#Tiscabe and Farlan

[veiredame]

Years ago I was doing this long-ass story about a bastard prince and a rebellion and it all started with an arranged marriage gone wrong. It was loosely based around my early Gaian avatar and it was a whole big thing--but I never finished it. Didn’t feel like it anymore. Plus, I realized that to improve it, a lot of the characters would have to merge together or disappear entirely and, honestly, I was less interested in the rebellion and more interested in the “what-if” scenario where the arranged marriage DIDN’T go terribly wrong. Or at least not AS wrong.

Haven’t thought about it for years, but after reading a book series earlier this year, it got me on a similar train of thought. So now I have Tiscabe and Farlan, both illegitimate children of their empress/queen mothers in two warring nations. In their barest sense, they’re a re-imagining of the MCs from that old story (well, there were five MCs; like I said, some characters were unnecessary), but there is no wedding night massacre, no fleeing to another country, and no being hunted down by an organization of international assassins. Which, granted, might sound awesome, but like...go write it then, because I’m doing this.

I don’t have much, yet. Just a concept for how it starts. There’s still a royal wedding, but it’s a shaky plan to begin with. The two countries meet at the ruins of a manor on the border for the wedding. Everyone’s nervous. Tiscabe’s half-sister, the throne princess, is to marry Prince Whoever, the throne prince of the other country. Except, well...the treaty that was signed never actually specified she’d be marrying THAT prince. Farlan is slightly older than his step-brother and he has the royal blood--but he was his mother’s bastard. In his culture, he has no claim to the throne. The problem is, his mother was the heir to the throne, so he has the royal bloodline. His step-brother isn’t legitimate either, but he’s the king’s bastard who was legitimized when the king married his mistress. The King had tried to have a legitimate heir with the queen, but both her and the baby died in childbirth, leaving the royal family a fucking mess.

So, step-brother is culturally considered the one who should inherit the crown, but Farlan is the one who’s actually descended from the ancient kings.

Bad times all around.

Tiscabe’s situation is a little different. She’s older than her half-sister and in their country the crown is a matriarchal position, so an “illegitimate” child birthed by the ruler means nothing. The Empress’ children are all legitimate, regardless of their father(s). But Tiscabe’s culture values “purity.” Tiscabe is mixed ethnicity, so she’s considered impure; a mutt. If she were anyone else’s daughter she would’ve been killed at birth, but she got a pass because NO ONE lays a hand on the children of the Empress. She was allowed to serve as her younger sister’s royal handmaiden and grow up alongside her, but she can’t inherit the throne and she’s forbidden from taking any lovers or birthing children.

Once the Emperor Consort (the Empress is dead of course because things can never be easy) is livid when he finds out that his daughter, the CROWN FUCKING PRINCESS, is expected to marry a man considered a bastard in his own country. It would put his daughter at a disadvantage and, frankly, was just an outright insult to their country as a whole (secondary son=secondary country). Tiscabe and the princess are obviously miffed at the whole thing as well, but in the interest of avoiding bloodshed the princess agrees to go along with it and take the prince back home with them instead of staying on the border as initially planned. She doesn’t want to be exposed to attacks from these fucking vipers. So, the sisters and the servants set about packing everything up as quickly and quietly as possible. As soon as the vows are through, they’re out.

The princess pens a letter real fast for Farlan, informing her betrothed that she’s agreed to marry him despite the grave insult and to prepare for the service. She sends Tiscabe to deliver it directly to the prince; she’d trust no one else.

Except obviously it doesn’t go that way. She delivers the letter and as soon as Farlan reads it, he sends his people to find the princess. Tiscabe is pissed and tries to go after them, but Farlan orders her held here, where he can see her, until everything is resolved. When his people come back, they reveal that the princess and the Emperor Consort had fled the border back into their own country. Only a few servants and soldiers remained to cover their retreat. 

The princess did not write to tell Farlan she accepted: she told him he could have her sister.

Dick move.

They fled to avoid the inevitable conflict this would cause in hopes that they would begrudgingly take Tiscabe since she was TECHNICALLY a princess and that is, after all, the only thing the treaty they’d signed had guaranteed. The peace--though uneasy--would be upheld and this unpleasant marriage business would be over.

Of course, Farlan’s family is pissed. They want to send Tiscabe’s head back to her sister in a sack--but that would mean more war. The people would revolt if that happened. But no WAY were they leaving this foreign mutt so close to home after the wedding so she could run back and report to them with any secrets she found. They have an officiant perform the ceremony in their tent right then, with the promise that if Tiscabe didn’t go along with it she WOULD be executed, and immediately pack up and drag her back to their capitol with them.

So a lot of things just kind of...HAPPEN to Tiscabe. That’s not as much the case with Farlan since he’s the one who proactively pushes for the marriage regardless of his family’s more bloodthirsty desires. And after this all happens, there’s obviously going to be the whole issue of, hey, you need to consummate your marriage and have babies! But...it’s forbidden in her culture. Even being married is reason enough to have her hanged at home. 

I guess the options after that point are, like...what do you do in that situation? You’re in a strange land with people who’ve spent their lives hating you, married to a complete stranger who’s first act upon meeting you was to hold you hostage (to be fair he was trying to salvage the situation and prevent more war by making sure she didn’t run off, too), you’re expected to get Biblical with this dude and make babies when you’ve just met him AND you’ve been taught basically “celibacy or death” all your life, and your own sister sold you the fuck out.

WHAT DO?

I mean, a) try to get in touch with the sister because what the FUCK, and b) try to run away. One of those things is impractical because it’d start up the war again even if she didn’t have to cross a whole country of people who hate her just to get to the border of a country where she’ll be a wanted criminal for being a married mutt.

This isn’t going to be one of those romances where Farlan is going to try to dominate her or anything, because I just can’t even write mah boys like that. Even Christian is a soft boy underneath all the crazy. No. It’s more like an actual attempt at a partnership because Farlan’s already had time to come to terms with the fact that he’d be stuck with a stranger for the rest of his life. Tiscabe had that thrust upon her rather unexpectedly so she’s slightly less prepared. But he also tries to break down all her issues with all this impurity taboo shit. Because it’s fucking stupid. Also because he 100% needs kids before his country tears itself apart due to the whole royal family weirdness (the plan that the council people or whatever came up with was for both princes to produce heirs and then have those heirs marry, thereby uniting the bloodline). Tiscabe, meanwhile, does not get the fucking problem. In her eyes Farlan is the ONLY contender for the throne because it was his mother who had the bloodline, so now it’s him that has the bloodline, ergo Farlan should be Crown Prince. It’s fucking infuriating.

Also, this country is a patriarchy (obviously) so she’s got that to deal with.

The clothes are different, the food is different, the climate is different, the architecture, the social interaction, the expectations of her personally, and now she’s got a husband which is just...????