If the Institute will deny your due respect, you will just have to claim it for yourself. And what better way than having people owe you their very lives?
To start with, you'll need both a surgery and a ward. You scavenge a yardstick from a cupboard, mark up some twine, grab a few tools, a spare journal and your Civil Engineering book, then go look for a promising venue. You head to the East Wing, as those rooms are almost entirely unused, and are not too far from your study.
Beds are shifted, floors tested, and walls measured. Half an hour later, the maid finds you atop a bookshelf, examining the exterior wall.
“My, la-uhh, Ma'am, Doctor? Is everything alright?”
Without taking your eyes away from your work, you gesticulate in the general direction of your journal.
“Ah, you've arrived just in time. I will recite some measurements, and I need you to write them down. Ready?”
“Yes, Doctor, but-”.
“First Measurement, fourteen foot, three inches.”
You hear her scramble to your journal, and carefully note down each one as you continue.
With a second pair of hands, and only mildly incompetent at that, you are able to breeze through the rest of your planning. It looks like you have a few options available to you.
Surgical Wing Options:
A) With minimal effort, you can assemble a basic surgery from supplies you already have on hand. The tools you brought with you for Anatomical study can be pressed into service, and basic furnishings are readily available. You can use nearby guest rooms as is for patient recovery. You would lack the tools necessary to make life easier for the Physician and patients however.
B) With a modest amount of funding and a couple of days work (one far more readily available than the other), you can produce the more specialised tools, including the missing fittings and fixtures (such as wheeled stretchers and directional lamps). With a bit more of each you could produce everything you would need, and thus avoid the issues of mismatched tools. Of course, this all requires some knowledge of what exactly you need.
C) A much larger investment of time, money, and expertise would allow you to renovate the building itself to allow for more efficient practice of medicine. Widening the doorways, adding windows for additional lighting, combining multiple rooms to allow for a single, large ward are all options. Even the smallest of these would require a week's work and moderate expense, assuming you do it yourself. It would be far quicker if you had a team of able bodies to direct, but if they don't know what they're doing you will have a poor result, despite your Civil Engineering Textbook.
You are disturbed from your pondering by the chiming of the clock, and a small gasp from the maid. You don't recall her name.
“Uhm, Doctor? I was supposed to tell you that dinner will be ready on the hour. I fear I might be late…”
You glance at the small timepiece.
“Have it brought to me here. And then have a horse ready, I will be going out once I have eaten.”
Dinner passes uneventfully, and it isn't long before you don coat and boots, and are presented with your horse by the groundskeeper. You're not overly familiar with animals, but like all proper ladies you were taught to ride from a young age. With only slight hesitation, you mount up, and head out.
Fortunately, your tenants all live in relative proximity, so the rough directions you received from Heidi (“beyond that woodland over there”) were enough. The low light of evening cast long shadows between the trees, and at times the wind whipped through the underbrush like a wave. Truly if you had a more poetic bent, you could write many a sonnet on this particular moment.
Between a pair of trees you spot the first houses, and so spur your horse “Cooper” onwards. They are small, of roughly hewn grey stone, giving the impression of two squat dwarves. In front of one house is a table and chairs, at which a trio of old men have paused their game to study your approach.
You dismount, and introduce yourself. Upon hearing your name they all make an attempt at genuflecting, constrained by age and their seats, so word has clearly spread of your arrival.
Quizzing the three elders, it turns out they are the most senior of your tenants, and thus end up having a hand in almost everything that goes on. They inform you that there are two physicians who might be suitable to your needs.
The first, Dr John Bellingham, is a recent graduate of the Imperial Medical College, and is hoping to make a name for himself and thus gain a prestigious household position, such as the one you are looking to fill.
The other is Aubrey Thomas, a veteran army surgeon, who now plies his trade in exchange for room, board and generous donations to his numerous vices.
Whilst neither have been through recently, it would be safe to assume they both have postal addresses, and thus could be invited to an interview, if you so desire.
With the last of the evening light, you have a little time to ask more questions of the elders, before you return home.
TURNTURNTURNStatus: Physically Healthy
Mild Humiliation
Mild Megalomania
Negligible Fame
Knowledge:
- Anatomy FOCUS: Level 3
- Mechanical Engineering Level 2
Inventory:
- Nil
Points of Interest:
> Whitland Manor
Your residence. Outdated, and suffering for it. You have space for a laboratory, study and library, but little in them. The estate includes a garden, woodland, and a small number of tenants. Managed by your Housekeeper, Heidi Denton.
- Study with an anatomical wooden heart
- Biology Textbook
- Civil Engineering Textbook
- Laboratory, with basic Surgical and Mechanical Engineering tools
> The Institute
The home of a pack of bickering, backstabbing fools and cretins. They claim to hold the pursuit of knowledge above all, yet they fail to acknowledge the progress of Science when it right in front of them. Managed by your nemesis, Dr Percival Wright, Curator.
Persons of Interest:
> Dr Percival Wright
Curator of the Institute and your nemesis. He was always jealous of your accomplishments and threatened by your Genius. And possibly a misogynist too. He needs to learn the error of his ways.
> Heidi Denton
Housekeeper at Whitland Manor. Known you for years, and helped protect your hobbies from your mother's disapproval.
> Michael Vaughan
Your brother, and now head of the family. You have not spoken recently, but he shared your mother's dislike of your passions.
> Elder Tenants
Matthew Thatch, Henry Green, and Alfred Brook represent your tenants in most matters.
Author
Topic: [SG] You are a GENIUS! - Sybil Vaughan, Lady of Science (Read 4260 times)