you are here [x]: Scarlet Star Studios > the Scarlet Letters > A - The Adameve
<< before
monster month begins!
after >>
B - The Badogedown
October 1, 2007
A - The Adameve
by sven at 8:00 am
Reprinted with permission from Professor Ichbonnsen's Monster Month blog.
The Adameve is a large, glistening white, maggot-like beast. It has a grossly oversized, eyeless head, and two long facial feelers that are nearly identical in shape and size to the legs.
The creature is bipedal -- yet often gives the appearance of moving on four legs. Being completely blind, it uses the facial feelers to help find its way along the ground, moving them in a sort of "walking" motion.
At maturity the Adameve can stand as much as twelve feet tall. Folded in half as it travels, the dorsal crest will measure approximately six feet up from the ground.
The species is known to haunt certain old, blasphemous orchards in England and western Europe. Primarily nocturnal, for centuries its rambling gait has caused witnesses to mistake this monster for a ghostly couple: a naked man and woman silently dancing together beneath moonlit trees.
This impression, combined with the association with apples, likely explains its name: a conjunction of "Adam and Eve."
To reproduce, the hermaphroditic Adameve injects its eggs into apples growing on the trees -- thus supplying the young with a ready-made supply of food when they hatch. In their early stages, the larva are easily mistaken for maggots writhing in and out of rotting, fallen fruit.
Adameves are extremely territorial. The young (initially numbering in the hundreds) will quickly tear each other apart, competing for dominance. Near the end of the frenzy, the most aggressive children will gang up to kill and eat their own parent. Ultimately, only one animal survives in the orchard.
Based on historical records, it is believed that the species spawns approximately once every hundred years.
posted by sven | October 1, 2007 8:00 AM | comments (4) | categories: bestiary
Comments
I'm very sorry to say that with my overwhelming workload, such as it is, I will not be able to participate in Monster Month this year :(
However....
I feel that, as a co-founder of this grandest of autumnal celebrations, I should represent, so I've asked my cousin Raymond Legrasse, a fisherman down on the bayou, to fill in for me. He's a little 'backwoods' (we couldn't ALL get out and get edumacated) but his home, his land, has seen some....shall we say....interesting creatures in the last couple of years....
He'll check in later tonight....
Posted by: ubatuber at October 1, 2007 1:36 PM
I love your paintings, Sven.
Posted by: shelley Noble at October 2, 2007 10:36 AM
@Shelley: Thank you! I haven't done all that much with acrylics before now -- I took on doing Monster Month in paintings in part to develop my skills with the medium. I've been doing all the illustrations in 11x14" sketchbooks... And you'd be amused to see the process notes that I've scribbled on many of the left-hand pages. I'm having a blast!
(It's also a little scary walking this tightrope in front of an audience.)
Posted by: sven at October 2, 2007 11:51 AM
@Jeffrey: I'm really sorry to hear that you're going to be out of the game this year. Still, it's totally understandable -- and I'm really looking forward to seeing Unearthed and the Sea-Clops project develop.
Legrasse sounds like he must have some pretty good stories in him. And I guess it's probably a good thing to inject a little new blood into this event. Be sure to pop us a link when he gets online. :-)
Tangentially: Hey, man -- we've really got to do something for the December stopmoshorts haiku! Summer had ZERO submissions, and only one person submitted for the Oct 1 deadline. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the new Stopmo Dojo exercises... But I'd hate to see the haiku die completely!
Posted by: sven at October 2, 2007 11:53 AM