Haunted MTL Original – Taking Care of Mother – Todd M. Guerra
“Taking Care of Mother” by Todd M. Guerra
Gotta take care of mother. Mother is why I’m here. She’s the reason I’m alive. She kept me alive all those years so I must do it too. That’s what a good daughter does. The house is cold when the bills aren’t paid. I work hard to pay them so Mother isn’t cold.
I scrub the dishes very hard at work. It makes me think of Mother and when she used to wash me in the sink. She got me very clean; she scrubbed me hard. I wish pans could bleed so I’d know they were really clean.
The people at work always give me funny looks. They whisper that I’m slow and weird when they don’t think I can hear them. I’m not slow I’m just busy. I don’t have time to talk about television and boyfriends and getting laid (whatever that is). I have to clean dishes to keep Mother warm.
Mother always kept me warm when I was little. She made me play where it was warm, so I wouldn’t catch cold. It hurt but I know that’s love. I love her, so she stays warm now too…just like when I was young! She’s old now, and she’s like the kid and I’m the mother now. I just want to be as good a mother as she was to me.
I invited a boy over to the apartment once; his name was Donny. Mother didn’t like him because she caught us playing her game together. She told me that’s a game only mothers and daughters play, and I shouldn’t be bringing anyone home to play it with them. She told me boys were evil and wouldn’t do nothing but trouble for me. She said if I got in trouble by a boy, she’d make sure it died. I don’t know what she meant, but it scared me and I tried to never cross Mother again.
I never had a daddy like other kids. I finally asked Mother why. She said he left her with the little shit-maker to deal with and ran off with someone. I don’t know what a shit-maker is. I’ve been looking all over the house to get rid of it to make mother happy. I thought it was the cat, so I dropped him out of the window. It made a real neat splat sound and a really big mess. Mother got really mad when she found out. Things got out of hand and we hurt each other, and since then Mother’s not said anything to me. She’s just mad, but she’ll get over it eventually because I keep her warm now, where you’re supposed to go when you get cold.
End
Todd M. Guerra is a longtime amateur writer who will take this thing seriously one of these days. He is, as Doctor Octopus once described Peter Parker, ‘brilliant, but lazy.’
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.
