#cicadadust

Welcome to my (Unnamed Au). I'll try my best to explain and keep it brief 🫡.

At some point during Earth's history, the planet's rotation on its axis gradually slowed down and changed. It almost appears as if the Earth completely stopped spinning on its axis (in actuality, it still is spinning), causing day and night to last for half a year on any given point on the planet. Due to this, the planet has been divided into three zones that shift throughout the year. The daylight zone, the twilight zone, and the midnight zone, each with their own extremes.

(I do have this quick doodle of me trying to explain it 😭. The red and blue on the planet is just to signify the different sides of Earth and how it looks like it is not rotating)

The daylight zone: the current area on Earth that faces the sun, cast into the long lasting day. Exposed to this much sunlight for this length of time causes temperatures to soar into the highest temperatures, even causing the ocean itself to heat up. Fires are not uncommon at all, nor are toxic algae blooms that choke up the ocean. There isn't much shade to help avoid the sweltering heat either, and plenty of land had turned into a desert.

The midnight zone: the current area on Earth that faces away from the sun, cast into the long lasting night. It is on the opposite spectrum of the daylight zone, with temperatures dramatically plummeting. Most things become frozen in the wasteland, even freezing parts of the ocean. The wind can be especially harsh along with snowfall on areas of the midnight zone that border the twilight zone.

The twilight zone: the current area on Earth caught between day and night, cast into moments of a long lasting sun set/sun rise depending (these can be divided into their own sub zones. The sunset/sunrise zone) Sandwiched between the extremes of hot and cold, it has caused this zone to have its own extremes. The temperature is often the most comfortable, but It is constantly ravaged by violent storms and rain as the hot and cold air mixes together. The ground itself has difficulty absorbing water, especially in the sunset zone that follows after the daylight zone, causing flooding (and then freezes in the midnight zone).

Life has become extremely difficult for the creatures and vegetation, forcing it to adapt to these new zones that dictate it now. Most life has adapted in a way that is specialized in living in one of these specific zones. Though as these zones shift throughout the year, life must adapt to that, too. Trees and tall plants are a rarity, with the extremes causing them to wither or fall before having a chance to grow tall (besides a few exceptions that have evolved to survive). Most of Earth is covered in fast growing, low demand, and thick shrub brush and plants. With creatures, they either have to migrate across the Earth to stay within their zone, or hunker down and wait out the other extremes. Those who fall behind and can not prepare often perish when trapped in another zone. Although there is one last solution - survive underground.

The Underground: the most stable place on Earth, the deeper you go sheltered from the extremes. With much difficulty adapting to the zone changes on the surface, the now nearly extinct human race has made the unground their home and have begun to slowly thrive again (mostly thanks to the previously established home of the Seatopians, Seatopia!). But being ungrounded comes with its own problems, as exit tunnels are connected all over the Earth to continue airflow to those who reside below. There are plenty of other creatures who are willing to take advantage of this as they, too, seek out a place to shelter from the extremes on the surface.

Godzilla: