Shit Weasel Loves You

The Ripley (also known in the novel as byrus) are a fictional complex parasitoid alien macro virus that appears in the Stephen King novel Dreamcatcher (as well as the film based on the novel).


The adult aliens resemble deformed serpent-like beings with legs, while the younger aliens, or byrum - nicknamed "shit-weasels" because they can be created in a host organism's stomach and escape by eating their host's body between the stomach and anus - are legless, smaller versions of the adult alien. Both the adult and young aliens have a mouth that consists of a slit on the underside of the head that goes down the length of the worm. The mouth lips separate to reveal hundreds of teeth that can bite through steel.
The nickname "Ripley" is a reference to Ellen Ripley, the fictional main character in the Aliens series of films, because in all stages the parasites are extremely difficult to destroy, and as said by General Kurtz, "This disease is one tough mother to beat, just like that Alien chick."

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