Article: [1] Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and as having magical powers.
NT: That's because we ARE human, just with different abilities!
Article: [2] Their origins are less clear in the folklore, being variously the dead, or some form of angel,
Carma: Um, lol bwahahahaha, me, an angel? Hardly! And I'm not dead either.
Article: or a species completely independent of humans or angels.
NT: I'm not an angel, but I'm a human, got that!? Just the type that is a fairy.
Article: [3] Folklorists have suggested that their actual origin lies in a conquered race living in hiding,
Capri Monroe: Well, hiding, sure, but conquered? That's the first I've heard of it.
Article: [4] or in religious beliefs that lost currency with the advent of Christianity.
Capri Monroe: That's bull! I'm a fairy and I'm a Christian!
NT: No kidding, please!
Meredith: I wonder where they come up with this stuff?
Article: [5] These explanations are not always mutually incompatible, and they may be traceable to multiple sources.
Ameh: Well, since we're fictional, we can be whatever our writers make us, but personally speaking, I agree with NT, Capri and Carma, but then, we're a different sort of fairy from probably a lot of others.
Article: Much of the folklore about fairies revolves about protection from their malice, by such means as cold iron or charms of rowan and herbs, or avoiding offense by shunning locations known to be theirs.
NT: What's rowan?
Capri Monroe: We call it a mountain ash around here, and there are similar species in different parts of the world.
NT: Oh, cool, they're so pretty when the snow covers the branches with the berries still on them.
Carma: So much for warding us out. Lol
Article: [6] In particular, folklore describes how to prevent the fairies from stealing babies and substituting changelings, and abducting older people as well.
[7] Many folktales are told of fairies, and they appear as characters in stories from medieval tales of chivalry, to Victorian fairy tales, and up to the present day in modern literature.
NT: I've heard about this but we don't steal babies, and what's a changeling?
Ameh: A deformed fairy baby, I think.
NT: So some fairies used to swap their own babies for a non-fairy just because it looked 'perfect'?
Carma: Yeah, that's about it.
NT: (disapproving look)
Capri Monroe: Even sicker is that sometimes the deadbeat fairy parents were persuaded to take their own kid back after the poor thing was terribly mistreated by the parents who had their own kid stolen!
NT: *looks incensed* That's horrible!
Carma: Worse still, some parents - if they can be called that, who believed their own kids were changelings, abused them, sometimes killing them in their misguided effort to test if they were really theirs or a changeling".
NT: *Looks utterly appalled, becomes agitated*
The others, nod in agreement.
Diane: I came wandering in on you guys talking about changelings, and just wanted to add my own disapproval to yours on the matter. It's like I said, fairies get just as sick as anyone.
Ameh: *Nods*
Diane: I just found this. Um, okay, non-fairies trying to gain our trust, but what isn't being factored into this is that fairies are just as guilty of untrustworthiness as anyone. And, trays of honey as gifts? Bleck, no thanks. I'd rather have chicken or shrimp curry, spicy Italian sausage pizza, a good savoury main dish.
Capri Monroe: *Nods* and little wooden furniture - just how little? I'm taller than a lot of my friends.
Carma: And what's this flashes of light thing? We show ourselves readily, it's just that a lot of people don't know we're fairies. We don't sparkle. *Makes face* Unlike a certain vampire.
Capri Monroe: *Shudder* ugh.
NT:Hehe. I don't know why anyone would want to hang around at the bottom of anyone's garden anyway. Especially on a cold day. Then I'll just stay inside the house, thanks.
Ameh: I watched some TV show once, one of those "Are legends real, is this or that places haunted?" sort of thing and there was this section dealing with people who were afraid of fairies. Their legends said they could appease them with a bit of home made bread and - something else, I can't remember what.
Capri Monroe: *Grins* Yeah that'd do it all right. Fresh baking, there's nothing quite like it. But it still wouldn't get you off the hook with me if you did something to warrant my wrath.
Ameh: *Smiles* but I can't remember for the life of me what the other suggestion was. it was all pretty silly anyway. We're not out to get anyone unless they do something particularly scummy and we find out about it.
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