The Den of Ubiquity

Botober 2022 #3: Interlude With Leucrocuta

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 04:29:44 GMT

Feeling a little underinspired today, so there's no plot to go with this vignette, but hey, there's characters and maybe vibes, so...?

Today's prompts are:

Animals: Dolphin leucrocuta
Halloween: N sculpture
Meat: a humanmonster with scissors for hair
Clockwork: SMALL CLOCK TREE

( Interlude With Leucrocuta )

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Botober 2022 #2: River Raid

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 02:27:15 GMT

Today's prompts are:

Animals: Roquefort dingo
Halloween: Omlette
Meat: a human skeleton with gearsattachments
Clockwork: DARK-GREEN LASER-SHAPED BOAT

Took me a while to figure out what to do with them all, but here is today's Botober story:

( River Raid )

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Botober 2022 #1: The Next Challenge

Sun, 02 Oct 2022 03:18:58 GMT

Apparently 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

( The Next Challenge )

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Botober 31: Disentanglement

Sun, 01 Nov 2020 04:57:41 GMT

Okay, fine, let's ring out Botober with a big crossover event. I'm going to blame Ceej for this one. Not that it might not have occurred to me anyway, but... The prompts for the last day of Botober were:

Things: One Hundred Billion Bats
Concepts: self-destruct code
Advanced: Another copy of this same image
Terrible: A bin full of garden worms pulsing in a black light

( Disentanglement )

So yeah, I guess if I'd been trying I could have tied things together earlier. The space worms and the space butterfly and maybe the talking worm trying to help Bennet could all be the same things. Probably Master Selden knows Augustina the Pastamancer and Myrilla and Helene and all the rest. Demonax may have passed through Catriona's space station. Maybe Trina's dog is related to Allonia's chickens. But that way, perhaps, lies madness.

Anyway, I suppose it was kind of fun. Always a nice challenge to try to tie together these disparate elements. Like my old four-word stories, as I mentioned, or even the crossover fanfic I would do from time to time. I suppose now I should return to my revisions of Bleen & Grue sometime this year...we'll see if I've managed to condition myself to do daily writing, or if I've just exhausted my creative stores for the year. If you're reading this, then feel free to leave a comment to let me know what you thought, here or on Twitter or wherever. Because sometimes I'm okay just shouting into the void, but sometimes it's nice if the void shouts back.

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Botober 30: To Be A Dog

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 05:00:46 GMT

Not continuing the story from the last couple of days, because I had a better idea for this one. The Botober prompts for today were:

Things: An uppercase infinity
Concepts: What is it like to be a dog
Advanced: An artifact that teleports every few minutes to a new location, where it waits for someone to actually want it
Terrible: A piece of bark

( To Be A Dog )

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Botober 29: Rupture 2

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 04:28:47 GMT

Looking at today's Botober prompts, it suddenly occurred to me that a direct sequel to yesterday's story would be an easy way to make use of them. I have to watch that, though; I'm not as good at pantsing longer stories as I used to be, and the last time I tried a weekly short story challenge I bogged down after three parts of the same story. But whatever, it's fun. (The tricky part is figuring out where to stop...so I
just stopped when I got tired.)

Oh, yeah, what are those prompts?

Things: A lowercase infinity
Concepts: You Will Find That You Cannot Escape From This Research Station
Advanced: An apple made out of matter that cannot exist in our universe
Terrible: A shopping cart filled with cabbage

( Rupture 2 )

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Botober 28: Rupture

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 03:55:10 GMT

Random prompts mostly lead to random story. It's just a fact. I mean, what would you do with these prompts:

Things: 'How Howie Trained the Hogs'
Concepts: Enzyme-Scooped Salad It Is Actually More Than 100% Natural
Advanced: Sea anemone skiing down flaming volcano nearly kissed by descending giant cephalopod
Terrible: A shard from an exploded particle accelerator

( Rupture )

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Botober 27: Pastamancer

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 04:39:45 GMT

This one links to two of the earlier stories. I guess I'm just building up my supporting cast now. Almost makes me wish I had a plot to go with them or something. Today's prompts are:

Things: spherecat
Concepts: Terror Monger
Advanced: A vacuuming spaghetti manatee
Terrible: Houseflies on a slice of bread

( Pastamancer )

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Botober 26: Privacy

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 02:36:16 GMT

And now I do a second sequel story. Clearly I am running out of ideas, or something. Today's Botober prompts were:

Things: Fifty thousand years of night
Concepts: Mouths
Advanced: Several sentient gourds
Terrible: A piece of string

( Privacy )

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Botober 25: Inferior Tea Service

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 01:58:59 GMT

Less than a week left in Botober (though there are still a couple I could make up); today's prompts are:

Things: We really don't want to
Concepts: Superior Tea Service
Advanced: A red abyssal wedge clam
Terrible: A pile of rubbish

( Inferior Tea Service )

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Botober 24: Hypothetical Staircase

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 04:28:06 GMT

On this day, the 24th of Botober, the writing prompts of the day are:

Things: Something that is both a bunny and a shark
Concepts: The number m
Advanced: A cat on the first three steps of a hypothetical staircase
Terrible: A small hole

( Hypothetical Staircase )

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Botober 23: Invisible Hide And Seek

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 04:45:19 GMT

Prompts for Botober 23 are:

Things: Two Invisible Friends
Concepts: Lava.
Advanced: Sir Isaac Newton in a bucket
Terrible: Not an imitation of a pile of logs

( Invisible Hide And Seek )

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Botober 22: Chrysalis

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 02:16:11 GMT

This piece came out a little better than I thought it was going to. Today's Botober prompts were:

Things: Shookswobbler
Concepts: Space butterfly
Advanced: existing/non-existing distinction
Terrible: Wood shavings

( Chrysalis )

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Botober 21: The Stinky Mountain

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 03:55:03 GMT

Botober story 21 here...a little bit juvenile perhaps, but they started it. The prompts, that is:

Things: A soft pillow that can fly
Concepts: Pudding
Advanced: A flatus cloud
Terrible: A plug

( The Stinky Mountain )

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Botober 20: Llamaofdoom

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 02:22:42 GMT

Couldn't come with much to fit the prompts today, so I guess it's time for a pandemic-era slice of life vignette as I imagine life is for somebody out there...

Things: Llamaofdoom
Concepts: Pretzels As A Being
Advanced: A shark fixing your car
Terrible: An egg yolk

( Llamaofdoom )

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Botober 19: Singleminded

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 04:18:13 GMT

One thing about the Botober prompts is that they are often fantasy and science-fiction themed...but it can be inconvenient when we have both, as in these promps, which contains both "machine" and "wizard. But then, if I wasn't trying to challenge myself I wouldn't be trying to use all four prompts all at once anyway:

Things: A staircase of cherry blossoms
Concepts: Coffee I Am A Machine That Is Built To Drink Coffee
Advanced: The snide gaze of an unkillable wizard
Terrible: A pile of black pepper

( Singleminded )

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Botober 18: Pizza For Pterosaurs

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 04:28:51 GMT

The Botober prompts for today seem nice, kind of thematically grouped, so not too hard to fit together:

Things: Two cups of yogurt
Concepts: What is food
Advanced: Mole delivering pizza to tiny pterodactyl
Terrible: A spigot

( Pizza For Pterosaurs )

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Botober 17: Signposts

Sun, 18 Oct 2020 05:08:07 GMT

Almost forgot about this, so here's a quickie. Today's prompts were:

Things: An oddly specific book about spiders
Concepts: A river that runs like this- --->
Advanced: Rock, usually under a large sheet of something
Terrible: An oyster

( Signposts )

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Botober 16: Above The Barrier

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 01:22:39 GMT

Botober 16 is here, with its enigmatic prompts:

Things: Eleventamnesia
Concepts: Gravity
Advanced: Queen squid waving as she rules planet
Terrible: A page in a book

( Above The Barrier )

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Botober 15: A Single Strand

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 01:14:13 GMT

October 15th: we're almost halfway through the month. Isn't that exciting? Today's Botober prompts are:

Things: Coots of magic
Concepts: An object 1 cm tall that is metallic
Advanced: Boy sorting space worms
Terrible: A single strand of hair

( A Single Strand )

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Botober 14: Giraffes

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 04:11:36 GMT

Everybody knows that AIs love giraffes, don't they? Don't they? Giraffes are great. So it's no surprise they showed up in the Botober prompts:

Things: Tiny chocolate pants
Concepts: Giraffes
Advanced: An unlabeled breakable thing
Terrible: Wattle trees

( Giraffes )

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Botober 13: Catquest

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 04:31:26 GMT

Another Botober story has arrived, but this time, without any particular inspiration for a clever introduction. Instead I'll just list the prompts for October 13th:

Things: Milkchamallowfluffykings
Concepts: Two doorways
Advanced: An Etruscan bowl filled with cat hair on a coffee table
Terrible: A pile of porridge oats

( Catquest )

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Botober 12: Dragonilicious

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 02:08:13 GMT

There was a 9, then there was no 10, and no 11, so this is 12. As in, I had to skip a couple of days, which I will try to make up later, but in the meantime I'm going to number based on the day, and use the prompts based on the number. It's all quite logical if you don't think about it too hard. In that vein, I decided to lean slightly in the direction of the abstract and surreal in this story (with a touch of Body Horror). So those #12 prompts for Botober are:

Things: Dragonilicious
Concepts: A fractal
Advanced: Lizard hiding in brain
Terrible: A pile of sand

( Dragonilicious )

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Botober 9: Balance

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 01:50:02 GMT

Whoa, what's this? What am I doing posting this early? It's pretty weird. Anyway, I managed to ~~yank out with pliers~~ whip up another Botober story. Today's prompts are:

Things: a planet made out of ice cream
Concepts: (Blank)
Advanced: The very concept of a knife arranged in a circle
Terrible: A cabbage stump

( Balance )

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Botober 8: Space Hamsters

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 04:46:26 GMT

This one was just fun and quick, didn't sweat the backstory too much. Botober prompts for October 8 were:

Things: A space hamster (Two if you wouldn't mind)
Concepts: Blobby things, ones not attached to the floor
Advanced: A living potted plant not visible to you.
Terrible: Molehills

( Space Hamsters )

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