THREAD: Time to Call It?
NullSigil (Original Poster)
So…we calling it?
It’s been almost a week since Z3ke last posted. I keep logging in to check the thread, hoping that he’d pop back in with an update on his fic. And I keep getting disappointed. I’m thinking it’s dead. He hasn’t edited it or anything.
Feels like he just ditched the whole story.
PaperSnakes
Yea. I was kinda getting into it too. It was picking up steam. New readers were trickling in. It even got referenced in a couple threads in General Discussions and a few other sections. Someone in the new Deep Mechanics thread brought up the Barter Drain theory and linked it with the Eaters. The story was starting to spread.
Now we’ve got nothing. He’s that lawyer in Jurassic Park and we’re the young chick screaming “he left us! He left us!”
WanderPrism
I half-expected that he’d come back in with a post where he talks about breaking into the church and uncovering something horrifying there before booking it into the Deadlands. But…oh well. Fic fizzled out. It’s disappointing that we’re not gonna get any payoff from it.
TVEye
Maybe that is the ending.
He wrote a creepy fanfic with no clean escape or closure or anything. That was the ending he chose. It’s a slow fade to black and then silence. It’s sorta like the ending from Sopranos.
It would be on-brand with the whole horror vibe he was leaning into with regards to the Glens. He talked about the bell ringing in the middle of the night and the presence that was stalking him. Now we don’t get anything.
The lack of resolution is the resolution.
TBH, that would be incredibly underwhelming if it’s the case. I hated the ending to the Sopranos. When I first watched it I thought I forgot to pay my cable bill and my TV just shot off. It was some bosheet.
MushroomCleric
Yea…my last message to him was trying to suggest that he roll a new character if his Z3ke persona didn’t survive his escape attempt. That would have at least given us some closure to this story.
Actually…now that I think about it, that might be what happened. Maybe Zeke broke into the church and got caught by the Eaters, so now we’re just waiting for a new character to get “isekai’d” into the story and find Z3ke’s body in the ruins. A new user will pop in and be like “oh man, let me continue with this story. You remember Zeke and his fanfic attempt? It wasn’t bullshit. I just got isekai’d here and found his body and he got split in two and there’s so much blood.”
It could be like a torch-passing fic or something. Whenever this group gives him bad advice (like telling him to steal from the Eaters) or we don’t give him any advice, the character dies and we gotta wait for a new person to get isekai’d.
Ooo…a rogue-lite fanfic. That would be kinda cool. Siri, remind me to steal that idea for later.
Still, kinda disappointed. I thought we were building to something bigger. I was hoping for something more like I Love Bees and less “vanish without a trace.”
VeneratedWitchHunter
You thought that Z3ke was writing an I Love Bees?
Come on Mushroom.
Binary_Arcana
That was your first mistake right there. How do you still got hope for something new in this game?
TVEye
What’s I Love Bees?
MushroomCleric
Oh man, okay. Time for a quick history lesson on one of the greatest internet marketing stunts in gaming history.
Back in the early 2000s, Microsoft was trying to get people hyped about their new console, the original Xbox. They partnered with Bungie to release Halo and packaged it with their Xbox. You buy the console, you get a free game. Halo turned out to be a massive hit that basically defined the Xbox brand, so when it came time to launch Halo 2, Microsoft knew that they needed to go big.
Cue one of the most ambitious ARGs ever: I LOVE BEES.
When Bungie dropped the Halo 2 trailer, a few fans spotted a hidden URL in the footage. This URL led to a website: .
At first, the website looked like it was just about beekeeping and everyone was wondering what the hell it was all about. Why would Bungie make a beekeeping website? But eventually the website got “hacked.” A whole bunch of strange text showed up and there were hidden messages and bits of audio. The supposed site owner showed up and claimed that her website got infected by a virus…but fans quickly realized that something else was happening.
People all over the world started digging into this mystery. They decoded the messages and pieced together audio logs and started crowd sourcing theories and ideas about what was happening. About half a million people got involved in it. It was AMAZING! All the messages that got decoded were GPS coordinates that led to actual payphones. And the messages had time stamps too. When people showed up to the payphones at the right time, the phones all started ringing.
The whole thing was a massive, community-driven mystery that told the story of this AI called Melissa (or something) who had crash-landed on Earth and was trying to piece herself back together again. The only way she could communicate with anyone was by infiltrating a web server (that coincidentally hosted the ilovebees website.) Eventually, Melissa needed to fight off a virus that was trying to activate all the Halo rings in the universe, but she accidentally sent a transmission to the Covenant letting them know Earth’s location. And what happens in Halo 2? The Covenant invade Earth because they received Melissa’s message.
It. Was. Fucking. Amazing.
Half a million people were involved. The whole thing won all sorts of awards and was hugely ambitious and it tied directly into the game’s plot. I Love Bees still holds up as one of the coolest examples of viral storytelling ever done in gaming, and it’s one of my favorite video game moments ever.
For a second there I thought that Horizons Entertainment might be pulling something similar with Fracture. I mean, they haven’t done anything with the IP and I figured that they were quietly working on something new and that Z3ke’s thing was some kind of ARG or stealth-launch through this forum. Guess not. But man, I’d love to see something that bold again.
Binary_Arcana
Dude…no.
Horizons isn’t doing anything with the Fracture IP. It’s dead. They bought it and they’re just gonna sit on it. The last dev AMA was four years ago.
They shuttered the Syndicate’s Wake servers. They allowed the wiki to rot. They haven’t updated the support page in years. This forum is all that we’ve got left. Fracture isn’t coming back, and neither is Z3ke.
| it is one of my favorite video game moments ever. |
Mine is “Would you kindly…”
NullSigil (Original Poster)
^ Binary. A man chooses. A slave obeys. Such a good game.
Love your optimism Mushroom, but come on…nobody is bankrolling an ARG for a long dead MMO.
GrognarTheGreen
Yo, Mushroom. A friend told me that Blockbuster is running a promotion right now. They’re handing out free VHS tapes to loyal customers. You should definitely get in on that. Big future in it.
Binary_Arcana
You all are giving Z3ke way too much credit right now.
He didn’t ghost us because he’s roleplaying some mysterious death or making a rogue-lite fanfic. He bounced because he couldn’t figure out how to monetize the small bits of attention he was getting from this forum.
There was a tiny fanbase that was beginning to form around his fanfic. People were commenting on it and they were bringing it up in other threads and talking about the Eaters. But when he couldn’t figure out how to turn that attention into a Patreon and suck money out of the community, he bailed. It would have been way too much work for too little of a payoff.
VeneratedWitchHunter
Yea. Happens all the time. Someone creates something cool and it gets traction, but then they find that sustaining it would require a bunch of writing, worldbuilding, answering posts, and updating constantly. All of that requires a bunch of real effort and they don’t wanna put that much time into it, so they just vanish without a word.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
StoryLeech
Meh. I’m not too mad about it.
We got a solid chunk of eerie, speculative fiction that was compelling and addressed an oft-forgotten piece of Fracture lore. It sparked a few new theories and made people think about a section of the game that isn’t all that fleshed out. Nobody ever talks about the Deadlands or the Glens or Barter Drain or anything like that.
So even if his fanfic is over and done with, it mattered for a bit. That’s more than can be said for most of the fics that appear on this site. Those ones just fizzle out after three chapters and nobody really cares.
SignalLoss
Man this thread is all doom and gloom. But worry not friends, for I bring joy and that one thing that every fan craves…copium.
You’re all forgetting something incredibly important about this whole fic. Z3ke was committed to the bit. I mean, he was really committed.
He was going full-on Andy Kaufmann. Never broke kayfabe and was always reminding everyone that “this story isn’t a fanfic, it’s my life.” He was going on and on and on about how he’d been literally isekai’d into another world and that he didn’t know any of the lore and was asking everyone for help. That was the central selling point for his fic.
You’re all assuming that the story is over because he hasn’t posted in a while. But I think that he’s still overcommitting to the bit.
Last we heard, he was in the library and asking all of us for advice on how to leave Harbor Glen. I think it was Story who gave him two options: either walk out of town and into the Deadlands with nothing to help you, or sneak into the church and steal a bunch of the offerings and hope they give you a better chance at survival.
No matter which choice he ended up going with, he was gonna be leaving Harbor Glen and heading out into the Deadlands. But you all need to remember that the only reason he was able to post on the forums was because he found a computer in the Harbor Glen library that glitched out and gave him an icon that allowed him to sign into this forum.
If Zeke actually made it out of the Glens and is currently wandering through the Deadlands, he won’t have access to those computers. It’s not like he’s gonna lug a 1980s desktop around with him. Even if he did…where would he plug it in?
My theory is that he hasn’t posted in a couple days because he can’t. He’s still out in the Deadlands. So the question is: how long would it take for him to get from the Glens to somewhere he could find another computer that would glitch out and give him access to the forum?
NullSigil (Original Poster)
That’s…actually a really good point. You think he thought about that and decided not to post for a while?
If he’s sticking to the canon terrain from Syndicate’s Wake he’d be deep into the outer zones of the Glens right now. Most of the areas surrounding Harbor Glen are either wilds with no working infrastructure, or they’re Deadlands with a bunch of magic that screws with anything electronic.
His only real shot at finding anything that remotely resembles a computer would be either in the Null Protocol zones or in a few hubs that surround the Deadlands. The closest hub I can think of would be either Gearford or The MIZ. And both of those are quite a distance away from the Glens. Days of travel at least, and that’s with no interruptions or hostile encounters slowing him down.
Renfaire876
If he makes it to Gearford or The MIZ, he’s gonna be faced with another wrinkle. Would he even know what a computer looks like in either of those places? Gearford is mostly steampunk aesthetic and The MIZ has a bunch of memory slates and enchanted terminals. Neither one has what looks like a traditional computer and they aren’t going to be labeled.
If Z3ke is really RPing as a normal dude who got isekai’d into the Fracture-verse and doesn’t know the lore or anything then he might not realize when he’s near something that could access the forums.
PaperSnakes
I love it. Signal, you just made me believe again.
Imagine him standing in front of a massive glowing interface and he’s just squinting at it like it’s some kind of modern art installation. Meanwhile, we’re all here screaming into the void: JUST TOUCH THE DAMN RUINS ZEKE.
GrognarTheGreen
There’s no telling if any of the tablets or computers or anything that he finds in either Gearford or The MIZ could actually log into the forum. I mean, if this fanfic isn’t dead then he’ll handwave the idea and be able to log onto the forum again. But memory tablets don’t run on Windows 98. They aren’t gonna let him log onto a website that isn’t even hosted in the Fracture-verse.
MushroomCleric
See? SEE!?
This is exactly why I think this fanfic isn’t dead. If he keeps posting then there’s gotta be some kind of delay. He’s wandering through the Deadlands, searching for a way to get in touch with us.
I’m holding out hope.
Binary_Arcana
You’re holding out hope for a guy who either forgot his password to this forum, or he just got bored with writing the fic. I mean, no shame in that, but let’s not mythologize someone who is ghosting us.
Dude isn’t trying to pull some Andy Kaufmann thing where he’s real-time traveling through the Deadlands. He bolted. Make peace with that.
StoryLeech
So…he’s out in the middle of the Deadlands, probably traveling on foot. He didn’t have a bunch of survival equipment with him and he might be getting stalked by the Eaters. And if he gets somewhere with tech that would let him log into this forum, he’s too deep in-character to know what a magic computer looks like.
…I like it. Means he’s not gonna be logging onto this forum any time soon. He’s making us crazy with anticipation and then he’ll be back and we’re gonna be excited to continue the fic.
MushroomCleric
^Binary. You’re telling me that this man LARPed himself into radio silence and you’re not impressed?
C’mon man. That’s art. Dood is either a madman or a genius. Either way, this is gonna be epic.
Binary_Arcana
Or he wrote himself into a corner, got bored, and bailed.
Occam’s Razor.
SignalLoss
Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re wrong. But instead of just sitting here complaining that Z3ke hasn’t shown up, why don’t we do something constructive and crunch some numbers before we pronounce him dead.
Assuming that Z3ke is using logical distances in his fanfic (and based on how immersive he’s being, that feels like a safe bet) then he’d be traveling on foot at, say, 15-20 miles a day maximum. From Harbor Glen to the two closest places with tech that could conceivably allow him access to this forum would be either Gearford or The MIZ.
Gearford would require a westward route through the Western Hollows. He’d be dealing with quicksand zones, unstable and faulty bridges, scavenger and raider groups, and possible Eater attacks. The whole trip would be dangerous but doable.
The MIZ would require a much longer hike through much worse terrain. Add in the fact that the terrain between Harbor Glen and The MIZ is absolutely crawling with raider groups means that the trip would be longer. The Calatheri family attacks anyone foolish enough to wander through their territory, and they are much worse than anything that is in the Western Hollows.
The best case scenario for him is that either spot is conservatively a 4-6 day hike away. That’s if Z3ke is lucky and moving fast and doesn’t come into contact with anything that is dangerous. His problem is that he doesn’t have any food or water or survival gear or a mount. Plus, he doesn’t know about the terrain and he doesn’t have access to a map.
NullSigil (Original Poster)
Those estimates assume no interruptions.
The land around the Glens isn’t just wilderness. It’s filled with tons of scripted encounters and dangerous wildlife, and that’s not to mention that his fic is dealing with the Eaters which means he’s gonna be getting chased by them. I mean, why else would you focus on them so much if you’re not going to have some kind of big conflict with them?
Signal, you’re right that he doesn’t have a mount or gear or anything. If you look at %Percy’s post
Distances are going to be different for him than they are for us. The best case scenario is that it is gonna take Z3ke longer than six days to get anywhere. I’m thinking more like eight or nine. Worst case is that Binary is right and Z3ke just dipped out.
Fogbarrel
What about Nexora? If he’s going to travel anywhere and he’s searching for some tech to login to the forum then his best bet would be a Null Protocol zone. Nexora is filled with tech and everything would look somewhat similar to what he’s used to.
Wouldn’t that be a much better destination for him to head to?
NullSigil (Original Poster)
Nexora is waaaaayyy too far for him to travel to. We’re talking a minimum of 14 days of travel on foot. Probably much longer. And that’s not taking into account all the delays and the encounters that he’d have. If he was trying to make his way to Nexora he’d need some kind of mount or transpo to get there.
If Signal’s theory is correct and he’s RPing and committing to the bit, there is no way that a bartender who has never played the games and doesn’t know the world is gonna make it to Nexora. There’s no chance of him getting there from the Glens with only a few cans of food and no map.
Binary_Arcana
All this speculation is nothing but a waste of time.
There is no journey through the Deadlands. Dude just stopped posting. It happens every day. He tested the waters with his fic, saw the niche interest, and bailed.
StoryLeech
I don’t know about that. None of his posts read like someone trying to build a brand or make something that could earn him a bunch of money. They felt more…panicked. It was almost like he was documenting everything for us in the hopes that we’d help him out. He was really into the whole RP and isekai thing. That doesn’t scream “please like and subscribe” to me.
Plus, most people reading fanfics are gonna want more magic and explosions. There were already a bunch of complaints that he was taking things too slowly. If he was trying to build up an audience he would have punched out an Eater by chapter two.
PaperSnakes
Y’all are starting to convince me. He’s still out there and is going to be popping back into the forum any minute now.
PaperSnakes
Any minute now.
FogBarrel
If we’re ballparking distances:
Harbor Glen -> Gearford: 4-6 days. Route difficulty: high
Harbor Glen -> The MIZ: 5-7 days. Route difficulty: extremely high
Harbor Glen -> Nexora: 14+ days on foot, assuming nothing goes wrong. (Spoiler alert: it will)
So yea, if he can make it out of Harbor Glen and he’s walking through the Deadlands, he’s probably still traveling and far from any sort of computer. He could be holed up somewhere, waiting out a dust storm. Or he could be trying to avoid scavenger patrols. Or he could be fighting roving bands of hyenas.
TVEye
We should all be so lucky to disappear from the internet this dramatically.
***
Z3ke [last online: 6 days ago]
NullSigil (Original Poster)
Still no updates.
MushroomCleric
Look, sometimes a good fanfic just needs patience.
I’m still holding out hope.
***
Z3ke [last online: 8 days ago]
PaperSnakes
Any minute now.
***
Z3ke [last online: 9 days ago]
NullSigil (Original Poster)
Yea, I’m calling it
Shame.
***
Z3ke
Need help. Not a drill. Only got ~30 mins. Maybe less. Help.
In front of a terminal. Tablet? Floating rock thing? Glowing slab of maybe-tech that is bolted into a kiosk. Whatever.
I logged on but there’s a time limit for how long I’m allowed to use this thing. I’m in what looked like an underground train station and there are signs everywhere, pointing every which way.
Sanctuary Gate
Guild Zone - Level B
MIZ Transit Core
No clue what any of that means. All the signs might as well just be a “You Are Here” sign with a big middle finger pointed my way.
Haven’t slept for…I don’t know how long. Maybe two days. Maybe more. Time’s gone a little bit rubbery for me. I’m filthy. I can’t feel my fingertips which might be a sign of…anything. My lips are all chapped and cracked to hell. My skin itches under all the dirt that’s covering me. Everything smells like battery acid. The last thing that I ate was from one of the cans I found in Harbor Glen and it tasted like nightmares and sadness. The only thing keeping me from looking like a junkie is that I’m not doing the whole druggie lean that you spot everywhere you go in Brooklyn.
Also, I don’t wanna be an alarmist or anything but there’s a massive dragon here and he’s staring at me. He’s dead ahead. Gigantic. But he’s a bitch ass dragon. I spotted him through the window and he’s just perched there in the middle of the city…like an asshole. Such an asshole with his dragon wings and his scales. Hasn’t moved at all. I saw him the moment I got in town and figured that dragons all probably follow that stupid ass alpha mindset. So I puffed myself up and made myself bigger and shouted out a challenge to him to prove I’m not scared of his bitch ass. But of course I’m an idiot and about a mile away from him and he probably couldn’t hear me.
Of course, there is the chance that I’m just hallucinating the dragon. I’ve been wandering through the desert for a while now and I’m not in the greatest of mental states and I haven’t had a bunch of water.
If any of you recognize anything from what I’m describing, please drop me some directions. It’s gotta sound familiar to some of you. There’s a line forming behind me for this tablet thing and I don’t know how much time I’ve got left before people force me to log off.
I need to know where safe is. Where can I find food? Water? A cot that isn’t cursed? One of you is probably going to complain that I haven’t paid my upkeep yet and you’re going to want a story before you help…but seriously. I’ll write everything that happened to me over the last few days but you all will need to wait until after my brain starts working again. I just need some help here. Need an advance on the story. A lifeline. Anything.
StoryLeech
Holy shit he’s actually back.
You’re in the MIZ. It’s the Modular Industrial Zone. A big city that is focused on factories and economics and the like.
That dragon that you saw is actually a structure called the Roaring Drake. Underneath it is a pub that is run by a couple former adventurers. The dragon hasn’t moved because it’s not actually alive. It’s a taxidermied dragon that draws people in.
Good news is that you’re close to safety. Head to the dragon. The bar is your safe spot.
MushroomCleric
Dood. If you’re near the Roaring Drake then you’ve made it. The bar is run by a guy named Patch. Old-timer, ex-smuggler, gambler, all around cool dood.
Tell Patch that “Seviat owes him two tokens.” That’s a code phrase that player characters can use to get a meal and a place to rest for the night at the bar.
Don’t ask questions when you say it, just deliver it flat and tired.
TVEye
Someone drop him the link to the old MIZ survival thread. He’s gonna need it when he comes back online
NullSigil (Original Poster)
Here it is [MIZ_ZONE_Survival_v1.3.pdf]
Grab it when you can Z3ke. It’s a community-sourced breakdown of safe zones, shelters, and spots you can get equipment. It also has a few other tips and tricks you can use to make your way in the MIZ.