PitcherPlant

''How to grow your very own Prehistoric Psychic Pitcher Plant'' It's Summer break and your birthday is in one week. Your aunt Phillis sent you a present in the mail. She has attached a letter that says "Happy Birthday! You can open your present now or wait untill your birthday party this weekend. [[do you choose to open it now?]] [[Do you wait till your birthday to open it?]]

Wow! She gave you a gene splitting kit. It seems like a strange present but it's not really that strange considering that you come from a family of scientists. In fact, your parents are working on re-creating an extinct species of plant at this very moment. [[Do you show them the kit from aunt Phillis?]] [[Or, do you keep it a secret and see if you can suprize them by seeing if you can solve their research problem on your own?|Or, you are going to take matters into your own hands]]

You wait till your birthday to open it. You have so much fun at your party that you have forgotten all about your Auntines present. Besides, school starts again next week. You make the most of your time with your younger siblings. The box is forgoten in your closet. You will surley get around to opening it eventually....... [[The end|Untitled Passage]]

You show your brand new gene splicing kit to your parents. They say, ‘Oh that Phillis; Such a character, giving a gene editor to a 9 year old.’ They appreciate your offer to help with their research and tell you that they are still a ways off from gene sequencing and need to run a lot more simulations first. They say “ You can still help out as a lab assistant” which would mainly consist of cleaning up the lab.You try this for a while but are getting tired. [[You are either going to quit]] [[Or, you are going to take matters into your own hands]]

You Quit. You decide to spend the rest of s[ring break slacking off and playing with your siblings. You have no regrets. [[The end|Untitled Passage]]

You take matters into your own hands. As you toil away in your parents lab you begin to squirrel away samples of the prehistoric plant specimen. They’ve told you it’s called Archaeamphora Longicervia. A fossil believed to be one of the oldest carnivorous plants. It feels like you're starting to get somewhere but the work is beginning to stall. You need more genetic material to fill in the missing genetic sequence.You collect material from all the living carnivorous plants and place that in the gaps. This work is tiring but it seems to be working. You start to nod off. You are too tired to continue working so you head to bed. [[next page]]

That night you dream that you’re being chased through your house. Something is right behind you as you head down the hall and towards your bedroom. You rush inside and slam the door behind you. The door rattles and the hinges shake. Green tentacle looking vines slide under the door and towards your feet. You wake with a jolt. A scratching sound comes from your door but it's just your dog Pickles whining to be let out to pee. [[next page|next page 1]]

You put on your house slippers and take Pickles outside. It’s a good thing he woke you early. You need to get back to your parents lab and clean up your mess. Everything is the same as you left it except for one thing. The plant culture you cooked up last night has begun to sprout. It’s especially odd because most plants need sunlight and water to grow. [[Should you show your parents immediately ]] [[Or, hide it away and wait till you have a more impressive result to show]]

You show your parents, they are initially mad, but not too mad, it’s a neat specimen, but you should have followed protocol. They are going to have to destroy your plant now. You lose your summer lab job and they put new locks on the door. [[The End|Untitled Passage]]

You hide it. You take the plant and set up a secret lab in your bedroom closet, to grow it till it’s a more impressive specimen. But it seems like it’s starting to wilt. [[Do you treat it like a normal plant and give it sunshine and water in hopes that it will perk up?]] [[Or do some more research to see how to care for its nearest contemporary relatives?]]

You give it sunshine and water, even a little Wonder Grow fertilizer. It continues to wilt. Eventually dying and stinking up your closet. [[The End|Untitled Passage]]

You research feed and care of a carnivorous plant. You find that their diet mostly consists of bugs so you remove the screen from your bedroom window hoping that will give it plenty to eat. You head off to work in your parents lab when you return it seems to be thriving. It has grown twice as big as it was before. You're not sure what it’s been eating but you assume it’s getting plenty of bugs. [[next page|next page 2]]

It’s been another long day and once again you are tired. You close the bedroom window and crawl under your covers saying “good night” to the strange and unusual plant in your closet. Your eyelids feel heavy. You begin to nod off. You hear a strange voice. It says “open the window sill. I’m still hungry.” [[Do you dream of opening the window?]] [[Or, do you ignore the strange voice and plunge farther into sleep]]

You wake to an opened window and the plant is once again bigger this time as big as pickles. [[Maybe it’s time to tell your parents what’s going on]] [[Or, continue to ignore the strange happenings and continue on with your day]]

You decide to tell your parents but can’t seem to get the words out. It’s as if a voice inside your head is compelling you not to. You attempt to continue working in the lab but it’s hard you are compelled to head back as soon as you can. [[ you continue to ignore the compelling voices]] [[you can’t stand it and must return now]]

You decide to ignore the strange happenings and spend the day cleaning up the lab when you are through you return to your room. The picture plant is now huge. It says “Hello, I've missed you. I’m so glad you’re back” you are dumbfounded and just stand there speechless as the plant continues. “Thanks for growing me. I am the last of my kind, they crash landed here long ago, and were unable to leave. I have the memories of my entire species. I can share our advanced science and technology with you if you like.” With the pitcher plants help you become a world famous scientist by your next birthday and secretly help it to build a spacecraft so that it may return to its home and repopulate it. [[The end.|Untitled Passage]]

You try to ignore the voice in your head while cleaning a counter top. It's sort of working but you begin to hear Pickles barking. It sounds like it’s coming from your room. You return to your room. Pickles is barking at the plant. It is now as big as you. It calls to you “Feed me!! Feed me now!!!’’ You're done doing what it wants. “No!!!” you yell out loud. Its sticky tendrils begin to reach for you. All of the sudden you are paralyzed, you're not sure if it’s from fear or a chemical the plant has released, either way you can not move. Not Pickles, he springs into action. He bites the tendril off, knocks over the plant, digging up the roots, he picks it up in his mouth and shakes it aggressively. You can hear the plants frantic cries and then nothing. The plant is dead. You feel sad but relieved, your parents rush to your room and you tell them everything that has happened. The CDC quarantines your house. You have to stay at a hotel. But the pool is fun and you get to tell all the other kids about how Pickels saved your family and maybe the whole world. [[The End|Untitled Passage]]

You listen to the voice, and return to your room and not a moment too soon because the plant is about to eat Pickles. No! You shout and knock it to the ground, you wrestle with the plant, who is as big as you are at this point and it squirms and slaps at you with its viney tentacles. Pickles goes on the offensive and starts attacking the plant as well, between the two of you, you manage to knock it senseless. You have a plant barbeque in your back yard later that night. [[You tell no one what has happened]] [[You tell your parents what has happened]]

You tell no one, you and Pickles carry the secret for the rest of your days. [[The end|Untitled Passage]]

Only after it is all over and you are freed from the psychic grasp of the pitcher plant do you tell your parents what has happened. The CDC quarantines your house. You have to stay at a hotel. But the pool is fun and you get to tell all the other kids about how you saved Pickles from a man-eating pitcher plant. [[The End|Untitled Passage]]

You sleep in and don’t open the window. You wake up and the plant is still where you left it. It’s not wilting, but it somehow seems smaller, as if someone has pruned it. That’s weird. You decide to investigate. [[You go look for Pickles to make sure he hasn’t eaten some of your plant]] [[You check in on your siblings to see if they have been in your room, even though they know they are not allowed]] [[You go to the lab to see if you have been discovered by your parents]]

It takes you a long time to find Pickles. You eventually track him down, sleeping on his bed with his favorite chew toy hanging out of his mouth. He seems totally fine. So you go outside only to find what looks like a lemonade stand, except the sign reads Cool Weird Plants 25 cents. You see a car stopped in front and a person buying a plant from your siblings. You run at top speed to try to stop them, but the car drives off before you reach them. “Another satisfied customer!” shout Timmy and Tammy. “We just sold our last plant!” “hooray!” You confront them. “What are you doing? Don’t you know these are dangerous psychic prehistoric carnivorous plants?!” “The plants told us to propagate them and sell clippings” they whine, “we just wanted to make enough money to buy you a birthday present… Look, we made $12, woohoo!” “That’s 48 plants” you say. “How on earth are we going to track them all down?!” Your parents call the national guard and the CDC. They set up a quarantine zone, but it’s too late. One of those clippings makes it across state lines and that is the beginning of the end for humanity. Eventually all of us end up under the psychic control of the pitcher plants and they consume every last human on earth for food. You should have listened to your parents. [[The end.|Untitled Passage]]

You decide to check in on Timmy and Tammy. You hear giggling coming from their room. That’s never a good sign. When the twins get in trouble, it’s always double trouble. You bust open the door. “What’s going on in here?” It’s worse than you could have imagined. Timmy and Tammy have propagated dozens of plants from the clippings they stole from your room. “What do you two think you’re doing?” You demand. “Don’t you guys know these are dangerous prehistoric psychic pitcher plants?” “If they got introduced into the wild, who knows what the consequences would be?!” Their eyes well up with tears. “We couldn't help it!” they cry “The plant made us do it!” Things have gotten out of hand, and you need to stop it before they get worse. You decide to tie up the twins to protect them from being used as puppets by the pitcher plant. You tell Pickles to guard them and run out to your parents lab as fast as you can and grab their blow torch. You get back just in time. Pickles is fighting off the pitcher plant as it tries to eat your siblings. You pull everyone away from the plant and then torch it. You untie Timmy and Tammy and tell them and Pickles to wait outside as you go to your siblings room to toast the seedlings. By the time the fire department arrives, half of your house is burnt down. But you all survived. You are grounded until you are an adult. [[The end|Untitled Passage]]

You go to your parents lab. You confess indirectly to your parents that you’ve been experimenting with the plants and it might have slightly…maybe gotten a little out of hand. They look befuddled so you can safely assume they didn’t take the cuttings. You ask “ Where are Timmy and Tammy?’ Last they remembered Timmy and Tammy were setting up a lemonade stand on the corner. A grave look comes over your face. They now realize something is seriously wrong as your face changes to abject horror. You hear Pickles barking outside. You take off towards the front door with your parents in tow. As you pass the threshold you trip, not because an object was left there, but because there is now a sticky viney tentacle wrapped around your leg. [[Tell your parents they have to stop Timmy and Tommy]] [[Ask for their help in getting free.]]

You tell them not to worry about you. You say “ You have to stop Timmy and Tammy.” They pause for a second but realize they have no time to lose and run out the door. You continue to struggle with the vine. Pickles Barks. You turn to Pickles and say ”If there is anything you can do to help me please do it now. Pickles takes off towards the back of the house. You continue to struggle with the vine. You hope he understood you. Pickles returns panting and lays a slobbery machete at your feet. You cheer. “You're a good boy! You're the best boy ever! What would I ever do without you.” You pick up the machete and cut yourself free. Pickles bites away at the root structure of the Picture Plant while you hack away at its main body. Soon it looks like a freshly tossed salad. You hug pickles and look outside. You see your mom and dad hugging Timmy and Tammy. The lemonade stand burns behind them black smoke trailing off into the distance. You feel a sense of relief like you’ve never felt before. You’ve decided you won't follow in your parents footsteps after all. [[The end|Untitled Passage]]

You ask your parents to set you free. Your father grabs at the tentacle tugging and tugging to no avail. Pickles barks to no avail. Your mother exclaims “ I’ll be right back!” She takes off towards the lab. Your father and Pickles, who try as they might, still can’t seem to get you free. They struggle and struggle. Mother Returns. She has a fire ax in one hand and a blow torch in the other. She tosses the ax to your father and she heads towards the carnivorous plant. You hear chopping sounds behind you. It must be your father cutting through the tentacle. In front of you you see your mother torching the plant. It screams inside your mind. It says “You're too late” then all is quiet. The viney tentacle releases its grip. Your parents hug you and you all take off running once again towards the lemonade stand. When you get there you see no trimmings, just Timmy and Tammy counting money. You burst into tears. You know there doesn’t seem to be any immediate danger but one day they will come for you and every one you know. [[The end|Untitled Passage]]