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Summary: Hosea finds Robyn, but not the teen he thought he'd be finding.
Date: October 20, 2010
Log Title: These Halls Are Haunted
Rating: PG-13
Tegu-Haaz - Xavier's Insane Asylum for Adolescents (Main Lobby)
Large squares of white marble reflect the gas lit chandlers above. From the door to a large stair case runs a nice red carpet. The staircase leads to a balcony above. The railings and all the woodwork in the room are detailed and give the room a grandiose appeal. There are a wooden panels with designs on them, alcoves and even a few gargoyles along the walls of the main lobby. Heavy wooden doors lead the way into the other areas of the Asylum. Candle holders stem from the floor to hold candles several feet up in the air on their intricate brass holders. A fine layer of dust has settled over the room and there are foot prints raining from large to small, in the dust across the marble floors.
Hosea has designated himself as the security detail during these strange events over the last few weeks. So when he first heard that Robyn had gone missing, he went in search of him, and now that he's been spotted at the Asylum, the African has decided to come bring him back himself. His teleport lands him about fifteen feet from the door to the Asylum. These long distance teleporations are getting easier the more practice he's getting at them. He quietly walks up to the door of the Asylum, and pushes it open.
There's the sound of someone crying in the main lobby of the Asylum and it seems to echo off the walls of the large room. Hiding in one of the alcoves is a ghostly figure dressed in a white shirt and pants, very much like a patient here might have once worn. His entire body is translucent and even though he's visible, so are the things on the other side of him. Robyn doesn't hear the door get pushed open as he stays in the comfort of the small alcove.
The Nigerian quickly enters as he hears the crying. He begins to look around, but it is hard to tell where the sound comes from. "Hello?" he calls out. He checks one alcove after the next, and then spots the sickly looking figure of Robyn. "Robyn?" he speaks as he finds him. He rushes to his side and kneels next to him. "What are you doing heah?" he asks. "Are you hurt?" He doesn't reach out to touch him yet, but he scans to see if there are any injuries on the smaller teen.
It's hard to tell if there are injuries or not, after all Robyn is quite transparent right now. "Whose Robyn, why do you call me that?" He asks as there are no tears and the crying stops. "Who are are? Why are you here?" He asks of the man who talks funny. He looks scared as he looks at Hosea, taking a step closer to him.
Hosea pauses, a rather worried look crossing his face. "I am your friend," he says. "Hosea Ikbuku." He holds out a hand for the boy to take. He does, however, notice that Robyn seems to be…not all there. In more ways than one. "You have been lost, but you are safe now." He doesn't comment on the strange appearance that Larkin has, not wanting to alarm him further.
Looking at Hosea, the ghost Robyn gives him an annoyed look. "I don't know you, I don't have any friends. You're a liar." He then goes to 'take' Hosea's hand but it's more that his hand goes right through Hosea's and stays there 'in' his. Once the contact is made, Robyn starts to drain some of Hosea's psychic engery from him with a satified look, like someone whose dived into a delicious meal. "You no nothing, Hosea Ikbuku. How do you know I'm not safe already?"
As Robyn takes his hand, Hosea feels the drain take place. It takes a moment for him to process what is happening, and he tries to pull his hand away from the psychic vampire with a worried look. "You are not da man who chooses my friendship," he says with a little more force. "I will choose who I shall be a friend toward, and I have chosen to be yours. Your only choice is whetha to be my friend in return. You are speaking vedy silly. If you felt safe, den why were you just crying? Eh?" he motions to the corner that Robyn came from. "Why are you in dis place?"
As Robyn drains Hosea, he'd be able to feel the pull and he'd be left with a killer headache for several hours. "I'm speaking vedy silly? Listen to how you speak, it sounds even sillier." The ghost mocks Hosea. "You don't even know me, do you even realize what I am? You're trying to make friends with a ghost. So…does that make you crazy? Is that why you're here, are you crazy too?" Robyn asks looking at Hosea. "Because you can see ghosts and talk to them, and you just try to make friends with them?" He looks at away and shrugs and only one of the questions. "I can't leave."
"You ah not a ghost." Hosea answers definitively. "You are a student from Xavier's Institute for da gifted." He feels the headache, but is too focused to be bothered with wallowing in the pain for the moment. "I am not crazy, and you ah not crazy eitha. You do not belong heah."
"I was a patient at Xavier's Insane Asylum for Adolescents." Robyn says matter of factly as it's the truth to him. "You are the one who doesn't belong here, don't you feel it?" He asks curiously as he walks barefoot along the floor without making a sound. "You know, I once heard the crazy always say they aren't crazy."
Hosea seems to take a wider and more solid stance to combat the dizzying effects of his migraine. "I once heard dat dere is no such thing as ghosts," he answers dryly. "Do you believe everything you are told?" he asks. "I do know I do not belong heah," he says. "But I know you. And you do not belong heah eitha. A great evil has poisoned your mind."
"But yet you're talking to something you don't believe in." Robyn says as he walks right through Hosea to the other side of the lobby. With his back turned to him he speaks again. "Hosea Ikbuku, this is where I am bound to. I cannot leave here, you want me to be someone. I am dead. Maybe I resemble someone you are having trouble parting with. Yes…that's must be what it is. You lost someone and cannot believe they're gone."
Hosea knits his brow. "You did not before have da ability to do dat which I know," he confesses, And walks to one of the walls. "But see?" He pats the wall, and then tries focus again through the headache. He passes through the wall with his arm on the second attempt. "I can do dat too. I am no ghost. My faith is not built on what I see before me, but what I know to be true. I am no stranger to death, I know more people who are dead than alive. Now tell me something. Why is it dat you were crying?" He tries to shift the conversation away from his own situation and back to Robyn's. He places his hand on the wall again, once again solid, so that he may support himself.
"Of course I couldn't pass through walls before, I couldn't because I was alive. I can now because of what I am. You, I'm guessing you are something you don't believe you are." Robyn says getting annoyed with Hosea for being what he deems is an idiot. "So you can speak to the dead, why do you do it then?" He asks curiously since he thinks by Hosea saying he knows more people how are dead, he can see dead people. "I lost something."
Hosea considers the irony of Robyn's statement. The African would really consider himself to be a speaker to dead people, but not in the same context that Robyn is thinking of. He sighs. "I have killed more people den I like to remember. My entire village was either murdered or enslaved. I have three dat still live. None of those people have come back as a ghost. Why should you? What is it dat you lost?"
"So you're an insane murderer?" Robyn asks Hosea accusingly. "You're a killer that they've just allowed to run around and do what they like." He says turning around to look at him again. "I don't know what I'm back, I just am. I'm stuck like this murderer." He's wondering that if he was still alive, would Hosea have killed him too. "Maybe it's good you met me as a ghost. And as for what I lost….I can't remember. I just know it's gone."
The African smiles slightly. "Not insane," he says. "Just a murderer. But dat was in another time. God has changed my heart." He regards Robyn for another moment. "Maybe you have lost your memory den," he suggests. "Look, you do not remember your name, yes? It is Robyn. I remember you." He walks closer to the door slowly. "If you leave dis place, I think you may remember what you are looking for." It occurs that he might have left out the part about being a murderer, it probably hasn't helped the trust factor much.
"How do I know you didn't murder me and are trying to confuse me?" Asks the ghost since Hosea seems to believe he's pretty personal with him. "You claim you know my name and that you remember me, maybe that is the reason why." It makes sense. "And I told you, I can't leave the the Asylum. It's not possible."
Hosea shakes his head. "No. Nobody killed you," he says again. "And if you were a ghost, why would I bother to come to bother you? Tell me, why do you think you cannot leave da Asylum?" He points at the door. "What stops you? Is dere an invisible monster going to eat you? No. You should try. It will make you remember."
"You said it yourself, God changed heart. Maybe you're trying to atone. Want those you killed to forgive you." Robyn says matter-of-factly. "I don't think that I cannot leave, I know that I can't. I've tried. Something stops me, it pulls me back. I've tried to go beyond the gates, I cannot. I'm bound here Murderer Hosea Ikbuku."
Hosea looks frustrated, but it is in part due to the pounding headache in his ears. "I do not know how to convince you. If I could take your hand, and you would not take my energy. I could take you outside, you would be free, and I could overpower dat force that keeps you here." Of course, he thinks that the force is all in Robyn's head.
Robyn reaches out a hand to Hosea. "Take my hand then and I won't feed from you." This time. "Maybe then you'll believe me. Since you seem to think I'm lying. Maybe then you'll believe that you're going mad and talking to dead people too."
Hosea reaches out to take Robyn's hand. He starts to walk with him through the door. "I do not believe dat you are lying," he corrects. "I believe dat you have been deceived."
As Hosea goes to take Robyn's hand, he'd find there is nothing there to graps. He's visible but not really there, he's non-coporeal. Though he does go to follow Hosea out on his own. "I am not really here, I am just what I am, an imprint of my former self left in this world."
Hosea continues to walk, though he's not actually able to hold Robyn's hand. "Keep walking, you see, you are doing it!" He prays silently that Robyn will be delivered from whatever evil binds him as he continues a slow pace toward the gates.
Robyn continues to walk and he goes to walk right through the gates of the Asylum. He dosen't say anything and eventually, a few feet past the gate, it's like Robyn slams into an invisible wall and falls down to the ground. "I cannot leave. It won't let me. I'm bound here."
Indeed, Hosea is surprised to see Robyn fall to the ground. He rubs his head. It's hard to think straight with the throbbing in his brain. "I will solve dis," he says. "Have faith, God shall deliver you. Remember me when I come back to you." Girls that think he's a demon, boys that think they're ghosts. It's all quite a bit to digest.
