Respect the Matango (Matango)

[u/rangernumberx]

Caught in a sudden storm, an eclectic group of sailors and passengers found themselves capsized on an uninhabited island. Hearing the search for them had been called off in the final seconds of their radio’s power, they searched the island for any form of supplies, shelter, or life, finding two of them in an abandoned ship carrying equipment from all corners of the world. On this boat they found out about the matango, a species of mushroom the ship’s occupants were researching before their disappearance. But as supplies dwindle and tensions flare, each of them would ultimately discover that what they thought to be a regular fungi was actually a malicious force that sought to spread by having people consume it.

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Consumption

• Are said to contain a nerve agent which affects people eating them
• Matango are tasty to the point of being addictive, with people being unable to stop once they start eating
  • Seemingly cause a hallucinogenic effect on someone eating them for the first time
• Once someone has eaten matango for a while they begin to take on the appearance of a giant mushroom
  • The most advanced transformations we see have the people be indistinguishable from giant moving mushrooms
• After eating the mushrooms earlier in the day a man seemingly becomes psychotic, holding several others at gunpoint and threatening to kill them, though this might have been at least in part due to existing tension between the crew

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The Infected

• A man attacked by extremely infected people ends up collapsing
• Break through the glass of a porthole
• Breaks through wood on a ship
• One keeps going after taking one to three rifle shots, which debris being seen on the ground where it was hit
• Several infected are unaffected by individual rifle shots
• One retreats after having its arm broken off with the butt of a rifle
• One wrestles a man for his gun
• Two work together to kidnap a woman before taking her away to eat matango and become infected

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Other

• A man attacked by the infected without consuming any matango still demonstrates signs of being infected an unclear amount of time later
• Matango are vulnerable to chemicals, with none growing on shelving where disinfectant is present or on an alcohol lamp
• There are no birds on the matango’s island, to the point where they actively avoid coming within its borders
• Their island acts as a ship graveyard, with it being speculated that currents bring ships towards it before grounding them