Time Out, a Short Story by Jennifer Weigel
It was a nondescript fall day. Walking down the street, I glance over my shoulder to the right. A flash of movement reveals itself as a squirrel darting up a nearby tree. Suddenly both the squirrel and tree break up into a series of black and white lines that are then replaced with an error message, something about too many requests, whatever that means.
Wait, what? The message also flickers in and out of being, as if the content is still trying to update. I stop and stare at the squirrel-tree-error glitch. As I focus all of my attention on it, my reality buzzes back into full consciousness. The squirrel continues its ascent and poises itself in the crook of a branch, chirp-barking at me in a shrill throaty rhythm from above.
Confused and not knowing what else to do, I continue walking. A house to my left glitches in and out, but only while at the periphery of my awareness, and then a parked car to my right, a little closer in this time. Next, a car stopped at a stop sign. The world all around me begins to flicker as if it just doesn’t have the bandwidth or some unseen computer program driving this reality is recalculating somewhere in space and time.
What in Hell is happening? I stop walking and try to get my bearings. I shut my eyes. I rub my temples. I try to wish it all away. Am I dreaming? Is this some sort of nightmarish conjuring wrought by eating tacos too close to bedtime or something? I can feel the sun streaking across my face. Behind the fleshy warmth of my closed eyelids, everything seems still. All seems… normal.
Refreshed and slightly hopeful, I open my eyes again to the world but it continues to break up. My surroundings are rife with error messages now. Nearly everything is affected. The world around me flickers into and out of being. Houses, cars, trees, grass, sidewalk… nothing remains static as all come and go from my awareness. Even the sky dissipates to an empty hole. Not the vacuum of space but a cloudless, colorless void awaiting some kind of a refresh.
My heart races in my chest as I gasp for air. I glance at my hand as it itself begins to fade in and out of being. Terrified, I consider running. But with the world bouncing to errors all around me, I cannot get my bearings or maintain my balance. I feel nauseous and drained. Everything begins spiraling all around me. I fall to the ground in slow motion and am engulfed by
This immersive integration platform is experiencing too many requests and some processes are being throttled. Please limit the number of requests to reduce throttling in the future.
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.
And as promised in Big Bad Poetry, we shall embark on our next AI journey, this time looking at Little Red Riding Hood. I had wanted to depict her as the Big Bad Wolf one and the same, although maybe not so big nor bad. But it just wasn’t happening quite as planned. All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva.
So I actually like this even better than my original vision, it is playful and even a bit serene (especially given the Sinister style). The wolf is just being a wolf. It’s quite lovely, really. But it wasn’t what I had in mind, so I revisited the idea later to see if I could get that result…
Well, that’s not quite right…
Yeah more of the same…
And as you can see this is starting to devolve quickly. Join us again next week to see how this continued to develop… And 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.
