7 Seeds (Pacifista & FiroIV)

[FiroIV]

He was probably about to get an earful or something for saying that he tasted the sap, but he went ahead anyway. "I'm not sure, but I tasted it anyway. It was sweet. We'll know for sure if it is in 24 hours." He didn't want to be scolded so he continued to talk. "I know tree sap can be used as an adhesive so maybe we can us it like, but of course we nee to do some experimenting." His mind continued to think about tree sap and now he was a bit worried. He didn't know what tree exactly, but he was sure that some tree saps were poisonous. He also knew that some tree saps were flammable, but like he said they needed to do some experiments. "We'll need to test out what we can do with it, dry it, burn it, water it"

"Let's see one arm length should be fine so..." He went to the edge and placed his arm to the trunk to make a rough estimate. "Right around here should be fine." He took out his knife and marked the tree where his arm used to be. He finished marking the tree. The tree was tall and at least three sizes of him so he assumed that it was at least 13 to 15 feet and if his assumption was right one arm length is equal to 1 foot approximate. They had 13 segments with varying almost equal lengths. "Cool. Shall we?" He gestured to the marks.

[Pacifista]

When Atsuin explained that he’d eaten the sap, Juri opened her mouth to say something, but Atsuin saw that coming and interrupted her, explaining that they needed to further experiment with the sap, then quickly changing the subject to the tree, making marks, before insisting they start.

Juri nodded, saying, “Right, sounds good. But first...” Leaning over, she raised her hand and bopped Atsuin on the head with her fist lightly enough not to hurt for more than a couple seconds, being sure to use her knuckle. “Stupid things like that are what leave someone sick for a couple days,” she said, referring to the incident in which she swam without anything to dry herself, resulting in a fever. She wasn’t too harsh, as she guessed that if Atsuin hadn’t eaten it himself, one of them would have tried it eventually. In fact, the earlier they decided to try it, the more opportunities they’d have to try and save some.

With that over with, they began to cut the tree into bits. However, Juri realized, they were unlikely to finish today: they could maybe do one more before it would get too late to finish another before dark.

[FiroIV]

"Yes ma'am" He was halfjoking, but he was glad because he honestly expected worse. It was nice that she hit him lightly, it made him felt like they're friends. She was right so really he can't complain.


It became much darker than expected and there was nothing they could do about it. They were forced by the darkness to stop working on the tree and prepare themselves for their first night on this miniature island. They had the fire burning, the food cooking in one of the cups and one the other cup boiling their drinking water. One other cup had the tree sap leaving them with only one empty and clean one.


Atsuin was there near the fire writing in his journals waiting for the food to cook. "What kind of equipment do we still have anyway?" He asked her out of nowhere.


(Kind of a lame post I know. I'll get to experimenting with sap in my next post if possible.)

[Pacifista]

As it got too dark to work, they decided to clean up and prepare food. As Juri tended to the food, Atsuin wrote in his journal, before perking up and asking about their equipment. Juri was curious as well. “Hmm, watch the food,” She said as she got up and began rummaging around camp.

After some time, she finally figured out what they did and didn’t have. They still had their water bottles, knives, weather jackets, pickaxes (never used), compasses, carabiners, and cups. They had some of their books they brought (Juri’s old bible had been fully used as kindling, so she only had her encyclopedia, she sort of regretted it though). However, Juri broke her flashlight ages ago, so they only had one. Some of their clothes and all of their rope were used in construction. They still had what Atsuin had found in the trove as well, or at least what hadn’t been used on the raft.

After she gathered her thoughts, she relayed the inventory to Atsuin. “Plus food stores and whatever else we get here of course,” She quickly added. By the time she was finished, the food was ready, so she passed some to Atsuin before waiting for her stuff to cool down. “I forgot about the stupid flashlight...that was so dumb,” She sighed. “Trying to keep track?”

[FiroIV]

(I almost forgot, but we have a black pot that Atsuin got from the trove. I'll retcon that here as well as having two empty cups. )

The fire was still blazing when Atsuin finally finished writing in his journal. The food was just about ready inside the pot, but it would have worked better if they had some form to cover it. "Yeah, you could say that. I kind of wanted to make sure, since we might have been missing something useful." The pickaxe for one was something they never used before, but of course it couldn't be helped since they never really had the chance to.

He went silent once more as he retuened his journals back in the pack. Upon his return to the fire the food was ready. "Food's ready." He called out to her without even really needing to. "Once were done I think I should experiment with the sap see how it works and stuff."

[Pacifista]

As Juri’s food began to cool, she tried to eat a bit, hungry from the day’s work. Atsuin mentioned experimenting with the sap, which got Juri thinking about how. Before she started spouting ideas, she first said, “I’m not eating it. You seem fine, but until we’re sure, I think it’s safer to be careful.”

Thinking back to the sap, she then went on with some things they could try, “Let’s see... we should find out how it reacts to water and fire. Cold and heat too. Then I guess see how adhesive it is?” Juri was getting a little too into it: she was a swimmer first, but she always liked science as well, it was probably her favorite subject, and when didn’t experimenting bring out scientific qualities?

Absentmindedly, Juri went back to her food, burning her tongue. After pausing to cool it down, inhaling cool air, she turned back to Atsuin and said, “Any other ideas?”

[FiroIV]

"One of my old professors told me that when consuming something new there's a two day waiting period to see any effects before trying again. I won't eat it again until after two days, but after that maybe I can try using it as a food source or a condiment. Of course it should be, you know, boiled, cooked or something. For now yeah we'll have to wait it out." He wasn't perfectly sure about the two day period, but he was sure that one of his teachers told them in class that when experimenting with foods there's a two day time span.

"An adhesive test..." There's only one way to test it out from his experience. "Adhesives need time to dry out and since this cup has yet to mold then chances are it's not that effective by itself, but...if we apply it to something then use heat to act a booster then we can see. At the same time we should test out how sticky and water resistant it is." The sap could be pasted onto a piece of paper he can rip out from one of their books then test it out.

"We can also dry and strain it later, but for now we can heat it in the fire to see what happens....after we eat of course." He was never really interested in science, but there were a lot of things he was passively interested. Science was just one of his many passing interests and he was glad that right now it helped.

[Pacifista]

Juri bit her thumb as she thought about it. “Two days...” She mumbled. She wasn’t sure how well the sap would be used as a condiment with seafood and vegetables though. She always thought of baked good when she thought of sweet, but that was a luxury unavailable to them.

Atsuin suggested some tests, to which Juri listened closely. Of course, he also mentioned that they wouldn’t start until after they finish eating. Juri nodded as she tried to eat a little quicker.

When she did finish, a little before Atsuin, she stood, and began preparing things for the tests. She sort of wanted a safe place to keep them too, away from anything that could mess them up, like the wind or crabs. However, there was one thing she wanted to test but wasn’t sure if they would be able. She asked Atsuin, “How do we test for cold? I guess it’s not important though, since the only time it might be a problem is if it messes with something we stick together...” She didn’t think that was a problem though, since it’d get harder, not softer. She scratched her head as she waited for Atsuin to finish.

[FiroIV]

"The test for cold?" They didn't have a freezer or any ice. "Well it's not cold perse, but we can use the same method for drying. Since we are not in a laboratory what I thought was that we could just leave it out somewhere to dry. Since drying takes time and heat we can leave it out in the sun, but what I thought was if it's for cold we can leave it out at night. It gets real chills so it should work just the same....I think." He was not entirely sure. "In theory it should work."


Once he was finished with work he immediately cleaned their mess and began with the experiment. He plucked out one of the leaves from the tree that they cut and placed it near the experiment zone. "I hope you don't mind, but I'll use one of the branches from before." He grabbed a pretty long one and dipped it in the sap. The puddle of clear yellowish ooze was still soft and the stick eased inside and clung to the wood. "It should either melt, harden or something..." He stuck out the stick with sap into the fire and waited for a few minutes. He was waiting for something to happen, but nothing amazing occurred. "Okay...either a dud or it needs to cool off..." He took it out of the fire and observed it. "There's no significant change, but the sap does look less droopy and more hardened, but still wet and sappy." He put it back in the fire for a few more seconds and then back out. "No difference, but...." He blew on the sap. "The sap looks like it's hardening. Interesting." He set the stick sap contraption aside. "Let's set aside for now to cool off while we test for the adhesiveness."


He started to test the adhesiveness, but before he did he took quick notes on it on his journal. He grabbed a leaf and used it to scoop an adequate amount onto another sandwiching the substance between them. "Seems okay, it's not sliding or dripping away." He pressed the leaves together and tried to pull it apart. "There's resistance, but not strong enough. It probably needs time to cool off or like the other experiment a good heating." He set it aside once more. "What next..." He questioned his inner madman as he wrote everything down on his notes.

[Pacifista]

Juri watched as Atsuin worked, not sure if she’d ever seen him so active at something without getting pushed. She thought about how they could use the sap now that they knew what happened when heated. If it didn’t work as an adhesive normally, the now knew they could heat it up.

As Atsuin jotted down his notes, Juri took one of the empty containers, filling it with seawater. “Is it water soluble? If so, nothing we use it to glue will be water proof. We should check both seawater and freshwater, since who knows if the salt does anything unusual,” Juri suggested. She also decided not to use a lot of freshwater: that was for drinking! Prepping everything, she put it near Atsuin, before stepping back with a slight smile on her face. She was glad he seemed to be enjoying himself.