( ✈ SEVENTH FLIGHT; video — both courts )

[smithwork]

Hi, everyone! Hiccup here, Unseelie Court if that ... matters to you. I was wondering if anybody else felt like getting to know each other. I'm That Guy With The Night Fury, also known as Why Are You Riding A Dragon and Is That Thing Going To Eat Me.

I'll start us off.

I've been talking to Jon about marriages and weddings, stuff like that. You can all settle down, me and Snow aren't getting hitched any time soon — I know you'll all be deeply disappointed to hear that — I'm just wondering how people do things in other lands.

When you're a Viking, you only ever get married if the other person proves their worth to you and it's unheard of for anyone to be pressured into it. You could be a guy or a girl, it doesn't matter. Women and men decide for themselves that that's it, they want to marry, do it, and then sometimes one of them might decide to divorce the other. Is that such a weird concept to a lot of people here? And, uh, on the subject of ... bastards — sorry about the language if that's also a thing for you, as well as the actual meaning — why is it that if one half of a married couple has another child with someone who isn't their spouse, everybody thinks said child is worth less? That seems insane.

[ Hiccup certainly looks confused, and a bit offended on behalf of said illegitimate children. ]

There are lots of cultures clashing in the Drabwurld and I'm finding out new things every day but this is fascinating to me, maybe because it's crazy and I've never explored anywhere far enough away to encounter such a weird way of thinking. Where I come from, no one gets to offer you a serious insult unless you yourself have done something to deserve it. You should be as brave as Thor himself and stand up for what you want, no matter what anyone else thinks.

Then there's this whole weird attitude about other people bothering to voice their opinions about who you sleep with, as if a guy choosing to bunk with another guy is a huge deal, or girls doing the same. Where does that entitled nosiness even come from? [ Hiccup snorts. ] Surely if you're not there getting down with them, it's not your place to even have an opinion on their bedroom shenanigans. My dad's friend Gobber would put his metal club-hand through the face of anyone who decided to get vocal about his private life.

Jon said that Berkians sound like the Free Folk where he comes from, because we do whatever we want and we keep our honour through our own actions, not the reputations other spin for us.

[ Sitting back against a snoozing Toothless, Hiccup toys with the strings on the neck of his green tunic, armour set aside. ]

Does anyone want to chat about their own lands, their people? I'm ... the only Viking in either court, I think, at least currently. A few of my gods are here — Sif, Loki, and I think Thor might be or was, and I'm still kind of thrilled that Elves and Dwarves and Trolls are real in the Drabwurld. The latter less so, maybe. If you want to ask me anything about my home or our customs, go right ahead! I'm probably going to be bugging people if they respond to this, so fair's fair. Sorry if I already managed to offend you somehow, I guess that's the sort of thing that happens regularly when lots of different people are stuffed into the same place.

I suppose I'm just homesick for that craggy, freezing, rain-soaked rock I call home. [ (Hiccup was always able to sit down and talk to Stoick at night about his day, or he was until this whole Chieftain Handover thing began to crop up.) He pauses as he remembers to ask one more thing before he closes the locket. ] Also, uh. Do you ever think about — about settling down here permanently? In the Drabwurld. With someone ... new? If we get three times our normal lifespan, it's worth it. Isn't it? Building a new life.

Anyway, thanks for listening. I know I go on. Feel free to talk to anyone else in this broadcast if they pique your interest, I don't mind.

[ Threadjack away, bruhs. ]

Comments

[sculptor_of_aman]

One thing you must understand: the first generation of my people awoke fully-formed as adults by the waters far to the East. No Elves were born until after the host reached the Blessed Shores of the West. Indeed, my husband was the first Elf ever to be begotten and borne, and I not long behind him.

We had no precedent for being of a certain age, and he and I were both quite young that evening under the stars with the silver light of Telperion all around us. The stars were witness to our promise and our union, several times over by the next Mingling. We had no way of knowing until it happened that the very act of union would seal our marriage.

When we came home, there was no hiding it. Our fathers were... less than pleased with the situation as it were, especially seeing that my husband's father was the High King and mine a smith. After the fact, a more formal ceremony was held at our parents' request, and from that day forward, traditions were set to... avoid other repeating what we had done. Especially considering it was not long afterward I knew my eldest was growing in my womb.

[smithwork]

III really don't need to know all of this, thank you, it's very informative, but. Please. The latter? No. That's great but no. I think we've covered enough for one day! Wow, is that the womb? Time! Time.

[sculptor_of_aman]

You did ask how others marry. And that is how it works for the Eldar. A spoken promise, and the union of flesh, and marriage is achieved.

Of course, the formal tradition calls for a betrothal feast with both families present, and an exchange of silver rings. After a year's time or more, usually, another feast is held, the families give their blessings, and then the couple retires to seal the marriage.

[smithwork]

Yes, but, ma'am, I didn't really expect to have various bodily areas spelled out like that. [ Rubbing a hand down his face, gosh. Where's Han when you need him? ] Thank you though, for being so very, very thorough. Stunningly clear, really. Diamond-like.

[sculptor_of_aman]

Children are a natural consequence of marriage in most cases. It's to be expected.

The size of the family varies among our people. At the time we were wed, my husband and I were only children. I never had any brothers or sisters, but not long after our marriage, my father-in-law took a second wife--the only Elf ever to remarry--and produced another four children. It... was not something my husband took well. At times, I think the fact that our union was blessed with seven sons came in part for him trying to fulfill his father's desire to have many children in the household. To my knowledge, no other Elves have ever outnumbered us in this.

[smithwork]

[ HE THOUGHT HE COULD CARE ABOUT THIS MANY LIFE STORIES BUT HE CAN'T, HE REALLY CAN'T. ]

Ooooh, Thor.

[ And now he knows things like seven babies mean Elves are hella fertile, or something along those lines. Today is really A Day. ]

Yeah, I'm really getting it down that elves don't like the whole remarrying thing. A silver-haired elf said the same.

[sculptor_of_aman]

...That Elf does not know even the half of that situation and what it meant for our people. I was witness to this event, and had to provide testimony to the Valar themselves over the course of this deliberation, and truly, for all the fondness I have for Indis and her descendants, it was the start of the downfall of our family.

[smithwork]

That all sounds very dramatic and important, but he didn't seem that bad to me. Actually, he was very polite and obliging with the information he offered. Are you not friends?

[sculptor_of_aman]

An understatement, that, child, for the impact it had.

Polite he may be, but that does not mean he knows or understands what happened in those days, for he was not there. Celeborn and I have no true quarrel with each other, but he... is wary of my race. And for good reason. ...a great many atrocities were committed in the pursuit of the Oath my husband and sons swore. I tried to stop them, but it was not enough.

[smithwork]

Shouldn't you be trying to make all that up to him then, and not talking about him like he's some kind of oblivious idiot? You ... kind of did that just now. Sort of.

[sculptor_of_aman]

I had nothing to do with the Oath, and I am not caught in its treachery. I did what I could to try and talk sense into them, but they would not hear it. In the end, we parted ways. I could not bear to watch them march to their Doom, and none could be persuaded to remain with me.

He is not an idiot. Merely ignorant in matters that happened in ages before his birth in lands he has never seen, which did not affect him or his people directly as it did for mine. Meanwhile, I bore witness, but even so, I do not claim to know truly all the events that took place on the other side of the Sundering Sea to which he bore witness. We only know what others have said.

[smithwork]

Does it matter that you weren't part of that oath if your family committed actual atrocities, like you said? I wouldn't be criticising a guy who lived through that kind of thing.

I wouldn't criticise anyone ever again, to be honest.