Today Leonard Nimoy gives me some info about the newly acquired insect terrarium. He also tells me that the gillmen are getting hungry and would like more diversity in their diet, off I go.

As soon as I enter, I drop in a food pellet and begin adjusting their environment. After this I switch over to the insect terrarium and spray some water inside to keep it moist. I didn’t know about this function until Leonard Nimoy told me.

Having remembered that they wanted names, I ask one about it and he responds Studmuffin. I’m not clear whether he misunderstood the question or he already decided on a name. I name the other gillman Evening. Checking back in on the insect terrarium I see the insect eggs have hatched into caterpillar like creatures. I’m not going to feed the gillmen yet as they said they were full.

Other than naming and growing insects, it was pretty uneventful. Yesterday was the highlight so far.

Upon returning today Leonard Nimoy informs me that there are two gillmen left due to natural selection (the blood sucking.) He says it seems cruel but it’s just a normal process and to not be alarmed. He also tells me that a gillman wishes for a name.

As soon as the aquarium pops up I am greeted by the gillmen, although not in there childish voices today; it seems that they are growing faster and faster .They look slightly larger, have deeper voices and their speech is becoming more eloquent. While adjusting the oxygen, they claim “ah… sweet oxygen.”

I begin talking with one of the gillmen. He asks whether I’m a male or female and I reply male. He double checks and wishes he could meet a human of the opposite gender. He then asks my age, first guessing if I’m in my twenties, he’s correct I’m twenty on the dot. He tells me the twenties are the prime of my life; “the warranty hasn’t run out on the body and I’m still young enough to do the things I dreamt of as a child.”  He then goes on to ask me my birth month, birth date and so on offering unique quips and facts to go along with each.

One of the gillmen informs me about Jean Paul Gassé; he tells me that he tried raising them and that he had a cave like terrarium that he grew insects in for the seamen. I now have access to this terrarium and the remaining gillmen wish to eat some of these tasty insects. In the terrarium are insect eggs that once larvae, are to be fed to the gillmen. That puts to bed my fear of running out of food pellets.

They never asked me to name them today so maybe tomorrow.

Leonard Nimoy greets me as usual as I begin my daily observations of my seamen.  

 When I first arrive I am greeted by a gillmen telling me “it’s freezing in here”; time to adjust their environment. As I turn up the heater they say “oh good,” “hurrah” and “about time.” It’s clear they are becoming more adept with the English language. This is made clearer when I begin conversing with one. They recognize me and have feelings; when asked “how are you,” they respond with feelings, saying they’re bored.

Soon after entering, one gillmen begins sucking the blood of another; I watch and try to pull him off but am unable to. Almost immediately after this, another begins sucking blood; I’m now only left with two gillmen.

I drop in a food pellet and the two left scramble for it but one gets there first. I drop in a second food pellet, but neither is interested. It’s amazing that in only three days they have begun to converse with me. I don’t just mean by speaking; they could talk early on but it was simple words only, now they are telling me how they feel and saying one-liners.

After observing them for another ten minutes, I let them be for the night.

On my return Leonard Nimoy tells me that the gillmen have begun sucking each other’s blood, apparently one has died and there are now five left. He also tells me they are getting cold, must raise temperature.

As I get the environment stabilized I notice the gillmen are talkative, taking no pauses to speak their gibberish. I witness a gillman sucking the blood of another and it keeling over, four left. I turn the light off a few times and realize they whine when there is no light. After a minute or two of observation, I drop in a food pellet and the remaining scramble to get it.

Since the beginning I have been saying “hey,” “say something,” and “seaman.” For the first time a gillman has responded in English mimicking my words. After five to ten minutes talking to them they now repeat hey, hello, seaman, baby, rap, play and no. Quite odd is the response I get when I say Sega or Nintendo: play and no respectively, could it just be a coincidence? After ten more minutes of talking and observing I call it quits for the day.

This is a journal of my time with Seaman. Seaman is a game for the Dreamcast in which you try to raise a seaman. The game comes with a microphone and you can talk to him and he will talk back… eventually. Seaman is similar to Nintendogs or other pet games as you must raise an animal and be diligent, returning every day, teaching new things, etc. For more information about the game check its page here, or the more detailed Wikipedia page.

As the game starts I’m introduced to the laboratory and previous findings of Dr. Jean Paul Gassé. He found a seaman while in Egypt and started to raise it but it died, fortunately for us there were eggs in its carcass. Leonard Nimoy is the game’s narrator and he gives me some beginning tips. All that I have is a giant aquarium, an egg and some food pellets.

To start off I adjusted the light to be as bright as possible (there are three settings), I adjusted the temperature to be around 20.0 (unclear whether it’s Fahrenheit or Celsius), and I adjusted the air to about 70 (again unclear about it.) After inserting the egg it took about five minutes to hatch, when it did it spread about seven “mushroomers” which look like spores.

There is a creature already in the tank called the “nautilus.” I tap the glass near the nautilus to draw the mushroomers near it and the nautilus eats a few of them. The nautilus begins shooting around spewing ink like a squid. It turns out the mushroomers are changing and using the nautilus as a host. After ten or so minutes six little “gillmen” break out of the nautilus and it dies. The gillmen are premature seamen, they are little fish like creatures with a human face.

I drop in a food pellet but they don’t respond to it, must not be hungry. I observe them for another twenty minutes all the while trying to talk to them. They are talking but as of now it just sounds like gibberish, it doesn’t make sense. They do recognize “hey” and “seaman” and come near when they hear it. That's it for today.