What happened to this world?<br/><br/>Seriously... what had happened. I've been banging on above about such things but my God, come on. Let's pick out one... just one... little aspect of what I was talking about. Manners. The basis for all things, the starting point for all civilisation, a thing that should have been engrained in all people from birth. There was no excuse to not have manners, no excuse to not have common decency. People born to a proper family understood that and it was moments like this that any doubts Christopher had on his world view... that people with breeding were the only ones worthy of leading it... were pushed aside. Manners and courtesy were simple things, simple things that made the world go round. Or not so simple seemingly.<br/><br/>First Viktor, the new psychologist, took umbrage at being asked who he studied under. This was bizarre to Christopher; saying who he studied under was both a matter of pride to him (Prof Oliver Braddick, while working closely with Dr Robin Murphy if you were wondering) but it was also a matter of professional courtesy. While students often did depart from the exact letter of their teacher's methods and idea it gave a rough idea of where they started from... and aspects such as methodology often carried through. Letting someone know who they studied with or under was a good way to let people know roughly what your basic principles were and from there specifics could be drawn out rather than having to start at a blank. Basic professional courtesy.<br/><br/>Talking of professional courtesy...<br/><br/>Christopher had been standing outside Alex's door for a while now. Enough time for the Chuckle Brother's to arrive with their cargo, have a quick conversation and then depart and still there was no indication that the door would be opened. It was only when another nurse arrived and knocked on the door that there was any indication that there was even life occurring within. Three separate people coming up and knocking and it was only third time lucky that there was a response. Simple professional courtesy, alas so lacking in his new companions... although a slight sniff in the air suggested why Alex was so distracted. But each new opportunity had its challenges... from the bombed out ruins where he had been forced to work in Yugoslavia to the biting desert heat of the Middle East... this was just another challenge Dr Christopher Lascelles took with good grace and virtue. Not that he would necessarily wait around regardless. No, he did have duties to attend to and as engaging as simply standing outside a doorway was it didn't particularly help them.<br/><br/>Not that the journey... and the return trip as he made his way through the facility back to his office... was entirely wasted. The patient... Mark Kinney, easily identifiable from the file... had decided that badly quoting Juvenal wasn't enough for him but apparently had decided to throw Voltaire in there as well. Well, not actually quote Voltaire but instead badly mangle a Voltaire quote, but then again Voltaire was probably the most abused of all philosophers with entirely made up quotes regularly attributed to him. The actual quote, as anyone with any learning would tell you is<em>"Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste"</em>although Christopher did of course note that Mr Kinney hadn't attempted to say it in the native French, instead doubling the injustice he heaped on Volatire by both getting the quote wrong... the English translation of course being "<em>Truly, whoever is able to make you absurd is able to make you unjust.</em>" and being part of a much longer section from Questions sur les miracles dated to 1765... but also by not utilising it in French where the phonetics expand on the very point itself.<br/><br/>But that wasn't the most interesting point. No, no, no, the lummox who had brought the man to him and delivered him to Alex's door had delivered that. First he had referred to Alex as the Mistress of this place. Now, Christopher of course knew Alex's sexual proclivities... it was hard not to in an environment such as this but he had never heard the head of an asylum referred to as the Mistress of a place. It appears that news of Alex's tastes were spreading. Not that it bothered Christopher particularly... he'd worked with people with all manners of kinks and fetishes in his time but in today's world where people didn't know to simply let their betters get on with things a loose word by a man such as the porter would bring a whole host of investigations and hysterical screaming about "rights" and "exploitation". In turn that didn't bother Christopher... but it would lead to a slow down in his work... and that he did mind. Not that all the information coming out was correct... at least, as he assumed. The porter had refered to her as "Mrs Alex." However odd it was to use the title "Mrs" and not then refer to her second name... Roland... it was even more strange to refer to her as "Mrs" in the first place... as far as Christopher knew there was no "Mr Roland" around. Maybe there was, kept in a broom closet somewhere and brought out from time to time but Christopher somewhat doubted it.<br/><br/>Regardless back he was in his office, waiting till he was next needed.