Psuedohomoceps RP

this was a roleplay that took place in 2025! it was run on the vallen island custom map; the main worldbuilders were kepler, orion, and fish. other players included, but are not limited to, pat, rio, button, and fuzzy.

the majority of this was written by orion starchaser! permission was given to cross-post this from our google documents.

Vallen Island

Situated off the coast of Maine, the events of Season 1 take place in the isolated Vallen Island. To my knowledge, most of the cast moved here, rather than being native. The climate is cold, and the location seemingly completely mundane. This, of course, is untrue: the US Government has a vested interest in the place, given a very peculiar strain of fungus…

Then the dead walk.

The Infection

It’s probably wrong to call it an infection but I will do so anyway. Forgive me.

The ‘zombification’ process on Vallen Island is the result of a naturally-occurring phenomenon, a fungus that hijacks the muscles of the body in order to work. Its catch-all Latin name is psuedohomoceps unilateralis sensu lato, with several variations that have names of their own. Expect this to usually just be called ‘the infection’, or ‘the fungus’, or ‘the mycelium’. Known strains are as follows:

pseudohomoceps unilateralis sensu lato (all)
pseudohomoceps unilateralis inconditus (non-sentient; inconditus meaning "crude, disorderly, confused")

This strain creates the typical ‘zombie’: a meandering dead body that would love to take a bite out of you.

pseudohomoceps unilateralis animus (sentient; animus meaning "intellect, memory, consciousness")

In certain corpses, the mycelium reaches the brain and ‘awakens’, creating much more sentient, aware zombies. How this manifests exactly varies from subject to subject, but they are all categorized by a much more acute sense of self-awareness than their inconditus brethren.
See Antony Amato, “C”, and Teodosia Berrigan.

pseudohomoceps bilateralis vita (living host; vita meaning "life/way of life" touching on the self-sustaining/self-healing properties)

This is the strain carried by Hibiscus. It allows him to survive otherwise fatal wounds, at the cost of brain fog and memory issues. Its limits are so-far unknown, but he certainly can’t survive total bodily destruction.

Shamblers and Shriekers

The terms coined by the survivors to categorize the undead.

Shamblers are by far and by large the most common variety of zombie. Reanimated corpses, the typical inconditus specimen. Their sluggish pace gives them their name.

Shriekers, while certainly still categorized under inconditus for their mindless and violent nature, operate differently. They’re named as such for the piercing wail they emit when they hone in on a target. And they sprint, stopping at nothing. Terrifying, often unexpected, and difficult to react to.

The Fog

Occasionally (once every two weeks, I believe?) a thick, suppressive fog descends over Vallen Island for approximately 12 hours. While the fog has descended, radio signals are obfuscated by static, and car engines fail without explanation. It has also been noted that many zombies become ‘shriekers’ while the fog is active, descending upon the living at unnatural speeds.

The radio scrambling is represented in the #pz-radio channel by zalgo text.

Operation ‘Romero’

warcrimes

TIMELINE

November 1972: Operation Romero succeeds.
June 1993: Psuedohomoceps begins to spiral out of control.; Efforts are made to contain it, but the rate at which people are reanimating proves difficult to contain. The US Government issues the order for personnel to evacuate: everyone else is left behind. Many Vallen Island residents attempt to escape by plane when news spreads.
Early July 1993: OOC: The roleplay begins.; Stranger makes his home in a bar close to Vallen Island’s airport.
August 1993: Stranger almost dies after he and Julia attempt to visit the military encampment.; Sasha arrives.; The fog descends over Vallen Island for the first time.
September 1993: Power to Vallen Island is cut off.; The survivors discover Jaime’s mansion after a supply run in the city.; Rock stops by the bar for a night of drinking. He is not seen again.
October 1993: Jaime takes the RV and leaves the bar without saying a word to anyone.; He returns with Antony.
November 1993: The survivors decide to move into Jaime’s mansion.
December 1993: Remus returns to his father’s house.; Emil shows up, also in a horrifying state.
January 1994: Emil, Remus, and Julia venture to the southern island to rescue Roman.; Hibiscus finds Oliver, and brings him to the mansion.; Emil and Roman locate Rock’s body at the airport.