#from her basket and they just freeze like deer in headlights before scurrying away

[cassandragemini]

tangentially related side note: the vast vast majority of unintentional fairy sightings are usually children. adult fairies are very adept at stealth and 9 times out of 10 if you see an adult fairy its because they want you to see them. but lots of kids are just kinda clumsy or impulsive and can get caught pretty easily which is why they’ll get warnings like that about making it clear when they dont want to be touched

fairy + human interaction isnt like explicitly forbidden in my oc world but fairies generally dont like it due to the inherent power imbalance. adult fairies are about 6-7 inches tall and its extremely easy to accidentally injure a tiny person even if you have friendly intent so the vast majority of human interactions occur while a fairy is in a human disguise. that being said there is some established social etiquette when it comes to humans or currently-human-sized fairies interacting with fairies. picking up someone unprompted is viewed by fairies as deeply infantilizing and insanely disrespectful even if someone has good intentions. the bigger person is expected to hold out their palm flat on the ground (or whatever surface a fairy is standing on) and allow a fairy to step on it at their own pace. lots of fairies explicitly tell children that its okay to say no if you dont want to be picked up because it is unimaginably terrifying to be 7 years old and suddenly grabbed by someone whos basically 80 feet tall from your point of view. you can only just kinda scoop someone up unprompted if youre extremely extremely close (as in lovers + direct family members + very very close lifelong friends)