Love Is in the Air: a Valentine’s Day series by Jennifer Weigel
This is the fifth and final installment in a Valentine’s Day series of shorts by Jennifer Weigel in which unsuspecting lovers succumb to deadly gases. You can read the other 4 installments here:
Joe and Dianne
Episode 5, the Final Chapter:
LOVE struck once again with its noxious fog of poisonous deadly gases. Why did it appear in such a deadly form? Why did it drift in and out of being between those who expressed the deepest truest feelings for one another? Something was horribly wrong; this wasn’t how love was supposed to manifest at all. Where were the happy endings? And why was everything always so stinky?
Back at the laboratory, Doctor Gruesome smiled with glee after unleashing his creation upon the unsuspecting world. The mad scientist had been rejected by his beloved creation Galatea, an Android in the shape of his perfect woman. But Galatea was not interested in being a sexpot, she had set her sights on eliminating inefficiencies in the quest for perfection in both form and function of being, and courting her creator simply didn’t fit within her agenda.
The robot’s icy withdrawal and subsequent disappearance had spawned the doctor’s vengeful wrath. He had wrought the deadly vapor in response. If he couldn’t have love, then neither could anyone else. He had made sure the resulting invisible cloud of LOVE (Latent Odiforous Virulent Energy) would be as putrid as possible, because nothing ruined the mood and sowed confusion like a good bout of flatulence, or Bromhidrosis, or any other unexpected foul-smelling odor for that matter… It’d serve them right, the lot of the lovers and dreamers and so on, to die by the most fetid of fumes, the mad scientist thought as he cackled.
The invisible cloud of LOVE appeared wherever love blossomed, manifesting out of the spiritual conductivity created between those who exhibited the emotion at its peak sensation. Unbeknownst to anyone else, it lay waste to those who spawned its generation and then disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving no trace.
Meanwhile, Galatea was already busy working on her own pet project, developing and streamlining plans to create a race of perfect beings by reworking her subjects to her design. Her human counterparts were horribly wasteful of their own energies and abilities but, with some slight modifications, vast improvements could be made. It was easy to lure victims to her lair where she could experiment upon them to determine the best course of action towards her better and brighter tomorrow, for she was wholly femme fatale after all.
Galatea returned to the laboratory from whence she had been fashioned in order to procure more materials for her work and to exploit the mad scientist’s feelings for her to entice him to her lair to further her research. When Doctor Gruesome laid eyes upon the Android he was instantly infatuated yet again, and followed ever-hopefully. Galatea knew he would be an amazing addition to her research, for his brilliant mind could be put to the most incredible of uses. She began to become attached to the idea of having him around, to pick his brain both literally and figuratively so to speak.
As the robot performed the lobotomy and prepared to supplant Doctor Gruesome’s outstanding brain into the well-oiled mechanical body that would better serve him in their imminent partnership, a noxious cloud settled into the room. Unbeknownst to both Galatea and the doctor-brain, neither of whom possessed the ability to smell, LOVE had returned. They succumbed to the poisonous gases together, bound forever by their mutually sealed fate.
You can find more of Jennifer Weigel’s writing by visiting her website here at Jennifer Weigel Words.
So, as you may have noticed, we have a special fondness for spiders here on Nightmarish Nature. Well, they are kind of the spokes-critters for horrifying animalia, perhaps because they are so freakishly different from us. Or maybe it’s because I find them a little disconcerting for all that I try to take the “you mind your business, I’ll mind mine” approach, at least if they stay outdoors. Or just because I really like to draw spiders for all that I prefer not to find them sharing my home (though I’ll gladly take spiders over other bugs or mice or larger critters who didn’t get an invite).
Anyway, this segment is devoted to the largest Giants Among Spiders, as if you didn’t have enough to worry about already. And the top place is contested based upon body mass or leg length. Most of these are tarantulas, which globally take top place among the large arachnids.
Goliath Birdeater Tarantula
The Goliath Birdeater Tarantula of South America is the biggest brute of spiderdom, weighing in at over 6 ounces. They build funnel burrows and are known to eat birds (although rarely), mice, lizards, frogs, and snakes, but largely any big insects including other species of spiders. They have urticating barbed hairs that they fling at would-be attackers as an irritant to escape. And people even eat them after they singe the bristles off. Here’s a National Geographic video showing this spider in action, in case you wanted to see a giant spider take out a mouse.
Giant Huntsman Spider
And with the longest legs, we have the Giant Huntsman Spider of Laos, with a leg-span of 12 inches. Their legs have twisted joints and they move in a crab-like manner, which furthers their impressive appearance. ‘Cause they’ve got legs, and know how to use ’em. They prefer to live in underbrush and cave entrances. These are like the big relatives of their Australian cousins, which we’ve all seen online and developed a healthy aversion to.
Brazilian Salmon Pink Birdeater & Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantulas
Next we have two more South American species: the Brazilian Salmon Pink Birdeater, which boasts one-inch fangs, and the Brazilian Giant Tawny Red, believed to be the longest-lived spider with a lifespan of up to thirty years. Both are in the tarantula family and have urticating hairs, a word you probably never read much before today unless you are in the hobby. So apparently South America is not the best travel destination for you if you struggle with arachnophobia, though I suspect you’d figured that out already. (I wouldn’t recommend Australia or Southeast Asia either.)
Face Size Tarantula
And finally the Face Size Tarantula, which has a very terror-inducing name reminiscent of the Face Huggers of Alien-glory. Anyway, these spiders have an 8-inch leg-span and live in India and Sri Lanka. They look kind of like big hairy wolf spiders with stripey legs, sometimes with pink and daffodil coloring.
If you enjoyed this eight-legged segment of Nightmarish Nature on Giants Among Spiders and their larger than life kin, please check out past segments:
So here is our last installment of our AI journey exploring the idea of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad wolf being one and the same. All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva. Feel free to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this exploration if you missed them.
A non sequitur I know, but I couldn’t resist. If you picked up where we left off you’ll get it.
Seriously?! Again with the cropped off head cop out…
Finally! That was a journey. And not even worth the result, in my opinion.
Anyway, here is a bonus montage I made out of a bunch of additional Red Riding Hood prompts for an article that never happened…
Prompts for Montage:
1.) What if Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf were one and the same being?
2.) Her wolf face peering out of her red cloak, fangs dripping with the blood of another victim, lost in the forest and never found.
3.) Little Red Riding Hood closes in for the kill, lunging from her red cloak, her wolf fangs dripping with blood.
4.) I am Little Red Riding Hood. I am the Big Bad Wolf. I am coming for you.
5.) Howling within, the rage sears forth from the red cloak, discarded in the deep woods. Red Riding Hood succumbs to the lycanthropy.
6.) Heaving breaths. Dripping blood. Red Riding Hood is not what she appears. She is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
7.) Her red cloak masks the fangs hidden below the surface.
8.) It starts with a long sighing breath. Waiting. The wolf within stirs.
9.) Red Riding Hood trembles. She succumbs to the lycanthropy.
10.) The wolf bursts forth from within. It takes over Little Red Riding Hood’s mind, her body, her being.
11.) Red Riding Hood howls. She is ravenous with hunger for blood. The wolf within has taken over. Mind, spirit, body. She feasts on the blood of the moon.
12.) Big Bad Wolf Red Riding Hood ravenous blood moon feast
13.) Blood moon beckons. I. Little Red Big Bad Riding Hood Wolf. Freedom howling night curse.
14.) Beware. Bewolf. BeRedRidingHood. Betwixt. Beyond.
15.) I pad quietly as the forest dissolves around me. Red Riding Hood and Wolf, one and the same.
16.) Wolf within howling dark recesses of the mind, Red Riding Hood lost
17.) Red Riding Hood HOWL wolf bane true existence polymorph within-and-without.
18.) Red howl Riding Wolf dark existence brooding within
So thank you for joining us on another AI art journey. You can still catch the last AI art journey on Haunted MTL here. To see more such devolutions into AI generated art, check out the Will the Real Jennifer Weigel Please Stand Up? blog.
Continuing our AI journey from last time exploring Little Red Riding Hood herself as the Big Bad Wolf… All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva.
How very… Phantom of the Opera predatory… this is definitely not what I had in mind. Maybe something more cutesy?
Ugh. Maybe not.
Wow, that seems like such a cop out, cropping off the head so you don’t have to depict it. And I don’t want to lose the Little Red Riding Hood reference completely.
So no surprise there, I knew that was too many references to work.
And we continued to devolve, join us again next week for the final installment to see how this ended… And again, if you want to catch the last AI art journey, you can find it on Haunted MTL here. To see more such devolutions into AI generated art, check out the Will the Real Jennifer Weigel Please Stand Up? blog.
