bad luck, old sport

[goingtobeunwell]

Who: Francis Crozier and OTA
What: Uh oh, more bad luck for Milton's other resident old man!
When: Throughout February
Where: Crozier's igloo, the town and the outskirts, the basin

Content Warnings: The Terror AMC™'s specific flavor of horror -- possible mentions of cannibalism, starvation, illness, murder, gore, addiction, Victorians

Comments

[goingtobeunwell]

Ah, yes, social pressures. "That's not unique to your era," he tells her sympathetically. "Any social engagement there's something to imbibe. I was always prone to it...my father drank gin, but I'd managed to avoid dependance for years."

He frowns softly.

"After the expedition to Antarctica my hands wouldn't stop shaking. It was the only thing that helped."

[castitas]

"Kind of sucks some things never change." Bluntly put, really. But like, she feels like she's not wrong. It does kind of suck. Her lips are a thin line for a moment.

"Woah, wait. You went to Antarctica too?" she utters with it a sense of awe. "They have research stations there now, in my time. I think— McMurdo? That's the name of the American station?"

Okay, okay. Don't be a nerd. She winces a little.

"I guess it's a lot easier, in the future. With all the modern technology." she says quietly. "I guess going off into the unknown in your time would have been a whole lot scarier, right?"

No wonder he would have drank.

[goingtobeunwell]

Crozier can't help it -- he barks out a surprised, absolutely delighted little chuckle. "McMurdo, you said? No."

He runs his hand across his chin in thought, still smiling and shaking his head in disbelief.

"Ross named the sound there after Archibald McMurdo, one of my lieutenants, and now you're telling me there's a station that bears his name now. People live in the place we discovered."

It's one of the more fantastic things he's heard yet since coming to this place.

[castitas]

"Yeah, for real." The laugh surprises her, her face lighting up with that surprise. But it's... a nice surprise.

It's... weird, you kind of forget about the people places are named after. Although to be fair, it's not as if you're going to meet anyone from said time of the naming of place.

"Yeah, like I think people live there all year round?" she explains. "Antarctica's pretty special. It's like— basically a neutral place of sorts? Sort of. But... scientists work there from all over the world. Biology, glaciology, geology... a whole bunch of natural sciences — studying the climate and stuff. It's really cool."

[goingtobeunwell]

Crozier absolutely adores this idea the moment Kate begins to explain. A place just for the gathering of scientists, no country tie or status necessary, just a mind to study the wonders of Antarctica.

They're continuing what he and James Clark Ross started.

He knows himself. Later, when he's alone, he'll think back on this and quietly weep, a show of quiet joy and profound sadness at the thought of their work truly meaning something so far into the future. Perhaps they were forgotten, but not their discoveries. It's a marvel.

"What I wouldn't give to see it for myself."

[castitas]

Kate smiles. "It sucks there's no internet, I could at least show you that way."

It's not the same as seeing it for yourself, she knows. But he'd still be able to see a whole lot, read about what they all do there.

"... maybe there's, like, a... National Geographic?" Kicking it old school with paper stuff. "It's a magazine. Or something close to that. There's gotta be something in a physical copy here somewhere that might have photographs and stuff in it. That way you could see it yourself, in a way. I could keep an eye out for something like that for you."

Totally a mission in life: Find Mr Crozier Antarctica stuff. She'll have to ask Rorschach if he might have anything like that in the library.

[goingtobeunwell]

What the hell is internet?

But a magazine he knows, and he responds to the offer with a very gentle nod of gratitude. "If you would, I'd be grateful."

Besides, something like that would be interesting reading for an old semi-academic as himself. He can't even fathom the things he's missed between his era and hers! Electricity and hot water on demand is something he can wrap his head around, but all else? The old, broken vehicles and these communication systems people keep referencing are entirely too foreign for his mind.

"You've taught me something today, Miss March. It's not something I take lightly."