kane_magus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kane_magus) wrote2021-07-12 04:52 pm
kane_magus) wrote2021-07-12 04:52 pm
Entry tags:
The Island
Here is a story that was generated entirely by NovelAI. (Oh, by the way, since I just realized that I've only mentioned it on Twitter and haven't mentioned it here yet, I've started using NovelAI, at the $10/month level. So far, it seems at least as good as the Griffin model of AI Dungeon, with the added bonus of no censorship and no spying on what you write [or so the creators claim, anyway].)
The only part of this story that I wrote was the first line, which I have bolded and italicized below. Everything else was generated by the AI itself. For the most part, I let it do whatever it wanted. The only times I pressed the "Retry" button was when the AI tried to introduce other characters into the story, which was actually pretty rare. The only other thing I did was that I copied the same first line into the "Author's Note" field, which meant it would be kept in context by the AI. As far as the copy/pasting from NovelAI to this post goes, the only other edits I made besides bolding and italicizing the first line was adding a few "(&)nbsp(;)"s (without the parentheses, of course) at the beginning of each paragraph, since those got lost in the copy/paste.
I figured that the final line it produced there was as good a stopping point as any.
I was an old man who lived all by himself, alone on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. I had been living there for so long that my memories and senses were dulled to such an extent that I didn't even know how many years it had been since I arrived at this place. It felt like it had always been empty. No one else ever came here; no ships would come sailing into these waters. The only things that passed through these seas were monsters. And me—alone on my little piece of land...
"..."
There's nothing out here but sand, waves, and sky. Nothing to do except stare up at those endless blue skies and watch the wind blow across the surface of the water. There are times when I get bored just sitting around doing nothing, staring off into space with not a single thing to occupy my mind or body. So I take walks along the shoreline and look out over the sea as far as I can see. I don't have any friends, so I go fishing from time to time. But if you're going to fish, then why not catch something big? I've caught plenty of small fishes before now. Maybe someday I'll find myself a nice fat tuna or two. That'd be great! Then again, maybe not. If I'm lucky enough to hook some giant monster, well, that'd make my day complete.
But no matter what happens, I won't leave this island until I die. This is where I live. My home. My domain. My castle. Even though I'm a king, I am still human. As humans grow older they become less active, which means their bodies begin to weaken. When people reach an advanced age like mine, sometimes they start having trouble breathing. Sometimes they need help walking. They lose control of their bowels and bladder. Their skin starts peeling off. At first they might think it's just getting older, but eventually it becomes clear that it isn't aging properly. Eventually, they realize that they aren't quite right anymore.
And once that realization hits them, they will never return to normal life. Not without medicine or magic. And neither exists here. For someone like me, who has spent his whole life on this island, it would mean death. A slow, painful death. One step after another, each one harder than the last. Soon I would forget everything about the world outside the island. In fact, I already had forgotten most of it. All I knew was that there was no way back to civilization. There wasn't even anyone left alive who remembered anything about it.
The only reason I haven't died yet is because there are things I want to remember. Things worth remembering. Important things. Like the past. Or rather, memories of the past. It's all too easy for me to forget. Everything fades away over time. People disappear. Places vanish. Memories fade. But there are things that stay with us forever. Some things we can't erase even if we wanted to. We can only carry them inside ourselves. Those things are important.
So I cling to those memories, taking care to hold onto every little detail, no matter how insignificant they may seem.
"..."
I keep repeating those words over and over in my head. "It's been twenty years since I arrived." Twenty years. An eternity ago. Time seems to move slower on islands. It feels as if time itself stops at times like these. Days and weeks pass slowly. Years feel longer, decades more so. The days turn into months; the months stretch out to seasons; then spring comes along, followed by summer, fall, winter...and finally, winter ends, bringing with it a new year.
That's when things really get interesting. That's when my memory begins to play tricks on me. I see things that weren't there before. I hear voices I didn't know I could hear. I smell things I didn't know I could sense. I taste things I never tasted before. I touch things I never touched before. I see colors I never saw before. I see sounds I never heard before. I see smells I never smelled before. I see shapes I never noticed before.
All of a sudden, I'm seeing things again.
...No.
What? What did I see? Was it just a dream? No, it couldn't have been. I can't have just dreamed something like that. But what if I'm not dreaming? What if something actually happened? Something real? But why? Why now? After so long? How? I don't know. But I can tell. This is something different. There are some very strange things going on here. Things I've never seen before. Strange, inexplicable events.
...Wait a minute. I've felt this way before. I'm sure I have. Back then, I had no idea what was going on. I thought I was losing my mind. I kept thinking I must be hallucinating or imagining things. I tried my best not to think about it. I told myself I had to ignore those feelings and just live my life normally, as always. I convinced myself that there were no such things as ghosts. That they weren't real. And yet, something was happening to me. Something bad. I was getting worse, but no one else seemed to notice.
Why am I remembering all of this now?
Because I want to remember, I guess.
I want to remember everything.
I want to remember the past.
But I don't need to.
Forget the past.
Just forget everything about the world outside this island.
I'll forget the whole world.
The world doesn't exist anymore anyway.
Everything will end soon enough.
Nothing lasts forever.
Soon, everything will disappear.
Even this island.
This island where I was born.
The island where I grew up.
The island where I met her.
The island that was once called Earth.
The only part of this story that I wrote was the first line, which I have bolded and italicized below. Everything else was generated by the AI itself. For the most part, I let it do whatever it wanted. The only times I pressed the "Retry" button was when the AI tried to introduce other characters into the story, which was actually pretty rare. The only other thing I did was that I copied the same first line into the "Author's Note" field, which meant it would be kept in context by the AI. As far as the copy/pasting from NovelAI to this post goes, the only other edits I made besides bolding and italicizing the first line was adding a few "(&)nbsp(;)"s (without the parentheses, of course) at the beginning of each paragraph, since those got lost in the copy/paste.
I figured that the final line it produced there was as good a stopping point as any.
I was an old man who lived all by himself, alone on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. I had been living there for so long that my memories and senses were dulled to such an extent that I didn't even know how many years it had been since I arrived at this place. It felt like it had always been empty. No one else ever came here; no ships would come sailing into these waters. The only things that passed through these seas were monsters. And me—alone on my little piece of land...
"..."
There's nothing out here but sand, waves, and sky. Nothing to do except stare up at those endless blue skies and watch the wind blow across the surface of the water. There are times when I get bored just sitting around doing nothing, staring off into space with not a single thing to occupy my mind or body. So I take walks along the shoreline and look out over the sea as far as I can see. I don't have any friends, so I go fishing from time to time. But if you're going to fish, then why not catch something big? I've caught plenty of small fishes before now. Maybe someday I'll find myself a nice fat tuna or two. That'd be great! Then again, maybe not. If I'm lucky enough to hook some giant monster, well, that'd make my day complete.
But no matter what happens, I won't leave this island until I die. This is where I live. My home. My domain. My castle. Even though I'm a king, I am still human. As humans grow older they become less active, which means their bodies begin to weaken. When people reach an advanced age like mine, sometimes they start having trouble breathing. Sometimes they need help walking. They lose control of their bowels and bladder. Their skin starts peeling off. At first they might think it's just getting older, but eventually it becomes clear that it isn't aging properly. Eventually, they realize that they aren't quite right anymore.
And once that realization hits them, they will never return to normal life. Not without medicine or magic. And neither exists here. For someone like me, who has spent his whole life on this island, it would mean death. A slow, painful death. One step after another, each one harder than the last. Soon I would forget everything about the world outside the island. In fact, I already had forgotten most of it. All I knew was that there was no way back to civilization. There wasn't even anyone left alive who remembered anything about it.
The only reason I haven't died yet is because there are things I want to remember. Things worth remembering. Important things. Like the past. Or rather, memories of the past. It's all too easy for me to forget. Everything fades away over time. People disappear. Places vanish. Memories fade. But there are things that stay with us forever. Some things we can't erase even if we wanted to. We can only carry them inside ourselves. Those things are important.
So I cling to those memories, taking care to hold onto every little detail, no matter how insignificant they may seem.
"..."
I keep repeating those words over and over in my head. "It's been twenty years since I arrived." Twenty years. An eternity ago. Time seems to move slower on islands. It feels as if time itself stops at times like these. Days and weeks pass slowly. Years feel longer, decades more so. The days turn into months; the months stretch out to seasons; then spring comes along, followed by summer, fall, winter...and finally, winter ends, bringing with it a new year.
That's when things really get interesting. That's when my memory begins to play tricks on me. I see things that weren't there before. I hear voices I didn't know I could hear. I smell things I didn't know I could sense. I taste things I never tasted before. I touch things I never touched before. I see colors I never saw before. I see sounds I never heard before. I see smells I never smelled before. I see shapes I never noticed before.
All of a sudden, I'm seeing things again.
...No.
What? What did I see? Was it just a dream? No, it couldn't have been. I can't have just dreamed something like that. But what if I'm not dreaming? What if something actually happened? Something real? But why? Why now? After so long? How? I don't know. But I can tell. This is something different. There are some very strange things going on here. Things I've never seen before. Strange, inexplicable events.
...Wait a minute. I've felt this way before. I'm sure I have. Back then, I had no idea what was going on. I thought I was losing my mind. I kept thinking I must be hallucinating or imagining things. I tried my best not to think about it. I told myself I had to ignore those feelings and just live my life normally, as always. I convinced myself that there were no such things as ghosts. That they weren't real. And yet, something was happening to me. Something bad. I was getting worse, but no one else seemed to notice.
Why am I remembering all of this now?
Because I want to remember, I guess.
I want to remember everything.
I want to remember the past.
But I don't need to.
Forget the past.
Just forget everything about the world outside this island.
I'll forget the whole world.
The world doesn't exist anymore anyway.
Everything will end soon enough.
Nothing lasts forever.
Soon, everything will disappear.
Even this island.
This island where I was born.
The island where I grew up.
The island where I met her.
The island that was once called Earth.