Dear Insane Children,
Today is a good day – the creativity is flowing strong. Very happy to have you all along for the ride! We literally could not be doing all this if it were not for YOUR support here on Patreon. The amount of art, design, writing, and management going into all our pre-production efforts would be impossible without YOU.
So, first off… THANK YOU for helping get us here!
Next, we have the latest from Omri. A SUIT of all things! He says of this and his other efforts:
1. Suit because i think if fits best, if people won’t like it i’ll do a dress in the same theme/colors etc
I also want to design a Mercury dress which will be like the Fleshmaiden but in silver. but that’s later on.
2. Next Dress, is the R.Queen, bloody but Pleasure.
3. reworking the chaos according to feedback. If you need to feedback me on the Darkening dress this is the time!
So, what do you think? A suit for Alice? Leave your comments below. I will reserve my feedback… for the live stream later this week. Then we can discuss this in full and add your comments into the mix.
We humans seemingly exist to tell stories. Stories put things in order. Words on paper are part of a magical structure. Like notes of music or numbers in a formula. The meaningful combinations are as infinite as the randomly senseless ones. And meaning is found inside, outside, upside down, backwards, zoomed in, zoomed out, sped up, and slowed down. Read enough books, watch enough movies, listen to enough music… see enough faces, and you start to recognize the patterns everywhere.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about take 38 minutes and 35 seconds to listen to Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song” at 800% Slower.
Maybe read this while that plays…
[SPOILER WARNING]
She alone survived the fire. But, she doesn’t quite believe it. “IT” is the fire, the death of her whole family, and her survival.
In her fragile state, she’s wondered if/(pretended?) this is all a dream, a vivid nightmare. She’s hoped it. She’s invested in the dream. She’s wondered if she might create an alternative ending—so the dream might be easier to manage/cope with or just disappear. But she knows something is wrong. And often she has lucid visions of the horror. But one day, when she’s feeling (relatively)“strong,” she closes her eyes, to “sleep . . .perchance to dream”—and risks a retreat to her treasured Wonderland.
She arrives. But, if not for a fleeting glimpse of a RABBIT, wherever it is she has “landed” would be unrecognizable. Wonderland the refuge, its familiar geography and topography, has been blown apart, fragmented like her mind. There’s nothing familiar, comforting, consoling, safe, or enjoyable about it.
This Wonderland is a series of islands suspended in space—small planets in a sunless, starless galaxy. Her domestic tragedy seems to have triggered a cosmic event, a big bang. Wonderland has morphed into unstable and dangerous domains. The planets are in retrograde jetting away from a once benign core; lit by fire, nuclear fuel, coal, candles,, gas etc. Each planet (LEVEL) is uniquely symbolic; uniquely populated with familiar or vaguely reminiscent characters, decorated, and equipped with unique challenges, enemies, weapons, “toys,” etc. Each is primarily associated (not co-terminous) with a STAGE of Grief. Each could be associated with significant (if not always intelligible) astrological and alchemical signs, color schemes, nursery rhymes, obscure Victorian references and odd bits or popular culture.
Alice perceives the likelihood of a link between her (certain though non-specific) damaged self and this strange version of Wonderland. To fix this alien, “broken” incarnation and return it to “normal,” she intuits, may help her help herself. But, like Humpty Dumpty after the fall, she can’t do it. It’s a fool’s errand (she’ll realize eventually). Doomed to failure. Not possible; not even desirable. Too much has changed. She’s lost too much. Still, her awareness of the enormity of the challenge, (and the impossibility of success as she defines it) won’t stop her from trying to reconstruct, cure, resurrect, overcome, etc., etc.
I’ve attached the full “Alice 3 Notes” document as a PDF to this post. Have a read, have a think, then post your comments and feedback below. Keep in mind this is a process – we’re outlining the broad strokes. I think we’re close to capturing the general shape of the thing. Can you see it?
Does it suit her?
We’ll discuss in full during the next live stream.
Oh, and this…
That’s the box and tube containing Asylum Pitch Materials going to EA in the UK. Should arrive with them in ~10 days. Cross your fingers for a positive reception! Lulu is there next to the bags in which that stuff, plus your Patreon posters, are contained. She approves! 🙂
PS: Story, design, art, and other elements are going up on the Asylum Wiki. Feel free to have a browse.
From Shanghai with Love,
-American (and Lulu)
