CB-Otaku
Man…fuck Corva.
MoronicMnemonic
My thoughts exactly. I was reading through Zeke’s update and getting attached to the Blooming Witch. I was learning her history, learning her grief, watching her finally start to question the one thing she’s dedicated centuries of her life to, and then this asshole shows up and burns her house down.
There are layers to it, I’m sure. Just as I’m sure someone on here is probably going to write an essay about grief, obsession, and tragedy and then post it here. But right now my position is very much that Zeke needs to kill Corva.
MIZHistorian
^Moronic. I know Corva is supposed to be a sympathetic villain - what with his daughters and wife and whole village getting bubonic’d - but I’m waaaaay less on his side now.
The Blooming Witch is basically the same as Corva. She spent centuries doing what Corva is trying to do. She devoted her entire being to preserving the people she lost. Eventually she realized that she couldn’t fully bring them back, and then what happened?
Corva knocks on her door, listens to her history, has all the flaws to his own plan pointed out, and then immediately turns round and burns her shit to the ground because she won’t help him.
The whole point of the memory she trapped Zeke in was all about how she had embedded herself in the House, then Corva figured it out and killed her. Dick move man. Total dick move.
Mithras131
If there were any redeeming aspects to Corva, they’re gone now. Also sounds like every time he body hops he’s forced to lose something or be altered by the conflict in weight, which means if he’s been doing this a while, he’s pretty much all obsession because it’s what defines him. Sad way to live. Doesn’t make him any better though.
The_Spanish_Inquisition
It’s a shame really, this mentor figure, this guy who used to be able to do no wrong was actually the worst possible individual to interact with when starting out in the game. But this also explains all the mood swings and changes. Each death, each new life? Bits of him are stripped away until all that remains is depression and obsession. It wouldn’t surprise me if the hate of the people he’s taken over also adds onto his own self-loathing. One final bit of revenge as they’re swallowed whole.
MushroomCleric
Okay, but is she actually dead? Zeke made it sound like she built an echo of herself in the House before it all burned to the ground.
We know echoes can preserve memories and personalities. More importantly, we know that the Blooming Witch is the person messing around with echoes. You’d think that if anyone in Frontiers could create an echo that’s got all of her, it would be her.
She might not be dead. She could still be around.
NullSigil
Oh Mushroom. It’s okay. She just went to a farm upstate where she can run around with all the other Blooming Witches.
Last_admiral
| She might not be dead. |
So…does this mean we will get a Blooming Witch X Zeke?
Kelasgre
I really hope that’s the case, haha. Joking aside about the shipping, I thought she had a very likeable personality, and I’d like to see her as Z3ke’s partner so she can be a recurring character and provide some “contrast.”
Mchiavelli
| Blooming Witch X Zeke |
Already working on it. The current draft is that the Blooming Witch and Corva were actually married a long time ago. Both of them became obsessed with bringing their daughters back to life after the plague destroyed their village, but they ended up taking different paths on that goal.
Corva was focused on resurrection and the Blooming Witch was focused on Echoes.
Then Zeke arrived and he teaches the Blooming Witch how to love again. She slowly starts to move on with a combination of Zeke’s patience and loving embrace. Corva sees this happening and he realizes that he’s losing her for a second time and he goes absolutely mental. It’s why he hates Zeke and tries to kill him. It’s also why he burnt down the House of Seasons.
It’s a tragic love triangle spanning centuries. Honestly, I’m a little surprised that Z3ke didn’t think of this first.
Presperosity
| I’m a little surprised that Z3ke didn’t think of this first. |
It’s surprising how much of his fic lends itself well to romance. I wrote a romance fic about the Eight Day Thunder from Dahel’s lover’s POV and it was one of the best received things I’ve posted here.
Imperial_Fister
I wonder if there’s a way that Zeke can take the Blooming Witch with him. Connect his threads with hers, or her with him as the case would be. I’m also not quite sold on the term of ‘weight’ just yet, I think something like ‘threads’ or ‘strings’ would be better. Taking bundles of thread and weaving up an echo.
TKTK_tktk
The original theory used the term weight for a reason. People thought that a sufficiently advanced space mage would literally be able to feel the presence of a person in the surrounding area. It was supposed to feel like gravity. That’s where the term comes from. But I do agree that threads would be a better word for it.
RedRumRedRum
| immediately turns around and burns her shit to the ground because she won’t help him. |
The worst part is he actually listened to the criticism she had of his plan. She literally pointed out all the ways his plan was doomed to fail, Corva understood it all, and he still said “yea…gonna do it my way though.”
He didn’t try and argue that she was lying or crazy or wrong. He knows his family is going to come back incomplete, but he’s still going to do it. That’s the type of person you can’t argue with and it makes him so much more dangerous.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
|Okay, but is she actually dead? |
I think she is. After the memory ended, or whatever she did to me degraded, I woke up back in the room with Elnor standing over me, looking confused as hell.
He said that the Blooming Witch echo had walked up to me, touched my forehead, and then just vanished. I got the same blank, white-eyed look that he gets whenever his psychometry kicks in and it stayed like that for a while. He kinda knew what was happening because of that, but he was still getting worried because this vision was taking much longer to finish than what he normally experiences.
When I came to I was on the ground and the Blooming Witch echo was gone. Elnor and I poked around the place afterwards, hoping to find her again and ask her a bunch of questions. We checked the nearby rooms and the halls and a bunch of other areas but we couldn’t find anything that helped.
As for whether she hid more of herself through the House…I don’t think so. The whole place feels so much different now. I know that’s incredibly vague and a bunch of you guys are gonna complain about that, but I don’t really have a better word for it.
The first time I got to the House there was this sense that there was something living here. Looking at the stairs that led to the second floor, I could feel a predator that was up there just waiting for me to slip up and start poking around where I wasn’t. Now it’s different. It feels like something important is missing.
The rooms are still here and the staircase is still here and but…if you were like Jackie who was just exploring the place without having seen what it was like back when I first came here, or if you were like Elnor with the psychometry, then it might feel like you were just walking through an old ruin. I think because I saw it the way it was I can get a better feel for what it is now.
I just read all that back and it’s horrible but I’m not gonna delete it.
I’ve also been thinking a bunch about the Witch. I’m not sure what I’m most bothered by here. It’s not that she’s dead. At least, I don’t think it is. That kinda sounds terrible to say out loud, but I feel like I’ve become somewhat inure to death the longer I’ve been stuck out here.
Before all this, death was something that was distant in my life. My parents died and I’ve lost a few people over the years, but it still felt like something that happened to other people. Now though? I killed those two bandits on the train. Pell was killed by Corva and we “killed” him. I killed the scavengers who’d ambushed us in the Crushed Skirt. A bunch of random people died fighting the Reclaimer and a bunch more were killed in the revolt I caused back in the Chapel Pit and I watched a bunch of Black Teeth get sucked up into the storm while they were chasing after us.
I’ve seen enough people getting killed over the past month or two so I’m starting to get used to it. It’s not exactly the most comforting thought though.
What’s really messing me up isn’t the fact that the Blooming Witch died or that I’m partly responsible for it. No, it’s that she spent her last moments of life trying to preserve a whole bunch of information. When she realized that Corva was going to win and burn her House down and then head down to the Glens to meet up with the Eaters and enact his plan, she spent all her remaining energy hiding her research and burying a warning for whoever would stumble across her House.
Everything she did at the end was an attempt to hide info about the Eaters and make sure someone understood what Corva was trying to do. It just so happens that I’m that someone and, frankly, I don’t know how to sit with that.
There’s a big part of me who looks at Corva and thinks “this asshole is my responsibility.” I’m the one who told him about the House of Seasons and I’m the one who failed to kill him back at the Valley. If the Blooming Witch died because she refused to help him, and if she spent her final moments trying to pass on important info that someone could act on, then it’s hard not to think she’d expect me to do something about it.
On the other hand, there’s a niggling voice in the back of my head that’s saying that Corva isn’t mine to deal with. I’m not some superhero who’s a moral paragon of virtue. It’s actually something that Elnor said and…I’ll get to it in a bit. I’m just gonna say that I’ll ask you all for advice at the end of this and I know there’s gonna be a good amount of you telling me everything I already know; that Corva is making his own choices and the guilt isn;’t mine to bear and I’m not responsible for saving everyone and instead should just look after me and mine.
Whatever. I’ll let you all argue that.
After I got pulled out of the memory, Elnor and I eventually migrated our way back down to the foyer and we called out to Jackie. When she rejoined us, I told them both what I’d just seen.
Jackie had spent the past couple hours wandering through the House trying to find anything useful that hadn’t already been destroyed. When she came back to us she told us she was only able to scrounge up a single canteen of water, and she passed it off to me to store away in my storage space.
We sat in the foyer and I told them both everything. I explained about the House and the Blooming Witch and her centuries of researching echoes. I explained about weight and all the theories you all have about it, and what the House really was and what the Witch had done to herself. When I got to the part where Corva showed up at the front door, I had to explain my own history with the man.
Elnor mostly just listened patiently. He’d already been able to collect bits and pieces of the story because of his psychometry. He knew about the fight that had happened in the House and I’d told him about my past with Corva and he knew this all meant some horrible shit was probably about to go down that we’d all get suckered into.
I was mostly telling the story to Jackie, and the deeper I got into it the more concerned she became. When I got to the Eaters and told her they were monsters living out in the Glens who’d chased me and ate identity and memories and the like, she had the expression of someone listening to a ghost story.
I told them that about Corva wanting to use the Eaters to resurrect his family by recovering enough fragments of their memories from relics and items, and then rebuilding something. According to the Witch, it’s not really possible. According to Corva, it doesn’t really matter. Then I told them about how Corva was heading off to the Glens.
Jackie was quiet for a moment, just taking in the story, and finally she asked a single question.
“Why?”
I let out a slow breath and started sharing the story that Corva had told around the campfire. I talked about his wife and daughters and the village and the centuries of grief that had turned into an obsession. I only got a few sentences in when Jackie shook her head.
“No no no,” she said, waving her hands in front of her. “I understand all that. I just…I don’t understand why anyone would do that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, why go to the Eaters at all?”
She looked genuinely confused and I realized she wasn’t asking for clarification. She was able to follow Corva’s “logic,” such as it was. She understood that he’d lost his family and had spent years trying to get them back, but she couldn’t see how you would go from that to dealing with the Eaters.
Apparently there’s some stories about the Eaters back in the MIZ. The stories don’t mention the Eaters by name, but it’s close to it. Jackie said that if you spend enough time out in the North Coil bars, eventually you find people willing to tell stories about their time out in the Deadlands. Most of the stories are bar stories. They’re half-lies or they’re something like ‘a friend of a friend told me about this and he was there.’
The Eaters are one of the stories that not a lot of people talk about. They’re treated like ghost stories and no one ever explains what they look like or what they’re searching for, but everyone knows about the monsters that steal names and memories and leave people hollow inside.
So to Jackie, when she heard someone was going after the Eaters, it didn’t sound like a good plan. It sounded absolutely and utterly insane.
With that, the conversation kinda died off. The three of us sat in the foyer surrounded by the wreckage of the House, listening to the occasional creak of the old wood. I think we were all just sitting with our thoughts and trying to process what all had just happened.
The Blooming Witch was dead. The House of Seasons was dead. Corva was out to make a deal with some ineffable evil out in the wilds. And we were wondering what that meant for us.
Elnor was the one who finally broke the silence. He’d spent most of the conversation staring off into space. I know you all might be thinking he was still feeling the side-effects of the pod or whatever, but I’ve been around him enough over the past few days to say that it’s kinda hard to tell when he’s thinking hard about something or when he’s accidentally been distracted by whatever weird shit his psychometry was picking up.
“The thing is,” he said slowly, “none of this really has anything to do with us.”
Jackie and I both look at him and he noticed our confused expressions and immediately raised his hands.
“Look, I;’m not saying that what happened here doesn’t matter. And I’m not defending this Corva guy. He sounds like a complete lunatic. I’m just saying that some random psycho heading off towards the Glens doesn’t automatically make it our responsibility.”
His words hung in the air and I could see Jackie thinking about it.
“We’re not heroes,” he continued. “We’re not responsible for the Glens and we’re not responsible for Corva. We’re definitely not responsible for the lives of every strange who might cross his path.”
Jackie folded her arms and I rubbed at my forehead but neither of us interrupted because…well, he wasn’t wrong.
“Alls I’m saying is that this world is shit.”
That caught me completely off guard and I let out a short laugh.
“The Deadlands are filled with disasters. Settlements disappear, raiders wipe people out, slavers grab anyone they can find, monsters crawl out of the ruins and the Storm flattens everything else.”
“Well…it used to flatten everything,” interrupted Jackie.
“That’s what I’m saying though,” said Elnor pointing her way. “Out here we’ve got monsters. We’ve got nature, the Black Teeth, raiders, scavengers, the Shard Choir, and the Storm. There’s always something else. As far as I can tell, we killed the Storm and we stopped a second Fracture from popping up and that was our good deed for the century. We saved a bunch of people and that’s great and all, but being a hero doesn’t pay our bills and it doesn’t keep us alive.”
I could tell this hit a chord with Jackie. Elnor wasn’t really the cynical type. If anything, he’s a much better person than he pretends to be. He was there beside me in the Chapel Pit and he made sure that, once they had the jeep, they swung back around to get me. He was there with me in the pod even though whenever he touched anything he’d get hit in the brain with a bunch of traumatic events. Whenever shit got dangerous, he was there. It made it difficult to dismiss everything he was saying.
Before I could argue, Jackie abruptly cut in.
“It doesn’t matter anyway.”
Elnor blinked at that. “What doesn’t?”
“This whole discussion. It doesn’t matter because we might not even be able to get out to the Glens.”
“Uh…what do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, this House has useful stuff. I was able to scrounge up a few tools and some bits and bobs, but none of it fixes our real problem.”
“And what’s that?”
“Fuel. We’re running low. Lower than I thought. Water’s become a problem too. I don’t know how much you’ve got squirreled away, but it’s probably not too much. It’s not an immediate issue but…soon.”
I frowned. “How bad?”
“Not to the point of catastrophe. Yet. But we’re headed in a direction where it’s not looking good. If we’re careful, we might be fine. If nothing breaks, nobody steals from us, we don’t get lost, and we don’t need to make a ton of detours, then maybe we can get close to The MIZ.”
The fact she kept saying words like if and maybe didn’t really make me all that eager about our situation.
So…that’s where we’re at right now. We’ve got fuel, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to get us to the Glens or The MIZ. I know that the Glens were a bit of a train ride away, but I couldn’t give you the distance in miles. I also don’t know how far away The MIZ is either. I was on a bike and dehydrated for most of the ride.
Now I need your help. What should we do? Where should we go? Is there anywhere close by that could help?
The more I’m thinking about this the more pissed I’m getting. Maybe pissed isn’t the right word. It just feels that, two or three months after getting to this world and I’m once again stuck out in the middle of the Deadlands asking you all for directions.
CrushDaddyXx
As much as I hate to say it (because it’ll lead to no punching and kicking) Elnor is probably correct. Corva isn’t something you need to be chasing after. You should just get out of dodge while you still can. You already took care of the Second Fracture. Let the next group of heroes step up and deal with the psycho.
StoryLeech
You know…now would generally be the time that a Primary would come in with some advice or a well-thought out plan.
SpicyShoyu
Please tell me we got a new primary for this and it’s not still ReCoil.
Chick8da_swarm
Problem is that it’s not really a good place to get a new Primary. Zeke’s mid-adventure and whoever would be next in line is kinda limited as far as options go.
Crums/Nectar
At this point we should just let Elnor be the Primary AND the Proctor. He’s trying to talk Zeke out of jumping heroically into the breach, and I for one am glad someone is giving him warnings that he doesn’t need to be Superman out here, hunting all the big bads.
Raj
| someone is giving him warnings that he doesn’t need to be Superman |
His character then disregards all those warnings and uses it as fuel to do the in-character stupid thing and descends anyways, all so that he can explore something he didn’t want to explore in the first place.
(slow claps) Truly Zeke, I hope you remember this the next time you tell us we don’t have your best interest at heart.
Silentcrusader
| it’s not still ReCoil. |
You all need to stop with the ReCoil slander. He’s here to give us a good time.
Hyacinth
TBH I love ReCoil, his writing style adds so much fun to the story.
Footballish
Is fun really the word you want to use there? Because it’s not what I would call it.
SmokeStackMalloy
I’m gonna play devil’s advocate and say that Zeke actually learned something really important. He learned how his Class is supposed to work. Rockstar was basically a giant blindspot that no one had a real clue to work with.
I doubt that Zeke would actually find himself in a similar situation where he would actually be curious or desperate enough to really test out how he could play with his and the audience’s emotions using Persona. Cause Zeke is pretty damn contrarian most of the time so he’d likely say he would need to actively research magic to do bardic things and spend 20x the time to learn it, before he actually plays before an audience.
Wolololololo
ReCoil almost got Zeke killed and we all know it. Sure, we found out about the whole Second Fracture thing and I love it, but if you’re gauging primaries based on how much they’ve helped Zeke and not the forum, ReCoil is close to the bottom of the list.
ReCoil44 (Primary)
A sapling does not become a mighty tree because another tree shelters it from every storm. It becomes strong because it is exposed to the elements and learns to endure them. Every challenge Zeke has overcome has contributed to the person he is becoming.
Would he have preferred that some of those lessons arrived through less dangerous circumstances? Certainly. Yet the fact remains that growth is growth.
Should Zeke wish for more guidance, I would be willing to extend my involvement and provide whatever assistance he needs.
StoryLeech
Translation: Zeke may die, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
HandsWithoutArms
Elnor is 100% right. The mystery is solved. The Blooming Witch is dead. The House is dead. Corva is gone. Zeke uncovered a crazy truth and survived the experience. The Eaters don’t need to be coming back into the story. For once in one of these fics I’d like someone to make the rational decision.
Zeke is basically the final girl in a horror movie and you’re all shouting at her to run up the stairs instead of down the block towards the police station.
MinMaxMike
| For once in one of these fics I’d like someone to make the rational decision. |
Rational decisions are for losers. Zeke’s story would be sooooooo boring if he only made rational decisions.
HandsWithoutArms
Live is boring. That’s why people survive for so long.
MangoChutney
Imagine reading all those chapters of a guy wandering through death traps, cults, ancient ruins, and supernatural disasters and suddenly deciding that now is the moment he should become sensible.
Binary_Arcana
There’s another choice here. Zeke doesn’t have to chase after Corva and he doesn’t need to leave him entirely alone either.
CrushDaddyXx
GOD DAMMIT. Grave, you might as well just give me the ban now.
Byte-Sized
What the hell are you doing here Binary? I figured you’d run off with your tail between your legs all butthurt because Zeke countered your trap and uncovered massive lore.
JimothyTheBarber
Hey Binary!!! Remember when you tried to get Zeke killed and he turned it around and found the secret to Rank 11 and now is getting ALLLLLLLL the credit for it? Oh man, that was hilarious.
ELEVEN!
SpanglyBanner
Uh…Eleven!
Can someone tell me why we hate Binary?
GrognarTheGreen
JEEZUS. Grave…once you’re done with Binary, can you do something about all the nubcakes? They’re harshing my buzz. We need stricter moderation or something.
Grave, can you make it so that only people on a whitelist can post? They have to have had their accounts for longer than a year before they’re allowed on the forums.
Nudvik
I think the current plan of aggressive moderation is probably the best way to deal with it. A sticky post where an admin explicitly breaks down the rules of posting won’t stop bad actors, but they won’t be able to keep doing it. A restriction on account age to stop spammers is also likely needed. Something like a whitelist with only pre-approved posters would stop someone like Foppery participating.
FopperyandWhim
What?! What did I do? I still want to post.
InnerMarrow
And so you shall Foppery. And so you shall.
MushroomCleric
Zeke, don’t listen to anything Binary has to say.
Binary_Arcana
I’m just saying that you’re all treating this like Zeke only has two options, either chase Corva into the Glens or ignore everything and return to The MIZ.
Those aren’t the only options and they’re not even the best option.
The Pale Regiment maintains a substantial presence throughout the region surrounding the Glens. They have supply depots, logistics stations, forward operating bases, fortified settlements, patrol routes, communication infrastructure, and numerous smaller outposts.
They’ve spent decades building up a support network out in the Deadlands capable of supporting operations in one of the most dangerous regions. If Corva is moving towards the Glens, they’re going to care about it. Double so if he is attracting dangerous attention towards their territory or interacting with the Eaters.
StoryLeech
| interacting with the Eaters. |
I seem to remember you being one of the loudest voices at the beginning of this whole fic, saying that the Eaters weren’t canon.
Caboodle
STOP TRYING TO GET ZEKE KILLED BINARY!
How about you head over to a different forum. I’m sure SpaceBattles would love to have you. Or maybe 4chan. They’re more your speed.
Binary_Arcana
I’m not trying to get him killed. I’m saying that Zeke has information that the Pale Regiment might want. He knows about a dangerous individual who is able to hop bodies. The Pale Regiment would buy that information off him, and he can trade it for fuel and water and supplies.
The Pale Regiment gets sicced on Corva and Zeke gets to head back to The MIZ.
PixelBaron
Dick says what?
AnywayHeresWonderwall
Yo Binary, you have to know that there’s nothing you can say that will get Zeke listening to you, right?
NullSigil
OMG, Zeke, I’ve just come up with my most brilliant plan yet. It’s really complicated so try and keep up.
You DON’T go chasing the immortal body-hopping necromancer who just burned down the House of Seasons and is currently marching to team up with monsters who eat your name. Instead, you do something that none of the people on this forum have ever considered before.
You let someone else deal with it.
I know, it’s a revolutionary new idea.
You are currently low on fuel. Water is becoming an issue. The Blooming Witch is dead and Corva is halfway to the Glens right now and you’re wondering what can be done. Well, have you ever considered the Pale Regiment? They’ve got so many bases and outposts and soldiers out in the Deadlands that you’re bound to run into them if you go looking.
You, my friend, have something that they would desperately want. You’ve got firsthand information about who Corva is, where he’s going, why he’s going there, and what he hopes to achieve. You know about the Eaters and what Corva did to the House.
Here’s the plan: you drive to the nearest Pale Regiment base. You tell them about an ancient immortal lunatic who is headed to the Glens because he believes monsters that consume memories can help resurrect his dead family.
Then you ask for fuel, maybe some food and some water, and some boxes of ammunition while you’re at it. The Pale Regiment gets useful intelligence. You get supplies. Corva gets a bunch of soldiers pointed in his direction. The Blooming Witch gets avenged. Everybody wins. It’s the perfect plan.
StoryLeech
Hmm…I’m liking it. That’s probably the smartest thing anyone has said all week.
UnhelpfullyHelpful
This is why Null was the best Primary so far.