Michael Cirino & Amanda Glass
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Geronimo is a green grape, happily living with his family in a grape vineyard. One day, he stumbles across a horrible sight. His family is being slaughtered and turned into champagne by a toothsome, green beast in a blouse. The beast asks, “Are you thirsty?” As Geronimo watches in horror as his innocent parents are crushed in the wine press. The beast calls on its giant minion to gather Geronimo and his fellow grapes, ready to create the next batch.
Geronimo and the other grapes are tossed into the wine press, and the minion begins to stir and mash them with the press. Geronimo cowers in a crevice in the press between its wooden slits, safe from the carnage, but seeing it all. The other grapes are mashed to bits and turned into a liquid before his very eyes. Geronimo has to quickly escape before he’s fermented as well. He slams himself against the wine press’ cork, creating a hole for him to escape through.
He falls to the floor, some of his family’s innards spilling out with him. The minion calls in more giants, saying, “Now it’s time for the tasting part of the tour.” Geronimo is further disturbed as the giants sniff tall glasses of grape blood, before putting it in their mouths and swishing it around before spitting it back out. Geronimo cannot understand these barbaric actions.
As he’s watching in shock, two red grapes patrolling around the wine press shout at him. They are the Green Beast’s guards. They tackle him and bring him to the Green Beast’s inner sanctum, a pool table. The Beast mocks Geronimo, “You may have escaped, but you’ve seen my evil plan, so I may as well tell you it all before you join your family.” The Beast reveals that she is Geraldine, Geronimo’s third cousin twice removed, a deformed grape who, from her angle on the vine, could see Geronimo, though he could not see her. Due to her disfigurement, she was mocked by their family and, seeking revenge, she created the winery.
Geronimo notices a shoelace on the pool table, that has a broken aglet, in the shape of a shiv. Distraught he lunges at her with it, but she is evasive and he misses. She laughs and grabs a gargantuan weapon: a pool stick, challenging him to a game of pool. Geraldine chooses stripes, magnificently knocking all but one into the pockets, leaving the 13 and 8 balls for her second turn. Geronimo runs with all his might at the cue ball, lacking the proper utensil for pool. The ball ricochets off the table before finally hitting its first solid: Geraldine. She is flattened against the cue ball as it rolls into the pocket. Geronimo warily peers into the pocket, and finds only light green mush smeared on the white ball inside. His nightmare is over. He knocks the solids and the 8 ball in easily without an opponent. The guards are impressed and release him. He frees what is left of his family, and retires in California, drying up in his old age, becoming a raisin.
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The random objects that we used were: cork, blouse, shoe lace, and pool stick
Our random adjectives were: evasive, thirsty, magnificent, innocent, and toothsome.
Our random conflicts were: slaying of a kinsman unrecognized, loss of loved ones, character vs. environment, escape, character vs. character.