"Lost in Translation: Michael's Metamorphosis"
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Michael Montgomery felt an unusual blend of excitement and wariness, which was almost routine in 2020. Today, Michael was grocery shopping with his mom, Rebecca, in the midst of a zombie pandemic that had flared and subsided with the fickleness of a summer thunderstorm.
Michael had just celebrated his seventh birthday under the glaringly strange circumstances of pandemic life. It was a far cry from the usual rambunctious party at the local park. Still, he was a happy-go-lucky boy, born in 2013, standing at 4 feet tall and weighing 50 pounds. His sandy blond hair was messy—untouched by any comb that morning—and his bright blue eyes peeked curiously from beneath his bangs. Typical of his age and the day's agenda, he wore a Marvel superhero T-shirt with Spider-Man plastered on the front, paired with blue jeans and worn-out sneakers.
Rebecca, his mother, was a youthful and energetic 26-year-old with a lithe frame. She stood 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 130 pounds. Her birthday was in 1994, and she sported shoulder-length brunette hair, neatly tied back in a ponytail. Her blue eyes, a mirror of Michael's, shone with determination as they navigated the grocery store. Today, she wore a simple black tank top and high-waisted jeans, along with her comfy Converse sneakers.
Michael stuck close to his mom, eyeing the shelves stacked with cereal boxes and canned goods. Suddenly, a scream echoed from the entrance, and the unmistakable guttural growls of zombies filled the air. Chaos erupted as shoppers abandoned their carts to flee.
"Michael, stay close to me!" Rebecca yelled as her instincts kicked into high gear. Michael’s little legs pumped furiously as he followed her, the terror of the situation settling into his bones.
But then, something peculiar happened. Out of the fleeing crowd emerged a petite Korean woman. Her name was Hyejin Lee, and she was a well-known local hair stylist. Much older than Rebecca, Hyejin was born in 1971 and stood only 4 feet 11 inches tall with a delicate frame weighing around 100 pounds. She had short, stylishly cropped hair, dyed a natural black that framed her round, almond-shaped eyes. Today, she was wearing a chic, feminine two-piece outfit—a delicate pink blouse tucked into short skinny jeans, accessorized with platform sandals adorned with silver butterfly patterns. Her nails were painted a soft lavender, each finger adorned with rings, complemented by a wedding ring.
"Boy, come he'e!" Hyejin called out in broken English, reaching out for Michael.
Confusion clouded Michael’s mind as he swerved to avoid her. As her fingers brushed his arm, an electric shock shot through him. His vision blurred, and dizziness overtook him. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to steady himself.
When he opened them again, everything felt... different. He was taller, and as he looked down, he saw the delicate pink blouse and skinny jeans he had just seen on Hyejin. He froze, horrified, spotting a group of zombies closing in. His own voice, weak and shaky, came out in broken English. "Mommy! M'Mommy!" It sounded nothing like his usual self; the words were distorted, and he struggled to make them clear.
Panicked, he glanced down at the platform sandals on his feet. "Shoes... too gwolly. Giwwy shoes..." he stammered, wanting to say they looked too girly but unable to form the words correctly. He tried bending down to take the sandals off, but they were buckled tightly around his ankles with intricate silver buckles attached to leather straps.
Tears welled in his eyes as he stuttered, “I’m gonna miss Mommy so much. I don’t wanna get hurt by the monstews.” The words came out mangled and childlike, reflecting his inner turmoil and the new barrier of language he faced.
Steeling himself, Michael realized he had to act quickly. He shut his eyes again, forcing himself to focus. He staggered on the platform sandals, struggling to run but eventually managing to distance himself from the undead threat. Breathing heavily, he found himself in front of a large store mirror.
The reflection looking back was that of Hyejin Lee. Bewildered, he held up his hands—now slender and adorned with soft lavender polish and rings. He touched his new almond-shaped eyes, trying to make them look like his own by stretching the skin around them, but it was futile. His eyes remained the same. He sighed and ruffled his short hair, which resisted any attempt to appear boyish.
Still frazzled, he pulled at the cuffs of the pink blouse, trying to make it seem less girly, but it clung stubbornly to his frame. He tugged at the skinny jeans, which fit perfectly and refused to budge. Finally, he tried to pry off the platform sandals, attempting to unbuckle the intricate clasps again, but his hands were too unfamiliar and shaky to manage the task.
His thoughts swirled as he fully absorbed his new reality. “M-Mommy... what do I do now?” he whispered, voice trembling. Feeling utterly lost and devoid of any solution, he could only hope to rediscover his place, lost in the shuffle of a pandemic and a horde of undead. Michael, now in Hyejin’s form, navigated his new world with the same innocent resolve he had before, seeking safety, understanding, and perhaps a way to hold onto the small threads of his previous life.
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 long and thorough and detailed story about 7 year old Michael in the year 2020 with his mom shopping at a grocery store in the middle of a zombie pandemic that fluctuates between under control and not under control. Include a description of Michael's birthday, birth year, height, weight, hair color and style and eye color and race being white and what he's wearing. Include his young mom's name, age, height, weight, birthday, birth year, hair color and style and eye color and what she's wearing. Have an outbreak of zombies start flooding into the grocery store causing everyone to run. Have Michael's mom start running yelling for her son to follow closely behind her. Have Michael keep running as a Korean woman who happened to be a hair stylist walks into view. Reveal the Korean woman's name, age being much older than his mom, birthday, birth year being a few decades older than his mom, height being much shorter than his mom, weight, hair color and style being short Korean style and specific and eye color and what she was wearing being a short and feminine 2 piece outfit with a detailed description of the outfit including short skinny jeans of some kind along with platform sandals with a detailed description of the platform sandals and have her nails be painted but not red and have her be wearing jewelry including a wedding ring. Have the woman say to the boy to come here and have it be in quoted text in very broken English and spell the words in broken English. Have the boy try to avoid her as she reaches out to touch him causing him to get shocked and get dizzy. Have him open his eyes realizing he's taller. Have him look down to see he's wearing the outfit the Korean woman was wearing earlier. Have him get grossed out as he spotted a group of zombies approaching him. Have him try to walk stumbling. Have him notice he was now wearing the platform sandals the woman was wearing. Have the boy try to yell for mommy and have it be in quoted text in very broken English with misspellings in the quote as he couldn't say much of anything. Have him try to say the shoes are too girly and have it be in quoted unwillingly giving the platform sandals a nickname and speaking in very broken English and show the quote how he said versus what he wanted to say. Have him try to bend down to take the platform sandals off being unable to as they were a pair that had to be buckled on and be specific as to what the buckles looked like and were buckled to. Have him say i'm gonna miss mommy so much i don't wanna get hurt by the monsters and have it be in quoted text in very broken English and show the quote how he ended up saying versus what he wanted to say. The swap is permanent. Have him squeeze his eyes shut as he thinks of what to do next as he no longer has his mom. Have him steady himself on the platform sandals struggling to run but eventually getting far away from any zombies. Have him stand in front of a mirror seeing his new reflection for the first time. Have him look down at his hands before looking in the mirror and studying the differences in his look. Have innocently acknowledge his new almond shaped eyes touching them trying to make them like his normal eyes being specific as to what he did before giving up and have him play with his new short hair being specific as to what he did and have him play with the Korean woman's jewelry being specific as to what he played with and how he played with it trying to remove it all but being unable to and including why he couldn't and have him play with the first piece of his outfit trying to make it look less girly or remove it being specific as to what he did and to what being unable to and have him play with the second piece of his outfit trying to make it less girly or remove it being specific as to what he did and to what being unable to and have him play with his platform sandals trying to make them look less girly or remove them again being specific as to what he did and to what still being unable to.
Response: Michael Montgomery felt an unusual blend of excitement and wariness, which was almost routine in 2020. Today, Michael was grocery shopping with his mom, Rebecca, in the midst of a zombie pandemic that had flared and subsided with the fickleness of a summer thunderstorm. Michael had just celebrated his seventh birthday under the glaringly strange circumstances of pandemic life. It was a far cry from the usual rambunctious party at the local park. Still, he was a happy-go-lucky boy, born in 2013, standing at 4 feet tall and weighing 50 pounds. His sandy blond hair was messy—untouched by any comb that morning—and his bright blue eyes peeked curiously from beneath his bangs. Typical of his age and the day's agenda, he wore a Marvel superhero T-shirt with Spider-Man plastered on the front, paired with blue jeans and worn-out sneakers. Rebecca, his mother, was a youthful and energetic 26-year-old with a lithe frame. She stood 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 130 pounds. Her birthday was in 1994, and she sported shoulder-length brunette hair, neatly tied back in a ponytail. Her blue eyes, a mirror of Michael's, shone with determination as they navigated the grocery store. Today, she wore a simple black tank top and high-waisted jeans, along with her comfy Converse sneakers. Michael stuck close to his mom, eyeing the shelves stacked with cereal boxes and canned goods. Suddenly, a scream echoed from the entrance, and the unmistakable guttural growls of zombies filled the air. Chaos erupted as shoppers abandoned their carts to flee. "Michael, stay close to me!" Rebecca yelled as her instincts kicked into high gear. Michael’s little legs pumped furiously as he followed her, the terror of the situation settling into his bones. But then, something peculiar happened. Out of the fleeing crowd emerged a petite Korean woman. Her name was Hyejin Lee, and she was a well-known local hair stylist. Much older than Rebecca, Hyejin was born in 1971 and stood only 4 feet 11 inches tall with a delicate frame weighing around 100 pounds. She had short, stylishly cropped hair, dyed a natural black that framed her round, almond-shaped eyes. Today, she was wearing a chic, feminine two-piece outfit—a delicate pink blouse tucked into short skinny jeans, accessorized with platform sandals adorned with silver butterfly patterns. Her nails were painted a soft lavender, each finger adorned with rings, complemented by a wedding ring. "Boy, come he'e!" Hyejin called out in broken English, reaching out for Michael. Confusion clouded Michael’s mind as he swerved to avoid her. As her fingers brushed his arm, an electric shock shot through him. His vision blurred, and dizziness overtook him. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to steady himself. When he opened them again, everything felt... different. He was taller, and as he looked down, he saw the delicate pink blouse and skinny jeans he had just seen on Hyejin. He froze, horrified, spotting a group of zombies closing in. His own voice, weak and shaky, came out in broken English. "Mommy! M'Mommy!" It sounded nothing like his usual self; the words were distorted, and he struggled to make them clear. Panicked, he glanced down at the platform sandals on his feet. "Shoes... too gwolly. Giwwy shoes..." he stammered, wanting to say they looked too girly but unable to form the words correctly. He tried bending down to take the sandals off, but they were buckled tightly around his ankles with intricate silver buckles attached to leather straps. Tears welled in his eyes as he stuttered, “I’m gonna miss Mommy so much. I don’t wanna get hurt by the monstews.” The words came out mangled and childlike, reflecting his inner turmoil and the new barrier of language he faced. Steeling himself, Michael realized he had to act quickly. He shut his eyes again, forcing himself to focus. He staggered on the platform sandals, struggling to run but eventually managing to distance himself from the undead threat. Breathing heavily, he found himself in front of a large store mirror. The reflection looking back was that of Hyejin Lee. Bewildered, he held up his hands—now slender and adorned with soft lavender polish and rings. He touched his new almond-shaped eyes, trying to make them look like his own by stretching the skin around them, but it was futile. His eyes remained the same. He sighed and ruffled his short hair, which resisted any attempt to appear boyish. Still frazzled, he pulled at the cuffs of the pink blouse, trying to make it seem less girly, but it clung stubbornly to his frame. He tugged at the skinny jeans, which fit perfectly and refused to budge. Finally, he tried to pry off the platform sandals, attempting to unbuckle the intricate clasps again, but his hands were too unfamiliar and shaky to manage the task. His thoughts swirled as he fully absorbed his new reality. “M-Mommy... what do I do now?” he whispered, voice trembling. Feeling utterly lost and devoid of any solution, he could only hope to rediscover his place, lost in the shuffle of a pandemic and a horde of undead. Michael, now in Hyejin’s form, navigated his new world with the same innocent resolve he had before, seeking safety, understanding, and perhaps a way to hold onto the small threads of his previous life.
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