Status Updates From Our Hideous Progeny

"I could think of nothing I wanted more in that moment than to be cold, to be alone, to have the reason for all my life's miseries laid out before me, a killable thing."

"Do you remember what it was like to have teeth that rent and tore?
I shall give them back to you."

I suppose that is why it often makes me sad to read about history, or even natural history, as you do; I cannot help but think of everyone whose tale cannot fit in one book, those poor creatures who remain lost or forgotten. Do you think that one day, some Mary of the future will sketch our bones and wonder what we might have been in life?

And I suppose, in fairness, there must have been something of the gambler in me too. For despite how much I longed to think myself a sensible and rational soul, I had sat and penned that letter, wagering all I had left on the chance that he would agree to my proposal. Perhaps I meant to drown after all, I remember thinking, worrying at my lip until I tasted blood. But if I do, at least it'll have been by my own hand.

"I did not truly know her, he had said; I did not know the extent to which she would go to garner attention and sympathy. But even if that were true, I did not think it a crime to wish for sympathy."

Of course it mattered; perhaps the knowledge would not help build bridges or make new medicines, but that's not all science was about. Science was the truth, about knowing what was possible and what was not; it was about the fervour I had felt looking upon the beached whale, or the fossil tooth in Catherine's palm. I had spent my whole life since in service to that same longing: the ravenous beast that was curiosity.