Right, so this is a story background post I missed when the story initially come out. It’s still available online, so let’s start with the usual preamble:
Publishing Details
Hunting Unicorns is a short story hosted by The Future Fire [External Link] as part of issue 28 (direct link here: [External Link]). It came out at the end of December 2013.
Themes
The central theme is hunting for something that is so rare as to be non-existent, like unicorns and rocking horse shit – only Hunting Unicorns made a better title. There is also an attending theme of whether finding what you think you want is a Good Thing.
A key part of that comes from the usage of “Hunting Unicorns” I was introduced to in early 2013 in a conversation with Amber Fox and Cae Hawksmoor [External Link]. At some point, there was a link to a blog post explaining it but I can’t find the exact post any more.
However, in short, “Unicorn Hunting” is what a man + woman couple do when they start looking for an illusive, perfect third, usually a woman, for their household. The term “unicorn” comes up because, basically, they have an impossible list of perfectly ideal attributes that will never match up with a human being – and a situation that may just never work. There’s some more explanation on this David Noble blog post here: So, somebody called you a Unicorn Hunter? [External Link]
What?
Yes, so my inspiration was a stereotypical polyamorous scenario – what happens when a couple who may not be functioning quite as well as they might think another person just might be able to save them. Of course, if a unicorn is found, this extra person could end up breaking the original relationship just by their mere presence. What happens if someone likes someone else more than the other? What happens if the third person doesn’t want to be the home body who only tends to the first two’s needs? And so on.
But this possibility is just one use of the general theme that comes with the idea of hunting a unicorn or something equally elusive that might backfire. So with my story, although there is an element of being dissatisfied with current relationships, there is also a hefty dose of actual unicorn hunting and a number of hiccups with both.
Spoiler Notice
Just in case anyone wants to actually talk about Hunting Unicorns (the story), it’s best not to read any comments below unless you’re prepared to read any spoilers.