Dear Insane Children, 

Font Lord and Stick Boy back with another FAQ video – this one covers all the details related to the Cheshire Kitten Plush Collector Set. 

The $50 Tier for this Set has been Activated. So… if you want the set, select that Tier! 

Remember if you’re at the $75 Tier, you don’t need to do anything. You already qualify and you’ll still get your regular monthly art print. 

And if you’ve never been at $75 before… this is an excellent time to do it. A First Month at $75 during the month of August, 2019 would net you the Cheshire Kitten Plush Collector Set + Chaos Necklace + Art Print. That’s a pretty insane deal! 

This is the art print for August – the one which will ship to everyone at $75 – or can be selected by people who’ve done the 3-for-1 Art Tier.

And, and, YES, the $50 Tier WILL COUNT towards the $35 3-for-1 Art for those of you who are collecting towards that goal. The $75 Tier DOES NOT count towards the $35 Tier 3-for-1 Art. There you go! 

So… break out the popcorn. Watch the video. Laugh at Martin’s lumberjack shirt.

From Shanghai with Kittens, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

I’m finally back at my keyboard and trying to get caught up on several days of unanswered emails and overflowing to-do lists. 

Omri “bumped” a particular email thread regarding Tarot Cards and sent me down a rabbit hole of symbology and narrative. I thought you might like to chime in as I know many of you are experts on these topics. 

Omri wrote, “ “the Fool” he is the first card, numbered 0. He really fits into the realm of Denial, we should find him around a cliff. in gameplay as the fool is always near a cliff.

I don’t know what to do with the dogs but i thought of 2-5 dogs with him and him with a reversible head, the character is the symbol of new beginnings and endings. His symbol is a flower with a harlequin hat, i merged those in. somehow the flowers should turn weaponized.

An initial sketch but i feel this is a good direction. I imagine that if we can break him apart and Him- Getting merged back automatically… he can look wonderful. he can have 3 dog heads with tons of teeth with dog speed and with two extra long arms etc. we can merge these “parts” together so wrong it can be wonderful.

He is the beginning and he is the end, that’s his literally his symbolism. “

To which I replied, ” 

The Fool

The beginning and the end… if you look at our outline for Asylum you’ll see where we begin and end isn’t in Denial. It’s in a state called Slumber. As I’ve described during several of our livestreams and design sessions… Slumber is the state you’re in when you drive to work and have no idea how you got there. It’s the state we live in while thinking we’re in reality, in control, and aware of the direction we’re heading… when in fact we’re lying to ourselves and the people around us. 

It’s Slumber that we’re in as we walk towards that cliff (Chaos). 

Once Slumber has led us over the cliff we’re forced into Denial. Denial is the state of telling ourselves that, “Hey, dammit! I WAS AWARE OF WHAT I WAS DOING!!!!” when, in truth, we were not. 

So… The Fool is the perfect representative of Slumber. 

Before you resist this interpretation… remember when you asked me, “Why the hell is The Moon in Denial??”

I finally remember. 

It’s because The Moon represents illusion. Such as “Another reading of the Moon card is the existence of illusion. Some hidden truth must be discovered, for what you are seeing now may just be a trick of the light. You must search for the hidden forces that must be unraveled.”

That’s why I put the Moon above Denial. Hur dur. I knew there was a reason! 😛

Back to The Fool… 

If we’re going to use this card for Slumber – and I think we should – then the character portrayed should be Alice in her Circus Outfit. She is the fool – the one who walked over the cliff into Denial. Those dogs… surely they should be Cheshire Cats? In most of the cards there’s only one dog – and he appears to be warning The Fool of the dangers along the path ahead. Wouldn’t be better… Alice walking towards the cliff dressed in the Circus Outfit with the Cheshire Cat behind (but being The Cat he’s not really bothering to warn her…) – If you want someone who looks like he cares then insert the Rabbit (white, plush, or other). If you want some symbolism with that… 

The rabbit as well as the hare have been associated with moon deities and may signify rebirth or resurrection. 

Which might suggest that our rabbit is actively LEADING Alice towards the cliff because he knows that she must face Chaos if she’s going to grow and transform.”

“We have two lives… the life we learn with and the life we live after that. Suffering is what brings us towards happiness.”

Your Turn

Let us know in the comments below your thoughts on this exchange and the representation of these narrative elements in the symbolism of Tarot. Right direction? Wrong direction? Or perhaps you’ve got a creative twist to share? 

From Shanghai in The Moon,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

It might seem like we’re off taking a break but we’re actually still hard at work! FontLord was over at the Underground Lair today and we made some adjustments to our cameras, mics, and lighting. To test the new setup we also recorded a couple of FAQ videos… the first of which is presented here. 

I think we still need to crank up our output volume a bit. We’ll do that! 

Anyway, have a look, let us know if you like this format. And we’ll see you all again soon. 

PS: Yesterday Yan and I visited a giant makeup factory in Shanghai. She’s making plans for a line of cosmetic products aimed at Alice fans. We’ll share video from that adventure along with product ideas during next week’s live stream! 

From Shanghai with (still) Ffffff,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Yan and I set up a mini photo studio in our workspace yesterday. We then put together a dozen+ setups featuring the Cheshire Kitten and Cheshire Cat Bag. With temperatures near 100f (40c) outside in Shanghai, we happily spent the entire day shooting, editing, adjusting, and shooting some more… All in the cozy cool underground comfort of our own little lair.

I’d love to share some of the candid shots of heavily pregnant Yan setting up the room for various shots in only her undies and a t-shirt… But I value my life too much. 

Attached here (using Patreon’s new Gallery Display!) are the results of 1x Lulu, 1x Preggers Yan, and 1x American combining their skills and efforts. Hope you like what we did!

Questions? 

Don’t post them in the comments below. First, head over and read the “Cheshire Kitten Goal Explainer” via bit.ly/CheshKitten

If you still have questions, then feel free to post them below. 

But keep in mind a really simple fact: You don’t need to do anything right now. And when you DO need to do something we’ll post a complete set of instructions which will basically consist of “Select the Special $50 Tier and then wait.” No, the $50 Tier does not exist yet. We’ll activate it when this promotion goes live… probably on August 5th. No, you don’t have to do anything if you’re staying at $75… 

So… just chill! Or try… it’s 100f again here… and let me tell you, that’s a LOT OF F’s! 

Feedback! 

What do you think of the shots we captured? This is the set we’ll use for marketing during the month of August. Anything else you wish was included? 

If you have time, also check out the Set as it’s offered on Mysterious. Love some feedback on that as well!

https://mysterious.americanmcgee.com/products/cheshire-kitten-plush

Thanks! 

From Shanghai with Fffff,

-American, Preggers, and Beggers (Lulu)

Dear Insane Children, 

Thank you! For all the feedback on the Cheshire Kitten Adoption Certificate. 

In this post I’ll explain why I’ve rejected all your comments! Yay! 

Er, yeah, seriously… Here goes!

First, Priscilla asked why we didn’t include the “don’t insert the earring into your orifices” warning. If you don’t understand this reference then you clearly didn’t watch last week’s Livestream. Good decision. You probably saved a few brain cells. 

This suggestion was rejected because… well, people who dictate what other people do with their orifices are Literally Hitler. So, no. Free the orifices! (But please don’t stick my products in them… or at least what until we release American McGee Brand Sex Toys). 

Second, Cornelia suggests that we “distress” the certificate in order to make it appear as if the Cheshire Kitten had tried to claw its way out of the bag. Fun idea. Nice story telling. Great imagination. But… no. 

This idea is rejected because it would require extending the effect to the entire interior of the bag. Unless you’re suggesting the Cheshire Kitten focused all his Escape Rage on the Adoption Certificate and magically avoided damaging the rest of the interior of the bag?

Also… it’s a Cheshire Kitten. He can just vanish into thin air. Which is exactly what he does whenever you’re not looking. Not only is this thematically appropriate but it also reduces shipping weight and saves on postage! 

Third, Wendy writes that we might indicate on the tag that the earring can be removed. This is true, Wendy. The earring can be removed. And I suppose we’d mention this in case people want to give the Kitten to their children as a plaything? 

This is rejected because… Cheshire Kitten Is No One’s Plaything! Rawr! Look, don’t give the Cheshire Kitten to a child dumb enough to remove and eat a metal earring. Do you really need a Magic Disappearing Cat from an M-rated game to tell you that? Really?

Fifth, Kelly suggests that we “center 3 care intructions” becawse “it’s more aesthetically pleesing.” And I total understand the sugestion, Kelly, because I too have OCD. And you’re correct that the formating changes from Center to Align Left for the List of Cautions. 

This is rejected for the same reason I intentionally skipped “Forth” and mispelled a bunch of werds in the paragraph above. Because the change in format and slight bias towards the left of center causes the List of Cautions to stand out from the other contents in the block of text. 

You tell me… doesn’t that feel a little too “on the nose” and run together? Lulu says, “That’s right hooomin.” (But she always agrees with me because I have treats in my pocket). 

F) Omri wrote emailed and said that the world no longer needs “www dot” in front of a domain name. And that “www dot mysterious.design” could be simply “mysterious.design” – which is true. We could do this because its an easy change and the domain still resolves when you use only “mysterious.design” but… 

REJECTED, Omri! Because… have you seen the comments we get on Instagram and Facebook? People writing to ask, “Hur dur. When will this be available?” on a post in which the first line of text is “This will be available on August 1st, 2019” or saying things like “The link doesn’t work!” because they have yet to figure out that they have to manually type the thing into their browser (links don’t work inside Instagram posts). 

Now imagine what happens when those same people see “mysterious.design” at the bottom of this certificate. Do you think they’ll realize that’s a domain name? Noooooo…

So it’s staying “www dot mysterious.design” even though, I agree, it looks R-worded. 

So… what you see is what you get!

Seriously: I love you all and your feedback is super wonderful. I’ve said it before… this process of working together with the Insane Children to design and create all this fun stuff is literally the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life. So, Thank You! 

We’ll send along pictures of the revised bag in around week. Which happens to coincide (roughly) with the date on which the Cheshire Kitten Promotion will start in earnest (August 1st, hur dur). 

From Shanghai Where it’s So Hot My Brain Has Melted, 

-Amirecan

Dear Insane Children, 

Above I’ve shared a draft of what the Cheshire Kitten Adoption Certificate tag might look like. And I would like your feedback on the design, contents, and placement. Here’s the idea so far… 

• This tag will measure 10x10cm 
• It will be placed inside the Cheshire Cat Nylon Bag below the snap-pocket.
• It will be made from a white nylon material with black print… similar to this: 

I believe this design and text as written does everything we need… but let me know in the comments below if there’s any improvement we might make, if anything is missing or unclear… or if your initials are PN that you just don’t like it because reasons 😉 

Because this tag is associated with the Cheshire Kitten but sewn into the bag in which he’ll arrive… we need to keep in mind that these two products will never be offered separately. If you want a bag, you’ll have to get a kitten – and vice-versa. 

For those of you who want just-the-bag — fear not! We do intend to produce more of these types of bags with varying designs (give us your ideas) in the future. 

Live Bag Stream

The bag sample we have in hand was featured heavily in yesterday’s Livestream on YouTube. If you’d like to see me put the bag over my head and provide other demonstrations of its use and qualities… hit THIS LINK. 

From Shanghai with Bag Brains,

-American