dr. cal mer-jonesly . d6 . fin

TW:
(mentions of the following, but not in explicit detail)
medical malpractice
human testing/experimentation
animal testing/experimentation
human torture
mistreatment of prisoners/criminals
drugs
gangs

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Jaylen, Owen, Richard and Matthew are my four sons, and they work their asses off to help me with what I need when they are asked to do so. Jaylen is the youngest at twelve, and Matthew is the oldest at sixteen. They're all hard-working and dedicated, and I feel they'll go far in this world if they keep at it. Matthew is set to inherit the institute when I eventually and inevitably die in the future, as long as he promises to keep his brothers employed at the institute and makes sure they're well-off without me.

Now, of course, I don't plan on dying anytime soon, as long as I can help it. There is always a risk, however. That's just how life is. That, and with how dangerous some of my work is, anything could really end up happening. Disaster could strike at any time. I just do my best not to think about that too much.

As a doctor at a scientific institute, one might wonder how my job could possible be considered so dangerous as to be life-threatening. I don't explain that to people, though. Aside from my family and those that I work with, no one really gets to know what I do for a living. My family doesn't even know the fullest extent of it, aside from Matthew. The only reason Matthew knows if because he's often working right alongside me, but he's sworn to secrecy.

It's a government job, in a way. We craft and test all sorts of things for the Capitol. There is the tamer side of things that involves making and experimenting with new drugs to eventually put out to the general public or ship off to the Capitol for other uses. There is also, however, the part of our work that involves other sorts of testing and experimenting. Whether that be trying different ways to mutate animals and people for the capitol to use as muttations in future Hunger Games, or testing out new, high-tech weaponry on both living and non-living individuals to see its effects.

In most cases, our human test subjects are life-sentence prisoners who have volunteered to be experimented on rather than live out the rest of their existence in prison. In other situations, which is certainly our less-humane way of doing things, we will use our experimentation as a form of punishment for criminals instead of avoxing them, whipping them, executing them or arresting them. We try to save that for those we feel deserve more intense punishment, though.

The only exception to using wrong-doers for our human experimentation and testing-based projects are using terminally ill patients who volunteer for such practices. Those who are at the end of their lives will often be asked if they would like to volunteer for the use of experimental medications on them to try to save their lives, which we try our damndest to do if they agree. We're not completely cruel, inhumane people at the Mer-Jonesly Institute. A lot of what we do with medication is meant to help the people, and that's the part the public knows about us.

From what the public knows of our institute, we are an organization that is working to perfect medications in aspects of safety and effectiveness before they're released to the general public. We have a good image in Panem. People don't know everything that goes on in the depths of the institute, and they don't need to know everything. They shouldn't know everything. We keep what we have to keep hidden from the public eye. What the people can know without the risk of them trying to rise against us is what they are allowed to see.

Growing up, I was always an extremely smart kid, and I was noticed by important people because of it. I got a full-ride scholarship to the college in District Six, and was at the very top of all of my classes that I took there. When I graduated with my PhD, I was picked out by someone in Panem's government. They wanted my intellect and scientific skills to help them out. They would cover the cost for me to open my own institute if I ran it the way they wanted me to. I could even hand it over to my eldest child when I died if I did everything the way they wanted me to. So, of course, I agreed.

The institute was almost immediately successful, with only a moderately rocky start. We began to pick up recognition in a positive way once we started approving new, extremely helpful medications to assist the public with pains and illnesses. District Six praised us, as they still do to this day. That's why we've kept control over what the public knows and sees.

My wife and I met at the college here in Six while we were in a biology class together. We fell in love in our second year there, and we became inseparable. She and I got married and had children together while I was still going for my PhD, her having graduated with a degree in pharmacy. How much more fitting could that be, with what I went on to do? I approve the medications, and she's the one who those throughout Six will get them from.

We live in a rather nice, sizeable home in the wealthier part of District Six. Having grown up in the outskirts of Six in an area full of gangs and trouble, it's quite nice to be living a life that's so different from that. It's like an upgrade of sorts, as a reward for all of my hard work over the years. My wife, Reabella, grew up in a more middle-class family with her two brothers and her two fathers. While the money and lifestyle is a bit of a change for her, she's still in a home of all boys, as she was used to when she was growing up. That part was nothing new to her.

I, on the other hand, grew up with my mother, my father, my younger sister Aralee and my older sibling Ace. We were an extremely close-knit family for years, but my father was disconnected and pushed away from the family after he had an affair when I was in college at twenty years old. Aralee sided with him, while Ace and I sided with our mother. My mother passed away two years ago, though, so now the only family I really have left that I still speak to and am close with is my older sibling Ace.

Ace and I were always so close as kids. We would play games together, and they would teach me all the ins and outs of life whenever they could. I suppose Ace is where I got any street smarts I have from. I'd always just been book smart. I never would've survived my walks to school through out gang-ridden neighborhood if it weren't for Ace.

Some days, I do feel guilty about what I do for work. Don't get me wrong, I have a conscience. Although, I believe the reason I have that conscience is also because of Ace. They taught me a lot of right vs wrong. Sometimes I wish I just listened to them more. I can't back out of this job now, though. I'm stuck with it, even if it weighs me down with guilt from time to time.

I wish I could tell Ace what I do every day: that I could confess to them all the wrong I've done. I can't, though. So, I'll just have to live out my days with no one but Matthew to confide in. I suppose that's alright, but he'll never really understand everything that I'm going through, because he doesn't know everything I've been through.

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