#opened his own school in 1819 and got way more students than cooper lmao

[aleximedicusa]

ok lewis meeting his teacher under the cut

Almost immediately, I was struck by the stench of the place. I have always considered myself strong-stomached, but even I nearly gagged. I was familiar enough with the smell of decay in general, having come across my fair share of dead animals in my time, but there was a sharpness to this stench that was entirely foreign. The closer I drew to the main room of the school, the worse it got, until I was obliged to press my hand over my nose and mouth to keep down the rise of bile. I took a moment to compose myself, then entered. 

I ought to have been prepared for the sight that greeted me, but I was not. Off to the side was a young, modestly-dressed gentleman arranging his tools, but I scarcely noticed him; my attention, instead, was drawn by the corpse laid bare on the table at the theatre’s centre. She — for it was, to my shock and embarrassment, a woman — was entirely nude, with the cavity of her torso split open to reveal the ribcage and the organs it protected. She did not show many visible signs of decay, but judging by the unbearable stench emanating from her, she was less than freshly dead. The viscera was shockingly, disgustingly red, and although the aspiring man of science in me wished to compare the sight to the diagrams I had studied, animal instinct urged me to put as much distance between myself and the fetid thing as possible. The sight was nearly enough to send me right back out the door that I had just entered, but by some monumental force of will, I remained. 

Evidently, my entrance had drawn the attention of the man arranging his tools, for he turned and set his eyes on me not long after I had stepped past the threshold. My shock and disgust must have shown on my face, for he smiled in a knowing sort of way, wiped his hands on his stained apron, and drew up the sheet on the table to cover the woman’s body from view. It did very little to dampen the smell, but I was privately relieved that her organs were now out of view. Tension that I never realised I was holding bled out of my shoulders. 

With the body taken care of, the man approached. As he drew nearer, I realised that he was not just young, but shockingly so; the gentleman could not have been much more than five years my senior, if that. I had not expected a man as old as Cooper, but I had expected one at least past his thirtieth year. Before I could speculate much upon his age and circumstances, however, he held out a hand to me, and I, doing my best not to notice the blood under the fingernails, shook it firmly. Smiling again, he asked, “A prospective student, I take it?”

“I— yes. Yes, indeed.” My voice, at least, came out steadier than I feared it might. Withdrawing my hand from his, I laced my fingers nervously in front of myself. “I have just come from Guy’s. A dresser was kind enough to recommend your school.”

At the mention of Guy’s, his face hardened slightly. With a faint grimace, he undid the ties of his apron and lifted it over his head, then stepped aside to hang it on a nearby hook. “Not a favourable impression of the honourable Cooper, then.” He did not phrase it as a question. 

“No.” Knowing what little I did of the animosity between them, I saw no reason for pretence. “Nor do I think he formed a favourable impression of me. Not inclined to play mentor to a backwater Welshman.” I nearly remarked that it was rather rich of him, as a student of a backwater Scotsman, but I held my tongue on that score. 

With a faint air of amusement, Grainger turned back to me again and replied, “It is to your good fortune that you have come here, in that case. I have no quarrel with Welshman, backwater or otherwise. You shall be judged here by skill and merit alone.”