Sometimes, even something as simple as gifting an allied soldier something else to eat outside the usual rubbish can be a massive boost to their morale, even if the offered food itself isn't considered great to its usual consumers.
----------
So, I just want to preface this by saying - yes, this has AI-generated images, which if you don't like, you can block via the keywords: ai_generated, ai_assisted & ai_art.
No, I'm not going to be uploading only these from now on - I still fully intend to upload actual artist-created pieces. I do want to support artists, but I couldn't resist playing with Bing's Image Creator a bit to go with this idea I've had for the better part of a year.
And I'm honestly going to have to replace these with artist-created versions anyway when I have the funds to do so, given these are pretty generic and don't include many of the details intrinsic to the universe these images and story are part of.
Namely - the Lykocephali depicted here aren't quite how I want them to look as a species.
- They don't have Lycadian Army uniforms or insignia of any sort.
- The images very clearly don't depict the same contiguous location and some don't even show a proper WW1 trench.
- The ration sacks are all supposed to be canvas...I think some aren't.
- And other minor things.
So why did I use AI images instead of just waiting until I had proper art, then? Well, aside from not wanting to wait forever to upload the story since I'm deadass broke or upload JUST the story, I just wanted something to help readers of the included story visualize how things should be depicted, and a picture is worth a thousand words, after all, and I didn't really want to write all one thousand of them.
Of course, I then went and wrote a TWO thousand word story, so... go figure.
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As to the theme itself, that came about as a result of Tasting History with Max Miller - during his WW1 Christmas episode about Christmas puddings, he said something to the effect of the British and French finding it galling that Americans were getting all manner of shit for their Christmas dinner while all they had to look forward to was bullied beef, very likely stale bread, tea and MAYBE a Christmas pudding if they were lucky.
And in the setting I'm currently developing, where werewolves exist (thanks to an extraterrestrial retrovirus on steroids, since those are the only things that can actively alter DNA and I'm trying to keep things RELATIVELY true to Real Life science and physics) and are (mostly) civilized to the point they exist as their own nation, its soldiers would find that rather galling and unfair too.
The Americans get a bountiful feast for having only just arrived in France and the Lykocephali themselves are adequately supplied with enough caloric content to meet their daily needs because their government doesn't suck. It's only the British and French who are getting screwed over several times over - their rations are terrible, have absolutely no variety and worst of all, don't provide enough calories for an active soldier, and those field kitchens that are SUPPOSED to be delivering proper meals to the front-liners, well...no need to expound on those.
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Anyway, on to the AI stuff.
Done with Bing Image Creator.
Prompts for image 1: realistic black and white photograph, serious expression, anthro werewolf with white trimmed fur, crouching in a muddy frozen world war 1 trench offering a large canvas ration sack to a world war 1 british soldier
images 2, 3 & 4: realistic black and white photograph, lithe anthro werewolf with a serious expression sitting in a muddy frozen world war 1 trench offering a large ration package to a world war 1 british soldier
image 5: realistic black and white photograph, grumpy expression, brown fur anthro werewolf crouching in a muddy frozen world war 1 trench offering a large ration package to a world war 1 british soldier
And lastly, while the images are all AI-generated, the story was written entirely by me...which is why it took so damn long - this was supposed to have been uploaded two weeks ago.
Oh well - it has werewolves (sort of), so maybe it's good it's being uploaded on Howlween.
Also, I know absolutely nothing about WW1 beyond a few scattered bits, so if I got anything wrong, let me know so I can fix it.
Keywords
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uniform
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ai art
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rifle
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uniforms
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muck
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camaraderie
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ration
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wolf headed
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lykocephalus
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Details
Published:
1 year, 2 months ago
31 Oct 2023 13:29 CET
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