Branch of lionfish1212
Lionfish1212 was among the first Marked, you can read their whole story in the Chronicle of the Marked. They joined to the server to find Zampanio, which they played a lot as a kid. They remembered quests about a mermaid city. As the discussions progressed, it became clear that they are a highschool kid from 2012 (based on reactions to current events, memes and technology). For reference, the era of the Marked was actually in 2021. In the chat lionfish1212 gets more and more distressed about the whole situation as everyone starts to behave weird and losing themselves to Zampanio. Lionfish1212 wanted to leave, but couldn't, and the whole story ended with them being scared of being changed.
They had a branch that was later found. On the wiki page for "Maze" there was a note:
Lionfish is on devart. On tumblr.
Lionfish1212's Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/lionfish1212
It has a single image on it, with the caption: I found this picture I made as a kid about Zampanio.
The wiki also has a page titled "Labyrinth". It was edited by lionfish1212, and has the following text:
UNCOVERING EACH SUBSEQUENT LEFT-HAND OR RIGHT-HAND TURN, THE TRAVELER STEPS FURTHER AND FURTHER AND FURTHER AWAY FROM THE MEMORY OF THEIR ENTRANCE. A HUNDRED TURNS LATER, IT MAY BE FORGOTTEN IN ITS ENTIRETY. REALITY IS SHAPED BY WHAT IS CONCEIVABLE, AND THE LABYRINTH SWALLOWS UP ANY OTHER POSSIBILITY THAN ITSELF. IT DESTROYS BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS WITH INDISCRIMINATE DESIRE AND REPLACES IT WITH AN ENDLESS MIDDLE PATH THAT LASTS LONGER THAN THE HUMAN BODY CAN CONCEIVE. THE LABYRINTH IS NOT A THING OF THE FINITE WORLD.
EACH TURN IS ONE STEP REMOVED. ONE STEP BELOW THE SURFACE. IN ALL DIMENSIONS: THE TURN LEFT, THE TURN RIGHT, THE FORWARD PATH, AND THE DEPTH OF THE MIND AS WELL. BEHIND AND ABOVE ARE NON-WORDS. ITS HISTORY IS, TOO, AS UNKNOWABLE AND TWISTING AS THE REST OF IT.
The edit-history of this page has a comment: sites.google.com/view/f̸̨̢̞͙̝̣̩̲̭͓̠̲̙̍͗̀͐͗́u̶̯̝͕̭̗̣̠͓̜̅̿̅͛͜ͅŗ̵̧̤̺̩̘̒͒̍̐̋͊̋̽̓͂̂́̈͘͠t̵̛̝̹̍̃́̀̿̋̉̂̓̐̊̏͝h̸̡̛̘̜̞̙̠̬͍̪̀̃̎̈̔̋̅͊̊̏̕e̶̼̙̝͓̙̖͇͎͍͊͛̓̾̚r̴̘̭͐͊͂̉̄̐̒̏̿͋̏͑̈́͝f̴̖̙̻̜̯̜̖͔̗̲̝̘̓̍̋͝ͅų̸̤̝̟̈̌̓̆̌̈́̽̑̊r̵̨̨̫̝͍̯̱̬͉͖͂͆̅͋̌̎͛̔͌̅̏̔̿̊͝t̶͓̖̹̩̤̥̣̯̺̟̪͛͛̓̅̈́͜͝ͅh̴̡̫̻̜̳̩̆͌͌͗͑́̌͐̐̎̎͋͘͜͝è̶͇͎̼͎̭̰͚̘̿̊̇̀͝r̶͓̞͙̼̞̪̠͖̼̰͕̫̮̊͒͆̃̚͘͠f̵̛̤̦̱̲͑̂̉̈́̑͘͜͝͝͝ǘ̶̢͚̩̩̱̔͋̇r̷̡̩̖̋͗͋̇͂̋͊̀͗͂͝͝t̶̨̛̟̰͓͓̩̫̟͔̹͚̫̬̽͐̾͛͊̍̇̚ͅḩ̷̨̗̼̘̪̫̖̫͓͇̰̯̏́͑̈̒͗͐e̵̛̬̺̜̲̯̽̐̀͒͑͒͛̈́̇͆́̆̾͠ṙ̷̡̹̠͎̹͔̳̪͖͔͔͓̖̆̓f̶̭̔̈̐̅̒͠ṳ̷͈͈͎̀̄r̶̢̟̼̳͎͈͈͚̟̮̙̳͎̟͛̐̍̆̂̊͂͐̏̓̎͒͠t̵̼̞̬̬́̈́̀̔̄͒̇̿͌ḣ̷̓̏̽ It also has an edit-comment with the text "1-3. 2-8. 4-8." If you view the text as a book cipher (first number is the sentence, second is the word), the numbers give the following words: SUBSEQUENT, FORGOTTEN, DESIRE. Pasted into the google sites link, they lead to a webpage:
https://sites.google.com/view/subsequentforgottendesire
The site has the following text:
mnzcnavbguebjnjnl ghzoye pbz
see me.
THE STORY REVOLVES AROUND FIVE HUMANS: JAKE, MARCO, CASSIE, RACHEL AND TOBIAS, AND ONE ALIEN, AXIMILI-ESGARROUTH-ISTHILL (NICKNAMED AX), WHO OBTAIN THE ABILITY TO TRANSFORM INTO ANY ANIMAL THEY TOUCH. NAMING THEMSELVES "ANIMORPHS" (A PORTMANTEAU OF "ANIMAL MORPHERS"),THEY USE THEIR ABILITY TO BATTLE A SECRET ALIEN INFILTRATION OF EARTH BY A PARASITIC RACE OF ALIENS RESEMBLING LARGE SLUGS CALLED yeerkS, THAT CAN TAKE ANY LIVING CREATURES AS A HOST BY ENTERING AND MERGING WITH THEIR BRAIN THROUGH THE EAR CANAL. THE ANIMORPHS FIGHT AS A GUERILLA FORCE AGAINST THE yeerkS WHO ARE LED BY VISSER THREE.
THROUGHOUT THE SERIES, THE ANIMORPHS CAREFULLY PROTECT THEIR IDENTITIES; THE yeerkS ASSUME THAT THE ANIMORPHS ARE A STRIKE FORCE SENT BY THE ANDALITES, THE ALIEN RACE TO WHICH AX BELONGS THAT CREATED THE TRANSFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, TO PREVENT THEM FROM CONQUERING EARTH. TO PROTECT THEIR FAMILIES FROM yeerkS REPRISALS, THE ANIMORPHS MAINTAIN THIS FAÇADE.
The page title is a rot 13 cypher, it translates to "zampaniothrowaway tumblr com". Which is a working link: https://zampaniothrowaway.tumblr.com/This blog requires a password, whish is "yeerk", the only non-capitalized word of the above text. The following is the content of the blog in chronological order. The blog"s title is "lol", the posts are separated with lines.
Content of the Zampaniothrowaway blog
i survived: A Fucking Creepypasta Fever Dream
Going into this, you’re gonna need to know two things:
1) It felt real. It felt really, really goddamn real.
2) There’s no way that any of this shit could possibly add up.
So, back in 2011, as a wee sixth-grader with much too unrestricted access to the internet, I joined a forum about finding and discussing niche games, specifically for a game called Zampanio. The Zampanio section was semi-active throughout that next year; though we all had different experiences of the game, there were a couple throughlines (multiple people had a scene involving meteors, there was frequently a companion, it was usually a JRPG-style game) and we all enjoyed humoring the folks who came in trying to find Zampanio quite a bit. Forum activity declined steadily over the next year, until the first activity after two weeks of radio silence was an invite to a Discord server made by someone trying to find information about the game.
Mind you, this was in late 2012.
You see the problem here?
(Side note, I distinctly remember going through the account-creation process in 2016 during high school, which is when my account’s age is set. I’ve checked. I would be happy with the explanation that I somehow backdated a bunch of weird memories in my head if I didn’t fucking understand the Discord UI from memory, like real, actual memory, back when I joined my first server. I don’t remember doing any account-creation stuff back in Zampanio time, but then again, it wasn’t on my radar.) So I join this Zampanio server full of people way older than kid-me, which, looking back, was the first red flag in a Color Guard of warnings. (Another side note: their standard for introductions was a few years ahead of what most of 2012 was like, which ended up being my first exposure to they as a personal pronoun, which I’m pretty sure turned me nonbinary. Go figure.) To my knowledge, it started as relatively-normal as you can get on that side of the internet, which is naturally full of weirdos at the outset. I joined expecting it to be a Skype-group equivalent of the forum, where I could feel important via fielding questions from amateur internet sleuths. For a while, that’s what I got: a couple people who played sharing “testimonies” for the benefit of the people who were looking to collect information on it, plus the server owner trying to make a “ZampanioSim” for some reason. I don’t think anything ever came of that, actually. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have time to.
It’s normal for like a week as far as fucked-up internet environments go (if you’re a survivor of 2016 tumblr, you Get It) with people trickling in slowly as the days go by. Then, a couple of things happen:
1) the server owner discovers a powerpoint of Zampanio screenshots.
2) like eight people show up to a screensharing party to view them
3) the powerpoint somehow launches a game of Zampanio, and we all watch the server owner play it
I describe this in as much detail as I can possibly remember because I’m pretty certain that this was the exact moment everything went to shit.
That night, I have a nightmare about the companion character from my playthrough of Zampanio saying some fucked up shit, and when I log back onto the server after school the next day, everyone’s different. The server owner’s personality changed dramatically (which definitely could have been roleplay, but as a kid I didn’t think of that,) and everyone who used to be interested in the game has gotten a lot more feverish about it. All I remember about the next few days is it getting less and less coherent from everyone around me, eventually even the few people who held out thinking it was a hoax the entire time. I also message some mysterious server member who tells me that Zampanio is corruptive and it’s all real and she’s too powerful to be affected or some shit, which only scares me even more.
During all this time, I’m having either a bizarre dream or a terrifying nightmare every single night about some twisted version of my own playthrough of Zampanio years before. Sometimes it’s scary, sometime’s it’s completely faithful to how I remember it, and sometimes it’s just a vaguely-connected entirely different dream.
After a couple days of what eventually crosses the line from three-am-typical rambling to full incoherence by pretty much the entire server, people start to disappear. Like, radio silence, full stop, and in their place is a whole new crop of people that all join in like a twelve-hour period who don’t even know what happened and don’t believe me when I try to tell them to run and that it’s a nightmare out there.
And then the server vanishes without a fucking trace, and so does Discord from my computer, and so does the old forum from the internet, and I never have a Zampanio dream again.
So like. What the FUCK happened in seventh grade.
#/d/1ickA80x4TkVc7OSkDWBpxX6MmtLxu7yDOotAk6oXj6E
yes i drew this when i was like 10. shut the FUCK up.
apparently some bizarre ass web spider uploaded it?????????? onto deviantart???????????? under my old username????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
i swear the moment i open pandora’s box it stops leaving me alone. hate this shit.
#babe get in we're taking chronic Ls
having a good day. love and light <3
#theyre going to find me.
#i can see them they're going to find me
#and they're going down the path i made and getting themselves lost
#like i'm supposed to do! i'm doing a good job
#and they'll all see that i'm doing a good job
#but that's how you shamble when what happened to me happens to you
#i already took the plunge now i'm hitting the water
#and it's icy
#and it's glorious
#and i'm losing my fucking lungs
sorry for ever trash talking you pandora
#mood #heyyyy wanderers #sorry about the mess #ignore all the stuff that isn't mysterious and intriguing #you know you wanna #all the angst is irrelevant minotaur's promise #you're safe to leave that FAR alone and go for all your shinies
.
#hi #i guess you could leave #you're not gonna #but you could still walk away from this mess before it has you in its claws #people have saved themselves before #wishful thinking
So this was the content of the blog. The tag on the first post is "/d/1ickA80x4TkVc7OSkDWBpxX6MmtLxu7yDOotAk6oXj6E". If this is used as a google docs link, it gives the following document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ickA80x4TkVc7OSkDWBpxX6MmtLxu7yDOotAk6oXj6E/edit
Which is titled "hug the left-hand wall", and only contains a single link:
https://uquiz.com/quiz/V5rmpm/but-the-cardinal-directions-are-nevertheless-transposed
This is a uquiz. Each question is titled a day of the week. Its content is the following:
but the cardinal directions are nevertheless transposed
Quiz introduction:
taking a left turn then a right then a left again the traveler finds the concept of end-in-sight slip away like water
SUNDAY
-i slumber through the last ray of light fitfully
-i do not sleep at all
MONDAY
-i hold her hand instantly
-she is distant when i greet her
TUESDAY
-sky of fire
-sky of ice
WEDNESDAY
-they look at me expectantly
-they do not see me
THURSDAY
-i cannot stop it
-i cannot stop it
FRIDAY
-oh, my bleeding heart
-i have yet to live
SATURDAY
-i return to the old path
-i walk with my eyes shut
Possible results:
BURNING UP
EVER-REACHING AND UNCHANGING. CONSUMING AND CONSUMED. 1/2: /playlist/6f316OdBMVSjy0i7
STASIS
DRIP DRIP DRIP. OSCILLATING. LEAVE ALONE. 2/2: JGh2da?si=07b2c84add1f4652
If you put the two strings from the results together, you get a spotify link:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6f316OdBMVSjy0i7JGh2da?si=07b2c84add1f4652&nd=1Its title is
jams to get lost forever to
Its description:
wanna become a parody of yourself? wanna feel like every step you take is just a little bit more shambling and just a little bit more horrific? you've come to the right place! if you've found this, you've already accelerated that happening to me via making me a minotaur, but whatever. have fun 🤪
These are the songs from the playlist, I put them onto my ultimate Zampanio playlist:
CHVRCHES - Never Ending Circles
Ribs - The Crane Wives
London Grammar - Stay Awake
Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers
Flatsound - I Exist I Exist I Exist
Sir Babygirl - Haunted House
METRIC - "Help I'm Alive"