The Round 9 Title — Behind the Green Door — voting is in full swing. We’re almost halfway through the voting round, and we have a race on our hands (Gary and Perry). Assuming everyone has read the three stories titled Behind the Green Door, you can vote for your favorite in THIS POST. If you’ve not yet read the stories, that post also has links to the stories. Plus, I link the stories (and their blurbs) below.

I normally populate reminder posts with artsified versions of my photos, but I thought I’d try my hand at using AI Art Generators to provide graphics reflecting what each writer submitted.

Sounds like fun, no? . . . let’s get started.

Let’s begin with Gary’s submission . . .

R. G. Broxson submission<<link
It’s Halloween. I couldn’t resist waking a few classic monsters from their coffins or crypts. James, a backyard bard, tells a campfire horror story that gets just a little too real for his audience of neighborhood children. In the end, we’ll find out who the real monsters are (insert evil laughter here…).

So, I tried giving the AIs prompts related to key elements of the story, like the classic monsters described in the story . . .

Well, we got some of the key elements; a couple of the monsters and a green door. But, in the story, the green door appears next to an oak tree in someone’s backyard, so I tried again . . .

Hmm . . . looks like The Mummy, a Troll (?!), what looks like a Ninja, and possibly Keanu Reeves. On the other hand, we have a green door by what could be an Oak tree. There were other renderings, but I felt they departed even more from the prompt . . .

OK, so I tried a different approach (mixing the order of the words) and these are the concepts I got . . .

Well, certainly interesting, but, of all those, I felt the last offering was the most applicable . . . so I upscaled three of them.

I still find them lacking, and I suppose I could manually edit portions of the above and come up with an interesting composite . . . but not today.

For the record, I ran a lot more iterations than what you see here (above or below), but most were way off the mark. Proof positive that either I’m not any good at using these tools, or I can do much better than an AI by using my own photos and royalty-free images.

Let’s move on to Perry’s offering . . .

Perry Broxson submission<<link
Rocco D’Angelo wanted to be his generation’s next Philip Marlow – the preeminent Private Investigator. But he screwed up and got a girl killed. Now, in the latter years of his abject career, he gets one final opportunity to redeem himself. However, the mission is virtually impossible. It’s his task to rescue a baby . . . a baby that died 30 years prior, unbaptized. It’s Rocco’s job to save her from Infant Purgatory!

In case it’s not clear, we’re talking about Dante’s version of hell, and at one point the main character is offered the choice of opening one of three green door. A 33% chance to choose the correct door leading to salvation and rescuing of both the infant and an earlier victim (a girl).

Of those, I like the second version, with one door possibly hinting at the hell awaiting behind it . . . but I wanted more elements of the story, like the inclusion of a young girl and a baby (other elements were too difficult to pass along to the AI).

OK, neither of those is that bad . . . if you ignore the warping and weird rendering of body features and, of course, the floating baby.

Again, I indulged in modifying the prompt, specifying the relationship of the girl, baby, and doors . . .

Of those three, I like the last one the best . . . but I kept going . . .

In the end, the one I would likely choose is the next one since it incorporates a few more details from the narrative, like the smashed door(s).

Again, as a reminder, I’m only offering images that at least tangentially reflect details of Perry’s story.

Finally, there’s my offering . . .

E. J. D’Alise submission<<link
Your life continues Behind the Green Door . . . or, does it?

Here’s the curious thing . . . some of the images for Perry’s story would also fit mine, and vice versa. What do I mean?

I’ll answer in a moment, but first, the initial attempt to signify a clinic or medical facility with a green door . . .

That’s pretty bland, and signifies nothing of the story other than, you know, a green door.

The premise of the story is that people can upload their consciousness to The Cloud and keep living an artificial life . . . meaning, their bodies die, but they move on to a life beyond death . . . technology available from a company that signifies a green door as the passage to the afterlife.

It may sound like I’m embellishing my story more than the Twin’s, but my blurb is skimpy in comparison, and some context is needed for these images to have any significance.

This is what I meant by some of my and Perry’s images being interchangeable; both show going through to a better place

Keep that in mind as you scroll through the next offerings.

I though this would fit pretty well with my story, signifying the hesitation of taking a giant step into the future.

These next four are similar and possibly applicable to Perry’s story.

I especially thought the last two could work for both of our stories.

These next two variants work better for my story than Perry’s.

These next two are interesting but perhaps too ornate . . .

Then again, the first image would also work; just a plain green door hiding the mystery behind it . . . same as this rendering.

There is a SmugMug Gallery for these, but, really, there’s not much more to see there than what’s in this post (one extra rendering).

Anyway, if at all intrigued, give the stories a read. I’m often told the offerings are pretty good, and I take those comments at face value. But, heck, if you don’t agree, let us know.

Tell us what you didn’t like, or we’ll just keep repeating the same mistakes in future offerings.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

<><><><o><><><><><o><><><>

Note: if you are not reading this blog post at DisperserTracks.com, know that it’s copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intentions, like attracting you to a malware-infested website.  Could be they also torture small mammals.

Note 2: it’s perfectly OK to share a link that points back here.

<><><><o><><><><><o><><><>

If you’re new to this blog, it might be a good idea to read the FAQ page. If you’re considering subscribing to this blog, it’s definitely a good idea to read both the About page and the FAQ page.