"They are amongst us! I knew they would come after me... knew their devices, their depraved methods! Creatures wearing human skins as we wear clothes to cover their hideousness from our eyes! So they might consort insidiously with our species, infiltrating, manipulating, playing us against each other, DAMN OUR EYES!!! WE ARE BLIND TO THEM!!! ...But I knew... oh yes! I knew. I knew they were there, plotting behind that door. One has to be... careful... one must separate their heads from their bodies. And yes! Fire is the key, to purge their souls from this earth, sending them whimpering to their masters in the Beyond!"
— Dr. Maximillian Roivas, Eternal Darkness
"From the new position I could see — it.
My master. The thing that had ridden my back for an endless time, spoken with my mouth — thought with my brain. My master."
My master. The thing that had ridden my back for an endless time, spoken with my mouth — thought with my brain. My master."
— "Sam Cavanaugh", a.k.a. Elihu Nivens, The Puppet Masters
Anyone eating a grape from a Dragon Valley vine had better make very sure he spits the seeds out. If he doesn't, the seed will attach itself to his stomach wall and begin to germinate. Within a year, the poor fool will be in the same condition that the younger Weedens are in, with the vines running through them and subtly controlling everything they do. After five or so years of being animated by the vines this way, the victim wanders out into the fields and lays down to die. From his body sprouts a whole new set of vines, which reach downward to join with their unholy parent — and upward to start the cycle again.
— Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Subsidiaries: A Guide to Pentex
"That thing in your back makes your choices for you. You feel what it wants you to feel. You know what it wants you to know. That's right, isn't it? I saw it while our souls were tangled up together. I saw it all. I was angry about the way you used me, but what you did to me is nothing compared to what that's doing to you."
— Sam Lesser, to Dodge, Locke & Key
"Her head lifted and she turned to look at him, stepping into the light. As she opened her mouth, he saw one of the beige lava-sponges entirely blocking her breathing passage. She stared and stared, then returned to the floor. Suddenly it all made sense: they needed the warmth and moisture of human tissue to reactivate themselves. It was how they moved about — in human hosts. They interfered with the electrical impulses of the brain, encouraged people to pick them up and ingest them, the simple and effective technique developed by all parasites."
— Wonders To Come, by Christopher Fowler
"You see, their young enter through the ears and wrap themselves around the cerebral cortex. This has the effect of rendering the victim extremely susceptible to suggestion. Later, as they grow, follows madness and death."
— Khan Noonien Singh, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
"Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, a form of parasitoid fungus, is a prime example of a parasitoid that alters the host's behavior.
'Zombie ants' is the fanciful term. The infected ant must climb to a high place, where it dies, the fungus emerging from the body to spoor. Fungus infected with the Zero Point Pathogen takes these concepts to new dimensions. The effects on the children are extreme, though chaotic and beyond our control. But in time, we might tune the process to a very fine and nuanced control. Imagine giving detailed military orders to troops by releasing spores through an air drop, orders which must be obeyed. I am excited by the prospects opening to us."
'Zombie ants' is the fanciful term. The infected ant must climb to a high place, where it dies, the fungus emerging from the body to spoor. Fungus infected with the Zero Point Pathogen takes these concepts to new dimensions. The effects on the children are extreme, though chaotic and beyond our control. But in time, we might tune the process to a very fine and nuanced control. Imagine giving detailed military orders to troops by releasing spores through an air drop, orders which must be obeyed. I am excited by the prospects opening to us."
— Dr. Schreber, The Secret World
"The most horrific foes are not those that devour our bodies, break our minds with terror or tear us to pieces with their claws; they are those that take from us what we are, stealing away our very identity and turning us into living puppets to their foul alien will."
— Magos Biologis Hypon Glass, Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos
"<Your body is my home now. Mine. Body and mind, under my control. Forget resistance. It is futile. No host has ever overpowered a Yeerk. It is impossible.>"
— Temrash 114, Animorphs #6: The Capture
"Greetings, Lex Luthor. Your body, mind, and vocal cords all now belong to me. I welcome you to the new Brainiac-Luthor team. By human standards, your brain is superb, its stored data massively useful. The Kryptonian has interrupted my programs and caused me indignity. I shall tolerate him no longer. Now: raise my faceplate to your head. There. My ship was destroyed by the Superman. Our first priority is to construct a replacement. The materials will only be found in populated areas. Take one step forward. I feel you resisting me. It is useless. I repeat myself: take one step forward. Very good. Now another step. And another. And another. And another..."
Amy Wong: How was the Spleef Nebula?
Hermes: [Creepy Monotone] The flight had a stopover on the Brain Slug Planet. Hermes liked it so much, he decided to stay of his own free will.
Fry: Hermes has all the fun. ...wait a minute, he's got a Brain Slug on his head!
Leela: Shh, you'll get us all assimilated!
Amy: Just act natural and switch to a garlic shampoo.
Hermes: Onto new business: Today's mission is to go the Brain Slug Planet.
Zoidberg: What're we supposed to do there?
Hermes: Just walk around not wearin' a helmet.
Hermes: [Creepy Monotone] The flight had a stopover on the Brain Slug Planet. Hermes liked it so much, he decided to stay of his own free will.
Fry: Hermes has all the fun. ...wait a minute, he's got a Brain Slug on his head!
Leela: Shh, you'll get us all assimilated!
Amy: Just act natural and switch to a garlic shampoo.
Hermes: Onto new business: Today's mission is to go the Brain Slug Planet.
Zoidberg: What're we supposed to do there?
Hermes: Just walk around not wearin' a helmet.
— Futurama, "Raging Bender"
Lin: Who are... what are you?
Mutant: I am your pilot now. [Lin struggles to pull the creature off her back, only for her hand to be forced back down] Do not fight me. I have control of your body. All brain and motor functions are under my power.
Lin: Please, no...
Mutant: Silence. See how I control you. Turn. [Lin jerks round to face the mirror] Look. [it speaks through her mouth] You are my prisoner now. You are my... puppet.
Mutant: I am your pilot now. [Lin struggles to pull the creature off her back, only for her hand to be forced back down] Do not fight me. I have control of your body. All brain and motor functions are under my power.
Lin: Please, no...
Mutant: Silence. See how I control you. Turn. [Lin jerks round to face the mirror] Look. [it speaks through her mouth] You are my prisoner now. You are my... puppet.
— Doctor Who, "Resolution"
"This loathsome creature is in fact a parasitic form of Pikmin that has infected a bulborb. Unlike Pikmin that nest in Pikmin Onions, this parasitic relative spends its life inside the body of a host, usually a bulborb. Juveniles fall in line and mimic the actions of their parent until maturing to full independence. By burying its rootlike limbs into the nervous system of the host bulborb and infusing it with natural hormonal excretions, the bulbmin is able to control virtually all of the host's bodily functions. However, the host's voracious appetite seems impossible to suppress."
—Olimar's Notes on the Bulbmin, Pikmin 2
"Victicite has long been recognized as a form of life in its own right. So ask yourself this: What is a form of life that takes possession of another species, that modifies its host behaviour to dispense itself in even greater numbers? What else if not a parasite? But that is precisely what Victicite is."
— Lawrence Hart, The Great Martian War 1913–1917
