Simple. It attaches itself to someone's face.
Usually
Nightmare Fuel from some horror film.
May be related to
Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong. See also
Orifice Invasion,
Personal Space Invader.
Examples:
Comics
- The mind-control starfish of Starro the Conqueror.
Film
- The xenomorphs from Alien. Many later examples are homages.
Tabletop Games
Toys
Video Games
- Gligar and Gliscor from Pokémon.
- Metroids
- Headcrabs from the Half-Life saga.
- Brainsuckers from X-COM Apocalypse, which are used as ammunition by certain aliens in addition to appearing on their own. Replacing a person's brain is their entire purpose; They don't even have a digestive system.
WebComics
- In Campus Safari, Chrome's miniwhip Aurla does a good impression of one. (Played for laughs)
- Sam Starfall pulls one of these off in an early strip
of Cross Time Cafe. Hortmage finds it irritating and, maybe, disgusting.
