Abnormal Child | |||
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Naming | |||
Others | N/A | ||
Personal information | |||
Species | Human (mutant) | ||
Gender | Unknown | ||
Relations | Unnamed mother, father and sister | ||
Current status | Alive | ||
Biology | |||
Body type | Unknown | ||
Height | Unknown | ||
Diet | Omnivorous | ||
Abilities | Wall-crawling | ||
Sentience | Sentient | ||
Sapience | Sapient | ||
Behind the scenes | |||
Universe | Born of Man and Woman | ||
Created by | Richard Matheson |
The protagonist of Richard Matheson's short story "Born of Man and Woman" is an unnamed and mostly undescribed abnormal child, who was nonetheless born to ordinary human parents. It also has a normal little sister, who appears to be entirely unaware of her sibling's existence. The complete story can be found here
Biology[]
All that has been revealed is that it has multiple legs, wall-crawling abilities, and it drips a kind of green fluid. It's also larger than an ordinary human child, and strong enough to accidentally kill a cat by grabbing it. Besides the food provided by its parents, it's also known to feed on bugs. It describes some difficulty in walking on stairs, claiming that its feet "stick to the wood".
Personality[]
Very little is known about the child's personality although it says that it has "a bad anger with mother and father"
History[]
The mutant child is usually kept chained to the basement by its parents, and beaten whenever it manages to escape confinement. Although literate and able of keeping a journal, it possesses very limited knowledge of the world, referring to the outside as "upstairs", to regular human children as "little mothers and fathers" and its sister in particular as "the little mother", the family car as "the big machine", etc.
Appearances[]
- "Born of Man and Woman", by Richard Matheson (1950)