“We’re going downstairs—to the study of Doctor Sex!” [1]
Doctor Donald Sex is an acclaimed Sixth House researcher who died some 460 years before the events of Gideon the Ninth. Renowned for his work in Post-Resurrection Psychometry, Doctor Sex has reached "mythological status" in certain research quarters.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Donald Sex's final research project was focused on Post-Resurrection thalergy fluctuations and "his crackpot theory that there was greater thalergy and thanergy saturation right after the Resurrection"[1] To the dismay of the archaeology department, this involved grinding up a large variety of valuable objects.
At the end of his life, Donald had a fall that would prove fatal. He made clear his desire to be moved back to his study but passed before anything could be done. His study had slipcovers placed on the furniture, was properly documented, and then sealed. It was not opened again until Archivist Zeta and her collections team received permission to examine his study.
On his death, Doctor Sex was hallowed in the Copper Gardens aside a plinth with a letter of condolence from The Emperor. It was even suggested that he should be moved to the Mithraeum to be interred at the House of the Emperor himself. Over two centuries after his death, an ambassador from Fifth House was allowed to attempt to speak to the ghost of Doctor Sex as part of his research but was thought to be unsuccessful.
The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex[]
Throughout Palamedes and Camilla's investigation of the study of Doctor Sex, it is revealed that the Fifth House ambassador was more successful in summoning the spirit of Donald than previously thought. Doctor Sex made himself into a revenant and transferred his energy source into a cleaning servitor skeleton construct. Using the body of the construct, Doctor Sex made his way through the maintenance vents back to his office, broke off the skeleton's hands, and nearly solved a wooden puzzle box up that he collected as part of his final project.
Appearance and Personality[]
“That’s been nagging at me. If he was that intense, why did he stop at the last leg? Why not open the box all the way?”
"[...] He preferred to defer the satisfaction of solving the puzzle fully so that someone in the future could benefit from his final deduction.” [1]
Like many in Sixth House, Doctor Sex appears to be a thorough and successful researcher dedicated to his work. The closeness as which he kept his keys and passcodes suggest he was a private and secretive person, although this is not necessarily innate as Sixth House researchers are fiercely competitive.