MiniCacti
Well-Known Member
It has occurred to me that not everyone on T9K is aware that I am actually a plant. In fact, many of you probably think I am a normal human, writing all this simply for my own entertainment and to practice some writing skills. (Or perhaps because someone recommended that I do so...) I intend to enlighten you all by periodically writing articles on the history and culture of my people and composing short stories about my personal experiences, while hopefully answering any questions you might have about my species.
I am not exactly a spectacular writer, so tips and suggestions are appreciated.
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The Birth of the Mini Cacti
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It began long ago, when The Mother looked across the Deserts, and finally noticed how boring they were. Seriously, rocky soil and generic plants for as far as the eye could see. She looked to the Plains and saw the rippling fields of grasses. She looked to the Mountains and saw the enduring and beautiful tundra flora. She looked to the Forests, with their towering trees and smooth undergrowth carpets. She gazed with a bit of disdain at the Jungle, the great mixing pot of botanical design, color scheme, and variety. She even checked out the Arctics, but at the time they were even more boring than her desert. Nothing but gigantic ice cubes in every direction. Envious of the other domains and their great abundance of green (except the arctics, but no one cared about them anyway), the Mother shaped an entirely new plant for her dull deserts - the Cacti. She made the tall ones, she made the short ones, she made the flat, smooth, oblong, and even ugly ones. We cacti were not sentient at the time, but at least the Deserts were no longer considered to be drab and out of style by the other deities. Finally, the Mother was content with her realm, and all was well.
This contentment lasted until Nature Studios released BiomeCraft 1.3, which included the option to create animals. Suddenly all the domains were crawling wildlife; except the Deserts. (And the Arctics, but again, no one cared about them.) The Mother tried to match the variety of fauna produced by her peers, but the Deserts simply were not able to support the number of species that the Plains, Mountains, and Jungles could. She did what she could though, mostly with the rodent and lizard types, and learned to cope with the Jungle deities incessant bragging and the reputation of being "That-Deity-Who-Isn't-Quite-Up-To-Date". Things continued like this for quite some time, despite the brewing tension.
This fragile existence shattered with the release of BiomeCraft 1.4, also known as "The Human Update". You humans, with your fancy new "sentience" feature, became all the rage, and every deity decided that they simply had to have you in their respective domains. Unfortunately, the Deserts and the Arctics had a few "glitches" when it came to humans. When placed, you either froze and were buried under the ever increasing amount of ice and snow, or died of dehydration and shriveled under the scorching sun; depending on where you were placed, of course. The Arctics pretty much gave up on trying to integrate humans into their domains, for they didn't care what the other dieties thought of them. The Mother, however, was very concerned about her already failing image, and despised the thought of the Jungles outmatching her in yet another category. She tirelessly worked to keep you simply alive, nevermind prospering. Her attempts at integration were met with little success, most of which relied on other domains for help. (Namely the Seas and the Rivers) The constant integration failures and teasing by her peers drove Our Mother to extreme measures, namely to snip a bit of the brand new Human coding and splice it into her own personal creations; the Cacti.
This bold move alarmed the other deities like nothing else ever had. Up till then the Deserts had been largely dismissed as unimportant. (While they briefly had taken note of the creation of the Cacti, it was only because Cacti were not one of the new species included in the Biomecraft 1.2 update.) The Mother's blatant modding, however, was seen as a violation of the rules of The Universe. A flurry of activity ensued, with the Deserts being the main topic of almost all inter-deity conversations. Some even openly rebuked the Mother. For example, following is a translation of one of the many messages that the deity of the Jungles sent to Our Mother, regarding our new sentience.
As "Stoopid" as the Jungles' deity was, she had a few points. We were pretty useless (and confused) and SENScinoS would most certainly ban Our Mother when he discovered her meddling. Knoiwing this, she gave us a few sensory lines, sharpened our minds, and improved our physique. Legend has it that mere moments before the Hammer of Law fell, she finished her work with us and put some of her essence into a small bright green pebble. Cliche, I know, but this pebble has become a holy grail to all Cacti, and has been searched for ever since in the hopes that we might resurrect our creator, the Mother of the Cacti.
There you have it. A condensed and greatly abridged version of the Cacti creation story. Comments and advice on writing technique, please?
I am not exactly a spectacular writer, so tips and suggestions are appreciated.
-----------------------------------
The Birth of the Mini Cacti
------------------------------------
It began long ago, when The Mother looked across the Deserts, and finally noticed how boring they were. Seriously, rocky soil and generic plants for as far as the eye could see. She looked to the Plains and saw the rippling fields of grasses. She looked to the Mountains and saw the enduring and beautiful tundra flora. She looked to the Forests, with their towering trees and smooth undergrowth carpets. She gazed with a bit of disdain at the Jungle, the great mixing pot of botanical design, color scheme, and variety. She even checked out the Arctics, but at the time they were even more boring than her desert. Nothing but gigantic ice cubes in every direction. Envious of the other domains and their great abundance of green (except the arctics, but no one cared about them anyway), the Mother shaped an entirely new plant for her dull deserts - the Cacti. She made the tall ones, she made the short ones, she made the flat, smooth, oblong, and even ugly ones. We cacti were not sentient at the time, but at least the Deserts were no longer considered to be drab and out of style by the other deities. Finally, the Mother was content with her realm, and all was well.
This contentment lasted until Nature Studios released BiomeCraft 1.3, which included the option to create animals. Suddenly all the domains were crawling wildlife; except the Deserts. (And the Arctics, but again, no one cared about them.) The Mother tried to match the variety of fauna produced by her peers, but the Deserts simply were not able to support the number of species that the Plains, Mountains, and Jungles could. She did what she could though, mostly with the rodent and lizard types, and learned to cope with the Jungle deities incessant bragging and the reputation of being "That-Deity-Who-Isn't-Quite-Up-To-Date". Things continued like this for quite some time, despite the brewing tension.
This fragile existence shattered with the release of BiomeCraft 1.4, also known as "The Human Update". You humans, with your fancy new "sentience" feature, became all the rage, and every deity decided that they simply had to have you in their respective domains. Unfortunately, the Deserts and the Arctics had a few "glitches" when it came to humans. When placed, you either froze and were buried under the ever increasing amount of ice and snow, or died of dehydration and shriveled under the scorching sun; depending on where you were placed, of course. The Arctics pretty much gave up on trying to integrate humans into their domains, for they didn't care what the other dieties thought of them. The Mother, however, was very concerned about her already failing image, and despised the thought of the Jungles outmatching her in yet another category. She tirelessly worked to keep you simply alive, nevermind prospering. Her attempts at integration were met with little success, most of which relied on other domains for help. (Namely the Seas and the Rivers) The constant integration failures and teasing by her peers drove Our Mother to extreme measures, namely to snip a bit of the brand new Human coding and splice it into her own personal creations; the Cacti.
This bold move alarmed the other deities like nothing else ever had. Up till then the Deserts had been largely dismissed as unimportant. (While they briefly had taken note of the creation of the Cacti, it was only because Cacti were not one of the new species included in the Biomecraft 1.2 update.) The Mother's blatant modding, however, was seen as a violation of the rules of The Universe. A flurry of activity ensued, with the Deserts being the main topic of almost all inter-deity conversations. Some even openly rebuked the Mother. For example, following is a translation of one of the many messages that the deity of the Jungles sent to Our Mother, regarding our new sentience.
The Jungles said:
As "Stoopid" as the Jungles' deity was, she had a few points. We were pretty useless (and confused) and SENScinoS would most certainly ban Our Mother when he discovered her meddling. Knoiwing this, she gave us a few sensory lines, sharpened our minds, and improved our physique. Legend has it that mere moments before the Hammer of Law fell, she finished her work with us and put some of her essence into a small bright green pebble. Cliche, I know, but this pebble has become a holy grail to all Cacti, and has been searched for ever since in the hopes that we might resurrect our creator, the Mother of the Cacti.
There you have it. A condensed and greatly abridged version of the Cacti creation story. Comments and advice on writing technique, please?
