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The Intermittently Reliable Mallard
Random inspiration: intermittently reliable mallard
AI-generated painting and story
The story
The mallard had been reliable for exactly three Tuesdays in October, which was enough for the night shift clerk to leave it in charge of the slushie machine. It didn’t understand the buttons, but it never pressed the wrong one — until yesterday, when it tried to preen the syrup nozzle and got stuck. Now it waits, beak sealed to cherry flavor, while the store hums and the light stutters, unsure if it’s broken or just on break.
The brief
A mallard duck stands motionless on a linoleum floor beneath a flickering fluorescent light in a half-empty convenience store, one wing slightly raised as if mid-shrug, its feathers dull and slightly ruffled, the only color in the scene coming from a half-melted popsicle stuck to its beak.
The painting and the story were written from this same scene, so the two describe one moment.
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