter sighed. "L-4, we've been through this multiple times. You are not human. You have a cold fusion reactor in your chest and a motherboard brain---"

"I have blood, I bleed when you cut me and feel, and I can understand emotion." As if to reiterate his point L-4's voice began breaking, and his eyes were leaking tears. "You say I'm not human because I have metal and artificial chemical parts?"

Peter nodded slightly. "You have no soul, L-4."

The creation looked up, sat up, and breathed in sharply. He had an anger behind his watering eyes now. "Scientists don't believe in the concept of a soul." He said flatly. "Your argument has no merit and no value because you're drawing on concepts you give no credit to existing."

Peter was silent for a while. "I'll... cut this meeting short, then, L-4." He stood, taking his notebook with him and closing the door.

(Note Peter is an NPC)

(He sounds like a douche).

Silence liked it in the small cell. It was dark in here and the others left him alone to his thoughts. He became lost in half-forgotten memories of his Father. His first kill... The way his Father had been so pleased with him. He would purr, like a cat, so that his Father knew he was near. His Father never hurt him or punished him like these people had. Soon he heard footsteps approaching his solitary confinement cell, and heard the beating of three hearts. The door opened and he squinted at the light.

The doctor that had administered the electro-shock therapy was standing in the doorway, between the two burly orderlies. How Silence wished he could snap their necks and drain their blood. He glared at the man, who slowly approached him. "Now, Silence. Have we learnt a lesson?" the doctor asked him. He didn't expect a reply. The man seemed to not know how to speak. The orderlies lifted Silence and dragged him to a bathroom, where he was cleaned and re-clothed. It seemed that they had taken his weapons off him, as he couldn't locate them as he stood naked, being held down and showered.

He was then taken to the big room again, but tied to the sofa by a large chain and kept away from the others, who seemed wary of him. He adjusted himself and stared hard at the tv, only doing as he was told because, for the first time in his life, he was scared.

(He is a douche~!)

"Did they die?" L-4's question was rather quiet as he left his room for the first time. And he only left his room because he was told that Silence had been released from his forced imprisonment. The nurse looked at him with confusion in her eyes. "The ones that were attacked, I mean."

"Oh. Yes, they did."

"It's not his fault you know."

"What makes you say that?"

This was a different nurse. "Because it's what he was supposed to do. It's what he was built to do."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I was programmed to do the same thing."

"Kill?"

"No. Be one thing. Be 'perfect'. Be a perfect human. A toy. A puppet. A pretty little thing to look at. I was never meant to do anything more than be admired as the embodiment of perfection on a human scale. Only I'm not human, so... I changed."

"Do you think Silence can change?"

"With help."

"Your help?"

"Perhaps."

L-4 was left in the main activity room by the nurse, who said she had a meeting to attend to. L-4 looked around watchfully, collecting data again, and finding Silence. He was back on the sofa. This time he joined the creature that didn't seem entirely human, but put a little space between them.

The ticking returned again. Silence had almost forgotten about it. Glancing upwards, he saw the pale man come and sit next to him. Surely he wasn't allowed so close to him? He returned his gaze towards the tv, starting to slowly rock to the sound of the ticking. He wanted to say something, ask the man what he was, but he didn't know any words. The sound of his voice scared him.

He watched the show about a cartoon dinosaur and blinked, seeing a dinosaur eat the others and rip them to shreds. He smiled. Of course it wasn't real, but he could imagine sometimes, something his Father discouraged. But if he couldn't kill here, he could at least imagine killing... He couldn't get punished for that.

He saw Silence look at him but then quickly look away, as if he were being bad by just glancing the direction L-4 sat in. Oh no... He couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of dread overtake his nonexistent heart, that maybe something had shorted in this one's brain like they kept telling him had happened to him as well. Maybe it was too late? Too late to get a friend. Too late to find someone to talk to or at least take away the soul-crushing loneliness he shouldn't feel---because he didn't have a soul.

L-4 leaned to the side a bit, so he wouldn't have to speak loudly. "Silence...?" He spoke easily. "Can... you... understand me...?" Surely he could. If he didn't talk at least he could understand common sentences. If he didn't speak at least he could know what L-4 was saying. He recognized his name, at least, L-4 had seen that with little doubt a week before. And if he could just get on the fellow creation's good side... perhaps become a friend... It would really help. Really help them both, perhaps.

Silence moved his head at his name being spoken. Of course the nurses and doctors called his name often, but he hadn't heard a fellow 'patient' say it. He was talking to him. Of course Silence understood him. He may not be able to talk, but he wasn't dumb. He moved his head slightly, showing that he had understood. He again looked at L-4.

Yes, he could remember this one's name. It had such a strange make. L-4 sounded like some sort of machine. Maybe that explained the ticking heart? Perhaps this pale man, wasn't a man at all but rather a machine that looked like a man. He shook his head softly as he thought about it. Machines can't be men. They can't feel like this one felt. He wondered if he were to cut L-4, would he be able to feel pain? Could he kill him?

L-4 grimaced inwardly. Of course Silence must understand him perfectly. Of course he understood his name but he wouldn't be able to function if he couldn't understand anything else. For a creature with a computerized mind he certainly didn't act as intelligent as he actually was. Still, he didn't allow this to deter him---this was, after all, his chance. Silence was being good in the eyes of the orderlies and guards and doctors present to keep everyone calm and at ease. He turned to face the fellow patient fully.

"They... hurt you, don't they Silence? They punished you for doing what you were simply told to do. Your... your father. He wanted you to kill, to be the best you could possibly be? And in turn you were taken because you were too good. Just like me. You were taken and now you are punished for being a killer, for being what you were meant to be. I don't think that's fair... I'm sorry you have to be here with us, Silence. It isn't your fault. You do what you were made to do, and you are hurt for it. It isn't right." He shook his head, sending his uneven hair into his face. Once upon a time it used to be perfect, and now... now he wasn't perfect. He wasn't a human, so he wasn't perfect.

Silence listened to L-4 speak, finding his voice oddly soothing. His Father used to talk to him, while he lay in the man's arms to sleep. L-4 was right, of course. He had only killed because that was what he was for. They had then hurt him and punished him for just being himself. Now he didn't know what was acceptable by these people's standards. A few of them were watching him and L-4 closely, a doctor standing nearby and looking like he was fascinated. Perhaps they hadn't thought Silence could understand them, that he was just an animal that killed for no reason.

He nodded slightly, wondering why L-4 seemed so sad that he had been hurt. Why would he care what happened to Silence? How was he any different to all the others that walked and sat in this room.

There was an underlying humanity in this creature, this programmed killing machine, that L-4 couldn't ignore. Something was there he had to get to know. Something that wasn't oblivious to the world no matter how quiet he was or how much he appeared to be detached. Something in those dark eyes seemed knowing, in a way, knowing in a very deep way that few could grasp. "They have never harmed anyone as much as they have harmed you." L-4 said after a moment. "I have never seen them so intent. It... is as if they want to change you. But... I don't think you need to be changed. They want to change me too. We don't have to change if we don't want to."

He looked down, then back up---something about those shadowy eyes just made him want to keep staring at them. "I don't want them to try to change you. Maybe... maybe I could... make them stop... if you wanted me to." If he used irrefutable logic he would come out on top, or be able to get a higher form of government into it. He was, after all, free to roam the asylum as he saw fit because he was a level-one patient clearance---allowed anywhere that wasn't restricted to personnel only and not outside for more than an hour.

Change him...? He hadn't thought about that. But what were they going to change him into? A weak, pathetic human? Was this why he could feel things he had never felt before? Without his Father's medicine and nutrients, he was able to feel pain, sadness and loneliness. He also felt afraid, something he had never experienced before. But how could L-4 stop them from changing him, if they wanted to so badly? When L-4 had been arguing over his existence with the doctors for a long time.

Silence had heard them talking to L-4, telling him that he wasn't what he wanted to be. What sort of hellish place was this? Why didn't they simply put these creations down, if they couldn't be what they wanted to be?

He was sure he saw a sense of realization, even if it was imagined. Had Silence not known this place before arriving here? Had he not been told a thing before they brought him to this place to try to curb him of his murdering behavior? Like they were trying to cure him of his 'delusions' of humanity. If only they knew a fraction of what he knew! The fools would cower in a corner at his very passing. But L-4 didn't think like that. He didn't like to think of himself as more than human so much as an equal to a human. They wouldn't be able to cure him because he didn't have delusions. He knew what his creator told him, what his father told him.

"Perhaps I might... grant you a little freedom, Silence. Should you be able to curb your tendency to react violently as you did a week before. Perhaps you can convince them you are not ill, or troubled, and you simply wish to be what you are. Would you... like me to... to be a friend?" Did he even know what a friend was? A cold killing machine didn't have room for friends, but in a place like this, true insanity was kept at bay by a little companionship, if anything else. And L-4 did want to feel Silence's physical touch again, just some form of some kind of human contact. Something...

Silence studied the pale man with the ticking heart, his head tilted slightly. 'Friend'? What did that mean? Silence knew no companionship, nor love. He had been his Father's prized possession, of course, but he had never thought about love. But the way L-4 spoke, it seemed as though he needed someone to talk to, to prevent his mind from becoming lost in insanity. Silence liked to be left alone.

Though, he agreed with the first statement. He had to behave himself, try to stop his urges to kill. Maybe then he'd be able to be let out of this confining jacket and he could walk about freely like L-4 and some of the others. Pretend to be 'cured'... And when he was let out of this prison, he could find his Father and kill for him again. It would be hard, yes... Very hard for him to pull off. But if L-4 helped him....

L-4 studied Silence for a moment. That odd manner he regarded the other creation, the way he earned his namesake by being utterly quiet, like a literal shadow. Except the bells---the bells gave him away. L-4 looked at Silence with a closed mouth and a knitted brow that gave away the overwhelming feeling of sudden loneliness that had dropped into his stomach. "Um... I'll... go talk to them for you I suppose..." He didn't know what else to say, really. And L-4 was designed to understand social cues and know how to respond at once. But Silence simply... regarded him passively. He obviously knew what L-4 was saying and understood it perfectly, but simply didn't respond.

L-4 withdrew himself and rubbed his cool arms. He did feel the difference between heat and cold, like any human, and disliked the way the asylum was always so cold. Well, cold in the summer. When it was winter the place heated ridiculously and made him sweat. And winter was just arriving soon, after autumn. From his window L-4 could often see the leaves of the trees changing a little to their fiery colors. He stood, and started past.

Silence felt strange when L-4 left his side, as though he had become empty inside. He supposed it was because of the way the pale man spoke to him, it reminded him so much of his Father. He turned his head away from the tv and took to watching the nurses and orderlies with interest, his smile back on his lips.

In his head, he had silently slipped into this room and stood behind that pillar, where the shadows would hide him. He didn't need to see them, he could judge how far away they were by listening to their heartbeats. He jumped on the first one, snapping her neck easily before spinning around and bringing out his knives. With a quick movement, he sliced the neck of the other nurse, before they could scream for help. He blinked and snapped out of his fantasy when one of them approached him.

"Do you need something?" she asked him. She must have mistaken his staring as a sign for help. He looked away and shook his head slightly. This one was different than the others. She was young and pretty, and seemed so nice to her patients. He had seen her holding L-4's hand, as though she was a caring mother. He liked mothers, never killing woman or children. His Father had forbidden it.

"I'd never kill you," he whispered in his unused, harsh voice. She looked a bit disturbed, but smiled.

"That's good, Silence," she said, before retreating to talk to the doctor that stood nearby. No one had heard his voice up until now, even Silence was shaking at the sound of it. He had a voice. He had just used it. But what had he said? He wasn't even sure he'd be able to speak like that again.

There, the doctor that seemed to have an eye especially trained on Silence. It had to be the doctor that was overseeing Silence. He had a stern and serious face and didn't seem to have much emotion even for a human. Maybe it was because of the way he had to live. The job he had. The job he had dedicated to crazy creations and not-really-humans. But he was different, at least. He had his wits, even if they thought him delusional for thinking himself human. L-4 stepped toward him slowly, with his hands limp at his sides so that no one thought he was trying to do harm.

'i apologize for approaching you unsolicited, but I do understand that you are... overseeing Silence." L-4 saw the man nod and continued. "I simply wonder if it is against code to allow... visitors? Perhaps someone to his room that may begin to ease him out of his murderous tendencies?" L-4 had a pretty good idea that his being there would hardly be a way to deter Silence from killing, which he didn't really intend to do. It was what Silence was supposed to do, after all, and L-4 would not allow anyone to force change upon him. But if he kept it under control and feigned some type of normalcy, then what was the harm in allowing L-4 to be a mediator? A friend, even? A watcher for Silence, even. He knew of some more sane patients taking to others of less mental stability, and L-4 had never been violent nor defiant, except in his assurance that he was, in fact, human.