Day 10

Aiden:

Day 7 of my ARK Expedition

Raptors also become very agitated when struck in the head with thrown stones.

And sticks.

And fecal matter. Yes, I'm running out of ideas. I've BEEN running out of ideas. Bite me.

Berry:

Journal Entry Eight, Day Ten, Eastern Islets

I am beginning to question whether Adam is truly capable of feeling fear. He never seems to stop smiling, at least as far as I have seen, even when he does things dangerous enough to make someone like Mumbuto hesitate. For instance, today, when our group was deciding on a way to test whether the swarms of megalodon that prowl the surrounding waters would attack our rafts. I suggested sending out an unmanned raft, but without someone to control the sail, the movements of the raft would not have been sufficient to draw attention in the same manner as if someone were guiding it.

Before we had the chance to think of any other methods, Adam turned to me and told me that he would take care of my problem, then leapt onto the raft and sailed it out into the waters. His smile never left his face- if anything, it even widened when he turned to me. I believe the rest of the group was as dumbfounded as I was by his bravery, judging by the looks of shock on their faces.

At least, on Mumbuto and Olly's faces. Jade seemed to be questioning his intelligence instead. Hopefully this does not lower her opinion of our group's ability to survive. It would be highly disappointing if she were to leave in the belief that she would be safer alone.

After approximately two hours of sailing, Adam returned unscathed and reported that the megalodons "didn't think he was tasty looking." In conclusion, the megalodons have no interest in anything that floats along the surface of the water. This is comforting, as we will have to make frequent use of our raft to travel between our home island and the surrounding landmasses.

Lastly, Jade has found a new way of using the implants. After I showed her the implant's ability to recreate scanned objects, she quickly found a way to create the blueprints directly within the tool itself, using a holographic modelling program that was alongside the scanning program. I had noticed the existence of this program beforehand, but did not understand its usage until now. That Jade was able to understand what the program was within minutes of finding it, while I was not, is somewhat disappointing to me. However, she stated that she only understood its use because she had used similar holographic programs before.

This is something I find odd, since as far as I know, human technology has not yet reached this level. The closest thing I can think of to this would be the computer systems in the Iron Man movies, but the way Jade was speaking, it seemed as though she had actually come into real life contact with such programs. Perhaps she has simply had access to experimental technology that has not yet been released to the public?

I produced a pair of boots for Jade today, as she was lacking any sort of footwear. I could see Adam laughing out of the corner of my eye, but Jade luckily was so delighted that she did not notice. To my relief, she wore them immediately, making it much more relaxing to talk to her. Sitting on the ground without chairs or tables makes it difficult to avoid seeing people's lower bodies.

Adam:

WHAT. WAS. I. THINKING?!

Who in their right mind would VOLUNTEER to sail out over hordes of nightmare sharks to test whether they would want to eat them or not? I still can't believe I did that! Mumbuto, Olly, and Berry all seemed really impressed with how awesome I was, but I'm entirely with Jade on this; that was completely insane! I don't even blame her for looking at me like I was a complete moron!

Why do I get so stupid every time I talk with Berry? Seriously, she looks at me with that little smirk of hers and I just blank! I just… ugh. I can't help but want to show off in front of her, and for some reason I just can't say no if she asks me for something. Its like all my blood rushes to my head and I just lose all common sense. Or, well… one of my heads.

The worst part is, even though I know this is a thing, I'm probably still gonna go completely stupid the second she needs something. Maybe I can talk to Olly about this and see if he has any advice for thinking with the right head. I get the feeling that Mumbuto won't be much help, after all.

Jade:

I'm not really sure how my new group managed to survive through exploring an entire island, all things considering. There's Olly who looks like he's about to pass out every time he comes within ten meters of the water, Mumbuto keeps staring at Iolite in a way that makes me think he wants to fight her (she'd eat him for sure), and Adam is… a guy. With hormones. Lots of hormones. Enough said.

At least Berry is good at planning things out. I guess she has to be, considering the rest of the people she was working with before this. Not that the others are useless, under the right circumstances. Adam seems genuinely friendly and witty as long as he isn't anywhere near Berry, and Olly is extremely hard working as long as he isn't too close to the water. Mumbuto hasn't done that much to help out around the island so far, but the others told me that he's a really strong fighter. I'm not sure how much use a spear will be against some of the larger dinosaurs, but I'll reserve judgement until I see him in action.

Iolite seems to be adapting pretty well to having more people around. At least, I don't have to whisper to her not to eat my new group members every few minutes anymore. She still isn't comfortable enough to let them come too close to her, but maybe that will change with time as well. I'll let the others bring her food or something, maybe she'll warm up to them then.

Of course, we'd need to get more food first. We have plenty of fish and berries, but Iolite doesn't seem to like fish that much. Maybe I'll ask my group if I can borrow their raft tomorrow, so I can take Iolite hunting for more beach chickens. If I can convince Mumbuto to come with us, he could deal with any of the larger dinosaurs that try bothering us. Assuming he's as good at fighting as the others say, of course. Nothing too dangerous should find us as long as we stay out of the jungle.

I wonder if they would let me modify their raft? This one was good for a rushed project, but if we're going to be using it long term, it could be a lot better. Like, if I took the basic design, but replaced the logs on the bottom with hollowed out floats and changed the sails, it would go a lot faster. There are more things I could do as well, but I would need more time to plan that out. Maybe I'll take some time to try and draw out some plans for a larger boat after we go hunting. Or should I try and make an actual house for us instead? It hasn't rained again yet, but I can see a lot of clouds starting to gather, and some kind of shelter would be nice for when it does. I'll see if Adam and Olly would be willing to help me gather wood while I'm gone tomorrow. If anything I'll just ask Berry to help me out while Adam is within earshot, and he'll jump at the opportunity to show off how useful he is in front of her. Heh.

I thought my brother would be the worst case of stupid boy syndrome I'd ever seen, but I think Adam might be even worse, which is impressive— and not in a good way.

Olly:

There are a lot of different kinds of seeds on the berry bushes, other than the berries. I wonder what they're for? They don't seem like they're all for this kind of bush. I'll try planting some of them off to the side of the island. Maybe we can make a little berry farm or something.

I spent a lot of today using Berry's hatchet and pickaxe to dig out rocks so that I could turn our firepit into more of a stove. I mean, it was a lot of work, but I think it was worth it. I managed to use a bunch of stones and sand to set up the walls, then put a slab of stone on top of it. The stone on top should get hot enough that we can use it to fry things, plus now we don't have to worry about the wind causing problems with our fire.

I'll talk to the others to see if they have anything else they need me to do tomorrow, at least until I figure out what other things I can do to help out. Maybe I can start setting up a shelter for us? I think I could figure out how to set up at least a lean-to or something. It won't be perfect for the long run, but at least it should be more comfortable than sleeping out in the open like we have been.