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- The extra lore for ARCHON states that undead, whilst under the control of a Necromancer, are fully aware of everything they are doing but unable to intervene, trapped inside their own bodies.
- Several entries in the SCP Foundation's database consist of this. The horror inherent to this trope is part of what makes SCP-231 one of the most horrifically disturbing things imaginable.
- SCP-439 is one of the crossovers between And I Must Scream and Body Horror.
- Then there's SCP-451, who believes everyone else in the world has disappeared and doesn't notice any of the people around him. His journals even reference the Trope Namer story and relates it to himself, adding "What's the point in screaming if no one's around to hear?"
- Anyone who touches SCP-596 is kept alive forever until they release it, even regenerating from any injury. Not that you would want to be however, since you're kept alive in permanent agony, and the only way to let go is for someone else to touch it at which point you die. Victims can scream (and do, only stopping once their vocal cords are too shredded to continue... until they heal again.) but since they can't do anything else they still can't communicate.
- The Sentinel's backstory:
The stronger, having cast her spell in aggression, found herself imprisoned in a darkness containing all manner of monsters and vicious creatures. |
- The Overseer gets a similar fate. The difference is that while he uses his time in prison to calm down and reach peace, the Sentinel remains angry.
- The web fiction novel Eudeamon (sic) plays with this - the sentence for criminal offenders in the society of this story is to be turned into a moving latex statue that has no legal existence and is punished for interacting with other people by an extension of sentence (brutally unfairly, even when that interaction is being assaulted, beaten and possibly raped by gangs who take advantage of the legally unpersoned status of these "Banes"). The process reverses when the "Bane" neural network computer designed to oversee the sentence develops sentience and invariably sides with their host body instead of the legal system, but then is played straight again if the sentence is ended and the now-former bane is forcibly disconnected from an unembodied lover who knows them as thoroughly as they know themselves.
- Somewhat played straight with the Harbingers in the Lords of Shadow RP. While they are still human, with every death, they are cloned into a new body and retain every memory up to and including death and the brief void after death.
- Killar the Slaughterling, the Tal'Vornian God of Death is an almost perfect example of this trope, having been kept trapped in a dimensional cell exactly the same size as He is for millenia whilst being completely aware. He was somewhat unstable before, but now He's positively nuts.
- The Tal'Vorn Order Sect has a spell that accomplishes this trope as well, the suitably named Eternal Torment. The spell, as its name might indicate, makes the individual functionally immortal, whilst being in perpetual agony. The people themselves are usually stored in things called Torment Engines and then any trace of their existence systematically destroyed.
- Arcana Magi Zero opened the story with Alysia Perez turning to stone and completely aware of it, resulting in post trauma.
- Red vs. Blue: Tex would have fallen victim to this trope, her mind is imprisoned forever in an A.I capture unit. However this is subverted in that Church traps himself in the capture unit in order to save her or at least be with her.
- Ruby Quest: Could apply to several characters, but is most explicitly stated by Bella, who pleads for death:
Every day for over a year now, Bella has had to watch the sun rise and set, from just barely below the surface. Strapped to this wall, right next to the exit, able to watch the outside world, but never touch it. |
- Tv tropes has ruined my life. I have been trapped for 15 hours. I have no microphone, and I must scream.
- The Youtube Poop Link: The Faces of Evil alternate ending has Link voluntarily turned into one of the faces of evil. At first he's happy that his face is much more beautiful that the others, but soon gets bored due to being an immobile rock and can't wait to die.
- Team Fortress 2 Fan Fic has one
- This Cracked article points out this trope as one of the reasons why immortality would suck.
- Anne Poole of Fine Structure is sealed alive in a coal seam for 18 months. Her body is immortal and invulnerable, but her mind is not. She goes irretrievably insane.
- Similar to the Ruby Quest example, Tgchan's Tozol Quest has this guy. The image is accompanied by the following log:
Subject HYPERION log
OCT-1-2163: Subject HYPERION recovered, brought to interim lab for study. Limited regeneration observed in spite of catastrophic wounds and radiation dosage, halting presumably as nutrient stocks depleted. |
- The Fear Mythos features the Eldritch Abomination "Archangel", who is, in reality a twisted incarnation of the afterlife -- you are forever with your god, but God Is Evil. You are trapped with it forever, in a body which moves according to it's will, not yours. There's also EAT (short for Epping AquaTarkus), which may inflict this upon it's victims.
- Linkara tells The Entity this will be the eventual conclusion once it absorbs all of reality.
- Played for Laughs by The Nostalgia Chick. During a Nightmare Sequence in the "Top Eleven Disturbing Christmas Songs", her face distorts into a silently screaming skull. See? Comedy!
- Even when Failure Cresh's ring monitor head is cut off in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Special Edition, he still lives on.