7 Seeds (Pacifista & FiroIV)

[FiroIV]

He thought about it a little bit. On one hand they could work now and relax more later and on the other hand they swim to relax. It wasn't that he was against both, but he was not really in the mood to swim. The most that he did when he was near the sea was either float to somewhere quiet, think, and try not to drift to far away from a place where his could no longer touch the ground and walk along the shore listening to the sound of waves; he has only been to the beach twice before the new world and since the new world he has only been to three proper beaches, but again none of those places really made him feel excited about the sea; they were nice but from personal taste alone he didn't like to do much else in beaches since he was kind of a shut in. At the same time he felt like she wanted to offer her to teach him how to swim again. In spite of the good will she was offering he'd rather just relax later after a bit of work.

"I guess we should just work for now then. So what do we do exactly? I mean aside from our normal tasks"

The island itself was small and chances were there was nothing here except for those trees, which would be cut down soon, those shrubs that they'll burn, and those crabs that were partially useless for now. He really had no clear idea what to do with all of these things, well not yer anyway.

[Pacifista]

Atsuin chose work. Juri turned her head away for a moment, gritting her teeth for a moment with her face out of sight. Was she going to have to force him into the water? Swimming wasn’t necessary for survival in the old world, but Juri felt it would be now. If fact, she was considering making a list of some other skills the two of them could practice and improve to make their lives a little easier. Even if neither of them were skilled at something, they were smart enough that they could improve just by working together. But the point was Atsuin wasn’t going to get in the water unless she or Mother Nature shoved him in.

Calming down, she scratched her head before saying, “The faster we cut down those trees, the better, I think. I think the best way to do it would be to cut halfway through at the base, then try and break it with force. Got any better ideas?” Juri hoped he did; their knives weren’t going too last forever, and they didn’t have nearly the amount of time, resources, or skills to think about making another. She moved over to one of the narrower trees, running her knife along the bottom, wondering.

[FiroIV]

He moved in closer to the tree and therefore her. Atsuin inspected both the tree and her. She looked a bit odd, but he assumed that this was because he chose the wrong thing. 'Was she that excited about swimming? and teaching me?' He thought. It wasn't that he was opposed to swimming, that he knew, but it just wasn't his preference. Physical activities were not exactly his preferred. He used to play around when he was a kid, but that was the full extent of his physical activities. It was a real wonder he stayed in a healthy condition, but he chucked that up to good genetics and lack of a big appetite. Maybe sometime if they were still here on this island she could teach him more.

Atsuin returned his gaze towards the tree and avoided hers. He measured the size of the tree with just his eyes. The width of the tree was approximately the size of one hug about twice the size of his arms. It was also quite bendy because the moment he pushed it the entire trunk got dented. "Hmm it bends..." The idea stirred inside his noggin.

"I think I have an idea." He related his plan. It was simple enough, but also efficient on both of their parts since it used up less force from them and their knives. Al he needed to do was push down the tree strong enough that it would bend near the base and from there she would make slashes with a knife. The bent force should make the slashes have more effect than it normally could, least he hoped. "What do you think?"

[Pacifista]

Juri breathed a small sigh of relief when Atsuin got moving. His unwillingness to act was something she should be used to by now, but he was like a truck in some ways: sort of hard to get moving. He was easier to stop though. Juri stopped trying to think of a more fitting analogy as Atsuin came up with an idea for taking down the tree. She thought it was a good idea, but didn’t say anything immediately. She was wondering what was up with her mood all of a sudden. Was she really that frustrated that Atsuin didn’t want to swim? She thought it didn’t bug her but...

Snapping back to attention, she nodded her head, saying “Yeah. That works. Stretching out the fibers of the tree, I suppose, like making a rope taught before you cut it...” She wasn’t sure why she was still talking. Atsuin knew; that’s why he suggested. Shaking her head, she tried to focus, adding, “I-I’m ready when you are.”

[FiroIV]

It was one of those moment where things just don't go the way you want them two. In theory things should have been fine, but wet shoes and not enough grip strength got in the way. It started simple, Atsuin pushed against one side until the tree bent enough that it was near perfectly slanted then Juri grabbed her knife and chopped against it. Things were good until she reached the half point of the tree trunk and from there the tree did it's own thing and broke leaving a rough stump coated in what appeared to be sap. All of it was good except for the fact that Atsuin's shoes were wet and his grip was not strong enough resulting in him and the tree roughly sliding against the earthy rock it was on towards the cold, cold sea.

He moaned in shame, his face both cold and pink from the embarrassment and water. Everything looked okay, the tree was still there half submerged in the water and his body was not in pain. All was good and peachy.

"I'm good." He patted himself down to get rid of the rocks and weeds. "Help me pull the tree up." He gestured for Juri to come over. They pulled the tree away from the and onto dry land. "So what do we do with it now?" he asked.

[Pacifista]

As the two worked on the tree, Juri limited her focus to cutting at the tree as quickly as possible, trying to do so without cutting herself or breaking the knife. She hacked at it with one of her hands gripping the knife and the other pushing on the tree as well. However, when it gave way, Atsuin tumbled with it. When Juri realized what happened, she leapt up, trying to make sure he was okay. Luckily, Atsuin was uninjured, if wet and a little embarrassed. Juri sighed in relief, smiling slightly as she mumbled, “Don’t scare me like that, goof...”

She moved over to him and the tree, and the two worked to pull the tree out of the water, and Atsuin wasn’t quite sure what to do next. Juri looked over a the sap the tree had made for a moment, before saying, “Well, we should probably cut it up at some point, but do we want to burn it or save it too use on the raft? Maybe we should just save them; cut off the branches and leaves, use those separately?” Looking at the sap again, she tried to remember any applications to use that for.

[FiroIV]

"Yeah cool, that should work. Let's start with the branches first so we have a long log, then we'll save the leaves because they might be useful." He said lightly as he inspected the long tree. "Let's start with the branches first then later we can do the leaves."

There weren't much branches on the tree itself, five at the least, but at lest they should be useful. As they were cutting the branches more sap oozed from the tree. There were a lot of them and chances were the sap was what made the tree bendy, the short width of course was probably a huge factor. Atsuin knew of only two things to use for tree sap, one was as food for both people and animals and the other one was for industrial purposes like a primitive adhesive. The only problem was that for tree sap to be eaten it needed to be properly processed and for it to be used as an adhesive it needs to be mixed with other chemicals.

It was then that then that an odd thought occured to hi. He wanted to taste it, the sap. He checked whether or not she was looking and made sure she was not. She was not so in a quick swift motion he swiped one puddle of sap from the tree with his finger and then sucked on it. It was sweet, but gummy like taffy.

[Pacifista]

The two worked to cut the branches, Juri finding the amount of sap a little annoying. It was a pain in the ass to wash off since it was so sticky, as it was near impossible to keep all the sap from getting on her. They could probably use the branches for building materials or firewood, though they’d have to wait for them to dry out first. She had a feeling sap wasn’t very flammable.

As she turned away to add more branches to a separate pile, Atsuin took a taste of the sap, while Juri remained unaware. When she turned back, she went back to work trying to cut off the last branches. As she cut, she shifted her posture, her arm brushing against a spot where a branch once was, getting a good bit of sap on her. She noticed when she tried to pull her arm away, which met resistance due the the sticky sap. Noticing, she groaned at the glob of sap stuck to her. Reflexively, she tried to wipe it off, only spreading it more across her arm and fingers. Grunting in frustration, she suggested, “Let’s try and get all this crap done with and clean up later, this is a mess.”

[FiroIV]

"Hmm oh yeah let's do that." He replied without really paying attention because his mind was elsewhere. He saw his hand were still somewhat coated with sap he quickly washed them off the water. The sap detached from his hands, but remained consistent with each other. It was a nother clue to what it could be used for. "Hey do you mind if I collect some of this stuff? It might be useful for something."

He returned from the bag with an empty cup, the same one they used before. They only had two and now that Atsuin realized it he reminded himself that they need some other carrying devices. A basket or a hallowed out tree might be useful, but first they needed to get this tree thing done.

He used one of the previously cut branches and squeezed proper amounts of the sap onto it. Once he was done he set both of them aside and returned to the tree trunk. "Okay...so I think we should segment the tree first before we cut it since the tree is too long."

[Pacifista]

“Go for it,” Juri shrugged as he expressed desire to collect some of the sap.

Moving back to the tree at hand, Juri thought about where to make incisions too mark where they were going to cut next. It was going to be a huge mess either way though, and they still had several more trees too. “If you mark where to cut, we can cut in two places at once probably,” Juri mumbled.

Thinking back to the sap, she wondered aloud, “What could you use it for anyway? I guess syrup is made out of sap, but this might be poisonous. You have an idea?” Juri was sure he did of course, he wouldn’t have saved some otherwise.

((Pitifully short, I know))