Duncan

“Hikaru can show you around the Institute, Nadia,” Duncan said, gesturing to the boy standing beside him. Nadia would have described him as having a ‘quiet elegance’ if she was writing a novel. “He should be able to answer any additional questions you might have. Silas, I’m afraid we don’t currently have any research pertaining to… your interests,” Duncan said tactfully, “but Lily has a few questions for you. Some, unfortunately, to ascertain our security here, but she’s also genuinely interested in anything you might be willing to tell her.”

The girl with dyed hair nodded vigorously. “Seriously, you’re super super interesting,” she said, speaking quickly and with a lot of excitement. “If I didn’t know, there’s no way I would have guessed you’re a robot.”

Silas laughed. “Well, that is kind of the point,” he said. He turned back to Duncan and said, “I understand your security concerns. I’m willing to do whatever you find necessary to assure you that I’m not working for… them,” he said, sighing heavily. “And if you can find a way to remove this damn speech block I could even tell you that myself.”

Duncan actually laughed. Nadia and Phoebe exchanged a slightly surprised look. His laugh was surprisingly genuine and cheerful, not at all like his professional demeanor. “I’ll see what we can do, but the Institute’s closest division to electronic research is the anti-extranormal powers division, which does no work on animatronics or AI. Our work focuses solely on the extranormal. So, Phoebe, if you could come with me,” he said, turning back to his chief interest.