Date: 30 Nov 2019 20:02 Title: The Wastelands
Two passages that I think are really compelling upon reading:
"In a way, he was glad that Nance was physically confined to a box; he had a feeling that if she wasn't, she would be on the front lines trying to save people, individually or by town, and would get herself killed or captured in the process."
The reveal that I like here is that we get a sense that Arnie is an excellent judge of people and situations even if he admits to not being the most social of people. I can see this as being a mix of subconscious survival skills and conscious covert opts skills.
This pays off later in the chapter when we get the sense of how much Arnie is consciously aware of his quirks. I love that there's a reveal of self-awareness, even if it might not be fully self-aware. That leads me to wonder: how much did Logan or Enrico observe about Arnie's quirks, if both of them drove home the same themes? Or was that just general advice?
"...but most of it was antibiotics and other medications it was hard to get anywhere, even in Canada, though thanks to Forrester they were able to. If not always reliably."
I missed this during beta, but this is actually really complicated in the context of medical ethics and probably grounds for future in-universe discussion. The short version is that, in the real world, uncertain distribution of medication is often socially moral but can be considered medically unethical. This is a deep cut and admittedly informed by professional experience. For me, the mention here reflects how dire and oppressive the situation truly is if Forrester allows the uneven shipment of medication to happen.
It also addresses something that's overlooked in post-apocalyptic fiction: what about the medication distribution supply? If the world ends, how do people get maintenance medications?
Author's Response: Re: Arnie being a pretty solid judge of character/situation, I think the covert ops skills almost mitigate the survival skills. Not mitigate. But temper? Because in canon, he's constantly on edge and paranoid about other people, their motivations, their intentions. Now, all these years later, he has some slightly better filters to look through; he tends to assume good faith more, even if he's not in a hurry to make friends. LOL!
And yeah, he's not too bad at self-awareness, all given. He still likes to live in denial, but at least part of the time, he's actually aware he's in denial. XD Re: Logan and Enrico; I think Logan -- who was a good teacher -- probably read him a whole lot easier than Arnie would be comfortable with. So, giving this neurotic, anxiety-prone guy some tools for all that anxiety would have been job one; getting methodical about situations where you have time to reason is one of those tools. And Enrico was dealing with a guy who was on the run emotionally and literally, and probably was able to recognize that much? So, had the same advice.
The situation really is dire. I'm sure Johnathan would rather be able to do things on the up-and-up, regularly, but things are so lean and controlled by a conservative government that even what he manages to do is pretty extraordinary and at no small personal risk. But I love how your background informs your view on it, and I'd love to figure out what that in-universe discussion would entail. XD As to how do people get their maintenance meds? Many don't. And many die. Thanks for the really hella awesome comment!
Date: 30 Nov 2019 13:09 Title: The Wastelands
A lot of exposition which is not a bad thing to continue on the great world-building in this piece.
Things are truly dire in this reality, presumably they weren't a great deal better in the Prime Universe after WWIII. Green,after all, was there too.
The one silver-lining here is that, although this is the MU, I believe, eventually the Terran Empire will be a better place for ... well Terrans. Not so much for anyone who isn't.
Author's Response: Oh, I know it. It's definitely not my most polished work, but yeah, a lot of it's because this is the first time I've written in this era and had to do some scene-setting. Things are dire! And they get worse! But-- it's not all darkness, either.
And no, Green was pretty awful in either timeline. And the Terran Empire does get better to terrans, yes. Maybe not rebels, though. Thanks so much for the comment!
Date: 16 Nov 2019 23:13 Title: The Wastelands
Intriguing characters. And thanks for resurrecting coulamine and Crossman Pharma. The co-heiress (she has a twin sister) to the Crossman Pharma fortune during the ENT time period is the sweet, pretty, and sometimes a bit dim Jenny Crossman, Lili's roommate and eventual friend. I like the idea of that sort of contrast, where the predecessors might as well be from another planet -- much like our own ancestors probably were during the Dark Ages.
Thank you for bringing back the Second Dark Ages and their downbeat vibe where everything feels itchy and gray and strange and wrong.
Author's Response: I love how scrappy they are, honestly. XD And yes, I have some plans for that down the road, though nothing to the level you've done with it. And oh, that's a neat bit of lore there; it's always fascinating the difference a few generations make. I'm definitely enjoying drawing this out. The weight of the inevitable, but also the bright little sparks of humanity and hope.