***Veiled in Reality: Benjamin's Transformation in the Shadows of 2020***
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***Shadows of 2020***
The grocery store was dimly lit, its long aisles stretching like the barren corridors of another era. Seven-year-old Benjamin, with his mop of tousled brown hair, wore a worn-out blue hoodie, dirt-streaked jeans, and scuffed sneakers. His pale skin looked even paler under the fluorescent lights. He clutched an empty cloth bag in one hand; the other hand gripped the hem of his mom's coat tightly.
"Remember, Benny... what do I always say?" his mother, Caitlin, whispered with a fleeting smile. Caitlin was thirty-four, 5'6", and around 140 pounds. Born on September 22, 1986, she had chestnut hair usually tied back in a messy bun and piercing green eyes.
"June 23, 1986, Mom says," Benjamin recited automatically—too young to comprehend the gravity of the information, but old enough to know his mother's birthday by heart.
The year was 2020, and zombies had become an unfortunate reality in a world gone awry. It was supposed to be a simple scavenger run for food and supplies, but when the moaning, dragging feet of the infected started pouring into the store, Caitlin squeezed Benjamin's hand tightly.
"Run!" she yelled, almost yanking him off his feet as she bolted down the nearest aisle.
As they fled, a woman in a white wedding dress appeared in stark contrast to the slot shelves and grocery baskets. Her gown was a cascade of white lace, intricate beadwork glimmering softly under the fluorescent lights. She wore a high neckline accentuated with delicate piping, long sleeves ending in fitted cuffs with pearl buttons, and the skirt billowed into an elegant train trailing behind her. She wore satin white shoes with tiny bows on the toe, subtly shimmering with rhinestones. On her hands were sheer, white gloves, adorned with floral embroidery.
Her nails, a flawless coat of milky white polish, glinted under the lights. She also wore an assortment of jewelry: a diamond-studded tiara nestled in her curled, honey-blonde hair styled in an elaborate updo, pearl drop earrings, a sparkling bracelet of interlocked roses and leaves on her left wrist, and a delicate choker of crystals and gold lace around her neck. Her wedding ring, a symbol of unyielding devotion, was a heart-shaped diamond surrounded by smaller gems on a band engraved with floral patterns.
This was Elena, age 34, born on May 15, 1986. Her striking blue eyes locked onto Benjamin as their paths crossed. She noticed the small boy instinctively reaching out to grab a can of beans on the shelf.
"Come here, child," her voice was a mixture of relief and urgency.
"No!" Benjamin ducked, but Elena was quicker, grabbing his arm firmly. His vision swirled, and moments later, darkness swallowed him.
When Benjamin opened his eyes, he was disoriented. His body felt different—taller, heavier. Something silky brushed against his face, and he swatted it aside to reveal a veil. Confused and panicked, he looked down to find himself clad in the wedding dress he had just seen, the wedding gloves now snug on his dainty hands.
"Mommy?" he whimpered, his voice echoing in the empty aisle. Caitlin was gone. His sneakers had transformed into the delicate wedding shoes, and with each nervous step he took, he tripped over the voluminous skirt. The absurdity of his new appearance made him gag. "So... girly," he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut to fight back the nausea.
Knowing he had to get away, Benjamin did his best to steady himself, his movements hampered by the bridal gear. The veil and dress tripped him repeatedly, but eventually, he managed to distance himself from the zombies.
Finding a reflective surface amidst the chaos, Benjamin examined himself. His formerly boyish features were now those of a young woman. He traced his eyes with his gloved fingers, trying to turn them back to their original color—green—but they remained an unsettling blue. Giving up, he gingerly prodded and tugged at the elaborate updo, only to find it immovable.
With trembling hands, he attempted to remove the veil and gloves. He tugged at the veil’s comb, but it seemed fused to his hair. Even pulling it didn't work. The gloves, upon closer inspection, appeared stitched to his skin; no amount of prying, yanking, or tearing made them budge.
Desperately, Benjamin tried to exit the dress in five ways: undoing the buttons and zipper, ripping the fabric, pulling it over his head, pushing it down his waist, and trying to unlace the corset-like bodice, all in vain.
The wedding shoes were equally stubborn. Untying the laces, pulling them off by heel, toe, side, and trying wedge his fingers between shoe and foot failed. The sixth try—dipping his feet in a puddle—did nothing.
The jewelry refused to budge too. He tried twisting off the tiara, undoing the clasp on the bracelet, unhooking the earrings, tearing off the necklace, detaching the rings, and removing the wedding ring, but every piece felt fused to him.
Even the nail polish remained perfect, despite scrubbing, scratching, and attempting to peel it off.
Searching for answers, he stumbled upon an identification card fallen from Elena’s discarded purse—her birth date was there, informing him she was older than his mother. Fear flooded him; he was now someone significantly older.
"I'm scared," he whispered, only for his voice to betray him. "Ruining the dress and the shoes... and the makeup. I... hope 'My Husbend' is..." The final word came out nasally, warped. He squeezed his eyes shut again in trepidation.
As Benjamin struggled to comprehend his transformation, he was left to fend off the approaching zombies in a world where he was no longer himself, holding tightly onto whatever remnants of his original identity he could.
This story was generated by user manemansteve with assistance by one of OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model; prompts used to help generate the story are shown below.
Images were generated with OpenAI's AI system, DALL·E 2, or uploaded by the user.
AI Prompts
Prompt: A story taking place in the year 2020 starring 7 year old Benjamin with a description of what he's wearing and his race being white and have him be shopping with his mom in the middle of a zombie pandemic. Include his mom's name, age, height, weight, birthday being after June, birth year, hair color and style and eye color. Have Benjamin know his mom's birthday and birth year by heart. Have them be wearily grabbing food and supplies putting it in the cart when zombies started pouring in to the grocery store. Have his mom start running with himfollowing close behind. Have a woman wearing a white wedding dress with a very detailed description of the wedding dress and wedding gloves and a veil and wedding shoes or wedding sandals with a detailed description of the wedding shoes or wedding sandals and have her nails be painted with a very detailed description of the nails being white and have her be wearing tons of wedding jewelry with detailed descriptions of all 6 pieces of jewelry including the wedding ring with a detailed description of the wedding ring. Include the woman's name, age, height, weight, birthday being before June, birth year being the same ashis mom, hair color and style being done for a wedding and eye color and race being white and include a reason for why she was wearing a wedding dress and where she came from and why. Have her notice the boy reaching out to grab him and have him try to avoid her still being grabbed by the woman getting dizzy and have his vision go black. Have him open his eyes realizing he's taller and has a veil covering his view and have him pull it out of the way and have him look down to see he was now wearing the wedding dress and the wedding gloves and all the jewelry and have him notice his fingernails are coated in a white polish and have him look for his mommy worriedly realizing she's now gone. Have him try to run stumbling over the shoes he was now wearing and have the woman's dress come up just enough for him to see the shoes he was now wearing and have him gag at how girly it all was and have him squeeze his eyes shut. Have him do everything to steady himself trying to run away from the zombies and have the veil consistently get in his view and have the shoes be hard to walk in and have him consistently trip over the dress eventually getting far enough away from the zombies. Have him innocently study his new reflection tracing his eyes with his dainty fingers and have him try to change his eyes back to normal noticing they look nothing like his mother's but give up on trying being specific as to what he did. Have him play with his hair that was done in an elaborate way for the wedding being unable to phase it or undo it being specific as to what he did. Have him try to take off the veil and the wedding gloves being unable to remove them being specific as to what he tried to do to remove the veil and being specific as to what he did to try to remove the gloves. Have him try to remove the whole wedding dress in 5 different ways being unsuccessful and including each of the 5 ways in the story with a detailed description. Have him try to remove the wedding shoes or wedding sandals being unable to trying in 5 different ways and including each of the 5 ways in the story. Have him try to remove the first piece of the woman's wedding jewelry being detailed and specific but being unable to remove it and why. Have him try to remove the second piece of the woman's wedding jewelry being detailed and specific but being unable to remove it and why. Have him try to remove the third piece of the woman's wedding jewelry being detailed and specific but being unable to remove it and why. Have him try to remove the fourth piece of the woman's wedding jewelry being detailed and specific but being unable to remove it and why. Have him try to remove the fifth piece of the woman's wedding jewelry being detailed and specific but being unable to remove it and why. Have him try to remove the sixth piece of the woman's wedding jewelry being detailed and specific but being unable to remove it and why. Have him try to remove the wedding ring off the woman's finger being unable to even get past the gloves being detailed and specific but being unable to remove it and why. Have him try to scrape off the woman's nail polish being unable to get rid of it being specific as to what he did and have the nail polish remain perfect. Have him somehow find out the birthday of the woman in the wedding dress realizing he's now older than his mom but include a logical way how he found out. Have him try to say I'm scared and have it be in quoted text unwillingly talking about ruining the dress and the shoes and the makeup and i hope "my" husband is _____ and have him speak in a nasally feminine tone filling in the blank and spell the words differently to reflect that with husband spelled different and have him squeeze his eyes shut in fear.
Response: ***Shadows of 2020*** The grocery store was dimly lit, its long aisles stretching like the barren corridors of another era. Seven-year-old Benjamin, with his mop of tousled brown hair, wore a worn-out blue hoodie, dirt-streaked jeans, and scuffed sneakers. His pale skin looked even paler under the fluorescent lights. He clutched an empty cloth bag in one hand; the other hand gripped the hem of his mom's coat tightly. "Remember, Benny... what do I always say?" his mother, Caitlin, whispered with a fleeting smile. Caitlin was thirty-four, 5'6", and around 140 pounds. Born on September 22, 1986, she had chestnut hair usually tied back in a messy bun and piercing green eyes. "June 23, 1986, Mom says," Benjamin recited automatically—too young to comprehend the gravity of the information, but old enough to know his mother's birthday by heart. The year was 2020, and zombies had become an unfortunate reality in a world gone awry. It was supposed to be a simple scavenger run for food and supplies, but when the moaning, dragging feet of the infected started pouring into the store, Caitlin squeezed Benjamin's hand tightly. "Run!" she yelled, almost yanking him off his feet as she bolted down the nearest aisle. As they fled, a woman in a white wedding dress appeared in stark contrast to the slot shelves and grocery baskets. Her gown was a cascade of white lace, intricate beadwork glimmering softly under the fluorescent lights. She wore a high neckline accentuated with delicate piping, long sleeves ending in fitted cuffs with pearl buttons, and the skirt billowed into an elegant train trailing behind her. She wore satin white shoes with tiny bows on the toe, subtly shimmering with rhinestones. On her hands were sheer, white gloves, adorned with floral embroidery. Her nails, a flawless coat of milky white polish, glinted under the lights. She also wore an assortment of jewelry: a diamond-studded tiara nestled in her curled, honey-blonde hair styled in an elaborate updo, pearl drop earrings, a sparkling bracelet of interlocked roses and leaves on her left wrist, and a delicate choker of crystals and gold lace around her neck. Her wedding ring, a symbol of unyielding devotion, was a heart-shaped diamond surrounded by smaller gems on a band engraved with floral patterns. This was Elena, age 34, born on May 15, 1986. Her striking blue eyes locked onto Benjamin as their paths crossed. She noticed the small boy instinctively reaching out to grab a can of beans on the shelf. "Come here, child," her voice was a mixture of relief and urgency. "No!" Benjamin ducked, but Elena was quicker, grabbing his arm firmly. His vision swirled, and moments later, darkness swallowed him. When Benjamin opened his eyes, he was disoriented. His body felt different—taller, heavier. Something silky brushed against his face, and he swatted it aside to reveal a veil. Confused and panicked, he looked down to find himself clad in the wedding dress he had just seen, the wedding gloves now snug on his dainty hands. "Mommy?" he whimpered, his voice echoing in the empty aisle. Caitlin was gone. His sneakers had transformed into the delicate wedding shoes, and with each nervous step he took, he tripped over the voluminous skirt. The absurdity of his new appearance made him gag. "So... girly," he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut to fight back the nausea. Knowing he had to get away, Benjamin did his best to steady himself, his movements hampered by the bridal gear. The veil and dress tripped him repeatedly, but eventually, he managed to distance himself from the zombies. Finding a reflective surface amidst the chaos, Benjamin examined himself. His formerly boyish features were now those of a young woman. He traced his eyes with his gloved fingers, trying to turn them back to their original color—green—but they remained an unsettling blue. Giving up, he gingerly prodded and tugged at the elaborate updo, only to find it immovable. With trembling hands, he attempted to remove the veil and gloves. He tugged at the veil’s comb, but it seemed fused to his hair. Even pulling it didn't work. The gloves, upon closer inspection, appeared stitched to his skin; no amount of prying, yanking, or tearing made them budge. Desperately, Benjamin tried to exit the dress in five ways: undoing the buttons and zipper, ripping the fabric, pulling it over his head, pushing it down his waist, and trying to unlace the corset-like bodice, all in vain. The wedding shoes were equally stubborn. Untying the laces, pulling them off by heel, toe, side, and trying wedge his fingers between shoe and foot failed. The sixth try—dipping his feet in a puddle—did nothing. The jewelry refused to budge too. He tried twisting off the tiara, undoing the clasp on the bracelet, unhooking the earrings, tearing off the necklace, detaching the rings, and removing the wedding ring, but every piece felt fused to him. Even the nail polish remained perfect, despite scrubbing, scratching, and attempting to peel it off. Searching for answers, he stumbled upon an identification card fallen from Elena’s discarded purse—her birth date was there, informing him she was older than his mother. Fear flooded him; he was now someone significantly older. "I'm scared," he whispered, only for his voice to betray him. "Ruining the dress and the shoes... and the makeup. I... hope 'My Husbend' is..." The final word came out nasally, warped. He squeezed his eyes shut again in trepidation. As Benjamin struggled to comprehend his transformation, he was left to fend off the approaching zombies in a world where he was no longer himself, holding tightly onto whatever remnants of his original identity he could.
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