The first mysterious (but not TOO mysterious) sea city!

Friday, February 13, 3267

Sorry, I haven't been posting a ton of updates lately. I know, I know. Sometimes life is more entertaining to live than to talk about, and these past few days we've seen some beautiful and interesting things... and by the time we returned to our cabins in the evening, I was always too tired to update the blog.

We visited an absolutely delightful seaside town! Oh, as the old saying goes, "there are benefits to being a marine biologist"... and one of them, my dears, is that we're taking an incredible panoramic tour of the entire Mediterranean Sea. Oh, I love the Mediterranean!

For reasons of confidentiality, I can't tell you the name of the town we landed in, nor the exact date or time, but perhaps the photos might reveal which town it is (but not what day! Eh!).

Mistery photo!

Another mysterious photo. Just a little less mysterious.

Did I take only mysterious photos? Maybe yes.

The sea :O

We ate a particularly thick and tasty pizza, which even had lil' salty anchovies inside, diced cheese on top, and the most abundant tomato sauce I've ever seen in my life. Cascades, of tomato sauce (the sweetest and tastiest one). 

A large seagull landed next to us, craning and craning its neck, which was probably its way of letting us know it wanted to try the thick pizza too, so we let it try it.

The sea was calm, the breeze gentle. At a certain point, a huge white bus with silver lettering arrived, and a ton of tourists got off, all bundled up as if they were about to embark on an expedition to the Arctic Circle. I looked down at my short sleeves and smiled. Who knows where they were from... but they seemed so happy! Many of them had children with them, and they came down to the beach, after wandering the streets for a bit, looking distraught.

The children immediately began digging holes and building sandcastles, using reeds and pieces of wood, like little architects, to hold the structures up. I had never seen children build sandcastles like this on the beach: everyone I know (and I did, too, when I was little) uses only a bucket, making sure the sand inside is always wet to avoid losing structural integrity, and a shovel, maybe a few stones and shells to decorate the magical "crab palace," as I called it.

No, these children looked like they'd been preparing their whole lives to build sandcastles, and they didn't want to waste the moment, because they didn't waste any time getting down to business!

The adults, as I said, seemed happy. They didn't do much: they looked at the sea, talked to each other, smiled.

I feel lucky to be able to see the sea every day, especially when I remember that there are plenty of towns that don't even have access to the sea.

Oh, and then we saw so much art! In this town, they love their murals, their glazed tiles, and their decorations, I tell you!

Look at this! This view is fake, like in a cartoon. There's actually no tunnel in this wall!

 

Do you think this is an oarfish? At first I thought so, it even had a crown, but then one of my sisters pointed out that it's not the oarfish's crest, but the fin of the fish on top of it, and that ruined the magic for me. It's probably a conger eel or a "normal" eel, it's a rather generic fish, so who knows. But it's cute, like all the other fish drawn on this wall!

Probably only an eel...

This one, on the other hand, is an oarfish! (The Casalpalocco Rome tile isn't a spoiler about the location; the Rotary club does this thing where they exchange tiles with other Rotary clubs.)

We also went to a bookstore: it was really cute, full of independent projects. We also bought some postcards (but obviously we can't show you because the name of the city is on them) and a children's book called "Lilly of the Abyss" (or was it "Lilly IN the Abyss"? I can't remember right now, and the book is gone).

My brother loves children's books; he practically collects them, and who can blame him? They're beautiful, especially the intelligent ones, the ones that don't treat the child like an idiot. Even though I pretend not to notice, I spend a lot of time reading my brother's books... if he ever has daughters and/or sons (and he will have a son like him, there's no doubt about that), they'll be able to have a blast in Dad's bookshop.

Sangreal explored the city with us, with the enthusiasm of someone who's never seen a seaside town (and he's only seen those in his life, though, because as far as we know, he was born there, by the sea). I mean, he wasn't screaming and jumping for joy; he's not the type to do those things... let's just say that, in his own way, he seemed delighted and surprised by everything. Except the bread. Apparently, he hates bread. Have you ever met a person who doesn't even want to be touched by a sandwich?

Ionia bought a bunch of sandwiches.

Eeee... nothing. That's what we did.

It's nice, sometimes, not to have to tell strange things, to simply appreciate the life around us, the sea, a thick pizza that leaves your fingers greasy, the seagulls.

Until the next adventure!

Best (cuddly) wishes,

Your favorite marine biologist, Nana!

Friends and foes!

February 3 3267

I forgot that, since the blog is completely new, many of you have no idea who we are!

I thought about making some profiles explaining who's aboard the Nihil, and their roles, but I risk wasting a lot of time, since I want to illustrate them all and make them look good, and maybe do some mini-interviews with each of colleagues, so I'd rather take it easy. For now. (Muahahahaha).

Okay, I'll give you a quick guide to the "important" ones, okay? (I'll tell you about the others later.) 

MY FRIENDS:

Seraphin: He's my brother! In theory, he's the "boss" of this expedition, but in practice, he's (rightly) very democratic and (too bad for him) completely submissive to Sangreal. Sangreal, however, is kind of submissive to him. They have something strange between them, it's complicated to explain. Seraphin is a tall guy (6'3"), but he's incredibly skinny. All women who like men want him.

Martine: One of my sisters! Her name is Martine, but everyone, including sometimes people who don't know her, calls her Marti. Her favorite color is blue, and if you meet her, you'll immediately know it. She dyes her hair blue, loves blue clothes, and sometimes she even paints her nails blue. She's the oldest of us, so she's always in charge (not like my brother, who doesn't know how to lead and gets pushed around because he's too good).

Ionia: Another one of my sisters! Her favorite color is green, so she dyes her hair green. The problem with us sisters is that we look too much alike, and we have to find a way to tell each other apart, okay? Otherwise, everyone tells us, "You're twins, you're twins!" and we're not. But back to Ionia: she's very serious and capable (more serious than me and Marti, who are both clowns, but whatever), but she also has her slightly more relaxed moments. Without her, we'd all leave dirty dishes in the sink, unwashed clothes on the chair, and fruit seeds on the plates. Thanks for yelling at us, Ionia.

Celestine: Yet another (this is the last one, I promise) of my sisters. She seems like the toughest of us, but that's not true, it's just that she reads too many gothic novels and has absorbed the language like a sponge, so now she speaks like a vampire. She doesn't do it on purpose! In fact, sometimes she realizes it and even changes her speech pattern. Her favorite color is purple (even though her name is Celestine! Ha ha!) and at this point it makes me wonder what would have happened if we all had the same favorite color. She's good at math.

Seras Alkahest: She's the president! HAIL to the president, source of all the money that buys us little robots to explore the seabed and take pictures of cute octopuses! President Seras is very tall, very slender, very pure, with very long blonde hair and hands that look like they'll kill you instantly if they slap you. She always dresses in super-strange and super-elegant ways; I swear I've never seen her wearing a t-shirt. Her Holiness the president is very indulgent with us. If you're reading this right now: please don't hit me, ma'am, what I'm writing is a 100% positive portrait.

Sangreal: He's our supervisor, but he's not a marine biologist like us. How did he get to this place? Apparently he's an expert on marine creatures because he lives in the sea and is part of an ancient population. He doesn't have a last name, from what I understand, or if he does, it's like a monstrous sound that I don't know how to make or spell. He's two meters tall (that's not hyperbole! He really is two meters tall, maybe even taller), he has red hair, a beard, he dresses like a man who was super-elegant a thousand years ago, and I really don't know if there's anything else he could do to look even more striking. Seriously, you can tell from afar. He and my brother Seraphin have something strange going on—shh, don't ask.

Rosas: One of the president's men, an inventor apparently, and also an excellent navigator. Small and rotund (and very proud of both), he has the most muscular arms of the entire crew, and he's an excellent swimmer. From his appearance, he seems to be of Indian origin, but his family has probably lived on French soil for so long that he doesn't even remember what India is anymore. I don't know his last name; if anyone told me, I've forgotten (I'll have to ask him, so I can put it on the file).





THE "ENEMIES"

Bertram Fuka: He's a guy who's tall about one metre and one prayer, and he's the leader of a group of scientists who boasts and laugh from other boats because they usually manage to win cooler projects (and bigger budgests) than us. Everyone calls him Bertra, leaving out the final "M." Unlike my brother, he knows how to lead, and everyone bows to him. His last name allows him to make vulgar puns, which gives him an advantage over us.

Ippolita Ferro: She's Bertra's errand girl, she's 1,90 m (six feet) tall and weighs maybe two hundred kilos. She always has a gray parrot on her shoulder. Her hair is cut in a mohawk, just to make her look even more scary. When she walks around, she makes the sound of jingling keys, but rarely makes any other noises, because she doesn't dare speak in front of Bertra (what if she misses a breath?). When Bertra's not around, she trash-talks us, with the help of her parrot. They say she once lifted a great white shark with her bare hands, and a lot of people don't believe it, but I do (because I know great white sharks can be young and light).


??? (I don't know if they're allies or enemies)

Sangreal's Grandmother: I've never met her, but she's an important person because she influences the things Sangreal does, and since he's our supervisor, he influences us. Apparently she's gigantic (and if her grandson, who's two meters tall, says so, I'm worried), rigorous, and of noble lineage. She lives somewhere in the sea, but I'm not sure where. Apparently she's terrified of "sea monkeys" (Artemia salina).

Actually, there are a lot of other people, especially on Nihil, but if I tell you all about them, you might not remember them. And anyway, these are the people I write about the most, so it's best if you know them!

Now I have to go, Marti downloaded a really old game where you explore the bottom of a red ocean, or something like that, and she wants me to go give her my honest scientific opinions.

A lively bye bye from your favorite marine biologist!

-Nana