North Rabbithole

Ovvious exit: http://farragofiction.com/ZampanioSimNorth/

The North rabbithole can be reached with clicking the rabbithole image behind the menu. It's blocked by defalut. The methods to do this:

• The basic way is to complete the skill tree. You win, the credits roll, and now the way to the rabitthole is not blocked anymore.
• Alternatively you can use the console, if you want to go there faster. Right click, choose inspect element and find the console tab. Type setCreditsMode (value=true) into it, press enter, and the credits will roll immediately.
• Or you can take the most wasted way, and delete the whole menu. Use inspect element, make sure you are on the "Elements" tab, find the one named ThisIsAMenu (you can use ctrl+f), and delete it. It doesn't block the rabbithole now, so you can click it.
• The Method of the Guy™ is also efficient. If you zoom out enough, the way to the rabbithole will be free.

When you arrive, the following text greets you: You are down the rabbit hole. It does not end. If you know important words, you may enter them here.

At the end of the credits you were given the password "The Truth is Layered". If you write it into the "Type Important Words Here" field, the page will show an image, or more correcly, a fake black and white cctv feed. Now if you open the console, you can read there the text associated with it. The same will happen for every passphrase.

If you write in some text that is not a passphrase, it will show you a default image of an empty basememt with nearly illegible letters. These letters are actually the text you wrote in encrypted in Al Bhed. The substitution of each letter is written into the code notes.

The most significant portion of the passphrases are from the discussions of the Marked, the first generation in the discord. To summarize it, pepole gathered to talk and theorize about Zampanio, found real copies and things got pretty weird after that. (The whole conversation can also be found in my archive, if you are interested.) Many images are also from the discord, JR, TG and CD looked for Zampanio in Roblox, and this was documented in the voice-spam channel.
I will explain the origin of the ones I know.

Now, how do you find passphrases? Actually there is no real, intended way for this apart from searching through the code. Theoretically you could read through the discord and try to type in random characteristic text fragments from there, but I don't know anyone who actually did this.
(If you start digging, you might find something called "passwordlist.0bc3099d.txt". This is a fake. There are some correct passwords among them, but it's either an abandoned first draft or a red herring.)
If you search in the right place, under js->CanvasFuckery->PasswordStorage.ts you will find some notes and the actual, real passwords, neatly collected into a pile.

The associated texts can be assemblied into longer stories, and there are also a few standalone ones. I added a table of content to make navigation easier. (The Herald also collected the password results, their documents are archived here too. If you would rather read the Herald's commentary instead of mine, you can find it here. Or you can read both, who wouldn't want to read more Zampanio content?!)

~The Watcher of Threads

Content
Code Notes
List of Passwords
Ronin Rambles
Jeffery's Tapes
Dionysus and the Pirates
JR Rambles
Miscellaneous

Code Notes

//but JR can't people just get into these passwords without finding them "the right way"?

//bold of you to assume that THIS isn't the right way and all other ways are cheating

//hack my shit

//i dare you

//if you want to SHOW UP then what you do is figure out where these passwords are leaked :) :) :)

//if anyone can explain the origin of each one you'll unlock secret content directly from me

//hell, if you can even do a majority I'd love to hear it, in all sincerity. I love hearing people find my work interesting :)

//look, okay, al bhed from ffx is something that for *some* percent of the population feels in their bones

//so this will drive home a nagging sense of familiarity, that it MUST be important

//at the same time when you look at it in writing it's gibberish

//but when you hear it spoken it flirts with being just phonetic english with an accent

//it vibes perfectly with the sense of misleading truths and lies with a core of truth

//ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

//YPLTAVKREZGMSHUBXNCDIJFQOW

//https://lingojam.com/AlBhedTranslator you're welcome
export const albhed_map = {
"a":"Y",
"b":"P",
"c":"L",
"d":"T",
"e":"A",
"f":"V",
"g": "K",
"h": "R",
"i": "E",
"j": "Z",
"k": "G",
"l": "M",
"m": "S",
"n": "H",
"o": "U",
"p": "B",
"q": "X",
"r": "N",
"s": "C",
"t": "D",
"u": "I",
"v": "J",
"w": "F",
"x": "Q",
"y": "O",
"z": "W"

each password has a cctv feed (or at least a list of animation frames loaders (src and duration)?), an optional voice section, an optional text section (print out under cctv ffed)

List of Passwords

THE END IS NEVER
THE END IS NEVER THE END:
THE TRUTH IS LAYERED
BEWARE OBLIVION IS AT HAND
THERE IS SERENITY IN CLOCKWORK
DODGE THIS MOIST PIMP
LISTEN TO THE TICK OF SECONDS
IT WILL GUIDE YOU WHERE YOU BELONG
SECRETS ARE MORE SUSTAINABLE
THE LONGEST TEXT EVER
MERMAID CITY
SCANLATIONS
RIP GRUMPY CAT
ALL THEORIES ARE VALID
HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK WAFFLES COST
DO YOU TRANSVERSE MAZES CLOCKWISE OR COUNTERCLOCKWISE
DO YOU TRANSVERSE MAZES CLOCKWISE
COCONUT MALL:
VERIFIED FACT
BLATANT LIE
CONTEMPORARY OF PONG
METEOR SHOWER:
THE SUSAN ISN'T THERE
GO TO ZEUS TO PLEAD FOR HER LIFE
SAY IT TO ESCAPE:
PSYCHIATRIC HELP
THE DOCTOR IS IN
IT
OMG EASTER EGG LOLOL!!!!!!111!!1
MEDIAFIRE MYTH
ECHIDNA:
BALL OF SIN
CLEAR YOUR MIND
ZAMPANIO IS A VERY GOOD GAME YOU SHOULD PLAY IT
THE MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE
217
THINK LIKE A SMITH
TOY
PLANT MORE TREES

Ronin Rambles

THE END IS NEVER

"The end is never the end" is a reoccurring phrase in ZampanioSim, often appears in mysterious conversations, it appeared coded in binary in the North if I remember correctly, it' in the gopher, it appears in fanfictions and fanworks a lot. It is also a passphrase for an audiolog and a paldemic.
http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/?passPhrase=the_end_is_never_the_end
http://www.farragofiction.com/PaldemicSim/login.html?passPhrase=the_end_is_never_the_end
Originally this is a phrase from Stanley Parable, but Zampanio made it it's own.

The image is an abandoned computer with a screen from a now defunct Friday Night Funkin mod, you can find the assets here:http://farragofiction.com/Downloads/ or watch a stream of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB3YZoJjYL4&t=7395s

The audio is music from the mod, it's called " Wattathon".

Ronin Rambles

~~~~~

Tch. Disappearing forms? This is stupid. Should've shocked her instead. Now THAT would've sparked her memory.

...get it? Sparked? Whatever. You can't even hear me, can you.

~~~~

Oh, great. The victim's a crackpot and your new friends are absolutely fucking useless. This case really is just getting better by the minute. Even then, if he was somehow RIGHT, which he isn't, what does he want you to do, handcuff the ghost?

~~~~

The forensics chick is the first one I'm cuffing the moment I am given the chance. I don't care if she's not part of the case, I don't care that she's a cop, and I don't care what you think about it. I'm starting to think she's the reason we've been fucking refilling pens for weeks, and I'm going to shock her once for every pen in that box.

~~~~

...

Him. He should keep talking. He needs to keep talking. Zap him if he stops talking. Dad needs to know everything.

~~~~

God damn it, you idiot. Zapping is for people, not for CAMERAS. She's going to find you out, and then we'll have to-

Wait, no. She was the one who brought out that tazer earlier, wasn't she? Maybe...

No, that means she would ESPECIALLY notice. Or not? Fuck, kid. You're on your own.

~~~~

A memory core? Oh, excellent.

No, seriously. If there is a single being in this shithole town we can trust besides Dad, it's OURSELVES. Then, maybe you don't have to do all the work carrying these fucking loons.

~~~~

You have her in your hand. You have her in your fucking HAND. IT WOULD BE SO EASY TO SHOCK HER. OH MY GOD JUST ZAP HER ALREADY.

~~~~

WARRANT

+ war•rant. wȯr-ənt.

Definition of WARRANT:

- a precept or writ issued by a competent magistrate authorizing an officer to make an arrest, a seizure, or a search or to do other acts incident to the administration of justice.

...oh, huh? Oh, don't mind me. Just looking through our FILES on POLICE TERMS. You know, because food isn't an integral part of the administration of justice, or fucking, whatever.

Who am I talking to? I KNOW you can't even fucking hear any of that, and Dad accidentally locked all those files, so only I can open them. Shouldn't be a problem. You should know that by now.

...you do KNOW what a warrant is. Right?

You don't. Of course you don't. Fuuuuck me.

~~~~

...

No. The meme of the soul can't be WIPED. Dad's work can't be WIPED. This is bullshit. Someone must've DONE something to it. Slammed it, broke it inside, what the fuck ever. Someone is onto us. Someone is onto US. We're going to find whoever erased the core and we will HAND them over to the judge beaten within an INCH of their MISERABLE FUCKING LIFE.

~~~~

...thanks, dad.

~~~~

God DAMN IT, kid. The perp gets away, this bartender is bullshit, this bar is SWARMING with criminals. These two fuckers aren't doing anything. ANYTHING. Focus. FOCUS.

~~~~

THE END IS NEVER THE END

Same origin, same image as the one before

The music here is called " turntablist".

Ronin Rambles

~~~~

God DAMN IT, kid. The perp gets away, this bartender is bullshit, this bar is SWARMING with criminals. These two fuckers aren't doing anything. ANYTHING. Focus. FOCUS.

~~~~

It's so simple. It's so fucking simple and you don't even SEE it. All you have to do is follow that motherfucker. It's so...

...wait a god damn minute. Can you... what the hell?

...holy shit you can actually hear me. I can't-- I haven't--

Okay, not the time for ME to freak out, now. Hey, asshole! Good to hear you. Be you? The details are really not important here. The IMPORTANT THING is that's a perp you're letting get away.

What the fuck are you waiting for?! Do you think the kleptomaniac and the drunkard are going to do it? If anyone's going to stop a criminal here, it's YOU.

Go, go, go!

~~~~

Aaaand we're back to the slaughterhouse. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Think I should be angrier-- nope, no, I an extremely fucking angry about being back here. Not like it matters. Perp wasn't even caught, dude just ran off. Barely got any info out of that.

Fuuck. I'm... sorry? I can't possibly be sorry. Do I seriously think I FAILED you? That is actually impossible, you don't even know what you are DOING.

Ugh. Whatever. Carry on, etcetera.

~~~~

Seriously?

FUCKING SERIOUSLY?

~~~~

Is it, now?

- Find npc.strangeTallRussianMan

- No matches were found.

Huh. No, I guess we ARE on the same page on that one.

~~~~

See, now this is the part where I tell you this bitch is suspicious. I am throwing my feet on the fucking wall right now, leaning back and shit. Seriously. The one person who could possibly get into this guy's house, where we found a scrawled note about them coming for it, all ominous-like? Rando sources, OBVIOUSLY CREEPY FUCKING RUSSIAN GUY, suddenly very okay with being outbid for the book or whatever after they're DEAD, and also we found blueprints of them in that guy's house? USUALLY, I would say cuff that bitch on the spot, but clearly that doesn't work anymore now, or whatever.

So go off, fucking, I don't give a shit.

~~~~

...say, not like you ARE listening anyway, but how come a bunch of disappearing magic artifacts leave huge fuckoff pentagram signs that burn thirty feet deep into wood? I thought the whole point is they were about erasure? Leaving a huge mark that shows you exist seems kind of, I dunno, really fucking stupid.

...that. That is not a metaphor. By the by. This is NOT some kind of call for help. I leave a thirty foot fuckoff mark because some people just deserve to be zapped, and that is final.

Not like. You would KNOW that last part. You never remember the whole zapping bit.

Ugh. This shit is getting to me again. Watt logging out.

~~~~

Oh shit. Here we go again.

~~~~

Why'd the fucking lights go off.

Jeffery's Tapes

THERE IS SERENITY IN CLOCKWORK

When everything started to get really weird in the discord, AttendantWatcher said "First: There is serenity in clockwork. Listen to the tick of seconds. It will guide you where you belong."
The image is a picture from Roblox edited on a television that is left on a bed. It's about a big eye-like tower.
There is a ticking audio.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 1: Day 1

...hey, is this thing on?

I am Jeffery Lowe, an archivist of the Zampan Census Bureau. I am [REDACTED] years old, and as of right now, I am charged with digitizing an old archive.

I don't like people. They are noisy and nosy. Data isn't noisy, and neither is it nosy. It doesn't pry at you with questions. It doesn't demand time, it only takes it. At least my coworkers understand that I don't want to be bothered by them, and I don't bother them in return.

My coworker left for a vacation a week ago. Sometimes they leave emails I have to respond to. I don't mind that much. At least it's not in-person.

LISTEN TO THE TICK OF SECONDS

When everything started to get really weird in the discord, AttendantWatcher said "First: There is serenity in clockwork. Listen to the tick of seconds. It will guide you where you belong."

There is a ticking audio.

The image is about an abandoned television with an image from the Roblox game in it. It's a wall with an eye built on it, CD stands in the foreground.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 2: Day 2

I'm twenty or so entries into this mess. It seems like it was a more-or-less ordinary census, dated...roughly two hundred years ago. Full name, age, race and ethnicity, address, income, education, faith, whatever. There are some weird questions on the reverse, though? One of them asks about the respondent's favourite toothpaste flavour. Did they even have toothpaste back then?

We can't automate this, unfortunately. The handwriting is atrocious and unscannable, so I have to copy it into the database by hand. I could use some help, but everyone's really busy with their own urgent stuff.

Some of the sheets have coffee stains on them. I swear, whoever stored them was a slob.

IT WILL GUIDE YOU WHERE YOU BELONG

When everything started to get really weird in the discord, AttendantWatcher said "First: There is serenity in clockwork. Listen to the tick of seconds. It will guide you where you belong."

There is a ticking audio.

The image is an abandoned home with a television with an edited screen (I can't make out what's on it) and a skeleton seagull from LOMAT.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 3: Day 16

It's been more than two weeks! I am roughly halfway through - nevermind, it's only the first drawer. I hate these drawers.

When I clock out at five, I have to make notes about my progress. I think it looks steady enough, for now? I just need to keep copying data and I'll make it through, eventually.

Clarence showed up in my room and offered me donuts. I took one. He didn't do that before. I don't like to be disturbed but a caramel donut is a caramel donut, and at least he isn't too talkative.

I stayed overtime today because I spent too much time on my break and I'm falling behind my quota. The boss won't be salty but it matters to me. The quota is, after all, self-imposed.

SECRETS ARE MORE SUSTAINABLE

I have not found this one. Copper_Floss said things about how the whole mystery about Zampanio was mostly created by the members in the server they were in the past, and it reminded me of that, but doesn't contain these words. TunnelGhost talks about secrets in myth games in roblox, but again, not this phrasing.

The image is an abandoned television with an image from Roblox edited on it. It depicts a monster built on a wall with three different colored eyes.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 4: Day 21

I found Clarence's response. His name and age, accurate to this day, although it says he's married when he isn't and has never been. Some other details are accurate, but a lot of answers are wrong. One of the reverse questions lists his eyes as blue when they are green. Sure, it's not the Clarence I know, but I should probably talk to him, just in case he's playing a trick on me. It's his day off, though, so I'll do it tomorrow.

Otherwise, I'm doing well. Met my quota at four in the afternoon. Guess I can copy some more of these.

THE LONGEST TEXT EVER

It's from jr's old website: https://www.angelfire.com/falcon/flamingchickens/abcd.html

Parts of it were used in the knucklessux blog, in an audiolog, it appeared a few times in the code, there is also an lte fandom in Jackelope.

The image is a simple abandoned televison.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 5: Day 22

Clarence laughed it off and pointed at the data. The census is indeed dated two hundred years ago. Then he offered me another caramel donut, and suggested that I leave my area more often.

It isn't funny, I did not forge the response. It's authentic. He said that it might be a coincidence. Maybe it is a coincidence, but maybe it is not. I should just put it aside for now and focus on my work.

I'm running out of coffee capsules. I need to get more for the machine. I need coffee to function, sadly. I don't even work much...

MERMAID CITY

Lionfish1212 talked a lot about mermaids in their playthrough of Zampanio, see the whole thing in the #testimonies.

The image is about an abandoned television on a bed.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 6: Day 24

I found a copy! Janice Rose, listed as Janice Wallace several entries ago. They have the same first name, eye colour, date of questioning, reverse questions and answers, but wholly different ID and zip codes. Weird. They even have matching coffee stains and paper damage.

I've asked the boss what to do about these, and he told me to write it off and keep both of them. They may as well be different people, given everything. I need a break.

I mean, it's not as if it's the weirdest thing I have seen while working. These Janices may just be similar people whose responses were stored together.

SCANLATIONS

IronicOrnitologist on the discord said
"I met my friend Truth on while trying to find scanlations for Donald Duck comics from Topolino. They didn't really like Zampanio, but they were obsessed with it. We were mainly friends who asked weird intense personal questions about each other."

The image is an abandoned television on the street.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 7: Day 25

Found a Jeffery Lowe. I initially thought it's a namesake, but all obverse responses are accurate to who I am.

It's me. What the fuck?

There is a coffee stain, with a light pencil scratch in the center. It better be a practical joke, and whoever is responsible better own up to it.

There are no questions on the reverse. I don't know what I could have expected.

I asked Clarence, who is the only person who goes to my room anymore, and he called it a very accurate replica. I swear to fucking god if it's Clarence I am throwing him out of the window.

THE SUSAN ISN'T THERE

AttendantWatcher said in the discord that "During my third playthrough it just spawned a computer in the maze with an open developer's console. I tried to mess around with it but it broke down almost immediately and I had to reload it, and the in-game console no longer responded to the inputs because "The Susan isn't there", whoever Susan is."

The image is a simple television in a room.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 8: Day 30

I found another Janice, a mistyped copy of the two previous Janices, with the surname of a coworker of mine. Janice Lowell.

She does recognize herself, and says that my obsession with making period-accurate, coffee-stained replicas is worrying. Wait, marked?

The coffee stain harbours three letters and two numbers. I don't know where I have seen these before, but I probably did because I remember them.

Janice also brought me a cup of soda. I'm very glad that my coworkers aren't too distracting, and I should probably buy them all something.

An order of pizza should do.

RIP GRUMPY CAT

Lionfish1212 mentioned grumpy cat in a conversation, where it slowly became obvious that they are from the past. The others talked about the death of grumpy cat.

The image is an abandoned living room with a television.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 9: Day 32

I bought everyone pizza. People are very glad that I'm reciprocating their kindness. Neat.

I have never noticed, but apparently Janice is married, and her maiden name is Rose. I asked her if she's been married to someone whose last name was Wallace, and she froze.

I explained that I found a duo of census responses, but she wasn't too inclined to believe that it isn't just a coincidence. At least she doesn't think I'm a stalker.

Weird.

I have also found another copy of Clarence's census. I don't care what they say, there's something weird going on.

ALL THEORIES ARE VALID

This was among the first set of rules on the discord.

The image is about an abandoned television on the street.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 10: Day 41

I found two weird ones today.

The first one is Quinn's response, accurate to the last point, with their ID in the coffee stain. I haven't seen Quinn for two months...wait, why does it list their duration of stay as that?

The second one is mine, with a misshapen triangle in the circle and an unanswered question on the reverse.

"Do you traverse mazes clockwise, or counterclockwise?"

Fine. Whatever. I quit in three weeks either way. Counterclockwise goes into the database. Who cares, it may know that Jeffery Lowe traverses mazes counterclockwise for all I care.

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK WAFFLES COST

AttendantWatcher said about their copy of Zampanio that "Occasionally, a savepoint fairy will ask you a dumb question, like "How much do you think waffles cost?" and you will have to answer to save."

The image is about an abandoned television on a corridor.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 11: Day 46

Fuck, I really can't afford quitting my job. This means I'm staying. The boss doesn't parse what's going on and finds it practical jokes. He says he can't allow me to be let go and we're going to be short-staffed if this goes on.

I looked over Quinn's again, and found a floor plan of a room. I copied it into a notebook. It looks like a generic room, with an entry pointing towards the coffee stain.

I also found the seventh instance of my response, with the question and my response being filled in. Okay, this isn't funny. I'm going to bring this up with the boss tomorrow.

DO YOU TRANSVERSE MAZES CLOCKWISE OR COUNTERCLOCKWISE

From the Herald's document: "This is a question on Jeffery Lowe's weird census response in these very tapes, but that says traverse, not transverse. (Apparently it's a typo?) Also appears in the bio of this Twitter account as well as the second chapter of An Odyssey Of The Return To The Change Of Days."

The image is about a television in a log cabin.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 12: Day 47

Boss fell ill with acute pneumonia. Guess it's up to me to dig this up.

Clarence got sent abroad for whatever reason. Some problems they can't fix remotely. Then it's gonna be the quarantine.

His copy asked him about exposure to the disease, and there's another ID and another room. I'm arranging these together and they...well, they don't fit, but there's some place between them to let them fit.

I had to leave my area to get donuts. Damn, my entire diet is coffee and donuts at this point. This can't be good. I should start eating more veggies if I don't want to have heart problems.

DO YOU TRANSVERSE MAZES CLOCKWISE

Same as the one above, the image is identical too.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 13: Day 51

Found a perfect copy of Janice's response, and filled in the plans of another room. At this point this reminds me of our floor.

I've filled in four questions at this point. The responses are replicating themselves. I need to figure out what is going on. I need to figure out what is going on.

The archive's entries all have reverse questions about mazes. Paths, algorithms, minotaurs, I don't know why. I may just be going insane.

I don't think anyone else showed up at work today.

COCONUT MALL

From the Herald's document: "Coconut Malled" is a Mario Kart shitpost. SmeargleUsedHex posts a seemingly unrelated troll video at the beginning of the Zampanio Discord's #meme-spam channel that turns into Coconut Malled when downloaded. Notably, the passphrase is mall instead of malled for some reason.

The image is about an abandoned television next to the ruins of a bed.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 14: Day 63

I figured out that the coffee stains only have IDs inside for those who used to work at Zampan, and these are also the sheets that house their names. Janice's ID, however, wasn't inaccurate, she just was employed twice under different IDs for whatever reason. I also don't have an ID; there are only numbers.

It's my copy number 112. I find them roughly once each three hours, no matter whether I skim through past ones or look through them carefully. Whatever is going on isn't mundane.

Magic, however, doesn't exist and is stupid, so I don't know what to say. I've filled in nine questions already. May as well go all the way through and wait for the tenth.

METEOR SHOWER

More people on the discord said that their version of Zampanio had a meteor shower scene, here is the conversation:
lionfish1212: what does meteors mean in the rules channel? O_o
arcaneArchivist: pretty sure its a reference to the meteor shower part in zampanio? then again i'm starting to doubt that i actually played the "real" version if that even exists :P
attendantWatcher: It is a TTRPG term for the GM summoning a meteor to retaliate against a very specific player over some slight, I think
jadedResearcher: lol sorry ill change the language but yeah essentially "rocks fall, everybody dies", its a refrance to another fan game i made
lionfish1212: o.o okay!!
jadedResearcher: plus yes, Zampanio ref from a meme i found
lionfish1212: like the meteor shower scene?
lionfish1212: that didnt hurt anybody though it was just pretty
jadedResearcher: noted! the memes i had found (where did they go ...) probably were joking and making them seem more dangerous than they were then

The image is about a sky full of falling stars. [It's really nice, very different from most of the other images here.]

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 15: Day 69

The office is a maze. Of course it's a maze.

It took me forever to notice that the IDs trace a path through the rooms. I just need to draw it and walk it counterclockwise, because I traverse mazes counterclockwise.

I need to wait for everyone to leave. Not just feel like anyone is here. I need to make sure nobody sees me, because I will need to break into the director's room.

I'm doing it today. I just need to wait for Nate to go home already. Dude has always been pretending he's being overworked and I fucking hate him for this since he doesn't do jack shit.

VERIFIED FACT

The description of the #official-pile channel is "You can consider anything in here a VERIFIED FACT about Zampanio."

The image is a simple abandoned television on the street.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 16: Day 70

Yesterday, I walked the path I traced through the archives and picked the boss' lock. I found a blank census sheet, with a tea stain.

What a stupid joke. It's him. Of course it's him. Of course he's been gaslighting me and everyone else.

I just filled it out. All questions on the obverse, nine on the reverse. I still don't know what the tenth is.

He came to work today, and I confronted him about this. He said he has no idea what's going on and that he hates coffee.

Of course he'd lie to my face. I'm going to do it again.

BLATANT LIE

It's a tag on the fanfiction "An Odyssey Of The Return To The Change Of Days". I was also told that BB says this on the radio.

The image is about an abandoned television on the street.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 17: Day 71

Moonlight shines through the windows. I am walking the same road. I enter Janice's room, and backtrack immediately. I turn on my heel, and rotate twice. I grab a donut on my path to the boss' room, and peek into the closet.

I enter the boss' room.

I fill in the sheet again. I flip it.

There's the tenth question. I know that I should answer "yes", because that is the correct response to the tenth question. But I shall not respond to it in the expected manner. I shall stop this.

I pick up my pen, and fill in "no".

CONTEMPORARY OF PONG

Since Zampanio is said to be created in 1972, this makes it the contemporary of Pong. People brought it up several times on the discord, and discussed how would it be possible to have such a complicated game be designed so early.

The image is about an abandoned computer in an empty building.

Jeffery's Tapes:

Tape 20: Day ???

I clock in at nine in the morning. The air is cool. I just need to finish this archive. There's only one entry remaining undigitized.

I flip it, and find a coffee stain, with a dotted zero written with a pencil in the center. Sigh. Vandalism.

I copy all there is on the obverse, starting with the name and ending with the occupation. I haven't met other Jeffery Lowes before. Nice to know you by proxy, namesake.

I flip it to reverse, where the coffee stain is. Ten questions, ten answers. I fill them in.

Farewell, paper archive. I am finally done with you.

Dionysus and the Pirates

GO TO ZEUS TO PLEAD FOR HER LIFE

In the discord Sierra and Sammi were twins. Sammi played Zampanio a lot alone, and at one point she went missing. Sierra was worried, and when she opened the game it didn't let her proceed, only showed this sentence.

The image is from the Roblox game, it shows a wall with "say it to escape" written on it.

Dionysus and the Pirates:

Hey, I just found something that you will love! While I was in the system hub waiting for my transfer to Cypres I decided to go bar hopping. I was low on cash and didn't want to go through the hell that is transferring savings on an out-of-network station, so I went cheap with it. In some dingy nook-in-the-bulkhead place that was just a bar and a couple tables between some pipes and an emergency bulkhead I found fucking gold. There was this dingy guy leaning on the counter nursing a big cup of some cheap swill.

Now yes, I know that the general rule in these places is "don't ask don't tell" but this poor bastard looked absolutely shell-shocked. Not depressed, or anxious, but properly shell-shocked like he was a grunt on a border gore mudball eating slugs for breakfast. Mega-klick stare and drinking with a shaking hand, the works. Something had obviously terrified him, and there's always a good story in that, and I know you love good stories. It's a long one, he went into a lot of detail and let me record it exactly, but trust me it's worth it.

So, I buy him some more booze, still just fermented piss but a slightly more expensive brand that what he was drinking. Don't get excited it was something only available on that station and I don't remember the name anyway. I was expecting to have to butter'em up, get him to spill the spuds. But no, it was like he was waiting for someone to hear his story. He takes the drink and asks, "What do you want."

You could hear the terror in his voice, he was legitimately terrified of something. At this point I felt bad for him, I was about to tell him to just keep the drink and then go somewhere else. But I realized that he wasn't terrified of me. That was my second hint that this would be great. Now you know that I'm a big guy, if this dude had done something boring like owe some gangster money or get into it with the regime of some mudball he would've been on the lookout for strange, big, muscley, handsome men like myself. But it wasn't me he was afraid of.

So, I tell him, "What happened to you?"

For the first time he faces me, and you can tell by his face that he's seen some shit, and says, "You don't want to know"

I couldn't help myself there, I chuckled.

"I'm serious", he says

I apologize and tell him that everyone says that, and that whatever follows it is rarely worth the severity of the warning. He chugs the rest of the cup, slams it down, "Okay"

Then he freezes and stops for a moment, "Wait you probably won't believe my story anyway.", he shrugs, "Probably for the better."

I ask him if I can record it and he says yes. So I set that up and he gets right into it.

I was a pirate. Was. I'm not risking that shit anymore. Not sure what I'll do now. Anyway I was a pirate. Specifically, the helmsman on a retrofitted cargo ship. Under captain Gregor. No last name, that I know of at least. We all just called him, "Captain". A few times I overheard the first officer call him Gregor. We had been prowling around the Edge, going back and forth between pioneer worlds and the mudballs. Intercepting supply ships bound for the pioneer

SAY IT TO ESCPE

This is from the previous password's image, from that Roblox game.

The image for this one is a from Roblox, CD stands in a boot with the text "psychiatrcic help" and "the doctor is in".

Dionysus and the Pirates:

worlds and knocking over what little valuable trade the mudballs could muster. Basic piracy stuff.

You ever been a pirate? No? Well the thing to know about how pirate ships are run is that they are not at all run like merchant or military ships. We didn't really bother ranks or any of that shit. The captain did give his close buddies fancy titles that we had to call them by, officer of this, officer of that, but it didn't really change anything. I was the helmsman, not the navigation officer. That's an important distinction as only he, the first officer, and the captain would know where exactly we were headed. The vast majority of the crew were just technicians, they fixed and occasionally operated shit. Some roles like weapons crews or helmsman required specialization but we were still equal with the rest of the crew. That was the setup, the captain and first officer, then the rest of us. The guys in charge would decide where to go, and the navigation officer would plot the jumps. All I did was make sure the warp sails opened properly and I controlled the sub-light movement of the ship.

asdfalkjsf;lkjas

a;sljkf

o they couldn't just "run away". These civvie ships are made to run on razor thin profit margins. They take exactly as much fuel as they need and no more. If they started making evasive burns they would run out of delta-v and be left to drift, in which case we get them anyway. If they had attempted to warp while that close to the planet the gravity would be strong enough to interfere with the warp and probably rip the ship to shreds and smear the shrapnel across half the arm. They had made their escape burn, setting a delta-v efficient but time-consuming course for the disruption threshold. We had better acceleration and more delta-v, we would get to them before they would be able to warp and there was nothing they could do about it.

When we did intercept the ship, my job was over. We would have the entire transaction done before they ever got close to the warp threshold. Captain messaged their captain, weapons crews took aim, sent a couple warning shots over the bow. Turns out the reason the civvie captain was being so adamant was because his ship was a transport, taking a couple dozen poor bastards from one mudball to another. No cargo to loot and sell. Meaning no payday for the crew. Everyone, myself included, was pissed. Especially because we knew the captain wouldn't care, in fact he was thrilled that he had found a "liner" as he called it.

PSYCHIATRIC HELP

This is from the previous password's image.

The image belonging to this is exactly the same, CD stands in a boot with the text "psychiatrcic help" and "the doctor is in".

Dionysus and the Pirates:

are content with prostitutes on shore leave and our hands the rest of the time. Hell, some are happy to go at each other instead. Our captain was very much an outlier, and worse, he was wasting the time and money of the crew while doing it.

No, we never considered mutiny. We grumbled and complained but this was a rare thing that we accidently caught a transport instead of a cargo ship. He never intentionally screwed us out of a payday, and when we did get paid, we got paid alright. A pain in the ass, but not anything worth making an even bigger mess over. Or at least that's what we all thought.

The captain took a few men, armed them, then took a shuttle over to the transport to pick out

He was over there for a worryingly long time, but the first officer was using a personal communicator to keep tabs on the captain while he was away. Eventually the ugly motherfucker comes back aboard, and I start our getaway burn. Just kick away from the transport then decelerate tangential to the mudball and we'd hit the disruption threshold a full twelve hours before the transport.

After returning to the ship the captain comes to the bridge, asking about anyone that might be after us. There must've not been anyone as I did the burns as usual, a clean getaway. At least from any authorities on the mudball. Just as I had finished the burn the captain started shouting. I turned to look at the commotion. The captain was yelling at a very pretty boy, turns out there hadn't been any richmen's daughters aboard the transport. Well, he looked like a young adult, but handsome though he was, he appeared to be woefully inexperienced. For starters he did not seem to be the least bit scared of anyone, least of all the captain. Us, the pirates, that had kidnapped him, several of the 'officers' very visibly having guns on them.

And when I say he was pretty, I mean beautiful, he put heavily modified coreworld super models to shame. An athlete's body, a real athlete's body, muscular but not over-muscled. His face was defined, not sharp but perfectly cut lines of bone, like a jewel. Stupidly curly, bouncy, almost fluffy hair. Bright blue eyes, looking right at the captain as his perfect face wore an amused expression.

The captain had evidently locked him in a room, with no way for anyone to possibly escape. After overcoming his surprise, the captain turned to accusing others of letting the boy out of his cabin. He charged off the bridge to go find the culprit, dragging to boy along with him. As I was the helmsman I had to stay on the bridge, my job may have been done but I wasn't off duty until we warped, just in case something unexpected happened and we needed to start burning. So I stayed put while the commotion went elsewhere.

About twenty minutes later the captain and his captive returned to the bridge. The captain asked some inane questions and gave some non-orders to look busy and competent before handcuffing the boy to the handholds on a chair. The chairs in the bridge were very securely attached to the deck, with the restraints in them also being very strong, to prevent people from flying around in the case of an impact shaking the ship or the crew module experiencing explosive decompression. So there was no way the boy was getting out of that without breaking the cuffs, which were made of tempered steel, or his wrist. The captain barked at those of us required to stay on the bridge, "Don't let this fucker out of your sight"

THE DOCTOR IS IN

This is from the previous password's image.

The image is a television with an image from the Roblox game edited on it. It's about a wall with "say it to escape" written on it.

Dionysus and the Pirates:

The captain and officers leave the bridge, going someplace less cramped with chairs, monitors, and consoles to talk, plan, fuck around, whatever it was they did in their meetings. That left a communications technician, a sensors technician, the boy, and me on the bridge. The other two pirates talked for a few minutes then pulled out their personal communicators and played games on them. I made sure everything with the ship was fine, then checked my own communicator for a moment.

I turned to look at the boy. He was calmly sitting in a chair, staring straight at me. I froze as soon as our eyes made contact, but he just started moving. With a casual roll of his wrist the handcuff just fell off, clanking against the side of the chair. One of the other pirates told the boy to quiet down without looking up from his communicator. The boy leaned back in the chair, resting his elbows on the arms, crossing his legs, and tenting his fingers in front of his chin. His body and facial language were completely different, he lounged like a king, instead of coming across as young and inexperienced I got the unshakeable idea that he was far wiser than any of us, and far, far older. I don't know how long it was that he held me in place like that.

The spell was broken when one of the others remarked, "What, you wanna

hell you starin' like that for?"

My gaze snapped to the man that had spoken, he was still looking down at his communicator, he had glanced at me but not the boy. Without thinking I said, "Something isn't right with him."

"Like what?"

Realizing what I had said I quickly covered my ass, "Well for starters he just effortlessly broke out of the handcuffs."

The other two look up, "Well then cuff him again, dumbass"

I look back at the boy only for him to meet my eyes again, "I ain't fucking with him. He gives me the creeps", I spoke without thinking again.

The communications technician gets out of his seat, grumbling obscenities at me. He goes over to the boy, who resumed his juvenile mannerisms as soon as the other pirate turned towards him. The pirate roughly grabbed and cuffed him again before returning to his seat with more complaints. Before he sat down, I looked forwards, at the console in front of me and kept my gaze there.

I heard the handcuffs clank again behind me. I refused to turn and look, I kept my eyes glued to the screen in front of me. My confusion and unease quickly turned to terror. It ripped at my heart, and it wasn't long before the rapid-fire beat of it was the only thing I could hear. I was shaking and sweating. I didn't know what came over me. I wanted to run but I didn't dare. Not because I was supposed to stay on the bridge, but because leaving would mean turning around, looking at him, walking by him. To escape I would have to get closer to him. I couldn't bear that.

Instead I made myself busy. In a poor attempt to distract myself I reached over to a nearby console and began looking over everything I was able to. The controls for a lot of stuff were locked to specifical consoles, and some information was locked by the captain and his officers for security reasons, but a vast majority of all the information on the status of much of

IT

Comes from the previous image. Cd tried to say "it" as an answer to "say it to escape".

The image is from the Roblox game, TG and JR found an egg named " OMG EASTER EGG LOLOL!!!!!!111!!1"

Dionysus and the Pirates:

the ship was available from any of the universal consoles. A military vessel would never have a system like this, but a retrofitted civilian ship would. I busied myself with the sheer mundanity of it all. Never succeeding in boring away the terror but succeeding in holding down the urge to run.

I kept at it until the ship was approaching the disruption threshold. The captain and navigation officer came to the bridge for the jump. The captain was furious that the boy was out of his handcuffs, but I didn't listen. I focused on the navigation's officer's voice. I quickly went through my part in the process of opening the warp sails almost before he could give the order.

Even with more people present my terror was not lessened, in fact it grew. I found myself thinking, "These fools"

They didn't see what I saw when looking at that boy. They didn't realize how dangerous he was. How dangerous it was. I had no idea where those ideas were coming from, but now I can guess. The addition to my already absolute terror was the fear that their antics would provoke the boy. I didn't know what sort of danger he posed, and I didn't want to know.

Once we had warped and were sailing through interstellar space at many times the speed of light everyone was dismissed. The captain dragged the boy off the bridge and the rest of us followed them. I made sure that I was the last to leave, the furthest behind the captain and the boy.

It was early evening, ship time, and we all went to the mess to eat dinner. I ate quickly and silently, I wanted to be able to go off alone as soon as possible. The boy was no longer staring into the back of my skull, but he was still aboard. After eating I went to a secluded spot within the crew module, near the aft end where a lot of the life support equipment was located. Once I was sure I was alone, I collapsed into an alcove and lost it. After the boy and having to keep my composure I was overwhelmed. At some point I stopped freaking out and went into a light doze.

I was brought back to my senses by some commotion on the decks above. It was enough that the noise was transferred through the metal of the crew module. The first thing I noticed was vibrations shaking the pipe my head was leaning against. The next was distant shouts. My heart froze, something had happened. The boy.

At first, I wanted to stay there, just hide and wait out whatever undoubtedly horrible things were happening above. However, eventually my curiosity, or something else, drove me out of my hiding spot and towards what was guaranteed danger. Though being on the same ship as the boy, hell being in the same solar system as it, was just as dangerous than being on the same deck or in the same cabin I still didn't want to get any closer. Save the odd compulsion drove me onwards.

I went up several decks, it sounded like the commotion was on the highest of the crew quarters decks, the officers' quarters. The ship had been heavily retrofitted on this level, and it was a bit convoluted, and I had never had any reason to be up there either, so right out of the stairwell I was lost.

Confused, I followed the sounds of shouting through the cramped, short, twisting corridors. Of course, the noise was no help, it was probably coming from multiple locations to

OMG EASTER EGG LOLOL!!!!!!111!!1

This is from the previous password's image, from the Roblox game.

The image is from Roblox again, CD is being captured in a cage.

Dionysus and the Pirates:

begin with and the dense maze of aluminum did odd things to the sound. I had walked down to long corridors that had apparently went nowhere only for me to find they led to a single cabin by going around it. I was just deciding to turn back and return to my hiding spot when I got to an intersection of corridors and turned a corner.

There, with a completely different demeanor, was the boy. Instead of childish, or imposing, he stood in the middle of the narrow corridor appearing amused, satisfied. He was leaning against the bulkhead, picking his teeth then cleaning out under his nails, flicking the debris against the opposite bulkhead, all the time with a massive grin on his face. I was frozen in place, I watched him for several moments as he hummed to himself. I noticed that the flecks he was flicking away were red, there was a small group of red dots forming on the bulkhead. One impacted with a barely audible splatter as another began to drip down the wall. He looked up at me then, despite my best efforts his eyes locked with mine. He giggled at me.

I stumbled backwards in terror. I couldn't stop the urge to run that time, it was too great. So I stumbled backwards through the corridor until I tripped over the threshold of a hatch and into the officer's mess, which was more of a small lounge. Another pirate broke my fall and swore at me for it. I quickly righted myself and looked around, the cabin was full of men, most of them craning to get a look down a corridor through a hatch on the opposite side of the cabin. I rapidly looked back to the corridor I had come from, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.

The guy I had stumbled into asked what was wrong with me. I asked him what had happened.

He answered, "Well it's hard to tell with all these assholes in the way, but from what I've heard the captain was found dead in his cabin, brutally murdered by the sound of it."

"The boy", I whispered in shock.

He laughed, "You think the little kid the captain dragged aboard would be able to overpower and murder him? Unless of course you're suggestin;laksjdf;alsjd;alskjfd

The conversation of all the pirates in the lounge carried on. I barely heard any of it. My face flushed and my ears whined, filling with white noise, filling with my racing thoughts. Through the buzz I heard snatches of the surrounding conversations.

"Ahahaha, can you believe what that dumbass over there said?"

"Do you really believe what some of these idiots are on about?"

"I heard he was ripped limb from limb."

"They found his guts on the ceiling."

"Everyone is a suspect."

"Well, the boy was the last one with the Captain..."

"Don't be fucking ridiculous."

I lurched around for a few seconds, eventually finding a bulkhead to lean against. I fished my communicator out of a jumpsuit pocket and checked the time. I had been napping in life support for a couple of hours. It would be many more before the ship left warp.

MEDIAFIRE MYTH

TunnelGhost talked about playing myth games in Roblox and finding a recreation of Zampanio there. They said: "i found most of the puzzle pieces. together they spelled out a mediafire (or some download site) link, but the link was broken when i tried following it. i presume this might have been because i didn't find all of the puzzle pieces, though. that, or the download had been taken down before i'd deciphered the link. again, i think the reason why this link was so well hidden is because obviously ROBLOX wouldn't allow players to just put up links to sketchy downloads in their games, but at the same time it might have been the Author's way of testing to see who would really be dedicated enough to this search that they'd go all the way of finding every secret they'd hidden in the game."

The image is titled "buried2", it's about tg and cd walking in an underground tunnel in Roblox.

Dionysus and the Pirates:

After a few minutes to catch my breath I started to leave the lounge. I wasn't sure where I would go, to my bunk, back down the life support, just that I needed to go. As I was exiting the officers began shooing all the crew members out of the lounge. I didn't want to head to any calm hiding spots with half the ship following me, so I just went to my bunk.

Once there I lay down, ignoring the chatter of my crewmates and attempting to get some rest. I didn't get any as shortly after the intercom started up and the first officer's slimy voice hissed and fizzed throughout the ship.

"As many of you are well aware by now, the captain is dead. No, we do not know who killed him, why, or how. And yes, we will be conducting an investigation to discover the murderer of our dear captain. He was a good man, a brave man, and I am saddened at his lost. Effective immediately I am now acting captain."

There was some more grumbling after that. Shipboard politics wasn't my concern, however. My concern was the boy, the thing that had come aboard. If it was killing people already there would be no reason for it to stop now. I had to figure out a way to survive. I tried to figure something out, but I just couldn't. The more my mind raced the further from any conclusion I got. I thought myself in circles, considering ways to convince the rest of the ship, trying to figure out a way to escape on my own, but it was hopeless. Every so briefly I considered taking care of the problem myself, before physically recoiling with terror. It was literally unthinkable to resist him. Escape was my only option. But there was no escape. I was a rat in a tin can, wrapped in an unstable physical phenomenon that rarely failed but did so spectacularly when it did, and lightyears of void around that.

I needed to clear my head. I left my bunk and took a very indirect route to another one of my hiding places. In the back of a short access corridor next to redundant communications terminal no one ever used was a big bundle of cables. Behind those cables was a small stash of alcohol. I took one of the tiny bottles and began sipping from it. It was cheap and there wasn't a lot of it, but it was something. I leaned against the bulkhead and started thinking.

Only my thoughts were slipping away again. Like before but much worse. I slid down the bulkhead, bumping my back against the probably important shit all over it. I clutched my head, I had to think of something, some way to get out of there. My heart raced, my breath came fast and ragged, I was losing it again. My mind became dense slurry, twisting, twirling, slowly rotating, picking up speed until it was a vicious whirlpool of whitecaps and chaotic collisions of untold vast quantities of thoughts and emotions. Time meant nothing; space meant nothing.

The center of the whirlpool opened, widening as the maelstrom grew in fury, roaring between my ears like a dragon from the wild depths.

The center grew.

The whirling storm of Self became so chaotic it formed order.

Turbulent sound became laminar.

A million million layers of insanity at once formed a solid crystal of clear, bright, singular clarity.

The mindless roar of crashing waves resolved.

ECHIDNA

This password can be seen written into the rabbithole box on the very page you are, if you use the passphrase "ZAMPANIO IS A VERY GOOD GAME YOU SHOULD PLAY IT".
Echidnas come up a lot in the context of ZampanioSim. It is usually highlighted how disgusting and unnatural they are. They came up in the #cute-animal-spam channel. The shape of the universe in Zampanio is a baby echidna.

The image is from Roblox, it's about a tree saying "Don't listen to him, you have already gotten there".

Dionysus and the Pirates:

Music.

Wild, shrill, and fast.

Instruments unknown.

Daemons of tubes screamed.

Daemons of hollow expanses bellowed.

Daemons of razor thin edges cackled.

Music.

The center widened every more.

The maelstrom now a smooth ring.

Through it I saw a face.

A laughing face.

A face I recognized.

I came to with a start, curled up in a ball on the deck, clutching my head. I felt something in one of my hands. I look at it, the small bottle of cheap beer so tame it couldn't get a featherweight drunk. It was completely empty. I cursed and whipped it into the barely organized wall of cables. It momentarily tangled in them before bouncing to the ground and rolling along the slightly uneven deck until coming to a stop in the corner with a small impact.

I shakily stood. I was terrified. I stumbled along the access corridor, trying to break into a run but never finding the footing to do so. I made my way from there down a main corridor.

Eventually I ran into another pirate. He threw me off of him and I fell to the deck before scrambling back up.

"Where the fuck have you been? We thought you were fucking dead! Fucking hell what is that smell? You goddamn reek, what kinda shit did you hide away? Holy fuck I might just get drunk sniffin' you fucking hell."

"T-t-t-the boy! H-h-it's... it's... we- we need to... we've, uh, too late. All we can do now is uh, uh..."

"Goddamn stop stuttering you drunk motherfucker. Fuckers have been dying left and right and all you can think of

I haven't even seen him since before the captain died."

As I was attempting to collect my thoughts, the pirate vanished. In his place stood the boy. He laughed at me. The sound echoed down the corridor and shook my bones.

I screamed and tried to get away. But I couldn't turn to run, I couldn't look away! All I could do was fall on my ass like a fucking idiot and half-heartedly crawl blindly backwards. It became me, an exact copy of me down to the last detail. But it moved in a way I never would, it winked at me with my eyes, and giggled with my voice, before walking away and turning a corner.

I wanted to shout, to ask questions, maybe just scream some more. But my throat was hoarse, and my breath was ragged. I got back to my feet and ran down the corridor, away from where the boy had gone.

BALL OF SIN

This means Echidna. Echidnas are reoccurring creatures in farragofiction, like they are an easter egg in session 66.

The image is from the Roblox game, it depicts a transparent character on a road in the middle of the sky.

Dionysus and the Pirates:

I don't know how long I ran, blinded with fear. The cramped corridors of the crew module blurred together. I wasn't sure where I was running to, I was just running away. Though some part of me was looking for help, or at least to just be around another human before I died, some comfort the other pirates would be of course.

I was only shaken from the stupor when my communicator began to ring. I fumbled it out of my pocket, dropping it onto the deck, accidentally answering it as I did so. I could hear someone screaming from it, but not clearly. I dropped down and scooped it up, "-YOU SICK FUCK, I'M GOING TO HUNT YOU DOWN AND KILL YOU."

The distorted but unmistakable sound of a gun being chambered was heard before the line was cut.

I kneeled there on the deck for a moment in confusion before I remembered. The boy had been wearing my face. I could no longer seek even the simple comfort of my fellow man. I grabbed my hair and screamed. I couldn't take it anymore.

I threw the communicator down, stood, and stomped on it. I set off towards the life support controls.

The interior of the crew module was cramped and often labyrinthine, but when you've spent so much time in one place, you can get used to even the weirdest things. As such, for basically all areas of the crew module save the officers' quarters, I knew it like the back of my hand. However, the ship was not the same as I remembered it. I noticed a few oddities on my way to life support, but ignored them, instead focusing on my goal. I didn't want to let whatever magical bullshit the boy was doing stop me so easily. I ignored flowers and weeds poking up through the hexagonal grating that made up much of the deck surface. I ignored vines curling around pipes and cables. I ignored the mist filling the ship. I ignored the sounds of distant, inhuman movement, the sounds of solid things clinking on metal walls and floors, the sound transmitted by the bulkheads and piping. I ignored the gunshots and screams.

I shouldn't have.

I turned the corner into the short corridor that held the life support controls, and I was in a jungle. Not a mess of unnatural vegetation choking the already crowded corridors of a spaceship, I had already trudged through that. No, I mean a jungle, recognizable only from the stories of wild worlds. Gone were the tight confines of metal, in their place the constricting mass of vegetation, the oppressive humidity, the darkness, the sounds of animals, the life, the chaos.

Still, I kept on, making my way though dense foliage. Collecting cuts and bruises. Falling on my face and eating soft, black, necrotic soil. It took far too long for the short distance to cover, but I made the journey, I got to the life support controls.

The consoles were destroyed. Completely and utterly destroyed. Housings bent and rent. The remains of cables and boards spilling out of the holes. It was half submerged in litter. I yanked open a small access hatch on the side of one of the consoles, and arthropods without name or number came tumbling out in a cacophony of clattering chitin. Some dried out husks, others with exoskeletons still gleaming and tiny eyes full of hunger.

CLEAR YOUR MIND

J v a k Q t R (formerly bloopbloop) said the following the discord about their version of Zampanio:
"anyway, every time he would boot up the game it would start with this screen that said something... hold on let me try to remember the words
"Clear your mind. Focus only on what you find here. Do not think of the world without, do not bring your own memories. That leads to corruption."
and then it would have instructions for what was... a meditation I gues??? breathe in 5, breathe out 10, or something, telling you to clear your mind before getting to work. You know, to prevent "corruption" "

The image is from Roblox, a grey world with pink trees and a grey cow, a character named Reverse Aspx says "Leave..!"

Dionysus and the Pirates:

I screamed and fell back, falling through a wall of vines and out of the tiny clearing. On the other side it was dark, the draping plant life falling before me, closing the hole I had opened, blocking out the single flickering light that had hung over the consoles. I landed on hard metal covered in softer but far less forgiving growth. On solid ground I got up and ran.

It would not be as easy as cutting the life support. I knew that nearby was an airlock. There were many fail-safes that would attempt to prevent me from opening both hatches at once and spilling everything to the void, but there were ways around that, especially on a ship like this. Back in what was still recognizable as a ship it was a short journey. A short journey to another inexplicable patch of dense jungle. This time guarded by a large mammalian beast. I had tripped over yet another root and ended up kneeling just before the thing. My face hanging just over the frozen scream of another pirate. The beast growled, the pirate's entrails hanging from its maw, its dark fur matted with human blood. Evidently, I was not the first to have that idea.

I slowly backed away. At this point the terror was all-consuming. I no longer felt it, as if it were just the air. I sat in it, surrounded by it, with each breath it filled me. For once, I was calm, though my heart hammered, and my mind flew.

Away from the beast, I made my way to the bridge. The last hope for ending this.

The ship was filled with it, the wilds. More areas that fell into pure wilderness, all vestiges of human creation destroyed or simply gone. The gunfire and screams became fewer and longer between. In their stead was the sounds of animals and tearing flesh. I have no idea how long it was, but I did eventually make it to the bridge.

Going through that final hatch was like moving between wildly different worlds. Through one last patch of brambles and low-hanging branches and I was into the bridge. Pristine, brightly lit. All the electronics and computers functioning flawlessly. The sounds of hell were gone, replaced by the soft muttering crunch and fluttering lights of idle computers.

I stumbled to my seat, the helmsman's station. Dripping blood and dirt onto the mostly clean floor. By the time I reached the chair I was leaning on the armrests. I slowly lifted myself over the seat and dropped into it with a sigh. I swiped my hand across the controls and the consoles woke up, screens flaring to life. We were still in warp but would be exiting soon.

I took the moment to close my eyes and relax.

A noise behind me. I froze. I had let my immersion in the terror break. I was above the surface, and subject to the storm-whipped waves. They battered me with unrelenting fury. I was stuck to my chair, eyes wide open, and chest heaving, but unable to move.

I felt something touch the top of the headrest, and slightly shake the chair. It moved down, coming to rest on my head. A hand. With a gentle, almost sensuous touch it wove its fingers into my hair.

A deep, smooth voice spoke right next to my ear, "Hello, helmsman."

I could hear the smile in it as it continued, "Would you please dock with the first civilian station we come across? If I remember correctly there should be a rather small one near the edge of the system we are about to enter, it should serve me just fine."

"W-what are you?", I stuttered.

ZAMPANIO IS A VERY GOOD GAME YOU SHOULD PLAY IT

It's quiet self-explanatory. Zampanio is a very good game. And you should play it.

It's like a slogan. A catchphrase. Everybody says this all the time. Some people simply don't say anything else. Why would they? Zampanio really is a good game, and you really should play it.

The image contains a screenshot of the very page you supposedly are on, with "echidna" written into the rabbithole box. It's also a password.

Dionysus and the Pirates:

It lifted its hand from my head and walked around into my view. It sat with both laziness and grace on a console to my left. A man, tall and muscular. His body was thick and powerful. His face was cut like a fine jewel. His eyes shone like a pair of them. His countenance betrayed great experience that lent his unmarred and wrinkle-free face a sense of extreme maturity. Long curly hair fell from his head, and a great bushy beard covered the lower half of his face. He wore the torn remains of a jumpsuit that left his powerful chest and arms in plain view, thick curly hair covering much of those as well. From the curls just above the corners of his forehead emerged two long horns, bending back in an elegant curve. A garland of fruit-bearing vine circled his head.

"I am a god", he waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, with a voice to match.

"W-which one?", I had never been a religious man myself, but I had heard of multiple religions, all of which contradicted not only each other but themselves.

His massive chest moved with a sigh, "Ah, it has been far too long since one of my many names has been spoken. You wouldn't recognize any of them. Just know that I am Madness. I will always be there when the hypocritical nature of man is dressed in the stolen garb of Order and its false "justice" is forced upon you.

He reached up and took one of the purple fruits growing on his 'crown' before popping it into his mouth.

The pirate's story ended there. Obviously, he made it back to port somehow, as he was there. I tried to get more out of him, at least if the station I had found him on was the one he had docked at, but he wouldn't talk. He just whispered something and took a drink. He ignored me after that.

Well I had found the story quite entertaining! I hope you do as well. I hope this finds you well. I write as I travel out to Cypres, once I conclude my business there, I'll be heading right back, see you soon!

JR Rambles

THE MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE

People on discord looked up on the popculturemadness site what things were important in 1972, the supposed origin date of Zampanio. This quote was listed to United Negro College Fund. To this one also belongs the fact that jadedResearcher's classpect is Waste of Mind.

The image depicts the Land of Rods and Screens, jr's land. You can play it here:
http://farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/loras2.html
Also fun fact. Do you see that red-orange patch when you open the undistorted image? That's a rickroll. https://paradoxlands.tumblr.com/post/162799908971/paradoxlands-land-of-rods-and-screens-your-land

This one is labelled as "Dionysus and the Pirates" for some reason, but I think this actually belongs to the "JR Rambles" category.

Dionysus and the Pirates:

JR here.

It's...

weird?

Knowing that I've put so much of myself into this work?

It's blatantly self indulgent, of course.

All the things I like about creation and very little of the things that got me so burnt out at Farrago.

I even got to work collaboratively with people?

The key is, I've found, over the years, to not look for help until you have a solid foundation? Until you can *prove* to other people "I have the skills to do this. I am commited to this.". It lowers the barrier to entry for others. Lowers the risk that they'll put energy in only for me to flake on them, I think?

It helps that I tend to do broad concepts and then refine it iteratively? So theres plenty of room for people to influence the things I create.

I think if I were the type of person to plan everything out to the last detail, I wouldn't WANT to collaborate with others?

People change you. Change the things you create.

Change the things you WILL create.

The media I've consumed, big and small indelibly changed me.

And I'm so glad for it. I'm glad I can say "here are my influences" in respect to media, and I'm glad I can say "these are the marks the people I've met, both irl and online, left on the things I create". Sometimes literally? Sometimes they contribute text or art or music. Sometimes they contribute a vibe, like on the Zampanio discord server path. And sometimes its just people that, for having met them, I am forever changed.

For good, or for bad.

And that bad is where the weirdness at how much of myself I've put into this work comes in?

I've kind of...more or less stepped back from 'public life', as it were? I'm not going back. Not going to try managing some community. Not going to try to be a big boi game dev.

And for like, the first year of covid I just Did Not Create in any meaningful way. Well.

I take that back. I created entirely for me in a physical space. Sometimes as gifts for friends but still things people couldn't...influence me on?

I coded as well, but it was all to support incredibly personal things I only showed a handful of people. The InfoToken system and the PuzzleBox are examples of that.

And that made me happy?

But being exposed to the Magnus Archives stirred something in me. I wanted to create FOR an Audience again? And WITH an Audience?

I guess I'd finally healed enough to try again?

But ZampanioSim is explicitly sort of...me dipping my toe back in.

It's something intetionally hard to get into. Something intentionally only for the people who enjoy experiencing the same things I enjoy creating.

And the only "community" I've built for it is intentionally...well, either you know or you don't, I won't spoil it for you.

I guess the point I'm making here, if there can even be said to have a point is just...

Thank you? Thank you for finding my secrets. Thank you for engaging with this weird art project I've made and put so much of myself into. I hope you enjoyed it :) I hope if you find some kind of community as a result of it, it leads you to happiness.

I'd love to hear what you think of the game! You can email me at jadedResearcher (or justifiedRecursion) on gmail, and I'm on Tumblr and kinda on reddit. I enjoy pretending there will be an Audience one day, but it would also be nice to Know.

JR out.

THE TRUTH IS LAYERED

This one is given at the end of the credits. (It's also on the Odin's Razor blog.

The image contains images of ZampanioSim gameplay and Truth's rage mode, edited on a television.

JR Rambles:

Do not be overeager to believe there is only one path. Right now you are sitting at a computer watching a fake cctv screen that displays a fake television screen that pretends to be on the site you're already on. Except do you recognize the site you're seeing? Do you know the Truth?

217

This password was said to come from Truth's birthday. There was a newspost with the following text:

06/03/2021: happy birthday OB, the achievement system just went live. its on the third too which is just perfect. i already was using 3 as an arc num in here. hey ,neat, all the numbers are divisible by 3 on OBs bday.

The images are an abandoned hospital and an eye.

This password starts to play an audio version of the text too.

JR Rambles:

Original JR tried to have a conscious. Programmed it themselves and everything. Dear sweet precious AB.

Can you REALLY code something you don't understand? I suppose tower of hanoi is a thing.

My POINT :) :) :) is that when you think about it, original JR and I are practically the same person!

They trapped people in unending mazes and puzzles "for their own good". To "keep the wastes from destroying reality". To "teach them to control their bullshit hacks".

While *I* trap people in unending mazes and puzzles because it FEELS good. I don't need that thin veneer of pointless justification. MY recursion comes prejustified :) :) :)

Don't believe me? Hear it in jadedResearchers own words:

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=betterthanexpected

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=wasted

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=victory

Don't worry if you don't understand the context :) :) :)

Oh, and before I forget?

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/loras2.html?passPhrase=litrpg

I thought you might be interested in the origin of this sim. Things sure have changed since that origin!!!

And you know what, as a gift, just for you:

http://knucklessux.com/InfoTokenReader/?mode=loop

This is a fun tool for creation, though it won't help you learn anything new.

TOY

There is an ominous song that is often referred, it goes "Count the blackbirds in a tree: they will tell you what is to be. One for sadness, two for joy, three for a tool, and four for a toy. Five for circuits, six for gold and seven for a secret that's never been told." It was said by NAM, there is an audiolog with it, it's also on the knucklessux blog. Few sites, like the losspass send "four blackbirds" in the console as message, and "toy" is associated with that one.

The image is four black birds.

JR Rambles:

When you get right down to it, none of ZampanioSim is a tool. It's play.

Play is useful because it gives us a context to practice, to create, to ENGAGE without consequences.

People forget that.

They try to make each thing they create be heavy with import. To be Perfect.

Your goal shouldn't be "I make a thing.".

Your goal should be "I find a way to learn/practice/explore that is sustainable and fun.".

Because that's how you keep at something long enough to get GOOD At it.

Those who are likely to find these messages already know to look in the source code.

They already know about doom duet.

I wonder what they are missing by only looking there?

Not only things missed to SEE. But things missed to do. The Weaver knows how things connect, but can they create a tapestry from it?

Miscellaneous

DODGE THIS MOIST PIMP

From the Herald's document: "Aside from being a BloodRayne 2 cheat code, this is a phrase connected to the Robot Rights ARG. Specifically, it was the password to AB's email. The second repetition of the image on the front page of knucklessux.com contains the phrase."

It can also be found at the end of LOMAT.

The image is of a ruined building with several computers, an image from the Roblow game is edited onto them

Other Branches:

I just want you to understand that even "original" JR wasn't exactly blameless.

Here is a selection of their crimes. Less than 10% of their audio logs.

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/?passPhrase=cheetoh_timeline

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/?passPhrase=cheetohTimeline13

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/?passPhrase=cheetohTimeline1

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=sorry%20about%20the%20buttons

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=thebrocode <-- if AB were in zampanio, things would be very different

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=operation_not_permitted <--same

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=tin

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=wasted

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=Mutation

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=gigglesnort

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=storytime

http://www.farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/index.html?passPhrase=shittypuzzles

Zampanio is anything that calls itself Zampanio. Never forget that.

You could connect a branch of Zampanio to anything you want. Your own work. Your own passions.

You should.

BEWARE OBLIVION IS AT HAND

It's from the discord. Jr said:
the faq i had found had dozens of cheat codes listed out.
damn i wish it hadnt gotten vanished or whatever the fuck
they were all little sentences that didnt relate to what they did like
"beware oblivion is at hand" or "fire the royal advisor"

The images are about abandoned pianos

The audio is slow, eerie piano music, named dead.mp3

This is an ascii art of a piano, it can be found in several places, often referred as "Zampiano".

[This thing is BIG. I tried my best to fit it here, but it will still fall apart on mobile. So if you are interested, but you are on a smaller screen, you can try this one: https://lostinzampanio.neocities.org/rabbitholes/zampiano]

THINK LIKE A SMITH

This one belongs to KR's branch. KarmicRetribution's classpect is Smith of Dreams, and this phrase is the couterpart of the often repeated "think like a waste". The password can be found in the code of the basic knucklessux website (http://knucklessux.com/), if you use inspect element, and it's also image number 37 in LORAS: http://farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/images/LORAS/37.png

The image is an abandoned mall with escalators. It has creatures named as "kr's minoraur" on them. (It's hard to see them.) The whole art can also be found in the code, it was made by GhoulPen, the amazing artist who made Fenrir in LOMAT too.

There is an audio reading out the text with Eddie Morton's "What Do You Mean You Lost Your Dog?" playing in the background. This is the content of the linked audiolog .

KR Warning:

I'm sending this out as a warning to anyone exploring - about 5 months ago, the branch of the Magicant just off of LOMAM that I had labelled as Nicotine Office Space apparently re-indexed itself as The Backrooms. Now, if you venture very far in that direction, it starts emptying out - even the furniture. The disorientation effect gets extremely strong once the rooms are empty, and combined with a lack of landmarks, this would be dangerous enough - but on top of that, the Minotaur can absolutely hear anyone who moves around in there. I've tagged it as a Red Flag section from now on. I suggest avoiding any office buildings unless you need something specific, and even then stick to rooms with windows, even if it means possibly looking Outside.

http://farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/?passPhrase=Backrooms

http://gigglesnort.info/magicant/

PLANT MORE TREES

This is a phrase from LOHAE, where the goal is to, well, plant more trees. It can be (like "think like a smith") found on the knucklessux website if you use inspect element (http://knucklessux.com/), and it's also image number 45 in LORAS: http://farragofiction.com/AudioLogs/images/LORAS/45.png

The image is a television with the ZampanioSim menu edited on it.

Also can I highlight how nice it is that the Herald was the one who first collected these, and now the last segment is about the Herald getting marked? Full circle.

Herald's Ascension:

The Herald steps over the line.

"An infinite amount of pain compressed into an infinitesimal moment."

He said it would hurt.

It doesn't, not exactly. They feel like they're coming undone at the seams, yes. Their head is pounding. They're seeing and knowing and speaking and being welcomed and learning so, so, so, so much and lying on the floor in a daze and staring at the screen in a daze and layers of reality and of themself are melting together and splitting apart in wrong wonderful horrifying welcoming dizzying right ways but what they are feeling is not pain.

Descent and ascent are one and the same. The Herald casts aside all aspirations of mortality and takes their place in History. The Herald leaves behind a shell forever obsessed with the things they are obsessed with now, a parody of themself. The Herald lingers here, where their memories are kept. The Herald has left this world behind.

Hær@ld passes out at his desk and melts into pearlescent ichor that eats through his clothes and he has to isolate himself for a week and then some because everyone he makes eye contact with sees things that threaten to pull them in just as they pulled him in.

The Herald feels like they've lost something.

No, they feel like they've let something go.

They don't move for a long while. Eventually, they feel a light tap. Someone is crouched beside them, asking them if they're okay. They sit up and nobody is there.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37066177

It's too dark to read this.

https://itch.io/t/1892336/sonaszampanio-ocs

Did someone turn the lights off?

Turn the lights on. Follow the tracks. Follow the labyrinth. Follow the music. Follow the paint.

Follow the Herald.