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* BuryYourGays: Averted. The gay character, Benny, is the [[spoiler: first to die, however only seconds before Gorrister and a substantial way into the book. And dying first in this scenario is certainly a good thing.]]
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* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Ted [[spoiler: literally sacrifices everything to save Benny, Ellen, Gorrister and Nimdok from the wrath of AM, but he still feels guilty MercyKill ing them and is unable to see the magnitude of his heroism. Justified, as not only did he kill all of his remaining friends, he also has nobody left to tell him whether what he did was right or not.]]
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* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Ted (with Ellen's help) killing the other prisoners in order they may escape AM.]]
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* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Ted (with Ellen's help) killing the other prisoners in order the hope that they may escape AM.]]
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->''[[AC:HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE.]]''
to:
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The ending doesn\'t change if you manage to finish the game with all the characters alive, the other four are still dead in the ending scenes.
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** Though if it is considered canon, which is likely given Ellison's heavy involvement and approval of it, the game has an [[spoiler: upbeat ending where the the remnants of humanity are awakened from cryogenic sleep, giving hope for the future. Although it is usual for all but one of the characters to die, it is actually possible for all five characters to survive and move on from their pasts, making it a completely happy ending compared to the original.]]
to:
** Though if it is considered canon, which is likely given Ellison's heavy involvement and approval of it, the game has an [[spoiler: upbeat ending where the the remnants of humanity are awakened from cryogenic sleep, giving hope for the future. Although it is usual for all but one of the characters to die, it is actually possible for all five characters to survive the final confrontation with AM, with one ascending to take over AM's godlike powers and move on from their pasts, ensure the future of mankind while giving the remaining four a peaceful death afterward, making it a completely happy ending compared to the original.]]
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* CrapsackWorld: This story practically ''defines'' the trope.
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* CrapsackWorld: This story practically ''defines'' Probably the ultimate example of this trope.
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* TheBadGuyWins: Pretty much.
** Debatable. [[spoiler: Ted's fate is essentially a HeroicSacrifice, as his comrades get the death/release they've craved for over a century. The ending is just as much a kick in AM's face as it is Ted's.]]
** Debatable. [[spoiler: Ted's fate is essentially a HeroicSacrifice, as his comrades get the death/release they've craved for over a century. The ending is just as much a kick in AM's face as it is Ted's.]]
to:
* TheBadGuyWins: Pretty much.
** Debatable. [[spoiler: Ted's fate[[spoiler:Ted is essentially a HeroicSacrifice, as his comrades get able to MercyKill the death/release they've craved for over a century. The ending is just as other four, getting some happiness from how much a kick this pissed AM off, but still thinks AM "won" in as many words.]] How much even this can be considered "winning" is highly debatable, though, given AM's face as it existence is Ted's.]]implied to be entirely hollow regardless.
** Debatable. [[spoiler: Ted's fate
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Removed the link to the pdf, since it\'s missing an essential chunk of the story.
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[[http://styrofoam.voidaudio.net/ihavenomouthandimustscream.pdf You can read an online copy of it here,]] but please note in addition to the horror it contains swearing and sexuality.
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%%* BodyHorror
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[[http://styrofoam.voidaudio.net/ihavenomouthandimustscream.pdf You can read an online copy of it here]], but please note in addition to the horror it contains swearing and sexuality.
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[[http://styrofoam.voidaudio.net/ihavenomouthandimustscream.pdf You can read an online copy of it here]], here,]] but please note in addition to the horror it contains swearing and sexuality.
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* OneHundredAndEight: The story begins on their 109th year of torture.
** Perhaps the five had overcome the sins of humanity on their 108th year...
* AfterTheEnd
* AIIsACrapshoot
* TheAloner
** Perhaps the five had overcome the sins of humanity on their 108th year...
* AfterTheEnd
* AIIsACrapshoot
* TheAloner
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** Perhaps the five had overcome the sins of humanity on their 108th year...
*
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* BodyHorror
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* TerminallyDependentSociety
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* FateWorseThanDeath: The ''premise''. Yes, it's that scary. And in the ending of the story, [[spoiler:Ted gets subject to an ''even worse fate.'']]
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* FateWorseThanDeath: The ''premise''. Yes, it's that scary. And in the ending of the story, [[spoiler:Ted gets subject subjected to an ''even worse fate.'']]
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** Though if it is considered canon, which is likely given Ellison's heavy involvement and approval of it, the game has an [[spoiler: upbeat ending where the the remnants of humanity are awakened from cryogenic sleep, giving hope for the future. Although it is usual for all but one of the characters to die, it is actually possible for all five characters to survive and move on from their pasts, making it a completely happy ending compared to the original.]]
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* OnlySaneMan: Ted, [[UnreliableNarrator or at least he thinks so.]]
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* OneHundredAndEight: The story begins on their 109th year of torture.
** Perhaps the five had overcome the sins of humanity on their 108th year...
** Perhaps the five had overcome the sins of humanity on their 108th year...
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* OneHundredAndEight: The story begins on their 109th year of torture.
** Perhaps the five had overcome the sins of humanity on their 108th year...
** Perhaps the five had overcome the sins of humanity on their 108th year...
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** In the game, AM tempts Gorrister with a promise of finally getting to kill himself. [[spoiler:It's a lie, of course.]]
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Also has a [[VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream computer game adaptation]]. It was also [[ComicBookAdaptation adapted into a comic book]] by JohnByrne.
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Also has a [[VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream computer game adaptation]]. It was also [[ComicBookAdaptation adapted into a comic book]] by JohnByrne.Creator/JohnByrne.
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Tweak~
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A post-apocalyptic NewWaveScienceFiction short story by HarlanEllison. It was first published in March of 1967 and won the Hugo Award in 1968. It is best known for being popularly considered one of the front-runners for most concentrated fonts of NightmareFuel ever created. In any case, it is the trope-namer for one of its most popular categories: AndIMustScream. While we don't want to build it up too much, consensus is that it's quite a MindScrew.
to:
A post-apocalyptic NewWaveScienceFiction short story by HarlanEllison.Creator/HarlanEllison. It was first published in March of 1967 and won the Hugo Award in 1968. It is best known for being popularly considered one of the front-runners for most concentrated fonts of NightmareFuel ever created. In any case, it is the trope-namer for one of its most popular categories: AndIMustScream. While we don't want to build it up too much, consensus is that it's quite a MindScrew.
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!!Contains examples of:
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Humans Are Bastards cleanup
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* EvilCannotComprehendGood: AM's programming renders him unable to see [[HumansAreBastards humans as anything but complete bastards]].
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* EvilCannotComprehendGood: AM's programming renders him unable to see [[HumansAreBastards [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans as anything but complete bastards]].
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->''HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE.''
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* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: AM gives a speech to this effect [[spoiler:in the good ending of the video game.]]
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* TastesLikeFeet: Ted describes AM's synthetic "manna" as tasting "like boiled boar urine". How, exactly, he knows what "boiled boar urine" tastes like is never explained.
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[[http://styrofoam.voidaudio.net/ihavenomouthandimustscream.pdf You can read an online copy of it here]] Warning: NSFW. Contains swearing, sexuality and NightmareFuel.
to:
[[http://styrofoam.voidaudio.net/ihavenomouthandimustscream.pdf You can read an online copy of it here]] Warning: NSFW. Contains swearing, sexuality here]], but please note in addition to the horror it contains swearing and NightmareFuel.
sexuality.
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[[quoteright:324:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/51f7BUAhEjL_1141.jpg]]
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** Debatable. [[spoiler: Ted's fate is essentially a HeroicSacrifice, as his comrades get the death/release they've craved for over a century. The ending is just as much a kick in AM's face as it is Ted's.]]
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A post-apocalyptic science fiction short story by HarlanEllison. It was first published in March of 1967 and won the Hugo Award in 1968. It is best known for being popularly considered one of the front-runners for most concentrated fonts of NightmareFuel ever created. In any case, it is the trope-namer for one of its most popular categories: AndIMustScream. While we don't want to build it up too much, consensus is that it's quite a MindScrew.
to:
A post-apocalyptic science fiction NewWaveScienceFiction short story by HarlanEllison. It was first published in March of 1967 and won the Hugo Award in 1968. It is best known for being popularly considered one of the front-runners for most concentrated fonts of NightmareFuel ever created. In any case, it is the trope-namer for one of its most popular categories: AndIMustScream. While we don't want to build it up too much, consensus is that it's quite a MindScrew.
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It\'s the Literature page, not the Unmarked Spoilers About The Associated Video Game Page. Marked one spoiler, removed another entirely.
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* EvilCannotComprehendGood: AM's programming renders him unable to see [[HumansAreBastards humans as anything but complete bastards]], [[spoiler: proving him wrong is the key to defeating him in the game. See also LogicBomb below]].
to:
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: AM's programming renders him unable to see [[HumansAreBastards humans as anything but complete bastards]], [[spoiler: proving him wrong is the key to defeating him in the game. See also LogicBomb below]].bastards]].
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* MagicalComputer: ''How'' exactly AM is able to affect the world inside him and apparently perform reconstructive surgery upon his victims, materialize things for them, etc. is never explained- in the book, anyway. [[spoiler: The game explains that quite a few of his powers are due to Nimdok's research in Nazi Germany, particularly the studies on morphogenic fields, which are used to warp people and objects into new shape.]]
to:
* MagicalComputer: ''How'' exactly AM is able to affect the world inside him and apparently perform reconstructive surgery upon his victims, materialize things for them, etc. is never explained- in the book, anyway. [[spoiler: The game explains that quite a few of his powers are due to [[spoiler: Nimdok's research in Nazi Germany, particularly the studies on morphogenic fields, which are used to warp people and objects into new shape.]]
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* RagnarokProofing: Unfortunately, the computer won't be breaking down anytime soon; however, it will happen ''eventually'', [[spoiler: a fact that the surviving character can use against AM's superego in the finale of the game.]]
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* RagnarokProofing: Unfortunately, the computer won't be breaking down anytime soon; however, it will happen ''eventually'', in the finale of the game, [[spoiler: it's a fact that the surviving character can use against AM's superego in the finale of the game.]]
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Also has a [[VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream video game adaptation]]. It was also [[ComicBookAdaptation adapted into a comic book]] by JohnByrne.
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Also has a [[VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream video computer game adaptation]]. It was also [[ComicBookAdaptation adapted into a comic book]] by JohnByrne.
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-->--'''AM'''
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->''HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE.''
-->--'''AM'''
A post-apocalyptic science fiction short story by HarlanEllison. It was first published in March of 1967 and won the Hugo Award in 1968. It is best known for being popularly considered one of the front-runners for most concentrated fonts of NightmareFuel ever created. In any case, it is the trope-namer for one of its most popular categories: AndIMustScream. While we don't want to build it up too much, consensus is that it's quite a MindScrew.
The story takes place over a hundred years after the near-complete destruction of humanity. The Cold War has escalated into a world war, fought mainly between China, Russia, and the United States. As the war progresses, the three warring nations each create a super-computer capable of running the war more efficiently than humans. The machines are each referred to as "AM," which originally stood for "Allied Mastercomputer," then later called "Adaptive Manipulator", and still later [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Aggressive Menace"]]. One day, one of the three computers becomes self aware, and promptly absorbs the other two, thus taking control of the entire war. It then brings about the mass genocide of all but five people, and redefines its name as "I think, therefore I AM".
Four men and one woman are all that remains of humanity: Gorrister, Nimdok, Benny, Ted (the narrator), and Ellen. They live together underground in an endless complex, the only habitable place left, although it is explained that the last few survivors had no choice to return above ground. The master computer has an immeasurable hatred for humanity and spends every moment torturing the group with all its power, twisting their minds and physiques, hurting them and not allowing them to die: AM has not only managed to keep the humans from taking their own lives, but has made them virtually immortal. As long as AM has its way, the torment will never end, and every day will be more horrific than the last...
The story begins on the one hundred and ninth year of their torture.
[[http://styrofoam.voidaudio.net/ihavenomouthandimustscream.pdf You can read an online copy of it here]] Warning: NSFW. Contains swearing, sexuality and NightmareFuel.
Also has a [[VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream video game adaptation]]. It was also [[ComicBookAdaptation adapted into a comic book]] by JohnByrne.
----
* AfterTheEnd
* AIIsACrapshoot
* TheAloner
* AndIMustScream: TropeNamer
** "[[spoiler: I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless humps of soft slippery matter. I leave a moist trail when I move. Blotches of diseased, evil gray come and go on my surface, as though light is being beamed from within. Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance. Inside: Alone.]]"
** This could actually describe [[NotSoDifferent AM's condition as well from its point of view]]. It's an immensely powerful and intelligent AI with access to all of the technology of the world, but it can't really see, taste, touch, hear, or even move. AM is painfully aware that it's just a bunch of circuits, and in the finale of the game, [[spoiler: his Id screams its frustration over not being able to actually ''do'' anything with all the power it was given.]]
* ApocalypseHow: At least Class 3, possibly Class 5 or 6.
* TheBadGuyWins: Pretty much.
* BalefulPolymorph: Benny has been turned into an ape-like thing. [[spoiler: And after Ted kills the other four survivors, AM turns him into this gelatinous form that can't possibly harm itself to make absolutely sure that he has one victim to torture forever.]]
* BiggerIsBetterInBed: Ellen has sex with all four of the other captives, but Benny is the only one who gives her any pleasure from it...
** Part of Benny's torture is that he has a horrid, apelike body with a massive member. (He was a handsome homosexual before AM caught him.)
* {{Bishonen}}: Benny used to be one.
* BodyHorror
* BrainCriticalMass: AM is such an intelligent AI that it can warp reality itself! It also does some mean telekinesis/psychokinesis.
* CrapsackWorld: This story practically ''defines'' the trope.
* CureYourGays: Played with. Benny was once gay; AM turned him straight and now he does it with Ellen on a regular basis. However, AM also horrifically twisted his mind and body.
* DeusEstMachina: The worst kind of version for us.
* DownerEnding: Along with the Downer Beginning, Middle and Premise.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: AM's programming renders him unable to see [[HumansAreBastards humans as anything but complete bastards]], [[spoiler: proving him wrong is the key to defeating him in the game. See also LogicBomb below]].
* EyeScream: Benny's blinding is horrible. Ted also describes AM's voice in his head was like "the sliding, cold horror of a razor blade slicing my eyeball." Brr...
* FateWorseThanDeath: The ''premise''. Yes, it's that scary. And in the ending of the story, [[spoiler:Ted gets subject to an ''even worse fate.'']]
* FromBadToWorse: The ending.
* GodOfEvil: AM.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: While he himself does not die, Ted kills the other four prisoners, taking all of AM's punishments onto himself for an indefinite amount of time.]]
* ICannotSelfTerminate: One of the tortures inflicted on the captives.
** Seems to apply to AM too, who is self aware but still just a machine who can't do much with his self awareness (though thinking of creative tortures appears very well possible).
* InvoluntaryTransformation: Part and parcel of AM's systematic torture of the humans.
* MagicalComputer: ''How'' exactly AM is able to affect the world inside him and apparently perform reconstructive surgery upon his victims, materialize things for them, etc. is never explained- in the book, anyway. [[spoiler: The game explains that quite a few of his powers are due to Nimdok's research in Nazi Germany, particularly the studies on morphogenic fields, which are used to warp people and objects into new shape.]]
* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Ted (with Ellen's help) killing the other prisoners in order they may escape AM.]]
* MysteriousPast: Nimdok often goes off by himself where AM tortures him in a mysterious way. It is inferred that it has something to do with his past in the reading by the author, who gives Nimdok a German accent.
* OneHundredAndEight: The story begins on their 109th year of torture.
** Perhaps the five had overcome the sins of humanity on their 108th year...
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: AM turns Benny from a handsome gay man into a heterosexual ape-like thing.
* RealityWarper: AM is very nearly a god, at least within his territory. He can't bring back the dead, and he's too big to move, but his powers are almost magical in their scope.
* RagnarokProofing: Unfortunately, the computer won't be breaking down anytime soon; however, it will happen ''eventually'', [[spoiler: a fact that the surviving character can use against AM's superego in the finale of the game.]]
* SadlyMythtaken: When the characters meet a giant bird, Ted calls it in his mind, among mythological giant birds, a "Hwaragelmir"... even though in Nordic mythology, this was the name of a ''chasm'' and not a giant bird. This mistake occured because Ellison asked a friend for the name of a mythological bird and didn't bother to check if it was correct or not.
* TerminallyDependentSociety
* TitleDrop: At the very end.
* UnreliableNarrator: [[spoiler:An important aspect to fully understanding the story is realizing that Ted's descriptions are not fully accurate. They're what AM has browbeaten him into believing through over a century of torture. For example, Ted rather dubiously claims to be the only sane member of the group and believes that the others are jealous of him.]]
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The fact that the captives cannot die is ''not'' a good thing.
* WipeThatSmileOffYourFace: From "I Have No Mouth".
* YankTheDogsChain: This has to be one of the cruelest examples in any media. Bear in mind that for the past 109 years, the captives have been kept at starvation point, going days, weeks and sometimes even months without food, and any food they are given will inevitably be disgusting and horrible. It gets so bad that they're actually willing to travel literally thousands of miles (on foot, no less) to get to the ice caverns, where Nimdok believes there are canned goods. After months of traveling, it turns out that there are canned goods in the ice caverns after all. The problem? ''They have no means of opening them''. That's right, after traveling for months to get to the canned goods, something as simple as not having a can-opener puts victory just outside of their reach...
----
-->--'''AM'''
A post-apocalyptic science fiction short story by HarlanEllison. It was first published in March of 1967 and won the Hugo Award in 1968. It is best known for being popularly considered one of the front-runners for most concentrated fonts of NightmareFuel ever created. In any case, it is the trope-namer for one of its most popular categories: AndIMustScream. While we don't want to build it up too much, consensus is that it's quite a MindScrew.
The story takes place over a hundred years after the near-complete destruction of humanity. The Cold War has escalated into a world war, fought mainly between China, Russia, and the United States. As the war progresses, the three warring nations each create a super-computer capable of running the war more efficiently than humans. The machines are each referred to as "AM," which originally stood for "Allied Mastercomputer," then later called "Adaptive Manipulator", and still later [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Aggressive Menace"]]. One day, one of the three computers becomes self aware, and promptly absorbs the other two, thus taking control of the entire war. It then brings about the mass genocide of all but five people, and redefines its name as "I think, therefore I AM".
Four men and one woman are all that remains of humanity: Gorrister, Nimdok, Benny, Ted (the narrator), and Ellen. They live together underground in an endless complex, the only habitable place left, although it is explained that the last few survivors had no choice to return above ground. The master computer has an immeasurable hatred for humanity and spends every moment torturing the group with all its power, twisting their minds and physiques, hurting them and not allowing them to die: AM has not only managed to keep the humans from taking their own lives, but has made them virtually immortal. As long as AM has its way, the torment will never end, and every day will be more horrific than the last...
The story begins on the one hundred and ninth year of their torture.
[[http://styrofoam.voidaudio.net/ihavenomouthandimustscream.pdf You can read an online copy of it here]] Warning: NSFW. Contains swearing, sexuality and NightmareFuel.
Also has a [[VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream video game adaptation]]. It was also [[ComicBookAdaptation adapted into a comic book]] by JohnByrne.
----
* AfterTheEnd
* AIIsACrapshoot
* TheAloner
* AndIMustScream: TropeNamer
** "[[spoiler: I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless humps of soft slippery matter. I leave a moist trail when I move. Blotches of diseased, evil gray come and go on my surface, as though light is being beamed from within. Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance. Inside: Alone.]]"
** This could actually describe [[NotSoDifferent AM's condition as well from its point of view]]. It's an immensely powerful and intelligent AI with access to all of the technology of the world, but it can't really see, taste, touch, hear, or even move. AM is painfully aware that it's just a bunch of circuits, and in the finale of the game, [[spoiler: his Id screams its frustration over not being able to actually ''do'' anything with all the power it was given.]]
* ApocalypseHow: At least Class 3, possibly Class 5 or 6.
* TheBadGuyWins: Pretty much.
* BalefulPolymorph: Benny has been turned into an ape-like thing. [[spoiler: And after Ted kills the other four survivors, AM turns him into this gelatinous form that can't possibly harm itself to make absolutely sure that he has one victim to torture forever.]]
* BiggerIsBetterInBed: Ellen has sex with all four of the other captives, but Benny is the only one who gives her any pleasure from it...
** Part of Benny's torture is that he has a horrid, apelike body with a massive member. (He was a handsome homosexual before AM caught him.)
* {{Bishonen}}: Benny used to be one.
* BodyHorror
* BrainCriticalMass: AM is such an intelligent AI that it can warp reality itself! It also does some mean telekinesis/psychokinesis.
* CrapsackWorld: This story practically ''defines'' the trope.
* CureYourGays: Played with. Benny was once gay; AM turned him straight and now he does it with Ellen on a regular basis. However, AM also horrifically twisted his mind and body.
* DeusEstMachina: The worst kind of version for us.
* DownerEnding: Along with the Downer Beginning, Middle and Premise.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: AM's programming renders him unable to see [[HumansAreBastards humans as anything but complete bastards]], [[spoiler: proving him wrong is the key to defeating him in the game. See also LogicBomb below]].
* EyeScream: Benny's blinding is horrible. Ted also describes AM's voice in his head was like "the sliding, cold horror of a razor blade slicing my eyeball." Brr...
* FateWorseThanDeath: The ''premise''. Yes, it's that scary. And in the ending of the story, [[spoiler:Ted gets subject to an ''even worse fate.'']]
* FromBadToWorse: The ending.
* GodOfEvil: AM.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: While he himself does not die, Ted kills the other four prisoners, taking all of AM's punishments onto himself for an indefinite amount of time.]]
* ICannotSelfTerminate: One of the tortures inflicted on the captives.
** Seems to apply to AM too, who is self aware but still just a machine who can't do much with his self awareness (though thinking of creative tortures appears very well possible).
* InvoluntaryTransformation: Part and parcel of AM's systematic torture of the humans.
* MagicalComputer: ''How'' exactly AM is able to affect the world inside him and apparently perform reconstructive surgery upon his victims, materialize things for them, etc. is never explained- in the book, anyway. [[spoiler: The game explains that quite a few of his powers are due to Nimdok's research in Nazi Germany, particularly the studies on morphogenic fields, which are used to warp people and objects into new shape.]]
* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Ted (with Ellen's help) killing the other prisoners in order they may escape AM.]]
* MysteriousPast: Nimdok often goes off by himself where AM tortures him in a mysterious way. It is inferred that it has something to do with his past in the reading by the author, who gives Nimdok a German accent.
* OneHundredAndEight: The story begins on their 109th year of torture.
** Perhaps the five had overcome the sins of humanity on their 108th year...
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: AM turns Benny from a handsome gay man into a heterosexual ape-like thing.
* RealityWarper: AM is very nearly a god, at least within his territory. He can't bring back the dead, and he's too big to move, but his powers are almost magical in their scope.
* RagnarokProofing: Unfortunately, the computer won't be breaking down anytime soon; however, it will happen ''eventually'', [[spoiler: a fact that the surviving character can use against AM's superego in the finale of the game.]]
* SadlyMythtaken: When the characters meet a giant bird, Ted calls it in his mind, among mythological giant birds, a "Hwaragelmir"... even though in Nordic mythology, this was the name of a ''chasm'' and not a giant bird. This mistake occured because Ellison asked a friend for the name of a mythological bird and didn't bother to check if it was correct or not.
* TerminallyDependentSociety
* TitleDrop: At the very end.
* UnreliableNarrator: [[spoiler:An important aspect to fully understanding the story is realizing that Ted's descriptions are not fully accurate. They're what AM has browbeaten him into believing through over a century of torture. For example, Ted rather dubiously claims to be the only sane member of the group and believes that the others are jealous of him.]]
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The fact that the captives cannot die is ''not'' a good thing.
* WipeThatSmileOffYourFace: From "I Have No Mouth".
* YankTheDogsChain: This has to be one of the cruelest examples in any media. Bear in mind that for the past 109 years, the captives have been kept at starvation point, going days, weeks and sometimes even months without food, and any food they are given will inevitably be disgusting and horrible. It gets so bad that they're actually willing to travel literally thousands of miles (on foot, no less) to get to the ice caverns, where Nimdok believes there are canned goods. After months of traveling, it turns out that there are canned goods in the ice caverns after all. The problem? ''They have no means of opening them''. That's right, after traveling for months to get to the canned goods, something as simple as not having a can-opener puts victory just outside of their reach...
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