Dark Thoughts: The Mothman
A look at the paranormal with a professional amateur.
Point Unpleasant
Between 1966 and 1967, a creature arrived in Point Pleasant, West Virginia that would change the town and the nature of paranormal investigation for all time. Spotted by four teens near the old TNT plant (a popular makeout spot), the being was 7 feet tall, gray, had wings that stretched to nearly 10 feet when extended, and eyes that glowed red. When the headlights hit it, it lifted off the ground and pursued their car to the edge of town. In a panic they told the local sheriff and from there all Hell broke lose.
Madness Descends
A wave of sightings in Point Pleasant and the surrounding towns drew crowds of looky-lou’s and hunters. It brought John Keel, one of the best known researchers of the paranormal and high strangeness. It also brought our old friends the Men in Black and their typical shenanigans.
Then on December 15, 1967 the Silver Bridge in town collapsed killing 46 people. Locals and investigators alike began to think the Mothman was a harbinger of doom like the banshee. Sightings still continue on occasion in West Virginia. And elsewhere. . .
Other Places, Other Sightings
The Mothman seems to come in cycles separated by years. In 1986, workers sighted a giant “black bird” with red eyes flying over them. Shortly afterward a major disaster occurred. We know it today as Chernobyl.
In Chicago for the last few years there have been sightings of what they call the Chicago Mothman with it gradually settling around O’Hare Airport. So far nothing has happened.
Mind you, if I had to head into Chicago I’d consider driving. Just to be safe.
Further Reading
Mothman on Wikipedia
Chernobyl Workers Mothman Article
Chicago Mothman
Join us each week for more of Ted’s dark thoughts about the mysterious and strange, exclusively here at Haunted MTL.
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.
David Davis
February 16, 2020 at 11:11 am
The Mothman is one of those stories that gets odder and odder the further you read into it. Like, it goes way beyond the creature and connects to a lot of high strangeness.
Ted Neatherwood
February 16, 2020 at 5:27 pm
Definitely. It’s moved from a question of “real vs. fake” into having it’s own life. Like the collected minds of the world focused on it and opened us up to something strange that we can’t understand.