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(sorry I vanished, gotta go to bed now)
"All right." Oscar sat back, watching the buildings go by outside. "Oh…hey, do the books at the library cost money too, like the food and clothes?" This thought worried him, as it meant he'd only be able to read a limited amount at a time.
“No they don’t cost money, we just have to read them in the library, we can’t take them home.” She explained, knowing she had a library card but not wanting to risk checking out a book and not returning it. Honor smiled and looked over at him, “You can read as many books as you want.”
Oscar brightened considerably at this news. "Really? Good! I'm going to read as many as I can, then." He leaned forward and looked out the windshield excitedly. "Are we almost there?"
Honor nodded and smiled at his excitement, turning the corner onto the main road where the library was. “Almost there, just be patient.” She finally pulled into the parking lot and turned off the truck, looking over at him but not getting out right away, “Ready to go?”
Oscar nodded quickly, reaching for the car door handle. "Yes! I'm very ready. Are you ready?"
“Yes, I’m ready, let’s get going!” She said, matching his tone and hopping out of the truck. Honor made sure he was out before locking it and making her way towards the door of the building, checking that she had her library card in her wallet just in case he begged her to check something out.
Oscar took the lead as they approached and opened the library's glass door, trotting inside. He was immediately struck by how eerily quiet it was inside the building, compared to the bustle of the mall and the grocery store. He halted in the middle of the main room, glancing back at Honor. "…Why is it so quiet in here? Isn't there anyone around?"
Honor just smiled and shook her head, explaining quietly, “No, libraries are almost always quiet, it’s so people can read in peace and really just mind their own business without getting distracted.” She liked the quiet in the building, though it was one of the only places that she really enjoyed the silence, otherwise she couldn’t stand the silence.
"Oh…okay. So I guess we should be quiet too, then." Oscar lowered his voice slightly, glancing around again with more attention for detail. "There are so many books here." Having no idea where to even start, he chose the closest shelf and started scanning the books on it. "I guess I'll start reading now. Um….are there any other rules here besides not being loud?"
“Just don’t be loud and don’t wreck the books, Those are essentially the only rules.” She said, already starting towards one of the few computers lined up against one wall as he looked at books, “Come get me if you have a question or want to leave, otherwise you can read as much as you want.”
Oscar nodded in understanding, pulling a book off the shelf and opening it up. "I will. I'm going to read everything."
Honor laughed quietly and nodded, impressed by his determination as she got to one of the computers and started to research Oscars kind for him. It was the least she could do for him as he tried to learn everything.
(Perfect time for an info dump, lol)
The library's online database, and the various other sites linked to it, were numerous but vague when it came to Erased Ones. So little knowledge was available about them that most of the articles cited the exact same papers and experts. One thing everyone agreed on was that Erased Ones came in five subgroups on increasing power and danger, and that all types disguised themselves as humans for the most part. One article carefully described everything scientists knew about each type, and based on what it said, it was possible to guess that Oscar was a Level Three. Level Threes were unnaturally intelligent and physically enduring, with sharp tempers and the ability to recover from even the most sever of injuries–given enough time. The article said that during Manifestations, when Level Threes were using their powers, they usually showed part or all of their true form, and that they often had true forms that witnesses described as terrifying, monstrous, and gruesome. A footnote mentioned that the Goldenrod Agency was currently looking into potential military applications for Level Threes specifically.
Honor read quickly, trying to remember as much as she could and wanting to have Oscar come read this. The part about recruitment from the goldenrod agency worried her, as well as dealing with Oscar’s powers. Maybe she should try to find out what his powers were. And now that she knew what level he was, or was most likely, she knew it probably wasn’t safe to stay so close to the agency.
Oscar, meanwhile, was steadily diving deeper and deeper into the library's archives. He's started in the biographies, then moved to the self-help books, then tore through the sections on crafts, the arts, lifestyle, and humor. The shelves of heavy science books, covering everything from astronomy to biology to advanced physics to environmental sciences, slowed him down a bit, but soon he settled into a ground-eating rhythm and dove straight into the section on history. He lost track of time, reading faster and faster, dizzy with the overload of information but having too much fun to stop.
Computers were Honor’s weakness when it came to focusing, and soon she found herself playing Tetris after pouring through everything she could find about Oscar’s kind. It was a great waste of time, and as soon as she got bored of that, there were hundreds of other games, minesweeper being the one she chose next. Classic games were her favorite by far, and the internet was full of them.
Oscar finished the last history book forty-five minutes after they'd arrived at the library and looked around for fresh meat, caught up in the momentum he'd gathered. He spotted the fiction room and beelined for it, surprised to see that there were significantly more people in this area of the building. The kids' section was laughably simple to look through—he barely had to open each book before closing it again and putting it back on the shelf—and in no time he'd graduated to the young adult fiction. At this point he actually had to slow down again, as many of these stories involved magic and other things not covered in his previous reading. He pulled out a tall stack of books and sat down at a nearby desk, frowning as he tried to decipher the lingo of a girly teen drama series. Briefly, he considered tracking down Honor and asking her to explain it to him but decided that she was probably busy and he shouldn't bother her just yet.
She really didn't know what Oscar was up to, but staying at her computer seemed like a good idea. He was probably reading everything and Honor really didn't want to interrupt if he was happy with reading. Her games were going good too, and she was almost hitting her record on tetris as the colored blocks fell into place.
Another twenty minutes, and Oscar finally finished the YA fiction. Another thirty, and he'd finished the adult fiction as well. At this point, he ran out of books and wandered into the main room, feeling befuddled and slightly dizzy. His brain was currently a tornado of words, names, stories, and facts, and it didn't seem like it was going to settle any time soon. He wandered dreamily through the library, trying to find Honor and pausing once in a while to let his head and stomach calm down.
Honor was still faithfully in the spot she said she would be, at the computer, though now looking back through articles relating to Oscar and his kind. Newspaper articles relating to recent sightings, and magazine issues talking about his kind stayed on her screen and she poured through them, learning and reading and more and more realizing it wasn't safe to stay here.
Eventually Oscar found her, averting his eyes from her computer screen as the blue light bothered his headache. "Hey…..I read everything…..what're you doing?"
"Everything…as in all the books?" She questioned, jumping slightly when she heard his voice but turning away from the screen and facing him, "We've only been here for a few hours, and you've read everything?" Honor was impressed, and also shocked that he could possibly read that fast and for that long but she didn't say anything, just smiling lightly instead.
"Yup," Oscar replied tiredly. "I feel kinda weird now, but I really liked it. I wish there were more books here. Some of them were kinda weird and I didn't understand parts, but now I know about so many things. Like art. I want to try to paint sometime. Do you like painting?"
She shrugged slightly, logging off the computer and standing with a sigh, "I'm not much of an artist, but I can get you supplies somehow. But first, do you have anything else you want to do here? Otherwise we can head to my parents house and see the animals. They might have painting things too." Honor wondered if he would ask about the computer, and she really didn't know how to explain it if he did.
On any other day, Oscar would have absolutely asked about the computer, but at the moment he was far too distracted by all the learning he'd just done. "Um….we can go to your parents' house now. Did you know that there are books here that are about books? It was really weird."