Botober 2022 #1: The Next Challenge
Oct. 1st, 2022 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alfvaenApparently I didn't do this last year, but two years ago, when Janelle Shane posted four lists of AI-generated art prompts for "Botober", I decided to do a short story/vignette/text fragment/whatever for the combination of the four prompts for the day. It seemed to go well enough. So when she posted this year's prompts I decided I'd give it another go.
This time the four prompts are from one of each of the GPT-3 AIs, vaguely themed with "Animals", "Halloween", "Meat", and "Clockwork". And once again I have tried to combine them.
Animals: Golden forearmadillo
Halloween: aaa
Meat: a creature with razor sharp teeth
Clockwork: CLOCKWORK KNIFE
Machara peered cautiously into the next room. From the smell, the hazard in here would be some sort of creature. Not a very large one, though, given that she could see no sign of it.
She dug a handful of nuts out of her pocket and tossed them into the room.
"Aaa!" shrieked a tiny creature as it raced out from the wall and leapt on one of the nuts. It bit down on it with razor sharp teeth, seemed disappointed at the contents, and then launched itself onto one of the other nuts. Machara couldn't get a good look at it, but whatever it was seemed aggressive and voracious.
Stepping back into the corridor, where she was fairly sure the creature couldn't get at her, she rolled up one of her sleeves. In the dim torchlight, the tattoos on her forearm shimmered in slightly different colours of ink. The one she wanted was a tiny armadillo, inked in gold. She extracted a pin from her shirt cuff and pricked it lightly, just enough for a single drop of blood. The armadillo outline shimmered in bright gold and then the image faded. The golden light, though, spread into a thick layer over her skin, and then began to harden. She winced as she felt the scales pricking against her skin, though the pain faded quickly.
Quickly, she returned to the doorway and knelt down to tap one of her hands on the floor. Instantly the creature rushed out from the wall again and tried to sink its teeth into her arm. The golden scales resisted the bite, and all Machara felt was pressure against her skin. The effect was temporary, though, so she couldn't dawdle too long. The thing didn't seem bright enough to try to crawl up her arm to get at her face or anything, so she inspected the room more closely. A few tiny holes in the wall for the creature to hide in, the sliced nuts she'd tossed in before, and very little else. No door onward, as all the other rooms had had. Her pulse quickened. Was this the last room? Surely not. The door must be hidden.
She grabbed the creature in the back of its neck and squeezed its jaws until they popped open. The thing hung limp in her grip, apparently victim of some basic reflex. She inspected it more closely--dark furred, outsized jaws dominating its small body. Clearly not a natural creature. No clues here. She shrugged her backpack off awkwardly over the hand holding the creature and rummaged through it one-handed until she found a small glass jar, just large enough to hold it. She dropped it in and replaced the lid just in time. It immediately started trying to chew its way out, but it wouldn't be able to get a purchase on the curved interior so she put it out of her mind.
She examined the holes more closely. Not quite evenly spaced; she tried to work out if there was a relationship, puzzling over it until the golden armadillo-glow faded and her skin returned to normal, though still with a gap where the tattoo had been. She furrowed her brow. Was there a hole that should logically be there, but wasn't? Eventually she took out a scrap of parchment and began to scribble on it, taking some measurements, then doing some calculations with her abacus.
Finally satisfied, she carefully measured to where the hole should be, then marked it with chalk and put away the rest of her stuff. She took out her clockwork knife and wound it up as much as she could, then pressed it against the wall and let it go. The blade whirred and began to cut through what turned out to be a thin shell of wood. Once most of it was cut through, she levered it out and poked the knife into it until she found a small button, which she pressed.
She heard a whirring noise behind her, and looked around to see a wall panel opening up, not in the room but in the hallway before it. "Ooh, clever," she murmured, wondering how long she'd have spent looking for hollow walls in the room before thinking to look further back. She peered cautiously through the open panel before sliding through towards the next challenge.
This time the four prompts are from one of each of the GPT-3 AIs, vaguely themed with "Animals", "Halloween", "Meat", and "Clockwork". And once again I have tried to combine them.
Animals: Golden forearmadillo
Halloween: aaa
Meat: a creature with razor sharp teeth
Clockwork: CLOCKWORK KNIFE
Machara peered cautiously into the next room. From the smell, the hazard in here would be some sort of creature. Not a very large one, though, given that she could see no sign of it.
She dug a handful of nuts out of her pocket and tossed them into the room.
"Aaa!" shrieked a tiny creature as it raced out from the wall and leapt on one of the nuts. It bit down on it with razor sharp teeth, seemed disappointed at the contents, and then launched itself onto one of the other nuts. Machara couldn't get a good look at it, but whatever it was seemed aggressive and voracious.
Stepping back into the corridor, where she was fairly sure the creature couldn't get at her, she rolled up one of her sleeves. In the dim torchlight, the tattoos on her forearm shimmered in slightly different colours of ink. The one she wanted was a tiny armadillo, inked in gold. She extracted a pin from her shirt cuff and pricked it lightly, just enough for a single drop of blood. The armadillo outline shimmered in bright gold and then the image faded. The golden light, though, spread into a thick layer over her skin, and then began to harden. She winced as she felt the scales pricking against her skin, though the pain faded quickly.
Quickly, she returned to the doorway and knelt down to tap one of her hands on the floor. Instantly the creature rushed out from the wall again and tried to sink its teeth into her arm. The golden scales resisted the bite, and all Machara felt was pressure against her skin. The effect was temporary, though, so she couldn't dawdle too long. The thing didn't seem bright enough to try to crawl up her arm to get at her face or anything, so she inspected the room more closely. A few tiny holes in the wall for the creature to hide in, the sliced nuts she'd tossed in before, and very little else. No door onward, as all the other rooms had had. Her pulse quickened. Was this the last room? Surely not. The door must be hidden.
She grabbed the creature in the back of its neck and squeezed its jaws until they popped open. The thing hung limp in her grip, apparently victim of some basic reflex. She inspected it more closely--dark furred, outsized jaws dominating its small body. Clearly not a natural creature. No clues here. She shrugged her backpack off awkwardly over the hand holding the creature and rummaged through it one-handed until she found a small glass jar, just large enough to hold it. She dropped it in and replaced the lid just in time. It immediately started trying to chew its way out, but it wouldn't be able to get a purchase on the curved interior so she put it out of her mind.
She examined the holes more closely. Not quite evenly spaced; she tried to work out if there was a relationship, puzzling over it until the golden armadillo-glow faded and her skin returned to normal, though still with a gap where the tattoo had been. She furrowed her brow. Was there a hole that should logically be there, but wasn't? Eventually she took out a scrap of parchment and began to scribble on it, taking some measurements, then doing some calculations with her abacus.
Finally satisfied, she carefully measured to where the hole should be, then marked it with chalk and put away the rest of her stuff. She took out her clockwork knife and wound it up as much as she could, then pressed it against the wall and let it go. The blade whirred and began to cut through what turned out to be a thin shell of wood. Once most of it was cut through, she levered it out and poked the knife into it until she found a small button, which she pressed.
She heard a whirring noise behind her, and looked around to see a wall panel opening up, not in the room but in the hallway before it. "Ooh, clever," she murmured, wondering how long she'd have spent looking for hollow walls in the room before thinking to look further back. She peered cautiously through the open panel before sliding through towards the next challenge.
