there’s a lot of tragic hard shit i could write about the fact that both adaine and kristen were stabbed by the unicorn but mostly i just like to think they chest bump a lot and kristen says it’s their ‘scars kissing’
Like this guy loovesss door locks and when he's talking to someone it's more of a "speaking at them" rather then with them and he's mostly talking about door locks...
like yeah sometimes u build a new species/society just cuz and also to mess w the setting or whatever........................ sometimes you also create it to make a point.
i still rly like cher and her ex but seeing darcia's interactions with her and knowing she just... has the book of the moon chilling in her desk drawer..... and probably feels like she's finally met someone who could understand that part of her...... even tho he did like knock her out and steal her daughter........... who was kind of his daughter first............ hmmmmmmmmm
Keeping up on the writing things almost every day, today I want to talk about Mercedes Lackey, specifically her 500 Kingdoms series.
First, her series is by far and large inspired by Sir Terry Pratchett and Discworld, and the more you read the more her references to Terry become obvious.
Second, it's a very interesting setting for a writer to work with, and for fanfiction writers or other writers, not that hard to take inspiration from. The world of the 500 kingdoms is controlled by fate, the looming fate of the Tradition. Much like in Discworld, a lot of this fate comes in the form of stories and how they twist a magical world. How it will twist and change people if they don't comply.
It makes an ordinarily kind woman into an evil stepmother, or makes her invalid when she refuses to become evil (Beauty and the Werewolf). It makes it so Ella Cinders and her actual evil step mother have a fate where Ella would fall in love with a prince (even though the prince was far too young) and Ella had to fight it to become a Godmother. And it ties pushing these even when "the prince would far rather fall in love with another prince, thank you very much!"
Now, Mercedes Lackey is a good author, but she enjoys writing romance, and the 500 Kingdoms series reads very much as her wanting to write romance in the Discworld setting, albeit with many changes due to copyright and being a published author of her own accord. Her other books, romance is very much a side plot if it is even there, and the 500 Kingdoms is one of her less popular series.
(As an aside if you read this far and want to check her out without as much romance - her Joust series is one of my other favorites by her - set in fantasy Egypt, but it's about raising and riding dragons, and the romance when it does come in is not a focal point. It's a sideplot.)
However, either as a fan work or an inspired work taking influence from both her and Sir Pratchett, I kind of want to play with the idea of one of those gay princes or princesses. Someone who legend would have fall in love and live happily ever after, but the magic can't do anything to break their orientation, so it struggles to find a happily ever after (but gay).
Of course, I also kind of want the selfish future of some of those - my first Mercedes Lackey book was One Good Night, where Princess Andie falls in love with the dragon Peri, and he is turned human via magic. A future story with one of their children being a were-dragon, or even a new tradition that had formed of the rulers of this tiny kingdom only taking unconventional spouses, like having one of Andie and Peri's children marrying a dwarf, or an ogre, and using that to forge new alliances would be fun.
warnings: dad!rafe, mom!reader, very soft and fluffy
“rafe.” you sigh, rubbing your forehead with your fingertips, eyes flicking between his hunched over frame and your daughter. “she doesn't even want it anymore! she's moved on.”
you watch as rosie occupies herself with your phone, giggling every time she presses the button to turn the screen on and off, looking at the picture of herself and rafe on your lock screen.
“she said she wanted it, im going to get it.” rafe grunts, putting more coins into the claw machine. he tries for a fifth time to get the pink unicorn stuffie that your three year old became obsessed with having for an entire minute before moving on to the next sparkly thing.
“baby, come on.” you groan. you knew when you married him that rafe was stubborn, thankfully it didn't rub off on your daughter, who is the happiest and most agreeable little girl you've ever seen.
“my princess deserves whatever she wants, including this stupid-” rafe jerks the claw machine “fucking- stuffie.”
he groans when the claw machine grips the unicorn, only for it to fall before he can navigate it back to the shoot.
“rafey, please. you've been at this for like five minutes. we can just buy her a unicorn stuffie.” you don't point out that she already owns probably twenty similar ones.
“one more try.” rafe glances at your daughter, frowning when she really is completely disinterested in the toy.
“okay. then can we keep going?” you question. you were supposed to be walking around the mall to look for a present for a birthday party rosie got invited to, of course also getting distracted by everything along the way, rafe bending to whatever store rosie wanted to go into, whether it was candy or video games, anything bright that looked exciting.
“mama.” rosie whines, your phone now sitting on the floor.
“come here, baby.” you pick rosie up, grabbing your phone at the same time and slotting it into your pocket. some people try to tell you not to baby your toddler so much, but you love being able to carry her around and keep her close, dreading the day that she's too big for you to lift easily.
“daddy, wheres my unicorn?” she pouts as the claw drops the stuffed animal again. rafe just gives you a look as he loads more coins in.
“for real, babe, last try or we are going to the toy store and leaving you here.” you know rosie is just going to find a million things she wants inside of the toy store anyways, probably another five pink unicorns.
rafe nods, concentration overtaking his features. rosie cheers him on from your arms as he hooks the unicorn around the center, claw raising up and bringing it over to the shoot. it falls perfectly down, both rosie and rafe shouting in excitement.
rafe gets the pink unicorn out, holding it out for your daughter to hug into her little arms. “thank you daddy!”
“anything for you my little princess, come here.” rafe opens his arms as rosie practically launches herself from you to snuggle into his chest.
“i wanna introduce pinky to my other unicorns.” she babbes about having a big tea party as rafe glows just looking at her.
“of course.” rafe nods. “let's go home right now so me you and pinky can play together.” you don't point out how all of rosies pink toys share the same name.
“babe!” you call out, following rafe out of the mall towards the exit. “we still haven't gotten our gift!”
“ill order it on amazon!” he calls out as you catch up to him and his long strides.
“come on, mommy, i wanna play.” rosie pouts, face mimicking her expression with big pleading eyes.
“fine.” you sigh, unable to say no to either of them. “but you have to clean up your tea party when it's over!”
“yesss!” rafe pumps his fist in the air, leaning forward to press a kiss to your lips.