Mono Mondays: Barnacles

On Mondays, we like to support our resident artist, Mono!  They're an up-and-coming scribbler of things dark and weird, and we consider ourselves lucky to have leeched onto— er, formed a mutually beneficial relationship with them.  You can watch Mono hard at work creating various pieces on their YouTube channel.  For those who don't feel like watching digital paint getting splashed around, we'll be showcasing a different piece of theirs right here every Monday.

This week, we have the results of thinking about undersea life for five seconds too long.

Most people who have lived by the ocean have encountered barnacles.  They are the pimple of the sea, unsightly blemishes that will appear on any submerged surface that sits still for long enough.  Have you ever seen one eat, though?  They extend a spindly leg, covered in fibrous, feathery follicles, and run it through the nearby water.  Plankton gets caught by the leg and pulled inside the barnacle, and the process repeats.

Now imagine a barnacle long enough to feed on a person in the same fashion.

Given Mono's particular tastes, the giant barnacle pictured above isn't strictly realistic.  In fact, it avoids water altogether, which could melt their relatively fragile shell.  Instead of the hardened, almost-impossible-to-remove shells of regular barnacles, these desert-based cousins have translucent shells that shift and shimmer in the light of the sun.  To a thirsty traveller, they mimic the glint of water that signals an oasis.  The traveller approaches, searching for the water... and their motion sends vibrations through the sand, alerting the giant barnacle, who casts a ghostly arm out in turn.

From there, much the same thing happens as with the ocean-bound version.