Leaving
December 4, 1984
a guide to Leaving, and how to keep a fae
Contrary to popular belief, there are actually not many fae that steal trinkets. The things you may attribute to the mystical creatures are usually much more pedestrian. Socks lost in the drum of the washing machine, keys misplaced, names discarded for the sake of a new one (Though fae will happily collect these unwanted names for themselves.)
On the other hand, they love to Leave things, bobby pins and shoe eyelets and screws, on the floor or your bedside table or any other place you swear you didn’t put them, because you didn’t. The more bold among them may Leave a bright and shiny object in the middle of the floor with nothing around, or a more cruel critter may Leave a tack by the bedside where you drag yourself up in the morning. They don’t seem to care about the value of the objects, as sometimes you will find jewelry long forgotten or sometimes just a safety pin, sometimes things that are yours and sometimes things that are not. Indeed, the objects seem to come from somewhere, as if you find an earring that you know is from a set, you are just as likely to not find its matched pair ever again, likely Left in some cozy house down the road, by the same creature as in your house or not we don’t know, as fae have proven extremely difficult to track between locations, with the common practices of catch and release, and leg banding seemingly totally ineffective, as they simply Leave the band somewhere by the next morning. The exact process of Leaving is unknown, but we have found the steps as below, to the best our knowledge, to be a good way to recreate it.
- Take an object, a trinket, or a purpose. Good places to look include under the bed and in a person’s heart.
- When totally unseen and when the object, trinket, or purpose is not on anyone’s mind, you can move it. This can be physically placing the object somewhere, or if you want to get more creative make a trail of these possessions leading some/nowhere.
- Leave the possessions in it’s proper location, which is up to your discretion, to be remembered and found.
- Objects of personal import seem to work well, as someone is more likely to remember the Leaving of their favorite over something that means nothing to them.
As far as the reasons behind leaving, these are our best guesses:
- When feeling alone or trying to communicate, Leaving is an option to open communication when nothing else works, or perhaps to end communication when it is unhealthy or unhelpful.
- If no one knows you’re there, Leaving may encourage them to find you.
- If no one is listening when you’re speaking, Leaving may get them to speak to you
If you have found anything Left, it is best to pick it up and move it to a new place, so the fae knows you’ve found it, but leave it out to be Left again elsewhere. When a fae Leaves, take notice as it is trying to communicate and you can choose to communicate back, if you do so safely. Communicating is a difficult thing to do but there are many rewards, including a health happy bond with a fae. Some even consider some individual fae to be their friends, though do to the immaterial nature of their existence, defining an ‘individual’ fae is a rather tricky thing to do, instead generally describing a loose association of traits in fae-space might be easier and generally more accurate.
A visualization of the overlap of our own world and that the fae exist as/within.
Further Documentation