Day 60: Patient Library (Third Shift)
After handling two conversations that had been difficult for completely different reasons, Castiel had to admit that he felt weary. It was not a sensation that was new to him; between Izaya showing far too much interest in his kind and Ruby simply being who she was, some peace and quiet was what he craved
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He wasn't about to complain, though- it gave him the opportunity to look into something he'd been meaning to for some time. Taking his sack lunch from the nurse (and he had to admit he did miss them, as they were far nicer than the soldiers), the Scarecrow headed for the library.
Though his middle grumbled from hunger, the former strawman took a moment to peruse the books that lined the shelves, keeping the sack curled in his hand. He was sure he recalled something on the board about a book being about Oz, and his curiosity wouldn't be satiated until he found it. Would it be like the movie, something that made it ( ... )
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"Frank!" That was Frank, right? The guy he kept leading into injury. He should probably stop doing that.
Carter crouched next to him, an eager smile on his face. "Whatcha looking for?"
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"Oh, Sergeant," he said with a nod in greeting. "I thought I would try to find a book here. I read about it on the board once, and it, well..." He came up with something that was close to the truth. "It sounded interesting. I believe it's called The Wizard of Oz. You haven't heard of it, have you?"
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Carter turned his firm attention to the bookcase, trying to hunt down that particular book. He enjoyed a good kid's book now and then, though comics were his primary childish joy. And Frank had always seemed a fun-loving kind of guy, so optimistic even when he'd gotten his arm all burned up. Now that was a man Carter could respect.
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The Scarecrow looked around, as though Wizard Landel himself would be listening. Given the events of the last few days with the military, the former strawman wouldn't have been surprised. He got close to Carter, lowering his voice. "What's it like?"
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"It's...it's okay, I guess. It's a kid's book. I liked it." Not enough explosions and robots, but no icky kissing either. He didn't mind that the protagonist was a girl, he never paid attention to those kinds of things. She'd defeated the witch anyway. "Haven't you ever read it?"
He kept pawing through the books, giving Frank an occasional concerned stare out of the corner of his eye. "It's about this girl who gets sucked up in a tornado and lands in Oz, which is this weird magic world. And her house falls on a witch and kills it, and she gets this silver shoes and has to go to see the Wizard to find out how to get home."
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"Silver?" he said so quickly that it almost cut Carter's explanation off before he got to the ending. "You mean Ruby, don't you?"
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He squinted thoughtfully. "I think. Or maybe it was the other way."
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He followed Carter to the next shelf, making vague gestures with his hands the entire way. "After all, what good would a heart do for the Scarecrow when he wasn't made with a brain to use it? And the Tin Man wanted a heart because the smith never gave him one."
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When you had such a wealth of knowledge around you, why look at dull old storybooks? The future was so much more beautiful and amazing than silly fiction about talking animals and walking scarecrows.
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"I saw the movie," he answered. Though it was the truth, it was only a half of it. "I wanted to know if the book was any different, or if they left some parts out. It's important that they get the whole story, you know."
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It was a good enough answer, Carter supposed, even if it was a bizarre thing to get fussy over. "I never saw the movie. Do they go to the Emerald City and meet the Wizard, at the end of the road? And he tells them to go kill the other witch?"
He shoved a few more children's books aside. "And why aren't there any good science books here?" he complained, brow furrowed in annoyance. "It's all just stories. Now I have to wait until I go to Doyleton again to get more than the two I've already got." This was a pretty dumb library, in Carter's opinion. There weren't even that many children here to read the children's books.
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He latched onto the change of topics, eager to pull his mind from his concerns. "Science books? What are those?"
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Carter brightened. "Books about science. Chemistry and physics and space travel, that kind of thing. I have two of them in my room, one on rockets and one on space. I figure it's a good way to know what to expect when we get out of here."
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"Do you mean you think we won't go home, should we manage to find a way to bring down Wizard Landel?" he asked. As much as he enjoyed being human and learning about the world they came from, he wasn't sure he wanted to stay there forever. He had people who needed him, who depended on him! What would they do if he never came back?
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