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[deathpending]

Good evening. I am Dr. Jonathan Reid, of London, England. I arrived here as I imagine many of you did, through those ghastly eggs.

Should you need a field surgeon or a physician's services, I offer both freely. You may find me in the infirmary or reach me through these devices. I regret that I have no resume or other prior reference to offer, only that I served in the War, and I'm accustomed to making do with very little.

Thank you for your time.

Comments

[pridecroweth]

（ the word 'servant' gives him a visceral reaction he doesn't want to examine too closely, something that feels wolf enough that billie would chide him for the resemblance to her kin. he walks it back, but he has decades of practice swallowing down his anger — restraint is an old friend. ）

I don't serve the law, I serve the people. You'd probably be amazed at the gulf of difference between the two.

Just Samuel's fine. Or Detective Crowe if you're feeling formal. I don't wear 'Mr' well.

[deathpending]

[ He's touched a nerve. Exposed, his instincts seek it, as they now know all wounds with such new intimacy. ]

[ He is no longer horrified, by where his thoughts go. He simply observes them with the weariness of yet another failed experiment, waiting for their inevitable conclusion. ]

As a doctor's interests are his patients. No doubt.

[ Jonathan's world is no longer the hospital, after all. ]

Detective Crowe, if that suffices.

[pridecroweth]

No doubt.

（ there are worse nerves with him. that one's old, but exposure has numbed the worst of the blows. survival is king, but he can still be a petty asshole in the interim. ）

Suit yourself.

What're we calling you, 'Dr. Reid'?

[deathpending]

That will do.

Have you observed any recent symptoms of influenza, Detective?

cw: colonialism/vague genocide ref.

[pridecroweth]

（ if every second sentence out of this guy keeps getting his hackles up like this, eventually he's going to spontaneously combust.

he knows, intellectually, it's what passes for an innocuous question — probably talking about the spanish flu.

doesn't mean the segue doesn't dredge up a lot of shit. if ever there was time for a scathing riposte on the colonial plague rats of centuries past... ）

Healthy as a horse, Doc. I've had all my shots.

[deathpending]

[ The vaccine as it currently exists is of highly dubious efficacy. And to think the Swanborough Cordial might have made it across the pond or something like it — ugh. ]

I am glad to hear it.

[ It would have been singularly careless to have brought the contagion here, but everyone took precautions the moment he informed the staff, and he's been assured it's all well now. ]

[ Let's put aside the matter of the skal plague. He would never create one, thankfully, and there aren't any he scents here. ]

If you would indulge my curiosity, when did you receive the vaccination?

[pridecroweth]

I was born in 1983. We've had some advancements in medical science since then.

But I get my flu shot annually, it covers whatever the most likely strains of the season are.

[deathpending]

[ Incredible. He has ten odd questions immediately — reined in by the fact that he may live to see 1983, most certainly. Provided McCullum and his hounds spare them all. ]

Well! I must say both are heartening to hear. The epidemic is still presently an issue in my time.

[ And now the earlier wound — certainly England has done much that's distasteful, and perhaps there's more of it, or it is particular to someone from Chicago, but he can't think what that might be. ]

[pridecroweth]

（ he's going to have to unpack this anger later. anger that someone could have seen war, that war, and still be this naive. right now, it's simmering. ）

`As a doctor's interests are his patients.`

You've got some things to catch up on, by the by. The AI has courses on modern medical practice.

[deathpending]

[ Is there something in particular that needs his attention? Perhaps that's too forward. These aren't like letters, and no soirees where it might be soothed over, spoken of like gentlemen. ]

I have been informed, thank you.

[ Fascinating devices, wonderful technology, he can look forward to much, in the future. On another world. ]

Is the technology familiar to you?

[pridecroweth]

I wouldn't call it unfamiliar.

A lot of this is theoretical in my time, you see it in books and at the cinema, but science fiction has a way of becoming science fact. Let's say I'm not surprised by most of it.

cw for experimentation on ppl

[deathpending]

I can see what you mean.

[ He knows what he found, in the sewers, and what the old journals suggest — he doesn't want to ask what sits in the great archives of St. Paul's Stole, and what is behind the locked door of the cellar to the Ascalon Club. The island of Doctor Moreau comes to mind. ]

I hope this is Verne, and not Wells.

[pridecroweth]

Hell, I'd take Thoreau.

[deathpending]

A-ha! As might I. Or some Chesterton.

[ Anything but Dracula. ]

[pridecroweth]

Unfortunately, looks like we aren't getting much downtime here to brush up on the classics.

（ he hasn't warmed to the man, but sam's never been that guy who'd let pettiness cost someone else more than an inconvenience. so, after a long moment: ）

I have EMT training, myself. Not exactly a surgeon, but I've seen a bullet wound or two in my day. Call if you need me.

[deathpending]

I shall, and I appreciate the offer of assistance.

[pridecroweth]

See you around, Doc.