- Location
- United Kingdom
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The pre-war Government of Louisiana was successfully evacuated to California, and did not return to Lafayette-Baton Rouge until after reconnection.
I'm a little surprised that the junta was bothering to evacuate state governments rather than abandoning them in place, but I could see it.The pre-war Government of Louisiana was successfully evacuated to California, and did not return to Lafayette-Baton Rouge until after reconnection.
I'm a little surprised that the junta was bothering to evacuate state governments rather than abandoning them in place, but I could see it.
My honest impression is that Ahnuld was a relatively classy governor (about as good as one could plausibly hope for in a Republican) and he's been refreshingly opposed to actual fascist tendencies in the (R) party as those tendencies have risen up in the years since. His public persona as a political figure has long revolved around blunt sincerity and keeping things practical and focused on basics; I think that to a large extent he is actually non-ideological about material public policy considerations, as opposed to just having a strong ideology that refuses to admit that it is one. I could be wrong, but there it is.Just piping up to say that while the exact timeline of WWZ is fluid the most likely person to be Governor of California having the various evacuated state governments in exile crash on his couch is...Arnold Schwarzenegger, yes, THAT Arnold Schwarzenegger.
My honest impression is that Ahnuld was a relatively classy governor (about as good as one could plausibly hope for in a Republican) and he's been refreshingly opposed to actual fascist tendencies in the (R) party as those tendencies have risen up in the years since. His public persona as a political figure has long revolved around blunt sincerity and keeping things practical and focused on basics; I think that to a large extent he is actually non-ideological about material public policy considerations, as opposed to just having a strong ideology that refuses to admit that it is one. I could be wrong, but there it is.
I kind of doubt that Schwarzenegger would fare well in this timeline, because of that combination.
EDIT:
Actually, Ahnuld stepped down as governor in 2011, which I think is before the zombie apocalypse really hit in this timeline?
IC: It really is fascinating. "Mets Fan" directs Christina to a rescue that Christina herself could not possibly have known was arriving, or where, or when. Even if you just assume the voice is her subconscious still making logical connections like going to an elevated highway after looking at a map, the fact that you add an helicopter that just happened to be in the area and see her is just way too many coincidences stacked up one after the other.
I'd like to point out she should still be stuck in Zeus after he ate her. Unless Zeus was letting her talk, or maybe Zeus decided to answer for her in a female voice? ... You know, The Junta being backed with Zeus, patron saint of cultural differences between Ancient Greek Times and our times would make a bit of sense. Though the people who don't know their mythology would start blaming Hades for the apocalypse, which then leads to the point where I start hitting people in the knees with a wooden broom handle.
Mets Fan" is a weird choice for a name, until you focus on the "Mets for short" part: "Mets" sounds an awful lot like Metis, mother of the goddess Athena and goddess of wisdom and deep thought. And "Eliopolis" sounds like a name of Greek origin...
I think most of the FedGov (and likely followed by the state govs in exile) removed themselves to Honolulu instead of Sacramento. So I guess whoever was the governor of Hawaii at the time would have them crashing on their couch.Just piping up to say that while the exact timeline of WWZ is fluid the most likely person to be Governor of California having the various evacuated state governments in exile crash on his couch is...Arnold Schwarzenegger, yes, THAT Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The parts of the interview Mortal skipped over at the end mentions the pilot's mom grew up in the Bronx and was a Yankees fan. Also that the shrinks debriefing her brought up the Metis connection as well."Mets Fan" is a weird choice for a name, until you focus on the "Mets for short" part: "Mets" sounds an awful lot like Metis, mother of the goddess Athena and goddess of wisdom and deep thought. And "Eliopolis" sounds like a name of Greek origin...
Or one can be boring and say she imagined talking to the angel Metatron hence the "Mets".
Dead Space.It once again makes me wonder what a book with a better approach to worldbuilding and storytelling (...and a better understanding politics and military affairs) would look like.
IIRC, the zombie survival guide said that the Solanum virus was weird enough to be suspect. So like yeah the zambinos are created from a virus, but the virus itself is a mystery to the point of potentially being eldritch.OOC: If Brook really wanted to stick with the idea that Zombies a)had no supernatural or alien cause and b)have actually existed throughout history, he really should have gone with a different sort of Zombie. Rigid adherence to slow, shambling zombies that operate in complete contradiction to our understanding of biology kinda hampers the book in my opinion. I understand he wanted to have the book be pretty grounded in reality (well, his understanding of reality, at least), but when you're starting with the conceit that "Zombies exist" I think you have room to introduce some more supernatural elements. Even if it's literally just having people say "yeah, we have no idea how these Zombies exist, it's a mystery". It once again makes me wonder what a book with a better approach to worldbuilding and storytelling (...and a better understanding politics and military affairs) would look like.
IIRC, the zombie survival guide said that the Solanum virus was weird enough to be suspect. So like yeah the zambinos are created from a virus, but the virus itself is a mystery to the point of potentially being eldritch.
But I haven't read that book in well over a decade, so I could be wrong.
Some of the coincidences resolve quite easily. The helicopter did not happen to be in the area at random, it's regular flight route followed the highway. As long as she stayed on that highway, a heli would have passed by sooner or later.IC: It really is fascinating. "Mets Fan" directs Christina to a rescue that Christina herself could not possibly have known was arriving, or where, or when. Even if you just assume the voice is her subconscious still making logical connections like going to an elevated highway after looking at a map, the fact that you add an helicopter that just happened to be in the area and see her is just way too many coincidences stacked up one after the other.
I happen to have a copy of the Survival Guide as well, and looking through it (not exactly a close reading, so I could've missed something), while the origin of the virus is unknown, there isn't any speculation of a non-natural origin. It seems to assume that more research is needed and that there will eventually be an answer in line with our scientific understanding. Not to say that there isn't room to speculate about WWZ zombies having a supernatural origin, but I think it's safe to assume that Brooks intends them to have a "natural" origin.
Something interesting to me though is the fact that he notes that almost all micro-organisms avoid infected bodies. Given that the guide also asserts that there are records of outbreaks dating as far back as 60,000 BC, the fact that there aren't entire swaths of microorganisms evolved to deal with zombies is an...interesting take. Not to mention that he is trying to assert a version of history where zombies have existed for basically all of human history AND still have it so that the whole world was taken by surprise by the outbreak. Like, honestly given the worldbuilding here there should have probably been some major global outbreaks waaaaay earlier in the timeline. Not necessarily WWZ levels but like, there really isn't a good reason for there not to be smaller "zombie wars" sporadically throughout history.
Oh, also, one of his examples of a "historical outbreak" is, of course, Roanoke. Writers stop treating Roanoke as some great unsolved mystery with supernatural causes challenge 2023.
Edit: small grammatical fixes
The historical bits of the Survival Guide aren't canon to this Let's Read, but my interpretation is that many cultures were aware of zombies and had traditional memories of how to combat them, and that these traditions were all wiped out by colonialism and modernism. There are a lot of incidents that go "some colonizing asshole is warned by the natives not to fuck with zombies, he fucks with zombies, he dies". Europe's ignorance is attributed to some bad pop history about the Dark Ages and the loss of knowledge, but I could easily massage that into cultural memories being disrupted by industrialization.
It's also pointed out that zombie outbreaks have been happening with increased frequency due to globalization, in the premodern era outbreaks would have been fairly sporadic and spaced out over time and distance.
Or you go write some actual alternate history unlike Brooks half assing it and replace The Spanish Flu with a Zombie Apocalypse in a world weary of War after World War I.Outbreaks that'd be harder to ignore/forget and that would've had some sort of impact on history.
Well, I think he'd be fairly likely to keep his mouth shut and his head down and basically retire quietly, with the question being whether the junta would let him. Being an ex-governor is a good time to take a bow and leave the stage of high politics entirely, and the junta plays for keeps so you don't cross them if you don't have a strong motivation to try.I don't think his centrism would be especially immune to the junta's "pragmatic" answer to elections. He's still an American politician.
Shit, I ripped the idea of My Guy straight from the Fallout series.I've no confidence to try and add anything myself but you lot have made this one really fun thread to explore.
Even in the zombie apocalypse, one can't escape antisemitism, it seems."Oh, this is blood libel. This is just rebranded blood libel."