Fish Don't Cry

This is the world of Fish Don't Cry, explored through the eyes of a family of marine biologists, the Panormes, and especially Seraphin. 

Are you ready to discover a new watery world? Or will you lose your mind and your soul in this hadal exploration? 

Fish Don't Cry is a multimedia project. Choose the start of your, ahem, deep dive! 

1. The comic 

Under the sea, under the sea... tears have no meaning.

There's a comic series that we're sketching in ballpoint pen, no previous pencil studies, it's just... a challenge. And this is the cover, yay! (The cover was sketched, and it's of a better quality than the pages, because, well, it's the cover).

But it can be interesting to read, for y'all! It's 100% experimental, and it will have some weird stuff in it. We hope do you like deep sea fish!

[YOU CAN READ IT ON TAPAS - Probably new updates every monday]

or

[On tumblr] or [On Blueksy] (but they're updated slowly, compared to Tapas!) 

2. The Novel  

(+ fanfiction) 

Hey, do you want to read the story? Do you like merfolk and sea animals and weird novels with marine biologists?

You're lucky then! You can read the story... AND do it two versions (original and fanfiction, one happening in our original New Dark World, the other in the in Pokémon world!) and two languages (English or Italian!). Fanfiction Version (Pokémon) [ITALIAN] [ENGLISH] OC Version (New Dark World) [ITALIAN] [ENGLISH]

[Also on Tapas (Only English version, clean version cut and censored for violence and sex)]

3. The Blog

Beyond these things, Fish Don't Cry will also be a blog and... an experience. Have you ever heard of an ARG? Some of you, reading this, will probably be on the edge of your seat, leaning forward, and saying, "Oh yeah!". For others that don't know it, ARG stands for "alternate reality game."

We'll tell you exactly what we mean (though we hope this piques your curiosity enough to send you off on a quest to find out more about what an ARG actually is): the Fish Don't Cry blog, written from within the story, as if it were real, by its characters, will feature extra content, clues, and a story that only you, the readers, can uncover.

In addition to mysterious links, subtle narrative clues, and "meta" moments, the Fish Don't Cry blog will also feature tons of pixel art AND photography. What can I say, Fire Cacti must be doing all sorts of things, all sorts of things, all sorts of things.

So visit Fish Don't Cry now, watch it change over time, discover what lies in the darkness of the Mediterranean waves (and the hearts of those who live there).  

4. The Worldbuilding 

The Merfolk section of the Italian Cactus di Fuoco Wiki (available, for now, only in Italian language).

Merfolk worldbuilding on the official Cactus di Fuoco blog.

The Fish don't Cry project on World Anvil 

The book of the deep - Work in progess, coming soon! 

And much, much more!

This odd fish has 30 times as much DNA as humans—a new record for animals

Lacking key genes that control selfish bits of DNA, the South American lungfish’s genome just grew and grew.

A species of lungfish found in South America has claimed the title of the animal with the biggest genome sequenced so far. The DNA of Lepidosiren paradoxa comprises a staggering 91 billion chemical letters or “bases,” 30 times as many as the human genome, researchers report today in Nature. However, those 91 billion bases of DNA only contain about the same number of genes that humans have—roughly 20,000—with the rest consisting of noncoding, perhaps even “junk” DNA. By comparing this genome with those of other lungfishes, the researchers determined that L. paradoxa adds the equivalent of a human genome to its DNA every 10 million years...

Actual archaeology:

Festive Hellmouth Viper