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Notes on the Grippe

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Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Nine

The grippe is neither the first nor the last of the dread lords to walk the earth; they are as many and various as people themselves. Some, like the grippe, are insidious, assuming many guises, while others are bold conquerors, heralding their awful intentions with calamitous thunder. Their only commonality, beyond their terrible power, is that they are nameless and inchoate. And so we name them, because in doing so they become mortal things, something we can grasp and hold and fight against and perhaps ultimately vanquish.

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Notes on the Grippe

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Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Eight

The dawn comes without a sunrise, the sky overcast and the day promising to be gloomy. The weather seems the only way to measure the passing of days now that the cacophony of activities that we used to fill them with are gone. I understand, as I didn’t before, why those religious sects had prayers to mark the hours of every day. It is necessary to fill them with something other than drudgery and why not holiness.

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Notes on the Grippe

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Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Seven

Outside it is dark. Clouds blot out the stars and only the lights from distant windows provides any illumination on what transpires there. Snow is falling again, as it has been off and on throughout the night. The flakes are heavy and wet, descending almost like raindrops. The ground remains bare for now, still holding the warmth of the day close to it.

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Notes on the Grippe

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Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Six

Geese have begun to return to the Lost Quarter in the last days on their long journeys north. Their magnificent flocks in flight, like an arrow pointing the way forward, contrasts markedly with their abrasive honks. Some will stay in these parts, for the rivers and sloughs are open now, while others will continue to the northern ends of the Quarter, where winter still clings, though not for long.

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Notes on the Grippe

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Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Five

Thoughts of the last time the grippe came to these parts fills my mind more and more these days. The order of things truly fell apart, for the dread lord cost so many lives before he could be vanquished. Now we are told we are better prepared, that we understand more the nature of his fearsome magic and have measures to counter them. Quarantine of course is an ancient practice, long proven effective, but the scale on which we will endeavour it now is beyond the imagining of our ancestors.

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Notes on the Grippe

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Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Four

I awoke exhausted for no reason I can discern. I slept well and deeply. The sun is out and bright in the sky after two days of snow and dreariness. I can hear birds chirping in the trees, a wonderful salve.

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Notes on the Grippe

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Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Three

Given we all have time on our hands at the moment, perhaps you will allow me the small indulgence of conducting a brief tour of the Lost Quarter. So few of you have ventured to that lonely corner of the world, for when would you have had the occasion? For one, it has none of the multitudinous blessings of the modern world you can find in the great metropolises of this planet. It is also extraordinarily challenging to find your way there, and then back again, without the aid of those who know the ways. I would never have left without the aid of my dear companion Herm, who I chanced to meet at the Crossroads of Dorothea. But that is a story for another time.

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Notes on the Grippe

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Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Two

The dread is omnipresent; I no longer even notice it. But it is nothing like I imagined it would be. It doesn’t occupy my thoughts in any substantial way. Rather it is just there, mostly beneath the placid surface of our current hermitic existence, not even noticed except when I force myself to acknowledge it.

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Notes on the Grippe

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Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day One

The grippe has returned to the solitary plains of the Lost Quarter, as it has in so many other domains. It wears new clothes and, like the dread lords of the old stories, has returned with new and terrible powers. Contrary to those tales, we will not be saved by joining together and making common cause to battle. Our shared cause must be to stand apart.

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