Chương 109: 3.33 Wake Up - Arcade Fire (5:35)

Lorem_Ipsum I don't think my opinion on a character has EVER changed this much. Game Corva was always a cool mysterious figure who mostly acted like what he presented himself as: the old Drifter who occasionally showed up, pointed the player in a direction, and was weirdly helpful. I always figured that he had a secret about him, but I thought it was going to be that he founded the cities that the player characters start off in. Maybe he knew more about the origin of the Fractures than he ever let on.

Instead, his secret was that he never got over losing his family. And he became a monster because of it. DeconstructedAntlers NOPE. I know exactly where you're headed with this and I hate it already. Half this forum is going to start treating Corva like some misunderstood victim because he had a boo hoo sad backstory. Need I remind you all that this is the same guy who tried to murder Zeke to get his storage space AND deliberately led the Eaters into populated areas?

He knowingly sacrificed hundreds - possibly thousands - of innocent people because every massacre they conducted was another chance to continue his research. Every time that the Eaters fed on the innocent, he saw it as an opportunity instead of a massacre. I don't care how sad your backstory is. I don't care that the plague took your village or that you lost your wife and two daughters. You're a monster. SilverPurpleLibraryCard I don't think anyone is about to argue that he wasn't a monster.

But the point is that monsters don't start off wanting to become monsters. Corva didn't wake up one morning and just decide to feed entire towns to Lovecraftian horrors. He spent centuries(?) trying to bring back his wife and daughters. Every terrible decision he made in pursuit of that became easier and easier because he justified the one before it. That's what makes him a tragic figure.

His story isn't about a good man becoming evil - although it is that too - it's about a grieving man slowly convincing himself that every terrible thing he did would be the last one. UnhelpfullyHelpful Cool motive. Still murder. Tragic figures don't feed people to monsters. They don't try to kill people and body-jack them. The Eaters didn't hypnotize him into helping. They didn't mind control him. They didn't force him to kill Pell and however many other victims he had. He chose to do all that shit.

Sympathetic motivations don't magically erase personal responsibility. SilverPurpleLibraryCard I'm not trying to erase his responsibility. I'm just saying he's much more of a tragic figure than "bad guy does bad things." Understanding why someone fell isn't the same as saying they shouldn't be held accountable. TrapG00blin The thing I'm still thinking about is when he talked about not being able to tell which memories belonged to him and which belonged to his family.

Imagine spending all that time and effort trying to resurrect your family only to find that you accidentally mixed your own identity with theirs until you literally couldn't tell whether you were remembering your daughters' childhoods or your own. HexaDeweyDecimal That just proves that he was an idiot. He should have known that the Eaters weren't trying to teach him anything. They were villains who were obsessed with Eater. OldManKiyote That ending got me.

I thought Zeke was going to try and redeem him and get him to join him or something. I figured he'd give Corva the whole Luke Skywalked "I know there's still good in you, I can feel it" speech. But nope. Zeke just nodded along and then killed him and that was it. Although, now that I think about it, redemption would have been a copout ending. Corva did too many shady shenanigans to be redeemed in the end. Haynes wasn't about to let him leave that room alive.

RedCarpetManiac | Understanding why someone fell isn't the same as saying they shouldn't be held accountable. | You're overthinking it. Corva was a colossal asshole who got what he deserved. I'm not losing sleep over his death. Gormommie That's where Zeke landed too. He listened to him. He pitied him. Then he killed him. Also, have you all noticed how easy killing has gotten for him? He was crying when he killed the two bandits on the train out of the Glens. Then he was crying when he flared that dood in The MIZ.

Now he's casually stabbing Corva and he's shrugging and just walking away from it. Z3ke (Original Poster) I wouldn't say that I'm casual with killing. But also… yea, it's kinda freaking me out too. I want to say that it's because of Persona but that would be an excuse. I think anyone living in the Deadlands for a few months would start hardening up. CrushDaddyXx Look how our boy has grown!! He's got his big boy pants on and everything. Proud of you Zeke. Proud of you.

Footballish Corva was the physical embodiment of the sunk-cost fallacy.

"Well, I've already spent two hundred years committing increasingly questionable crimes against nature. Might as well kill this lady and her House and then find nightmares in the Deadlands because the NEXT experiment is definitely going to fix everything." Dood speedran ethics in reverse. SlothTurtle It's worth pointing out that the Corva from Zeke's fic ISN'T the same Corva we all know. For most of us, Corva is just… there.

He points you to quests, explains ancient history, occasionally disappears, and then comes back to save your life. He's a mysterious figure, sure, but he's also still one of my favorite NPCs. Just because Zeke's story showed up he's a body-jacking asshole, and Foppery uncovered the evidence for that, doesn't take away from the Corva that we all knew from all the other games. I mean, sure, Shards has him doing a heel turn. But let's be honest, nobody actually likes Shards of Time. CrumhatB Hey. I like Shards.

There are dozens of us. DOZENS. PatchNotesOrDidntHappen No. There are like four of you. It's you, Venerated, and two other people who don't post anymore because they realized their favorite game of the series is THE WORST. Half of us skipped it because it was confusing and garbage, and the other half quit five minutes in when they started uncontrollably vomiting because they tried 3D before the tech was there. ResistanceIsAnnoying Game Corva is a boss. Zeke Corva is a dick.

But I like Zeke's Corva a little bit better. He gave him some flavor beyond just "mysterious figure." SomePeopleCallMe_Maurice Okay, that's enough with the crying. Can we talk about what just happened with Zeke? The Dead Corridor is an absolute mess right now. NAY! That's right, I said nay. NAY, Frontiers as a whole is an absolute dumpster fire right now. Zeke somehow wandered into a regional cold war and left literally every major faction worse off than when he arrived. Let's count the damage.

The Black Teeth lost an entire raiding wing, and that's before we even start talking about what's going on with the Chapel Pit. The last we saw it, it was riot central. The Pale Regiment lost at least two bases and a ridiculous amount of soldiers. The Shard Choir lemming'd themselves at the Eaters and got themselves wiped out. And the Eaters got hit by the Black Teeth and showed that they can be actually injured. Literally nobody won. TKTK_tktk Correction: Zeke won.

His passive ability is apparently whenever he enters a zone, every major political power immediately starts punching every other major political power. Heyprettybaby Imagine trying to explain this fic to someone.

"He accidentally befriended an immortal, accidentally pissed off an immortal, accidentally forced someone into becoming an immortal, unknowingly found a second apocalypse, and then accidentally caused four hostile factions to collide." MoronicMnemonic | Literally nobody won. | I don't actually agree with that. Nobody won today. Long term, this created one of the biggest power vacuums that we've ever seen in the games. Every major faction in the Deadlands just got bodied.

They're going to spend months, maybe years, replacing manpower, reorganizing, rebuilding their logistics, and figuring out what the hell just happened. The region is probably weaker now than it's been in centuries. 10161066 Power vacuums don't stay empty for long. There's still whatever the Alderman was building in The MIZ. That's not going away. The Shard Choir didn't send everyone after Zeke.

Sure the Black Teeth are bloodied, but the Pale Regiment have the Reclaimer body which is going to provide a bunch of goods for them in the future and The MIZ has Patch and it's got Milicent with the glyph bible. If I was a betting man, I'd say that The MIZ factions are about to get ridiculously strong soon. Patch will organize a bunch of them to do his bidding and there's going to be a renaissance with the glyphs. Emagstar God I bet this story is so fucking funny from the Alderman's perspective.

A series of precision strikes, each perfectly tailored and planned to sabotage a different, vital part of his scheme to rule the Deadlands. And at the heart of it, the one man orchestrating the undoing of a plot decades in the making? Ezekiel, the mastermind. Who could fathom the heights that man's Strategy skill must have reached? GnomelandSecurity (Proctor) | Power vacuums don't stay empty for long. | Cool. That sounds like somebody else's problem. Zeke needs to leave NOW.

RedCarpetManiac | Who could fathom the heights that man's Strategy skill must have reached? | He's personally interacted with (and broke): the Black Teeth, the Pale Regiment, the Shard Choir, Corva, the Eaters, the Reclaimer, the Blooming Witch, and approximately every other horrifying thing the Deadlands has to offer. At this point, his business card should just read: Professional Catalyst.

Polw3 Dood, Zeke really got told about all the dangerous groups he could encounter in Frontiers and somehow still managed to get into a huge battle with just about all of them. I. I. I. I think it was said earlier, that's his checklist. MapHackJunkie Yeaaaaaa… you're all underestimating how infamous he is now. When this story started, he was just some rando who walked into The MIZ. He had no class and almost shot himself trying to learn the Guns skill. Now, everyone knows his face.

You gotta think that people in The MIZ have heard some version of the stories surrounding him. Staying in the Deadlands feels like volunteering to get kidnapped because people are going to want answers, they're going to want to know how he became so powerful so quickly, or they think collecting the bounty on "that guitar guy" will make them rich and famous. The factions don't even have to hate him right now. He's done enough craziness that everyone has a reason to poke into his shit.

BabyBloos | The factions don't even have to hate him right now. | I don't think the Pale Regiment hate him, but he should definitely not stick around to chat with Haynes and Vicks. The Pale Bois already wanted to recruit him before he got involved with the Devro base. Now that he survived the Dead Corridor, helped to put a stop to Corva, escaped a four-way battle that should have killed everyone involved, AND repeatedly shown off his dimensional storage space and a class that nobody seems to understand?

That's dangerous. If Rockstar really is as rare as it appears to be, the Pale Regiment is going to want to do something with it. The mayor of the Holdfast already tricked him into working for him for a few days. The Pale Regiment is going to be worse than that. They're going to look at him and think that he's too dangerous to let go to any other group. SpicyShoyu We've been trying to get him out of The MIZ for a while. We said he needed to leave back when he put Patch in the chair.

Find the smallest, most boring town in the world. Spend six months learning songs, grinding skills, and letting everyone else deal with the political fallout. Craaazzzzy You really think that's going to be the end of it? If Zeke moves to a quiet little farmy village, he'll soon find out that the wheat fields are growing over the corpse of an ancient cosmic entity and the local scarecrow has been secretly maintaining the fabric of reality for the last 800 years.

We've all read enough of his story to know how it goes. Cold_Reboot Honestly, the Pale Regiment isn't who Zeke should be losing sleep over. The Alderman was the one with the personal grudge, and that whole situation died with him. The Pale Regiment wants to recruit Zeke, not skin him alive. It's the Black Teeth that he should be worried about. He desecrated the Chapel Pit and helped kick off a disaster that got a whole bunch of them killed.

Somewhere out there is a Black Teeth commander who has a sketch of Zeke pinned up to a dartboard. AnywayHeresWonderwall Is it just me or does anyone else think it was weird that the Alderman was able to track Zeke to the Pale Regiment base? SignalLoss Yea. That was kind of odd. Maybe he had a tracker on him or something? SoluneX This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Oooo.

Wouldn't it be weird if he found one of the computers that Zeke logged onto, and he was reading the forum and finding out where he was? That's how he was able to track down Zeke. That's how he was able to build up an army from The MIZ even though - as far as we know - he was nothing but a two-bit gangster. Nudvik But how? Zeke said he logged off the computer in the library. HollowHeartsClub Yeaaa… that's a little much. He had the computer in the Glen that he couldn't sign out from.

I doubt that the Alderman went all the way down there to find the computer. And he told us that he signed out of the computer from the library when he first got to The MIZ. So it obviously wasn't that. MangoChutney Wasn't there another computer though? When he first got to The MIZ, he was all dehydrated and stumbling into the train station and there was a tablet in the station that he signed into to tell us that he was alive and ask us where he should go. I don't think he ever signed out of that tablet.

The Alderman could have easily gone and picked it up and then read through the forum. GravellyVoice1 You're saying that the Alderman tracked down the tablet he was using, logged onto the forum under, what, a guest account? And then used the forum to get information about Zeke and how best to start an army out in The MIZ? Meh. I don't buy it. Even if that did happen, it sounds like something that Zeke would probably think was a good idea and then just gave up on half-way through.

The more likely thing is that Zeke just pissed off the Alderman and the Alderman had a scrying on call to find out where Zeke was. Byte-Sized | Somewhere out there is a Black Teeth commander who has a sketch of Zeke pinned up to a dartboard. | You're assuming that the Black Teeth are organized enough to care about Zeke. With what just happened to them, I wouldn't be surprised if they're all trying to figure out who is in charge right now. Cold_Reboot Short term, sure. But long term?

They're going to want some revenge and Zeke better not be around when they come for him. TheFriendlyStranger Well I just had a thought. Remember the weirdness of the Terraforming Pod and the creature growing within, the living Fracture? What species was it terraforming it for, with its strange soul-collecting properties and all?

Based on the Choirs reaction and their mutations from the storm, I reckon that the Eaters are either the intended endpoint of the Terraforming Pod or a byproduct of its faulty state before its destruction. Nudvik Maybe the Eaters are the aliens. HexaDeweyDecimal Then what is their whole goal? It doesn't seem like they're trying to change the Deadlands. From what we've seen, they've been happy just chillin' in the Glens and eating eyeballs. Scranity You know what would be incredibly ironic?

If the Eaters were called here… BY ZEKE.

He blasted "Holding Out For a Hero" over a battlefield full of probably at least a thousand people in a life-and-death four-way struggle between an overwhelming force of the best known raiders in the wasteland, a group of crazed cultists who are the best known crazies in the wasteland, the desperate men and women of the Pale Regiment who are the best known builders in the wasteland, and the Alderman who despite not mattering as much is still a representative of The MIZ who are the best known civilization in the wasteland.

And finally we have Zeke, who's a significant figure for each of these groups and have done things that have altered their paths completely and has personally pulled the trigger to kill two of the most powerful apocalyptic beings in the wasteland. The amount of "weight" sitting there isn't just huge, it's ridiculous. To the Eaters, he wasn't playing a song to cheer people up. He was ringing the dinner bell for one of the greatest feasts in their lives. Hambones The Eaters are all basically broken now though.

They got veylstone'd. I'm thinking more the Shard Choir are going to be the problem. Didn't Zeke call them "orgasmic" in their want to come after him? Were they angry that he killed their god? Or were they excited that he killed their god and became their new god? I couldn't tell if they wanted to kill him or hug him. Vantavoid You really think that was all of the Eaters? ONE group of Eaters got hit with the Veylstone. NullSigil | I'm thinking more the Shard Choir are going to be the problem.

| They're giving off clingy psycho ex vibes. It doesn't matter if they're trying to stab him or marry him, the best response to that is to just leave. SwaffleWaffle Shard Choir. Their musical theme is obviously connected to Zeke. He is their prophesied messiah, there to bring divine, rapturous music to those who have tried to reach divinity through song but forever failed. At last their prayers have been answered!

They appeased the beast within the storm, but it has at last been slain, heralding the dawn of a new age! Praise be to Guitar Jesus! Craaazzzzy?? What the shit?!? Chik8da_swarm You all keep saying "leave the Deadlands" like that's the end of the discussion. Leave to where? Malv0lio EMBERVEIL!!!! 1 I've been waiting three months to say this. Emberveil is clearly the best setting for him.

DeadMienWalking I'm sure this recommendation of yours has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you've been the loudest Emberveil fan on this forum for the past five years. I'm sure it's completely objective. Malv0lio It IS objective. It's the best place for Zeke right now. Think about it. All of his biggest victories came from Rockstar doing something that nobody - including us - expected it to do. He shut down the Janus Storm with music. He held off the Black teeth with music.

Half the reason he's still alive is because his class keeps breaking the rules. Meanwhile, every time he picks up a gun or a melee weapon and tries to solve his problems that way, someone else has to step in to save his ass. In one of the last updates he posted, he said that he got a notification for firing a gun. That means it probably gave him the skill, but it would still only be Rank 1. That's absolute shit. And his melee skill is only at 2 or 3. The answer to ALL his problems is obvious.

Go learn the magic that is already keeping you alive. And where is the best place to learn magic? How about the only game where it is a large part of the story? Emberveil. Zeke keeps treating Rockstar like it's a support class when it's obviously so much stranger than that. He's barely experimented with his powers. He needs to learn about the different genres, different intentions behind his music, what different instruments give him, and how his performance skill will boost him.

He hasn't collaborated with other musicians, hasn't explored magical theory, and hasn't tested ANYTHING to do with this class. Every breakthrough in this story has happened by accident. Imagine what happens once he starts doing all this shit on purpose. Murmur | Every breakthrough in this story has happened by accident. | I do like how Zeke's story is the opposite of the rationalfic. Zeke goes off of vibes (those vibes being anxiety and a bunch of angry nerds on a dead video game forum shouting/trolling him… those are some nasty vibes) and his superpower is weaponized feelings. K1LLPRIEST Nah. Not Emberveil. Zeke doesn't need to travel halfway across the world just to learn music. He can practice his songs anywhere. He doesn't need to head to Emberveil just to sit down with a guitar. What he does need is to stop being completely helpless the second someone tries to pick a fight with him. You pointed out that he got his Gun skill up to Rank 1. He hasn't come outright and said that yet, but let's say you're right.

Guns are the obvious best choice for him to start practicing. Even getting it only to Rank 7 would be enormous for him. His entire story has had him relying on everyone else being better at fighting than he is. It was Jackie and Elnor and Mikey and Wren and Cole and EVERYONE. They all shoot better than him and they all cover his ass when firefights break out. Tech Reign would fix all that.

It would give him actual combat training, firearms, tactical skills, and enough ridiculous action-movie nonsense to making surviving a realistic possibility. You all are focusing on his class, but it doesn't matter how strong his music is if he gets shot halfway through the first verse. Plus… tell me you wouldn't want to see Rockstar mixed with Tech Reign's ridiculous John Woo gun-fu. Zeke needs to stop being everyone's escort quest, and Tech Reign lets him do that.

CharlieHestonsHand | Guns are the obvious best choice for him to start practicing. | I love guns. Tech Reign is probably my favorite game in the franchise. But you're saying guns are the best after we watched him stop an apocalypse with a guitar. I'm with Malv0lio in saying that he needs to learn his magic. M-Bomb Zeke needs more band members, or better yet, self-playing instruments (instrument mastery 8?) His musical power, however great it may be, is severely limited by the fact that he can only really play one instrument at once. KetracelWhiteNoise Why are you all arguing for him to leave Frontiers at all? There's still so much for him to do there. He accidentally rewrote some of the biggest mysteries in the setting, permanently altered multiple factions, and killed one of the franchise's most important NPCs. But that doesn't mean that he's done with Frontiers. For one, he skipped all the quests in the game.

For another, I'm sure that if we all actually put our mind to it - instead of just having him go off half-cocked on random adventures - we could make Zeke rich as shit. That would help him with whatever game he goes to next. Shootingblnks He shouldn't go to Emberveil or Tech Reign. He should go to Nexoras. He's carrying around a bargain-bin Tech Slate that barely functions. The thing he got from Riley was all broken and jacked up. It's going to break eventually and then he'll be completely screwed.

Before he starts chasing magical hoodoo or military training, he needs better equipment. The obvious place to start would be Nexoras. Z3ke (Original Poster) Nexoras? Also… I was warned about single word posts before so I'm just going to try and bump up my word count here. LA LA LA LA. Carry on. I'm just sitting here in the base, eating some food and reading one of the books that I'd traded with the Pale Regiment for ages ago. Got a boost to my First Aid out of it. So that's nice.

MushroomCleric It's the starter city for Null Protocol. It's where every new player spends their first several hours upgrading equipment, unlocking skills, and learning how the whole game works. Shooting is basically saying that the stuff you've currently got is prehistoric compared to what's available there. MapHackJunkie Hmmm. I kinda agree with Shooting. Zeke, you could get some amazing stuff in Nexoras. It would be absolutely absurd how much cybernetics could help you.

You'd get translation software, scanners, secure comms, mapping, and a whole bunch more. You've basically been playing with the equivalent of a flip phone with Riley's Tech Slate. StoryLeech You've convinced me Story. Nexoras makes sense before Emberveil. Zeke, you should upgrade your tech slate, replace half your junk gear, stockpile some supplies, and then go become the magical guitar wizard that you should be.

The_Kijs Zeke has a huge case of choice paralysis combined with major self esteem issues (that the forum is NOT helping with - having a collection of so called experts constantly backseat driving and critiquing your choices, and also taking credit for leading you to any successes, would make anyone think they're not competent on their own.) What he needs to do is ask literally anyone OTHER than the forum for what people need from his magic.

I'm pretty sure Jackie could have told him exactly what would be useful to boost during the chase, and the Pale Regiment leaders could easily tell him what would be useful. These are people who live here and regularly do the thing that needs getting done - just ask them what would help. Randombullhitgo Fair point but nobody has a clear idea what exactly his magic do, other than giving morale/stamina boosts.

If the Pale Regiment become suspicious or interested in his class and his ability to get new magics/information out of nowhere they would want to study him and his class, extensively. UnhelpfullyHelpful Shouldn't we wait for the next Primary to be chosen before Zeke goes off and does anything? Who is the next primary? MushroomCleric We're still waiting for Gravemind to tell us about it. But in the meantime… I just had an amazing idea.

We all are basically on the same page in thinking that Zeke shouldn't be sticking around The MIZ or the Deadlands. I frankly think he should make his way back to The MIZ and talk with Patch before doing anything else, but also that he should be getting out of there ASAP. BUT, we don't know where he should go and we don't know what he would be facing when he gets there. What we can all do is split up into different groups and start replaying some of the different games. But we need to play them like Zeke runs.

By that, I mean don't just say "go to Nexoras," or "go to Emberveil." What I'm thinking is that we restart the games, take off all our equipment, have our PCs travel around and make sure that we're not doing anything that we personally would find dangerous. If we go to the different regions and find the safest areas, we can get Zeke to head to them, take a break for a week, catch his breath, and then figure out what he should do next. Ch3micalBurst93 That's… surprisingly a really good idea.

Clap clap clap to you Mushroom. NullSigil You have now been moved up a few slots in the "Zeke's favorite posters" list. TheHsuHsuTrain I wonder which posters are Zeke's favorites? I am guessing Gnomelandsecurity is his favorite by a country mile since he has always been supportive and, as far as I remember, never gave him shit. He probably has mixed feelings about guys like Mushroom, Null, and 7Spirals. They've been supportive for a long time but they were the ones that demanded he dance like a monkey at the start.

Crush is beneath those guys since he's always been obsessed with combat. Binary is obviously dead last. Footballish Ha. It's because Binary sucks.

From: Binary_Arcana To: Guest1007443 Subject: Congrats Congrats. You got what you wanted. You wanted to build a huge shitshow for your character to come out the other end stronger. You wanted something that would tie up all the loose threads in Frontiers so you could move on to another game. You got me brainstorming ideas on how to make your fic better. Does it feel good? From: Binary_Arcana To: Guest1007443 Subject:?? You're not even going to answer me?

After all the work that I put in to help with your shitty fic? From: Binary_Arcana To: Guest1007443 Subject: … You know what. Fuck you.

Z3ke's Character Sheet SKILLS Puzzle Intuition - Rank 2 You've begun to see the threads of life. Increased awareness of non-linear patterns Simple Melee Weapons - Rank 2 You've learned basic, unrefined skills related to handheld weapons like batons, knives, and improvised weapons. First Aid - Rank 3 You've developed practical emergency medical skills. Stop bleeding, stabilize serious injuries, splint fractures, perform small procedures, and improve a patient's chance of survival.

Athletics - Rank 2 You can move in an athletic fashion. Performance - Rank 7* You understand how to command attention. Music, speech, movement and timing have become instruments to you. Whether performing before a crowd, negotiating with strangers, or inspiring allies in a moment of crisis, you instinctively understand how to make people listen. Instrument Mastery - Rank 5* You possess a practiced familiarity with musical instruments.

What once appeared as a collection of strings, valves, and wood now reveals purpose, technique, and possibility. You can play, maintain, and weaponize musical instruments- both as tools of expression and as unconventional implements in the field. Persona - Rank 4* You have learned to suppress visible signs of fear, pain, or hesitation. Your posture, expression, and body language present as controlled and intentional. History - Rank 4 You are learning to see the world through the lens of the past.

You can begin identifying connections between people, cultures, and events, allowing you to reconstruct fragments of larger stories from incomplete evidence. Glyph Writing - Rank 3 You have taken your first steps into the art of glyph creation. You may now activate basic glyphs. Guns - Rank 1 You have learned the fundamentals of operating firearms. Improved handling, loading, aiming, and safe operation.

[DIMENSIONAL STORAGE SPACE Blanket Small journal Pencils Two forks One spoon Med-kit Canteen Flare Gun with 3 rounds Water Purifier Multitool Corva's Axe Flashlight Bedroll Matches and a Lighter Whetstone Hammer Shovel Crowbar Soap Sewing Kit Mirror Glowrods Rope Duct Tape Mess Kit Shearfang Guitar Harmonica