Take a Breath!

I think I need an inhaler!

I had this picture in a caption setting for some time now. Probably over a year. I had forgotten about it at one point, and when I was going through the d'archives looking for cations I hadn't posted yet. Since then, every time I opened up Photoshop to try to caption, I'd open it up to see if I had anything to write for it, but hadn't until Saturday afternoon when I was surfing the TG caption sties. This week, Simone posted 2 captions that really discarded much of the cliches out of straight up "TG transformation" captions and made it seem fresh and new. You can, of course find them HERE its the two latest captions she's posted.

She focused more on the feelings of the transformed in the first one, and balanced it in the second one by alternating from the "how" it was happening with the "reaction" the character had at the same time. She really nails it here, "The constant, tactile rush of heated water melted the chiseled angles from Chris, leaving toned, graceful limbs and soft, tempting flesh.  The steam fogged the shower glass as Chris’s silhouette reshaped him, but it also clouded his thoughts." There are no 'pants legs fusing together, and slowly crawling up his legs to form a skirt.' in this caption. The only reason I'm not posting it here is that she deserves ALL the page views she gets for making these last two captions!

Anyway, it made me think of ways to get around the limitations that often beset the "transformation as a means to itself" issues that we've talked about here before. Obviously it can be done, as Simone did it justice to the n-th degree. I pulled up this setting and thought it would make a great source for a like-minded caption as it didn't have much to show except her facial expression and a tiny bit of shoulder. Kat Vandee likes transformational captions so I decided to whip something up for her.

As a bit of serendipity, I had actually named the caption setting, "Take a Breath" so I started with that .. the duality of it, with us either inhaling or exhaling. Its a binary thing: a yin-yang, male/female thing. "Air in .. Air out. Expand and contract" were the first words I wrote, then the first line came next. From there, I tried to keep the changes grounded in her breaths,  that would be my guide. "Out with the bad air, in with the good" so to speak. At the end, I wanted "Lebowski's Rug" which sometimes eludes me, but here I wouldn't have that great of a caption if I could tie everything back together somehow. There was this stupid throwaway line from an old Ren and Stimpy episode that stuck with me, said by Muddy Muskipper, "Ever breathe oxygen, son? Good, don't start. Me, I'm hooked!" That sealed the ending for me, equating an addiction to sex with breathing. You have to breathe, so you have to have sex!

That pretty much wraps up my thought process in creating this caption..My scatter shot brain mashing things together into a somewhat cohesive whole. Hope you enjoy!

Of course, there is also THIS song!

And one of Roger Waters most cynical and poignant lyrics.