A Tangled Web

Dear Insane Children, 

We're making good progress on the Asylum narrative. And there have been a couple of evocative scenes illustrated by our art team I think speak to the beauty and depth of the world we're building. 

I am loving the images created by Adam for Alice's exploration of the Memory Mines. Among the scenes she'll explore, there's a section dealing with Dr. Bumby, and these have resulted in a couple of the more beautiful and chilling images to come from the project so far... 

It's the sign of a good antagonist that we can be fascinated and repulsed at the same time. 

"Hush now, Alice. You've told your tale. It's time to listen to something new. I was once like you. Born in chaos - an orphan... of sorts. Mummy was mad, insane really... laudanum, hysteria, and carnal urges. Pa? A taxidermist. Obsessed with restoring life to the dead. His mistake? The dead can only rot. Like mummy rotted. But the living? The living can be made clean. Dolls are clean. That's the trick, girl. The moonbeam magic. Start from within and make everything clean. Clean and hollow. 

Our minds - that is where the cleansing must occur. You're an excellent example. Spattered in blood and covered in arcane symbols. Wearing chaos like a badge of honor. But you know nothing of chaos. If you did, you'd do as I've done, and dedicate your life to its complete eradication. That blade you ram through your enemies? An instrument of filth and corruption. It does not sterilize. Quite the opposite. It spreads filth and horror from whatever it touches. Just like Pa. That's your mistake too.

Do you really think you killed me? The taxidermist might agree. But we're beyond all that. No, Alice, we're in the realm of Mr. Dream Man. Sing with me, Alice... 

The train is coming with its shiny cars.
With comfy seats and wheels of stars.
So hush my little ones have no fear.
The man in the moon is the engineer."

He is dead... right?? 

From Shanghai with Shiny Cars, 

-American