Storyline warnings (not really spoilery, all things considered): pandemic-inspired content, vampires being vampires, graphic descriptions of murder.
Scenes from the Novel Brumavirus outbreak of S.E. 1364-1365 . . .
Montmere:
Calyx: Uncle Kudzu? Can I make a will, in case the new virus gets past the int’national quarantines and kills me?
Rocky Rapids:
Customer: Can’t you charge extra for hazard pay?
Manager Ingrid: No. You agree to keep the mask on, or you don’t rent our servants at all.
Hatchetbury:
Chartreuse’s grandmother: I got this all-natural oil that boosts your immune system! Let me send you a bottle.
Up in the mountains:
Chartreuse: I’ll just wait for the vaccine, Grandma. Now I have to get to work.
Comment Header
21 Comments
Wow! Every single panel of this is upsetting for completely different reasons!
I don’t really see anything upsetting about panel 3?
If Chartreuse’s grandmother thinks that oil will protect her, she (and others like her) may well not be doing enough to actually protect herself.
I choose to believe that the oil actually DOES help and Chartreuse’s grandma is ALSO following other novel Brumavirus best practices, but she is charmingly unaware of the county lockdowns meaning it’ll be well past The Day of Spring by the time anything she ships NOW will reach Hammer Falls.
At least, until we learn the virus has killed Chartreuse’s grandmother, further pushing Chartreuse into dispair as the viewpoint character for Leif and Thorn‘s Brumavirus triptych
and triggering the conversion of her soul gem into a grief seed.Pssst, I haven’t written that crossover yet, give me a few more months!
“All-natural” is a phrase used in advertising because it sounds healthy but could mean anything (arsenic and viruses are all-natural too). And, at least in the US, “boosts your immune system” is a specific arrangement of medical-sounding words that you’re allowed to use without being legally required to prove it.
All baryonic matter is natural. Crude oil is formed from dead zooplankton and algae, so it’s also completely organic.
Some of the things my father has sent to “boost my immune system” are helpful, except for the fact that what they do is not in any way boosting the immune system. These are mostly vitamins, of which I already had a decent supply from companies I trust more.
Most of the crap’s just bad. There are a great many things that kill COVID dead that do the same for people, but most of this stuff is just snake oil. (To be clear, not from actual snakes, unless you’re referring to the people who concoct this stuff and sell it with the advertising they make for it. But if you’re referring to them as snakes, I’d ask you to please stop insulting actual serpents like that. Also, not always oil, either.)
Yeah, I also immediately jumped to antivaxxers, particularly since a vaccine is mentioned in the next panel. But talking about natural remedies in a pandemic is never a great sign in a pandemic. There’s also a large chance they think that since they have SUCH a good immune system quarantining isn’t necessary…
Vitamin D and zinc are useful (I’ve found actual studies backing them) but a mask and social distancing is better!) Vitamin D in particular isn’t a bad idea since most people are low in it but I’d rather prevent it than rely on my immune system alone.
Every writer needs a special talent, this just happens to be mine…
:/
(I’m just kidding I love it)
Without characters facing the same upsetting situations I see in real life this wouldn’t be my emotional support fiction. Well done, Erin.
Ah yes, I gotta keep the mask on, but it’s fine if I get all the other fluids all over your employee 🙂
You mean it as joke, but it’s actually true. Respiratory viruses can ONLY attack respiratory system (well, they could attack blood too, but I think that’s not allowed either). Those other fluids are going to contain much lower amount of the brumavirus AND if he washes them before he gets them in nose, eyes or mouth it will be completely fine.
Erin- timeline refresher. This is 15 years before the showdown with rogue Dex, Kale, and Thorn in the garden, while (almost) everyone else watches Kulpovision?
As per the timeline on Crystalpedia: Brumavirus outbreak is RE 3004 and the comic starts RE 3012, so it’s about 8 years before the start of the comic in RE 3012. The confrontation with Dex happens more than one year but less than 2 years after the comic starts [Summer RE 3013].
As per the timeline on Crystalpedia: Brumavirus outbreak is RE 3004, and the comic starts RE 3012(SE 1372), so it’s about 8 years before the start of the comic, and 9 years before the confrontation with Dex.
Thanks!
Talking about the timeline, in some lines the Era of the Sun calendar seems to be off by a decade?
RE 3004 (SE 1364-5) brumavirus
! RE 3006 (SE 1376) ! Olive Romarin elected
! RE 3008 (SE 1378) ! confront the Wyrm of Ruaidh
! RE 3009 (SE 1379) ! Kudzu gets all murder-y
RE 3011 (SE 1371) mountain observatory
Fixed, thanks!
Comment Footer