"We're like art deco Scooby-Doo!"

happy birthday March 7th!! 🎉 🎉

HSR Astral Express crew collab with @allikittkatt, @alacrity42, and anonymous.person.o_o on instagram :)

caelus version!

Last year I made a drawing for her birthday,and This year was not going to be the exception either.

No, seriously, last year's was HORRIBLE, sometimes I feel like deleting it.

Obviously it's not the best drawing in the world and it could have been better, but I feel it looks better compared to the other one.

like. yeah, aventurine's employment with the ipc is more so a form of indentured servitude, but you guys really think the ipc can contain that man? he's too fucking smart for that. if a large part of him did not enjoy the lifestyle this gilded cage offers, he wouldn't be there. people seriously want me to believe that aventurine is not resourceful or capable enough to concoct an elaborate scheme to break his golden shackles and vanish into less than a blip on the ipc's radar. if you ask me, actually, there's a damn good chance that his grand "death" on penacony was one such scheme, but he ended up changing his mind in the heat of the moment for whatever reason

and i empathize with aventurine's desire to be wealthy (aka, SAFE). after everything he's been through?? i nearly feel inclined to say that he deserves it. also, part of his motivation for securing wealth and power was to try to help the avgin rebuild, which is admirable. use the resources of the cosmic monopoly that destroyed their home to rebuild. but people have got to learn to admit and sit with the fact that he did just want wealth for his own sake, too

but none of this changes the fact that he maintains his newfound security in one of the most immoral ways possible. he knows firsthand how the ipc tears families and communities and local cultures apart. we know he feels guilt for his participation in the process. but he looks aside and dissociates himself from that guilt, and he continues to perpetuate the cycle of exploitation because the alternative is giving up everything he has and returning to a life defined by struggle. and again, it's hard to fully hold this against him when you consider how much he's been through. if you throw in the fact that he easily reads as having DID and interpret the "future" apparition as another person living in his brain instead of a mere representation of a concept, that adds a whole other layer of complexity to the way he seems stuck in place

we can understand and empathize with the way he seems to be in a cycle of imprisonment... while also recognizing that he is perpetuating another cycle of exploitation, and that he IS capable of shattering the former cycle, but doesn't because he is comfortable in this particular cage and afraid of what waits for him outside of it. and we can also empathize with that!!!! we can ALSO acknowledge that he is underprivileged when directly compared to his fellow stonehearts, but let's stop pretending that the threat of execution is unique to him. stoneheart is not a job anyone gets to quit or retire from. the only ipc-recognized forms of escape are death on-field or execution (or possibly memory wiping à la scp amnestics? but that one's just pure speculation). what's actually unique to aventurine is the fact that over half of his coworkers are chomping at the bit for any excuse to shove him onto the execution podium, so his position is much more precarious than theirs

people are allowed to talk about the fucked up facets of his character. we shouldn't have to limit our discussions to what's easily empathized with because certain people can't tolerate anything less than 100% glazing. aventurine is a complicated character in a very unique, complicated position. if you actually want to understand him, you're going to have to get used to balancing several contradictory and uncomfortable truths about him. or you can sit and defang his moral grayness and turn him into a "Perfect Victim" i guess because #dowhateveryouwantforever but don't get mad when i say that's mischaracterization

the wooden octopus mask is clearly meant to resemble cthulhu. something cthulhu does is appear in people's dreams, and just the sight of him is terrifying enough to drive most insane. these unfortunate souls then go on to commit acts of extreme violence and/or suicide. artists are supposed to be especially vulnerable to cthulhu's influence, and what is planarcadia full of? 🙂

yeah. i don't think the department of aberration defense is going to be able to apprehend a single target. the owner of that mask is broadcasting the same kind of feelings of pure terror that cthulhu invokes across the whoooooole planet, and now everyone has the potential to become a "herald of death." the way i imagine it occurring is 1 or 2 people in a public space suddenly snapping and attacking everyone around them, and the frenzy spreads from there. and once the dust settles, everyone is dead. including the "original" "herald."

if we zoom in on the crime scene cg, there is blood on the victims' hands. this doesn't necessarily mean anything, because it could just be their own or from attempts at self-defense, but idk, the way the bloody handprints are scattered everywhere... compared to the work of the real herald of death 15 years ago...

doesn't it just seem messier? more panicked? more like handprints left by the victims themselves in the chaos of tearing each other apart than a clear-minded serial killer decorating the scene after the fact?

like. bear with me here. the sort of cosmic nihilism and terror that cthulhu represents is exactly what the elation seeks to defy. like okay we may be insignificant little ants who could be wiped out by the absentminded flick of a pinky finger of a being so old, so powerful, so large, so terrible that we cannot even fully comprehend its form. so what? at least we can still have fun with our insignificant little ant lives! for all of its absurdity, planarcadia is the perfect environment to introduce some real lovecraftian themes

one of the top candidates for this mask is blade, BUT i think if he obtained one, it didn't actually bind to him. it bound itself to the piece of shuhu within him. because like in what world is a wooden octopus going to be a mask representing bladie. but it could be shuhu's. shuhu is described as having an eldritch-like appearance, and it has a similar ability to send people into mad, violent frenzies. it could also be asat pramad's, but i'm uncertain if he would take suuuuch a direct approach. i'm more inclined to think he's on the sidelines tugging at the strings, nudging the phantasmoon games toward a second bloodbath

kuchiba is another candidate worth considering, because of the odd detail of her name meaning "rotten leaf." but even if it's not hers, i suspect she'll end up falling under the influence of shuhu/asat/WhateverTheFuck. ryusuke is worth considering too because like

yeah.

THEY GAVE US MORE MISHA AND GALLAGHER CONTENT IN 4.0

I WIN (based on their instacam delusional theatre interaction)

More art of these goofballs -> here