Variant

If it's a variant of you, it can't be bad.  Right? 

It's been a long time since someone has suggested something for a cap and it actually inspired me to not only think about it, but to go with it and create something.  But here's to new times and new happiness!  

I'm getting more and more into Discord lately.  A lot of it is just me lurking and watching people chat, or tossing in the occasional animated gif for a comment, but sometimes I join in.  One Discord I'm part of is Evie's Emporium.  Yeah... THAT Evie.  Anyway, one thing they have is regular competitions.  At least I assume they're regular.  I watched a couple go by without really diving in, but I happened to catch the very end of this and see Belladonna win.  There were congratulations all around and Belladonna got to pick the next contest subject.  Her idea was 'Variant".  Specifically "In honour of Loki, the TVA, and most importantly Lady Loki. perhaps we could do a moment in time where everything changed and the protagonist does something unexpected and becomes a "variant" from their set timeline"

I really liked the idea.  I hadn't watched the newest episode of Loki yet so didn't know who or what Lady Loki was, but I thought of a variation on Marvel's Avenger's End Game time travel.  Where there isn't actual time travel, just an alternative timeline.  But first... images.  No need getting into a story and details before I had a basic premise from an image.  

As I said earlier, I'm using a pay site so I can't link to the gallery, but this is a recent one from 21 Naturals.  Goddess, I just love their photos!  Their models, their lighting, their action.  Everything!  It's my kind of porn (which I guess makes sense, since I've seen it referred to as "Lady Porn".  Anyway, I liked this set.  She has a "I'm going to go and please my boyfriend with a good old fashioned blow job and once he's riled up, let him fuck me wildly with abandon."  Or... er... at least that's what I saw.  Anywho, she had a good combination of pleasure and surprise.  Feeling good, and looking shocked.  Kind of perfect for a guy thrust into her body.  

This was my first attempt at the opening paragraphs:

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The premise of the Variant program were simple.  The system could send you into an alternative timeline.  The differences could be subtle or major but they were always at the same timeframe and seemed to always include the same people.  They’re still studying it, but it seems that death is universal across all divergent worlds.  You’d always end up in your body, but depending on the exact Variant, your body could be radically different.  Your age remained constant, but your race, gender, size, athleticism,  and just about every other variation was up in the air.  And once a Variant world was visited, it could be studied and visited over and over.  The last published total was 2,203,505 known Variants.  

I got to learn a lot more than the general public as my two best friends worked for the program.  Lucas documented the travels into about a dozen worlds, using footage, and first hand accounts to try and find all the exact variations of each.  Mia on the other hand worked on the technology to return our visitors.  You see, when you went in, you had to establish control over your Variant.  Sometimes it was easy and you were able to control every aspect of them.  Other times it was more difficult and you could wind up being a passenger in your own body.  That was entirely problematic as you had to use the remote in order to return.  No control, no remote, no return.  

I’d volunteered for several runs through the program and got paid handsomely for it.  Mostly it was a matter of hijacking my own body, going to the library or a university, and reading up on some historical or scientific subject.  We were advancing our society by leaps and bounds using the experience and research from millions of other worlds.  I actually had a job that paid better, but I was never able to deny Mia anything.  I’d had a crush on her since highschool, and I only barely got over the heartbreak when I found out she was a lesbian and had no interest in me whatsoever beyond our friendship.  That’s why when Lucas offered me the chance to go to world 1,015,212.  You see, he’d found Mia in that world.  And she was straight.  

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I liked the setup, but I was three paragraphs in and hadn't gotten to anything that would correspond to an image.  I'd either have a LOT of text per image, or I'd have to cut this way WAY down.  So, I just started over and covered much of the same material with a phrase or even a word or two instead of the entire line and paragraph.  And once I got going, I cued up these images and started running with it.  I figured the idea would take at least three images.  I would have been happy, design wise, to end on either the third or fourth image.  Thankfully, the story kept going and ended with a perfect three paragraph format for each panel.  Well... technically to get the last panel to work, I had to combine the two first paragraphs, but yougettheidea! 

Next, with a story that I liked, I came to design.  While I was writing, the term Variant kept echoing in my head, and I decided long before I finished writing that there would be subtle differences between each panel.  From the way I put the title, to the way I displayed the text.  If you just read through and didn't notice the differences... well, thank you!  I take it that the story was good enough to not see them. BUT, I'd bet you saw the differences in the text boxes at least.  The first is just a straight rectangle.  The second is the rounded corner rectangle.  The third is the blurred edge rectangle, while the last one is no text box and just a glow around the text.  The variations on the titles were similarly subtle.  The first panel has no effect on it.  The second panel has the title with a glow.  The third panel has the title with an outline, and the final panel has a drop shadow.  

And the final 'Variant' between panels is the colors.  My first thought was more overt color changes.  From purple, to blue, to green, to an off brown.  But I thought it might be nicer if it was more subtle, so they change only a little.  The highlight secondary color, used in the text boxes, the glows, and/or the outlines, is the same color just lighter.  

Now, to be consistent in color, since I was moving from panel to panel, I had to make a palette to keep the eight used colors:

 It's not much, but it's enough that I could go back and select all of them as I went from panel to panel.  It also shows what a big color change there is from the first panel to the fourth panel.  Quite a 'Variant' there.  

I have no idea if I'll win.  Like most contests I entered at the Haven, I'm not doing this for a victory.  I just wanted to have some fun and flex a bit, and I think I got both of those goals accomplished.  Hope you enjoy the cap!