Nate

**Nate** is a character in The Smoke Room. He is a miner working for CSCG and an affiliate of Ben. He appears on Nikolai's route.

## Appearance

Nate is a slim blue jay with bright blue plumage, most notably on his arms and in a prominent crest on his head. He has darker blue and white feathers on his face and neck, including a freckle-like pattern just above his pointed gray beak, and black feathers on the back of his head and beneath his throat. He has gray eyes with notable bags beneath them and bushy black eyebrows. Nate has gray talon-like fingers, and is shown holding a pickaxe. He wears dark blue jeans held up by a brown belt with a silver buckle, a tan button-up work shirt. He keeps a holster on his right hip, presumably for his pick.

## Personality

Nate is selfish, cocky, and belligerent. He is particularly prejudiced against miners who are immigrants and unionists, frequently voicing his disdain for these and other groups and often attempting to intimidate them by threatening to involve the mine's management, which he knows will take his side, in petty workplace disputes. Motivated by his petty biases, Nate tends to thoughtlessly mock and pick fights even with those he cannot hope to compete against physically, which often backfires on him and leads him to develop even deeper grudges against those who retaliate.

## Story

### Prior to The Smoke Room

At some point, Nate was hired to work as a miner in Echo for the CSCG mining company. Based on his xenophobic treatment of Nikolai and Yao, he is likely not an immigrant himself. Nate works under Foreman Beckett Moore alongside his frequent companion Ben, as well as Nik, Yao, and several other union miners. Nate is likely a relatively experienced miner, since he is trusted with handling explosives.

Nate appears very dedicated to CSCG management and in particular seems to have aligned himself with the faction of workers personally loyal to company co-owner Gregory Briggs, which also includes Ben. As such, he looks down on the miner's union, viewing its members as entitled and disruptive, and tends to prioritize making money for himself and furthering his own standing within the company. He shares these traits with Ben, and the two seem to work together frequently.

### Nik's Route

Nate first appears on Sam's first day working in the mine, and quickly ends up in conflict with Nik. As Nik and Sam recover from an altercation with another miner, who yells at Nik and shoves them both roughly, Nate steps in to rudely point out that Nik's large frame is blocking the tunnel. Nik steps aside to try and let the other miners pass but Nate stays put, and again insults Nik's size while also calling him "foreign." Sam snaps back at Nate but Nik asks him not to cause trouble.

Suddenly, Nate seizes Nik's mining cap from his head. He claims that it is a fire hazard and therefore against safety regulations, and threatens to tattle to Foreman Moore about it. Before Nate can continue his taunts however, Nik grabs him and repeatedly slams him up against the cavern wall, stunning him, while instructing him to never touch the headlamp again. Nate is left dazed, and when Ben arrives on the scene to determine what has happened Nate just shakes his head, spits on the floor, and leaves without another word.

Later on, Nate is placed in the same work group as Ben, Sam, Nik, and Yao. Foreman Moore instructs Nate and Ben to carry out the detonations required for an expansion of the mine's tunnels.

After the union organizes a general strike, Nate volunteers to work an overtime "night shift" alongside Ben and another miner named Rogers, presumably in order to boost productivity for their bosses while the unionized miners are refusing to work. On the night before the National Guard is called into town to break the strike, Nate, Ben, and Rogers spend the night following the course of an underground stream into an uncharted section of the mine, where Ben insists that assays have indicated there must be hidden silver or gold. At Ben's insistence, they use dynamite despite the risk of causing a cave-in.

Nate's objections to this method are proven justified when Ben ends up detonating his way into a cavern that partially collapses around them, burying Rogers under rubble, likely fatally, and sealing Nate and Ben inside. Nate is horrified by Ben's negligence and immediately expresses concern about Rogers, which Ben brushes off.

Nate and Ben are then shocked to find Sam, Nik, and possibly Yao already present within the cavern. Ben is immediately suspicious, since nobody else is scheduled to be working at night and no one should know about the uncharted area, but Nate is primarily concerned with finding a way out and is relieved when Sam tells him the tunnel his group entered through leads to the surface and has remained open. Ben insists that he and Nate should try and blast their way out with more dynamite, however, and the two begin to bicker when Nate makes it clear he does not want to die for Ben's stubbornness and pride and would rather follow the others.

Subsequent events vary greatly depending on whether or not Yao was sealed within the cavern with Sam and Nik during the cave-in, which in turn varies based on Sam's choices throughout the route.

If Yao is present when Ben and Nate enter the cavern then he attempts to deflect suspicion by leveraging their expectation that he is a witless foreigner, bluffing with performative obliviousness that the bosses have sent him and the others on a fool's errand to look for dinosaur bones deep underground. Nate buys the ruse, apparently considering this plausible behavior for the mine's management, and Yao appeals to him for help, suggesting that with their knowledge of the exit route and the tools Nate and Ben carry they can all escape if they work together. Nate agrees, but just as he begins to approach Yao's group he is killed by Ben, who strikes him down with a pickaxe.

If Yao was separated from the group, Nate is initially more willing to listen to Ben's suspicions about what Nik and Sam are doing in the cavern and is openly, but he is still primarily concerned with escaping and balks at Ben's attempt to control the situation. Nik soon grows irritated at Nate and Ben's continuous disrespect and approaches Ben to ask for his tools so they can work together to reach the surface.

This gives Nate an opportunity to sneak behind Nik and once again steal his mining cap. He shoves and berates Nik for slamming him against the wall previously and then tosses the cap toward the fast-flowing stream coursing through the cavern. After Sam dives in to catch the cap and only barely manages to save himself from being washed away by grabbing onto a stalagmite, Nate responds by throwing rocks at him and laughing, and continues with no regard for Sam's safety until Nik physically slaps the stones from his hand. Instigated by Ben, who tells him not to let a foreigner push him around, Nate then punches Nik in the face twice. Nik reciprocates with just a single blow to the head and Nate immediately crumples and falls. After Nik rescues Sam, Ben points out that Nate has been killed by the blow, much to Nik's horror.

Regardless of how Nate dies, Ben initially plans to pin his and Rogers' deaths on the other group, and tells them that he will only allow one of them to survive to escape with him. However, his plan is interrupted by the appearance of a hulking, spiderlike beast that drops from the cavern's roof and seemingly begins to feed on something in the air around Nate's corpse.

## Relationships

### Ben

Nate and Ben are longtime coworkers. They share a degree of mutual trust and cooperate well with one another; after nearly maiming Sam with an errant sledgehammer swing, Ben deflects blame by claiming that he would not have made the same 'mistake' if Nate had been the one holding the spike steady for him to strike.

The two both place the productivity of the mine above the safety of their fellow workers, and are very interested in advancing their own careers by maintaining fealty to the mine's management in general and to Briggs in particular. Nate and Ben also share a disdain for the miners' union and for their foreign coworkers, often mocking them together, and Ben is able to goad Nate into antagonizing his own enemies by inflaming these prejudices in him.

Despite their shared ambition, it is eventually revealed that Ben is willing to go much further and risk much more to get ahead than Nate. Although initially presented as something of a lackey to Ben, Nate is willing to speak out against him and is horrified when Ben's recklessness puts them in danger and likely kills their companion Rogers. After the two become trapped by a cave-in that results from Ben disregarding safety concerns, Nate is horrified by Ben's single-mindedness and denounces his stubborn pride, and this failure to understand what Ben is truly capable of ultimately dooms him.

### Sam and Nik

Nate immediately takes an antagonistic stance against Nik and Sam and belittles them for their nationality and albinism respectively. He frequently insults their intelligence, particularly Sam's. After swiping Nik's mining cap and being physically overpowered by him in turn, Nate develops a grudge against Nik and does not hesitate to take action against him again when given the opportunity. He holds a similar level of disdain toward Sam, even thoughtlessly laughing and throwing rocks when doing so might endanger Sam's life. While less outwardly murderous than Ben, Nate has no regard for their wellbeing and actively attempts to spite the pair whenever possible.

## Trivia

* Nate was chronologically the first bird character to be introduced in an Echo Project VN, though he did not receive a sprite until after others such as Caldwell and Milo had made their debuts.
* The pattern of Nate's freckles superficially resembles the layout of 88883's eyes, possibly foreshadowing his ultimate fate as a meal for the monster. The eyes of 88883 are also repeatedly compared to stars, and against the black feathers of Nate's face his white pinpoint freckles look somewhat like stars in the night sky, further reinforcing this connection.

## Gallery

DefaultAngryAfraidNate covered in dust from the mine.