And I don&#39;t mind, if it&#39;s me you need to turn to

Hey, I'm still looking for a job. Got a little stalled on that with the all the natural disasters afoot. When's a good time for me to come calling?

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Of course. Nasty storms have a way of getting in the way.

How about tomorrow morning? I'll be there bright and early at 10 AM~ ♥

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Aye aye, captain!

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Captain... I kinda like that!

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All righty, captain, I'll see you in the morning! Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and all that.

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[It was bright and early... or early for Bridge's usual time, anyway. Due to the hurricane, he'd been getting up early and working late, making sure that materials to repair and rebuild were constantly being sent up and that his workers and volunteers stayed nice and orderly.

This moment, though, happened to be a rare one of peace, so near the elevator, there was a large pile of wood, and Bridge sat atop it, looking for all the world like the Scavenging guru, or so he hoped.

At the foot of it sat Logan, staring up at him and "singing" like a bird.]

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[Serenity had been to the yard before, though there hadn't been much time to poke around before everyone had been evacuated down to the Wilderness. She had hoped to secure some employment before then, but in the easygoing camp setting there hadn't been much of a rush. Now that things were settling back to normal, it was time to start getting her life in order.

Serenity stepped out of the elevator and spotted Bridge almost immediately. While she hadn't seen the man before in person, she figured that the odds were in her favor that it was him. She noticed the little mechanical dog chirping cheerfully at the base of the pile of scrap wood and had to resist the urge to pick him up and examine him.

Waving up at him, she introduced herself.]

Hello? I'm Serenity. Are you Bridge?

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[Logan turned to look at Serenity and meowed curiously. Bridge opened one eye and looked down at her, smiling, which kinda broke his zen facade. He waved back and carefully stood, scrambling down the wood pile. He almost made it before tripping near the bottom and landing with a THUD next to Serenity, groaning. Logan gave a wheezy chuckle, which made Bridge glare at him.]

Easy for you to say.

{Bridge picked himself up with as much dignity as he could muster, dusted himself off, and offered one leather-gloved hand.]

I am indeed Bridge! And that's my dog, Logan. Uhm, I trip and fall fairly often, so- don't mind that part.

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[Serenity jumped in surprise when Bridge tumbled down next to her, but he seemed all right. When he stood, she took a hold of his hand and gave it a firm shake. She found she already liked him: he seemed like a kindred spirit.]

Pleased to meet you. And you too, Logan. I've only heard good things about both of you.

[Releasing his hand, she braced both of hers on her hips and nodded toward the heaps of stuff piled haphazardly around.]

What kind'a qualifications do you look for in a scavenger? I ain't got references, but I think I can do the job. I look at machinery and electronics and I know what's what, and that's a start, right?

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[Bridge was relieved when Serenity didn't laugh at him, and was even more pleased when she spoke to Logan like he was a real dog. Logan heard the compliment and wagged his tail, whinnying like a horse in response.]

Well, that's good! I'd hate it if you heard anything bad, but then again I'm not sure who'd have anything bad to say about me, but you never know...

[He stopped himself from rambling and cleared his throat.]

Nobody really does have any references, since we all start here with a clean slate, thankfully.

[He brightened.]

You know? Do you have any psychic powers or do you just... know stuff?

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[Serenity couldn't help but giggle at Logan's misplaced noises. She wondered why it was he could make so many sounds but couldn't bark? If it was a glitch in his programming or his circuitry he could probably be fixed, but it was kind of charming.

Serenity's eyebrows lifted at Bridge's question about psychic abilities.]

I'm not a reader or nothin'. I just know machines. [She gestured to some random pieces of machinery scattered about to illustrate her point.] That piece over there looks like an ignition coil for an engine, and there's a pile of spark plugs. Lots of the stuff in here looks like it could be fixed, no problem. Just figure out what's bad and what ain't and pull yourself some spare parts to fix what can be salvaged.

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[Bridge took in a sharp breath and had to bite back a sudden urge to squeal in delight.]

That's SO. COOL! I mean, I know plenty about machines myself but not everything and sometimes I have to use my powers to check for sure what's wrong with them and just KNOWING and being able to look and fix it without any effort is so great!

[He stopped to take a deep breath.]

If you think you'd like doing that for a living, then yes, you'd love this job. Sometimes you're asked to find more mundane stuff like... forks and spoons and stuff, or pipes if Maintenance has a plumbing job to do, but if you like building machines, we get requests for appliances and the like, too.

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Wait, you got powers? [That explained why he would think to ask if her skill came from psychic abilities.] Huh. Ain't that somethin'. Having powers seems like it'd come in handy. Are they... mechanic psychic powers or what?

[She nodded and glanced around again when he described some of the more commonplace things that scavengers were asked to find, taking mental stock of the piles and assorted things scattered about.]

I'm sure that part wouldn't be too hard, unless they wanted a matching set of something. Now that might be tough.

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[Bridge held up both hands, indicating his leather gloves.]

Yup! They're channelled through my hands, so that's why I always wear gloves. I can see auras around people and things, or when I touch people and objects I can see flashes of where they've been recently.

[It was a bit of an oversimplfication, but Bridge felt that the best way to GET his powers was just to experience them, and he knew that was impossible.]

Yeah, people can't be too picky about what they get from here- it's all broken, but a lot of it can be cleaned up and fixed, so it's all good. You'll have section one housing once it gets rebuilt from hurricane damage, and once you start, I pretty much let people work on their own at their own pace.

[He pointed to a metal pole with a clip on it nearby.]

Since we're in a rebuilding-slash-crisis kinda situation right now, I don't give out normal assigments, but for when we're back to normal, I post a sheet with the day's requests there. You just sign off on whichever assignments you like and complete them. I don't like to give my workers a set amount of work to do since it's so varied, but as long as you don't totally slack off, you should be fine. And I'll know if somebody doesn't work, anyway, because the clients won't get their goods and will let ME know. Sound good?

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What's a Scavenger do, anyway?

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Have you ever been down to the Scavengers' Yard?

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Nope! I didn't get to do much exploring before our house blew away. Except the Wilderness and the Bazaar.

It's the last stop on the elevator, though, right?

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Yup, that's right!

Well, there's lots of stuff down here. Broken stuff. A Scavenger's job is to collect that stuff for people who request it.

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What, you mean...there's stuff just lying around for anybody to take?

[Pauuuuse.]

Is it valuable stuff?

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Maybe not valuable except some of it has sentimental value to some people... since it's all broken I don't think it's worth all that much.

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