riverview | 01. The microscopic section of this gland or organ is extremely beautiful.

[ The morgue and the coroner's office are in the basement of the Riverview Hospital, which would be depressing were it not for the fact that the coroner's office is placed so that it has a window. The basement also features a large storage room that has become a dumping ground for miscellaneous furniture and supplies. At times where Harry's been at loose ends and in need of something to do, he has reorganized that storage room ... and now he's found a new use for it.

The incursion of small pesky critters has a lot to do with it, as does the fact that his office is starting to overflow with items that he's collected around the quarantine in his time there. Soon the storage room starts slowly transforming into a distinctly 19th-century-flavoured laboratory, with tanks and cages for living creatures and jars for preserved specimens—not just of the pests, but also other interesting plants and insects. There's also an eyeball from one of the large predatory pterodactyl creatures, and feathers from the same are kept on his worktable.

It doesn't occur to him that it might be nice to mention this side project to the hospital administrators, but he doesn't exactly get a lot of visitors, so it's going to be a little while before anyone notices.

...well, once these messages go out, someone probably will. ]

To Captain Anali Apple and the Perimeter Guard
Greetings. I am Dr. Harry Goodsir, and I have the privilege to serve as Coroner to the Riverview Quarantine. I write in reference to the small Creatures that have been plaguing the city, and for which I understand you have offered a Bounty. As an Anatomist and Naturalist by training, I am very interested in these particular* Creatures, and would welcome the opportunity to acquire from the Guard any Specimens of these Pests*—living or dead—so that I may make a Study of them. Perhaps such a Study will yield results that are Relevant to the control of their Population and Range. Please advise how we may arrange Delivery.

Your obedient servant,
Dr. Harry Goodsir

Network text post | [Bad username or site: hds @ goodsir]
To my fellow Riverview citizens, greetings. I am Dr. Harry Goodsir, and I have the privilege to serve as Coroner to the Riverview Quarantine. I am also a Naturalist by training, and I have begun to collect Specimens of the local Flora and Fauna with the Intention of developing a systematic Catalogue of the life we encounter here in the Quarantine and without the walls. I should like to humbly request the Assistance of my fellow men and women in this Endeavour. I seek information about* Specimens for study, ~~as well as~~ any visual or written Reports of curious sightings that I may investigate further. You may write to me via the Network, or you may seek me in person in my Office at the Riverview Hospital.

Your obedient servant,
Dr. Harry Goodsir

[ Feel free to pop into his office with something awful in a cage or a jar. He'll (probably) be delighted. Post title is from the writings of the historical Harry D. S. Goodsir. ]

[ * These parts added after Nat sets him straight. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If it is neither too bold nor foolish of me to ask—might I accompany you on such a Foray? I should like to see it for myself, but in all truthfulness I have neither Means nor Skill to defend myself against the greater Dangers.

[ Nothing teaches you your limits like dragging sledges across pack ice, or being pursued across same by a nightmare bear-monster. ]

It isn't too bold, but I don't know you well enough to know if it's foolish or not.

Just how helpless are you?

[ He really can't begrudge her that at all. ]

That is a very fair Question.

Before I came here, I served in the Royal Navy Discovery Service as a ship's Surgeon and resident Naturalist on an expedition into the Arctic North. In all honesty, I cannot fight, save perhaps in gravest Danger to my own survival. But I have some Experience in dangerous, unmapped lands, and in avoiding predators such as the White Bears that live in the ice.

[ He knows this isn't likely to inspire a vote of confidence, but there's nothing to be gained by inflating his accomplishments. ]

So you can run without tripping over your own feet and a Polar Bear hasn't killed you yet.

Is that about the size of it?

Yes.

When stated Thusly, I begin to suspect that I may be better suited to stay within the Fence. (I do not mean that in Jest.)

Don't discount the value of being able to run without tripping over your own feet.

Tell me, have you ever seen a Polar Bear? Have you ever been genuinely afraid for your life and still able to run without tripping over your own feet?

[ There's a hesitation in which he considers whether he ought to explain that while he has not actually encountered a polar bear, he has found himself far too close to a gigantic spirit-bear monster that eats polar bears the way cats dine on rats and that can swipe off a man's head with a single blow.

Maybe leave that out for now. ]

I have, yes. Others of my Party did not survive the Encounter, but I escaped.

Well, there you go. You have real world experience Not Dying. Plenty of people can't claim that.

[ Also, the spirit bear would not phase her that much. A little, but not much. She could tell him about armoured alien space whales. Always a fun topic of conversation. ]

Would that the Experience had been more extensive for the rest of the Expedition.

[ He writes it, means to delete it, but hits Send instead. Like you do. ]

[ Happens to everybody. It's fine. Not usually about death and sad shit. More often than not it's inappropriate political comments or dick pics, but still. ]

That's the thing about great undertakings, isn't it? If survival were guaranteed, it wouldn't be a great undertaking. It would be commonplace. It would be easy.

[ Yes, she is assuming quite a bit here, but he's not exactly been stingy with the clues. ]

[ He finds her response unexpectedly touching. ]

That is so. Though I have begun to wonder where Courage ends and Hubris begins, in affairs such as these. I rather think it is far too easy to fall into the latter.

[ Erebus and Terror were equipped with the finest cutting-edge technology of the 1840s, after all, and look where it got them. ]

At least you worry about it. That's something.

Look on the bright side. It's easier to fall into a hole, and you haven't done that yet.

That is the least one can do, I suppose.

If I may—what is your Background? What is it that you do here, and before you came to the Quarantine?

[ If this were a phone call, this would be the point she chuckled. Only slightly mockingly. ]

I would have thought it would be easy to guess. YOU are the one who contacted ME. I'm with the Perimeter Guard. Before I came here I did something similar.

I see. I suppose that was a rather obvious sort of Question.

I thank you for your Patience. There is much that I have to learn, about this place and the men and women within it.

I'll let you accompany me on a Foray. If you still want to.

I will use my considerable Means and Skill to defend you against the greater Dangers, provided you do what you're told.

[ Given her track record, she'll end up doing what she can to protect him even if he doesn't listen to her. Not that she's going to tell him that. He seems like an odd sort of guy, and she's not too proud to admit that she's curious. ]

I would appreciate that very much, and I will of course defer to your Experience. Thank you.

If possible, I should like to attempt a venture in about a week's time?

I think that could be arranged. Maybe we should finalize the details when I bring by the specimens you asked for?

Certainly. Thank you very much.

01. The microscopic section of this gland or organ is extremely beautiful.

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