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Another bit of intruiging weirdness - From Nausea

Started by DapperAnarchist, August 09, 2009, 10:22:11 PM

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DapperAnarchist

Having provided accuracy statistics for real police in real situations, pictures of Ossaries in the Czech Republic, and my crazy idea for a planet covered in people, here's a (very very long) quote from Jean-Paul Sartre's novel Nausea

QuoteWhat if something were to happen? What if all of a sudden it started palpitating? Then they would notice that it was there and they would think that their hearts were going to burst. What use would their dykes and ramparts and power-houses and furnaces and pile-drivers be to them then? That may happen at any time, straight away perhaps: the omens are there. For example the father of a family may go for a walk, and he will see a red rag coming towards him across the street, as if the wind were blowing it. And when the rag gets close to him, he will see that it is a quarter of rotten meat, covered in dust, crawling and hopping along, a piece of tortured flesh rolling in the gutters and spasmodically shooting out jets of blood. Or else a mother may look at her child's cheek and ask him: "What's that - a pimple?" And she will see the flesh puff up slightly, crack and split open, and at the bottom of the split a third eye, a laughing eye, will appear. Or else they will feel something gently brushing against their bodies, like the caresses reeds give swimmers in a river. And they will realise that their clothes have become living things. And somebody else will feel something scratching inside his mouth. And he will go to a mirror, open his mouth: and his tongue will have become a huge living centipede, rubbing its legs together and scraping his palate. He will try to spit it out, but the centipede will be part of himself and he will have to tear it out with his hands. And hosts of things will appear for which people will have to find new names - a stone-eye, a big three-cornered arm, a toe-crutch, a spider-jaw, [...] Or else nothing like that will happen, no appreciable change will take place, but one morning when people open their blinds they will be surprised by a sort of horrible feeling brooding heavily over things and giving the impression of waiting. Just that: but if it lasts a little while, there will be hundreds of suicides. Well, yes, let things change just a little, just to see, I ask for nothing bette. Then we shall see other people suddenly plunged into solitude. Men all alone, entirely alone, with horrible monstrosities, will run through the streets, will go clumsily past me, their eyes staring, fleeing from their ills and carrying them with them, open mouthed, with their tongue-insect beating its wings. Then I shall burst out laughing, even if my own body is covered with filthy, suspicious scabs blossoming into fleshy flowers, violets and buttercups.

Copyright Librairie Gallimard, 1938, English Translation, Penguin Books 1965, this edition 1978, pages 225-227

The "[...]" skips over a section which I left out as its a bit... adult, and this is an all ages forum...
Questions are a burden to others, answers a burden to oneself.

The Keltani Subsector  My P&M Thread - Most recent, INQ28!

Kallidor

I can see how this might fit with Games Workshop's Chaos (over-running a planet say) but exactly what was your purpose in posting it here?
Be Pure!
Be Vigilant!
BEHAVE!

Gideon Sterne

It'd make a good start to a GM's introduction for players, for one thing.

DapperAnarchist

And it offers ideas for symptoms of Chaotic disruption beyond the standard stereotypes of rains of blood and fly swarms and stuff - I mean, clothes coming to life? Also, I've already posted pictures of an Ossary and the Giger Bar, and statistics of police shooting in America, just to offer up some interesting flavour and source text...
Questions are a burden to others, answers a burden to oneself.

The Keltani Subsector  My P&M Thread - Most recent, INQ28!

Tullio

"You come back here! I still owe seven dollars for you!"

Cool points for whoever gets that referance

Tullio

phil1103

Quote from: Tullio on August 12, 2009, 09:55:39 PM
"You come back here! I still owe seven dollars for you!"

Cool points for whoever gets that referance

Tullio

But of Course, Mr Hatton - Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett.

Phil