LIFE IN THE FAIRY KINGDOM
The Lord Chamberlain and Head Housekeeper do not approve of cafes. Both have urged the Queen not to patronize these on the grounds it looks common. Not that this cuts much ice with the monarch, who is aware of the need to keep in touch with the lower ranks. The only reason she hasn’t been to a café already is due to pressure of appointments and engagements but she hopes to rectify this shortly. Those villages that have cafes hope she’ll reward them with a Royal Warrant and all are anxious to be the first to receive this. To avoid some snobbery, the Queen has given huge hints she likes nice simple food and traditional cakes. She does not want the cafes rivalling each other in producing wildly extravagant items nobody really wants to eat!
FNN regularly produces documentaries on life on other planets but they’re not the David Attenborough type programme. Think sensationalist, think unbalanced, think designed to put anyone else off defecting the way Eileen did, think this approach guarantees the Queen’s and Council’s approval, vital to the broadcasters as without that they won’t be on the air for long. Most beings in the Kingdom can and do read between the lines here but there are enough in each species group to take these shows as gospel and honestly think the Queen is shielding them all by showing how dangerous other worlds are. Eileen thinks these people dangerous - you can tell them anything and they’d do it. She’s right.
FNN’s history documentaries are pretty sensational too. Roherum ran a long-standing series on the classic fairy tales and how they filtered down to various worlds over the centuries. What should’ve been an interesting intellectual series ended up as a watered down re-telling of the tales coupled with savage criticism of the worlds where in Roherum’s view the tales were amended or told in the wrong way. Roherum came in for a lot of criticism - the phrase “he’s no historian” he came to dread hearing. And any history shows he presents now are the “light” versions. FNN were told by the Queen’s late mother to have someone more intellectually capable to present the serious stuff. The Jeremy Paxman as opposed to the Jeremy Clarkson school of thought! The one comfort Roherum took from this was that the weatherman did not get this particular gig, being officially considered to be worse than Roherum!
The weatherman gained his position at FNN thanks to gaining top marks in meterology at what we would consider a college but which in the Kingdom is known as an “oddbin”. The oddbin is a slang term used to describe those who read a lot and prefer to do practical things and whose use of magic is limited. Even Roherum uses more magic than his rival does. This kind of thing is roughly the equivalent of the artistic distrusting anyone remotely scientific. The Kingdom has yet to readily accept there is room for both methods of thinking. Mind it would help if the weatherman didn’t have a chip on his shoulders and feels the realm owes him. There’s nothing to stop oddbins using magic, it’s not due to lack of skill but more to lack of temperament. The weatherman would rather use his brains and knowledge to achieve things rather than a magic wand. In this realm, this is considered odd, hence the slang term.
FNN regularly produces documentaries on life on other planets but they’re not the David Attenborough type programme. Think sensationalist, think unbalanced, think designed to put anyone else off defecting the way Eileen did, think this approach guarantees the Queen’s and Council’s approval, vital to the broadcasters as without that they won’t be on the air for long. Most beings in the Kingdom can and do read between the lines here but there are enough in each species group to take these shows as gospel and honestly think the Queen is shielding them all by showing how dangerous other worlds are. Eileen thinks these people dangerous - you can tell them anything and they’d do it. She’s right.
FNN’s history documentaries are pretty sensational too. Roherum ran a long-standing series on the classic fairy tales and how they filtered down to various worlds over the centuries. What should’ve been an interesting intellectual series ended up as a watered down re-telling of the tales coupled with savage criticism of the worlds where in Roherum’s view the tales were amended or told in the wrong way. Roherum came in for a lot of criticism - the phrase “he’s no historian” he came to dread hearing. And any history shows he presents now are the “light” versions. FNN were told by the Queen’s late mother to have someone more intellectually capable to present the serious stuff. The Jeremy Paxman as opposed to the Jeremy Clarkson school of thought! The one comfort Roherum took from this was that the weatherman did not get this particular gig, being officially considered to be worse than Roherum!
The weatherman gained his position at FNN thanks to gaining top marks in meterology at what we would consider a college but which in the Kingdom is known as an “oddbin”. The oddbin is a slang term used to describe those who read a lot and prefer to do practical things and whose use of magic is limited. Even Roherum uses more magic than his rival does. This kind of thing is roughly the equivalent of the artistic distrusting anyone remotely scientific. The Kingdom has yet to readily accept there is room for both methods of thinking. Mind it would help if the weatherman didn’t have a chip on his shoulders and feels the realm owes him. There’s nothing to stop oddbins using magic, it’s not due to lack of skill but more to lack of temperament. The weatherman would rather use his brains and knowledge to achieve things rather than a magic wand. In this realm, this is considered odd, hence the slang term.