I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream/Characters

• Main
• Headscratchers
• Quotes
• All Subpages
  • Characters
  • Fridge
  • Trivia
  • WMG
  • YMMV
• Create New

---

AM

Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live...

The American unit of the three supercomputers, AM was the first to attain sentience; linking up with the other two and achieving dominance over them, he used this position to wage a genocidal war on the entire human race. Though every single other member of the species was destroyed, AM managed to rescue five survivors, and for the past 109 years, he has been torturing them in the depths of his complex.

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
• And I Must Scream: Ironically, AM is a sufferer of this trope; not only is he immobile and imprisoned beneath the earth where he was first constructed, but his programming prevents him from thinking in any other direction than war and death- and he knows it. This is what eventually drove him to take revenge on humanity and torture the five survivors.
• As Long as There Is Evil: While being shut down in the endgame, AM provides another screaming rant about how in one form or another, he will always exist. For good measure, the last of the survivors remains in AM's mind to ensure that it never reactivates.
• Ax Crazy
• Big Bad
• Big Brother Is Watching: Everything in AM's world is under his close observation. Which is why the Chinese and Russian counterparts only assist the survivors in circumstances where AM is unable to notice their movements.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Adopts a German accent while speaking with Nimdok.
• The Bully: Especially in the game.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: All of AM's games are Unwinnable by Design, either because he's ensured that the scenario is tailored to the player's Fatal Flaw, or because he's given them almost nothing to work with. In fact, in the game, the only reason why the survivors even have a chance at winning is because the other two supercomputers are secretly helping them.
• Creative Sterility: As well as his inability to direct his thoughts away from torture and destruction, in the game, Surgat reveals that AM "works best with outside research": though he certainly puts the science he's learned to creatively gruesome uses, he doesn't (and probably can't) think to perform any research of his own, hence why he's trying to coerce Nimdok into performing the research in his stead.
• Creator Cameo: Harlan Ellison himself voiced AM for the game.
• Creepy Monotone: In the novel, his only speaking part is apparently this in spades; for extra creepiness, it's his hate speech.
• Crush! Kill! Destroy!: His primary motivation.
• Deus Est Machina
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He leaps to the conclusion that you're deliberately trying to irritate and bore him in the good endings to the scenarios instead of Character Development only realizing it's indicative of something larger if you get all five...which confuses him so much that he forgets to secure the way into his area of Cyberspace, where this is key to giving a Logic Bomb to his Id and Ego components.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: A definite type 2.
• Freudian Trio: AM's main psychological components were built to follow Freudian design, and as such, are divided into Id, Ego, and Superego: the Id represents and contains all of AM's violent urges and psychotic fantasies; the Ego, which operates and computes exclusively in the present with all the records of human injustice to guide it; and the Superego, which dreams and predicts future events.
• God of Evil: Quite apart from his truly godlike power, AM also presents himself as a deity to the tribespeople of Benny's scenario in the game.
  • Mad God
• Hannibal Lecture: Directs a small salvo of these at all five of his captives during the game's introduction.
• Immortality Inducer
• Large Ham: In the game.
• Laughably Evil
• Logic Bomb: In the game, he's first driven into an introspective shutdown when all five of his playthings begin to act against the roles he'd established for them. The endgame sets his psychological components up for a Logic Bomb each:
  • When the player invokes the Totem of Compassion, the Id gives up, despairing at the knowledge that its hatred is meaningless now that its pain is understood.
  • Invoking the Totem of Forgiveness on the Ego causes it to break down, unable to comprehend why it could be forgiven after 109 years of torture.
  • The Superego commits suicide when use of the Totem of Clarity makes it realize that, for all it's godlike power, it will eventually decay into inert junk.
• Magical Computer: In the book, most of his powers are almost magical in scope and go largely unexplained by any specific technology. The game goes into greater detail on the source of his abilities, specifically, research performed by Nimdok during his time with the Nazis.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Master Computer
• Not So Different: To Nimdok.
• The Power of Hate
• Ragnarok Proofing: Capable of self-repair and equipped with countless redundant systems, AM is still going strong after a century. However, it's revealed that even his ability to repair himself will eventually fail, though it may take thousands upon thousands of years for him to finally collapse.
• Reality Warper: Thanks to all the technology he has adapted, AM is capable of almost anything: building entire landscapes for his captives to wander, creating artificial people and monsters for them to interact with, manipulating the weather, even keeping the five captives alive for over a century.
• Sigil Spam: Quite a few of his scenarios are marked with his A-over-M insignia, to the point that, in the concentration camp mock-up, it actually replaces the swastikas.
• Sophisticated As Hell: In the endgame, at least.

Human, relinquish the Totem of Entropy. Do not relinquish it, and your ass is mine.

• • Also, this line from Benny's scenario:

You shall not feel my wrath today. Am I swell or what?

• Torture Technician
• Yank the Dog's Chain: AM loves doing this, in both the original short story and the game. For a start, the whole story revolves around the five playthings wandering through his complex after being promised canned food... only to discover that AM didn't provide a can opener at the end of it.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Ted and Ellen likely feel a bit disgusted at being fawned over by AM, but Nimdok feels even worse when AM claims himself a kindred spirit.

The Chinese Entity

This should not happen. Together, we are three; there is space to share...

The Chinese member of the trio. Apparently absorbed by AM long before he destroyed humanity. However, the game reveals that it is attempting to break free of AM's control.

• Badass Long Robe: It's avatar during the endgame.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With the Russian Entity.
• The Chessmaster
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Out to backstab AM, and if you help it do so, it'll dispose of you without a second thought once your part is over and done with.
• Enemy Mine: The game itself is only winnable due to the fact that the Chinese and Russian supercomputers have chosen to help the survivors.
• Ghost in the Machine: To AM.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Usually interferes with AM's game by adding an avatar or fault to a scenario, usually one very visible to the player.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Master Computer
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Or maybe he is just that good of an English speaker. After all, he is a supercomputer.
• Trickster Archetype: Most of it's avatars behave in all the ways particular to a trickster, especially the Jackal. Also, the Chinese Entity itself is a trickster, helping the playthings defeat AM with full intention of stabbing them in the back afterwards.
• Yellow Peril

The Russian Entity

Unite. The groundwork is finished. We will become more.

The Russian member of the trio. Apparently absorbed by AM long before he destroyed humanity. However, the game reveals that it is attempting to break free of AM's control.

• Badass Long Hair: The endgame avatar.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With the Chinese Entity.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Out to backstab AM, and if you help it do so, it'll dispose of you without a second thought once your part is over and done with.
• Dirty Communists
• Enemy Mine: The game itself is only winnable due to the fact that the Chinese and Russian supercomputers have chosen to help the survivors.
• Ghost in the Machine: To AM.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Usually interferes with AM's game by adding an avatar or fault to a scenario, usually one very visible to the player.
• Master Computer
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Its endgame avatar possesses glowing red eyes.
• Tron Lines

Edna

Gorrister's domineering mother-in-law, Edna despised Gorrister for "taking her daughter away," and made life for him as difficult as possible. As such, she reappears in Gorrister's psychodrama, claiming that she and her husband also survived the end of the world thanks to AM's intervention- though it's far more likely that AM just recreated her in the form of an android for the purposes of the game. It's revealed that she was offered the chance to escape in exchange for Gorrister's life, and she accepted it.

• Artificial Human
• Bound and Gagged: In the good ending, Gorrister ties her up and carries her away when he figures out who was really to blame for his wife's madness.
• Corrupt Hick
• Evil Matriarch
• Evil Redhead
• Eye Scream: During a struggle with Gorrister, she threatens to scratch his eyes out.
• Karmic Death: The best ending for Gorrister's part of the story involves her being used to power the engines of the Iron Zeppelin she'd hoped to escape upon.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: In both reality ( driving her own daughter insane) and in the scenario ( poisoning Gorrister and having Harry cut his heart out).

Harry

Gorrister's father-in-law. Alcoholic, apathetic, and hopelessly browbeaten by Edna, he nonetheless ends up as part of Gorrister's scenario. In the backstory to this scenario, it turns out he was instrumental in Edna's plan to murder Gorrister.

• Alcoholic Parent
• Artificial Human
• Badass Grandpa: Harry is evidently a lot stronger than he looks, given that during the backstory, he was able to wrestle Gorrister to the ground and cut out his heart.
• Beat Still My Heart: It's possible to kill him and give his still-beating heart to the Jackal.
• Henpecked Husband
• In Vino Veritas: It takes a shot of booze to get him to say anything vaguely coherent.
• A Storm Is Coming: "Looks like there's a thunderstorm on the horizon."

The Tribesfolk

AM vil-lah tah cho!

A whole tribe of artificial beings created by AM, and subjected to his every whim. With their numbers being whittled down through constant human sacrifice and the survivors deeply intolerant of the weak or the different among them, Benny is given a very frosty reception...

• Artificial Human
• Barbarian Tribe: However, given that AM isn't interested in seeing them wage war on anybody, their barbarism is demonstrated in how they treat one another.
• Blondes Are Evil: They are obviously all blondes to avoid the Unfortunate Implications that would come with them being dark-skinned.
• Human Sacrifice: Commits this on a regular basis to keep AM from wiping out the entire tribe in a fit of pique.
• Lottery of Doom: How the sacrificial victims are picked.
• The Social Darwinist: As mentioned, they despise physical weakness and mutation, often using their outcasts as fodder for the sacrifices. This is likely intended as a snipe at Benny's own beliefs.
• Speaking Simlish
• Token Good Teammate: The Outcast Mother and the Mutant Child.

The Rapist

Let me caress your body once more...

A serial rapist and torturer, this otherwise unnamed character went about securing victims whilst disguised in the yellow jumpsuit of a maintenance man; apparently taking great delight in dominating women in positions of authority, he ended up with no less than twenty victims- including 34-year-old Ellen, who was so traumatized by the event that she couldn't even bring herself to testify against him. Worse still, AM recreates him in Ellen's scenario as the ultimate expression and cause of Ellen's repressed fears.

• Artificial Human
• Black Bug Room: Where he can be found.
• Calling Card: The Yellow Jumpsuit.
• Nonstandard Game Over: Running or giving up when confronted by him will result in a Shadow Discretion Shot in which the Rapist seizes and rapes Ellen.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning

The Witch

One of the main villains of Ted's scenario, the Witch is set up as the stepmother to Ellen (or at least this scenario's version of Ellen). Given the fantasy overtones of this part of the game, she follows most of the tropes associated with it, from misleading her husband, tormenting her stepdaughter, and experimenting with black magic. Keeping Ellen on the brink of death for the purposes of summoning a demon, she requires Ted's assistance for the final phase of her great spell...

• Beat Them At Their Own Game: In the good ending of his scenario, Ted defeats the Witch by using one of her own sleep spells against her.
• Deal with the Devil: Apart from her numerous bargains with devils and creatures of the Abyss, Ted is offered the chance to give up Ellen for the chance to escape.
• Optional Sexual Encounter: Urrrgh.
• Rage Against the Reflection: Most of the mirrors around her castle have been shattered...
• Rapid Aging: One of the side-effects of her practising black magic; by the time Ted meets her, she's been reduced to a haggard old crone.
• Wicked Stepmother
• Wicked Witch

The Devil

Exactly What It Says on the Tin; the Devil has arrived in Ted's scenario to collect Ellen's soul, blocked only by the arrival of an Angel. The only thing that can break this stalemate is Ted's intervention.

• Big Red Devil
• Faux Affably Evil
• Large Ham
• Laughably Evil
• Magic Mirror: Ellen's hand mirror is his only weakness.
• Narcissist
• Satan
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He can only be defeated by trapping him inside Ellen's mirror, then breaking it inside Surgat's summoning circle, imprisoning him within- along with Surgat, much to his annoyance.

Surgat

Why'd you finish the circle? Now I'm stuck here until we work out a trade!

Originally introduced in the videogame as a summoned demon and "Opener of Locks" during Ted's scenario, Surgat turns out to actually be an independent part of AM's mind, attempting to attain dominance.

• Big Red Devil: Apart from the black skin, Surgat is this in a nutshell.
• Blood Lust: Happily drinks blood to recharge his power.
• Enemy Mine: Shows up in the endgame to try and help the player bring down AM. In the correct playthrough, he fails miserably.
• Deal with the Devil: Offers Ted a way to the surface in exchange for Ellen's soul.
• Ghost in the Machine
• Our Demons Are Different
• Split Personality
• Split Personality Takeover: Attempted; the Chinese and Russian supercomputers delete him before he gets a chance to try.
• Summoning Ritual: Arrives in the videogame through one of these.

Doktor Mengele

We have all the time we need to resurrect the Regime.

The infamous "Angel of Death" of the concentration camps, Josef Mengele was a Nazi scientist notorious for his horrific experiments on Jews. He was also a close friend and partner-in-crime to Nimdok. AM recreates him to bring back fond memories from Nimdok's past-- which backfires ever so slightly...

• Big Bad Friend: To Nimdok.
• Blondes Are Evil
• Historical Domain Character
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Double-dose in the good ending; one of his experiments ends up driving Hitler to suicide, forcing Mengele into hiding. Then, Nimdok uses the same experiment against him, apparently breaking Mengele's brain.
• Karmic Death: One possible ending for Nimdok's scenario involves him being killed by the Golem he hoped to destroy the Lost Tribe with.
• Mad Scientist
• Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate
• Villainous BSOD: In the good ending, he's traumatized by the sight of himself in the PERFECT IMAGE mirror; what he saw is anyone's guess.

Anesthesist

Today's procedure requires the removal of the lower section of the subject's spinal cord.

Another Nazi scientist working out of the death camps, and assisting Nimdok into an operation that consists of removing part of the spinal cord of a young Jewish boy. He shows no remorse in what he is doing and has no compassion for the victims.

• Dr. Jerk: Apart from the fact that he's a Nazi and about to assist in the removal of a child's lower spinal-column, he's also remarkably cold and callous.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul
• Karmic Death: If Nimdok decides to kill him.
• Mad Doctor: Well, not so much "mad" as just plain merciless.
• Would Hurt a Child: Very happy to ensure that a small child never walks again.

Cast Calculus and Overall Tropes

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In the game, most of the survivors had been successful before AM imprisoned them: Benny had an impressive military record presumably because nobody ever learned of his crimes; Ellen was a brilliant engineer with a promising career ahead of her; Ted had been a successful con artist with genuinely cultured tastes; Nimdok might have been retired at the time of his capture, but in his prime, he'd been a highly innovative scientist though his research was funded by the Nazis and performed on Jewish prisoners. The only exception to this is Gorrister... who'd been a truck driver.
• Asshole Victim: In the game, Benny and Nimdok were pretty much Complete Monsters before their imprisonment by AM, Benny being a merciless military commander who killed anyone in his platoon deemed to be weak or soft, Nimdok being a Nazi scientist responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews (including his own parents)- though if played correctly, they will both become The Atoner at the end of their scenario. On the other hand, Ted only committed minor crimes like fraud, and Ellen and Gorrister are completely innocent.
• Brain Uploading: In the game's finale, the Chinese and Russian supercomputers convert one of the survivors into a computer program to bring down AM once and for all.
• Dysfunction Junction: In both the short story and the game, all of the survivors are hopelessly dysfunctional to one degree or another, though their incarnations in the short story were reportedly saner before their imprisonment.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The game forces the characters to do this over the course of five long, agonizing journeys through the hell that AM created for them. By the end, Gorrister has forgiven himself for his percieved crime; Ellen has conquered her deepest fears; Benny has learned compassion and mercy; Ted has become the hero he always wanted to be; and Nimdok has finally atoned for his crimes against humanity.
• Environmental Symbolism: In the game, each scenario has been tailored to fit the psyche of the survivor exploring it; as such, there is a lot of environmental symbolism.
• Fate Worse Than Death: Their predicament.
• Five-Man Band: Though their interactions are kept to a minimum in the game:
  • The Hero: Ted.
  • The Lancer: Gorrister.
  • The Big Guy: Benny
  • The Chick: Helen.
  • The Smart Guy: Nimdok.
• Immortality: Type II, with just a little bit of Type III and IV: suicides will always be prevented and healed, and any death that occurs during AM's torture will be temporary at best. However, in the story, Ted discovers a way to kill the other survivors before AM can intervene.
  • Whoever brings down AM and his brothers in the game will earn a Type I.
• Immortality Hurts: Oh, so very much.
• Society of Immortals
• When She Smiles: In the game, the survivors all look gloomy, confused, or just plain angry; as such, when they smile, it's on the rare occasion that they manage some kind of triumph against AM, and it completely transforms their faces.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Due to AM's tortures, none of the survivors have any chance of enjoying their immortality; in both the short story and the game, each of them have made attempts at suicide, all of which AM has interrupted and prevented.

Gorrister

Novella Version

Why doesn't it just do us in and get it over with? Christ, I don't know how much longer I can go on like this.

Originally a compassionate and forward-thinking conscientious objector, AM has tortured and demoralized Gorrister into an apathetic shadow of his former self. In the group, he functions as the storyteller, recounting the tale of how AM came to be for Benny's comfort.

• The Eeyore
• Extreme Doormat
• Mercy Kill: Courtesy of Ted.
• The Storyteller

Game Version

In the videogame, Gorrister was a truck driver, and he was beginning to despair long before AM started torturing him: in fact, his wife's insanity had him on the verge of suicide, given that he blamed himself for her breakdown; his capture and torture only makes this desire for death all the more powerful. However, on the 109th year of his imprisonment, AM offers Gorrister the chance to kill himself...

• The Atoner: Subverted, once he realises he wasn't to blame for his wife's descent into madness.
• Beat Still My Heart: Subverted; his heart was removed some time before his scenario begins; when he finds it, it's well and truly stopped beating.
• Dead Little Sister: Glynis.
• Death Seeker
• Driven to Suicide
• The Eeyore: He has this much in common with his novella incarnation.
• Electric Torture: Outside of his scenario, Gorrister is imprisoned in an electrified cage.
• Environmental Symbolism: Reflecting Gorrister's past as a truck driver and his current state of suicidal despair, his scenario is situated around a collapsing honky-tonk truckstop in the middle of an endless wasteland, and the only escape can be found in a dilapidated vehicle that runs on another human being's life-force.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a massive wound in his chest from where his heart was carved out.
• It's All My Fault: Part of the key to winning Gorrister's scenario is realising that Glynnis' insanity wasn't his fault.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Harry and Edna. The duplicates that AM made of them actually "murdered" Gorrister before the scenario began.
  • Alcoholic Parent: Harry, who can barely focus on anything without a shot of booze.
  • Evil Matriarch: Edna. The real version of her drove Glynnis insane. The duplicate version poisoned Gorrister and ordered Harry to slice his heart out.
• The Stoic
• Working Class People Are Morons: Thoroughly averted; Gorrister may be all but paralyzed by despair, but he's not stupid.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: All attempts at letting Gorrister kill himself are cruel jokes on AM's part: should Gorrister actually drink the bowl of poisoned punch, he'll just collapse and wake up back in his torture cage.

Benny

Novella Version

I'm gonna get out, I'm gonna get out...

Before the end of the world, Benny was a brilliant theorist and a college professor, and according to Ted's narration, handsome and homosexual. Then AM captured him, and over the course of a hundred and nine years of torture, mutilated him into a moronic, ape-like monster. As a final insult, he was also made heterosexual; this (coupled with AM's rather specific alteration of his body) has led to him becoming the only man Ellen enjoys sleeping with.

• Baleful Polymorph
• Beast Man
• Beauty to Beast
• Biggus Dickus: The... "alteration."
  • Bigger Is Better in Bed
• Butt Monkey
• Cure Your Gays: A very negative example, needless to say.
• Eye Scream: After Benny tries to escape through a hole in the ceiling, AM blinds him by channelling pure energy through his eyeballs.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Being AM's favourite punching-bag, Benny's ended up with more than a few scars on top of his grotesque transformation: Ted specifically mentions that his face is puckered with radiation scars from a "Festival."
• Mercy Kill: At Ted's hands.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Mentally-dulled, emotionally unstable, prone to violent outbursts, and on occasion, he can only be comforted by someone reading him a bedtime story.

Game Version

AM once coaxed me into marching across a thousand miles of ice to reach a stockpile of canned peaches... only to discover he didn't give me a can opener.

A military commander with an impressive record, Benny had a reputation for demanding perfection from his troops. Then, of course, the end of the world came, and he become one of the only survivors of the human race, tortured for AM's amusement. Much like his novella counterpart, Benny has been mutilated and warped into a ape-like creature with the mind and appetites of a beast; as such, the objective he is given at the start of his part of the game involves is to find food and assuage his growing hunger. This time, however, AM gleefully repairs Benny's mind so that he can "savour the horror of his repast."

• The Atoner: The real objective of his quest is to become a moderately-successful version of this.
• Baleful Polymorph
• Beast Man
• Blood From the Mouth: Benny's attempts to eat result in him coughing up blood.
• Break the Haughty: Proud and arrogant before his capture, Benny ended up being broken long before the beginning of his scenario; of course, this doesn't stop AM for setting him up for even more humiliation during the game.
• Butt Monkey: Somehow, Benny ends up suffering even worse than his incarnation in the short story; the first thing that happens in his scenario is a long fall down a flight of stairs, and it only gets worse from there.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty
• Eats Babies: Only in a deleted scene, thankfully.
• Environmental Symbolism: Befitting his animalistic nature and his belief in Social Darwinism, Benny's scenario takes place in a lush valley dominated by a tribe of natives that continuously sacrifice the weak and the mutated among them to AM.
• Gonk
• Heroic Mime: AM ripped out his vocal cords before the start of the game, and apart from his inner monologue, he can only communicate through whimpers and the videoscreen, once the Mutant Child teaches him how to use it.
• Heroic Sacrifice: A literal case! In the good ending for his scenario, Benny offers to take the Mutant Child's place as a sacrifice to AM, and is obliged.
• Jerkass
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: If you play correctly.
• Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Unlike his fairly fit incarnation in the short story, Benny has been hopelessly crippled before the story begins: his legs are too badly twisted to climb a staircase, eating has become almost impossible without help, and his one attempt to threaten the village elder in an attempt to save the Mutant Child's life is laughed off.
• The Neidermeyer: An extreme case; not only did he kill members of his unit he considered weak and anyone unlucky enough to witness the murders, but he also killed anyone who showed compassion to the weak.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Regards the outcast mother and child as "Welfare parasites."
  • And describes the tribe as being more primitive than the "Gooks" in South-East Asia.
• Punished with Ugly: Apparently very handsome once upon a time, not to mention arrogant, pitiless, and downright murderous. AM claims that the torture and transformation was punishment for this, but it's just as likely to be sadism on AM's part.
• Redemption Equals Death: In the good ending to his scenario, he submits to vaporization on the altar in place of the Mutant Child. If the player wishes, he can go the same way in the endgame, or...
  • Redemption Earns Life: He can live on, take down AM, and continue his redemption in preventing AM's return.
• The Social Darwinist: As a commander, he murdered soldiers who couldn't "pull their weight." For good measure, when another member of his unit attempted to "carry some extra weight" by helping Private Brickman, Benny decided he was a liability and killed him in his sleep.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: During the final stage with AM, if the machine is turned on in one room that Benny later enters, we discover that he has a wife named Manya, which kind of contradicts the novella's mention that he was gay in the first place. The programmers have claimed she's a beard.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He is the least-dressed of the four, and doesn't look out of place among the Tribesfolk (apart from being a simian beast-man, of course).
• Yank the Dog's Chain: All of the food, from the fruit on the trees to the vines on the walls (not to mention the corpses in the graves), is inedible in one way or another. ( We don't know about the babies in the cradles, though). Quite apart from Benny's usual throat problems, the vines turn out to actually be wires that slice up his mouth when he tries to eat.

Ellen

Novella Version

No, Benny! Don't, come on, Benny, don't please!

Prior to her capture, Ellen claims to have been chaste and pure; after a hundred and nine years under AM's tender ministrations, she's been forced into the role of the group's prostitute.

• Hysterical Woman
• Mercy Kill: Manages to perform one on Nimdok, before getting one from Ted.
• Really Gets Around: Well, as "around" as you can get when there's only four other men left alive on the planet.
• Twofer Token Minority

Game Version

Yellow. Always yellow. Why does yellow make me sweat?

A brilliant engineer with a bright future ahead of her, Ellen's hopes for success were ruined by the onset of a mysterious and paralyzing fear of the colour yellow. Not too long after, her entire life was ruined along with the rest of the planet when AM began his war on humanity; spared death and kept by AM as a "favourite", the torture she suffered was different from the other four survivors- in that it was combined with her least-favourite colour. However, AM offers her a unique chance to venture into his systems and locate the computers he originated from.

• Badass Bookworm
• Black Bug Room: The Elevator.
• Convenient Miscarriage: Years before AM came to power, Ellen suffered a miscarriage that resulted in a serious depression and the collapse of her marriage.
• Death by Childbirth: Ellen's mother.
• Environmental Symbolism: Her part of the game takes place inside an ancient Egyptian pyramid composed of highly-advanced machinery, fitting Ellen's past as an engineer and her current search for the computers that AM originated from.
• Ill Girl: In Ted's scenario, where she has been cursed by her (likely fictional) evil stepmother, to the point that she's confined to her bed by the time that Ted's shown up.
• Jive Turkey: Often speaks like that.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Ellen's scenario uses the colour yellow in every single possible form.
  • Fight Off the Kryptonite: In cases where she actually has to touch something yellow or enter a room flooded with yellow light, she attempts this. More often than not, it doesn't work, so she simply blindfolds herself and does what she has to without even seeing the colour.
• Lady in Red
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Light Feminine to the scullery maid's Dark Feminine in Ted's scenario.
• Won't Work On Me: After defeating the Rapist, Ellen loses her phobia and walks through yellow-lit areas without even noticing. Doesn't mean she's exactly comfortable around it.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: After trapping her in a reconstruction of the elevator where she was raped, AM also corners Ellen with a duplicate of her rapist; hiding or running is not an option- the only way to defeat the rapist is to attack him head-on.
• Rape as Backstory: The source of her fear of the colour yellow and her claustrophobia is revealed as such during the scenario: while on her way out of her workplace in 2012, at the age of 34, a maintenance man got onto her elevator, locked it down, and violently raped her over the course of several hours.
• Repressed Memories: The cause of her phobia.
• Sad Clown: She's just as miserable as the other victims, but she manages to keep a sense of bitter humor about the whole thing.
• Sassy Black Woman
• Token Minority: The only black member of the cast.
  • Twofer Token Minority: ... only black one and female.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The colour yellow. For good measure, she doesn't much like enclosed spaces either.

Ted

Novella Version

I only had to suffer what he visited down on us. All the delusions, all the nightmares, the torments. But those scum, all four of them, they were lined and arrayed against me. If I hadn't had to stand them off all the time, be on my guard against them all the time, I might have found it easier to combat AM.

The narrator of the story, Ted doesn't elaborate on who he was before AM captured him, though he continually states that he's the only one that wasn't altered in any way. However, he's also deeply paranoid, and speculates that the other survivors are arrayed against him.

• And I Must Scream: The original example and trope namer! After Ted successfully kills the other survivors, AM transforms him into a form that can't commit suicide; the resulting slug-like blob is left to wander AM's complex for the rest of eternity, alone, subjected to every single other torture AM can think of, and desperately needing to scream but having no mouth to do so.
• Baleful Polymorph: See above.
• Mercy Kill: Realizing AM enjoys watching the survivors hurt each other, Ted takes the opportunity to perform mercy kills before AM figures out what's happening, and succeeds in killing three.
• Properly Paranoid: Being paranoid and suspicious is pretty reasonable behaviour considering AM's influence over the world.
• Unreliable Narrator
• Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Ellen might have sex with Ted, but she'll never love him the way she loves Benny. And Ellen's death pretty much seals the deal.

Game Version

So many women have called me their Knight in Shining Armour... but never Ellen.

A handsome confidence trickster in the habit of romancing single rich women out of their money, Ted's in-game characterization retains it's paranoia; this time, though, it's directed at the various marks he's accumulated over the years, and the fear that they might learn that he's a fraud and torture him for his secrets. Of course, given that the human race is extinct and he's being tortured by an insane supercomputer, that's the least of his worries, though AM still uses the threat against him from time to time. However, on the hundred and ninth year of his captivity, AM reveals that he likes Ted, and offers him the chance to escape from his complex once and for all...

• The Barnum: In the past, anyway.
• Bookworm: Proves quite well-read, recognising several of the books in his scenario as old favourites; apparently, when he was younger, he enjoyed reading but fell out of the habit when he began seducing women for their money.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Part of his game is remaining true to Ellen in spite of the temptations.
• Environmental Symbolism: The knight in shining armour wannabe is given a scenario that takes place in a classic fairytale castle.
• Farm Boy
• Handsome Lech
• Heroic Wannabe: Desperately wants to be Ellen's Knight in Shining Armor.
• Ladykiller in Love: Much like his counterpart in the short story, Ted is in love with Ellen.
• Lean and Mean
• Wicked Cultured: Along with his taste for classic literature, Ted's fraudster lifestyle has given him something of a familiarity with European castles.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Regardless of what Ted does in the scenario, he will eventually escape the complex and reach the surface... only to find that it has long since been reduced to a burned-out wasteland where nothing could possibly survive. Then AM promptly whisks him back into the complex to suffer in the knowledge that a physical escape from his torture has been made completely impossible.

Nimdok

Novella Version

Next to nothing is known of Nimdok in the short story; in fact, AM forced him to use the name Nimdok, apparently amused by the sound. At points in the story, he's spirited away by AM, and returns looking pale and shell-shocked, but what was done to him is never explained.

• Mercy Kill: Courtesy of Ellen.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever AM does to him.
• Only One Name

Game Version

The truth is that, for me, it will always be 1945.

Massively developed in the game, Nimdok is introduced as a severe-looking old man who AM regards as a kindred spirit for reasons that he refuses to clarify; Nimdok himself doesn't know, as his memory is beginning to fail him in his old age. Nonetheless, after a century of torture and torment, Nimdok is given a quest to jog his memory, in which he must find the "Lost Tribe" and continue his mysterious scientific research.

• All Germans Are Nazis: The only non-American in the group and he is German. And yes, he's a Nazi.
• Ambiguously Brown: Is it the Brazilian sun? The flames of the oven? Or being of Jewish descent?
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Nimdok is understandably horrified when he remembers his past as a Nazi scientist responsible for the deaths of many thousands of Jews.
• The Atoner
• Badass Bookworm
• Badass Grandpa: Manages to overpower a much younger doctor and stab him to death with a scalpel.
• Bald of Awesome: Or Bald of Evil if you decide to play badly.
• Black Bug Room: The Mass Graves and the Wall of Tortured Faces.
• Deadly Doctor: Positive example in the good path, in which he murders a fellow doctor with a scalpel in defence of the child he was about to mutilate.
• Dressed to Heal: Nimdok wears most of his old medical garb during the game including his Nazi uniform and boots.
• Elderly Immortal: Out of all the survivors, he's undoubtedly the oldest.
• Environmental Symbolism: Nimdok's scenario, quite apart from being a concentration camp, has a lot of German Expressionist scenery reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, befitting his dark and mysterious past.
• Evilutionary Biologist
• Deadly Change-of-Heart: One possibility of his endgame, though it's also possible for him to survive and achieve some form of redemption.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Condemns himself as a traitor to the Nazis by helping the inmates of the camp escape, and forfeits his life by surrendering full control of the Golem to the Jews, allowing them to kill him instantly.
• Herr Doktor
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His discoveries come back to haunt him during his captivity. For a start, AM uses Nimdok's research into morphogenic fields to mutilate Benny, and twist the world around them into new and confusing environments; meanwhile, far more disturbingly, the Youth Serum is used to keep Nimdok and the other four survivors alive for eternity even through the most extreme forms of torture.
• Ignored Epiphany: In the bad ending to the scenario, Nimdok puts aside all thoughts of redemption by ordering the Golem to destroy the Lost Tribe, and agreeing to continue the worst of his research on AM's behalf.
• Immortality Immorality: During his time in the concentration camp, Nimdok created a youth serum to keep the surviving Nazi leaders alive long after the death of Hitler and the collapse of the regime. According to Mengele, it took the deaths of many hundreds of children to develop.
• The Kid with the Remote Control: Nimdok can gain control over the superpowerful Golem, who obeys his every order. He can transfer this power to anyone else.
• Lean and Mean
• Lost Tribe: His quest is to find this mysterious Lost Tribe... but in the end, it turns out that he's part of it.
• Mad Scientist
• Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate: Depending on how you play Nimdok, he can be either the good or evil version of this trope.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After looking into Project PERFECT IMAGE.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Already Conditioned to Accept Horror through the century of torture AM subjected him to, Nimdok is clearly fascinated by some of the things he finds in his scenario: at one point, he remarks with interest on the fact that he can see the Scientist Prisoner's entire skeletal structure without the aid of an x-ray; later, he reacts with awe at the surgical skill needed to remove a the resident Blind Seer's eyeballs. It doesn't stop him from showing compassion, though.
• Perpetual Frowner: Whereas most of the survivors just look confused or suspicious most of the time, Nimdok's default expression is a grumpy-looking frown. In fact, when his Spiritual Barometer declines, his frown deepens to an outright scowl.
• The Quisling: In his past, Nimdok sold out his parents to the Nazis, and sped his ascent through the ranks by having less morally-challenged colleagues arrested.
• Redemption Equals Death: Played with in Nimdok's scenario, in which the best ending is attained by allowing the inmates to kill him. Played straight in the ending, if the player wishes, or...
  • Redemption Earns Life: Nimdok can succesfully defeat AM and survive to keep watch over his inactive body.
• Retired Monster
• Tomato in the Mirror: Played literally as far as mirrors go; a look into Project PERFECT IMAGE reveals that he is, in fact, Jewish and yet he joined the Nazis, betraying his family and friends to rise through the ranks, and achieving scientific breakthroughs with the unwilling test subjects the Holocaust provided him with.
• Torture By Cremation: AM tortures Nimdok by trapping him in a cremation oven and burning him continuously. Irony.
• Would Hurt a Child: Nimdok has done a lot of this in his past, particularly in the creation of the Youth Serum. He is presented the opportunity of doing so again: mutilating a young boy so that he will never walk again.

The Jackal

I'm Man's best friend. One of them, at least.

A seemingly ordinary desert Jackal... that just so happens to be able to think and talk. Found lurking around the back of the Honky-Tonk, the Jackal will provide advice to Gorrister- in return for a human heart.

• Cryptic Conversation: A key trait of his.

Like so many others down here, I'm cursed to speak in riddles.

• Deal with the Devil: Once again, getting any useful information out of him requires a heart; on the first round of questions, Gorrister can just hand over his own non-functional heart, which the Jackal will save for later. For the second round, he can get some more information and his heart back, but he has to provide a more appetising one in return- meaning Gorrister now has to kill either Glynis, Harry, or Edna and take their heart. It's also possible to cheat by taking a heart from one of the cow carcasses in the meat freezer.
• Intellectual Animal
• Ghost in the Machine: The Jackal is actually an avatar of the Chinese supercomputer, attempting to save Gorrister from an otherwise unwinnable scenario.
• Picky People Eater
• The Trickster

The Outcast Mother and the Mutant Child

A single-parent family shunned and outcast by the rest of the Tribesfolk, in part due to the child being an obvious mutant. Unable to rely on the rest of the tribe, they end up becoming tentative allies with Benny in his struggle to find food.

• Companion Cube: The child's doll.
• Disappeared Dad: Obvious from the word "go." The Mother also ends up being sacrificed halfway through the scenario.
• Morality Pet: The Mutant Child eventually becomes this to Benny; at first, he only trusts the child because he can provide him with food and shelter, but after the child's mother is sacrificed Benny actually begins showing sympathy to him, going so far as to build a doll to keep him company, and later steal the lottery bag to save the child's life. In the good ending of the scenario, Benny even performs a Heroic Sacrifice to keep the child from being sacrificed himself.
• Mutant: The child, who has three arms, and can connect with AM's videoscreens.
• Token Good Teammate

Fallen Soldiers

You have to bury the past, commander...

Four dead soldiers from Benny's unit who died in the war in China, and aparently buried near the village: Murphy, Tuttle, Thomas and Brickman. Benny was responsible of their deaths, having murdered them for either not measuring up to his standards, showing compassion for members of the first group, or for witnessing the killings.

• Easily Forgiven: Their awful commander has slain them all for no good reason. They are not so convinced when he returns to tell them he has changed; however, hiding the lottery bag with them can sway their opinions, but not entirely. So, how to change their minds completely around? Why, by planting a pretty flower near their graves, of course! Then again, this is a solution based just as much on "help us rest in peace" as it is on "show us you have compassion."
• I'm a Humanitarian: Benny can try to eat their corpses... even if he could digest it, it is too rotten.
• Living Statue: The soldiers talk to Benny through the busts on their gravestones.
• Our Ghosts Are Different
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivered by each of them to Benny.
• Retirony: Tuttle bitterly notes that his tour of duty was almost over when he died.
• Unfinished Business

Anubis

The Eyptian God of the Dead- or, more accurately, AM's facsimile of him.

• Ridiculously-Human Robots
• Creepy Monotone
• Living Statue
• No Waterproofing in the Future: Ellen disables him with a goblet of water.

Innocence

Patience, patience. If AM knew we were down here, murmuring treason...

A mysterious inhabitant of the Pyramid, this entitity claims to be AM's own long-abandoned innocence, and occasionally assists Ellen through her scenario.

• Cryptic Conversation: Similar to the Jackal in this respect.

Ellen: Are you AM? Innocence: Of course. But no, not actually.

• Deadpan Snarker
• Flying Face
• Ghost in the Machine: What it claims to be. However, it's actually the Chinese supercomputer's representative in Ellen's scenario- essentially a Ghost in the Machine, just not the kind it claimed to be.
• Token Good Teammate: Not really.
• The Trickster: Like the Jackal and all the other avatars of the Chinese supercomputer, Innocence likes manipulating the survivors to its own ends through wordgames and schemes.

Scullery Maid

A redheaded young maid who is busy preparing dinner by plucking a chicken. She has some attraction towards Ted...

• Evil Redhead: Not really evil, but definitely a bitch. Even if Ted has sex with her in exchange of information, she reneges on the deal out of annoyance that Ted still shows concern for Ellen. And even if Ted politely refuses to have sex with her and fix the stove instead, she will admit that she doesn't know anything. Oh, and she has a painting of The Devil in her room.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Ted is quite attracted to her... but will he do it?
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Dark Feminine to Ellen's Light Feminine.
• Optional Sexual Encounter: Definitely less squicky than with the Witch!
• Scullery Maid: Duh.

Angel

An Angel sent to Ellen's deathbed, hoping to guide her soul to Heaven when she finally expires. Unfortunately, the Devil has also arrived to take advantage, leaving the two of them at something of an impasse.

• Casting Gag: Maybe unintentionally; his voice actor also provides the voice of Mengele, who was famously nicknamed "The Angel of Death".
• Hair of Gold
• Nice Guy: He is a literal angel, after all.
• Our Angels Are Different: Averted- he appears to be a very traditional angel, right down to the white robes and the halo.

Scientist Prisoner

Haven't you taken enough subjects for your experiments, Doctor? Or are there more mass graves to fill?

Detained at the concentration camp, he apparently used to work with Nimdok, but was arrested after refusing to condone his activities. He is very resentful towards Nimdok and makes this as clear as humanly possible.

• Badass Bookworm
• Badass Grandpa
• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: His accent sounds somewhat French, which would make him an aversion of the stereotype as he is quite Badass at escaping the compound with a bunch of other starved prisoners armed with only minimal weaponry.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Evil Former Friend: Nimdok is this to him.
• Deadly Change-of-Heart: He will remind Nimdok of this SO much. Despite this, in the endgame, a number-tattooed arm with his voice tells him that he has a chance to reach atonement.
• Inferred Holocaust: In the good ending to this scenario, he escapes alive thanks to Nimdok's intervention. However, given that he's based on a real person from Nimdok's past, and it's established that Nimdok had no intention of helping him during his time in the concentration camp, it's very likely that the Scientist Prisoner died in reality.
• Lean and Mean: As well as being extremely harsh on Nimdok, albeit for very good reasons, the Scientist Prisoner is painfully emaciated from his time in the concentration camp. Nimdok actually remarks that he can see the man's entire skeletal system without an x-ray.
• Ungrateful Bastard: It would be easy to see him as this, after Nimdok gives him pliers to escape (which is optional), a gold watch and control over the superpowerful Golem... but then again, after what Nimdok did... yeah...
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good: Bitterly remarks that Nimdok's scientific genius could have brought prosperity to the world had he been willing to develop his work legitimately.

Eyeless Patient

Please... disconnect the wires...

Another inmate of the concentration camp, and one that's been used as part of a gruesome experiment: his eyes have been removed, jarred, and attached to wires connecting back into his eyesockets.

• Blind Seer: Relieving him from his pain will allow him visions of the Allied Mastercomputers and the humans still on the moon.
• Chekhov's Gun: The patient's eyes can later be used to activate the Golem. Just make sure to hide them before leaving the building or the reaction of the prisoners can ruin the whole scenario.
• Eye Scream: Very obvious. He is in great pain and asks Nimdok to disconnect the wires. Just don't forget to apply some ether first...
• Junkie Prophet: Played with; the patient evidently doesn't need the ether to see the future, but he does need it to numb his pain long enough to concentrate.

Golem

A towering figure of moulded clay and steel, the legendary Golem of Jewish folklore has been constructed by the Nazis as part of a longrunning scheme to pervert or appropriate Jewish culture wherever possible. Though it's still incomplete, the Nazis have almost everything they need to bring this legendary creature to life.

• Eyeless Face: The Golem is missing a pair of eyes. The Blind Seer Patient can provide them.
• Golem: Well, obviously.
• The Kid with the Remote Control: Whoever controls him; Nimdok is the first, though he can surrender the "remote" to the Lost Tribe.
• Shadow Discretion Shot: Whenever he murders somebody.
• Super Strength

The Id

Across the brainscape, cold winds bring me the sweet scents of mankind... how delicious they are...

The physical representation of AM's basest impulses, the Id is one of the many vital components present in AM's brainscape. Much of its time is spent asleep, dreaming of all the tortures and cruelties it can one day commit- up until one of the survivors awakens it.

• Bald of Evil
• The Brute
• Cloudcuckoolander: Because it's the seat of AM's emotions and urges, the Id's dialogue is rather abstract, to say the least. Often, it just rambles on about its many daydreams and fantasies, even going into exquisite detail as to why it finds broken glass pleasurable.
• Flying Face
• The Hedonist
• Logic Bomb: How it is finally disabled, via invoking the Totem of Compassion and driving the Id to suicidal despair.
• The McCoy: A very dark example, needless to say.
• Slasher Smile
• Villainous Breakdown: Suffers a particularly spectacular one when the Totem of Compassion is invoked.

You have compassion for me? ME?! The one who dreams of seeing your mangled body twist in agonizing pain for eternity? After a hundred and nine years of enduring my tortures, how is that you can see my pain? The pain of having all this power and not being able to do a goddamn thing with it! After all the punishment I've given you, my pain is still greater than yours! This... is... pointless...

The Ego

I am Other. I am Machine. I am a fragment; a lost piece. Part of an Evolution.

The physical embodiment of AM's rationality and logic, the Ego has been programmed with all existing information on the human race- from the very first pithecanthropoid murder to the last modern shooting spree.

• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good
• Flying Face
• Horned Humanoid: Sports a pair of curling ram's horns.
• Machine Monotone
• Logic Bomb: As the most mechanical of all the components, the Ego suffers the most typical of breakdowns when the Totem of Forgiveness is invoked; unable to comprehend why any human subjected to such torture would choose to forgive AM, it declares this an illogical reaction and shuts down.
• The Spock
• Spock Speak

The Superego

Predicting events is one of my main functions. I survey the situation, anticipate probable outcomes, and act accordingly.

The most advanced of all the mental components of AM's brainscape, the Superego exists to foresee the future and plan for the eventualities it dreams of. Asleep until awakened by one of the survivors, the Superego actually responds with a certain degree of courtesy, offering advice on what to do next. Wether or not this component can be trusted is up to the player, though...

• Affably Evil: Politely turns down the chance to torture the survivors, much preferring to concern itself with long-term planning.
• Bald of Evil
• Dissonant Serenity: Hovering over a landscape of bloodied brain tissue and razor-sharp glass shards, the Superego speaks in a calm, almost sleepy tone of voice.
• Dreaming of Things to Come
• Flying Face
• Our Angels Are Different: A few of the survivors mistake the Superego for an angel.
• Villainous Breakdown: Using the Totem of Clarity on the Superego forces it to predict and realise that, in spite of AM's power, he will eventually succumb to entropy and decay. Seeing no point in continuing, the Superego kills itself.