Windswept

Generative art collaboration 4

Created on Midjourney. Image one by author. Image 2 by Jordan Magnusson. Used with permission.

Welcome

Welcome to the first May generative art collaboration. This one is special, because my collaborator, Jordan Magnusson, provided a hand-drawn image to use in our prompts. The images above were the ones we created together. Here’s Jordan’s original drawing. Working with Jordan has been extra special because he’s a traditional artist who has embraced generative art as well.

Image by Jordan Magnusson. Used with permission.

You’ll definitely want to see more of Jordan’s artwork. You can find him on Instagram.

Instagram

Our Collaboration

Jordan and I came up with so many great images with this collaboration that it was hard to choose which to use for the story.

In case you haven’t already read it, you can find the details of the collaboration process in Eclectic Extra’s first edition, in which you’ll also find my collaboration with Mixed AI Art.

In the images below, I’m contributor A and Jordan is contributor B. Eight of our prompt words are shared and we each used an additional (different) four words, allowing us a total of twelve words each to form our prompts. You’ll note that Jordan used sunset background as one word.

Images created on Midjourney. Jordan Magnusson's image used with permission.

The Story

Today’s story is kind of dark, but hopeful at the same time. I think the word windswept refers to both the island near which the story takes place and what has happened to protagonist. Read on to see if you agree. (Oh, and I used all of the words from both prompts within the story.)

Windswept

From his hiding place behind a small stand of stunted trees, Feldar stared across the murky lake at the figure standing before the windswept island. The only other human he had seen since…well, since the darkness had come, swallowing up life as he knew it. The darkness, he had learned, was not absolute. The sun still rose and set. It just didn’t light the sky as it once had, as if it struggled against an overwhelming dark being determined to blot it out.

The figure just stood there in the ink-dark shadow of the island, a lonely figure against the surreal background landscape. Fractal clouds swirled overhead, opening up a hole in reality. Feldar understood by now that it would allow the seagull-like creatures flying above to depart back to wherever it was they had come from.

They didn’t disturb anything, these creatures from what Feldar assumed was another plane of existence. They simply arrived through the cracks in the sky, flew silently in circles, then departed.  He thought they seemed as lost as he was, as though they had been pulled into his reality somehow and would now be sucked back into their own.

He wondered if that was what had happened to the people from his village. Feldar had been out in the fields when the darkness had come. For some reason, he had been spared the cosmic event that had torn his people from him.

Feldar had raced back to the village, heart pounding in time with his footsteps, terrified of the sudden blackness in the sky. He had hoped to find solace and safety with his family and friends. He found the village intact but emptied of all life. Even the wild boars they had caught and brought back to domesticate had disappeared.

Fearing he might be the only human left, he had set out on his lonely trek knowing it might be months before he encountered another tribe.

The colonists of Novo Terra had degenerated into factions and then small villages when they had been cut off from Earth shortly after they had crash landed here hundreds of years ago. The villages were isolated, and advanced technology lost. Without a mount, Feldar had only his feet to carry him in search of others.

And now, he had found someone. But that someone looked ethereal in the luminous light from the sunset shining down from behind the island—as if they might disappear if he came too close.

Yet this was what Feldar had left his village to do—to find other humans. This task was the only thing that had kept him going for mile after exhausting mile, subsisting on the meager stores he was able to carry and the vegetation he foraged along the way. It was his reason for continuing to live.

How should he approach this stranger? He didn’t want to frighten them. And, at the same time, he worried they might hostile. Should he creep up on them? Or should he simply…

The stranger suddenly turned toward Feldar, as if becoming aware of him. But no, Feldar heard it now, a faint call, then, louder, a clear voice.

“Hoy, Lindston,” the voice said, drawing nearer. “I don’t think we’re going to find anyone else. We should head back.”

“I’m sure the birds spotted someone,” Lindston called back, starting to wade out of the water, which Feldar now realized was quite shallow.

They were speaking English, rather than one of the other languages of the descendants of the original colonists. Feldar hoped that meant they were likely to be reasonably friendly. But they knew something about the birds as well. What was going on here?

Feldar almost remained hidden. But if he did and they left, he would still be alone, and he didn’t know if he could stand that for much longer. What was the point of living if it meant being alone forever? Making a sudden decision, he stepped out from behind the trees, calling out.

“Hello?” He thought he should say something more, but what?

The stranger, now nearly to shore, called back. “Hello! We’ve been looking for you.”

“How…”

“We’ve been hunting stragglers, people who got left behind. This world hasn’t got long left.”

As the stranger drew near, Feldar noticed his eyes glowed a pale yellow in the eerie darkness. In all other respects, he appeared human. “What do you mean,” he asked, now regretting his decision to reveal himself.

Noticing Feldar’s distress, the stranger spread his arms out in a gesture of peace. “I know this is all strange to you. Your people have already told me my eyes don’t look human to you. I’m a seeker. That makes me a little different.”

Feldar looked nervously over his shoulder as three others came up behind him. One had glowing eyes like the seeker, the others’ eyes seemed normal. He licked his lips, nervous, but more determined to understand what was going on. “What do you mean about the world not having long left?”

“We’ve discovered a number of worlds on which this phenomenon—this darkness—has descended. We didn’t understand at first, didn’t react quickly enough. The first few worlds were consumed with all living beings lost. We’ve made it our mission to seek out threatened worlds and rescue as many of their inhabitants as possible.”

An icy chill raised gooseflesh on Feldar’s skin. If true, this was horrific. “How many worlds has it happened on?”

“Since we’ve become aware of it, ten. That’s over the last hundred years or so. It’s not as many as it seems, given the billions of worlds that exist. As well, only seven of those were inhabited.”

“Why is it happening at all?”

“We don’t know,” the stranger said. Scientists have theorized that it may be the universe purging itself of damaged or somehow sick pieces of itself, but we don’t really understand the phenomenon at all.”

Feldar stared past the stranger as the last rays of sunset began to fade behind the island, somehow understanding this would be the last vision he would ever have of the world that had been his home.

“What now?” he asked.

“Now, we get you to safety,” the stranger said. “We’ll find your tribe and reunite you. They’re already learning about your new world and starting to rebuild their lives. I think you’ll find life easier where you’re going.”

As darkness fully descended on the island, a faint shimmer enveloped Feldar and the four humans surrounding him. He closed his eyes, his body tensing at a sense of something tightening around him. When he opened them again, he found himself on another world. Like the island, he had been windswept.

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Afterword

You can view the ten images (5 each) that Jordan and I chose to publish on Instagram. Jordan’s are the odd numbered ones (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) and mine are the even (2, 4 6, 8, 10). While you’re there, take a look at Jordan’s other art. It’s well worth your time to do so.

On May 28th, I’ll share the collaboration I did with AI Art Bob, another great generative artist friend from Instagram.

Don’t forget to leave a comment on today’s images and story.