Hello everyone! I'm updating with some disappointing news; this update was copied over from MGR 1 and edited to reflect this campaign's details since not all backers overlap.
All orders WILL be fulfilled. So please don't think yours won't!! Currently, 19 more MGR2 orders are going out on Monday. I wanted to get them out on Saturday (today) but ran way out of steam. Unfortunately my average for any orders of 5+ pins is only 2 an hr. Smaller ones do go faster, every 5-10 minutes, but we're still focusing on the last few that are combined with Chocolat Chaud because I strongly fear another imminent postage increase and all of those orders wind up 5+ oz when finished, meaning there's actually a deficit already in what cost was paid thru the survey for shipping.
Mine and Cryptic's goal was to get all out before the new (rescheduled because of AQI last month) Ypsi Pride date, and then the remaining Ghostly Gallery-only orders right after, BUT I'll be real with you, we are just in free-fall. I don't actually know when the fulfillment on my end will resume because I have Matsuricon labor day weekend, and the last time I was physically capable of doing 2 weekends in a row was 4 years ago so I'm very concerned.
As a bit of a background (I don't like toeing the line of "making excuses" vs "trying to explain delays while taking accountability"), Cryptic and I both have ME/CFS. "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" is actually a really harmful moniker for it that came 2nd due to most physicians not believing it exists. Its correct name is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Now it being psychosomatic is not as widespread a belief because long covid has caused ME rates to skyrocket, and more are taking it seriously, but I have had ME since my teenage years, as has Cryptic, though his has not progressed as quickly for whatever reason (maybe due to less comorbidities?). FFC/HoloCat recently publicly announced that they have also had ME since serious health issues late last year/early this year. It's generally brought on by sudden illness or severely traumatic/stressful event lowering the immune system.
This is a really serious condition where the hallmark symptom is getting worse after time due to exertion: Post Exertional Malaise. There is NO consistency to what the body finds to be "excessive" exertion, so it is really hard to pace oneself. Because of this, the increase in severity of the disease is pretty random from person to person.
I honestly find it unfathomable that 2017-Feb 2020 I was doing all conventions solo. Giant suitcases lugged through amtrak and greyhounds and lengthy car rides, set-up and tear-down alone, and honestly from about '16-'19 my average "work week" was 70hrs: manufacturer negotiations, designing, the occasional convention, handmaking literally everything that went on the cases when I did decoden for 2 yrs, packing and shipping orders, quality checking products, etc. Now it's difficult to even push 20, and that includes writing for my visual novel (which are extremely wordy) in development, which has been WIP for 6 years now which is tremendously upsetting and shameful for me even if backers have been mostly patient.
It's super embarrassing but my health got so bad that I had to drop out of uni, and that was 10 years ago that I had to.Wow. I don't know if I've ever admitted that publicly like this. I have been running on fumes for 1/3rd of my life... I didn't see there being another way to financially survive other than conventions, and it has deeply cost me physically instead.
I cannot apologize enough for not being faster. I feel serious crippling guilt over it. These days even going out for errands means I have to recover in bed (sans pet chores and having to heat up ready-made or simple foods) for 1-2 days, and I have to wear bilateral knee braces to even leave the house because of my hEDS. I am likely to have to become an ambulatory wheelchair user by this time next year because of that condition, POTS (though I'm now seeing a cardiologist), and ME.
I'm so, so embarrassed over this even though I know in my heart disability is not shameful. Even more embarrassed that as a writer, I am apparently incapable of being concise even though I meant for this to be only 1/2 the length it is. My heart rate spikes to 120 at minimum for showering, packing orders, or any kind of cooking or even standing up quickly due to POTS and ME, and there is quite the list of other things making me fall apart. I feel really terrible about my creative output so severely declining along with the rest.
I don't know if any more merch campaigns of any type are in my future, especially since I'm trying to stop making new things unrelated to my attempt to develop visual novels. But I really can't continue to do conventions for long, as they permanently worsen my baseline and doctors will not help me with ME OR hEDS, and I can't manage my online shop at the same time as doing that. That's why I've been attempting to find the energy to run a closing sale for the last year... So the Ready-To-Ship - though that unfortunately has become a loose promise lately - markets will likely continue sporadically to clear me out of stock, but new things not so much unless collabs.
I can't explicitly speak for Cryptic because he's a more private person but he is also really, really struggling, regarding the simultaneous delay in spider and geode fulfillment.
A tremendous thank you to the overwhelming number of you who have been so so patient, more than I could ever reasonably expect. I also appreciate all of you regardless of how this has impacted you emotionally (I really am so sorry) so so so much.
I will be resuming fulfillment HOPEFULLY early September after Matsuricon, that's the best I can probably do. There are less than 2 dozen left, and then I can also send out the rest of the Ghostly Gallery-only orders also, with the extra money the convention has brought for shipping fees (please check the updates for that campaign if you are a backer and missed the most recent ones). Thank you.
I'm sorry it's so slow-going, it has been taking so long to ship out the packages that are several combined orders at once, sometimes up to 45min just to pack one of those between me and Cryptic, as they sometimes contain over a dozen pins as well as other things. This is because many packages contain not just our cross-collab orders, but also Chocolat Chaud's Ghostly Gallery pins, and Cryptic and I's Early Summerween campaigns, and snake preorders from the Holiday Market. My first line of priority was doubling back to get my snake pin preorders out which was why I wasn't focusing on single-order packages.
As a result, currently there are 17 MGR2 orders sent out (and a couple corrections fixed), as well as 63 MGR1 orders. Most of the MGR2 orders are repeat backers from MGR1 (seriously thank you for your patience) so the fulfillment for both is closely entertwined. Almost every single MGR2 order fulfilled so far was a combination of those + Ghostly Gallery pins, if not also the other orders mentioned above as well. Chocolat Chaud's pins were already packed by them but Cryptic and I are packing ours per order. For most of the MGR 1 +2 remakes I have to QC as I go because of how ridiculously long it took to receive so many of them and my April sickness winding me. A recent example is the other day it took me 7hrs straight of packaging just to get 9 orders done...I'm much slower than I used to be. I do the final combined packing and double-check then label every box regardless of whether there are also Cryptic Compendium pins in there or not which is why I'm so slow, but I digress, I could probably speed it up.
The snakes are all sent out now, so I will resume my monster girls packing later this week!! I'm really trying to pace myself, especially because I got recent 2-week-long EKG results back and they were kind of concerning, yet there isn't a cardiologist I can see anytime soon. 🥴
While it's called "ready-to-ship," what it really means is we get the funds faster than for normal crowdfunding and we are selling only premade merch. The exception is our cross-collab freebies and our returnee freebies, those are being produced with the funds made from these which will extend the processing time to at least 4 weeks. It will run for 2 weeks, and I'll try to send out the survey within 2 weeks of it ending, and by then a lot of pledges will hopefully have been packed already since these are mostly pre-packaged grab bag items. We'll just be waiting on the rainbow snake sticker and arcade flooring bat. So really, that processing time shouldn't actually affect it much, what will is my limited energy lol.
The monster girl gachas will be available at their updated pricing of $15/spin for "normal" girls and $20/spin for more complex girls, for people who didn't catch these campaigns in time but wanted to!
Cryptic Compendium pins and stickers are also making a cameo! Plus both of us have grab bags available on top of the other types of lucky boxes/bags of my merch and mini pin gacha spins. Here's a preview with examples of what could be in each price point:
Snakes are also possible as seconds pins now, and so are Cryptic's pins, both for the first time.
You guys and MGR1 backers are highest priority for fulfillment and will of course be sent out before backers from this (2nd) Gacha Market.
The following is an excerpt from the most recent MGR1 update:
I'm so sorry for pausing fulfillment again and being so quiet!! I have been extremely sick. I started having an extremely mild weird sore throat April 7th so stopped packing then, had a dr appt April 9th where he said he didn't see anything, got outrageously sick April 10th, have practically no memories from April 11-16 or so, and am still catching up on sleep because TMJ pain prevents me from keeping my mouth open when I sleep... so for quite a while I wasn't sleeping at all due to severe congestion. High dose antibiotics helped me immensely, but I still get out of breath just from walking around a bit, and I refused to touch literally anything that would ever be leaving the house because it would be repulsive of me to do so when I was so snotty. Also, in retrospect, I was so dissociative from lack of sleep and pain that I likely would have gotten orders incorrect even if I wasn't leaking from my face and decided to pack with gloves on, so it's a good thing that didn't happen. I've been unbearably unproductive in pretty much every area of my life, especially if it's off my phone.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I'm still out of breath just from existing so it's really freaking me out.
Where we're at now is that the remakes of Harpy arrived during my fugue, so I haven't graded them yet:
Poor lighting...sorry!
Even considering screen differences, her skin did turn out 1 or 2 shades lighter than intended despite weeks of back and forth on pantone shades. I even asked other artists for suggestions based on pins they'd had produced, too. Upsettingly, Pantone does not have many browns that aren't basically just grey so this was ultimately the best we could do. That's a systemic problem that I shouldn't get into here but I really should've been aware of the limitations, and I apologize for not being so. I still think she finally turned out really good!
The green mini bat has shipped and will hopefully be here next week with the MGR1 remake pins 🤞🤞🤞
The base goal will be the Vitrail de Cristal window collar pin sets designed by Chocolat Chaud, with all 3 gem colors available as shown there. There's also the glittery white with black roses mini bat and the freebie pins and stickers for qualifying backers that are all to be unlocked in the base goal as well!!
The first stretch will be the incredible CÅ“r de Chat necklace pendants also designed by Chocolat Chaud:
This design is really special, as it's inspired by the bittersweet love we feel as our beloved feline family members of the past remain with us in our hearts.
And the 2nd stretch goal will be the silver colorway of my guillotine necklace:
I haven't been this proud of a design of mine in years. It's been a bucketlist design of mine to have produced before I close my shop, because I came up with the idea in 2023 and couldn't let it go. The sample is on its way to me! It's meant to be a fidget necklace, basically, and is a statement piece in more ways than one. BK isn't letting me attach a gif here but...there are some in the campaign bio!! It still needs some fine-tuning with the glitter but the design is essentially perfect otherwise!
Many of the goals also unlock new colorway mini bat pins!
After that are goals for a new colorway of my spoonie pendant necklace, a restock of the silver one, and more forms of the stained glass design by Chocolat Chaud (necklace and adjustable ring!!)
I will be doing fulfillment so that the horrible tariff situation between Japan (where she is based) and the US will not impact fulfillment for anyone other than people in the EU, who will unfortunately not be able to back the campaign. It will be fulfilled sometime this Fall as long as everything goes smoothly!
Hey everyone, I'm super sick with something right now so I just wanted to post this quickly while it's fresh.
I was sent this pic and then told they should be done in bulk around April 20th since they're being "rushed". I told her immediately do not sacrifice quality in order to "rush" them... again. Really tired of this song and dance.
The remade Harpies also arrive this weekend.
I hope I can get everything still pending out by the end of this month but we'll see I guess...partly depends on what I'm sick with and how quickly I recover. thank you for waiting
Hi, sorry for the silence, which is why this update will also be going out to MGR backers!!
I'm still physically recovering from Katsucon. Unfortunately, the event itself did not go well for seemingly most sellers, including us - attendance was way down and many tables were added to the alley so the already stretched-thin economic situation was even rougher. I always like being in the area but unfortunately good vibes aren't enough to make a trip worth it for us, and the combined 28hrs on the train took a very serious physical toll.
I also had a brain MRI this week with concerning notes on it but of course the physician and radiologist both said my brain is normal despite noted abnormalities ... so I'm trying to follow up on that and not really getting anywhere yet as it's now the weekend. Fun! 🤡
Anyway, here are the next steps I have planned and hopefully can get most of the way finished before the end of the month:
More MGR1 orders to go out that can (considering remakes as still pending for that campaign), and MGR2 orders that are merged with MGR1 that can go out. Any Holiday Market orders combined with those, too. Any excess shipping charged will be refunded after labels are printed
Any Chocolat Chaud and Cryptic Compendium orders that are from backers who also backed MGR are going to be combined too and the shipping cost situation there will be figured out as soon as possible, as it's complicated quite a bit since Chocolat Chaud had to pay hundreds of USD to get the box of them to me to begin with. (Including nearly $300 in tariffs once they actually reached me...)
I can't send out gacha spins for MGR2 or individual Harpy orders yet... I wasn't shown what they looked like printed before they were shipped. Kuchisake-Onna looks great:
...but as a mixed black-and-white woman I'm really irritated by how Harpy looks:
Most prints are not just lighter than the pantone color I provided but also very grey. This makes her look really ashy which is unacceptable to me. I may be white-passing but I've still dealt with being called ashy in the past and the last thing I want to do is send out a design that looks so insensitive to darker skintones. 😡 I'd rather eat my own foot. When they return from holiday I'm going to beg for a remake of her. I have some things I'll be asking to pay for in the same email so I hope they agree.
Remake Angel is also here and looks great! So she can begin fulfillment along with the rest who were already done. The only obstacle to fulfillment for MGR2 is Harpy, but that affects gacha spins too.
The remade Geode Pets also arrived and look FAR better...mostly... so those will finally have their survey sent out soon and he'll make an update about all of that. He won't be charging shipping for people who can still combine with my orders, since my surveys went out first. It'll take a bit of figuring out now that there's so many different campaigns being combined for some...which I'm so sorry for.
From MGR1 the status is the same as last time, I'm still waiting on the remakes of Elfling, Baphomet, and the additional Ghouls they didn't originally send me...
