milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

[OOM: Seymour comes to a realization.]

Seymour comes downstairs. He's showered, shaved, and put on clean clothes - a bright orange jacket, scarf and a baseball cap. He's still wearing horn-rimmed glasses with one cracked lens.

"Bar, I need a camera, if you don't mind," he mumbles to her. "Easy to use, if you can. It's...important."

He gets a Polaroid camera. Seymour frowns at it, then snaps a photo of the bar in general. He blinks when the photograph comes out.

Then he smiles. "Gee, thanks! And I'm having breakfast, so, uh, cereal, I s'pose." Bar gives him toast and juice as well, Seymour digs in like someone who hasn't eaten in a while. Amazing what having a plan will do for someone.

Once in a while, he'll play with the camera and take another shot of the bar. Does he catch you?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sure! How does Seymour feel about little (we're looking at five feet tall here, maybe five foot two tops) yellow robots?

Seymour puts his camera down and blinks at Bumblebee. Then he peers at the photo he just took once it comes out, trusting the machine over his own eyes.

One of the downsides of not being in the main part of Milliways is that you forget about the sheer different types of beings in this place.

Bumblebee had just been poking at a human-sized book that somebody left lying around; he doesn't get to read books often. E-books, yeah, but paper books? The fingers don't really work with paper very well. He happens to glance up in the human's direction, and waves.

Slowly, Seymour waves back. Then glances at the photo again.

All of Seymour's sci-fi knowledge is screaming that robots tend to be about going on rampages - if they're not destroying the world, they're at least turning against their creators.

Or falling in love with them like that episode of the Twilight Zone, but that's an entirely different type of robot.

At least, Seymour reassures himself, this robot can't go on any rampages here.

Ordinarily objections would be raised here to the idea of a robot this size conducting any rampages, but really, he's from the same universe that produced Frenzy. Frenzy was the size of a boom box when he pantsed Sam Witwicky. So, yeah, even wee!Formers can be a problem.

On the other hand, Bumblebee in general just doesn't like spooking humans, so a quick chirp of "Hi there!" lifted from the start of "Big Time", by Peter Gabriel, is the first thing he says.

"Hi," Seymour parrots.

He makes an effort to form an original thought. "Good...book?"

Bumblebee shrugs; he hasn't gotten very far yet. Still, what he saw looked entertaining, so his speakers flare up-

Ondaatje started a food fight, salmon mousse all over the scene
Spilled some dressing on Doris Lessing, these writer types are a scream!

Seymour blinks a few times.

He should be saying something here. Anything.

"...Hope it gets better?"

So much for that. Bumblebee lets out a prerecorded sigh and calls on his crackly-sounding, almost rusty actual voice. "I only just started. It seems entertaining so far."

"I'm reading...." Seymour pauses to remember.

"Steinbeck," is what he eventually comes up with. "It's pretty boring." It might be less so if Seymour ever got past the first twenty-five pages.

Bumblebee tilts his head thoughtfully a moment.

Tom Joad got out of the old McAlester Pen
There he got his parole
After four long years on a man killing charge
Tom Joad come a walking down the road, poor boy
Tom Joad come a walking down the road

"Hey, that's the guy in the book," Seymour says, scrunching up his face in confusion.

"Didn't know someone made a song about it."

"Oh yes!" says Bumblebee cheerfully. "There's more. A whole story in the song. But I don't want to spoil it for you? Humans get upset about that."

"Oh, um, well, if you want to, feel free. I really don't think I'll ever finish it," Seymour confesses.

Bumblebee nods happily, and calls up the rest of the song:

Tom Joad he met a truck driving man
There he caught him a ride
He said: "I just got loose from McAlester's Pen
On a charge called Homicide,
A charge called Homicide."

That truck rolled away in a cloud of dust,
Tommy turned his face toward home,
He met Preacher Casey and they had a little drink,
But they found that his family they was gone,
He found that his family they was gone.

He found his mother's old fashion shoe
Found his daddy's hat.
And he found little Muley and Muley said:
"They've been tractored out by the cats,
They've been tractored out by the cats."

Tom Joad walked down to the neighbors farm
Found his family.
They took Preacher Casey and loaded in a car
And his mother said "We got to git away."
His mother said 'We got to get away."

Now the twelve of the Joads made a mighty heavy load
But Grandpa Joad did cry.
He picked up a handful of land in his hand
Said: "I'm stayin' with the farm till I die.
Yes, I'm stayin' with my farm till I die."

They fed him short ribs and coffee and soothing syrup
And Grandpa Joad did die.
They buried Grandpa Joad by the side of the road,
Buried Grandma on the California side,
They buried Grandma on the California side.

They stood on a Mountain and they looked to the West
And it looked like the promised land.
That bright green valley with a river running through,
There was work for every single hand, they thought,
There was work for every single hand.

The Joads rolled away to Jungle Camp,
There they cooked a stew.
And the hungry little kids of the Jungle Camp
Said: "We'd like to have some too."
Said: "We'd like to have some too."

Now a Deputy Sheriff fired loose at a man
Shot a woman in the back.
Before he could take his aim again
Preacher Casey dropped him in his track.
Preacher Casey dropped him in his track.

They handcuffed Casey and they took him to Jail
And then he got away.
And he met Tom Joad on the old river bridge,
And these few words he did say, poor boy,
These few words he did say.

"I preached for the Lord a mighty long time
Preached about the rich and the poor.
Us workin' folks got to all get together,
Cause we ain't got a chance anymore.
We ain't got a chance anymore."

The Deputies come and Tom and Casey run
To the bridge where the water run down.
But the vigilante they hit Casey with a club,
They laid Preacher Casey on the ground.
They laid Preacher Casey on the ground.

Tom Joad he grabbed that Deputy's club
Hit him over the head.
Tom Joad took flight in the dark rainy night
A Deputy and a Preacher lying dead, two men,
A Deputy and a Preacher lying dead.

Tom run back where his mother was asleep
He woke her up out of bed.
Then he kissed goodbye to the mother that he loved
Said what Preacher Casey said, Tom Joad,
He said what Preacher Casey said.

"Ever'body might be just one big soul
Well it looks that a way to me.
Everywhere that you look in the day or night
That's where I'm gonna be, Ma,
That's where I'm gonna be.

Wherever little children are hungry and cry
Wherever people ain't free.
Wherever men are fightin' for their rights
That's where I'm gonna be, Ma.
That's where I'm a gonna be."

Seymour listens, feeling something that would be pain if it were stronger, but is simply unease. Other people get to have music here. It's...fair, he reminds himself.

"Probably a better song than it is a book. Guess Steinbeck's just not for me." Seymour glances at the photo of the robot he still holds. "Thanks, though. You, uh, you want this?" He hesitantly gets to his feet and hands it to Bumblebee.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only