"The Gendered Nightmare: A Tale of Transformation Amidst the Undead"
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On a gloomy evening in the year 2020, the world was shrouded in an aura of dread. The dead had risen, and humanity sprinted to survive. Among this chaos, 7-year-old Ben clutched his mother's hand as they navigated the aisles of a near-deserted grocery store.
Ben was a small boy for his age, dressed in a light blue hoodie that stood out against his mop of messy brown hair, and cargo shorts that dangled just above his knobby knees. His sneakers squeaked softly with each step on the store's shiny tiles. His pale skin, a strong contrast to the gloom outside, occasionally glinted under the fluorescent lights.
His mom, Natalie, at 32 years of age, stood 5'8" tall and weighed around 140 pounds. She had celebrated her birthday on the 12th of June, born in 1988. Her long, mahogany hair cascaded over her shoulders in loose waves, and her green eyes meticulously scanned the shelves. Natalie wore a pair of well-worn jeans, a dark green sweater that matched her eyes, and size 8 sneakers that squeaked similar to Ben's. Sprinkled with years of wear, her shoes betrayed the reality of a world still adjusting to an outbreak of unimaginable horror.
"Mommy," Ben said, his innocent eyes catching the light as he looked up at her. "Why ur feet so spall, yous a grown-up! My feet gonna be this tiny when I grow?"
Natalie chuckled softly, her laughter a brief, bright respite from the surrounding gloom. "No, sweetheart," she replied. "Since you're a boy and not a girl, your feet should grow very big. I bet they'll be at least a size 10 when you're older."
As they cautiously grabbed cans of food and other essential supplies, the atmosphere shifted. The tension thickened until it became almost palpable. Then, from the far end of the store, a guttural roar announced the arrival of the undead. The zombies poured into the store like water breaching a dam.
"Run, Ben, run!" Natalie cried, grabbing his hand, and they dashed down the aisles. Cans and boxes clattered to the floor as they fled.
In their desperate scramble, they encountered a group of five Korean women. Despite the horror around them, these women were impeccably dressed, as though they had stepped out of a pre-pandemic fashion magazine. Each wore a colorful blouse and matching skirt; one in a pastel pink blouse and white skirt, another in a blue floral blouse with a yellow skirt, a third in a bold red blouse paired with a black skirt, a fourth in a lavender blouse with a green skirt, and the oldest in the group, revealing deep wrinkles yet a strong presence, wore a golden blouse and a charcoal skirt.
All of the women sported platform footwear, varying from elegant platform sandals with intricate straps to sleek platform shoes with a glossy finish. Their nails were perfectly manicured: pastel pink, ocean blue, fire engine red, mint green, and golden yellow, matching their outfits. The oldest among them, who seemed to command respect from the others, wore the golden blouse and sported yellow nails that matched exactly. Their short Korean haircuts framed their faces neatly.
Each detail about the women seemed incongruously meticulous for their ghastly surroundings. Ji-Won, 43, led the group at 5’4” and 130 pounds. Her date of birth: May 1, 1977. From Los Angeles. Da-eun, 45, stood 5'3", at 135 pounds, her sleek black hair highlighting her life in Chicago. Born October 9, 1975. Young-mi, 46, at 5'3" and 132 pounds, her bobbed hair reflected her Kentucky roots. Her birthday fell on December 21, 1974. Seo-yeon, 47, from New York, whose short-cropped hair mirrored her sophisticated style, carried herself at 5'2" and 128 pounds. Born August 15, 1973. The eldest, Soo-jin, 60, standing at 5'4" and weighing 140 pounds, hailed directly from South Korea. Soo-jin’s jet-black hair was trimmed short, and her birth date marked June 11, 1960.
Ben separated from his mom momentarily in their frantic rush, catching Soo-jin's eye. She reached out and spoke in rapid Korean, "*Jeogi! Geogi! Jungeul joahe?!*"
Her hands encircled Ben before he could react fully. "No!" he cried, wriggling to escape, but his vision tunneled and everything went black.
When Ben's eyes fluttered open, he found himself disoriented. Glancing down, he was stunned to see unfamiliar shapes: a pastel-pink blouse and a tight-fitting white skirt. His once pale skin now held a slightly bronzed tone, and the platform sandals at his feet felt alien. His own hands now bore delicately painted pink nails.
"Mommy!" he yelled, even his voice sounding distorted and foreign. "*I wan... I want my mommy!*"
Ben stumbled awkwardly in the platform sandals, the movement of the skirt around his knees uncomfortably foreign. He tripped several times but managed to gain some distance from the zombies. Catching sight of his reflection in a store window, he traced his new almond-shaped eyes with trembling fingers, as if trying to morph them back to his own wide, round ones. "*I want to go home. I want Mommy,*" Ben sobbed, his words fractured, "*Ay want to guu home. Ay want Mommy*."
His every move amplified his unfamiliarity with his new girly form. The short, styled hair, the blouse and skirt that wouldn't come off despite numerous attempts, and the platform sandals that tethered him—nothing yielded. His heart raced as realization dawned—"*I gonna hav gurl feet an talk like the funni lady fo-ev-er!*" he whimpered, "*Ay gonna hav gurl feet an tolk like da’ funne’ lady forevur!*"
Desperation took a chilling turn as he tried to remove additional jewelry—a bracelet that clung stubbornly to his slender wrist, a delicate anklet whose clasp defied his efforts, and rings stuck fast onto fingers that now lacked their usual strength. Each attempt was in vain, with no way to unhook or unlatch them.
"I'm scared," Ben choked out, tears streaming down his face, "*I'm skerrd.*"
Suddenly, the rest of Soo-jin's salon stylist friends found him, grabbing his hands and leading him away. Ji-Won tightened the straps on the sandals and smoothed down the blouse with a critical eye. "*Mina, why yus wander off so?*"
"*Mina, ur age, yus da' eldest! Yudoe!*" another of the women snapper her name to Ben, though he couldn't understand their words.
He struggled as they dragged him through the store toward an exit, finally breaking free into the parking lot. Empty of cars but teeming with zombies, it seemed like a nightmarish conclusion to a horrid day. Ben, trapped in a transformed body, felt his hope unraveling under the fear and overwhelming horror.
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 taking place in the year 2020 starring 7 year old Ben 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, birth year, hair color and style and eye color, and her shoe size mentioned. Have Ben make a comment about his mom's feet being small for a grown up and have it be in quoted text asking if his feet were gonna be that tiny when he grew up in an innocent voice and spell words wrong showing what he wanted to say versus what he said in his little kid voice. Have his mom laugh and say no and have it be in quoted text saying since he's a boy and not a girl his feet should grow very big and have her guess what size his feet will be when he's older. 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 him following close behind. Have 5 Korean women appear wearing blouses and skirts with detailed descriptions of the blouses and skirts and have all be wearing platform sandals and platform shoes with detailed descriptions of the platform sandals and platform shoes and have all of them have painted nails and include the colors. Include all 5 Korean women's names, ages all being older than his mom, heights all being shorter than his mom, weights, birthdays, birth years all being older than his mom with one of the 5 women being much older than the other 4 women, hair colors and styles all being short Korean styles and where they were from in the US or if they were from South Korea and their shoe sizes. Have one of the women notice the boy saying something to him in Korean and 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. Reveal which woman grabbed him and include her information a second time including her name, age, birthday, birth year, height, weight, hair color and style and eye color and where she was from and her shoe size being much smaller than his moms and mention her blouse type and color and her skirt type and color and her platform sandals color and type and the color of her nail polish. Have all of the women be salon stylists and include them all being salon stylists in the story and how long each of them had been one for. Have him open his eyes realizing he's taller and feels different looking down and noticing the blouse and knee length skirt he was now wearing being the same consistent color they were earlier in the story and his different skin tone and the platform sandals being the same they were earlier in the story and the polished nails being the same color they were earlier in the story and have him look for his mommy worriedly realizing she's now gone. Have him yell for mommy and have it be in quoted text unwillingly in broken English spelling words wrong and show the quote the way he wanted to say it versus how he said it. Have him try to run stumbling over the platform sandals he was now wearing and have the woman's outfit be very uncomfortable and have him trip over something hearing his female voice and have him gag at how girly it all was and have him squeeze his eyes shut. Have him do everything to pace himself trying to run away from the zombies and and have the platform sandals be hard to run in and have him consistently trip over the platform sandals eventually getting far enough away from the zombies. Have him innocently study his new reflection tracing his almond shaped eyes with his new hands and have him try to change his eyes back to the normal wide eyes noticing they look nothing like his mother's but give up on trying being specific as to what he did. Have him say i want to go home i want mommy and have it be in quoted text unwillingly speaking in broken English and saying some words wrong and show the quoted text how he wanted to say it versus how he said it. Have him start crying at the sound of his voice. Have him play with his short female hair and what he did with it noticing his polished nails on his female hands as he played with it but being unable to change it back to his boyish hair. Have him try to remove the blouse and skirt in different ways being unsuccessful and including each of the ways in the story with a detailed description. Have him try to remove the platform sandals being unable to trying in 5 different ways and including each of the 5 ways in the story but the platform sandals aren't glued to her feet they just won't come off. Have him notice his female feet actually look smaller than his mom's feet and have him say something and have it be in quoted text in very broken English about how he's gonna have girl feet and talk like the funny lady he now is for the rest of his life and show the quote he wanted to say it versus how he said it in very broken English. Have him try to remove the first piece of the woman's 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 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 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 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 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 jewelry being detailed and specific but being unable to remove it and why. Have him try to say I'm scared and have it be in quoted text unwillingly speaking in broken English spelling words wrong and show the quote how he wanted to say it versus how he said it and have him squeeze his eyes shut in fear. Have the woman's 4 other friends find her and grab her by the hands guiding her somewhere. Have one of the other woman criticize her for wandering off and have it be in quoted text in broken English calling the boy by their friend's name who had grabbed him earlier and who he was in the body of and spell the words wrong in the quoted text and have them tighten parts of her outfit and platform sandals. Have another one of the other women criticize her reminding her her age and have it be in quoted text in broken English calling the boy by their friend's name who had grabbed him earlier and who he was in the body of spelling certain words wrong and have her end her quote with a Korean saying. Have the boy in the woman's body hear the Korean woman speaking to him thinking he's her friend unable to understand it at all. Have him struggle to run out in the platform sandals as the women drag him and have him make it out to the parking lot and have the parking lot be empty but full of zombies. Have him be terrified.
Response: On a gloomy evening in the year 2020, the world was shrouded in an aura of dread. The dead had risen, and humanity sprinted to survive. Among this chaos, 7-year-old Ben clutched his mother's hand as they navigated the aisles of a near-deserted grocery store. Ben was a small boy for his age, dressed in a light blue hoodie that stood out against his mop of messy brown hair, and cargo shorts that dangled just above his knobby knees. His sneakers squeaked softly with each step on the store's shiny tiles. His pale skin, a strong contrast to the gloom outside, occasionally glinted under the fluorescent lights. His mom, Natalie, at 32 years of age, stood 5'8" tall and weighed around 140 pounds. She had celebrated her birthday on the 12th of June, born in 1988. Her long, mahogany hair cascaded over her shoulders in loose waves, and her green eyes meticulously scanned the shelves. Natalie wore a pair of well-worn jeans, a dark green sweater that matched her eyes, and size 8 sneakers that squeaked similar to Ben's. Sprinkled with years of wear, her shoes betrayed the reality of a world still adjusting to an outbreak of unimaginable horror. "Mommy," Ben said, his innocent eyes catching the light as he looked up at her. "Why ur feet so spall, yous a grown-up! My feet gonna be this tiny when I grow?" Natalie chuckled softly, her laughter a brief, bright respite from the surrounding gloom. "No, sweetheart," she replied. "Since you're a boy and not a girl, your feet should grow very big. I bet they'll be at least a size 10 when you're older." As they cautiously grabbed cans of food and other essential supplies, the atmosphere shifted. The tension thickened until it became almost palpable. Then, from the far end of the store, a guttural roar announced the arrival of the undead. The zombies poured into the store like water breaching a dam. "Run, Ben, run!" Natalie cried, grabbing his hand, and they dashed down the aisles. Cans and boxes clattered to the floor as they fled. In their desperate scramble, they encountered a group of five Korean women. Despite the horror around them, these women were impeccably dressed, as though they had stepped out of a pre-pandemic fashion magazine. Each wore a colorful blouse and matching skirt; one in a pastel pink blouse and white skirt, another in a blue floral blouse with a yellow skirt, a third in a bold red blouse paired with a black skirt, a fourth in a lavender blouse with a green skirt, and the oldest in the group, revealing deep wrinkles yet a strong presence, wore a golden blouse and a charcoal skirt. All of the women sported platform footwear, varying from elegant platform sandals with intricate straps to sleek platform shoes with a glossy finish. Their nails were perfectly manicured: pastel pink, ocean blue, fire engine red, mint green, and golden yellow, matching their outfits. The oldest among them, who seemed to command respect from the others, wore the golden blouse and sported yellow nails that matched exactly. Their short Korean haircuts framed their faces neatly. Each detail about the women seemed incongruously meticulous for their ghastly surroundings. Ji-Won, 43, led the group at 5’4” and 130 pounds. Her date of birth: May 1, 1977. From Los Angeles. Da-eun, 45, stood 5'3", at 135 pounds, her sleek black hair highlighting her life in Chicago. Born October 9, 1975. Young-mi, 46, at 5'3" and 132 pounds, her bobbed hair reflected her Kentucky roots. Her birthday fell on December 21, 1974. Seo-yeon, 47, from New York, whose short-cropped hair mirrored her sophisticated style, carried herself at 5'2" and 128 pounds. Born August 15, 1973. The eldest, Soo-jin, 60, standing at 5'4" and weighing 140 pounds, hailed directly from South Korea. Soo-jin’s jet-black hair was trimmed short, and her birth date marked June 11, 1960. Ben separated from his mom momentarily in their frantic rush, catching Soo-jin's eye. She reached out and spoke in rapid Korean, "*Jeogi! Geogi! Jungeul joahe?!*" Her hands encircled Ben before he could react fully. "No!" he cried, wriggling to escape, but his vision tunneled and everything went black. When Ben's eyes fluttered open, he found himself disoriented. Glancing down, he was stunned to see unfamiliar shapes: a pastel-pink blouse and a tight-fitting white skirt. His once pale skin now held a slightly bronzed tone, and the platform sandals at his feet felt alien. His own hands now bore delicately painted pink nails. "Mommy!" he yelled, even his voice sounding distorted and foreign. "*I wan... I want my mommy!*" Ben stumbled awkwardly in the platform sandals, the movement of the skirt around his knees uncomfortably foreign. He tripped several times but managed to gain some distance from the zombies. Catching sight of his reflection in a store window, he traced his new almond-shaped eyes with trembling fingers, as if trying to morph them back to his own wide, round ones. "*I want to go home. I want Mommy,*" Ben sobbed, his words fractured, "*Ay want to guu home. Ay want Mommy*." His every move amplified his unfamiliarity with his new girly form. The short, styled hair, the blouse and skirt that wouldn't come off despite numerous attempts, and the platform sandals that tethered him—nothing yielded. His heart raced as realization dawned—"*I gonna hav gurl feet an talk like the funni lady fo-ev-er!*" he whimpered, "*Ay gonna hav gurl feet an tolk like da’ funne’ lady forevur!*" Desperation took a chilling turn as he tried to remove additional jewelry—a bracelet that clung stubbornly to his slender wrist, a delicate anklet whose clasp defied his efforts, and rings stuck fast onto fingers that now lacked their usual strength. Each attempt was in vain, with no way to unhook or unlatch them. "I'm scared," Ben choked out, tears streaming down his face, "*I'm skerrd.*" Suddenly, the rest of Soo-jin's salon stylist friends found him, grabbing his hands and leading him away. Ji-Won tightened the straps on the sandals and smoothed down the blouse with a critical eye. "*Mina, why yus wander off so?*" "*Mina, ur age, yus da' eldest! Yudoe!*" another of the women snapper her name to Ben, though he couldn't understand their words. He struggled as they dragged him through the store toward an exit, finally breaking free into the parking lot. Empty of cars but teeming with zombies, it seemed like a nightmarish conclusion to a horrid day. Ben, trapped in a transformed body, felt his hope unraveling under the fear and overwhelming horror.
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