#but I also know some people prefer to imagine ROs however they want so idk lol

[burning-academia-if]

Finally figured out how to add in an Open Dyslexic font option to the game!

[emersonfreepress]

What would the ro's be like in a zombie au?

whyyyyy anon whyyy. I'm actually gonna write this in like.. slightly different terms, you'll see. any time I even briefly think of a zombie au I'm just like

I WANNA WRITE IT SO BADDD

i don't even allow myself to entertain it for very long because getting into that would be the worst thing ever for my productivity with the alpha omg 😂😂 so I'll put like the ideas that pop into my head for writing a zombie au, to work some of that creative frustration out 😆

so in this very general, absolutely noncommittal idea of mine, the main cast are older and the setting is in and around a civilian settlement led by the Emersons.

and as a refresher, i like my zombie aus to have fast zombies and fast infections ^ ^ 28 Days Later/Train to Busan style babyyyy, we the Sprinting Dead up in this bitch 😆

= = =

Gabe is, predictably, looking for what's left of his family. Following rumors of safe havens and bunkers and such. Starts the story as someone who tries to be diplomatic, if not outright pacifist, but as times get tougher and resources dwindle, he'd become one of the most cutthroat motherfuckers in the wasteland. Low-key though, low-key. People won't trust you if they know you’re capable of throwing them to a horde for strategic reasons. Like if Rick turned into Shane (for those of us familiar with early Walking Dead--idk did that happen eventually? i gave up before we even met Negan lol). The end justifies the means :) Damn, I can legit see Gabe going full evil in a zombie au omg 😂😂 i want to write it so fucking bad

Preferred weapon for zed encounters: rifle

Preferred weapon for human encounters: handgun

Faith in humanity: fucking zero

Zombie kill count: plenty; the type to kill every zombie he has spare ammo and time for

Human kill policy: When it benefits him or the people he’s looking after

Survival rating: B+; he can make it out of some pretty dire situations through sheer will to live and ruthlessness

- - -

Kile has arrived--clearly, this is the timeline they belong in. They start their journey with Gabe (and their doggo) and stick to him like glue, even reluctantly so when Gabe eventually has them join the settlement. This can only go one way, though: Kile's just too much of a wildcard for the group and hates being told what to do. (Especially now that society has fallen, wtf) They'd make their exit alone and unannounced aside from a brief head’s up to Gabe. It's slightly bittersweet, but also? They get to loot and hunt and sneak around and kill fucking zombies, all by themself. Kile is a loner, a hiker, and a hunter to begin with so they do beyond fine on their own. However, once the inevitable violent human threat comes for the settlement, Gabe is sent out to convince Kile to come out of isolation, just this once please, to be the camp’s super soldier help defend the camp.

Zed weapon: p much anything they can get their hands on, ranged or melee, blunt or sharp, w/e; improvised weapons

Human weapon: hunting knife

Faith in humanity: never had any to begin with

Zombie kill count: lol infinite?? any zed they come across is double-dead if they have the time for it

Human kill policy: at Gabe’s direction or when provoked enough/threatened

Survival rating: A-; they trust no one, live in isolation, and prioritize survival above all else. only reason it’s not higher is they would risk their life for Gabe or their furbaby and also... their own Rambo-esque antics def attracts the occasional horde lmao

- - -

Jack... this poor boy, he doesn't deserve a zombie au 😂 He's one of those people that first believes zombies are just sick people, too squeamish to keep up with TV news coverage at the onset and too upset to consider anything else. He'd hunker down at home, staying holed up even while his neighbors evacuated, and probably be discovered while the main group is looting the same place as him. When people try to tell him the real state of the world, he'd be in denial until he absolutely couldn't be anymore. idk, probably after Kile shooting a bunch of non-lethal holes thru a zombie to make a point (attracting more in the process lol).

He’d almost immediately join the medical team at the settlement and as word spreads about how easy he is to talk to, he quickly becomes the literal on-site therapist. It's a role he embraces but... idk if it's an emotional burden he can bear. He's very emotionally resilient! But he ain't a professional lol imagine a whole settlement of traumatized zombie survivors seeking you out for counseling, yikes. He also can't say no to a person in need, so instead he quietly spirals into a very private depression while continuing to help others!!

Zed weapon: Oh gosh, do I really have to?

Human weapon: ...Kindness?

Faith in humanity: Unrealistically high

Zombie kill count: Single digit

Human kill policy: Not ever, unless completely unavoidable and to defend the defenseless

Survival rating: C...? idk, that feels generous. D+. To be protected at all costs!!

- - -

Jessie also had the initial reaction of hoping zombies could be saved, but she woke up from that dream swiftly. The science-minded person that she is, esp with her interest in biology, leaves her determined to find anybody who's got the intellect, expertise, and resources to start doing actual work toward a treatment, cure, vaccine—anything. Nothing would get her to finally unabashedly embrace her love of science (and innate leadership skills!!) faster than a zombie apocalypse! In fact, it’s thanks to her that the Emerson settlement’s got a small but growing team of scientists doing as much research as humanly possible to best educate the others on the outbreak and zombie behavior. Def no zombie experimentation going on though lol. ...Not yet, at least.

Zed weapon: rifle

Human weapon: rifle

Faith in humanity: High! We’ll find a solution! Don’t give up hope!

Zombie kill count: Double digits, but less than 30

Human kill policy: Only in unavoidable self-defense or defense of others

Survival rating: B! She has experience with ranged weapons, farming and gardening skills, first aid, camping experience, and a can-do attitude with a healthy dose of realism!

- - -

Rain remains cargo as I said in the last post about this 😆 They'd be very good for keeping clothes repaired and making useful modifications in the settlement, but their life up to this point has been very sheltered and privileged. We're talking somebody with a chauffeur and a personal chef before the outbreak! They would contribute to quality of life and homemaking efforts more than anything—an overlooked aspect of these scenarios tbh! After as many months of dragging their feet as possible and being nigh impossible to track down when you need them, they eventually become involved in meal planning and even help out with medical stuff if they're asked.

Zed weapon: how do you reload this thing again?

Human weapon: switchblade or other concealable sharp-pointy

Faith in humanity: Very low

Zombie kill count: 0! Can you believe it!

Human kill policy: Well if it’s you or me, of course I’m choosing me.

Survival rating: C. Being so tiny helps them find good hiding spots and their self-preservation is high enough to keep them from unnecessary risk-taking. Plus they're very stealthy! Self-defense is a major issue though, so hiding is always their best option.

- - -

Rupan/Rohan scouts for and leads scavenging missions and is Curt's right hand on the recruitment team. The two of them together are the perfect combo of diplomacy, debate, and deception--although R is more honorable about the last one and will only deceive for strategic reasons. When they aren’t looting and recruiting, they’re doing peacekeeping inside the settlement. Most social disputes end up getting brought to them for mediation and they’re pretty dang good at making and enforcing calls. One day they’ll wake up to realize they’ve basically become a sheriff and feel the need to puke their guts up and do something, anything, to reassure themself they’re still punk 😂

Zed weapon: SMG

Human weapon: shotgun

Faith in humanity: Believes in fundamental goodness but knows better than to trust first impressions

Zombie kill count: decent, more than 40; you won’t catch them having a field day tho, they’re trying to gtfo of most zed situations

Human kill policy: Violent threats have to be taken out. And they aren’t, at all, immune to a revenge rampage either...

Survival rating: B-. Can handle themself both with humans and zeds but is vulnerable to hostage situations and truly difficult sentimental/interpersonal decisions!

- - -

Vivian/Vincent manages inventory and stock and they run it so efficiently it’s scary! They're the perfect pick: a hawk-eyed tyrant and tattletale 😂 Despite constantly butting heads with just about everyone on every imaginable thing, they quickly become an important part of the inner circle of decision-makers for the settlement at large. Terrible at stealth, jumpy, and squeamish at the sight of blood and gore, they literally never go on missions unless they're 100% needed for their expertise on a supply run. (They would deny all of these shortcomings are that big a problem, meanwhile R is definitely acting as their bodyguard lol.) When they do tag along, they're prone to becoming the damsel in distress. Seriously, it happens near every fucking time. It's like they just attract only the most improbable and perilous zombie attacks and hostage situations 😆

Zed weapon: shotgun

Human weapon: handgun

Faith in humanity: Medium; seeing people work together at the settlement helps restore it a bit

Zombie kill count: Double digits, under 25

Human kill policy: Violent threats have to be taken out. Well, no, not by me! Get one of the ruffians to do it!

Survival rating: C-. They’d be higher if they weren’t such natural zombie bait.

- - -

Heidi is running the settlement, well-organized to the degree of actually managing to bring bureaucracy to a post-zombie apocalypse settlement 😂 People are free to come and go, but getting in if you don't live there requires trading something of value (fuel, med supplies, food, etc), temporary surrender and registry of firearms and explosives, and you gotta GTFO at the time and date specified upon entry! You can stay long-term if you contribute to the community in a tangible way—and each person admitted is approved by Heidi personally. Yes, every individual. No, she has no free time. And she is not known to be lenient with rule breakers—you want rule bending, you’ll have to go to Curt for that. People kind of hate her, but it can't be denied that she runs a tight ship. She kind of throws herself into the work to avoid the harsher reality at large and hasn't left the settlement in a long time. She's out of touch with how bad things have gotten in the wastes, but she knows better than to take reports at anything less than face value--even when she's skeptical.

Zed weapon: rifle

Human weapon: handgun; dagger

Faith in humanity: Medium. It fluctuates, honestly

Zombie kill count: Double digits, less than 20

Human kill policy: Violent threats must be taken out if they can’t be reasoned with. Spare those who surrender, eradicate those who don't, keep an eye on the newbies. Not tryin’ to nurse any vendettas around here lol

Survival rating: B. She's good with a firearm, masterful at persuasion, and savvy enough to calculate risks appropriately. Also far tougher than her prim exterior and demeanor suggests!

- - -

Curt leads the recruitment and reconnaissance teams! When a new person or group shows up in the area, Curt's the one who stalks watches them, decides if they're worth approaching, and if they should be approached with an invitation, a simple acknowledgment/announcement of their presence, or an outright armed warning to leave the area. He also keeps tabs on morale and general confidence inside the settlement, alongside R. When he isn’t leading those efforts, though, he’s flirting with settlers and squirreling his way out of manual labor and other chores. He’s also secretly growing weed at his place--don’t tell Heidi or Vi ‘cause they’ll wanna yell at him and ration it UGH.

Zed weapon: SMG, explosives

Human weapon: handgun, dagger

Faith in humanity: Pft, sorry, what now?

Zombie kill count: ...way more than you’d expect

Human kill policy: I don’t start confrontations, but I sure as fuck end them.

Survival rating: A! He’s good at playing hapless idiot when it suits him to be underestimated, good with firearms, and capable of being ruthless and decisive in life or death situations! Plus he has no qualms about ditching the settlement if he decides it’s not working out for him. Just don’t tell Heidi lol

[jetrafied]

What would you have done to make season 5 better? Like what plots would you change? What characters/character development would you change? That kinda stuff

Sorry for taking so long to answer this, but anyway. Okay, this is a rough idea of what I’d prefer and some of this is just stuff I didn’t like.

1. Bringing Michael back-- If they brought back Michael to have him bond with Jane’s family again, especially Mateo, that would’ve been good. Even if Michael and Jane didn’t get back together and they mutually agree they’ve moved on, that would’ve been fine. And Rafael being perfectly fine with Jane becoming friends with her estranged husband. Instead, we got Michael being completely cut off from Jane’s family, save for the scene where he, as Jason, talks to the Villanueva-de la Vegas and Rogelio tries to get him to remember that they were brogelios. But that was it. After he became Jason-Michael it was ONLY about his relationship with Jane and he wasn’t allowed to interact with anyone else. Mateo flat out told him that he hated Michael, the man who was his step-father once upon a time, the man who loved Mateo like his own son. And they never fixed that, they never let Mateo and Michael reconnect. Michael’s presence was framed as some scary thing, that Mateo had every right to hate him. How messed up is that? Michael was kidnapped, tortured until he lost his memory, and dumped in Montana so he could start a completely new life, then was suddenly brought back into this old life he didn’t know anymore, and when he finally got his memory back, his wife and her family wanted little to do with him. Well, Jane did try and appear to be in love with him again but then lol nah. I didn’t even really want Jane and Michael back together, I did agree that too much had happened between them HOWEVER the writing didn’t do a good job of actually showing that. They TOLD us that Jane was feeling one way, but in the Montana episode, I didn’t see that.

When Michael does come back to Miami, he comes back just to show that he knocked up someone that used to hate him and now they’re in love, and he still isn’t allowed to interact with anyone else.

2. Rafael’s insecurity-- We know Rafael is insecure, this isn’t the first time this has been shown, so wouldn’t it make sense to use Michael’s return to help Raf get over his insecurity? Or........ nah. Anytime Raf is insecure about Michael, it’s Jane’s job to get him through that, it’s her job to tell him he isn’t a second choice and blah blah blah. She even apologizes to him, for being unsure about her feelings for her husband. It’s also Jane’s fault that Raf became depressed or whatever it was they were trying to imply.

So, really, the only thing I really wanted from this was for Rafael to grow past his insecurity. The only evidence of that is in the second to last episode when Michael was coming back and Rafael was suddenly cool with it. This man threw a fit if Michael’s name was even mentioned, and you expect me to believe he’s good now? It’s only because Jane had to reassure him constantly. Raf should’ve learned how to get over it on his own but instead Jane had to tell him over and over that she only loved him.

3. Jane’s character development-- Honestly, I don’t think Jane had any. Nor did she need any, in my opinion. I don’t know what Jennie was trying to say about Jane throughout the show, but think I think Jennie felt Jane was too uptight or... something. Which isn’t true. Jane isn’t and we’ve seen that she isn’t. Jane’s Catholic and that’s a big part of her, but that doesn’t mean that she’s repressed. Yes, the way Alba told Jane about sex and her virginity really messed Jane up, but that’s on Alba. That doesn’t mean Jane wanting to wait is a bad thing and it doesn’t make Jane naive. She writes smut, she isn’t naive.

But Jane’s whole arc is about Jane letting go which isn’t inherently bad but there’s just this way that the writers framed it, that the things that made Jane, Jane, were bad. Jane was/is judgey and I think that’s valid. Some people are judgey. Yes, she could be a little bit of a jerk about it sometimes, but a lot of the time she was right. Everyone she knows jumping on her for voicing a (probably right) opinion, or even thinking an opinion, says more about them than her.

As for Season 5, the area they should’ve let Jane grow was her not letting men revolve around her life. They even had Petra tell her to get over it and just live her life and not wait around for a man to take her back. And Petra sounded right but then... it turned out that was not what Jane wanted at all and took Rafael back the moment he had decided he loved her again. Jane hadn’t grown at all and in my opinion, had regressed. If it were me and I HAD to still make Jafael endgame, I would’ve let Jane get that apartment, let her write her book, learn that being in a relationship and being alone are equally fine, and then over time she and Rafael drift back together, maybe two or three years down the road. Of course that would mean a couple more seasons, which JtV didn’t have so them choosing to have this breakup in the last season is the dumbest fucking thing.

4. Petramos-- If I’m being honest, the moment they had Petra gaslight JR in season 4, I was kinda out. I loved Petramos, but once it was revealed that Petra was lying, then had her yell at JR multiple times, it was hard for me to jump back in. They were cute for a period of time, but they shouldn’t have gotten back together when they did. I get they had restraints with Rosario’s schedule, but they handled it poorly.

I think I would’ve had them talk to each other for the first few episodes of Season 5, just put it all out there, have Petra apologize, let JR actually communicate her feelings. Just have them really open up to each other, because I know they can do that. But then not have them get back together. Just let them heal platonically. Then JR can either move because of her job bc she needs some space, similar to what actually happened just without the second breakup, or she doesn’t move, but maybe takes time to spend time with her mother because she knows her mother doesn’t have much time left. Petra is upset, of course, but she gets it and she takes time to heal too. Then JR comes back in the finale. I didn’t like how it was actually done because I think too much had happened between them and they weren’t allowed to really talk about it and JR’s break-up with Petra felt so final that I can’t imagine Petra just being like, okay.

5. Xiomara-- Let her dance and/or sing, damn. Nursing is a great field, no doubt, but Xo has never showed interest in that and she was put through Cancer just to give up on her dreams. Why was she constantly punished for doing something she loved? Jane was allowed to write as a career and was even offered $500,000 for a romance novel, but Xo can’t do what she’s dreamed about doing since she was a child?

6. Ro and River-- Nothing against Brooke Shields, but JtV wasted their budget on focusing on her character too much. They could’ve had the telenovela stuff without having another rehashing of Rogelio feuding with every one of his costars. Even worse was River falling in love with Ro, that served no purpose. They could’ve done what they did with River, but like half the amount of time.

7. Rafael’s adoption-- I know people have said that his adoption corrects that Justin was white playing an ambiguously latinx character, but was Rafael ever supposed to be latinx? Elena (his mother) was Italian, and I don’t even know what Emilio was supposed to be. I’ve said I’ve forgotten a lot so maybe they said that Emilio was latinx, but idk. In an early episode Alba assumes Rafael doesn’t speak Spanish and is surprised that he does, so is it more than he’s rich so she assumes that HE assumes that he’s too good to speak Spanish, or he isn’t latinx so that’s why he doesn’t speak Spanish.

Outside of that, the adoption story line only says that Rafael isn’t biologically related to Emilio or Elena, who are shady people (or at least Elena is) so he’s okay. But what does that say about Petra, who is related to Magda and Anezka, also shady people? Also, Rafael was raised by Emilio, despite not being blood related so Rafael could still turn out like Emilio. Just because Raf’s blood parents were a sweet little Italian family doesn’t mean he’s anything like them. He didn’t know them.

It’s just weird to look at adoption vs birth parents like that. It’s an argument for nurture vs nature, but they never bring it up. Rafael learns that his parents were bakers, were not connected to crime, and died in a normal way, so he’s okay. I guess blood is more powerful than who raised him. Good luck to him and Jane trying to adopt if that’s how they see adoption.

8. Jorge-- Fuck that dude

9. Jetra-- If everything was completely up to me they would’ve been endgame lol

I have so much more to talk about it but there’s just too much. If anyone has specific questions for me, go for it.