They let you outside again.

The sun had become shy and hiding behind a nest of clouds in the pale blue sky you couldn't help but stare into.

You could hear the fence humming as it curled around the little haven that the science team had carved for you and the children.

A floor of thick rubber mats made from recycled tires stretched from the Facility into a rough octagon surrounded first by a thick wooden fence shaped and painted to look like giant popsicle sticks, and then by the electrified one about two feet away.

In the center of the yard was a playground. Brightly painted plastic and steel apparatuses intended to provide enrichment for kids like you. There wasn't much of a theme to it but you guessed it was supposed to look like a tree house, except it had been designed by someone who had never seen a real tree.

There were swings, climbing ropes, slides, monkey bars, and other such playground staples that the children were excitedly playing with.

You were on a bench with Mara. Recess was mandatory but that didn't mean you had to like it, and much preferred to sit and people watch instead. Mara was knitting and occasionally putting whatever she was working on onto your head to make sure that it would eventually fit once she was done. This was preferable to interacting with the other kids so you let her do whatever she liked so long as she didn't force you to go play and be normal.

One of the other Keepers was busy chasing his assigned kid all over the playground, screaming "Roady!" "Roady stop!" "Roady no!" And the occasional "Spit that out!" Whenever he got particularly close to catching her.

Roady was the dog girl from before and she kept eating things off of the ground when her Keeper was distracted. You might have found it funny if you didn't want her kind of dead, or if you liked dogs, or if you didn't feel sorry for the poor idiot in charge of her.

Roady skidded to a halt in front of your bench and stood up on her back limbs before hunching over dramatically and pretending to limp while she held her hands up near her chest like a little mean spirited tyrannosaur. You gave her the blankest stare you could muster before pointedly ignoring her attempts to make fun of you.

You walked funny, even with a complete set of feet. According to the medical staff, your cybernetics were both too numerous and too heavy for your remaining organic parts to deal with, especially your still-growing spine, so you walked with a permanent slouch.

It didn't hurt, so you didn't care, but the med team strongly urged Mara to have your parts replaced with lighter ones as soon as possible.

You weren't sure if Mara had that level of authority or that kind of cash, but everybody talked over you like you weren't there so you didn't bother trying to argue.

Roady's Keeper tackled her like a football player, pried her mouth open and shook out several half dead bugs, a rock, pieces of chewed plastic and a severed cybernetic finger. The girl glared at him with such malice that it oozed off of her in brilliant orange streams, but her Keeper just crossed his arms and gave her the same look back before telling her to behave.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

He stuck his tongue out at her.

This lasted for about thirty seconds before both parties dissolved into laughter.

The man looked up and locked eyes with Mara, he offered her a hand to shake, which she ignored completely.

"Hey I'm Craig," said the man, hand still out for Mara to shake. Roady put her face in it and forced Craig to pet her.

"I know," said Mara, the click-clack of her knitting needles made little sparks, combining with the cool blue tone of her voice to conjure visions of a low smoky fire. "We met at orientation."

Craig chuckled awkwardly, "D-did we?"

His voice was a particular shade of maroon that made you wonder if he was just generally kind of scared about everything or if his voice was Just Like That normally.

Mara nodded, one eyebrow raised as if she couldn't believe this guy in any way shape or form. "We met everyone during orientation, that's the purpose of orientation."

Craig cleared his throat and sat in the empty spot on the bench next to you. Your ears immediately flicked back and your lips began to curl but Mara shot you a glance before you could do anything.

Craig stared at you, eyebrows furrowed.

"Uh…" He looked at Mara for assistance, "What's up with him?" He pointed at you and you snapped your teeth at his fingers. He squealed like a small child and fell off the bench.

Roady growled, hackles raised. You flipped her the bird and Mara smacked your hands for it.

"It's rude to point," Mara said without looking up from her knitting. "He doesn't like to be touched or crowded and has a history of biting people for doing that, so your best bet is to find somewhere else to sit for now." She smiled at Roady, the kind of smile that says 'if you don't get out of my face I'll rip yours off'. "You too sweetie, my little friend here told me what you did to his bear."

"M'not 'sweetie'!" Roady stopped growling and sat, tail thumping, "My name is Rhododendron but Craig calls me Roady cuz he's lazy and he doesn't wanna say the whole thing!" She stuck her tongue out at Craig again who had managed to peel himself off of the ground. "It's a kinda flower."

"Wait-- what bear, what did she do?" Craig responded, dusting himself off. His cheeks were red with embarrassment and maybe a little exasperation.

You started signing and Mara interpreted for you, "She stole my teddy bear and drooled all over it and made me run around like a dumbass trying to get it back."

"Language." Mara scolded. You gave her a look that told her that she was not the boss of you but the way she didn't react clearly said that she was.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"I was only playing." Whined the dog girl, hanging her head and making her eyes wide and watery in an attempt to gather sympathy. Nobody fell for it.

"Ah jeez, it's not too busted up is it? I can buy you a new one." Craig offered, crouching down to your level. You never understood why adults did that sort of thing, you guessed that it made you easier to interact with on some level but it honestly felt kind of mean? Not mean on purpose, but still mean.

"My bear is fine, it got a bath so it's ok now but it doesn't smell like my friend anymore and that's upsetting but you can't give me her smell back anyway so don't worry about it." You signed.

Roady blinked at your hands, then blinked at Mara. "How do you know what he's saying if he doesn't talk? …and why doesn't he talk?"

Mara, realizing that she was not going to get any more knitting done, sighed very heavily and put her supplies back into the little bag she'd brought with her. "He's using sign language, the gestures and things he's doing with his hands are actually words and phrases that I understand and interpret. It's used mostly by deaf people and other people who can't talk, like him."

Roady heard the word 'deaf', and let the dusty wheels in her brain turn in the wrong direction. You could see her winding up to yell, as if that would fix anything, but Mara pressed a finger to the girl's lips as quick as a flash. "He's not deaf, he can hear you just fine right now so there's no point in yelling."

"Oh." Said the dog girl. She looked at you. "Why can't you talk?"

You shrugged.

It wasn't like you COULDN'T, you just… didn't? You distinctly remember speaking at some point in your life but when you got to the lab you stopped, but couldn't remember exactly why.

But you weren't going to explain that to Roady.

"Oh… do you wanna go play?" She tilted her head and smiled, tongue out and flapping as she panted. Her tail was wagging again, kicking up a small cloud of dust and pebbles.

You looked at Mara, and she looked at you. She signed at you in slow, gentle motions. "You don't have to if you don't want to, we can sit here for as long as you like."

You pressed your face into her shoulder, a bit like a cat might, and got off of the bench. Roady hopped to all four limbs and barked before tearing across the playground and back several times. She was talking too, in between the barks, asking you what kinds of games you wanted to play.

You settled on fetch.

The popsicle fence had been built with idiot children in mind so it was tall enough to keep most balls and other thrown objects from being chucked over it and lost. It was also built with barely any gaps so nobody got the bright idea to stick their grubby little hands through it and grab the hot wires on the other side.

Said wires were several feet away for added safety, but kids are as smart as they are stupid and someone would have found a way to shock themselves at some point if all the necessary precautions were not in place.

These were all very good precautions, because you threw the Frisbee a little too hard every time and had the fence been even a foot shorter, Roady would have probably cremated herself by accident trying to catch it.

She was almost fun to be around without your bear in her mouth and the other kids egging her on, but you were never gonna forgive her for that first sin.

Ever.

As long as you lived.

At one point you threw the Frisbee way too hard and it ended up stuck at the top of the playground so you both decided to climb up there and retrieve it. Roady insisted on turning that into a game too. You two weren't just looking for a Frisbee, you were brave explorers climbing Mount Neverrest (Everest) in search of a lost alien craft that had crash landed there.

It was silly, but you enjoyed it. Climbing ever higher, crawling through plastic tubes, and up knotted ropes to the summit. You found the Frisbee half stuck in a part of the playground's construction, you held it high in triumph and Roady howled at the top of her lungs.

You howled too, or tried to anyway. The sound came out wrong, modulated and weird.

The entire playground fell completely silent. All eyes were on you again.

On the little freak who couldn't even howl right.

You dropped the Frisbee and ran the whole way down, back to Mara, and curled up next to her on the bench. Embarrassment pulled you under and your cheeks heated. You wanted to go back inside, to dissolve or disappear, to unexist so completely that nobody remembered you at all.

Roady followed you and nudged you with the Frisbee, "Are you ok?"

You didn't look up from the little self pity ball that you'd become. Mara petted you gently and tried to sooth your bruised ego.

The girl dropped the Frisbee "Why'd you run away? We were having fun…" She touched you with one of her weird paw-hands and you stiffened. She looked at Mara, eyes bright with concern, "Did I hurt his feelings again?"

You shook your head and Mara rubbed your back. You didn't know how to explain all the big stupid feelings rolling around in your chest like marbles and dice, clattering painfully against each other.

Roady put her chin on the bench, "We don't have to play anymore if you don't wanna, we can just sit… Craig says I'm bad at sitting and staying but I'm a PUPPY ok I'll get better later but for right now there's so many smells and noises and stuff that I just gotta see y'know?"

She licked your arm sympathetically, "I like your noises! Your howl was really cool, like a robot werewolf or something!"

You peeked at her, and she sniffed your face. It tickled, and you giggled before you could stop yourself. Your hands clapped over your mouth as you remembered the way Doug flinched at the sound, but Roady didn't.

Her tail wagged and wagged and she gave you a dopey dog grin, excited by this new and undiscovered noise.

You had been OK with people finding you unsettling but the second someone found you interesting and fun, things stopped computing and you immediately shut down. You didn't know how to react to Roady or her wiggling as she sniffed your face again and tried to make you laugh.

Her tongue was rough and slimy, breath rancid and hot, but you cackled and squealed when she licked your face and sent you both tumbling off of the bench.

There were tears in your eyes by the time the Keepers managed to separate you.

You were both giggling, buzzing with excitement. Mara started to drag you inside so she could wash off all the dirt and dog spit but Roady ran in front of you. "Wait! Wait, I never got to know your name."

"He doesn't have one." Mara said, struggling to balance you on her hip, "I've been trying to think of one but he's hated all of my suggestions."

After Thumper was Bugs, then Hazel, Fiver, Pipkin, and Peter, but nothing had stuck. Roady sat stubbornly, and thought while Mara tried to scoot around her and into the Facility.

"What about… Jack?" The dog girl offered, "like jackrabbits and Jack the Ripper and stuff?"

"Jackrabbits aren't actually rabbits, they're hares." Craig said as he picked Roady off of the ground. "N-not that it matters!"

Everyone was looking at you again and it made you dreadfully uncomfortable.

"Well, what say you kid?" Mara looked at you appraisingly, studying you as if she'd never seen you before. "You do look like a Jack now that I think about it."

You rolled the name around in your head over and over until it became smooth and good to hold. You had had a name before coming here, before being rebuilt piece by piece and habit by habit.

That name was gone, worn away and forgotten, so you needed something new and your number wasn't going to carry that weight properly anymore.

Well.

In that case.

Jack would do just fine.