I posted this excerpt from a chapter I wrote on Wattpad’s subreddit and was told it “has the cadence of AI”.
Excerpt
Mary stepped into the damp, dark space blindly, her bare feet brushing against the rough, cold stone. The faint drip of water echoed through the cavern, a rhythmic sound that kept time with the anxious thump of her heart. The air was thick with the musty scent of moss and salt, tinged with something sour, like sickness. The walls seemed to press in around her, and every breath tasted of earth and decay.
“Annie? Are you there?” Mary asked, her voice small and hesitant, barely rising above the steady plopping of water. She squinted into the darkness, her eyes struggling to make sense of anything.
Mary had never liked this place. Before the pink-skins and their Silver Church swarmed the region, the Illuri that lived here cloaked these caverns in myths and legends. But one particular story was known far and wide.
The caverns beneath the cliffs of this coast were said to have been the dwelling of a great sea serpent, a monster so vast it carved its way through the land, leaving the earth forever marred, with the underground river it left behind serving as a wound that bled perpetually. The Illuri claimed the serpent was so long it could wrap itself around the world, its tail looping back to its ferocious maw. Its hunger was insatiable, consuming everything in its path until come the day it would grow ravenous enough to swallow the entire world. Mary knew it was just a story, one meant to frighten, but as she stepped onto the damp stone, the hiss of the air sounding ominously like a serpent’s, the weight of those old tales seemed to pull at her mettle like an anchor. The serpent was not present, of course. It had never been whenever she visited. Yet she could not shake the feeling that something still lurked in the darkness, watching her.
This is an excerpt of my writing from years ago for the same story but this was before AI was a thing. Well actually I don’t know if AI generated writing was a thing back in 2019/2020, but this is NOT AI generated and I think there’s not much difference between the two? I wonder if I would have been accused of using AI generated text back then if AI was a thing.
Excerpt
An old man with a younger girl made their way to him. The man was dressed in colourful and striped loincloths that were typical of the Illuri. Wrapped around his head was a wicker crown with large wild rooster feathers that encircled it. Liwani did not recognise the markings on the man’s body, and he assumed he came from another tribe. On his back was a furred mantle and the man wore a necklace that was sculpted into a snake.
By his left was one of the pink-skins. The sun had been unkind to her, made plain by her reddening skin, her eyes green and her hair red like fire. She was dressed in brown rags and a wraparound skirt. Around her neck was a leather coil attached to a long chain that was gripped by the tribesman.
A slave? Liwani thought. He had never seen a pink-skin this close. He sat straighter, more fitting of the deity his people believed he was, with newly piqued interest in the specimen before him. Much of his people were brutally slaughtered or put in chains by the pink men of the north. It was not unheard of for the tribes to retaliate in kind by sacking small villages and taking their women and children as slaves.
“Peace, Calmer of Seas and Tamer of Storms,” the old man bowed. For some reason, Liwani felt the urge to bow as well. But he stayed still and kept his face void of emotions, furtively wary of the strangers. The apo was quiet, but Liwani sensed his adoptive father’s curiosity beside him. “I am Bangu of the Giliganad. I have brought you many gifts. Behold,”
He took off his mantle and spread it wide, the words coming out of his mouth far from what anyone would expect from an Illuri. “The Mantle of Mehos, the lion of the invader-king of old.”
As one, the drumming and the dancing stopped as all heads turn to the cloak. Some gasped and stared in awe while others discussed its authenticity. Liwani did not know how to react. He had been told about Mehos, a large and fearsome beast, with a great golden mane, sharp claws, and a fatal set of teeth. His owner was said to have been even fiercer and rode the beast to battle as he slaughtered his people hundreds of years ago. And likewise, Mehos and its beastly kin disappeared sometime after, perhaps butchered by the Illuri.
Liwani could not validate whether the man’s claim was true, but it was a gift regardless, and he accepted it with a smile, letting it drape over his feet. “Thank you, Bangu of the Giliganad. This is a handsome tribute.”
The old man then unclasped his serpentine necklace and placed it on his palm for all to see. “The priests of my order offer you this sacred relic as well.”
Liwani stared at the polished ebony, its ruby eyes sparkling, lit by the tawny fires of the braziers. The detailing was so great, he thought the thing would come to life and hiss at him if he took it from its current owner.
Hesitantly, Liwani accepted it. Beneath his touch, the scales felt too real. He expected it to slither up his arm and strike him down.
Before Liwani could thank him for the second gift, Bangu stepped closer, the chains rattling in his hand. “And your third gift, a female pink-skin. She will be useful to you, I’m sure of it.”
This time, Liwani could study the meager girl more clearly. She had welts everywhere. Some half-healed scars were plain to see, and her cheeks were wet with tears.
“Useful? How?”
The old man turned to the slave girl and looked at her pointedly.
“I have been trained to speak the languages of the Illuri, enkado, and of course, I know my people’s tongue. I can teach you what I’ve learned, what I know, if you wish.”
Liwani shuddered in his seat, completely shocked at the pink-skin girl’s fluent Illurak.
His eyes skimmed her body once more and his heart sank. Meat scarcely gathered around her bones. And her wounds suddenly made sense to him. She was not covered in them for no reason. She was probably punished for every error she made during her study of the many tongues she claimed she could speak.
Same use of snakes as a motif. The same method of calling back to a particular legendary figure or myth from a time long ago. I think there are currently a lot of people who are quick to accuse people who don’t write in a simpler or more ‘modern’ way of using AI generated writing. And it’s not just me, I’ve seen a surge of these accusations for other people’s writing online recently. Has anyone else noticed or experienced this?
