This is a Warning.

I will not write again.

To Phoenix Town,

I understand I’ve come to be quite the enigma. Please know, that was not my intention. I have both seen and experienced very troubling and amazing things in my time outside of Town. I will make this as quick and clear as I can:

1. All four of the young girls who followed me here are safe and will be returning tomorrow. (I was so focused on my work, it took me about two days to notice them following me). Do not worry. We are all together now and making our way back.

2. In the final days of The Fall, I was wounded by a fallen building which had me pinned for 3 days under concrete and rubble just outside of Phoenix Town. I was able to slowly dig myself out and discovered my left leg had been injured making it extremely difficult to get through the strange terrain of the woods and back to Town. I discovered an open field where I spent most of my time healing and getting back on both feet; it was here that I discovered the first portal. It appeared to be a sort of glimmering, blurry seam midair in the field. I’d eventually figure out how to open it, which is entirely unimportant and I will not be disclosing that information for reasons I’ll explain shortly.

3. We are all aware that Phoenix Town exists on the Sixth Plain and that there are seven in total. On every plain waits the same danger—an archaic energy that presents itself differently from plain to plain. Do not be mistaken—no matter the presentation, each energy is powerful, insidious, and a threat to the safety of everyone and every thing on the Sixth Plain.

4. Think of these energies as a flow of air. I discovered that many of the plains’ portals were open, allowing small amounts of these archaic energies to flow into any and all available openings. There were buildings with open windows where I noticed the energy at its strongest and most potent. It occurred to me that left open, these portals were allowing the energies to not only spill over from one plain to another, but to mix and strengthen in power. I was frightened by this.

5. The archaic energies are greed, individualism, exploitation, hatred, otherism, and cutthroat rivalry. These were immediately recognizable to me as the very energies defeated in The Fall. I recalled the first law of thermodynamics that says, “Energy is neither lost nor destroyed. It is only changed from one form to another.” In this case, the “form” being the plains. My best guess is that these energies splintered and scattered across all seven plains when they were defeated in The Fall. In the world before The Fall, the archaic energies had become one super energy; we called it capitalism.

6. My first instinct was to warn everyone (hence my ringing the Liberty Bell). But I realized this would cause more alarm than anything constructive, not to mention I hadn’t found a solution at the time. I spent the next year or two traveling each plain, spending 2-4 days at a time on each one observing its effects on me, my mind, and my body. I’ll let the girls describe those wilder, more exciting experiences. I tried simply closing the open portals on the First, Third, and Seventh Plains, but found that each time, I’d return to find them open again. I worried something was opening them, but quickly realized it was the strength of the energy itself. I began hoarding old fallen structures from The Fall, carrying them to each plain to hold the portals closed. The girls found me making my weekly rounds to ensure these “door stops” were holding. But they weren’t enough for me. The portals needed to be sealed permanently or Phoenix Town would remain at risk.

7. The details of sealing the portals is something I will also not be disclosing with anyone other than Neighborhood Watch as I feel it’s vital for them to, not only expand their watch, but have the tools to respond to this particular threat should it become necessary. At this time, every portal on every plain has been sealed, tested, and observed. I write this from right outside of the Sixth Plain which will be sealed from the inside once we’ve safely crossed over.

8. This is a warning because despite what we’d like to believe about our clear victory in The Fall, archaic energies still exist, waiting just on the other side of every portal that surrounds us. And they will surely, once again, take the shape of the human spirit if given the opportunity. What we have built in Phoenix Town is beautiful. Sacred. But it is our collective and individual responsibility to protect ourselves from anything that would prevent us from continuing to evolve, as we have, into the stewards needed for this new place. Archaic energy will most certainly revert our individual and collective progress, eventually externalizing into our reality, only to replicate what we have already defeated—and we have already lost so many to these energies before. We must remain good, worthy stewards of any new world or be doomed to recreate old ones.

9. I want to thank you all for your care and concern. I apologize for any fear I may have caused. It was not my intention to ignore or avoid your attempts to reach me. I know you only wanted to protect me. I wanted to protect us more.

10. I love you so much, Neighbors. I can’t wait to be with you all again shortly.

Sincerely,

Forrest Fiars

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A note from the writer

Hey, y’all. Sasha here.

I want to thank everyone who became a subscriber to this weird, silly idea I had in 2022. I also want to thank you for returning after each one of my hiatuses, each one longer than the first. Life did what it usually does and that includes taking us away from the things we love sometimes. Phoenix Town has been a wide open space for me to think as largely, strangely, ridiculously, and hilariously as I wanted. I’ve never made myself laugh more than when I was writing this newsletter. I hope you laughed too, and if you did, thank you for laughing, imagining, and thinking right along with me in my strange little circus of characters, their lives and concerns, and their stories. It has been my deepest pleasure.

For clarity, this is the final newsletter from Phoenix Town (at least in this form…who knows? Could pop up in another form someday. Stranger things have happened).

However, in the next month or so, I’ll be setting up a new Substack altogether called Silent Parade. If you’re so inclined, come join me over there for prose-y, intimate, more personal content. I’ll figure out how to let you all know when it’s ready for guests lol.

Happy Juneteenth.

Ever your Neighbor, Sasha Banks. Under the eyes of the future.