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Comic Books
Big Barda: But the Dark Age had not just changed the world, they say. It had not only driven the seas to vapor and burned the cities of Man. No. It had also changed him. Stripped him of his famous face. Destroyed his home. And so, they say, he came to the crossroads here... and became a new one. Welcome to the Canyons of Clay.
Supergirl: Whoa! You're telling me this place is alive?
Silver Banshee: No. This place is death.
Supergirl: Whoa! You're telling me this place is alive?
Silver Banshee: No. This place is death.
Films — Live-Action
Mike Enslin: [Into his tape recorder] General Manager claims that the phantom in room interferes...
Gerald Olin: I have never used the word "phantom."
Mike Enslin: Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, spirit? Specter?
Gerald Olin: No, you misunderstand. Whatever's in 1408 is nothing like that.
Mike Enslin: Then what is it?
Gerald Olin: It's an evil fucking room.
Gerald Olin: I have never used the word "phantom."
Mike Enslin: Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, spirit? Specter?
Gerald Olin: No, you misunderstand. Whatever's in 1408 is nothing like that.
Mike Enslin: Then what is it?
Gerald Olin: It's an evil fucking room.
— 1408
"It won, Roger. It tricked me. I didn't think it could, but it did. It's going to trick you too, Roger. This house knows everything about you. Leave while you can!"
— Elizabeth Cobb, House
"The Zone wants to be respected. Otherwise it will punish."
Literature
I am Father. I am the life of this planet. All that is here comes from me, belongs to me, is a part of me. All power is mine.
— Animorphs - The Ellimist Chronicles
"The desert prowled up to the front porch, eyeing Lucas Marsh with interest."
— Cactus Flowers and Bone Flutes, by Mercedes Yardley
"I bring word from the Sibling! They don't remember inviting you in. And considering that they aren't merely the master of this house, they literally are this house, your actions are quite the insult."
— Kaladin Stormblessed, Rhythm of War (fourth book of The Stormlight Archive)
Live-Action TV
Aughra: What you need is essence of Thra itself! And who is Thra? Hmm?
Emperor/skekSo: [begrudgingly] ... you are Thra.
Emperor/skekSo: [begrudgingly] ... you are Thra.
The Doctor: I see. This asteroid is sentient.
Auntie: We walk on his back, breathe his air. Eat his food...
Amy: Smell its armpits?
House: [through Auntie and Uncle] And do my will. You are most welcome, travelers.
Amy: Doctor... that voice, that's the asteroid talking?
The Doctor: Yes. So you're like a... sea urchin; hard outer surface — that's the planet we're walking on — big, squashy, oogly thing inside — that's you?
House: That is correct, Time Lord.
Auntie: We walk on his back, breathe his air. Eat his food...
Amy: Smell its armpits?
House: [through Auntie and Uncle] And do my will. You are most welcome, travelers.
Amy: Doctor... that voice, that's the asteroid talking?
The Doctor: Yes. So you're like a... sea urchin; hard outer surface — that's the planet we're walking on — big, squashy, oogly thing inside — that's you?
House: That is correct, Time Lord.
"Oh, my dear, Fiddler's Green is not a 'who', it is a where. I was not a person. I was a place."
— Fiddler's Green, The Sandman (2022), "Lost Hearts"
Tabletop Games
The fabric of Bishopsgate is literally alive, a vast complex web of flesh. Tendons run through cavities in walls. Nerve endings and blood vessels thread through narrow fissures in the mortar and brickwork. Eyes and ears sit behind glass panels, and in the lowest sub-basement, at the head of the so-called Labyrinth, a vast maw waits to be fed. Was this always the way? Was this the intention of the asylum's original designers? Or has the thing that lived below grown into the walls over the years? Worse: what if Matthew Gorlay had an occult plan? What if it were he who threaded the flesh into the fabric of the building, making the madness of the dead into a living personification of madness that projected its own insanity into the patients and doctors who lived here?
— Asylum
"What is this place?"
The face stirred again. "Myself," it sang. "Metamorphosis. Ascension. I am that I am." The face broke up again into dozens of whirring birds.
A clump of vines twitched, rolled in on itself and coalesced into a leaf-green wolf. It said "I am the land, awakened by blood," and loped away.
"No longer a larva," an orchid-mouth said. "The pupal stage ends, for myself and the others."
The flesh beneath Ruthven writhed into a gigantic face. It whispered "Did I not promise to rejoin you at Gehenna?" then vanished into the meat again.
The face stirred again. "Myself," it sang. "Metamorphosis. Ascension. I am that I am." The face broke up again into dozens of whirring birds.
A clump of vines twitched, rolled in on itself and coalesced into a leaf-green wolf. It said "I am the land, awakened by blood," and loped away.
"No longer a larva," an orchid-mouth said. "The pupal stage ends, for myself and the others."
The flesh beneath Ruthven writhed into a gigantic face. It whispered "Did I not promise to rejoin you at Gehenna?" then vanished into the meat again.
— Lambach Ruthven meets the Tzimisce Antediluvian, Vampire: The Masquerade — Nights Of Prophecy
"Torvendis can never be fully mapped. The deserts change to forest, the glaciers to rivers of lava, the mountains to ocean troughs and the cities to plains of dust. Trying to chart it seems to make the landscape change even faster, as if Torvendis takes exception to any attempt to unravel its secrets with compass and map. No one on Torvendis ever wakes up to the same world twice, and in a world where even the colour of the sky mutates from hour to hour nothing ever stays the same.
But even the land never changes as much as the patterns of power that have played across Torvendis for aeons, like wildfires flaring and burning out."
But even the land never changes as much as the patterns of power that have played across Torvendis for aeons, like wildfires flaring and burning out."
Video Games
The Detective: What is this strange feeling I keep having? This cold... even now?
Shivers: I AM LA REVACHOLIÈRE. I AM THE CITY.
The Detective: What do you mean, you are the city?
Shivers: I AM A FRAGMENT OF THE WORLD SPIRIT, THE GENIUS LOCI OF REVACHOL. MY HEART IS THE WIND CORRIDOR. THE BOTTOM OF MY AIR IS RED. I HAVE A HUNDRED THOUSAND LUMINOUS ARMS. COME MORNING, I CARRY INDUSTRIAL DUST AND LET IT SETTLE ON TREE LEAVES. I SHAKE THE DUST FROM THOSE LEAVES AND ONTO YOUR COAT. I'VE SEEN YOU, I'VE SEEN YOU! I'VE SEEN YOU WITH HER — AND I'VE SEEN YOU WITHOUT HER. I'VE SEEN YOU ON THE CRESCENT OF THE HILL.
The Detective: How are you talking to me?
Shivers: THE MODULATIONS OF MY VOICE ARE NOTED DOWN WITH THERMOMETERS AND BAROMETERS. YOU FEEL ME IN YOUR NOSTRILS, ON THE LITTLE HAIRS ON THE BACK OF YOUR NECK. I ALSO RESIDE IN YOUR LUNGS AND VESTIGIAL ORGANS. EVERYWHERE THERE IS SPACE.
Shivers: I AM LA REVACHOLIÈRE. I AM THE CITY.
The Detective: What do you mean, you are the city?
Shivers: I AM A FRAGMENT OF THE WORLD SPIRIT, THE GENIUS LOCI OF REVACHOL. MY HEART IS THE WIND CORRIDOR. THE BOTTOM OF MY AIR IS RED. I HAVE A HUNDRED THOUSAND LUMINOUS ARMS. COME MORNING, I CARRY INDUSTRIAL DUST AND LET IT SETTLE ON TREE LEAVES. I SHAKE THE DUST FROM THOSE LEAVES AND ONTO YOUR COAT. I'VE SEEN YOU, I'VE SEEN YOU! I'VE SEEN YOU WITH HER — AND I'VE SEEN YOU WITHOUT HER. I'VE SEEN YOU ON THE CRESCENT OF THE HILL.
The Detective: How are you talking to me?
Shivers: THE MODULATIONS OF MY VOICE ARE NOTED DOWN WITH THERMOMETERS AND BAROMETERS. YOU FEEL ME IN YOUR NOSTRILS, ON THE LITTLE HAIRS ON THE BACK OF YOUR NECK. I ALSO RESIDE IN YOUR LUNGS AND VESTIGIAL ORGANS. EVERYWHERE THERE IS SPACE.
"HELLO, TEST SUBJECT. Echo, echo. WELCOME TO YOUR FIRST TEST. I'M YOUR OVERSEER, CAVE JOHNSON, AND I THINK IF YOU KEEP TESTING, YOU MIGHT FIND SOMETHING VERY INTERESTING ABOUT THIS PLANET... [chuckling] It's me. I'm the planet, you live on me! Wanted to save it for later, but it's just too darn good. You really wouldn't have seen it coming. Do me a favor — don't tell any of the other test subjects.
[Beat]
Also, don't pollute."
[Beat]
Also, don't pollute."
— Planet Cave Johnson, Portal 2: Perpetual Testing Initiative
"Observe the Razorbeak as it tends so carefully to the fungal blooms; just the right bit from the yellow, then a swatch from the pink. Follow the Glow Mites as they gather and organize the fallen spores. What higher order guides their work? Mark my words: someone or something is managing the ecology of this planet."
— Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Lady Deirdre Skye, "Planet Dreams" (Accompanies discovery of the "Centauri Empathy" tech)
"You waited so long to heed us, earthdeidre,
Almost we pruned you, as we may yet prune your branches."
Almost we pruned you, as we may yet prune your branches."
— Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Planet, "Conversations with Planet" (Accompanies discovery of the "Secrets of Alpha Centauri" tech)
"Speak. I am the Crimson One. The lies and the mists are not they but I. You all know that I am One. Yes, and the One is I."
Web Animation
Templar: It was then that we came upon the most striking landmark of the planet: a singular mountain that pierced the sky, red and angry. Just beyond this rocky terrain laid our destination and hopefully our brethren. I gave the order to ascend, thinking it prudent to avoid more of the jungle parasites and to gain a greater vantage of our surroundings. It was only when we were halfway up that the seismic activity of the mountain became apparent. This surprised us as orbital scans had shown no tectonic plates or magma chamber in this region. The first pyroclastic flow took Brother Polder. He was granted the Emperor's peace... and peace it was, for what we saw when we reached the summit will stay with me forever.
Commander: What was it?
Templar: We thought we had been observing the planet. The planet was observing us.
Commander: What was it?
Templar: We thought we had been observing the planet. The planet was observing us.
Web Original
ive figured it out. i know why the creatures are suddenly and undetectably appearing inside our facilities. i know why spare parts and pieces of machines keep disappearing. i know why the doors seem to malfunction and suddenly lock themselves. its not a glitch in the system. its...
hell is alive. it breathes. it thinks. the entire area is a massive intelligent superorganism and it is harsh and it is cruel. just by watching us it has learned how our systems and machines work. it has not only begun to deconstruct our technology but also assemble it in perverse ways, attaching parts to the creatures it tortures, making them into an aimless army of death and destruction. it warps them across itself to get them past our security. it locks our doors to trap us with them.
this is not an attack. this is not a defence. this is entertainment. this is an exhibition of death and cruelty and suffering for its own sake. it had grown tired of what it has and we unwillingly just offered ourselves up as new playthings.
tom please for the love of god cancel this project immediately, we have to abandon everything and seal this place away. leave the machines and tools behind. evacuate as many as we can, before it is too late.
i can only hope this encrypted message is received before the organism learns to read it and intercept it. whatever happens, we can not let this being find a way out and spread to the surface. we ha
a n o t h e r d i e s . b r i n g m e m o r e . i h u n g e r .
hell is alive. it breathes. it thinks. the entire area is a massive intelligent superorganism and it is harsh and it is cruel. just by watching us it has learned how our systems and machines work. it has not only begun to deconstruct our technology but also assemble it in perverse ways, attaching parts to the creatures it tortures, making them into an aimless army of death and destruction. it warps them across itself to get them past our security. it locks our doors to trap us with them.
this is not an attack. this is not a defence. this is entertainment. this is an exhibition of death and cruelty and suffering for its own sake. it had grown tired of what it has and we unwillingly just offered ourselves up as new playthings.
tom please for the love of god cancel this project immediately, we have to abandon everything and seal this place away. leave the machines and tools behind. evacuate as many as we can, before it is too late.
i can only hope this encrypted message is received before the organism learns to read it and intercept it. whatever happens, we can not let this being find a way out and spread to the surface. we ha
a n o t h e r d i e s . b r i n g m e m o r e . i h u n g e r .
Western Animation
"I have served on five ships, man. I have seen stuff. One time I got trapped in a sentient cave for weeks. You ever been trapped in a sentient cave? That's a dark place that knows things."
— Ensign Beckett Mariner, Star Trek: Lower Decks, "Second Contact"
