Be Careful what You Wish For...

Speaking of disempowerment and lack of agency...so many humans out there joking about jumping into fairy rings or eating fairy food or wandering the woods waiting to be taken away. As if Fairy was a vacation park and the Good Folk existed purely for human enjoyment.
Oh no, I think not.
This is how much of the older wisdom has been forgotten by some. The idea that you should not even speak the word "fairy" lest the invisible folk passing by hear you and take offense has been replaced by the twee belief that fairies are nothing but sweet little things, harmless, fun, gentle and the word should be repeated to invoke their blessings. The idea that you should never go alone at night and should always carry iron to protect yourself from being taken has been replaced in the minds of some by the notion that being taken would be a good thing.
Why?
Oh I think its clear why. Because to some people now the fey have truly been neutered and domesticated, reduced to nothing more than a some glitter and a pleasant dream. These are people who joke that they don't fear being taken because its the fairies who would regret the situation and send the human back or be stuck catering to their selfish whims.
These people need to read some folklore or talk to people in cultures that still hold fairies in respect and fear. Listen to stories of humans forced to dance until they die of exhaustion because they stepped into a fairy ring that was in use. Listen to stories of humans blinded for seeing the Fair Folk when they did not wish to be seen. Listen to stories of humans driven mad after getting a taste of Fairy and being cast out, back into mortal earth. Remember that when fairies take humans into their world there is always a reason for it and the reason always favours the Good Neighbours not the humans: breeding stock, servants, entertainment, food. Yes there are examples of brief takings that do no harm to the human - musicians and midwives are borrowed briefly and returned safely, provided they follow the rules. But those are people of skill whose skill is needed or wanted for a time. Humans without these skills have nothing to offer but their bodies, and those will be used as the fairies desire to serve their needs.
The Good Folk do not exist to please humans and make human lives pleasurable - even the pleasure that is to be found among the fairy throng has a price to it and a pain. Those who find fairy lovers often die for longing of them, or go mad if their fairy lover abandons them. Those who experience Fairy never stop wanting more of it until it consumes them.
And humans who are rude to fairies pay a steep price for their hubris.
Fairies are utterly inhuman, foreign beings who operate on a very different moral and social system. Even those who know how to deal with them, who are canny in their ways, sometimes bear scars from missteps.

Hurl yourself into a fairy ring and almost certainly nothing will happen because you lack the knowledge to see if it is in use or old and abandoned. The fairies take only what they want anyway. But perhaps consider first who has the real power in the situation, and if you are not utterly foolish realize it isn't you. Realize there are worse fates than death.


As the saying goes - be careful what you wish for; you just may get it.