Have you ever wondered why people smile?
Go on. Think about it: if there is one thing; one common practice that unites humanity as a species - it is the universal gesture of a smile. No matter who you are or where you come from; whether your skin is dark or light, your eyes round or slanted...be it Asian, European, Australian or Inuit - everyone intuitively recognizes a smile and will naturally smile back if they find themselves on the receiving end of one. It is an instinctive behaviour and not something that has to be taught. A baby does not have to learn how to smile at their parents, for they are able to do this from the moment they are born. Everything else that is used for communication: language, gestures like nodding and so on - these do have to be taught, and in some cases differ between cultures. Nodding may be a way to show acceptance in some places but a refusal in others. Some cultures consider it a compliment to the chef if you burp or slurp your food, whereas others see this behaviour as rudeness. When you think - really THINK about it--; smiling is the rare exception: the one thing that every single member of the species has in common. You can smile at the person in front of you, and more often that not; be they Laplander, Chinese, Austrian or Other, you will receive a smile in return. Try it on the street next time and see for yourself. Do it now if you don't believe me: turn to your neighbour - whoever is sitting closest to you - and give them your biggest, brightest smile. Smile at the teacher who's reading this story to you this very moment. See what happens. Go ahead. I can wait.
There: do you believe me now?
It goes deeper than that. Has anyone ever smiled at you during a time in your life when you hardly ever felt like smiling? After a test you're sure you've failed or when your best friend moved away? If ever you've had this happen then you will know exactly what I mean when I describe the way your mouth twitches despite itself, returning the other person's smile instinctively before you even know what you're doing - even if you try to stop yourself later on.
Why IS that, do you know? Why is this the one common thing uniting humanity? Why smile at others you meet for the first time? Why smile at someone you don't know if you notice them doing the same to you?
The short answer is this: Identification.
I'm sure you kids these days know all about A.Is and CAPTCHA codes so humour an old fogey when I try to explain it in your lingo. You know how A.I can make pictures faster and better than a person can, except with one or two mistakes? Ever look at something drawn by an A.I and feel just the teeniest bit unsettled - the way you feel when something is slightly off? Ever wonder why you should feel this way - why an extra finger out of place on an a.i image should make you feel so ill at ease?
Instinct.
It exists for a reason, one that should not be taken lightly. If you feel uneasy, it is because there is indeed a reason to be uneasy; one that many have begun to slowly forget in this age of technology and wonders. In a world where you can pick up a telephone and speak to somebody many kilometers away; a world where news travels at the speed of light and it is possible to soar through the skies, it is hardly surprising that old knowledge should have been forgotten, or for you to forget of the Fey.
The word likely means nothing to you, nor do I expect it to. Why should it? In this world of Minecraft memes and Fortnite dances who will even know of the Sidhe and Seelie; the Courts of Summer and Winter, the lure of the worlds Unseen? Who will remember the heroes that once walked among you; they who fought and bled for this information to become widespread - passed from generation to generation so all should know the truth: that once upon a time and long ago; many years before your great grandfather or HIS great grandfather were born, humans were not the only intelligent race to share this earth. There was also the Fey.
I say `share' as a polite exaggeration of course. There was no sharing, not in the proper sense. How could there be? In those days humanity was backward and foolish, not much different from animals to those who truly inherited the earth. Those were the days of boggarts and bogies; the dark ages when men huddled around fires to ward off the night and magic still ran rampant on the land. It was a golden age for the Fey, who saw the earth as their private hunting grounds. One did not question relatives or neighbours dying of unnatural causes or even disappearing from villages without a trace, for it was generally understood that when such things happened the Fey had been involved; and to stand against the Fey was to stand against a storm: unproductive and unadvisable.
...that was; until Tam Lyn.
As it turns out, Tam was rather unexciting as heroes go. Not only was he not an orphan with a tragic past (he still had both parents, thank-you-very-much); the family lived not in a castle or even a big city, but in a small village barely large enough to support its resident troll.
All villages had trolls in those days: creatures of the Fey that stalked the streets helping themselves to whoever caught their fancy. The larger ones could have up to five; so two was considered the usual average. Tam's little village only had the one - which in those days made it a pretty good place to live indeed.
What about fire and cold iron, you ask? I see somebody has been doing their homework - that; or you learnt it from one of those RPG games you kids like so much. Well, what of it? True, the villagers did have access to fire if not iron in some quantity - they weren't QUITE as backward as all that - but having the tools don't mean squat if you don't know who to use it on in the first place. The name `Fair Folk' wasn't just for show if you know what I mean...no, like the rest of their kind trolls could use glamours to disguise their appearances; walking the streets in the forms of men. This allowed them to get away with their deeds often enough while laughing as their prey conducted witch hunts on their neighbours and friends.
Now, Tam's family had been having trouble with the local troll for quite a while: time enough for the villagers to be; well, indifferent to the whole thing really, so to speak. It was a common sight to see missing fingers and toes, for trolls consider these the tastiest parts of the body. By all accounts they find the pinkie finger the best, and so common was it in those days to run afoul of a hungry troll that even now thanks to natural selection the pinkie is the shortest finger on a human hand. If you ever wondered why that were so, well now you know.
The general mood of the place was something like apathy, which only goes to show how people can get used to the status quo no matter what it is. Nothing that had been tried had ever worked so far: the witch hunts led to more villagers dying than the troll attacks, and there's only so long one can reasonably expect to barricade themselves indoors. All in all, they were content to accept the troll as just another feature of life and even stop bothering to ensure that children stay indoors...which was how Tam had his fateful encounter with the village troll one autumn evening
``Hullo,'' said the troll amiably enough, eyes straying to the fingers of the lad before him.
Tam; I'm terribly sorry to say, made no answer - being where he was in that awkward preteen stage of childhood where one must appear sullen to his elders.
``Nice weather we're having,'' persisted the troll. ``Looks like it might rain,''
Still no answer. Boys will be boys of course; yet such behaviour might try the patience of any saint, much less a troll. ``You aren't too old to have your hide tanned, young feller-me-lad,''
This was too much for Tam. ``You're welcome to try,'' said he, spinning round to smile at the old gent (which was who the troll was pretending to be) for all he was worth.
Back in those days, smiling did not have quite the meaning it does today. Like with beasts of wood and field; baring one's teeth was seen as a direct challenge: one that youths did not typically dare make towards elders - however irritating they proved themselves to be. To say the troll was taken aback was an understatement to say the least. Never had he encountered anyone in that sleepy little village half as rude before, and truth be told his dignity had just as much as it could stand. And so, he smiled back
This proved to be a mistake. The troll had his glamour up of course...but the thing about glamours is that one has to apply a fair bit of concentration to make it stick - with little lapses causing `glitches' as you'll probably say. Now, this troll had been looking forward to a nice appetizer of fingers; with the thought of it sharpening his fangs in anticipation - fangs that stuck out like a sore thumb on what would otherwise be an honest-to-goodness old gaffer's exasperated smiling face.
Tam might've been a rude brat, but he was no idiot. He saw the fangs, put two and two together, and ran.
Once safe at home, he told his story of his meeting with the old gaffer to an eager audience. And ever since then, villagers made a point of smiling at each other in challenge whenever they might suspect things to be slightly amiss. It might've been rude, for sure - but rudeness can easily be excused in ways that a nibbled pinkie finger cannot. And such is the pride of the Fair Folk that on the whole they cannot abide rudeness in lower creatures, often struggling to maintain an effective glamour under such conditions. Tam Lyn saw the mouth full of fangs that the troll in its eagerness had been unable to hide. Others applying his methods reported similar observations: an extra sixth finger for example or mismatched features - details that made the whole feel `off' even if the viewer couldn't say exactly what was out of place.
Details; as I'm sure you realize, that are shared with the a.i image generators you youngsters use today. Consider that for a moment. Are they really mistakes? What logical reason would an a.i have to apply such features beyond the obvious? Why those specific mistakes? What is more likely - a recurring problem in the code compiled on separate occasions by independent unaffiliated developers, or a brief glimpse into a realm that has thus far lurked just out of sight?
And as for why I'm telling you all this...well, let's just say that the Fair Folk are so named for a reason. How could it be fair if one side continues unaware of the game being played?
Sweet dreams.
