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Description
When I say the words "Transported through time and space", what comes up in your head? Violent shuddering? Colorful lights? Maybe some kind of spinning?

Because that's not what happened. No, the only indication we got was when the entire outside world ceased to exist.

Famines? Yes. Starvation? Absolutely. The estimates are around 7 to 8 million people dead, but that still left around 45 million or so left to do things. Enough to keep the lights on, anyways.

When we got sent to the new Earth (for god knows what reason), there was nothing there when we arrived. CASA sent up new satellites, the army sent out scouts, the Navy sailed around the planet again and again, and the air force flew over almost every square inch of land, but nothing. Not a single other human was there on the planet when we got there. We were all that was left. Thankfully with more than enough to ensure that we didn't inbreed to extinction, but no one forgets how hungry we were. How the internet nearly collapsed. How we all had to deal with the trauma that we were it. There was only California, no one else.

Things settled down after a while, of course. President Zhao had already had a reputation for being iron-willed, and goddamn if she didn't pull through. A bunch of books and things people had written talked about how disrupting society that much would make a country splinter, at least initially, but Zhao came through. Riots? Yes. Protests? Yes. Civil war? No. How she did it, I don't know, but Eureka kept its hold over the states.

Three years later she left office and Vice President Hayden swept into office on a mandate, mostly because the DemReps were more than happy to concede if it meant a peaceful transition of power. He was nice enough to appoint a DemRep for his Vice President, though, to keep it balanced. He was also pretty good at it, though not nearly as iron-willed as Zhao. He kept the nation together through his charisma and boundless optimism, promising that we could pull through. And I'm here writing this, aren't I? He wasn't wrong. The nation pulled through, the hungry years ended, and people felt a bit more at ease with the situation.

In 2028, everyone agreed that it'd be good to go back to regular democracy and hold a proper election. Vice President Ulric Realta came into office, and he continued the process of healing, but a new debate came up. People had already been striking out into the wilderness, either to make a new life or go hunting or just go exploring in a virgin wilderness. Zhao had outlawed it and Hayden had continued it, but Realta proposed relaxing these restrictions, and allowing a 200 kilometer "Settlement Zone" around the borders. Of course, the Progressives were apprehensive about it, saying that they had gotten lucky and had the chance to circumvent everything about global warming. The return of regular rain certainly got a lot of people on board with that argument.

Realta didn't do much on the issue, but 2034 brought Alma Cunha into office, and she, like all the Progressives, created a plan to regulate the growth. A new "Commonwealth of California" would be created to divide North America into "Settlement Districts" arranged around California itself, which would not expand its borders into the new land. Part of the idea was that in time, these districts might serve as templates for new nations when they were populous enough, especially since the 2035 census said that the population was growing again. Her plan was adopted, and people could now legally strike out into the wilds. Wagons ho!

I was born only 4 years before the Displacement, so a lot of my memories of the early years are fuzzy. But I'm a grown man now, and my kids like to ask what it was like before the Displacement. I can't really tell them, I didn't experience it a lot. The books and archives say enough, though. A world of 7 billion people, wars and civil struggles and the threat of climate change pressing down on everyone. Now we're basically in a world half full. Eureka is still the center of the universe, and District 2 hasn't even cracked 2 million people across its entire territory. The largest city outside of California is New Houston, and even then it's only around 200,000 people. There are neighborhoods of Los Angeles with fewer people than that. So for now, President Matthews out in Eureka is still the effective ruler of the Earth.

Living out here in Tkaronto (the old, old, old name for Toronto, the city that was here before, so not really that inventive) is pretty comfy, really. CASA's satellites can beam the internet and TV to us, there's planes that can fly us anywhere on the continent, and they're working on getting us hooked up to a high-speed rail link. The corner store is a 5 minute walk from here, the roads are paved, and fishermen ply the waters of Lake Ontario. It's honestly astounding how fast we've been able to effectively reseed society. Hell, there's even new businesses to take people out into the wildernesses that dominate the rest of the planet for visits. Honshu is lovely this time of year, but Jill wants us to go see the Scottish Highlands. We'll figure it out later, the kids are just excited for any of it.

I've written this down like I've done every decade. When you open this up, maybe another 100 years into the future, hopefully there'll be 8 or 9 of these for you to read, whoever finds this. Maybe by then, there'll be new nations. Maybe we'll be walking on the Moon again. Maybe we'll have all destroyed ourselves, and you're finding this under a pile of ash. Whoever this is, whoever you are, I want you to know that I was here. If somehow California gets moved again, that we were here. That we didn't give up. And we made it work.

Adam Stevenson
19 April 2050
---
This was difficult to make. Mostly because of my really wonky way of making maps, but also figuring stuff out. For example, I tried marking down some major and less major settlements on the map, like the larger dots are the District capitals and smaller dots are other notable places. But yeah, a lot are in the same places. Cities aren't where they are for no reason.

Enjoy.

Also, apparently this is my 500th deviation. Cool.

Description
When I say the words "Transported through time and space", what comes up in your head? Violent shuddering? Colorful lights? Maybe some kind of spinning?

Because that's not what happened. No, the only indication we got was when the entire outside world ceased to exist.

Famines? Yes. Starvation? Absolutely. The estimates are around 7 to 8 million people dead, but that still left around 45 million or so left to do things. Enough to keep the lights on, anyways.

When we got sent to the new Earth (for god knows what reason), there was nothing there when we arrived. CASA sent up new satellites, the army sent out scouts, the Navy sailed around the planet again and again, and the air force flew over almost every square inch of land, but nothing. Not a single other human was there on the planet when we got there. We were all that was left. Thankfully with more than enough to ensure that we didn't inbreed to extinction, but no one forgets how hungry we were. How the internet nearly collapsed. How we all had to deal with the trauma that we were it. There was only California, no one else.

Things settled down after a while, of course. President Zhao had already had a reputation for being iron-willed, and goddamn if she didn't pull through. A bunch of books and things people had written talked about how disrupting society that much would make a country splinter, at least initially, but Zhao came through. Riots? Yes. Protests? Yes. Civil war? No. How she did it, I don't know, but Eureka kept its hold over the states.

Three years later she left office and Vice President Hayden swept into office on a mandate, mostly because the DemReps were more than happy to concede if it meant a peaceful transition of power. He was nice enough to appoint a DemRep for his Vice President, though, to keep it balanced. He was also pretty good at it, though not nearly as iron-willed as Zhao. He kept the nation together through his charisma and boundless optimism, promising that we could pull through. And I'm here writing this, aren't I? He wasn't wrong. The nation pulled through, the hungry years ended, and people felt a bit more at ease with the situation.

In 2028, everyone agreed that it'd be good to go back to regular democracy and hold a proper election. Vice President Ulric Realta came into office, and he continued the process of healing, but a new debate came up. People had already been striking out into the wilderness, either to make a new life or go hunting or just go exploring in a virgin wilderness. Zhao had outlawed it and Hayden had continued it, but Realta proposed relaxing these restrictions, and allowing a 200 kilometer "Settlement Zone" around the borders. Of course, the Progressives were apprehensive about it, saying that they had gotten lucky and had the chance to circumvent everything about global warming. The return of regular rain certainly got a lot of people on board with that argument.

Realta didn't do much on the issue, but 2034 brought Alma Cunha into office, and she, like all the Progressives, created a plan to regulate the growth. A new "Commonwealth of California" would be created to divide North America into "Settlement Districts" arranged around California itself, which would not expand its borders into the new land. Part of the idea was that in time, these districts might serve as templates for new nations when they were populous enough, especially since the 2035 census said that the population was growing again. Her plan was adopted, and people could now legally strike out into the wilds. Wagons ho!

I was born only 4 years before the Displacement, so a lot of my memories of the early years are fuzzy. But I'm a grown man now, and my kids like to ask what it was like before the Displacement. I can't really tell them, I didn't experience it a lot. The books and archives say enough, though. A world of 7 billion people, wars and civil struggles and the threat of climate change pressing down on everyone. Now we're basically in a world half full. Eureka is still the center of the universe, and District 2 hasn't even cracked 2 million people across its entire territory. The largest city outside of California is New Houston, and even then it's only around 200,000 people. There are neighborhoods of Los Angeles with fewer people than that. So for now, President Matthews out in Eureka is still the effective ruler of the Earth.

Living out here in Tkaronto (the old, old, old name for Toronto, the city that was here before, so not really that inventive) is pretty comfy, really. CASA's satellites can beam the internet and TV to us, there's planes that can fly us anywhere on the continent, and they're working on getting us hooked up to a high-speed rail link. The corner store is a 5 minute walk from here, the roads are paved, and fishermen ply the waters of Lake Ontario. It's honestly astounding how fast we've been able to effectively reseed society. Hell, there's even new businesses to take people out into the wildernesses that dominate the rest of the planet for visits. Honshu is lovely this time of year, but Jill wants us to go see the Scottish Highlands. We'll figure it out later, the kids are just excited for any of it.

I've written this down like I've done every decade. When you open this up, maybe another 100 years into the future, hopefully there'll be 8 or 9 of these for you to read, whoever finds this. Maybe by then, there'll be new nations. Maybe we'll be walking on the Moon again. Maybe we'll have all destroyed ourselves, and you're finding this under a pile of ash. Whoever this is, whoever you are, I want you to know that I was here. If somehow California gets moved again, that we were here. That we didn't give up. And we made it work.

Adam Stevenson
19 April 2050
---
This was difficult to make. Mostly because of my really wonky way of making maps, but also figuring stuff out. For example, I tried marking down some major and less major settlements on the map, like the larger dots are the District capitals and smaller dots are other notable places. But yeah, a lot are in the same places. Cities aren't where they are for no reason.

Enjoy.

Also, apparently this is my 500th deviation. Cool.