Daring Rescue
IDK. I LOVE the mermaid aesthetic and think it’s fabulous, but sometimes you just gotta shake it up. Punk!merfolk sound great and who better than Virgil? XD
ChillpunkmerVirgilisawesome
“Look, all I’m saying is that you look a little... try-hard,” Logan said.
“Shut up,” Virgil retorted.
“Virgil, I understand you have a theme going on, but... you just look... Extra.”
“You’ve been hanging out with Remus too much.”
Ignoring Logan sighing out his gills, Virgil lounged on the rocks. Idly, he spun his trident around. It was made of black steel and studded with silver. It made him smirk in satisfaction just looking at it. It had taken him five years to get all the right materials together to make his weapon match his aesthetic.
Logan went on alert, spear in hand snapping upright. “Someone’s coming,” he hissed. “A mer.”
Virgil didn’t get off his rock. Just twitched his tail and put one arm behind his head. “How can you tell?”
“Can’t you smell the blood?”
“Not all of us are shark mers, Lo,” Virgil said, twiddling with the shark tooth on his necklace while his purple hair drifted around his head, too short to get tangled.
“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” Logan asked, looking around curiously. “What if they’re dangerous?”
“We’ll be fine. We’re warriors of the Crown. We can handle one measly mer on our own,” Virgil said.
“You’re remarkably relaxed.”
Virgil shrugged and spun his trident near Logan’s face to make a point. “We’ll be fine.”
Logan glanced in the direction the smell of blood was coming from and dodged cautiously around a large coral formation for cover. Virgil rolled his eyes and didn’t bother getting off his rock. Though, he could feel a disturbance in the current that signaled someone was coming. Huh. Logan was right. Logan was usually right.
^^^^^
Patton trembled and tried not to. It had been a long time since he’d been this deep. The shine of his scales was dulled in the darkness. Almost no sunlight made it this deep. He was much more surface-based---as evidenced by his freckles functioning the same way a human’s did. “R-Roman?” he called, quietly. “Roman, this isn’t---isn’t funny! Cut it out! Can we please go home?” He folded his arms over his ribs and used his hands to try and suppress the sound of his gills panting. This deep the water was nearly silent and he could hear his breathing.
His arm was bleeding from Roman enthusiastically dragging him into the trench and scraping it on the rock wall. He almost didn’t notice.
He couldn’t see anything. He was much more used to the shallows where the sun illuminated everything.
“You’re a long way from home, surmer,” a voice remarked.
Patton shrieked and whirled.
A deep-waters mer was lounging on a rock, bioluminescent freckles lighting up the black-and-silver trident he was twirling. His tail was dark violet with black patches and powerfully built.
“What... what did you call me?” Patton asked, voice trembling.
“A surmer. You’re a surface merperson,” the merman remarked.
Patton shook and used his tail to back away. He’d always heard deep water mers had a weird culture, and this guy seemed to be proving it. He had several shell piercings up both ears, a shark tooth hanging from a cord around his neck, and blackness lining his eyes. “I... I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you’ll excuse me... I gotta go find my friend.” He moved to leave.
The bioluminescent merman scoffed. “Surmers always were cowards. Can’t handle anything deeper than a couple hundred feet.”
Patton didn’t take the bait, just kept swimming. He was a fast swimmer near the surface, but the pressure this deep was making it harder for him to move, let alone race off.
The violet merman swam over, smirking. “What? Am I scaring you?”
“You don’t have to,” Patton retorted. “I’m already scared.” He met the violet merman’s eyes sharply, his own flashing a pale blue as he ducked underneath the man and kept going.
“You said you were looking for a friend. Maybe we saw them. What do they look like?” The merman followed after him.
“He’s got a red tail and red-to-green hair. I doubt you saw him,” Patton said. “And what do you mean, ‘we’?”
“All merfolk smaller than leviathans have pods, surmer. I meant me and my podmate.”
“Stop calling me that!” Patton snapped.
“Well you didn’t tell me your name, so I gotta call you sumpthin’,” the deep water merman said casually.
Patton glared as well as he could in the darkness. “It’s Patton, okay? Now leave me alone. I need to find Roman and your glowing isn’t helping me not freak out.”
“Nice to meet you, Patton. I’m Virgil. And what can I say? I’m bioluminescent. Lots of us down here are.”
“Go away. Please.”
Virgil scoffed and caught Patton’s arm. “You’re bleeding.” He turned to shout over his shoulder, “Hey Logan! I found the source of the blood you were smelling!”
Emerging from the darkness of the depths was a shark-type mer. Sharp teeth and eyes with a dark grey tail swishing through the water side-to-side instead of up-and-down. There was a spear held loosely in his right hand. He peered at Patton curiously. Patton couldn’t help but shrink away. Shark-types were rare close to the surface and could smell blood. If they were anything like normal sharks, the scent of blood could cause a feeding frenzy. “You’re from the surface,” the shark-type, identified as Logan by Virgil, remarked.
“Y-yes,” Patton said.
Logan took Patton’s bleeding arm and wrapped it in seaweed. “This should stifle the bleeding for now. You’d hate to bring actual sharks or shark-type mers with less control than me down on you.” He set his hands on his hips. “Now. You said you were looking for a friend---Roman, if I heard correctly.”
Patton nodded. He liked Logan better than he liked Virgil. Virgil seemed... dangerous. The trident-twirling didn’t help. He was intimidating. Scary. Logan seemed calm and level-headed. “Yeah. He dragged me down here. He’s... he’s the adventurous one. But when it got dark, we got separated and now I can’t find him.”
Logan inspected Patton again, taking in the dulled shine of his scales. “We’ll help you find him,” Logan said.
Virgil didn’t appear to be interested in the conversation. Just twisted the shaft of his trident around in his left hand and stared off into the darkness. But at Logan’s words he tuned in again. “Oh yeah, sure. In fact, I bet I know where he is.”
“Where?” Patton asked.
Virgil smirked. “Probably in the eel’s lair. Adventurous types always end up there.”
“The eel’s lair?”
“The lair of an eel-type merman who is proficient in magic,” Logan supplied. “Adventurers like to seek him out looking for spells and potions to aid them. Deep-water pods avoid him for the most part.”
“Is he... dangerous?”
“Anyone can be dangerous so that’s a difficult word to use. He is, however, tricky. He likes loopholes and double meanings.” Logan glanced at Virgil. “We might as well take a look.”
“What’s this eel’s name?” Patton asked. Naming things made them less scary.
Virgil shrugged. “No one down here knows. Like the shark said, we avoid him. But his reputation for tricking his... customers has earned him the nickname Deceit.”
Patton shivered from the top of his head to the ends of his fluke.
Logan noticed. “Don’t worry. We won’t make you go inside. Virgil and I will go in. If we find your friend, we’ll escort him out.”
“Actually, I’ll just go in,” Virgil said. “Lo, you stay outside and keep your eye on the surmer. It’s dangerous for cowards like him this deep.”
“I’m not a coward!” Patton exclaimed.
“Whatever. Let’s get moving.”
^^^^^
Virgil glanced at Logan and Patton as he readied his trident. “Stay here. Logan keep the surmer safe. Patton, don’t wander off. I’ll be back.” He twisted and dove into Deceit’s tunnel entrance to his cave. His knuckles turned white on the shaft of his trident.
“Weeellllll... if it isssn’t my ooold friiieeend,” a deep voice hissed. The glimmering scales of an eel wrapped briefly around Virgil’s tail before slithering off and swooping in front of him.
“Deceit,” Virgil replied flatly.
“Ohhh. Too good to ussse my real name now, old friend?”
“Logan is outside. With a surface merman,” Virgil said. “The surface merman is looking for a friend. Adventurous type. Red tail. Red-to-green hair. Goes by the name of Roman.”
“Oh, I’m sssure I haven’t ssssssseen sssuch a merman.” Deceit smiled, revealing his sharp teeth. His scales reached far past his waist, crawling even over his face, giving one eye a slit-pupil eel look.
“Deceit,” Virgil growled. “Give him up. Now.”
“I don’t have thisss merman you ssspeak of,” Deceit said.
“Don’t try me.” Virgil leveled his trident at Deceit’s throat. “I left your pod for a reason, you monstrous eel.” He pressed the middle, longest prong of his trident against Deceit’s throat.
“Ohhh. All grown up now, are we?” Deceit smiled.
“Look, just give me Roman and I’ll get out of your scales.”
“Nothing comesss without a priccce, old friend.”
Virgil clenched his jaw. “How about the price is that I don’t skewer you where you float?” he growled.
“Ooh. Somebody getsss a big ssscary stick and suddenly he’sss the boss? Honey, that’s a laugh and a half.”
“Don’t try me,” Virgil repeated. “I’ve grown since I left your pod.”
“Ssso have I, dear Virgil,” Deceit hissed.
Virgil encroached on Deceit’s space harder, prong slicing the skin of the eel-type’s throat. Blood floated through the water, diffusing in the sea. “Let. Roman. Go.”
The humanoid skin on the right side of Deceit’s face went pale. “Alright, alright. But the biiillllll comesss duuue, little Virgil.”
Deceit waved a hand.
The darkness of the cave lifted somewhat to reveal a merman bound in kelp. Muscular, he matched Patton’s description. He wasn’t much longer than Virgil, but his tail was built for power. Virgil’s for speed.
Another wave of Deceit’s hand and the merman was free from the kelp. He whirled.
“Take him and go. But when you come back, the priccce will be sssteep.”
Virgil grabbed Roman’s wrist and pushed him behind him. “I don’t intend to ever come back, Deceit,” he spat. Turning tail, Virgil dragged Roman after him. “You’re another surmer. Your friend Patton came looking for you.”
Roman stared at the row of shell piercings up Virgil’s ear. “Did you know him?”
“A long time ago. Don’t tell anyone,” Virgil growled. His knuckles were white on his trident again.
“I sense a bad history.”
“Don’t. Tell. Anyone,” Virgil snapped again, voice dark. His grip tightened on Roman’s wrist.
“Okay, okay. Sheesh. I won’t.”
“Good.”
They reached the mouth of the cave. Virgil shoved Roman in Patton’s direction.
“Ro! You’re okay!” Patton exclaimed, throwing his arms around Roman’s shoulders.
“You two should head back to the surface. Immediately,” Virgil said. Logan watched the color return to Virgil’s knuckles as his grip on his trident slacked. The two surface mermen stared at him.
“Y-yes. Of---of course,” Patton stammered. “Ro, let’s go. Please?”
Roman nodded agreement. He gave Virgil a slight bow of his head in gratitude, put a hand on Patton’s back, and pushed him up toward the surface before following after. Virgil glanced over at Logan.
“We should get out of here too. This place gives me the creeps,” he said.
Logan grunted. “Indeed. Even for the depths this water is frigid. Let’s be off.”
Side-by-side, they swam away from Deceit’s lair.
^^^^^
Deceit clicked his tongue, watching the Pearl’s image of the violet merman and his shark companion as they swam away from Deceit’s cave. “Flee, little Virgil. Flee,” he whispered maliciously. “But you’ll be back. One day. You’ll need something from me. And you’ll be back. I promissse.”
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EN DIRECT DES PRODUCTEURS
A LA RENCONTRE DE NOTRE MARAÎCHER EN PERMACULTURE
Le soir du jeudi 10 octobre, nous étions une trentaine de personnes réunies dans le préfabriqué de la Cuisine Commune de la friche Fives Cail, afin de faire la connaissance d’Alain Pitten, maraîcher en permaculture qui livre depuis juillet 2019 ses légumes à SuperQuinquin.
Cette collaboration a été facilitée par Patrick, coopérateur à SuperQuinquin depuis janvier 2018 et également bénévole dans l’association « Les Petites Mains » qui supporte Alain dans son projet de permaculture, pour des tâches comme la récolte ou la commercialisation.
C’est également à Patrick que l’on doit l’organisation de cette soirée.
Dans un premier temps Alain nous a présenté son parcours personnel avant qu’il ne bifurque vers la permaculture.
Dans la deuxième partie de l’exposé il est revenu sur quelques principes de base de cette forme spécifique d’agriculture.
En tant que fils de cheminot, Alain a commencé à travailler aux ateliers SNCF. Il est par la suite devenu réalisateur de films documentaires, ce qui constitue le cœur de sa carrière. Ses films portent généralement sur des thèmes sociaux, des marins-pêcheurs de Boulogne-surMer aux épouses de riches expatriés à Hanoï.
Âgé de 61 ans, sa reconversion vers l’agriculture ne date que de quelques années. Résidant à l’époque dans l’Aveyron, Alain a joué le jeu en passant son BPREA (Brevet Professionnel de Responsable d’Exploitation Agricole) afin d’acquérir des terres attenantes à sa propriété pour démarrer son projet de permaculture. Mais il s’est heurté à l’âpreté du monde agricole en ce qui concerne l’accès au foncier. Les hectares sont chers et les transactions régies par un organisme, la SAFER (Société d’Aménagement Foncier et d’Établissement Rural) qui donne la priorité aux candidats issus du monde agricole, ce qui n’est pas le cas d’Alain.
C’est dans le Nord qu’Alain va finalement pouvoir concrétiser son installation. Alors qu’il est toujours documentariste, il réalise un film pour le compte de l’Institut Fontaine, un centre de formation orienté vers le développement durable, basé à Croix. Autour de l’Institut s’étend un grand domaine, la proposition sera donc faite à Alain de faire un test sur 1 hectare pour démarrer son projet. C’était il y a de ça trois ans, aujourd’hui Alain cultive sur 10 ha, toujours sur les terres de l’Institut Fontaine.
Alain est maintenant occupé à plein temps par cette activité, d’autant qu’il gère non seulement la production mais aussi la commercialisation de ses produits, ce qui selon lui représente 50 % du travail hebdomadaire, si l’on prend en compte le nettoyage et le conditionnement des légumes avant la vente. Il est toutefois assisté dans cette partie par l’association « Les Petites Mains ».
A partir des années 70, on a commencé à s’interroger sur le lien entre l’alimentation et la santé. La permaculture, née d’une défiance envers le conventionnel (entre 1950 et aujourd’hui, la valeur nutritive des légumes a énormément baissé, : moins 65 % de vitamines dans les brocolis, par exemple) repose sur trois principes : prendre soin de la terre, des hommes et des ressources.
C’est une pratique qui requiert beaucoup d’observation et de travail manuel. En effet, comme pour l’agriculture biologique, il s’agit d’un mode de culture où l’on souhaite prévenir plutôt que guérir, c’est-à-dire optimiser la production en ayant une connaissance fine des forces et des faiblesses des plantes, au lieu de recourir à des engrais et des traitements phytosanitaires. La permaculture, qui est donc une agriculture biologique, va toutefois plus loin en ce qui concerne deux aspects : le travail du sol et l’association des cultures. Les champs permacoles sont pensés comme des écosystèmes dont la vie est aussi riche à la surface que sous terre. On va associer une grande variété de plantes en misant sur les synergies naturelles entre certaines espèces (répulsion des parasites de l’une par l’autre). On ne laboure pas la terre car cela la dessèche et perturbe la vie microbienne du sol. On laisse une couverture végétale constante et on n’enfouit pas les déchets organiques. Les vers de terre se chargeront d’aérer la terre et d’y faire circuler les nutriments, les racines des arbres, qu’on maintient volontairement à proximité du champ, décompactent le sol et facilitent l’infiltration de l’eau.
On essaie ainsi de déconstruire le fonctionnement issu de l’après-guerre où le recours massif aux intrants chimiques (pesticides et engrais de synthèse, en partie produits par les usines de matériel militaire converties après guerre pour la modernisation agricole) a tellement appauvri les sols que les industriels de l’agro-alimentaire en sont arrivés à inventer l’agriculture « hors-sol » ...
La présentation d’Alain est suivie de nombreuses questions, tant sur l’efficacité des techniques permacoles que sur l’avenir de l’agriculture.
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