Totally not the 2021 April Fool’s page
Well, there was no was I was gonna top last year in terms of visual creativity, so might as well go for broke on conceptual detail instead!
And if this feels like a little too much thought went into it for just a simple April Fool’s joke, that’s because it didn’t start out that way. For a long time, this WASN’T a joke, I serious wanted to do this for real. I can’t remember how much (if any) I’ve talked about this, but back in the day when I thought I had enough time/energy for side projects, I really did think about doing a Far Out There AU story with this exact set up. Not as an on-going weekly series, even Past Me knew better than that, but as a miniseries of comic book-sized chapters. And you know what? Even though I now know there’s NO way I’d ever be able to get a thing like this done for serious (see the punch line) I do still enjoy the idea. I think these characters transition over to this alternate setting quite nicely, and would quite easily fit in any number of stock manga storylines. And what’s more, I still REALLY like those school uniforms. It was a deliberate attempt to come up with a combination of the stereotypical Japanese sailor outfit and classic Star Trek uniforms, and I think it all works together a LOT better than it has any right to. I’m tempted to do a whole set of “plot summary” pictures, just to have an excuse to draw those uniforms some more.
…but not before I get to work on page 1170, because HOLY CRAP did this thing throw me off schedule…
Yeah, this alternate reality cannot be made. Not because of the delays to the main story, but because this type of story would, nearly 100% of the time, press for Trigger and Layla to start up a relationship with each other. Particularly since, in the alternate timeline, Layla didn’t know Trigger when he was growing up, and thus doesn’t see him as her younger brother.
And that is ignoring the fact that this comic presents both of Layla’s Parents as evil-overlord types, Layla’s only Main Story Friend, Tabitha, as a willing Evil Genius, and the fact that Astrid seems to be in a position where she’d have direct authority over Layla, that Layla has to accept (that of a teacher, admittedly, but still). Basically, all things that information from the main story line means that, in the inevitable cross-over-story, this universe would end up getting destroyed. Like, the main-world character’s leaving the universe for their own creates a rip in space-time that causes that universe to reset itself level of getting destroyed.
From the author’s notes on the last page I was expecting something big for an April Fools page, but not this 😀
This could actually work well as the setting of that visual novel / dating game that various different commentors bring up the idea of occaisonally.
(I wonder how many of those comments still exist in the Wayback Machine…)
The uniforms do look cool, but also include some details that personally to me look like they might get a bit hard to draw repeatedly.
And I’m sure there’d be an interesting mystery concerning Avatar in this spin-off universe…
Avatar is not only the Headmistress of the school, but also the head of 9 different organisations, half of which are non-profit and funded by the school’s profits, while the other half are profitable mostly because they directly help the school, like the bus service that’s run by an old man who refuses to get out of his environmental suit (Cap’n Crosby).
Due to the demands of the job, and lack of faith in humanity, Avatar’s predecessor grew a clone, and modified that clone to be both immortal and indestructible, before attempting to download a copy of her consciousness (alongside all the knowledge in the world) into the modified clone, who was child-aged at the time, with the intention of raising said child into an adult. The modifications were done on the child body while their brain was temporarily disconnected, for ethical and emotional-development reasons (vast amounts of pain leave a mark, even if you don’t remember it, or know what caused it).
Unfortunately, the original didn’t know that those modifications would also halt the clone’s physical development, nor that the download of all knowledge in existence would overwhelm the implanted personality, so the previous headmaster is now long dead, with Avatar, as their own, unique, but Immortal, person, running the school.
I dunno if “hard” is the right word, but there definitely were details in those uniforms that got away from me if I wasn’t paying attention. Like, accidentally stretching torsos out because I was distracted by getting the belts right.
Also, I love everything about that Avatar “backstory”