Chapter 12 - Foraging

They arrived at the garage, and Inky jumped in first.

He wanted today to collect different types of algae, with some luck one would be fatty enough and he could extract oil for cooking from it or one with big leaves he could use like banana leaves to wrap food for steaming it.

His mind running wild with ideas, he showed Inky on the screen of a wall, a sea cucumber and also sea urchin and a clam and lots of red seaweeds that are used for oil production or taste like bacon, even if there were no similar beings here, they should be able to find something.

Inky looked at them and once the hatch opened, they both went looking around, with Inky pointing him things he missed, they found a big leafed algae that looked like an underwater banana tree, but with long rope-like connectors and floaters at the start and end of the leaf, the sacks were full of liquid so he had high expectations, they also found some similar to sea lettuce. and a grid-like coral that he decided to use a piece like a grill, to grill food over the fire on top, they also saw an adult snail but ignored it, the curious thing though was an eel that was literally living inside the snail's ass with just her head sticking out, it was bizarre.

Inky then found a big clam, it was football-sized and round with sharp teethlike edges, they grabbed a couple since they could just be boiled to open them, he would also leave one at the garages entrance to study it with the camera, then also another type of algae that looked pale green and was similar to sea spaghetti.

They were already packed with lots of things so they decided to go back, the algae he scanned them and threw away the too poisonous ones, the little beings he put in a bucket and inside the freezer and one of the clams he just boiled it, surprisingly it screeched when boiled to death, it was quite disturbing, Erik decided to kill them first with fresh water the next time, the meat inside was abundant and it even had a pearl-like couple of eggs inside, that he also ate since they were boiled already, they tasted like salty boiled chicken eggs so he called them chicken clams.

Inky seemed to like them too, then he grilled some moray and armoured fish over the coral using a fire container per Rose's "safety in the base" instructions.

Then he boiled a piece of long leafed seaweed that looked like sea lettuce and red big leafed seaweed that had the floaters.

Then he wrapped the meat in one long leafed algae and put it in a tray inside the oven and the other to the steamer, both were delicious, the algae released fats and the oven one was crispy, furthermore, the sacks were indeed full of oil so he fried them, the leaves were red and with a meaty flavor, he put them on the dryer a bit and then fried them, they were tasty as algae rolls, he also put moray and armoured fish meat on them and steamed them to tasty packages too, they had a tasty meal with both having eaten their fill.

Later that night they watched the Aquaman movie, while snacking in boiled and then fried algae floaters (pneumatocysts) and algae rolls from the wide leafed algae they discovered, it was oily and kinda tasted like meat and with a red color, with the perfect crispness

(https://youtu.be/ZaofYAZ5BO4

https://youtu.be/9_uzE0-XR0E )

when they arrived at the leviathan part of the end of the movie Inky started shivering though, it reminded her of the monster that had eaten her mother even if it didn't really look the same and she hugged Erik who just petted her smooth and slightly slippery head until she calmed down, after that she fell asleep, so he carried her to the bathtub and let her sleep

"by the way Rose, can these installations be increased in size?"

[actually, they can, the entire walls are made of nanobots so they can obviously change shape, just dig a tunnel and then the nanobots will fill the walls, can't be used in the ocean though since the structures they make aint 100% waterproof]

"Okay then please add an extra room in the swimming pool area, and also a hole for digging down into the rocky plateau"

[i will peel the walls in the best area there, and you can start digging, I will synthesize you also a pick for digging ]

"fine, no big deal"

[also, I found something on the logs about Inkys species you might wanna know..., nah it will be more fun if I don't tell you]

"is it a danger to my life?"

[no]

"then don't make me worried for no reason"

[you sure you don't wanna beg me to tell you?, if you do I will tell you ¯\_ (･ิω･ิ)_/¯ ~~~]

"Nah, it's fine" he thought also 'heh, if she wants to tell she would, don't let her get used to teasing too much'

[( 'o') ( ' -') ( -.-)... (︶^︶) fine, if you don't care I don't care either, took me lots of hours of searching logs but well, whatever, no one cares I guess, it's fine]

"ah, nonono it's obviously not fine, and I'm deeply grateful you put so much effort into ensuring my survival, now can you tell me?"

[aww thanks, but I won't tell you, you said it, it doesn't affect your survival after all jejejejejeje ¯\_(・∀・)_/¯ ]

Erik couldn't help thinking 'great, now she's acting as a cheeky brat when my survival depends on her... better play her game and that's it next time... sigh....'