The Cave 31: Bane vs. Cage 3

WEDNESDAY NIGHT. ZUT ALORS BOITE. LOS ANGELES CA.

The waiter sets down our drinks, “Do you have any questions about the menu?”

Before I can answer, Luke says, “Give us a few minutes, please.”

I’m surprised. Luke only orders one of two things here. And I know what I want. Something is up. Luke is a great guy. We’ve been dating for months. I know he’s challenged because I’m also dating Corey, a 19-year-old college student, and I spend a lot of time with Pete, a friend with benefits. He wants me to make a choice, but I’m just not ready to commit. I tense a little. 

The Cave Undercard 38: Captain Patriot vs. Him

THE CAVE. CAPTAIN PATRIOT’S LOCKER ROOM.

“Cody! How’d things go with Winston?”

I smile, “Awesome. Tons of fun. Before, during, and after the match. Xaq joined in our post-match shower.” I tell Darius, “Toyboy managed to handle Pink Punk all on his own. I wondered if he would have some help to move me around, but his GI Joe action figure never arrived.”

(check out the fun here … The Cave 31: Pink Punk vs. Toyboy) 

Playing with AI (3 of 3)

This is it. Overall, I had fun doing this. However, I haven't been back to it in a month. It was a short-term game for me, but the novelty wore off fast. I did make AI images of my dogs and got really close. Why? Don't I own a camera? Yes, but I was testing it out. I also tried some other prompts and instructions, just to see how I could use it. However, the limitations are the limitations and I have no use for any of these images (except for these posts). I can't see myself doing more until my next superhero story.

Today's images are superhero-themed and some are also wrestling-focused with our heroes (and villains) in the ring. Of course, I'll start with Superman defeated. I put in something like Superman lying defeated in a professional wrestling ring with a muscular burly villain in camouflage pro wrestling gear.

Playing with AI (2 of 3)

My past "process" posts appealed to many readers, like the Route 69 one and the perfect GIF-making one. I hope that's the case with these. While I was playing, of course I had to try wrestlers. Some of these are neat. Not like the coolest ones on Tumblr, but I figure those take more time with a paid program.

I started with some solo wrestlers, prompting on the gear, otherwise just asking for pro wrestlers in a pro wrestling ring, photorealistic style to see what happened. I like it. Of course, I'll never get a guy who looks exactly like this again, so I can't use it for characters in Cave stories.

Playing with AI (1 of 3)

For those of you who read my latest Superman story, I made all the images with AI. I didn't want to pay for anything, so I used the free Bing AI image generator. It was a way to do something different and play with a new toy. I had aspirations to build my real artistic skills, but time has not been on my side. The Superman story went long and had all 'new' characters. That meant more time that I didn't have time for any elaborate image making. That's where Bing came in.

You might have strong feelings on using AI. I do when it's used to fake things, but in this case, I was fine with it. I'm not replacing a human creator. I'm not trying to deceive anyone. I'm not passing off the images as something they're not. I openly stated in the story that all the images were AI-generated. So, I didn't (and don't) see any harm in trying it out.

I generated a ton of images, so I decided to share some of the better ones over the next few days in three posts: (1) alternate story images, (2) wrestling images, and (3) superhero images.

The Cave Unleashed 18: Sammy vs. Guy (Asgard Ranch)

CHAPS SALOON. UNINCORPORATED REDWOOD PARK, CA.

“Howdy. I’m Sammy.”

The new bartender replies, “Shane.” We shake hands. “What do you do, Sammy?”

“Hand at Asgard Ranch.”

Me (Sammy).

Heroes: The Joy of Being Superman (Part 3 of 3)

CHAPTER 5. CAUGHT BY CATCHUM!

CHRIS’ STUDIO APARTMENT. OLD TOWN. METROPOLIS.

TAP! TAP! TAP!

“Who? Oh. Superman? Come in.”

Chris opens the French doors that lead to the fire escape, and he steps aside. He nervously adjusts his tiger-print robe, wondering if he should have put something on under it. Before opening the doors. He’d hate to be arrested while naked. After the hero’s last visit, Chris has been a confused wreck. He tried using Jimmy Olsen as a source, but the photographer knew nothing about what was going on. He didn’t even know that Chris was in trouble.