Bookish

Valli had, for better or worse, become fixated on the idea of the library. The library seemed to be the cure for all his problems, the answer to his prayers. The library would resolve all his awkward tensions, and would answer Gask's oh-so-obvious moral dilemma.

The library was why he was there.

Valli had put off making Gask watch Lawrence of Arabia and decided that books were a better options. Books were relatable. Books were, in a way, the reason he'd become so attached to Gask in the first place. The memory of discussing books was still fresh and present in his mind, of correcting Gask and watching his eyebrows soar in surprise. In that world, Gask had corrected him many times, and Valli had to admit that he'd been wrong about several things, trying to recall half-remembered books he'd read years ago and had no access to in the wasteland.

In reality, he could have read them any day.

He expected that Gask was an early riser, which would work out, because Valli was to. He was already dressed and showered, ready to go not long after the sun had risen, and he busied himself making omelettes, assuming that Gask's preference was 'whatever'. He doubted he'd had a chance to really decide on favorite foods, and he assumed plain with a small bit of variety would be best as he added some cheese to Gask's omelette, the smells no doubt starting to waft.

Valli was not a fighter. He was not an assassin, or a hitman, or any number of other things. So Gask being quiet had a pretty good chance of not being detected by Valli... right up until he tripped.

Valli jumped, very nearly dumping a hot pan onto himself but just managing to get it on the stove instead. The noise was loud, and Valli hadn't been expecting it, which meant his heart was pounding almost immediately as he spun to figure out what the noise was.

Gask, apparently. Gask with a chair? Valli didn't even understand what had been happening until Gask thought to explain himself. He was... ah, defending himself?

Well, Valli knew what that was like, and he reached up, rubbing at his bruised cheek subconsciously. It didn't look as bad as it probably should have, but it was still obvious.

"No, just me," Valli said after a moment. "I was making you an omelette. It's-"

Valli paused. Did he know what that was? He hadn't had them install all that data in, but maybe he already knew. "It's an egg dish. Hopefully you like eggs."

It took Valli several very confused seconds to figure out what he meant. Eggs. Eggs meant keeping animals in the wasteland, so it made sense that Gask would assume he was wealthy.

Which he sort of was.

Probably best to clarify that rather then just saying yes.

"Sort of," Valli said, carefully serving the first omlette onto a plate waiting at the side. "I wouldn't be considered rich, but I'd be considered in the upper half of society, and I have a good job. I don't own chickens. Instead, people who do own chickens sell their eggs and meat at a market, and then people use money to buy those, like I do. I don't actually have any pets or animals around."

Mostly because he'd never had time.

"You should eat," Valli said, turning to slide the plate in front of Gask, the cutlery at hand but not at the forefront of Valli's mind. "And you should probably ask any questions you have. I imagine you'll have a lot, and it would probably ease my own guilt to at least be helpful enough in answering you."

Because he was guilty. Guilty enough to say it (although that threshold was far less severe for him then it was for others, being far more willing to admit to his own feelings), and guilty enough to try and ease it.

Valli did his best not to mind that Gask was literally eating with his fingers. Cutlery would have been unnecessary and extravagant, and he knew Gask was clean. Even if he hadn't washed his hands, he literally had only been in Valli's apartment, and Valli kept it clean enough that dirt wouldn't be an issue. Eating with his hands wouldn't harm anyone, even if it made Valli internally cringe.

"Well off," Valli confirmed. "I am a therapist. I help people work through their problems, in a very general sense. Most of my patients--almost all of them, actually--don't pay me directly. Instead, the government pays me. Like... a doctor for the mind."

The idea of a therapist being a job was probably quite outlandish.

The rest of the questions were answered as rapid fire and briefly as possible. Yes, probably a dragon or something like it. No, there was no shortage of gasoline, although most didn't drive because they had better options. Lack of space was a factor towards going upwards, but Valli was forced to pause and thing that out. It was a lot, but truly he didn't mind - he'd had worse.

"Well, back when I first was setting all this up, my juvenile fantasies involved taking you to a library and watching you react to it, and while I'm mostly past that point and more concerned in the here and now, I think going to a library would help you... ground yourself, I guess?"

It would give him a reason to be happy he'd been stolen away from the simulation, in other words.

"It isn't far. We can walk."

Valli would have agreed, if Gask had voiced it. People did take things for granted, and Valli himself was no exception. He'd grown used to life as it was, and it was only exposure to the badlands - to the idea of having been a resident of the badlands - that had brought him back to reality.

"Yes, we have a number of libraries on the island. I don't have one myself - just a few books - but I'm going to be taking you to the academies library, which is the largest on the island."

The largest by a significant margin.

Valli was making a point of going out of his way to answer questions before Gask asked, and he did just that as he ate his own food, catching onto Gask's haste as he cleaned up the mess.

"The island you're on now is called Manta Carlos - it's surrounded on all sides by the ocean. It's unusual even among the normal world because it serves as a refuge for both non-humans and humans with... oddities. Things like robots, or aliens, or dragons."

He'd told him that before, but it was worth repeating.

"The centerpiece of the island is Starlight Academy, which serves to educate all kinds. Its library contains books not just from this world, but from other worlds as well. It's... very large. And well stocked."