Sometimes a podcast changes your brain chemistry so much that now you're working on a cosplay of a demon from that silly podcast about demons that you like so much.

happy pride everyone

@brimstonevalleymall incorrect quote:

Trent: I need to get something off my chest…

Asmoraius: is it your polos?

Asmoraius: please tell me it’s your many polos

We’re SO CLOSE! Let the demons in your life know that the queer indie fiction podcast filled with 90s nostalgia and demons from Hell needs THEM to help make it happen. Spread the word, let’s do this! And hey, when we get to 80% we’ll release our final script sneak peek. 👀

Earlier this month I listened to @brimstonevalleymall and kept meaning to make some fanart for it

Carousels are, in fact, goth as fuck.

asmoraius and hornblas have such a funny friend dynamic to me because they're both the kind of people who will stop at nothing in service of The Bit, but their Bits are wildly different

like i think asmoraius's Bits are simply stuff he enjoys doing and he thinks it's funny to take something overly seriously/literally and then wink at the audience. for him it's all sex stuff, which he genuinely enjoys, but he also plays it up because it's funny as hell and gets a reaction. and that's it, that's his whole deal, he knows who he is and he likes getting attention for it.

but hornblas's Bits are much more interesting in terms of Why he does them, and i think it comes down to him being fundamentally Emo (whereas asmoraius is much more of a romantic and glam type goth), by which i mean, he doesn't know who he is. on some level. and he's full of existential Angst about it.

now, i dont know that it's ever stated outright, but it's heavily implied that he never had a particular Station within hell, he simply had a Job, which was to summon demons to and fro, and he himself was free to fuck around the rest of the time. he seems to have spent most of his time pulling elaborate pranks and schemes, and the only connection i can draw between them is that they tend to be collaborative. he's also said to be "constantly leading demons astray" and good at "getting people to follow him wherever he goes"

combine this with his other consistent descriptions--that he is moody, prone to isolation, sensitive to negative feedback, and the de facto leader of any group he's in--and it's pretty obvious that leading people into funny situations, specifically, is the only way he knows how to bond with others.

and i think this is directly due to the fact that he doesn't have a Station, which is shown to be a super important part of how demons identify themselves and form communities. he has a Job that ranks him above everyone else and prevents him from forming genuine peer-to-peer relationships.

what happens to your sense of identity when you can't form lateral relationships? it fucking withers away into dust is what it does

we don't get to see him define himself (before the ending), but we do get to see how misroch thinks he defines himself (i.e. entirely around his One Special Ability), and i think the pushback misroch gets from belzagor about this, combined with the many other interests that hornblas is said to have, would indicate that hornblas has spent a lot of time trying to distance himself from that role, or at least to find out who he is outside of it. and i think we can also see that he hasn't been successful, because he's still super sensitive to rejection and misroch still thinks his whole identity is based in his Job.

and that leads directly to his final decision to leave. someone desperate for connection, with no tools to create it, and too much rejection sensitivity to handle relatively normal relationships, who feels isolated by their one assigned identity and trapped within it--- is going to be super receptive to someone offering them the ultimate get out of jail hell free card.

.....and if i could add one final observation: narratively, he's placed directly opposite misroch, and so we might expect to see some of misroch's issues mirrored in him. and i think we do:

misroch knows who they are, but struggles to value themselves. hornblas values himself very highly, but doesn't know who he is.

i listened to brimstone valley mall in one sitting and now i can’t stop saying “knock knock!” whenever i enter a room and i have named myself after one of the characters please help (also listen to the podcast is the best thing ever)

Realizing how much i love this gay trope: the insanely physically beautiful one who is very used to only being seen as a sexual object and the one who is truly head over heels in love with them for every single thing about them

I’ve never shared a work of digital art before, but here goes! This is my Brimstone Valley Mall Lineup! I wanted to give each one their own signature color, yellow for Misroch, red for Belzagor, purple for Asmoraius, and orange for Xaphan.

I am so normal about Asmoraius and Trent Brimstone Valley Mall

WE BACK

like queer father like weird daughter

Attention Brimstone Valley Mall shoppers! SJ and Gab have decided to take over the PA system. If you do not hear what they say, then simply do! Listen to it now!

Listen to it here!

WE’RE ONLY 10% AWAY FROM MAKING THE FINAL SEASON WITH LESS THAN 48 HOURS LEFT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! GET OUT THERE! MAKE YOUR MOM DONATE! LET’S GO, DEMONS, LET’S GO!!