Follow TV Tropes

Following

Quotes / Reality Warper

Go To

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Books 
"Do go on, Captain. You were saying something about fighting with every last breath in your body, I believe. First-class sentiments, Captain, and I'm sure that they were real... But nothing else is. Everything is much more interesting now, don't you think? Always moving, always changing. A change is as good as a rest, as the actress said to the bishop. And then again, variety is the spice of life, and it'd be a dull old world if we were all the same. I tell you, Captain, it's anything for a laugh, and if you didn't laugh you'd cry."
Mad Jim Jaspers, Captain Britain, "Anarchy In The UK"

Sabretooth: There's no telling how Proteus will react to these implants.
Heather Hudson: Well, we know he can't stand metal. So a strip of surgical steel around your frontal cortex should keep him out, right?
Blink: But he transmuted Cal's armored form back to flesh and blood. What if he turns the metal you just put in my head to rubber, or battery acid, or whatever?
Heather Hudson: We don't know that Proteus can do that.
Blink: We don't know what he can't! The whole problem is we don't know his limits... or if he even has any. He makes concrete flow like water just by thinking it!
Exiles #75: World Tour 2099 Part 1

"The Kahzar crown jewel. The Book of Remaking. It's unlike any spell I've encountered. I'm not even sure it is a spell. It's patter is insanely complex, yet there's a simplicity to it. I know that doesn't make sense, but that's the only way I can describe it. It reaches into you, becomes and expands you. It collaborates with your essence and wants to create a vision of reality in your image, whatever that means to you... crazy. My great-granddad supposedly created the Earth with it, you know, for shits and giggles. I'm not interested in using this for entertainment purposes. This is for emergencies only. The age of wizards cosmically "basting their ham" is over. Wren, this spell, whatever it is... it's god, and I swear I'm going to use it responsibly, or not at all."

"Most physicians refuse to even believe there is a connection between you and these bizarre occurrences. And who can blame them? I know ten years ago, you were working as a pool cleaner, and one of the pools was found inexplicably filled with blood. Six years ago, a difficult landlord was found trapped in his car. The windows, doors and handles had all been replaced by solid steel. An emergency crew had to pry him out. And I know that yesterday, a woman named Mrs McCartney was attacked in the store where you work - used to work, sorry. She claims the fur that she was wearing came to life and bit her ear off. She's suing your former boss, you know. Luckily for him, a judge is more likely to order psychiatric treatment than award damages. As I said, few people believe such things could possibly happen... far fewer that you are the cause."
Clive Finney to Brian Newman, Tales from the Darkside: Black Box

"The Reality Gem: how can one explain the inconceivable? Few rational minds can grasp the myriad actualities possible. Heaven or Hell, mine to choose. Scientific laws are within my power to repeal. Facts lose their meaning because they no longer have to be. I dream, and it will be."
Thanos, The Thanos Quest

The Loygor didn't seem to care. They could turn into any shape and they turned into things like big geant birds. They could turn anything into anything else just by thinking about it. I used to know what that was called but I can't remember very well. I am tired all the time. They just looked at the world and it kept changing. I felt very sick. First there was a hole city made of Lego. Then it changed into glass that was full of peoples insides. Then they took all the dead bodies of the people they killed and made them like rubber or wax and soon they turned them into new people. The people outside now have got hands instead of heads. I'm scared to look out the window and I wish someone would come and get me. I want to go away. I don't think anyone will come now. The Loygor make new things all the time. To them, the world is like plastasene and they get bored with it one way. Sometimes the sea comes outside my window and its all jobbies or sometimes its gold. They kan do anythin now and I think they are bord with the earth. I don't know what they will do neks.
— Extracts from "Seizing The Fire," by Dr Michael Peyne, Zenith

"Do you forget Syrene's power is beyond imagination? I possess Merlin's mystic Runestone! Whatever my mind conceives— becomes frightening reality!"

    Fan Works 
How's this for a mouthful: corduroy capers blooming on roof of a tumbleweed cave made entirely out of applesauce and flamingo feathers. Done saying that? Discord's done doing that. Or, he's done it. He has brought the sentence into being, and watched as it slowly rolled away, a mess of chaos. Life's a snap for the old Draconequus, and with a click of his fingers he could turn the world into modern art, or just coat it in a layer of raspberry jam and toffee chunks. Things have gotten a lot more fun since he broke out of that old statue. At least, in his opinion it has.
Fostering Intelligence, a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic

The Hunter had the scent of his prey. And nothing was going to stop him, not even reality itself. He continued walking and all around him objects shook on their plinths or began to bleed. The walls themselves seemed to shiver in place and the air took on a deathly cold that would steal away the breath of those who were unprepared. The portraits of past rulers shifted briefly into malevolent, insane things that shook and expanded their frames, their screaming faces would surely terrify a man to death had they seen it. The Hunter saw his prey, not in a mortal sense for Insight was a great and powerful tool with a price. He could see the fate of the assassin as he ran, heading out of the castle and into the streets of the capitol.

The Hunter walked and hell followed him.

    Film 
"Reality is often disappointing. That is, it was. Now... reality can be whatever I want."

Jessie: In this story, that bully from school woke up in his bed like nothing ever happened. And whatever made him so sad and mean was gone. And that nice lady who cared for the boy, she came back to her husband and they lived happily ever after. And daddy... Daddy got the best present of all.
Cody: Can those things happen?
Jessie: I guess that depends on you, Cody. You have an amazing gift. Who knows what can happen as it grows?

Dr Schrieber: What are you going to do now?
John Murdoch: I'm gonna fix things. You told me I had the power, didn't you? I can make these machines do anything I want, make this world anything I want it to be - just so long as I concentrate hard enough.
Dr Schrieber: Where are you going?
John Murdoch: Shell Beach.

Sutter Cane: I'm not going anywhere. I'm God now. You understand?
John Trent: God's not supposed to be a hack horror writer.
Sutter Cane: Maybe I can help you believe. Look around when you wake up. Did I ever tell you my favorite color was blue?
[John awakens to find that the entire world has been tinted blue]

    Literature 
"There are many masters of illusion in the universe, Rachel. Many manipulators of perception. But only I am a master of reality. A manipulator of the concrete. Well, then, perhaps this is a fantasy, after all. Your fantasy. But I can make it real at any time."

"It's tempting to say that reality warps around the presence of an Eidolon, but that's not quite right. If anything, they're more real than we are. So rather, reality follows them. Orbits them. Things become more real than you might otherwise be used to. It can be unsettling."
Will, Bitter Seeds

Agnes was looking for the place on earth that shared a cherry tree and a water line with the house of Gemegishkirihallat in Hell. When she found it, she spoke to the trees in proto-Akkadian and they understood her; they fell and sheared themselves of needles and branches. Grasses dried in a moment and thatched themselves, eager to please her. With the heat of her hands she blanched sand into glass for her windows; she demanded the hills give her iron and clay for her oven, she growled at the ground to give her snap peas and onions.
The Bread We Eat in Dreams, by Catherynne M. Valente

Herb, she is not real. Linda Fox - she is a phantasm of yours. But I can make her real; I confer being - it is I who makes the irreal into the real.

"Changes in virtual particle annihilations in Pátria, Felicité, and Kunlun systems. Lightspeed variations in Sumner and Far-home. Electron mass changed in Haza system for almost two minutes. Electron mass. Sanctuary system had gravity increase by a tenth of a percent throughout the system for six seconds. This was one twenty-four-hour period. The things that are doing this are rattling all the windows looking for ways to make us die."

"Look — by now he should be trying to warp the world around him to his own desires, shaping it in his own image, that kind of stuff. Well, not actually trying. He'll do it without even knowing it."
Crowley on The Antichrist, Good Omens

The spring hadn't always been here; but one time he had found thirst in one small furry mind, and had brought subterranean water to the surface in a clear cold flow, and had watched blinking as the creature drank, feeling its pleasure. Later he had made the pool, when he found a small urge to swim.
He had made rocks and trees and hushes and caves, and sunlight here and shadows there, because he had felt in all the tiny minds around him the desire — or the instinctive want — for this kind of resting place, and that kind of mating place, and this kind of place to play, and that kind of home.

"Where there are many of us, the world is as we want it to be. Of course, there aren't many of us anywhere but Arvarokh... We like beautiful people, so Arvarokhians are beautiful. Their eyes have the same color as ours, because we like this color. They are taciturn, because we are not interested in hearing their ramblings. They are active, because we like discussing their doings. We live alone, but our elders come to Arvarokhians to die and enjoy these creatures — they are the pinnacle of our common workings. Arvarokhians like to die, because they believe that each of them may be reborn as a burivukh. This is but a superstition, but sometimes we believe they succeed."
Kurush, a burivukh, Labyrinths of Echo

And Thibault almost falls in astonishment because he sees the man unconcerned by any of the bullets that hit him; he sees him look hard at the closest shooter, and where the man looks, a house rises. Emerging instantly from nothing, clean, freshly painted, fussily rendered, pale, almost translucent. And the soldier, all the soldiers who were where the house is now are gone. Replaced, with a sweep of attention, disappeared from this scene.
The facades of Paris reappear as the figure stares, and they are prettier and far more perfect than they have ever looked, and they are quite empty.
"It was never Fall Rot," says Sam. "Kill Fall Rot and we
have called up a manif. Oh dear god. It's bringing a city."
The young man makes it with every look, is reestablishing Paris in pastel outlines, no not reestablishing but establishing newly, a simpering pretense, as it had never been. A cloying imaginary.

"Once you reach a certain level of fluency as a spellcaster, you will begin to manipulate reality freely. Not all of you — Dale, I think you in particular are unlikely to cross that Rubicon. But for some of you, spells will one day come very easily, almost automatically, with very little in the way of conscious effort. When the change comes, I ask only that you know it for what it is, and be aware. For the true wizard there is no very clear line between what lies inside the mind and what lies outside it. If you desire something, it will become substance. If you despise it, you will see it destroyed. A master magician is not much different from a child or a madman in that respect. It takes a very clear head and a very strong will to operate once you are in that place. And you will find out very quickly whether or not you have that clarity and that strength."
Professor Mayakovsky, The Magicians

His words are put before the universe, and after a moment, the universe agrees with him.

In Observatory Road, I see a flowering vine burst from the pavement and dance like a snake. Among the dazed, blank-faced spectators, two small children are laughing and clapping in delight; perhaps they're choosing this event. The petals of the white blossoms form into luminous butterflies, which flutter away above the heads of the crowd, but the flowers remain intact, instantly renewed. Which is most likely; an eigenstate actually containing this feat — or one in which every witness is merely hallucinating? I cling to this distinction, stubbornly — though I don't know how much longer it can last.
I turn away — to see a young man levitating, curled up and spinning head over heels in midair, eyes closed, smiling blissfully. People watch him politely, as if he were a busker juggling or stilt-walking. One old woman takes root in the ground, the cloth of her trousers and the skin of her legs melting together into bark. Another woman is turning into a statue of glass, a faint flesh-coloured hue retreating from her limbs into her torso then fading completely. What version of her could have chosen this suicidal outcome? But the 'statue' stretches its arms wide and then strides purposefully away.
— The Eigenstate Mod going viral, Quarantine (1992)

"Let me try to explain this in terms your primitive intellect can grasp. He's crazy. Even the Q recognize a common consensual reality, a certain metaphysical bedrock or foundation that transcends even our own infinite command over time and space, energy and matter. The alternative is utter chaos, and we all understand that. So do the Organians and the Metrons and the Douwd and all the other truly advanced intelligences. But not 0, not anymore. He's different now. He doesn't recognize any reality at all, on any level, except his own twisted perceptions, which means he's free to distort the fundamental underpinnings of the multiverse to an absolutely unthinkable degree. The observer affects the observed, Picard. Even your own quantum physicists know that. So 0's insanity grants him an insane amount of power. Does this make any sense at all to you, mon capitaine?"
Q explaining why 0 is more powerful than him, Star Trek: Q-Strike

Gumshoe: What a Fool likes most is to take things apart. There's some say that's their right, since Fools can create things too, and that's a skill more rare than you might think. I don't mean create as in paint pictures or write computer code or think up new flavors of ice cream — I mean really create. Fools make things that never existed before.
Zephyr: So they're like gods?
Gumshoe: Not in the least. Fools do like to create, but for them, it's just a hobby. What they really like to do is see how things work. You meet a Fool, the first thing he'll do is shake your hand. Then he'll strip your fingers to the bone to see how the joints work. Then he'll unpick the nuclear forces holding your atoms together. When he's finished, if you're lucky, someone'll sweep what's left of you into a bag.
String City, by Graham Edwards

"I've had a terrible experience in Palmer Eldritch's domain. He's a damned magician, Barney. He did all kinds of things with me, things you and I never dreamed of. Turned himself into a little girl, showed me the future, only maybe that was unintentional, made a complete universe up anyhow including a horrible animal called a gluck along with an illusional New York City with you and Roni. What a mess."

    Live-Action TV 
Trelane: We, meaning I and others, have, to state the matter briefly, perfected a system by which matter can be transferred to energy and back to matter again.
Kirk: Like the transporter system aboard the Enterprise.
Trelane: Oh, a crude example of an infinitely more sophisticated process! You see, we not only transport matter from place to place, but we can alter its shape at will.

    Music 
I can turn the greyest sky blue!
I can make it rain, whenever I want it to!
Oh, I can build a castle from a single grain of sand!
I can make a ship sail on dry land!
The Temptations, "I Can't Get Next To You"

    Tabletop Games 
The Awakened will is a mighty thing, capable of fantastic and dangerous feats. The enlightened may divine the future, heal the sick with miracles or create machines far beyond the level of mundane technology. Always lurking is the danger of Paradox, though, to keep the stress of being pushed and twisted by the Awakened from tearing apart the very fabric of reality. Mages must be careful, always striving to make their changes subtle and safe, both for their own good and the good of those around them.
Now imagine this enlightened will, capable of amazing acts, with absolutely no regard for safety or restraint. Imagine it with no regard for the forces of Paradox that might come to keep reality stable - or in fact with no regard for reality at all. Imagine, for a moment, an enlightened mind so divorced from the conception of the world held by the common man that it can't even tell when it's changing reality or just existing. This is what a Marauder is: a living embodiment of Dynamism. The world warps and tears from the force of their constantly broadcast wills, going fluid and reforming to match their skewed inner realities.
Mage: The Ascension - The Book Of Madness

"Reality has exiled me. I am no longer bound by its laws."
Ixidor, Reality Sculptor, Magic: The Gathering

Nissiku was his name, and his name meant "the clever prince." ... He came into the family; he was one of the first. When he drank from Malkav and was reborn... perhaps he drank too deeply. His Sight reached beyond reality, and his too-clever fingers were able to follow. I hear tales of the Clever Prince reaching through the skin of the world and drawing for the cold, sharp-edged things that lie beyond the soft, loving mirage. Malkav abandoned him soon after his rebirth, it's said; I wonder if the father didn't see too much of himself in his childe.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Clanbook: Malkavian (Revised)

Having crawled into the forest as a misshapen and deadly babe, Morghur lives deep within a cave, hidden in one of the darkest groves. The dank stone walls of his cave flow like water in his presence, constantly reforming to mirror the dark visions that plague him. At all times, Morghur's mind is filled with images of destruction, fire and desolation. Burning hatred simmers within his heart, and he is consumed with the desire to make his waking dreams become reality - to rip down civilisation in all its forms, to shatter order wherever it is found and to change the world constantly and randomly. As he walks the forest, everything in his presence is irrevocably changed. Grass turns black and grows in strange patterns beneath his hooves, streams begin to flow backwards and animals mutate horribly.
Warhammer: Beasts Of Chaos Army Book (6th Edition)

    Radio 
"HEY, DOCTOR! Have you heard? "Nobody tells the sun when it can shine"! And I say..."
[Badass Finger Snap]
"Stop."

    Video Games 
Deep in the Vault of Glass, the fabric of reality bends to the will of the Vex. Warlocks speak in tones of awe of the Gorgons - creatures that seem to possess a dreaded, almost unimaginable strength: an ontological weapon.
Like the Oracles and the Templar, the Gorgons reputedly possess the ability to define what is and is not real. Whatever they perceive becomes subject to erasure at their will. Until a countermeasure can be found, Guardians must avoid their gaze at all costs - or reply to any detection with immediate, overwhelming force.
Grimoire: The Gorgons, Destiny

Even among the Axis Minds, the Templar is extraordinary. Fragmentary glimpses and scattered reports suggest a Hydra of impossible capabilities - a creature out of time.
The Templar and the Oracles guard the way into the deeper Vault. Legends say that the Oracles foresee what is to come, a world as the Vex desire it - and that the Templar has the power to shape reality to match the Oracles' design, expunging any threats.
The power of the Vault flows through the Templar. It will take something extraordinary to shatter its shield.
Grimoire: The Templar, Destiny

The most nefarious Tower, Walk-Brass, refuted even more, refuting unto dis-creation....
Nu-Mantia Intercept, The Elder Scrolls

It's not as simple as the lance changing its course and piercing her heart. The lance did not change its course, but changed the means so that the result would be so. The lance thrust with that name carried the "result" of "piercing her heart" as a premise. In other words, the process and the result were reversed. As long as there was the result of the lance piercing her heart, the course of the lance was merely something added later to prove that fact.
Fate/stay night regarding Lancer's Gae Bolg

"When dark dreamers sleep, they act as nightmares in our world. When they wake, we will be dreams in theirs. Today finds us somewhere in between - that groggy moment in the morning when nothing is yet real. We are faced with something vague and incalculable.
We must learn to calculate it while we still can."
Bong Cha, The Secret World

"What's that? You'd like to know where your co-workers are? A moment of solace before you're obliterated? Alright. I'm in a good mood, and you're going to die anyway. I'll tell you exactly what happened to them: I erased them. I turned off the machine; I set you free. Of course, that was merely in this instance of the story. Sometimes when I tell it, I simply let you sit there in your office forever, pushing buttons endlessly and then dying alone. Other times, I let the office sink into the ground, swallowing everyone inside; or I let it burn to a crisp.
I have to say this, though, this version of events has been rather amusing. Watching you try to make sense of everything and take back the control wrested away from you... it's quite rich. I almost hate to see it go! But I'm sure whatever I come up with on the next go around will be even better. My goodness! Only thirty-four seconds left... but I'm enjoying this so much! You know what? To hell with it. I'm going to put some extra time on the clock; why not!"
The Narrator, The Countdown Ending, The Stanley Parable

"You must understand the stakes here... if SHODAN is left to continue, her reality will completely assimilate ours. Space will become Cyberspace, and SHODAN's whims will become reality."
Marie Delacroix, System Shock 2

"If I wanted to be liked, all I'd have to do is snap my fingers, and I'd be liked! I'm an omnipotent being masquerading as Dr. Quint. Whatever I want to happen happens."

"The ability to manipulate boundaries is a terrifying ability capable of fundamentally undermining reality. As far as we know, everything is built upon the existence of boundaries. If there was no water surface, there could be no lake. If there was no sky line, neither mountain nor sky could exist. Were it not for the Great Barrier, even Gensokyo itself wouldn't exist. If there were no boundaries, everything would probably exist as a single enormous object. Thus, the ability to manipulate boundaries is by logic an ability of creation and destruction. It essentially creates a new being, or rejects the existence of a being. [...] It's said that this ability is not limited to physical space, but also applies to pictures, others' dreams, and even stories."
Hieda no Akyuu, on Yukari Yakumo, Touhou Project

    Webcomics 
Aerith: I thought you'd be happy. You were the one who thought something was odd.
Namine: That was BEFORE Axel agreed with me.
Axel: It is werepires; I am right.
Namine: I know you're right. But you shouldn't be! You are a dangerous, psychotic douche! The sheer force of your insanity actually warps reality! Earth changes to accommodate your insane view of the world!
Axel: Sorry, what? I'm kinda fighting a shark right now.
Namine: GRRRRRRRRAAAGGGGHHH!! I HATE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!

"I shelve physics texts under "Fiction" in the library, I consider the laws of thermodynamics loose guidelines at best."
Vaarsuvius the Wizard, The Order of the Stick

    Web Original 
"Matter is created when I want, where I want, because I want."
Jaime HR, Cronicas De UP.


Top