Oscar watched from the other side of the table, unconsciously twiddling his thumbs, then picked up his coloring book and flipped through it. When he found an uncolored page he liked, he pulled out his crayons and set to work, keeping half and eye on their surroundings at the same time.
As it turned out, the cashier had been just about done with their order, and now he carried it over with the receipt in hand. "Here you go, enjoy your meal. Um…..anything else I can get for you two?"
"No thanks," Oscar said, accepting the food hungrily. "Um, we'll actually be having this "to go" after all."
"Oh, okay. Welp…..have a nice day then." The young man hesitated for a minute, then almost reluctantly returned to watch the counter.
"I'm ready when you are," Oscar told Honor, having already put away his art supplies and taken a huge bite of his burger.
Honor smiled at the male, taking her food as it was set down and wasting no time as she dug into her own burger. "I'm ready to go now," She said easily before taking a bite, pulling the keys out of her pocket, " I have the drawings up and we can leave as soon as you want." As much as she wanted to sit and eat her burger, driving and eating was something she was quite good at. Plus, the faster they got on the road again, the faster they could go meet the level five they had to find.
Honor's calm demeanor in turn helped calm Oscar as well, and he decided maybe they weren't in danger like he'd previously thought. Gathering up his food and drink, he led the way to the door and held it for Honor so she could go through. "How long do you think it'll be before we have to post more paintings? I can make more pretty fast, but I'd also like to try out my new paints, and that might take me a little longer."
"You have however long you want, but I'm going to check on your pictures the next time we stop, and from there we can decide when to next post more," She replied, nodding in thanks as she walked out the door, "You have as long as you want to create as many picures as you want." Honor smiled at him, taking another bite of her burger while walking towards the truck, "I can post more tonight if you really want me to."
"We'll see how long it takes me to do one while we're driving," Oscar decided. "Then I'll let you know." He made it to the truck and hopped into the passenger's side, finishing off is drink as he did so. he glanced around at the parking lot, but he couldn't see any suspicious activity, so he allowed himself to relax a bit. "Okay, I'm ready."
Honor finished off her burger in the last few steps to the truck, hopping into the driver's seat with a nod. "Perfect, then let's get on our way," She said after a minute, offering him a smile and starting the truck. In a matter of minutes they were off, her focus only between her fries, the road, and occasionally Oscar. He would talk to her if he wanted to, she figured, especially if he was focusing on drawing, she wasn't going to bother him.
Oscar opened his new sketchbook thoughtfully, reaching down by his feet for the new paints he'd brought from the back of the truck. "You know….I maybe already mentioned this, but…..I want to paint what I remember about my home. I'm hoping that by doing that, I can remember more. Maybe not jut about my home, but about who I really am, and my real name, and everything. I think painting might be the best way to do that. I just….don't really know where to start."
"You're free to paint whatever you want," Honor replied gently, a smile on her face, "I'd love to see what you create regarding your home, maybe it'll help us with talking to the five, but if you'd rather paint something else, you have that freedom." She kept her eyes on the road as she talked, her fingers drumming gently against the steering wheel, "Just don't make a mess please."
"I'll be careful," Oscar promised. He watched the world race by outside the window for a minute, then closed his eyes and tried to remember something, anything about his old home. But there was nothing solid to go off of. Eventually, growing frustrated, he decided to just start painting and see what happened.
Picking a color at random–red–he carefully put a dollop on the paper and smeared it around with his brush. He added tiny bits of other colors, listening very carefully to his feelings and letting them guide him as he worked. He still had no memories, only faint snatches of emotion and sensation, but he held on tightly to them. Soon he forgot about the truck, and the road, and the sky, and even Honor, his eyes turning black as he hunched over the slowly evolving painting.
Honor stayed silent as she drove, the only noise being from the truck and from the softly playing radio, but she did dare to look over at him every so often. He was hunched over in his seat, so she didn't see much, but the glimpses of the painting that she did see were gorgeous as he added color after color. As much as she wanted to, she didn't comment, smiling gently and turning back to the road. Oscar needed to focus, and she would let him do that.
After what felt like a long time, Oscar realized he was starting to wear holes in the paper with the many layers of paint. He sat back with a frown, studying the work he'd already done. With a sinking feeling, he realized that the whole painting was wrong. Somewhere along the line, he'd strayed from the memories into something else, and he'd been too focused on the details to notice until it was too late.
"I have to start over," he sighed, pulling the painting out of the book and resting it on the dashboard to dry. "It's not right."
It was still a remarkable painting, though. There were dozens of colors both light and dark, all tinted a muddy red. At first it seemed as if the brush strokes formed a face or a landscape, but upon closer inspection the image returned to chaos. It was both mesmerizing and somehow unnerving.
Oscar eyed it for another moment, then grudgingly added his signature to the bottom corner. "The books said to always sign it. But I might not keep it for long."
"You know, even if you're not completely happy with it, I'm sure there's someone that would buy it, it's amazing, from what I can see," Honor replied, her voice calm as she glanced at the muddy red painting, "What's it based off of? Something from Earth? Or from your home?" It was the first time she had said anything in about an hour and a half, and she was almost relieved to have an excuse to talk again. Sitting in silence for so long, with only the quiet radio playing was making her zone out.
She looked over at Oscar for a moment, giving him a small smile, "How are you liking your painting supplies?"
"I really like them," Oscar replied. "I can get some interesting colors and textures that don't work with the crayons. As for the painting…." He gave it another displeased frown. "It's supposed to look like home. Or a thing that comes from home. But I messed it up…..it looks too flat or something. I added detail to the wrong parts. I have to try again." He took a big daub of blue-black paint and started working on a fresh page, unconsciously humming along with the radio. "Can we talk while I do this? I think it might actually work better if I'm a little distracted."
She noded, listening as he talked and not hiding a smile at his request, "We can talk all you want, I'm happy to provide as much of a distraction as you need. Sitting here in silence get's kinda boring if I'm honest." Even if Oscar didn't like his picture, she truely thought it was mesmerising and one of a kind. Honor was well aware of the fact that even on her good days, she wouldn't be able to create something that amazing anyway, and she was happy to let him do it instead. She could stick to driving and talking for the time being.
Oscar cast her a grateful smile. "Thanks." He painted quietly for a minute longer, deciding what he wanted to talk about, then spoke again. "I guess…..I've been wondering about something for a while. Do human parents and their children mean a lot to each other?"
"Most of the time, yes, parents mean a lot to ther children and children to their parents," She replied, tapping out a soft tune on the steering wheel as she talked, "There are plenty of exceptions though..not all families have children, not all parents care about their children, sometimes they leave or hurt them, and sometimes this causes their children not to care about their parents."
"I see." Oscar thought about that, then glanced up again. "….What about your parents? Do you love each other?"
Honor nodded, smiling gently, "I love my parents, even if they're not the one's I was born to." She glanced over at Oscar for a brief moment, trying to decipher what he would discover from her statement before quickly going back to paying attnetion to the road.
Oscar blinked and tilted his head. "How did they end up being your parents, then? Did they find you, like you found me?"
"I was adopted," She said, starting to explain the situation easily. Normally she didn't mention it, since she could pass as her parent's biological child, but she didn't mind Oscar wanting to know. "My biological mother surrendered me to the state when I was born, or the state forced her to, one of the two. My biological father was in prison, and she couldn't afford to raise me. My mother and father adopted me when I was two, and I've lived with them ever since."
"Oh." Oscar nodded, pretty sure he understood. He wondered if he would have been similarly adopted if he'd come to Earth trapped in a child's body instead. "Do you think they're wondering where you are now? You didn't ever tell them about me. What if they think you've been kidnapped or something?"
"I told them I was going on a road trip to visit friends with a friend, I've done it before," Honor replied, shrugging and shaking her head, "They shouldn't worry too much…unless goldenrod somehow connects me to you and then me to my parents."
Oscar returned to his painting, trying to hide a frown. So far, Goldenrod had proven to be a difficult enemy to get rid of, and they seemed to have eyes everywhere. He didn't want Honor's family to be put in danger because of them. "Goldenrod is….good to humans, right? They only try to hurt you or take you away if you're like me?"
(Dang…now I wanna do instant karma and have Honor being captured by them be part of the story, or even if it was Oscar that was captured.)
She didn't respond right away, thinking before finally saying, "I'm not sure..it depends on how involved they are. I think I would be in danger, mostly because I'm helping you and keeping you safe." Honor shrugged, then glanced at him, "Don't worry about me being involved though, I'll be fine. Goldenrod won't connect me to you."
(lol how about they both get caught? It might be more fun that way anyway, and it would make sense because Goldenrod would consider her a "threat to the peace" XD)
"I hope you're right." Oscar stared at his painting for another minute, then held it up to the light. "Hmm….I don't think this one's going to look like home either."
The painting was mostly deep blue this time, with little flecks and threads of color glittering throughout. It looked like a night sky or maybe a cityscape, and there were oddly dark parts that might have been trees or animals depending how you looked. It was completely different from the first painting–the only similarity was the way the paint seemed to shift around when it thought no one was looking.
(Ooooo yessss)
"What does 'home' look like?" Honor questioned gently, glancing over at the new painting. In her opinion this picture was even better than the first, and it reminded her of when she first met Oscar. It looked like the night sky, dark and speckled with light but calming and comforting. She knew without a doubt that if she had to choose a favorite, that one was it. "Is it a feeling you're trying to paint? Or a memory?"
Oscar frowned and rested his forehead against the end of the paintbrush, not seeming to realize he was getting blue paint on his face. "I wish it was a memory, but yeah, it's just a feeling. I think's it's a feeling that only gets foggier the more I try to pin it down." He huffed and put the second painting next to the first. "I guess I'll try to paint something else now." Oscar glance out the car window, then did a double-take. "Wow…..it's so flat and empty out there. There are no towns anywhere." He paused, then grabbed his brush. "I'll paint that next. I like it."
She chuckled lighlty and nodded, looking out her own window, "The joys of the midwest, it's flat almost everywhere." Honor smiled, turning up the raido a fraction and humming along to the song that was playing, "I'm glad that someone is using it for inspiration though." Normally the emptiness was boring, and to her it still very much was, but if Oscar could paint from it, then she wasn't going to interfere. His painting was sure to turn out incredible.
"I like the flatness because it's not so…..noisy," Oscar explained. "It helps me calm down and focus. And my first real memory after coming here is of the sky above me, all darkish blue with the orange clouds and some stars. The sky is beautiful because it's just….pure color, you know? It's all soft and chaotic. In that way, it maybe reminds me of home too." He smiled, mixing some grey paint. "What's your favorite way for the sky to look?"
"I like the night sky, and sunrises and sunsets," She replied, smiling, "If I could stay up all night and look at the stars I would." Honor shrugged, focusing her attention back on the road, "I don't like the flatness though. It's too..quiet almost. That's not the right word, but that's all I can think of." She glanced at him, her smile softening, "If I was ever able to visit your world, I'm sure I would love it. You make it sound beautiful."
%20pngg.png)
