7 Seeds (Pacifista & FiroIV)

[FiroIV]

An excerpt from Atsuin Shizunko's journal.

It’s been three days since I’ve arrived at this island? I don’t know where I am really but since we were in Bungo before I guess I haven’t drifted off too far. Maybe I’m near Shikoku or if I’m lucky maybe I’m in northern Kyushu. I’ve found a nice clearing to sleep in and I’ve made it my base for a while.

Six days now and still haven’t got a clue where I am. My food is about to run out so I’ve been searching around the tree tops for fruit and nothing but I did find some nice warm leaves that I plan on using for something. I looked around all day for more food but all I found were berries and some turtles that I can’t really eat. Oh and it is confirmed that I am on an island and I can’t swim so I’m stuck here…for now

Nine days now and I’m about to run out of food but I think there are some kind of root vegetables that I saw some turtles eat. It also rained the day before yesterday which was nice but the earth is now all muddy and I can’t sleep. Also after the rain made some weird snakes and lizards appear, they’re harmless but I’m not sure yet so I’m gonna stay away from them for a while.
Twelve days now. I finally found those vegetables that the turtles eat, they tasted okay but they’re not really filling me up so I’ll try cooking them next. It rained again yesterday so now the earth is all weird but at least now I have bath thanks to this new lake.

-------------------

The rain has once again started. It is the third rain since Atsuin has come on this island and it unbeknost to him this rain is warning for the things to come. Atsui the young 22 year old failure is taking a nice bath. A bath in which half of his body is submerged in water but that’s all that he can do. All that he can do is submerge his body halfway because he can’t swim. Unbeknownst to him water falls above him. Splash, splash, splash, trick and trick. "Spectacular it's raining again" He murmurs as he gets out off the lake.

[Pacifista]

As the third rain of the season continued, Juri Taiyoshi crouched in the mud, watching her hard work slowly inch its way down a hill. Upon arriving here about six days ago, she immediately set about building a small shack to keep herself covered during the night. However, the spot she chose: a hillside in the small edge of a valley, had gotten muddier than expected, and the shoddy construct had begun to collapse. With one last sigh of resignation, she left the half-finished project behind, deciding to be a bit more thoughtful about location next time.

Traveling a few minutes away, Juri arrived at a tree marked with multiple lines down one side. Climbing up, she reached her bag, hanging far above the wet ground. Normally, she wouldn’t have bothered to check the safety of her belongings, but the other day, she found a human footprint that definitely was not hers, so she was a little worried. She only knew of a few others in Japan, and she couldn’t help but feel she’d burned that bridge already, so she wasn’t too keen on meeting any of them. Were there more teams though?

Climbing back down from the tree, Juri took note of her possessions. She wore her all-weather jacket over her shirt and black shorts. Her boots were covered in mud and water. She had her knife on hand, along with her water bottle, with everything else being up in her bag. Since she was going to be walking again, she looked around and found a stick suitable for walking. She shaved off part with her knife for the handle and went scouting, for both a new place to work on shelter and the other person here; she’d rather find them before they found her.

As she wandered, Juri noticed that the rainfall was causing some amount of flooding, which meant that either the ground wasn’t very porous or it was raining harder than she thought. She’d definitely have to take that into consideration. She had come across one or two craters of some kind, that were beginning to fill with water, or already decently full. When examining one of them, she noticed what appeared to be signs of a person having been here recently...

[FiroIV]

The rains have been nothing but a bother to Atsuin and quite frankly he thought everything was going to be okay. He's wrong. He, looking like he just took a bath, watches as his effort sinks in mud. He watches with his eyes as his brain wanders on what to do next and how to solve the problem that this island is about to become a mud filled hodgepodge of reptile.

He grabs his bag and belongings as he put's on an almost clean button down shirt, his last almost clean shirt, which means that sooner or later he would have to do laundry. He's going to do laundry with no soap and detergent only with dirty water and rocks. And once again the back of Atsui's mind is screaming bloody murder "YOU'RE GETTING SIDETRACKED!"

Water splashes down to Atuin's head which promptly bring him back to his now bed-less reality. He breathes in and out, in and out as he reassures himself that things will and should be alright. Sadly what he doesn't know is that they things were not going to be alright. He thinks as to how to find a solution to such a dilemma. A dilemma that many people solve by finding higher ground and higher grounds in this case are the trees. "Tree house it is then." He says under breath.

[Pacifista]

Still scouting, Juri found herself checking over her shoulder every few minutes, at anything she thought sounded weird. She was still worried that someone from her team had followed her here. Why they would, who knew: she thought she’d made it clear she wanted nothing to do with them. Checking over her shoulder again, her foot lodged itself under the body of one of the indigenous turtles as she rounded a tree. She cried out in surprise as she dropped her walking stick, landing elbow first in the wet ground. The turtle, disturbed from its sleep, began to walk off as Juri scrambled to her feet. As she moved, she felt a bit of pain. Looking down, she saw that her shin had been cut by one of the ridges (or were they spikes?) on the turtle’s shell. Grumbling, she picked up her stick and changed course.

She eventually reached her tree, climbing it again (with slightly more difficulty). This time, she was here to take it. She reached for it, only to spot a snake wrapped around the branch, hanging right next to her bag. She hadn’t had any problems with the snakes yet, but she was still cautious. She grabbed another, smaller branch, and, using her knife, cut it off. Slipping it under the snake, she began to loosen its grip on the branch before dropping it to the ground. She reached for her bag, before realizing that the waterlogged ground would be a good place for snakes to be hiding should they stop being docile. Instead of dropping down like she planned too, she went up, sitting on the branch and opening her bag once more. She pulled oout the shirt she was wearing when she awoke: dirty and torn, and sliced off a piece, using it to bandage her leg. Unfortunately, it was too thin to cover the scratch completely, but it’d have to do for now: she’d come up with something better later.

Jumping down from the tree, bag on her shoulders, she made quite a splash. Unsticking her feet from the mud, she grabbed her stick and made her way North. It was towards the highest point in the near vicinity, so she’d be better off against the rain there. However, there was also the possibility the island’s other denizen could be thinking that as well. As she climbed the incline to higher ground, she kept her wits about her.

[FiroIV]

True to his words he plans on making a tree house. Firsts things first though is he needs to pack or repack his belongings. He steps towards a thick low lying branch from a nearby tree and sits on it. There in that branch he laid out all the stuff he possesses. He kept most of his personal effects in the back pockets (for safety), the immediate equipment like the flashlight, knife, water bottle, compass and the cups in the side pockets, all of the clothing inside the main bag and ropes are locked and tied at the top for easy access. After he checks his possessions decides to find the perfect tree.

The perfect tree had to be larger, taller, thicker, and leafier than other. Access to the tree had to be easy as well but Atsuin thought that it would be okay if he just tree hopped. To the south most things had gone downhill, literally. The North there were more crater but those would fill up soon if there's more rain, and he cant swim. In the west where he came from the earth was to damp. This meant that the only place not wet, downhill or submerged was the east or at least not yet.

He head to east as the rains become thicker and thicker and the sun is shrouded by thick clouds of black.

[Pacifista]

After some walking, Juri found herself getting tired. Her leg was part of the problem, and her stomach was the rest. She didn’t have any food on hand (she had some packed, dried meat when she first awoke, but that was already eaten), and had mostly been subsisting on the fruit she had found. However, remembering that turtle from earlier gave her an idea for food. If she’d found another one, she could probably eat it somehow. She wasn’t too keen about the snakes or those big lizards, but if she got desperate, she might reconsider. She was getting a bit tired of fruit.

After some travel uphill, she came across a flatter stretch of land on the hill. Juri examined it, finding a large boulder sticking out of the ground next to a larger tree. She envisioned a few more walls, and figured that it could do for a little while, but not permanently. She wished she had better construction skills for the stuff like this. For now, she sat next to the rock and tree, where she was somewhat shelters from the rain. She let out a frustrated sigh as she noticed the light fading; she had too much to do, but the day was too short. Looking at her leg, Juri saw that the blood had flowed down the scratch, pooling and drying on the bottom of the wound. Pulling the torn shirt out of her pack, she cut it up. Putting one large strip over the wound, she used three thinner strips to tie it down. She wasn’t sure it was going to work, but since it was a diagonal scratch, it was the best she could come up with while not using the entire shirt. Putting the rest back in her pack, she left her bag before grabbing her walking stick again. Standing at the edge of the of the flatter area, she noticed that it was, in fact, slightly slanted, but it wasn’t permanent anyway. She used her high point to get a bearings, spotting the crater filled area to the west and her valley not too far from that. She didn’t see anything to eat, but neither did she expect to. She scratched her head in frustration: this had been a shitty day. An especially shitty day among a shitty few weeks, come to think of it.

[FiroIV]

Under the cover of the large tree Atsuin slumbers as he reminisces on the short day he's had. This short day began normal and bereft. This short day ends as he stumbled on this clearing moments ago. As normal as it may not be for others he has spent his three months like so, he wakes up when the sun wakes him and sleeps once he tires. A pattern in which he is familiar with before those three months. Three months ago he's sitting in a swivel and watching a screen flicker. Such was his daily routine to spend each day and night effortlessly waste space. However as he slumbers in a bed made of cut up leaves, cloth, and moss he begins to reminisce such a life which he now considers boring.

As he slumbers away rain and wind pass through the islands like a ghost ready to bring excitement and misfortune. As the rains of misfortune and excitement pass the islands the snakes come out of hiding, the turtles rise from their underground homes, and the lizards begin to climb up and down the trees they call home. As events wind clockwise and counterclockwise the rain passes forward ready to make way for the sun as it rises in a few hours.

[Pacifista]

Trekking back down from her hideout was easier than going up, Juri had to admit. Walking stick in one hand and flashlight in the other, Juri went around, checking the ground and every shrub she could for food. The little fruits weren’t as common as she’d hoped, and she’d yet to see any turtles again, though preparing one at this hour when she didn’t even know how wouldn’t be easy. After walking a for what felt liketoo long, what little light there was faded and Juri was starting to lose her bearings. Her pack was still where she left it, and she wasn’t sue she’d be able to find it until daybreak. Frustrated, she continued her search.

Exhausted, she couldn’t help but feel relief when she finally found a shrub with some of the fruit on it. She grumbled when she noticed that it had been picked. However, there were still a few, some white, and most not quite ripe yet. She couldn’t care less though. She picked them off one by one, eating them immediately. She eventually finished, not feeling full, but it was better than starving. A little relived, but exhausted, she figured it was time to end her day. She hadn’t done much else but walk, to her disappointment. She found a semi-sheltered place between a tree and a shrub, putting her walking stick down, turning off her flashlight, and wrapping her arms around her legs as she sat. As she tried to sleep, she was beginning to regret leaving her group. But since they had opposed her at seemingly every turn, she couldn’t stand it. Frustrated at seemingly everything, she finally faded from consciousness, uneasily.

[FiroIV]

Atsuin wakes up in his deep slumber only to face a world ready to devour him. how he feels about this world is irrelevant but what he feels is sluggishness and tiredness. This sluggishness and tiredness means that he's received approximately four to five hours of sleep or maybe more but he's not sure. regardless of how he feels about the time he stands, stretches, and readies himself for another day of survival. In this case survival means, not getting your feet stuck in mud, not starving because of the lack of food, and not dying because you suffocated from mud. Atsuin is glad that these predicaments of survival is not for him.

The path from the east to the west is a path not for everybody. This path is not easy because the water has risen, the earth is damp and the darkness shrouds the sky. It is a blessing for Atsuin that he is not everybody but a somebody. A somebody that is considered a failure in society is striving and succeeding in a world that wants to devour him. The irony of it all is that he himself fails to recognize his strife and success in this world because he considers himself s failure of a society no longer there.

[Pacifista]

Several hours later, Juri awoke from her sleep. She was hungry and stiff from her awkward positioning. Bracing against the tree, she stood, grunting as feeling returned to her feet. Looking down, she noticed that her weight had made her sink into the ground a bit, and now her boots and bottom were muddy. She wiped some of the mud off before grabbing her walking stick off the ground and checking to make sure she had everything she brought. Everything in order, she leaned heavily on her stick, still fatigued. Now she was starting to get worried: if things didn’t start looking up soon…she didn’t know what to think.

Juri wanted to go back to her pack, but there was nothing in there for her right now. Shelter and food were also priorities. Maybe she’d work on both at the same time somehow? She began to stretch her legs, before breaking into a walk. Things weren’t going to start going her way until she started pushing in the right direction. Her stomach grumbled, reminding her that she’d better get started.