It was hard to know whether or not talking to Leonard was even worth his time, since it wasn't as if he could make an impression on the man besides what he chose to write down about him. On the other hand, the guy was clearly very focused on his own notes, so maybe it did make some sort of impact in the end. Granted, the guy didn't amount to much more than a way to pass the time unless they ended up working together, but that was something he'd have to consider for later.
There was also the fact that they shared more than a few things in common, but that wasn't necessarily a good reason to keep talking to the man, especially if each conversation was going to be a repeat of the one before it.
Well, he'd play it by ear. As the man walked into the Sun Room, he saw that they were setting up a projector to play... King Kong, right? He wasn't sure why the patients had voted for that one, but it wasn't like he'd bothered to vote in the first place. When it came down to it, this was really his best option for where to spend the shift. The
( ... )
Ratchet wasn't too enthusiastic about any of his choices for the day. He doubted a human library would hold anything of interest to him, and the less said about 'arts and crafts' the better. That sort of thing was better left to Bulkhead. The 'movie' didn't sound terribly interesting, either, but sitting in a dark room for a couple megacycles was as good as anything.
Wondering if the nurses would let him leave if he got too bored, he settled himself down in a chair and waited. He hadn't noticed the man to the left of him; when he did he made to get up and move, until he considered that he'd have no one to complain at if the human entertainment was stupid. And the chances of that were pretty high.
"So what's this supposed to be, anyway?" he asked. Ratchet was normally too large to fit through the doors of a theater, and Cybertron didn't have a direct equivalent to this sort of thing. From the look of the screen, he suspected it was something like their television, but they'd called it something different for some reason.
It was no surprise that most of the patients were eager to crowd into the Sun Room for the movie despite the fact that there were other options for where they could go, seeing how it was something new -- even though most people his age must have seen this movie (or its remake) a few times already.
But on the other hand, people here never failed to baffle him. When a burly guy suddenly took a seat next to him and stared at the movie, which was starting up, as if it was foreign to him, Harvey wished he could just place his head in his hands and leave it at that.
On the other hand, he was no idiot. The stranger looked like he could decimate the other half of his face if he was given good reason to, and the darkness of the room made it likely that the nurses wouldn't notice a brawl until some damage had already been done. It was better to just play nice, as much as Harvey hated doing that these days.
He still let out a sigh, though. He was allowed to be mildly annoyed. "You've never seen King Kong?" he asked.
Ratchet was generally a sufferer of annoyance, not a cause of it. He didn't take the sudden role reversal gracefully. "No," he snapped, "I haven't, as a matter of fact. It might surprise you to learn that Earth isn't the center of the slagging universe."
Whatever it was, the 'movie' looked somewhat like television. In principle, anyway. So far it looked somewhat crude even by human standards. "Is it supposed to be monochrome?"
Oh, good lord. Now Harvey really had to struggle to not just slap his forehead -- or the half of it that wouldn't increase his pain tenfold, anyway. The last thing he needed to do was end up hurting himself in his aggravation with the nutcases he was shoved in here with.
He was just going to have to resort to condescension as a way to take out his anger. "It was made before color film existed," he spat, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched the film's events unfold. There was no way that he was giving a history lesson about the entertainment industry right now.
He considered trying to tell the other patient that he had always lived on Earth regardless of what he'd convinced himself of, but in the end it wasn't worth the effort.
"Film?" Ratchet couldn't remember the humans in Detroit ever making mention of such a thing, but then he didn't have a great deal of interest in what they did in their leisure time.
He sat watching the primitive little story for a few minutes. "So, wait. If this Denham human is having such a hard time financially, why's he taking some long expensive trip? Plants are plants. Water is water; just finish the damn project and have done with it!" Really, and this was supposed to be art? "It's no wonder he's in trouble if he wastes his credits like that."
Having a grown man ask him what film was seemed almost more bizarre than ending up in 1938 New York after walking through a door. There could still be some sort of reasoning to explain that, at the least, while there was no good reason why this patient shouldn't know how a movie was projected.
Unless he had brain damage, but Harvey didn't want to make too many cruel assumptions. He was still doing what he could to avoid get punched in the face. It was something he had to worry about more than the average person.
Luckily, he got some precious moments of silence while the stranger started to focus more on the movie, but just as Harvey was starting to relax, the man turned around and began questioning the plot. Harvey would have rubbed at his eyes if that wouldn't have just hurt more. "It's a movie," he snapped. "Sometimes things that don't make sense happen for the sake of moving the plot along." Granted, good films could be watched seamlessly, without those little questions popping up in the back of your mind, but Harvey didn't see
( ... )
This jerk was going to get a piece of Ratchet's processor if he kept being so abrupt. "I know what it is, bonebag!" he snapped right back, lowering his voice only when he caught a nurse glaring at him with a finger to her lips. "What's the point of it if it doesn't make sense, though? It's a waste of time, if you ask me."
However, there wasn't much else to do and Ratchet soon found himself picking apart the 'movie' thing again. "Oh, and how convenient that he picked the one island populated by barely-sentient savages. You know," he said, "it's funny, but that's about how most of my kind sees you organics." That was sort of ironic right there.
Bonebag. Well then. That wasn't something he'd been called before, so the guy got points for creativity. His disfigurement wasn't even showing, which would have given the guy better reason to pull out an insult like that. As it was, it didn't make much sense, but maybe the stranger was just referring to the fact that he was a bit leaner in comparison
( ... )
Ratchet couldn't understand what the man was getting so worked up over. He was only making a few observations. Maybe the criticism was stinging the human's Earthling pride a little. "More like lazy writing," he said. "This thing couldn't be more transparent if it tried... And now the organic beast is going to protect the human female, even though it's clearly eaten every slagging human that was tied to the stick before. Naturally." This was stupid. "Remind me not to complain about the epic recitals the next time Remembrance of the Magnuses rolls around."
On top of everything else, the stuttering way the so-called monsters moved across the screen was giving him a processor ache. Damn humans.
"If you don't like it, then don't watch it," Harvey shot back with a shrug of his shoulders as he turned back to the screen. He hadn't been that interested in the movie in the first place, but the last thing he needed was to have someone sitting next to him and questioning every little thing that didn't make sense. There was a reason that it was called fiction, after all, but apparently the stranger couldn't wrap his small mind around that concept.
The other man was still babbling on, using terms that Harvey was completely unfamiliar with, and he doubted he wanted to know what they meant.
"Fine! I won't, then." Ratchet had every intention of staring at the far wall for the rest of this alleged 'treat' when he caught just the edge of his neighbor's gauze bandages. As much as this human was annoying him, as a medic the signs of recent damage caught his interest.
Was the guy really going to be a child and petulantly watch the wall for the rest of the shift? How much longer was that going to be, anyway? Harvey felt like the time was dragging by at a snail's pace thanks to his terrible company, but once again, there wasn't really any other seats he could move to unless he found a completely different room, and that would probably just give the other patient far too much satisfaction.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem as if they could just leave it at that. Harvey would have been content enough to let the guy immaturely stare off at nothing until the movie was over, but he didn't end up being so lucky.
The question, and the rude way in which it was asked, caused his shoulders to twitch in irritation. "I didn't do anything to it," he grumbled.
Ratchet was now too engrossed in the man's injury to pay much attention to the tone of his voice or how he himself was phrasing his questions. "The whole left side of your face is covered," he said, leaning forward slightly to get a better look. "How did it happen?" Though the wound seemed to have gotten some treatment, Ratchet couldn't help but feel some amount of professional concern over it, even though organic medicine was far from his area of expertise.
Unfortunately, being a field medic, his bedside manner left a lot to be desired. "Did someone attack you, or was it some kind of accident?"
While the guy had come off as rude at first, his interest seemed to be changing into something else, and Harvey picked up on it. He wasn't sure why, but suddenly the stranger seemed much more interested in the bandages around his face than he had been in criticizing King Kong. That wasn't necessarily a good thing, though, as Harvey wasn't big on spilling his life story to whoever asked.
Luckily, he was good at dodging questions and giving vague answers. He kept his own gaze on the screen, to make it clear that this was not a topic that was open for lengthy discussion. "The latter," he responded, tone clipped. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm a doctor," Ratchet said casually, waving one hand as if to shoo away any more inane questions. "An accident..." Perched on the edge of his seat, he twisted to get a closer look at the gauze covering, gaze travelling up to study the shape of the man's skull. There were no dents or cracks that he could see. Surface damage, then? "Spill something on yourself?" Ratchet didn't know too much about what could and couldn't damage a human hide, but chemical corrosion wasn't unheard of back home, and humans were a great deal more fragile than a Cybertronian.
There was also the fact that they shared more than a few things in common, but that wasn't necessarily a good reason to keep talking to the man, especially if each conversation was going to be a repeat of the one before it.
Well, he'd play it by ear. As the man walked into the Sun Room, he saw that they were setting up a projector to play... King Kong, right? He wasn't sure why the patients had voted for that one, but it wasn't like he'd bothered to vote in the first place. When it came down to it, this was really his best option for where to spend the shift. The ( ... )
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Wondering if the nurses would let him leave if he got too bored, he settled himself down in a chair and waited. He hadn't noticed the man to the left of him; when he did he made to get up and move, until he considered that he'd have no one to complain at if the human entertainment was stupid. And the chances of that were pretty high.
"So what's this supposed to be, anyway?" he asked. Ratchet was normally too large to fit through the doors of a theater, and Cybertron didn't have a direct equivalent to this sort of thing. From the look of the screen, he suspected it was something like their television, but they'd called it something different for some reason.
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But on the other hand, people here never failed to baffle him. When a burly guy suddenly took a seat next to him and stared at the movie, which was starting up, as if it was foreign to him, Harvey wished he could just place his head in his hands and leave it at that.
On the other hand, he was no idiot. The stranger looked like he could decimate the other half of his face if he was given good reason to, and the darkness of the room made it likely that the nurses wouldn't notice a brawl until some damage had already been done. It was better to just play nice, as much as Harvey hated doing that these days.
He still let out a sigh, though. He was allowed to be mildly annoyed. "You've never seen King Kong?" he asked.
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Whatever it was, the 'movie' looked somewhat like television. In principle, anyway. So far it looked somewhat crude even by human standards. "Is it supposed to be monochrome?"
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He was just going to have to resort to condescension as a way to take out his anger. "It was made before color film existed," he spat, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched the film's events unfold. There was no way that he was giving a history lesson about the entertainment industry right now.
He considered trying to tell the other patient that he had always lived on Earth regardless of what he'd convinced himself of, but in the end it wasn't worth the effort.
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He sat watching the primitive little story for a few minutes. "So, wait. If this Denham human is having such a hard time financially, why's he taking some long expensive trip? Plants are plants. Water is water; just finish the damn project and have done with it!" Really, and this was supposed to be art? "It's no wonder he's in trouble if he wastes his credits like that."
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Unless he had brain damage, but Harvey didn't want to make too many cruel assumptions. He was still doing what he could to avoid get punched in the face. It was something he had to worry about more than the average person.
Luckily, he got some precious moments of silence while the stranger started to focus more on the movie, but just as Harvey was starting to relax, the man turned around and began questioning the plot. Harvey would have rubbed at his eyes if that wouldn't have just hurt more. "It's a movie," he snapped. "Sometimes things that don't make sense happen for the sake of moving the plot along." Granted, good films could be watched seamlessly, without those little questions popping up in the back of your mind, but Harvey didn't see ( ... )
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However, there wasn't much else to do and Ratchet soon found himself picking apart the 'movie' thing again. "Oh, and how convenient that he picked the one island populated by barely-sentient savages. You know," he said, "it's funny, but that's about how most of my kind sees you organics." That was sort of ironic right there.
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On top of everything else, the stuttering way the so-called monsters moved across the screen was giving him a processor ache. Damn humans.
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The other man was still babbling on, using terms that Harvey was completely unfamiliar with, and he doubted he wanted to know what they meant.
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"Hey, what'd you do to your face?"
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Unfortunately, it didn't seem as if they could just leave it at that. Harvey would have been content enough to let the guy immaturely stare off at nothing until the movie was over, but he didn't end up being so lucky.
The question, and the rude way in which it was asked, caused his shoulders to twitch in irritation. "I didn't do anything to it," he grumbled.
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Unfortunately, being a field medic, his bedside manner left a lot to be desired. "Did someone attack you, or was it some kind of accident?"
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Luckily, he was good at dodging questions and giving vague answers. He kept his own gaze on the screen, to make it clear that this was not a topic that was open for lengthy discussion. "The latter," he responded, tone clipped. "Why do you ask?"
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