What's in a name?

Alectra and Raffside ride again!

So this cap came about from many smaller factors.  First, when I made "Virtual Heaven and Hell", Alectra commented that she liked it, and would like something similar for herself (see what commenting can get you!?). I had already agreed mentally to make her one, when she also made me a cap on the Haven.  That really sealed the deal, as I now owed her a return cap.

So a few weeks ago I started searching for an image.  To use this effect, I wanted to mimic what I did in "Virtual Heaven and Hell"... in other words have two bodies in it.  I know that Alectra just goes ga-ga over latex, particularly latex stockings so that is what I searched for.  But honestly I didn't find an image of two women wearing latex stockings that struck a cord with me.   I don't know how this image came up in my search, but the Google gods smiled on me, as I fell in love with the image.  It would be a royal pain to cut out each woman, as they were so intertwined, but I knew that if I could do it, the effect would be really stunning.  So I grabbed it and started manipulating it.  Here is what the original looked like:

I didn't get it done in one sitting.  So to be honest, the idea that I originally had just didn't click any more (it was something to do with Raffside submitting to Alectra, but it would be all in their head... I don't know how I thought I could pull that off, but it was the original idea).  So when I did finally finish getting the two girls colored individually, I was left with an interesting image, but no direct spark for a story.

I went back and looked at what I had written for Alectra before.  And after reading the 'Dominated' trilogy (found here, here and here), I considered continuing the story of poor ole Pablo, Alectra, Raffside and The Technologist.  And while I honestly figured I could make a good, funny, sexy cap with that, I didn't feel that these images would fit very well into that previous design.  And that complex of a story wouldn't fit well in my new design.  As I am still more or less 'over' with that design style, I decided that continuing the Dominated story wasn't the right way to go here.

So I just started from a blank slate.  I looked at the images and decided that Alectra was on the bottom.  I normally assume the 'bottom' is the sub, but the way her legs and holding the other girl, and her arms pulling her close, just had a more 'dominant' feeling to me.  Plus while they both have lustful looks on their faces, the top girl just looked more submissive in doing so.  So she became Raffside.

So while looking at the 'Alectra' version of the image, I wrote out a quick dialog.  It is mainly intact as the 2nd and 3rd boxes.  I liked it, but felt it needed a little more explanation.  Hense the first box.  With that written, I left it up on the screen, and tired to write out what Paul/Raffside would be thinking.  At first I wrote quite a lot.. but realized that the boxes would be entirely different.  So I cut and cut until I got down to what I have here.  I then walked away.  No more writing, no more designing.

I did that so I could take a look at both the images and the story with a clean set of eyes.  When I re-read it, I liked it, but did edit a bit to make the two sides work a little better together.  Then I moved on to design.   I really just kind of followed what I normally do now:

But after saving it, I paused.  Something just wasn't right.  Now normally when I am happy with the story, and mostly happy with the design, I'll just go with it.  But something was just bugging me at the back of my head.  It took me awhile, but I realized what it was... all of that color was actually making the girls feel a little reversed to me.  The Black and White girl (Raffside in this case) looked like she was the one talking.

Now I know that most people probably wouldn't care.  But it really REALLY bothered me. Especially since I liked the layout and design.  So I went back in and started twaking.  After a lot of color manipulation, I finally settled on losing most of the color.  The background, and the text boxes all went to black and white.  It was better... but still didn't feel quite right:

Now the text boxes were... wrong.  To light. So back I went... I futzed with the gradations in the text boxes, and decided that I liked them better fully opaque.  But it was now actually lacking color.  It DID emphasize the correct girl, but it just didn't feel right.  I added the strokes around the image and the text boxes and that was better... but still not quite right.  I wanted just a touch more color.  That's when I decided to put Alectra/Raffside down the side of the image.  I didn't want to overpower anything else, so it was almost completely see through, but it was enough to make that voice in my head happy.