The Afterman

“It’s incredible,” Sirius can’t help but say aloud into his helmet, as he floats about in the wondrous blue, noting the shades shifting and swirling from navy to the lightest aquamarine. He fumbles for a suction container from a compartment in his suit, to begin collecting samples. He considers whether the color changes are a result of energy shifts--possibly the molecules circling to maintain equilibrium--; then he does something completely new to him; Sirius puts the container back and allows himself a few profound moments of enjoyment. He is the very first person who has been to this place, the first man to ever question the information known to be true about the haze, though it had surrounded every world the same since the beginning of existence. Seventy-eight planets filled with beings who accepted what they’d been told about the blue without hesitation. But not Sirius.

A sense of accomplishment rushes through him. Pure adrenaline. The persecution by his scientist peers seems worth it now that he is here. Then… something…

Sirius is bewildered, as from out of the silence, tiny scattered noises begin to fill the space around him, leaking into his helmet.

La la la… la la la la.

The eerie whispers grow. Louder still, they sneak into his consciousness, as the glow of the Keywork begins to pulse and move, ever so subtly, like a million maggots weaving within it. The haze densifies from transparent to translucent. The micro-movements strengthen, gaining ore definition until Sirius can make out human shapes and heads squirming to get out, as if an endless sheer blue veil was pulled taut over them and they can’t seem to escape. All Mother cannot identify the composition of what they are seeing through scientific classification of any sort. She scans all of her databases and comes up with over 1000 words, borrowed from every dialect within Heaven’s Fence, and though Sirius cannot make sense of it, the words all have nearly the same translation: Souls.

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Drawn/Painted in Photoshop with a Wacom Tablet.
Approx. 9 hours

My wife and I are going to see Coheed and Cambria on Feb 18th in Vancouver, and I was toying with the idea of giving Claudio some artwork. I thought this up last night and sat down and finished it today. It didn't turn out quite like I saw it in my head, so I don't know for sure yet if I want to give it to him or not, but I figured you guys'd like to see it. Enjoy.

Sirius Amory, Vic the Butcher, Evagria the Faithful, Domino the Destitute, Holly Wood the Cracked, and Sentry the Defiant are © Claudio Sanchez/Coheed and Cambria
Story is © Claudio Sanchez
Artwork is © Jerrid Peterson