Zhen (also known as Z) is the main protagonist and point-of-view character of Psycholonials. She is a struggling online influencer attempting to rebuild her brand post-cancellation; the initial cause of cancellation is an event referred to simply as "The Incident." She is a big fan of Post Malone and the Metal Gear Solid franchise; she is also a former fan of the Insane Clown Posse and Homestuck, apparently to the degree that she had both a clownsona and a trollsona which she regularly cosplayed as.
Z lost her job as a waitress in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she suspects her boss has no intention to rehire her. This ultimately doesn't matter much, as Abby is perfectly fine with giving her money whenever she needs it.
Zhen posts a variety of online content, much of which attracts the attention of her simps, whom she sees as a source of occasional attention and not much else. She's been seen using Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, and Discord.
The Jubilite Manifesto[]
In college, possibly to cope with the death of her father, Z wrote a clown-heavy socialist manifesto which she intends to release to the wider world. As she puts it in the narration, it focuses on themes of "Rage and disgust for injustice, for the systemic evils of this nation, for the weakness and compliance which quell the righteous outrage of its citizens." The story of Psycholonials takes place several years after she finished writing it.
Zhen's Jubilite Manifesto
According to Z, "most of this shit came to [her] in a series of increasingly psychotic dreams in the run up to [her] mental breakdown." These dreams also provided her with substantial background lore regarding the jubilites. The jubilites are, according to her dreams, a group of alien clowns from the planet Whimsiphae, whose civilization died millions of years ago and who communicate with her through her dreams. Z does not actually believe in any of this, but thinks it makes for interesting lore. In Chapter 2, she decides to center her online presence around this manifesto moving forward. Her plan of action is to create an entirely new clownsona, and then release her manifesto piecemeal for the world to see.
Biography[]
Z grew up in Massachusetts. Not much is known about her life before her college years, which she spent at MIT, the culmination of a lot of hard work. Midway through her time there, her father died of an unknown illness, which caused her to "psychologically implode." She spent a lot of time while he was sick feverishly writing her manifesto, and after he passed she began spiraling, dropped out of school and posted a lot online which led to her cancellation. At present, she refers to her dropping out as "making a getaway," and claims she sees this as beneficial to her mother, since she couldn't really afford MIT's tuition; however, she also thinks her mother sees her as a failure, and refers to their separation as a "mutual fucking off." She's grateful that her father isn't around to be disappointed in her anymore. It is clear that she feels a lot of lingering guilt about not being able to keep herself together. After dropping out, she decided to move to a deserted island. Her first two choices, Fiji and Guam, didn't pan out, so she decided to move to Nantucket instead.
Chapter 1: Summer That Never Was[]
Zhen just before shooting a cop
In Chapter 1 of Psycholonials, we follow Z over the course of one day. Z wakes up at about 3 PM in a depressive funk, uploads a Tiktok, and eats some 5-day-old Kraft macaroni and cheese, which she can't stomach more than a few bites of. She has a brief conversation with Abby, who informs them that they've finally passed 1,000 Instagram followers. While eating, Z opens a bottle of whiskey and gets drunk enough that flirting with Percy over Instagram seems like a good idea. After telling him that she's not actually interested and she was just messing with him for laughs, she blacks out for twelve hours, and has a dream about her father and some ephemeral muse. She's apparently had dreams of this nature before; her father in particular frequently manifested in her dreams with blood streaming out of his eyes. However, she says she hasn't dreamed about the muse character since she was writing her manifesto. She decides to take this as a sign to release her manifesto, and drives to Abby's house, falling asleep at the wheel on the way there. She crashes through a tree, attracting the attention of a police officer, who shoots a hole through her manifesto; this causes her to grow enraged and attack them, biting their arm and shooting them six times in the chest with their own gun. Then, she steals the police car, leaving her own on the roadside next to the body. She drives the police car into the ocean and slowly leaves.
Chapter 2: Pranxis[]
The game presents Z (and the player) with a choice between turning herself into the police and fleeing. However, when the player attempts to make a choice, we learn that only a "SUCCESSOR" is capable of making a choice, and Z is locked into the "flee" option. Z files a report claiming her car was stolen. She sends the police department a photo of Percy that he'd sent her when they were flirting earlier in the day, and claims he is the most likely suspect. She then calls an Uber to Abby's house and acts like nothing's gone wrong, secretly deciding to keep the police officer's gun because it makes her feel secure.
Zhen facetiming Abby from another room
Z starts the next day by video calling Abby and then having her cook them breakfast. She talks a bit more about her manifesto and decides that the best way to deliver its message is serially, and only after becoming an established presence on social media by creating a new clownsona. With the help of Abby, she puts some purple makeup on and then posts a selfie to her Instagram, which Abby cross-posts to her own. That one bit of promotion catapults Z to 11,000 followers overnight, and the two celebrate by drinking the most expensive wine in Abby's parents' cellar.
Zhen going clowntier
One week later, Z's follower count has grown to 509,000, and she has decided to release the introduction to her manifesto. It was met with positive (albeit somewhat confused) reception. Mostly, her fans just want e-girl related content, but they're willing to humour her indulgences like these. Some people have come out of the woodworks attempting to remind people of her being canceled, but she just adds their names to a list, blocks them and moves on.
Z introduces Abby to phase two of her plan, which revolves around the idea of "pranxis", a portmanteau of "prank" and "praxis" which she refuses to explain in further detail. Phase two will involve a lot of money, and Z has spent the past week preparing a phishing scam involving Bitcoin so that she can steal Abby's parents' money. After they're finished explaining their plan, Abby asks what they could possibly need all this money for, but before Z can answer, the doorbell rings. The police have arrived.
Chapter 3: Wildcard[]
Upon the arrival of the police, Z panics and urges Abby to ward off the police from her home, not immediately telling her exactly why they are pursuing her. She runs away to Abby's horse stable, waiting for the police to leave. After dealing with the police, Abby is visibly angry and demands that Z explains what she did after learning from the police that a dead cop was found near Z's car. Z claims she couldn't bring herself to tell Abby what happened that night because she didn't want to ruin the great time they were having. After that, Z finally confesses to shooting a cop, and reveals why her manifesto actually had a bullet hole. Z also tells her who Percy is, and admits to her framing of him. Z begins self-deprecating and mentions her resolve to keep fighting for her "brand".
A week later, Z is close to hitting 1 million followers on Instagram. She is shown posting Instagram stories describing "pranxis life hacks." During these events, Z also attempts to keep a low profile, obscuring the fact that she's in the same building as Abby, and not using her Wifi to prevent tracing of her location through Instagram. As Z prepares for her next stream, she talks with Abby about her increased time spent in clownsona paint, making a remark on the spread of Jubilite culture, calling Abby her greatest conquest. She brushes up on and posts her chapter on clown gender, and introduces it and the gender pyramid to Abby, and then to the general public through a livestream.
Zhen is SCREWED
During the night after her clown gender stream, Z sits with Abby by her outdoor pool, both drinking wine. They are slowly running out of the astronomically expensive wines, and have to begin drinking absurdly expensive wines. She is getting closer to having Abby's mother to want a divorce, and feels the need to reaffirm to Abby that her parents are indeed bad people. Z compares the relationship between Abby's father and Joe Biden to yaoi. She then considers roping Percy further into their scheme.
Afterwards, Z decides to rope Percy further into their scheme. Z convinces Percy to flirt with Abby's mom while also trying to reinforce his self-esteem and teasing him. During the conversation, Abby kisses her, but Z pushes her away. She begins to express remorse about her cold relationship with Abby and her treatment of Percy. In the bathroom in front of a mirror, Z takes some psychic damage and sees a news article connecting Z's online persona to her recent police murder.
Chapter 4: A Symbol of Strength[]
The game presents Z and the player with a (false) choice between deleting her account and continuing down her current path. Like before, the choices are locked.
Two weeks later, it's shown that Z is now an outlaw in the national spotlight, hitting 6.12 million followers on Instagram with 413 posts. She has been more paranoid about staying under the radar, and occasionally walks along the nearby beach to get exercise. Zhen has donned a BTS logo hat and a pair of very tacky shades. She is driving a 2017 Bentley Continental lended to her by Abby, remarking it as "the least she could do" given the "austerity" she has been forced to live as a fugitive. Z decides to get out for a drive around the island to think. She has been adamantly denying claims of her criminal behavior, though she and Percy are making great progress trying to seduce Abby's mom. After her drive around the island, Z continues walking along the shoreline and hallucinates her dead parents.
Later, Z is sitting in Abby's bedroom with her. They have conned Abby's parents out of 5 billion dollars so far, their deposits ranging in the hundreds of millions. Z indirectly calls Abby her trophy wife. Abby introduces to Z the concept of "horse gender" and after a moment of doubt, she begins playing along with it, revising her manifesto to include the new extension to her gender pyramid. After a couple hours, Z improvises a stream introducing horse gender to her followers, also revealing the fact that she indeed is staying with Abby, despite trying to hide it in the previous chapter. She also maps several celebrities (including herself) to the gender pyramid, listing them as "headcanons".
Zhen and Percy hiding from cops
Even later into the night, Z falls asleep while on her phone, and begins having another dream of her ephemeral muse, who praises Z. The dream abruptly ends, and Z sees her dead parents in the room with her, while Abby is sleeping. They disappear when she looks away, yet Z is visibly anxious. She has also been sleeping in her clown makeup.
The next day (May 20), exactly one month after Z's cop killing, Z is waiting for Percy in a car near the harbor. However, the police arrest him, and she decides to pursue the police. Z T-bones a police car, walks out, and shoots the police car's windshield 10 times as passerby panic, and pulls Percy out the passenger seat. She takes him to back alley entrance of the restaurant she worked at prior to the story to hide out, shooting open the lock and staying inside with Percy. The gravity of the situation begins to set in. She confesses her cop-shooting crimes to Percy, but tells him he was arrested due to her Bitcoin scam operation. She marks him as a Jubilite, bestowing upon him the name "Purse" just before kissing him.
Chapter 5: Stuck Pig[]
The next day, Z is staying at a rented-out Airbnb near her old restaurant. Footage of her shooting the police is cropping up everywhere on the internet, Z claims she was just defending herself and Percy. Z considers coming clean to her audience, to Abby's hesitation. Z lies to Abby about being tracked down by her Bitcoin schemes in order to not break the lie she previously told to Percy in front of him. Abby unknowingly reveals in front of Percy that Z sent the police photos of him, and Z quickly tries to dismiss it as an accident, claiming she "accidentally let a photo of him slip," then backtracks on the claim that their pranxis has been exposed. Zhen begins coughing, showing symptoms of covid while telling Abby she only caught a little cold, claiming to likely have herd immunity. Abby questions Z's intelligence.
Zhen has some content to manage
Z and Percy head to a place near Jackson Point on one of the west-most parts of the island, in Abby's new BMW (due to the Bentley's crash). Percy attempts small talk and Zhen barely notices it, continuing to regard him as "Purse." A large group of armed Jublites await Z at the dock. Z reassures Percy. Zhen approaches a Jubilite in full clown makeup, pushing him into the water and scolding him due to his lack of prudence. She then mobilizes all the Jubilites after taking a gun from one.
Two weeks later, Z has hit 16 million followers on Instagram, her media presence continuing to spread due to her recent exploits. With Percy's help, she has also been slowly building an infrastructure of local Jubilite activity, creating an inner circle of members who started to dub themselves as "Ring 3." Meanwhile, Z has also been showing more symptoms of covid, and is self-quarantining in her Airbnb, while Abby and Percy stay across town. While drafting plans, Zhen hallucinates her mom. Through an email concerning a medical bill for an ambulance, Z finds out her mother caught covid and died on April 20th, the day Zhen began her conquest. She is stunned, but feels nothing. Z momentarily hallucinates her dad, and begins having a coughing fit, yelling about her parents.
Z hears the doorbell ring, and is greeted by Percy, who was followed by the police. Z pulls Percy into the house, scolding him, then apologizing. She texts a signal to Ring 3, supposedly instructing them to deal with the encroaching police force.
Z shatters a window and begins shooting through it at the police cars outside, using the gun she previously took from a follower. The police begin to shoot back, as Z hides behind the cover of a sofa. Z pulls Percy into a closet, checking her phone, and receiving a notification from Ring 3 marking the arrival of the Jubilites. Two officers break into the house, shooting at the closet door. Two bullets pierce Percy in the chest, and one in Z's right leg. Z retaliates, shooting the two cops that broke in. As Z continues shooting out the window in rage, a cop grabs her from behind, but is shot in the head by Percy, who is on the brink of death. Z cries.
After the bloodbath, Z sends a signal to Ring 3 to begin their false-flag operation of faking an epidemic, driving out the islands population. She mourns Percy for a very short moment, and takes a photo of his corpse with her hand on it, setting it as her phone wallpaper, replacing her previous Metal Gear yaoi one, shortly before claiming something as the first casualty of war. Whether she was referring to Percy or her Metal Gear yaoi wallpaper is unclear. Z then falls unconscious.
Chapter 6: The Practice of Delegation[]
During the interlude, the narrator provides the player/Zhen two choices, "RECOVER YOUR HEALTH", and "SUCCUMB TO YOUR WOUNDS". Both buttons lock themselves up, like usual.
The day after the Airbnb shootout, Z is sleeping at Abby's home, very sick from covid and injured from gun wounds. While Abby and Ring 3 meet, Z has another ephemeral muse dream. The muse is revealed to be named Riotus, and unlike before, he doesn't have the power to wake Z up, which Z is fine with, because she wants answers from him. Riotus explains his origins to Z, and fades away. Zhen wakes up with a nosebleed.
Two weeks later, Z has managed to beat the virus, though her leg is still weak. Her Instagram has hit 38 million followers, and Z is preparing to have her first in-person debriefing with Ring 3. She receives a 12-clown salute from her cohorts. Joculine (introduced while Z was bedridden) leads the meeting. Z is a little unsure about her, but praises her progress. She utilizes The Practice of Delegation and delegates Joculine to the duty of carrying out "Advanced Pranxis".
Z and Abby return home and do another wine binge. They discuss Joculine a little, and then talk about how far of a hole Z has dug herself into. Z calls Percy her soldier (using his legal name this time), claiming he died for her and her cause. She also reveals the dreams she's had to Abby. Joculine continues to gnaw at Z's thoughts, Z thinks she's oddly familiar. Z then finds out Joculine is the first person who cancelled her. She gets visibly angry.
Chapter 7: It Never Even Stood a Chance[]
One month later, Z has hit 113 million followers on Instagram. Her influence has caused multiple Jubilite insurrections in the US. Z decides to prompt another formal debriefing, doing so rarely due to her aversion to dirty work. As Joculine lists her achievements, Z plays along, even complimenting Joculine.
Z mimics Revolver Ocelot for 1 minute and 33 seconds and shoots Joculine in the head.
- “Z: traitors get bullets”
- — Psycholonials, Chapter 7
Later, Z is talking with Abby while she is on the phone with Namjoon of BTS. Z informs Abby of Joculine's exploits and background. Zhen has also started blazing it since the island has built up a large cannabis farming operation. Z is still maintaining her Excel spreadsheet of haters, and Abby is concerned about Z's mental health, remarking that her behavior is similar to that of dictators. Z dismisses her statements, saying she won't call for a mass purge of haters. In the bathroom, Z has an internal monologue insisting that she is different from previous dictators and revolutionaries. Z learns Abby's parents have died in an explosion, realizing that this was ordered by Joculine prior to her death. Z apologizes to Abby (and also tries to convince her that her parents dying is not as big of an issue as she makes it out to be.) Z takes psychic damage. As she sits in the horse stable, Z quickly begins to feel rage, but then quickly feels remorse. Z falls into a deep slumber, and enters another Riotus dream.
Z learns from Riotus that he is not the first Jubilite, and that she is also a prodigy, carrying out in months what took Riotus countless years. This is very great for her ego and mental health. Z also learns that calling for a purge of everyone on her list was inevitable. Z wakes up with a nosebleed.
In a fit of anger, Z texts Ring 3 and calls for the purge of everyone on her list.
Chapter 8: Grinch Heart[]
During an interlude, the narrator gives the player/Z the (fake) choice to call off the purge or not.
One month later (35 days after shooting Joculine and ordering the "great Summer Purge of 2020"), Z has hit 338 million followers on Instagram. She has greatly expanded her empire and fully militarized New Whimsiphae. Z has found a new right hand in Mizzlebip. She visits Abby in her mansion, telling her to turn down her music so she can strategize and coordinate an invasion of Martha's Vineyard. Z and Abby argue about the morals and practicality of the revolution. Abby laughs at the fact that with all her global strength, Z is attempting to invade the small next-door island of Martha's Vineyard. Z gets ticked off, is convinced by Abby, and has an ego trip, tearing down everything in their room. The mansion blacks out and Z immediately suspects the US government. Missiles start hitting the mansion and Z finds a group of hostile Jubilites in front of the mansion. Z urges Abby to run to the mansion, Mizzlebip tries to protect her but Z pushes her away. Z heads to her arsenal and equips a ridiculous amount of weapons.
Zhen doing a cool kick during the shootout
Z and Ring 3 engage in a shootout with opposing jubilites for 4 minutes. A Jubilite shoots David Hasslehoof (and D. Clussie), Z sees this and sobs. Immediately before doing another Revolver Ocelot.
Zhen calling for the destruction of the US
After the shootout, Z interrogates a Jubilite, shooting them before they had the chance to pick up a rifle. She hears Abby scream in mourning over the loss of David Hasslehoof. As Abby runs away, Z takes more psychic damage. She self-deprecates in private with David's corpse, then enters a fit of anger. Mizzlebip shows Z what seems to be a CIA ID card, and Z immediately believes her. She publicly announces a gathering for all Jubilites in her area, and later that midnight takes a helicopter flight to the Vito Capizzo stadium in Nantucket. She then proceeds to make an anger-driven speech describing her utter contempt for the United States and declares war against it. After the speech, she sees a stealth plane fly under the full moon, and begins to feel regret as Abby walks into the graveyard she's in.
Chapter 9: A Sword And A Crown[]
Continuing directly where Ch. 8 left off, Z has an emotional breakdown. Abby delegates leadership to Mizzlebip, and Z follows suit. She then offers to take Z anywhere. Crying, Z requests that they go to Fiji. Before leaving, she salutes Mizzlebip.
Zhen making a chilling grin while talking about her parents
As Z and Abby take 3 flights totaling almost 24 hours in the to Fiji, Z hallucinates her parents in the clouds at peace. Z is still keeping up with the news on her phone. Z realizes the CIA ID card Mizzlebip handed her was fake, and feels betrayed. She cries a little and reflects on what led her down the path that she went. She still believes she was right about everything and rants about it as Hideo Kojima's faint pixelated portrait cries in the sky. Z also makes a very objectively chilling grin and claims her parents guided her on this path for revenge against the US. Z decides to go by the name "Zhen" again from this point forward. More Honkifexes die and Zhen expresses remorse for her mistreatment of Abby. She runs low on spoons. Zhen falls asleep and has another ephemeral muse dream.
- “Z: you could live not in a fragile, infinitesimal human body, but in the realm of dreams, of the ephemeral yet eternal”
- — Psycholonials, Chapter 9This time, the ephemeral muse in question is Z. Zhen (the main character) is sitting on a minature version of Nantucket. Z (The giant ephemeral muse) describes herself as the successor to riotus and offers to Zhen the chance to become successor.
It is at this moment, Z (ephemeral muse) offers the player the first real choice in the game. The sword (stay in Fiji) or the crown (return to New Whimsiphae), providing several different dialogues depending on how the player presses either the sword or crown. Zhen urges Z (and the player) to stop telling her what to think. Zhen wakes up, tosses her phone into the ocean, kisses Abby, lives in a house with her, raises a new horse named Percy, and marries Abby. That is where her main story ends.
Bottle epilogue[]
Zhen speaks to the player through a letter in a bottle and says she no longer actively keeps up with the news, and lives a peaceful life with Abby. She also writes a long monologue towards the player about different topics.
Personality[]
Z is sharp-witted, deadpan and a bit cynical, as comes through in her conversations with Abby. She also seems to have some depressive/self-harming tendencies, which she uses bleak humour to cope with. Her typical day consists of waking up in the afternoon, spending a few hours scrolling through her sundry social media platforms, eating just enough to stay alive, getting drunk, and then falling asleep a bit before sunrise. Her life has been in this constant rut for so long that she hasn't even turned the page on her calendar in two months. This is due in part to her cancellation, but the effect is compounded by being in the midst of a pandemic and thus unable to experience life outside of her phone. She scarcely even notices the mess in her room anymore.
She does, however, have a playful side. She enjoys posting intentionally bad videos to her Tiktok and watching her simps praise them. She also likes to DM some of them and flirt with them for a bit, just to tell them they don't have a chance with her and she was wasting their time for a joke. She also enjoys clownery and, when she isn't in a depressive downswing, seems to be very bubbly. It is possible that her character is a very capricious one, although since we were introduced to her at her lowest, Chapter 2 might also just show a return to her normal state of being.
Based on the content of her manifesto, Z is a revolutionary, and is passionate about her ideals to the point of random fits of passion, such as when she attacks and kills a police officer for damaging her manifesto. Immediately after, she shows her cunning and quick thinking, as she decides to drive the officer's car into the sea and then frame Percy for committing the crime. She is also, clearly, very motivated and single-minded: once she decides to distribute her manifesto, she doesn't let anything stop her.
Z believes that an individual's personality is nothing more than an amalgamation of all the media they've ever consumed, so observing the media properties she proudly displays on her bedroom wall might tell us about her own personality. These are: Metal Gear Solid (of which she draws erotic fanart), Post Malone (about whom she apparently has sexual fantasies), the Insane Clown Posse (which she specifically notes for their philosophy toward what makes a family), and Homestuck (in her words, whether she likes it or not, it's a part of her now).
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Zhen's handle on all social media is @z69clownboner420
- Zhen is the first explicitly Asian-American major character in any of Hussie's work to date.
- Zhen prefers to go by Z because her name is frequently mispronounced by people who aren't familiar with Chinese names.
- According to the official translation, her Chinese name is written as 珍.
- Zhen prefers to go by Z because her name is frequently mispronounced by people who aren't familiar with Chinese names.
- Zhen uses she/they pronouns at the beginning of the story, however they later consider themselves full clown gender, for which they state "literally any pronouns are applicable".
- As of Chapter 8, she has 338 Million Instagram followers. The follower counts of her other socials are unknown at this point of the story.
- Zhen has a real-life instagram page with a lot less followers.
- Zhen's decision to craft a new clownsona and then use that as a vehicle to produce serialized content about aliens with a philosophical message is a potential reference to Andrew Hussie doing more or less the same thing in his professional life.
- Furthermore, her decision to delete all the old content from her Instagram account and replace it with a single selfie in full clown makeup is another thing Hussie has done, specifically with his Tumblr account. Her comment that "some haters might associate her name with her controversial past" is reminiscent of some comments Hussie has made as well
- Her desire to move to Guam also seems to be a reference to the fact that Hussie claims to have lived in Guam in the past.
- The Jubilite Manifesto mentions that a clownsona is an "expression of your truest self." This recalls the concept of an Ultimate Self, mentioned frequently within The Homestuck Epilogues and Homestuck: Beyond Canon.
| Psycholonials | |
|---|---|
| Characters | Abby • Joculine • Percy • Zhen • Mizzlebip |
| Creators | Andrew Hussie • Clark Powell • Kohi • Aysha U. Farah • Adelaide Killigan |
| Related Concepts | Clown • Prankster's Gambit • Chat client |