Players:
Summary: Robyn's ability to cope has taken one too many hits. A friend tries to help, and is pre-empted by another.
Date: January 22, 2010
Log Title Coming to Grips
Rating: PG
Xavier Mansion - Communications Tower
This large metal tower has many mysteries and stories surrounding it. Deep in the woods it supplies most of the radio frequencies of the school. Danger and High Voltage signs hang all around the tower, but that doesn't stop the occasional group of students from trying to climb it.
Since it's been warm out, Robyn's decided to get some alone time outside. He's made his way to the observation deck and is currently lying on the ground. He's finally shaved but he hasn't gotten much sleep or eatten much the last few days and he looks like hell. He's wearing a pair of Xavier's Sweatpants and a plain black t-shirt today and he just is looking up at the sky with a dazed expression.
Slow footsteps can be heard, leaves and underbrush crackling gradually closer. "…Robyn…?" Rashmi's voice, concerned, floats out from the trees. "…Robyn, are you there?"
Robyn doesn't sit up or look over at Rashmi, he just raises his good arm. "I think so." Is his response and his voice has an odd tone to it, a bit of a distant quality.
The footsteps pick up speed, hurrying closer, and before very long the redhead emerges from the trees, eyes darting left, right, and finally falling on Robyn, stretched out on the ground. "Robyn? Oh my God, are you okay?"
Robyn smiles and nods. "Yup, I'm great, fine, everything's dandy." He says as he's just out of it. Exhaustion as set in along with just too much that's happened to him in one week. "You know Rashmi, I never noticed how blue the sky is and I saw a cloud today that looked like a rabbit, a toaster and an old man's walker."
Rashmi lowers herself to her knees next to the exhausted youth, a hand reaching out to rest on Robyn's shoulder. "Just decided to get out and find something to enjoy, then…?"
Robyn shrugs as it's really hard to tell exactly what he's thinking. "I don't know. I just don't know anymore." He focuses on the sky and hasn't really looked over yet. "What do you think about Aliens?"
Rashmi quietly settles herself to the ground next to Robyn, frowning faintly, puzzled by Robyn's mental meandering. "I'm… not really sure… The movie, or the real thing?"
Robyn hasn't moved from his spot lying on the grass, his eyes fixed on the sky with a sort of dazed expression. At least he's finally shaved. "The real thing, like Aliens out there. I mean demons are real, why not Aliens?" His voice has a bit of a high pitched far away voice as if he's not quiet there.
Rashmi blinks, eyebrows drawing together as her worry slowly deepens. "I don't see why not," she says slowly, taking a chance to brush Robyn's hair away from his face. "Robyn…? Robyn, you're starting to worry me…"
Robyn shrugs and finally looks over at Rashmi and smiles. "I'm fine, really. Everything doesn't make sense and it's great. I think I'm just gonna sleep out here, see what I can see in the stars tonight. You don't get stars like this out in the city."
Dallas is jogging down the path, working off excess energy in the abnormal heat. Since nobody else is out here, he's indulging himself, calling his shadow every now and then for an insanely long leap or burst of speed and then dropping it almost at once. The net effect is that he occasionally catapults over fallen trees or outcroppings and tries to land running. The occasional, "Wooo!" heralds his arrival a few seconds before he arrives, flying over a large log and the brush around it and skidding to a halt when he sees other people in the remote location.
"No, you really don't…" The redhead seems a good deal more urgent in voice and face, quietly brushing Robyn's hair back, completely snowed as to what else to do. "But I'm not sure it's a good idea to sleep out here…" She sits up a little, looking over her shoulder as Dallas makes a rather spectacular entry. "Oh thank God, Dallas… Something's the matter with Robyn."
"There's nothing wrong with me. It's the same me, I haven't changed, just everything around me has changed." He says shruging like there's nothing wrong at all. "Did you know that someone might have stolen my DNA when I got kidnapped by MGH dealers and some aliens might have gotten a hold of it and copied me?"
Dallas gives them a closer look, identifying Rashmi and Robyn. He scowls faintly and says, "Other than the company?" With that he crosses over to Robyn and sits down by his friend. "No, they didn't. You just have a twin brother who is a few yards short of a down." He doesn't try to get touchy-feely with Robyn because, well, that's not who he is, as a general rule. "And dude. It's a good thing. We just need to help he see straight."
Rashmi blinks sharply, recoiling a bit at Dallas' opening line. Frowning and looking off to one side, she sits up, scooting over to place a little more Robyn between her and Dallas, and goes quiet. Dallas, it seems, knows what the other boy is talking about.
Robyn looks at Dallas and shakes his head. "You're not sure, you don't know. He could be a twin, or he could be an alien copy. I did get kidnapped so they could use my DNA to make that mutant drug. What happens if it's true? You don't know what happened after we got out of the lab. I mean there are demons running around and the files hve talked about aliens, so..why not?" He still says it in the same, kind of upbeat, I'm not really with it, tone of voice.
Dallas gives Rashmi another fairly unfriendly look bur doesn't say anything else to her at the moment. He looks back to Robyn and rolls his eyes and says, "I'm pretty sure that out of all the mutants in the world, aliens aren't going to pick your DNA to work with, dude. And why go for the more complex answers first. There's like a twenty ga-zillion dollar mutant lab under the school. Why not have somebody find out? If they can do it in an hour on CSI, it's like twenty seconds, tops, here."
Rashmi's shoulders hunch slightly, as another unwelcome glare is shot her way. At Dallas' assurance, she starts to speak up, glances upward at the athlete, then simply frowns, eyes falling back to her lap. Clearly unwilling to move as long as Robyn remains here, but suitably quelled by Dallas' dislike.
"Thanks." Robyn says with an eyeroll to Dalls before just shaking his head. "You know what, you don't know about anything anymore. It's safe out here, in the woods. The grass won't hurt me. Can I just stay out here forever, away from everything?"
Dallas arches an eyebrow at Rashmi and then looks back to Robyn. "Well, first, I'm not sure I /ever/ know much about much. And second, yah, I guess you could, but you'd probably get kind of smelly after a while. And thin. And when winter comes back, you'd probably loose all your toes and fingers to frostbite. Maybe worse." He uses a sort of cool, analytical tone while making that gruesome statement. Something he's noticed is very effective with his younger brother.
"…Also, um… You do… sort of have to eat, once in a while…" It seems to take a great deal of nerving up to get her to say the words, and after, she falls silent again.
"I haven't eaten much in days and I've been okay. And I'm already skinny." Robyn says but he finally does sit up with a wince and sharpe intake of breath. "And it's a pain in the ass to shower and shave with this thing on." Indicating the cast on his arm. "I think it's safer out here anyway than in there."
Dallas nods and says, "Listen to her. It may be the only time she's ever been right. And sure, we could let you starve to death out here. Going to be a bit annoying to tell your parents, though. And you can learn to shave one-handed. As for showering, it's really simple. You just put a trash back on the arm and seal it up with tape. I've had more than one busted arm playing sports. It's not that bad." Well, two /is/ more than one. If not exactly the daily occurrence he's implying.
Rashmi's jaw begins to flex as she presses her back teeth together. Taking jabs is one thing, but to her, this is getting to be a bit much. "Robyn," she says, forcing her voice to be something more gentle than the fury beginning to stir, "it's not any safer out here… It's just quieter. And that's okay… but you have to take care of yourself too, right?"
"I am taking care of myself just fine." Robyn says sounding frustrated. "And if he is my twin brother, why doesn't he seem to care to find out if…if really are or something. He looks exactly like me but he dosen't care." It was just the way that Richard said 'I'm an Alien' with such certainty that Robyn's not really sure. "When is this all going to be over?" He wispers, maybe some sense is starting to take over.
Dallas gives Robyn a surprised look and says, "Why doesn't he… DUDE! He probably /just/ figured out he's a mutant. And left everything he loves behind. And came to a whole new school where he had to start over. Discovering that some /other/ part of his life is different and weird and not what he expected? Of course he's trying to make it not true. Who wouldn't? You just need to give him time to adjust and figure out what's what." Dallas seems pretty impassioned in that little speech. "And soon, I hope. The X-Men are working on it. And there's the coma-chick in the basement. If nothing else, we can like, spike her IV with Red Bull or something if she doesn't wake up soon."
Rashmi's eyebrow rises some, quite surprised by how perceptive Dallas has suddenly become. Nodding in quiet agreement, she tucks a lock of the boy's hair behind an ear. "It'll go away, Robyn," she says quietly. "You'll see. Probably soon enough, and then we can all go back to our lives."
"Yeah, but it won't be the same Rashmi, it never is." Robyn says as he looks away from the both of them, not being able to face them at the moment. "I can't sleep cause I keep remembering, I can't eat cause I feel like I'm going to throw up when I do. I can't talk to anyone cause everyone has problems of their own and..maybe Addison was right. Maybe I'm just a dumb teen trying to deal with too much. I wonder if he can make me forget about Jordan too."
Dallas sighs and says, "Ok, dude. We're taking you to Addison. You can deal with all of this crap later when everything is settled." He stands and says, "Do you want to walk or should I carry you?" Given his expression, tone and stance, he's not at all kidding.
Rashmi nods in agreement, squeezing Robyn's shoulder. "Dallas is right… But you're wrong about one thing, Robyn… You *can* talk to me. Anytime you need to, just… all you need to do is ask, okay? You're right… we've all got our own problems. But that doesn't mean we're too good to help each other out when they need it, right?"
Robyn doesn't move but it does look like he's shaking slightly as he has started to cry a bit, which just annoys him more cause he hates crying in front of people and knows it doesn't solve anything. "I just want advice, where do I go from here? I want things to be okay, I hate being like this, I hate it so much. I hate putting all my problems on you guys. I want to be like you Dallas, able to keep it all inside." By now it's just more than a few tears that run down his face, he still doesn't look at either of them though, almost ashamed.
Dallas sighs and hovers for a moment, giving Rashmi a vile look just because she's there to see Robyn in a moment of weakness and to see him do what he's about to do. He crouches down beside his friend and actually hugs Robyn a long moment and then, calling his shadow, he puts his arms under Robyn and lifts him, as gently as he can. Powered-up, the other boy weighs nothing more than a feather. Those blazing eclipse eyes turn towards Rashmi and he says, "I'm taking him in so Addison can at least help him get some sleep. I know that you're short on keeping your mouth shut, but it might be nice if you didn't spread this around." He starts walking back towards the mansion, murmuring, "No problem, dude. I've got you. Can't hardly let my token artsy friend go crazy on me. It would totally screw with my street cred." From the sound of that, he's making a joke.
Rashmi actually takes a step back, flinching as though Dallas had physically slapped her. Her face ashen, she just watches Dallas carry Robyn off, stunned into speechlessness. By the time her brain is able to catch up to the world around her, the two are gone, and for a moment she just stands there, miserable, in the clearing. Shaking her head, she sets off at a quick walk toward the dormitories.
