Interview Transcript & Recording #19990411NY - Robyn No Last Name Given
RECORD #19990411NY
TYPE: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT & RECORDINGS
RELATED PERSON(S)/ENTITIES(S): Anastasia Mikhailovena Filitov, intern (AMF) , Robyn, Layer-Crosser (R), July Gavin Henderson, Station Record-Keeper (JGH), Isaac Rodriguez, Head of Station Defense (IR), Angelo Romano, Station Chief (AR)
STATUS: CONFIDENTIAL
(Recording begins at 9:47 PM Local Daylight Savings Time, in the Interview Room of Station New York of the Chatter & Melody Society, 217 East 31st Street, New York City, New York, United States of America)
(JGH) Alright, you are both being recorded on magnetic tape, digital formats, and wax disk via gramophone. I am July Gavin Henderson, Record-Keeper for Station New York. Do you both consent to this? Please state your names while doing so.
(AMF) I, Anastasia Mikhailovena Filitov, consent to being recorded through methods, the methods, you mentioned. I apologize in advance for if I do not understand some words, as I speak Russian primarily.
(R) I-I, uh, also consent to being recorded. Oh, my n-name is Robyn, ‘sposed to be spelled like R-O-B-Y-N, ‘cording to my mom. Her name was Shelly. No last name.
(JGH) Thank you. So, Anastasia, Robyn, could you please summarize what happened up until you came through the door this night? You may begin whenever, Robyn.
(R) A-Aright. So, I lived in Broad City since my birth. My mom was called Shelly like I said before, and my dad was called Richard. They decided to call me Robyn, Voiceless Robyn, since I wouldn’t speak ‘o cry ‘o make any noise. That was good for me, since t-talky kids got killed or sold.
Broad City was horrid ‘n gross ‘n full of people like me. Wonder-eyed country folk, the sort who thought the big ‘ole city was better than the dusty farms. But they’re wrong. The City was much worse. What I would have given to live on a dusty farm, with pigs ‘n dogs ‘n fluffy chickens... I sold papers, the Daily Broadband, for a nickel each. It cost me a dime for each that was left over. The papers taught me to read, and to speak. But I stayed quiet. The talky paper kids thought they could get paid a dime a roll, but that got ‘em tied up ‘n yelled at ‘n drowned in the Rusty Rivers by the paper company’s thugs. But it was that reading that got me here. You said before that you knew about those feelings I got, right, Mister July?
(JGH) Yes, and just July is fine. You said that you felt suspicious of some things when you were in Broad City, or had hunches, or other such feelings. And you said that the people of Broad City had Muses, correct?
(R) Uh-huh. Most peoples had muses in the City. The factory peoples were like me, they followed The Workhorse. It was a thing with tangled hair, and it was always bleeding somethin’ awful, but it was all wrapped up in ribbons, real pretty things that you only see on rich ladies. But I only saw the Workhorse for a small time. It was soon replaced by somethin’ else. That one you called the Speculation, right, Mister July? A big ‘ole snake with wiggly things stickin’ out and a suckin’ chest hole bleedin’ the night sky?
(JGH) That’s correct. You likely saw the Speculation. It is a manifestation of paranoia, knowing things you aren’t meant to know, and digging deep into forbidden topics. Please, continue.
(R) ‘Kay. So, ‘round this morning, if I’m rememberin’ right, I was bringin’ my paper piles to my regular spot, but then I tripped. It felt like something tugged me, something weird ‘n slimy, like bad fish, and then I fell. I was waitin’ to hit the ground and get a dove egg on my head, but I didn’t hit the pavement. I just kept fallin’, and I saw something freaky in front of me. It was a snake, the same snake I had been seeing before, but it had wings, big ones, ‘n eyes like cats all over, and legs like crawly bugs, ‘n it was draggin’ me down through a mess of… things. Visions, crazy sights, the stuff of stupid little kid’s stories.
I-I saw cities, ones that shone like clean white teeth, towns underwater and filled with color, empty fields of blood ‘n guts ‘n dead things twitchin’… so many things, so many impossible things. Then the snake… it talked. It told me that I could have lived in some amazing ‘o horrible places, lived so many lives, ‘n that I was wasted in Broad City as a paper kid. So it was gonna put me somewhere better... where I could better serve it. And I landed in what that snake said was called Times Square. I was damn near blinded by the colors and the sounds of this place. Never seen anything like your New York City before, Mister July. When my eyes had adjusted, that snake was gone, but I was holding some things, these ones right here.
(Robyn proceeded to pull out a small spiral-bound notepad, approx. 5 inches by 3 inches, a deep red ballpoint click pen of indeterminate make with a full ink cartridge, and a small black film camera, approx. 6 inches by 4 inches, of indeterminate make, and plain film canisters, from a plain brown satchel, roughly 24 inches by 18 inches by 3 inches. All were later connected to the Speculation. See Analysis Report #19990411NY-A and Follow-Up Interview # 19990412NY for more details.)
(R) This notepad’s a whole lot bigger than it looks, must’ve flipped through near one hundred pages of words before I quit. The ones I looked at close I couldn’t always read, but Anastasia could read the fifth one, right, Miss?
(AMF) Correct. I read page five fine. It was in good Russian, in good printing too.
(R) Right… the pen’s pretty nice, real comfortable ‘n easy to hold. The ink is smooth, ‘n it wrote out pretty enough on my skin here… I reckon it was this pen that wrote in the notepad…
(Robyn proceeded to roll up the sleeve of his brown button-up shirt, revealing words in a language later determined to be an unknown dialect of English that slightly resembled phonetically spelled Native American languages, written in deep red ink dark enough to look almost black. The words roughly translated to ‘TEST TEST WHAT WHAT??’)
(R) Then there’s this ‘lil obscura, you called it a film camera, right? It’s real fancy, all metallic and slick lookin’. It had these thingies with it, look like tiny long tin cans. They had this rolled up black paper in ‘em, but I didn't touch the stuff. Looked too much like nasty oil somethin’.
(JGH) Thank you. For documentation’s sake, may we examine these things after the interview? You may watch us examine them, if you would like to.
(R) Sure. Don’t really know how much of this works, uh, but when you do, I gotta feelin’ that you won’t want to flip past the two hundredth page in the notepad. Just a gut feelin’.
(JGH) Noted. Gut feelings are always good to follow when the Speculation is involved. Please, continue from where you left off in Times Square.
(R) ‘Kay. Once I saw the things I just showed you, I started feeling real weird, like somethin’ was coming to get me, ‘n I had to go somewhere safe, only I didn’t know what safe was ‘round here. So I just followed my instinct, I guess, and kept walking in a few different ways, turnin’ when it felt right. So that’s how I ended up in the Public Library, the big building full of books. So then I went in, just thinkin’ that somethin’ public was safer than somthin’ private, an’ it looked fancy, but not private fancy, it looked government fancy, if you know what I mean. First thing I saw was all the people, and lots’a people usually means somethin’ is safe, or at least worth the risk, and my gut was sayin’ stay, so I stayed. I asked the first lady I saw with one’a those name tags, Helen I think, where the lavatories were, cause it seemed like the right thing to do, ‘n she looked at me like I was somthin’ weird but not too weird, ‘n pointed me in the right direction. So I used the lavatory, ‘n asked the next lady with a name tag, Dolores… yeah, she was Dolores, where I could find the ‘other language books’, cause that was what I thought I should’a said. An’ she told me to go to the Foreign Language Section, an’ so I went there. An’ then I saw Miss Anastasia, ‘n I just kinda thought that I should show her the fifth page in that notebook, cause it seemed right. An’ I did, and then everything got even more damn crazy…
(At this point, Robyn put their head in their hands and let out a long sigh)
(JGH) Do you want to take a break? Anastasia can continue from here, if you would like.
(R) …yeah. Sorry, Mister July…
(JGH) No worries. Anastasia, could you please continue your side of the story from where Robyn left off?
(AMF) Of course. So Robyn shows me page five, and it is written in perfect Russian, and very nice Russian at that, almost poetic in style and word choice. You will surely look at page five closely if page five is still the same later, but what was written was this:
(AMF cleared her throat and appeared to mentally translate for a moment)
(AMF) Lady who is reading this note, I am a lost young man named Robyn. I do not know where I am, and I have no place to go. I believe you can help me, because your muse is one that guides travelers. You are a part of Chatter & Melody Society, and they can help me. I do not know what this note reads, because I do not understand any form of Russian. This note was made by Speculation in order to help this young man named Robyn find a good place to stay. Please help this young man named Robyn. Thank you, lady who is reading this note.
I was scared, because Speculation is a fearful entity, but because page five knew that Wanderlust is my muse, I trusted Robyn and his note. And so I gave him water, and calmed him down, and hailed a cab to here, Station New York.
(JGH) Thank you, Anastasia. Robyn, are you alright now?
(R) …yeah, about as good as I could be, Mr. July.
(JGH) The interview is done for now. Everything else happened here, and has already been documented. It’s getting late, and I’m sure the both of you had very long days. Robyn, we’ve got plenty of guest rooms upstairs, so Isaac Rodriguez over there will show you to one. We’ll examine your things tomorrow, when Klaus Weber is in. Is there anything you might need?
(R) Uh… just some water… yeah, just some water and a good long night ‘o sleep…
(JGH) Alright. Thank you, Robyn. If you could please stay here for a moment, Anastasia?
(Robyn proceeds to walk off with Isaac. According to Rodriguez, they would ascend to the second floor of the building, where he guided Robyn to guest room #103. Robyn proceeded to quickly drink two tall glasses of water, take off his shoes & shirt, before collapsing on the bed. He put the satchel and its contents on the small wooden desk in the corner previously. Isaac then left #103 and returned to the Interview Room)
(JGH, upon IR’s return) Alright. This is a big break for Station New York. We haven’t had a Layer-Crosser since the days of Victor “Limelight”, and this may well push us up to Branch status. Isaac, when is Angelo arriving?
(IR) He should be here within fifteen minutes.
(JGH) Okay. We’ll take a break until he gets here. I think we could all use some time to contemplate what just happened. For clarity’s sake, I will now be turning off all interview recording methods until Angelo “Organistrum” Romano arrives. Currently present are July Gavin “Theory” Henderson, Anastasia Mikhailovena “Oarsman” Filitov, and Isaac “Standard-Bearer” Rodriguez. All persons stated will be present upon the arrival of Angelo and resumption of recording. Record-Keeper singing off.
(Recording ceases for roughly twenty-three minutes, before resuming at approx.10:29)
(JGH) Recording resumes, with July, Angelo, Anastasia, and Issac present. So, what does our Station Chief think of this new Layer-Crosser?
(AR) I think it’s a damn big deal. The fact that this Robyn kid survived the crossing is rare enough, and the fact that he was deliberately Dragged through the Layers by an Era of all things proves that he’s something special, at least to the Speculation. And those artifacts he came over with seem especially noteworthy. An endless notepad in multiple languages, a deep red pen that writes on any surface perfectly, a film camera and film that holds who knows what and can capture who knows what… This is amazing. As soon as the European branches wake up, I’m sending over a million messages in any and every method available. We understand so little about the Speculation, and to have a Layer-Crosser devotee of the thing just drop into our laps is an opportunity we cannot pass by. I want every single available operative on this case.
(IR) Agreed, Chief. We’ve got to take care of that kid. Who knows what he’ll grow into, with the Speculation’s favor and knowledge of two far-separated Layers. Have we even heard of this Broad City before, Keeper?
(JGH) Not here in Station New York, that’s for sure. And I doubt that Station San Francisco, nor Branches Los Angeles or Chicago have either. This seems like something Paris or London or, hell, Rome might even know about it, given how many Expanse and Contradiction devotees seem to end up there. Anastasia, is there anything else from your encounter with Robyn that you can remember?
(AMF) Perhaps… yes, there was one thing I could not quite place, and I did not know if it was relevant. Before Robyn approached me in Fo—pardon, the Foreign Language Section, before I had even gone to the Library, I saw… something. Like an old omen from Greece, there was an Eagle, an Eagle certainly, no other bird could it have been. I knew it, in that moment, that it was the Red Star Eagle. Wanderlust told me. Wanderlust said that Eagle had been across the world in all sorts of circumstances; under the Atlantic, in the jungles of South America, in the snow of Russia, in the cities of Europe and the Middle East and Japan and China and… countless other places, the whole time serving its Duty, its purpose.
(AR) REALLY? The RED STAR EAGLE?! (mumbled) songbird help us all…
(JGH) Oh… well, if the Red Star Eagle has appeared here, then we’ve got an even bigger case on our hands then we thought… Apologies, Anastasia, but you aren’t cleared for this yet.
(IR) But at this point, you’re going to be cleared for everything, miss.
(JGH) *sigh* That’s it for the night, folks. We’re all tired, and like Robyn, we need some sleep. Interview ends, recording ends. Time is 10:52 PM local daylight savings time. Record-Keeper July, signing off.
(RECORDING ENDS)
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
Robyn never gave a last name, and later explained that he never had one to begin with. It was decided to get him an identity under the name “Robyn Farmer-Keyturn”, birthdate 11 April, 1983, sixteen years before his Crossing. Robyn was later assigned the INTRA-LAYER CLASS ENTITY [Pointer-Pen-Hound] on a temporary basis. See RECORD #19990412NY for the follow-up interview with Robyn Farmer-Keyturn, the audio from the examination of the related artifacts by Dr. Klaus “Scalpel” Weber, and additional audio recordings that pertain to this case from that date.
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