Forest Devils

A blog about a novel in progress. Home to Forest Devils, The Story Teller, The Forest, The Grove, and Sun Dogs.

[forest-devils]

The Rules

“They tend to forget to mention how they aren’t freely given...” - Lark

Don’t say “thank you”.

Don’t say “goodbye”.

Don’t accept anything if it’s not freely given.

If They don’t say that it’s freely given, it’s not.

Don’t give your name away.

If the price of something is blood, or a kiss, the price is too high.

Don’t follow voices, if you can’t see who’s calling you, even if the voice is familiar.

Take what you can, keep what you have.

Don’t go into the water After Dusk, or Before Dawn.

Don’t touch the horses unless they wear a bridle.

Don’t use the name that you went by in your world, use the name that They gave you when you came to Theirs.

If you were not given a New Name, give yourself a New Name.

Individual Fae have rules unique to them that they will not tell you unless you ask.

Usually it’s better not to ask, as asking might be against the rules.

The prettier They are, the deadlier They are.

Even if They are not very pretty, hideous even, They are still Unsafe.

Don’t leave where you dwell at Night.

Especially don’t go outside at Night during a Full Moon.

New Moons are also Unsafe.

You may enter the Ruins, but never, ever, open the Gate.

Don’t join in the Revels.

These rules will not Always keep you safe, They might change them.

[opossum-handz]

[forest-devils]

Transfem pediatric er nurse save me

[forest-devils]

Something something if Lark had ever had a grandmother, something in him hoped that she would've been like her.

[forest-devils]

Been working on the storyteller today, almost didn't feel how tired I was getting tbh.

[suscept]

that one friend whose blood you'll never wash out from your hands 😂

[wiigiwaamcore]

Resources on Native American Boarding Schools in the US

We have just passed Orange Shirt Day (September 30), which is a nationally recognized day in Canada but which has recently been adopted by some Native people in the US as well. We have similar histories in the US of traumatizing, assimilationist boarding schools for Indigenous people, but it's important to recognize both similarities and unique histories. To that end, I've made a list of some resources.

Books (writing by survivors + nonfiction histories)

Medicine River by Mary Annette Pember

American Indian Stories by Zitkala-Sa

Boarding School Seasons by Brenda Child

Changed Forever, Volumes I and II, ed. Arnold Krupat

Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories, and Reclamations

Fiction

The Dance Boots by Linda LeGarde Grover

A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

Films

Home From School (2021)

Our Spirits Don’t Speak English (2008)

Unspoken

Colorado Voices: An Indian Boarding School

The Thick Dark Fog (2011)

The Only Good Indian (2009) - the only non-documentary film I know of

Useful Links

Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative

Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center

[wiigiwaamcore]

Another documentary on boarding schools in southern California: These Are Not Just Stories

[forest-devils]

"I have a daughter?"

Eoghan shook his head.

"I have- a son-?"

Eoghan glowered at Quinton.

Oren came up behind Quinton, and clapped a hand on his shoulder, a beaming smile on his face as he chirped, "You don't have anything, Quinn! At best you have a nephew! You didn't raise him!"

Quinton paused, slowly nodding after a minute. "...uh, yeah, that makes sense, sorry."

[felonwort]

you can't follow me here

[valtsv]

okay but "the symbolism is Real and Trying to Kill You" is my favorite kind of symbolism

[valtsv]

like yeah the monster is a representation of your unresolved trauma and guilt and a manifestation of the sins of your past but it's also a real creature and it's going to fucking Get you

[salsascribbless]

made a little comic for class

words from "Tears in Rain" in Blade Runner (1982)

[dappermouth]

tiny cuts.

[daisywords]

"came back wrong" what about Came Back Afraid. You used to be brave. Too brave maybe, defying the odds at every turn, a fighter, cocky, playing with fire, first to throw yourself at the enemy. Until one day it all caught up to you. You came back, somehow, but now you know all too intimately how it feels to lose, to die, to be destroyed. Now you flinch and freeze and cower at the slightest provocation. Who even are you now if you can't be brave? The grave may have let you go, but the mortal fear still grips you tighter than ever.

[redlipstickresurrected]

Keith Perelli (American, b. New Orleans, LA, USA) - Build, 2006, Paintings: Oil on Paper

[forest-devils]

Sir, sir, you can't fix all your problems with faerie fruit. You also can't just ignore your lover and unborn child for nine years or until it's convenient again.

[forest-devils]

I love how Curtis apparently only knows how to flirt by way of trying to give people so much food. Fruit specifically. Faerie fruit. He does this twice. First with Felix, and later with Fraxus's mother.

[forest-devils]

There's gonna be this scene where Lark goes into this cave, this cave is where something was imprisoned a long time ago. He gets to accidentally free a monstrosity that's only monstrous because of how it was treated. And they wind up having a considerable amount in common and I cannot wait to explore the parallels between the two of them.

That being said, quick reminder to myself that Out Of The Darkness by Matthew And The Atlas is a huge thing inspiring this scene.

There's just something about caves that gives new perspectives, new life, it changes characters and I love that. I don't know what it is exactly. But there's something about going into the depths of the earth... You just come back different.

[forest-devils]

Somehow this monster is still a monster regardless, but not really. Broken promises make monsters of us all.

[forest-devils]

Okay so actually he's monstrous because he's literally a biological weapon, but he's good with kids I guess!

[rherlotshadow]

Shrine at a spring.

Wiltshire, England.