This is one of my remix assignments. I chose to do another writing assignment because I enjoy being creative with my words and coming up with new ideas. The remix calculator told me to turn my non-human story into something about a boot camp, so that is where Sergeant Sally comes from. I really enjoyed writing this story from the “evil” plants point of view. It is pretty short because I figured no one would want to read along for pages. I hope you find this entertaining and funny. If you have any ideas for what evil plant and sergeant Sally could do next let me know!

The Evil Plant Gets Payback

My whole life I have never been able to move. I just can’t get these roots up and go. They are stuck in the bottom of this little pot forever I think.

Then there are those two cats over there who take advantage of being able to move their legs. All they ever do is sleep. After mom leaves… sleep. After they eat… sleep. (Also not to mention that I can’t even go get my food. I have to wait for mom to finally remember to water me.)

Today is the day. I decided a few weeks ago that I have had it with those cats taking advantage of everything and sleeping all the time. I called in reinforcements. Today is the day… it will happen.

I heard mom getting ready to leave and knew that it was time. Sally would fly in at just the right time to get those cats into shape. They would not be expecting it. See… Sally and I have been working on this plan for weeks now and it is actually happening.

Sally officially made it in without mom squashing her. Oh did I mention it is Sergeant Sally. Yeah that is right she was a tier 1 Sergeant in the bug forces. If anyone can whip these cats into shape it is Sally.

The first thing she does is taunt them awake. And lets just say they were not very happy about that one. Sally announces that Non-Human Worlds United has sent her in to prepare the cats and they have no choice. She even flashed the President’s seal. And Boot camp begins.

Laps. Stairs. Jumping. Swatting. Batting. Repeat.

Sally spent all day making those cats exhausted. Then came the next part of the plan. To announce this is the daily workout that the President wants the cats to do. Ah what an evil plant I am. The cats preceded to do the same Sergeant Sally workout for the next 6 months. That was until they got on the computer and realized that Non-Human Worlds United was actually just a soccer league.

Now I will call this a lesson learned for those lazy cats and a pointed gained for EVIL plant.

The End.

To give you all some context on this assignment, I am writing about “a conversation between two non-human living things or through the point of view of one non-human witnessing people go about their daily lives.”

The story starts with a small Oak tree in the middle of a great big forest. The years come, time passes, and all the other trees seem to engulf the small tree. Determined, the small tree began to stretch his branches far and wide. Eventually, a squirrel family built a nest in his branches. The tree was very pleased and provided the family with food for everyone.

Time continued to pass, and the squirrels grew up. They told all the birds about the cozy little tree and how he wished to grow as big as the other trees. The birds went to visit the tree and were pleasantly surprised. He had so many leaves and protected the animals from any danger.

The birds were eager to help this little tree, and they decided that to make a few nests, they would need to gather supplies. They went all the way to the top of the forest and opened up the branches. They took sticks and leaves, anything they could to gather more sunlight for the little tree.

Finally, all the birds and squirrels had gathered their supplies, and the treetops were clear. The little tree now had plenty of light! It was a happy little tree in a brightly lit forest now, and in what seemed only a few weeks, the tree grew like a flash. The tree took care of all the animals, and the animals, in turn, took care of the tree.

I think this is an excellent little short story that shows how teamwork can work miracles. If you are kind and compassionate to others, they will return the favor!

“Hey, do you see that?”

“Yeah, Marmot. Helens is not doing so well.”

“Yeah. It’s not like her to get so angry.

“It’s like she’s fuming today. Her head is smoking quite quickly.”

“Yeah, Marmot. I don’t know what’s going to happen but by the looks of it, the two-leggeds don’t seem to be too happy. Look at them moving all over the place.”

BOOM!!

“D-Did you hear that Marmot!”

“I sure did. Look at the two-leggeds go. Look at all of the smoke. It’s spreading all over the sky! I think we need to go back inside.”

“Yes. Let’s get our kids and get back underground.”

This assignment is called Nonhuman Perspectives where two nonhuman things have a conversation. To relate this to the 1980s I have two Washington marmots have a conversation about Mount St. Helens. On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens had an eruption. Smoke filled the air and 57 people died. So I am looking through the perspective of two marmots who are witnessing the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Instead of flat out telling the audience that the conversation is about Mount St. Helens, I have context clues that indicate that I’m talking about the eruption. I want the audience to think and analyze the conversation and realize what the marmots are talking about.

As I wake up in the morning from my night of sleep I catch a glimpse of this creature. I was just sleeping in a nice soft tree and this creature on two legs comes walking by my tree. I popped out of the tree and looked around, it was a giant that was near me, but I’m not to sure what it is. I decided I was going to follow the creature a little while I find my breakfast. I couldn’t keep up at all with this huge creature, I was getting to hungry and luckily smelt acorns so I went digging for some food. As I was finishing the my breakfast another giant was moving by me. I chase the giant again as I run towards my friends tree. I hear this giant thing making these noises but I can’t understand what they are saying all of a sudden there is a chipmunk. I turned my head and looked around to find the chipmunk. I see these big things moving towards me and looking like they might be pointed towards me. I come to realize they are fingers pointing at me. I’m the chipmunk! What? I didn’t think I was different from everyone else.

There goes another creature that I guess is a person walking by. I follow them and manage to get inside their structure. I smell something inside, but its not acorn, nutty smell. This is a smell I have never smelled before so I’m not to sure what this is. I am moving around this place and climbing these tree like things with giants on them. My curiosity has peaked and I’m excited to look around and smell all these things. I see the giant put something in its mouth, I want a bite of it so I sneak up the tree like think to get to the food and pick up a big piece and run away to eat it. These giants are leaving the structure and heading back into my home and I can see my tree in the distance. I see these giants enter another structure and other places throughout the sun light.

I see the tree getting prettier and the sky getting darker, so it must be time for me to find some supper and get ready to sleep. I see the giant leave a structure and going back to the other one they were in earlier today. I get to digging and find some more acorns to eat because my little tummy is hurting. It is now getting black outside, no more sunlight and I get to climbing up my tree. I find my mossy spot in the tree where I am going to rest until the light comes back.

For this assignment I wrote about a non-human character witnessing people go about their daily routine. This blog post was worth 3 stars.

Tell a story from a non-human perspective, either as an interaction between two...

What if plants and animals could all communicate without humans understanding? Write either about a conversation between two non-human living things or through the point of view of one non-human witnessing people go about their daily lives. How would a really old tree feel about having always been in the same place but everything change around it? What would a squirrel feel towards pesky humans who always scare them away? Be creative, go deep or go humorous, have fun!

Assignment Bank-Writing Assignments

This story is based on some animals that I absolutely adore.

The Monster

Everything was calm in the house at the moment. Humom was dumping water on her head in the strange room with sinks. I still don’t know why she likes the water on her. Maybe it’s because she never gives herself time to bathe herself. I always offer her my tongue when I feel like she’s extremely unclean (which is way too often).

Anyway, then she put on her fur for the day. I think it’s cool that she can have different fur whenever she wants. I wish I could change my fur sometimes. Long, black fur is not the best fur when it is warm in the house, especially in the sun. After she put her fur on, I followed her down the stairs into the room with food. I made sure to rub my scent on her legs again so she could remember that she is mine. Since she is mine, she has to share any and all food with me. We shared some milk with little treats in it. The little treats smelled weird, so I just drank the milk.

Life was good until she walked out of the food room and into the scary room and rolled out its monster. It was a hideous and loud beast that ate anything in its path. It was sleeping at the moment, so I decided to sneak up on it. I slowly peeked around the corner. I stepped a teeny, tiny kitten step towards it, and then another, and then another, and then I was right next to it. I was almost close enough to get a good sniff, but then it started to growl and roar. I flew into the air and made myself all big and scary. How was humom standing next to this monster?

It started to slowly move towards me. I watched as it ate some of my hair off of the ground. It was coming after me! I sprinted away to the darkest place in the house: underneath where my humom sleeps. There was no way it could find me there. I waited under where my humom sleeps for a long time. I fell asleep, but then I heard it. The monster found me! I could hear it hissing and roaring. It got louder and louder until all of a sudden, it was dead quiet. I saw some shadows coming towards me, so I prepared myself for an attack. My paw was ready to smack the monster, but then I saw my humom’s face.

“Humom! You killed the monster!” I meowed. She started making some weird noises, which usually means that she is going to rub me or give me food. I crawled out from the darkness to see what she was going to give me. She must have been really happy that the monster didn’t eat me because she gave me rubs and snacks. I let her rub my back until I decided it was time for her to stop. I gave a quick evil eye as a warning to stop. She kept rubbing me, so I gave her a quick nip on her paw. She made some more weird noises (but these were louder now), and then she walked away. I don’t know what to say; she should know not to rub my back for more than ten seconds.

About this Story

This story was really fun to write. It was inspired by my own cats that I have at home. Here’s a picture of both of them (yes, they both look almost exactly the same):

Inspiration

These are my cats, Hunter and Shadow. This is a picture of them from a couple of years ago. Shadow is on the left, and Hunter is on the right. They are both very afraid of the “monster” in the story.

When I first started this assignment, I was a little stuck because I did not know who to make my star of the story. I was stuck between my dog, just one of my cats, and a conversation between my cats (or the cat and dog). I ended up just writing in the perspective of a mashed-up persona of both of my cats. They both beg for food and treats whenever they possibly can, and they have their preferences for when and how long you should “rub” them. I thought it would be funny to write about their perspective on the vacuum (the “monster” in the story) because they cannot stand it. I really enjoyed writing this story, and I love how it turned out.

Hello, my name is door. Some call me front door, or main door. I’ve been referred to as a portal but honestly that’s so weird I try to forget about it right after it happens. I protect the house at 8522 Richter Street. It’s weird seeing things from my perspective. I’m very tall so I can see things from above generally, although I’m also very short so I can also see things from ground level too. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I see. One day Hannah (a young thing that lives inside the house I protect) came back home and she was an absolute mess. It took her four minutes and 28 seconds to get the key into my key hole (usually it takes her about nine seconds depending on how much stuff she has in her hands). What’s interesting is that once she finally got me open (she was very gentle when she pushed me) she actually tripped and fell right on her face! That made a bit of noise and woke up Roger who came rushing down the stairs with a shotgun in his hands! Roger did not seem to be happy once he saw who it was, and he seemed to even be having trouble communicating with Hannah because she was slurring her words so bad. Roger told Hannah, “you are never going to make it to the pros if you drink like this, Hannah. It kills your reaction times and makes you slow to respond to variable pitches. I want you to make it to the pros! Go get a shower and go to sleep. We train extra early in the morning to help you realize your mistake”. Roger then went back upstairs and Hannah picked herself up off of the floor. As she did so I saw a tear fall from her eye and tracked it with my sight, all of the way to the floor. I heard her say, “what about what I want, dad” but Roger was too far away to hear her. I wonder would he have cared if he did?

This is my first assignment, and I really didn’t know where to start. I found the assignment here.

It was an intriguing prompt, so I decided to write a short story and see where it went. Initially I had every intention of making the story a funny one. However my mood right now just aligned more with writing a story that pulled on the emotions. I chose a door because I figured that was a unique perspective because if you think about it, it is the introduction to a new “world” in a sense. I used this same idea to pair with the idea of Hannah, who is Roger’s daughter, going from a world where she does what she wants to one built entirely on expectations from her father. Do we see this in our lives? This relates to me because as a father (who played sports competitively on a high level throughout the years) I fear that I might put too much pressure on my two sons. This was as much a cautionary tale for me in the future (for when they get older) as it was a work of fiction for an assignment.

Just Zaying…