the 002nd. || voice

[pike]

[ Much like Nigel's first post, there is only silence when the device first clicks on. Eventually, though, the young man on the other end of the connection clears his throat. His tone is politely curious. ]

I've been told that the dead do not stay dead here and in ways much more involved than the occasional curse. Which leaves me wondering, City: is there no need for undertakers here?

[ There's a pause and then Nigel adds: ]  I had hoped to make myself useful.

Comments

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

How old are you?

keyword.

[pike]

Seventeen.

indeed.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

A little young to be a qualified mortician.

[pike]

I was hoping to gain proper experience. An apprenticeship of sorts.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

You'll be out of luck with that. Have you considered flipping burgers and blowing the cash wherever you can convince them to serve you?

[pike]

Not really my area of expertise, I'm afraid.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

Wasn't really mine at seventeen, either. Why funeral services?

[pike]

I have an interest in zoology and human anatomy.

[ Aaaaand an unhealthy obsession with taxidermy. ]

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

Backdoor way to learn about it. Anatomists haven't been coffin chasers since the seventeenth century.

[pike]

I wasn't really allowed through the font door.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

Your school doesn't offer biology?

[pike]

Literature. Latin. History. Theology. [ A beat. ] The last one in excess.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

Oh. Catholic school.

SOB PLACEHOLDER FORGIVE ME

[synanthrope]

I was going to speak to you about him.

/forgives you anything

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

My end's more about keeping people alive.

[synanthrope]

Do you always succeed?

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

I have a pretty good rate. And the odds here work for me.

[synanthrope]

But at the end of the day, some people do die.

And some of those people do not come back. Who handles the dead bodies? Surely not the doctors.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

It's a rare event. After autopsy we usually hand things over to the relatives, or friends. They make their own arrangements.

Half the time a grave crops up of its own accord.

[synanthrope]

I see. I didn't know it was so rare.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

There are more that don't come through the hospital directly. Not enough to base a career on, particularly when you're seventeen and completely lacking experience.

[synanthrope]

Who starts a career here? He doesn't even need the money.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

Seventeen and completely lacking experience. It's a delicate job.

[synanthrope]

I don't think most people have space to complain about experience.

[worksmart.livejournal.com]

Right, we'll just hand out flyers at the mall for morgue work. The restaurants are overstaffed, and aspirating a cavity's not much different to filling a garlic kiev, really.

He'd need a degree. At the least he'd need someone with a degree looking over him.