Progressive Tendencies (Melody)

[Gleam]

"Hey!" Jagd booms, glancing around the ramshackle state of the survivor colony at the Rockefeller Center. It was mainly a collection of tents and tarping to protect against the omnipresent water in the City, but it was a hell of a lot more comfortable than being homeless at least. A series of police barricades protected the area with makeshift towers around the old traffic lights to watch for looter gangs. "Where are ya, Melody!"

The curious man stands with a collection of baskets slung around his arms and his usual weathered army outfit, the drizzle marking his face with light droplets and forcing his messy hair down into his eyes.

[Melody Medina]

Melody had felt much better since coming to the survivor complex. Her headaches had gone away and her ankle was better. It had been bothering her for a few days now with all the walking she had been doing around the city. She was glad she was not alone anymore. This place wasn't much but it was better than her previous arrangements. She was under one of the huge tarps sitting back against the wall. She had her head back and her eyes closed. She wasn't sleeping. Just resting her eyes and thinking. Then she heard her name being called. She opened her eyes and stood up. "I'm over here Jagd!" She called back waving her hand at him.

[Gleam]

Jagd's head twitches 'round and he grins as he spots Melody. "Howdy!" he cries, and ambles over, divesting himself of his load of baskets on a handy table nearby. He tosses off an informal salute as he does. "Miss Melody." he greets again, "haven't seen you in awhile. How's civilized life - or the facsimile thereof, at least - treating you now?"

Jagd pauses then quickly digs through the basketloads, producing a scattering of batteries, wire, and duct tape that he divides out into three piles. "Scavengings." he explains. "I do a lot of wandering, and it's the least I can do to bring useful stuff like this back to somebody that really needs it."

[Melody Medina]

Melody smiles back at him. "Hello to you too. I know it has been awhile." Last time she had seen him was when he first brought her here. He hadn't been around for awhile at least not to her knowledge. Melody grins. "It is treating me much better now. I'm not sure why but I'm been in the best mood lately." She steps closer to the table looking at the baskets. She watches him separate the items in piles. "That's very thoughtful of you to do that. I would if I was good at finding things. My recent huntings have come up empty handed." She sighed. She had been out every day but could find nothing useful for even her. At least she had things. She would keep looking. She was bound to find something sooner or later.

[Gleam]

"Having a roof over your head probably helps." Jagd notes wisely. "In addition, a regular feeding schedule, I must hypothesize, adds in the production of excellent moods. Such things that help one not die are, I have found, always most appreciated."

He snickers and stacks the baskets to one side as he finishes sorting out his prizes. "You're not accustomed to scavenging yet - there are quirks to it. For example, janitor closets? Gold mines. Everything in there is practical as hell. You can even kick off the head of a mop and boom, instant walking stick. Then you use the push buckets to wheel your treasure haul around in." Jagd rolls atop the table, stands tall (the furniture groaning under his weight and spools of tape scattering), and thrusts a finger down at Melody. "Innovate!" he barks. "Think aggressively!"

He holds the pose for a moment, then grins and hops off the aged table, which creaks in relief. "And just don't be afraid to work your ass off too. This is the result of three days worth of searching, and it's not much for that long spent searching - but it is still worthwhile."

Jagd searches in his last basket, produces a thermos, and unscrews the top to reveal a pair of built-in caps, which he pours equal amounts of a red liquid into. "Cherry Kool-Aid!" he says merrily. "Share my bounty with me. It's been a productive few days."

[Melody Medina]

Melody nods. "Yes that's true. We take such things for granted." Melody listened and took mental notes. She wanted to be able to be useful. Not just for herself but for others too. She could care less about herself. She was always that kind of person. Put others before herself all time. Even in her professional career the animals always came first to her. She loved being that kind of person but she did need to toughen up a bit. Now things were different and now she had to survivor. Melody jumped back with her eyes wide as he got on the table and said what he did. She just kinda stood there staring at him as got down. She shook her head recovering herself. "I'm definitely not afraid of working. That is the one thing I am not afraid of." Melody smiles. She had not had Kool-Aid in so long. She laughed. "You sure you want to share that with me? You did find it after all."

[Gleam]

Jagd quirks an eyebrow at her question. "Okay, so seriously consider this concept: I, Jagd Asimov Metschulin, as irrepressible and erratic as I naturally am - on a sugar rush. Take a moment and reflect on the possible events to follow from such an occasion. Go ahead."

A pause, and then the other eyebrow raises. "Traumatized yet?" He laughs and toasts her with his glass. "In any case, the majesty of a treasure ain't much until you have someone to show it off to, is it? I'd really prefer to share."

Sipping from his improvised glass, Jagd plops himself down in a weathered, well-worn steel chair that groans beneath the sudden weight. "It all looks comfortable, if a little earthy so far." he mulls, glancing around the camp. About a half-dozen people were visible, one tending the garden that had been planted in place of the decorative hedges that had once stretched before the Rockefeller Center. "So you spend most of your time scavenging? I figured you for agriculture of some sort, working with livestock or the vegetable gardens. You know, cultivation. You've got that sort of gentle thing going on."

[Melody Medina]

Melody considers what he said and just laughs. He was such an upbeat person that she couldn't help it. That was the kind of attitude they all needed. To be happy and hopeful in the tough times. She shakes her head and picks up the glass. "No not traumatized yet. Will take a lot more than that." She says with a smile. She toasts him back and takes a sip. She hops onto the table and sits with her ankles crossed hanging over the edge. She takes another sip and puts the glass down beside. She looks towards the garden and back at him. "I do a little bit of everything. I rotate and do something different each day. I would much rather work with animals all the time but these are not the normal animals I usually work with. So I help out with what I can but also do other things. Have to keep myself up too with finding items I need." She smiled and took the last thing that he said as a complement.

[Gleam]

"Good to hear!" Jagd answers with a cheerful nod. "I hate to think what the therapy would have been like. Like locking you in a room with me for eight hours. Stress-testing your greatest fears! Live at eleven."

He chuckles and takes another drink of the Kool-Aid. "Cross-training in everything, eh?" he notes. "Sounds practical. I guess things aren't quite so disorganized here as my initial impressions led me to believe." Grinning ruefully, he notes, "Though I don't know if it'll ever be to my tastes, still. I'm more an independent sort, all told. The Army definitely rubbed me a bit wrong, what will all the hurry up and wait! you get told to do."

He pauses and glances out across the city, towards where the sounds of the ocean lapping at Manhattan's swamped eastern shore could be heard. "I wonder how the other parts of the world are doing." Jagd says, reflectively. "Presumably there are survivors everywhere, but satellite coverage is just annihilated, and I know the transatlantic cables didn't survive the cataclysm either. We probably won't know for another decade or two at least."

[Melody Medina]

"You can't be that bad can you?" Melody asked with a laugh. "And yeah I figured dabbing in a little bit of everything would be a good move. Give me more experience for the long run." Melody re-situated herself and sat Indian style on the table. "That is why I came here because I heard there were many more survivors here and things seem to getting better and rebuilt." Melody took another sip of her drink and nodded. "I see. The Army huh? I could tell." She looks down at her hands holding her glass. "Not many from where I'm from though. At least none that I could find along the way here. But you are right we won't know for sure for awhile."

[Gleam]

Jagd flaps a hand dismissively, a common gesture of his. "No worries, no worries." he demurred. "If I was that bad, I'd have a surgeon-general's warning pasted to my head, now wouldn't I? Detrimental to societal standards and mental conformity. Do not consume. Though that last bit would more just be a personal request of mine, I'm not fond of being nibbled on."

He glances up at Melody where she sits on the table. "Yeah, you're young. Try stuff out! See what you like doing, and what you'd like to know later on. Believe me, there's nothing quite like staring at a stopped-up drain and wishing you'd learned some basic plumbing earlier in your life." He takes a swallow of his Kool-Aid and grins, lips now stained faintly red with the beverage. "But anyways, where are you from? Sounds like a story, there."

[Melody Medina]

"I didn't think so." Melody laughed at him. "You sure are very comical. And I don't mean that in a bad way." People like to assume the worst sometimes and think she was insulting them when mostly she was trying to do the exact opposite. But he didn't seem like the negative type so she didn't really worry about it. "That's true. I loved the job I had before all this but I am more than willing to learn new things now. It the recent events it seems appropriate." Melody looked out at the water. "It's long story. I'm originally from Florida. Orlando to be exact. It was quite a trip up here. I worked as a Marine Biologist on the coast. I studied and worked with dolphins. Teaching them and learning from them. It was my dream job and I loved every minute it." Melody paused and smiled sadly. She really did miss it. She cleared her throat from the building emotions and continued. "After the world ended I woke up under a small pile of rubble that once was my house. I searched all over for my parents and could not find them so I had to assume they were dead. I had found a few random people but they were badly hurt and there was nothing I could do for them. I don't really know how but rumors from some told me that in New York there were many survivors and they were beginning to rebuild. So I had nothing left for there so I made my way here. It was one long journey. Sometimes I wonder how I really did make it this far. I didn't want to give up the hope of moving on from this. I think that's what mostly kept me going." Melody took a long sip from the glass.

[Gleam]

"I try to be." Jagd agrees with a nod. "Laughter's a damn fine medicine, and I'm a medic. It is my duty to administer the well-being of the proletariat!" He toasts his cup. "Instead of just, you know, dispensing pills on demand like a pharmaceutical ATM. Kinda demeans the practice when you do that."

He peers at Melody as she talks about her home, nodding afterwards. "Well, at least your dolphins are perfectly fine." he points out. "They probably didn't even wake up for the earthquakes or sea swells. Just chilled out on the ocean floor for a few days, eating clams and pissing off the local seals while dodging the sea police. Those rascally sea dolphin punk gangs!" Jagd waves his free hand around in a fist,donning an ornery expression. "Putting graffiti on the coral, eating fish without paying, never using the public restrooms! A disgrace, I tell you."

[Melody Medina]

"It sure is. I'd much rather laugh than take a pill. A medic. That sounds like a job." Melody agreed by nodding while still looking at the water. As he continued to talk she looked at him blinking. When he finished she just bust out laughing. She couldn't hold it in. She laughed so hard that tears sprang to her eyes. She couldn't believe it. Where did he get this stuff from? She wiped her eyes still laughing a little. "I have never met anyone with your personality. It's great." She abs began to hurt. She couldn't remember the last time she laughed like that or laughed at all really.

[Gleam]

As Melody laughs, clutching her stomach, Jagd just smiles in a faintly satisfied way and leans back, waiting until she winds down to mere chuckles. "I haven't met anyone with my peculiarities either." he admits, pulling a hankerchief from a pocket of his coat and handing it over to Melody to wipe her eyes with. "And I assure you, I have been out and about in the world. But I like to think I'm enjoyable to experience, and if anyone thinks otherwise they ran away too fast for me to notice them first."

He finishes off his drink and caps the thermos with it again, standing up with a stretch. "It's not a job I imagined for myself." he said honestly. "My best friend, Rueham, signed up as a pilot, and I thought, hell, I'll stick with him. Signed up in the EMT program as a medic and ended up flying emergency evac missions with him. More satisfying than I'd ever imagined it to be."