Hello everyone! I'm updating with some disappointing news, and will copy this update over to MGR2 and the 2nd market since not all backers overlap. I'm very nervous to publish these but here goes.

All orders WILL be fulfilled. So please don't think yours won't!! Currently, 23 more are going out on Monday. I wanted to get them out on Saturday 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 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.