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Wants and Needs

Everyone had wants. Everyone had needs. And the way you succeeded in life was to provide them to others in return for getting what you needed and wanted at minimal cost to yourself. Push the buttons, get things out of the vendor and while you were at it, get more change than you were entitled to.

At least, that was how the old saying went. Generally speaking of course, never mind the fact that coins were pretty much non-existent back in the 22nd century, and that there were no automated in vendors at Terra Nova to spend terrans at. Anachronisms galore, Josh reflected, never mind the presence of humans 85 million years in the past of an alternate timeline (insert scientific talk here) on the continent of Laurasia or Gondwana (or what used to be them) in the Cretaceous Period of the Mez...

"Hey Josh, I'm not paying you to stand around."

Screw it. Duty called.

Josh didn't know whether Boylan was really as easygoing as he made himself out to be tonight or whether it was just an act to fool the patrons of the bar-an act that, if it really was an act, was much more convincing that Josh's own attempt, to the extent of him falling behind on his workload. Less than a week had passed since the deal he'd struck with Mira, and only a few days since the EMP FUBAR, and already Boylan was back to business, whether it be booze, gambling or other services Josh decided he was better off not knowing about. Just as he'd agreed to not know exactly what the Sixers' leader would ask of him in the future...

"Hey kid! Move it or lose it!"

Ignorance was bliss. And as the drunken patron stumbled by, apparently the Mesozoic's equivalent was a sure way to incur it.

Still, the bar was winding down for the night, which gave the worker time to reflect on the recent events. It was strange, really, how the separation of 85 million years with Kara was compelling him to do things that despite all his differences with his father when it came to authority, he'd have never considered doing in the 2140s. He'd resented leaving home in 2149, maintain that he'd had a life and he'd wanted to live it. Yet only recently, he'd explained to Skye that the future was indeed a shithole, would remain a shithole and would become even more of a shithole as time went on. No longer his home...was Kara making him act like this, he wondered? Or was Boylan right? That it was simply human nature to want what you couldn't have?

Brave new world indeed.

A/N

The ideas behind this might be rendered null by Proof (which has yet to air in Oz), but regardless, whether it's due to continuity errors or intentional character development/lack of it, there's something I've noticed in regards to Josh's character. In Genesis, it's clear that he doesn't want to leave 2149...yet in Nightfall (I think) explains to Skye how grim the 2140s actually are. Presumably it's Kara's presence/lack of it that drives both needs. Anyway, since it's basic human nature to want what we don't and/or can't have, came up with this as a result.