eachdraidh | ( ✈ first flight; VIDEO, both courts — forward-dated to 1st, post-feast )

[ What the viewer first witnesses is a foot. Not a real foot, thank goodness, because it happens to be detatched from its wearer and currently being stolen; that is, until a book is thrown at the thieving imp, lamping it on the head, and the locket is placed down on a table as a young man hops over to retrieve his prosthetic, muttering as he does so. ('Steal my foot, will you? Nasty little ... Yeah, you just enjoy your time-out, bud.') Pegleg re-attached to a left leg, the tall man picks up the imp by the scruff of a leathery neck, strides out and tosses it into the arms of its awaiting (disappointed) companions. ]

Try it again and I'll show you what the ice-pick is for!

[ He sits back down with a sigh, twiddling the locket around. ]

Anyway, hi. Sorry about that. My name's Hiccup and apparently, monsters aside, this necklace can help me find people without cursing me or also trying to steal my limbs. Great! So.

[ Hiccup has very clever green eyes, almost too many freckles to count, and a slight gap in his front teeth; as well as being ~~weedy~~ slender, you wouldn't think he was the sort of person to be so confident with an unknown audience, but he certainly is. If anything, he's eager to talk, at least five years older at twenty than he was the last time anyone in the Drabwurld saw his younger incarnation ... not that he's aware of that. ~~Baby boy grew up and then some.~~

Those of a keen eye will notice he's broadcasting from an Unseelie princely estate room, contrary to the state of the battered leather armour he now wears. ]

I'm looking for a girl about my age, tall and blonde. [ Wait. ] Not just any girl! That would be weird. Really weird, like ... girl-shopping, or something. Sorry, let me rephrase; I'm looking for a tall, blonde girl called Astrid, whom I happen to actually know. [ THIS IS GOING SO WELL, ahhh. ] Don't just call me back if you happen to randomly fit that description. [ Okay, fuck it, moving on.] I'm also looking for my mother, and she's ... [ He rubs the back of his head with a chuckle. ] Uh, she's an unforgettable sight, just tell me if you see a masked, armoured person with spikes poking off their helmet. Oh! They'll also have their dragons with them.

[ Casually throwing that out there as a genuine afterthought. ]

If you see a black dragon with big green eyes, looking sort of nocturnal? That's Toothless, my Night Fury. Tell him Hiccup is at Caer Scima, he'll understand. He won't hurt you if you don't hurt him first — obviously attacking a dragon is a phenomenally stupid thing to do, under any circumstances, so hopefully no one will opt for that course of action.

[ Sitting back, he puffs a breath that ruffles an auburn fringe and raises his brows invitingly. ]

I'd love to get to know more about this place, I've never even dreamed of being anywhere this incredible. Magical. Does anyone know where the nearest dragon nest is? I want to find something to ride until I can find my own and horses aren't really my thing. Stirrups, hard ground, you can see where I'm going with that. These lockets are incredible, has anyone opened one up and looked inside? Uh, and lastly — I promise I'll shut up soon — where can I get some decent, detailed maps of the terrain?

Thanks in advance! Nice meeting ... whoever you guys are.

( ooc: forward-dated to the 1st after the welcome feast, after which he'll lose his optimistic verve as he gets to know the world a bit better. )

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, that's the term he used. I don't think he's suffering from necromancy, it's more a ... disease? Or something like that. He'd prefer to be alive, it sounds like, so you can tell he's not crazy and worshipping undead gods or whatever. That would be nuts.

I'll ask him what his medicine's like and tell him there's someone who is willing to help back him up. [ Earnest in his relief, he offers a lopsided smile. ] Thank you, Geralt. I know you could just get rid of him if you wanted to, but you don't sound like a bad person yourself so I thought I might as well come to you, just in case. I'm glad I wasn't wrong.

[Fortunately, he doesn't usually have to eliminate too many zombies unless there's a crazy necromancer using them to be a pain in the ass to everyone else. Zombies on their own are relatively harmless because they are only raised under strict spells.

Seeing one that is, well... sentient should be interesting.] If he can extend his medicine without having much adverse effects, he should try to do it. I can't promise that I'll be able to make more.

What's his name?

It's more your compassion that sticks out. His name is Kieren.

[He nods, though doesn't say whether he's agreeing with the compassion part or the name.]

What do you plan to do when he does run out?

People said the High-King and High-Queen give out magical boons of whatever you want, so ... I'd probably use mine to help him whenever he needs it.

[ After getting Toothless back, anyway. Hopefully. ]

You'd use your boon for someone else? [Well, Hiccup might not be so bad after all. Not that he thought Hiccup was bad to begin with anyway.]

What if another friend needs it, too?

I think a lot of people aren't surprised with where they're put. I just don't want people going around thinking it's good versus evil -- because it's really not that simple, is it?

Then I suppose I'll have to be inventive with my wording when I make the request.

[ Heh. ]

[Sneaky.] Not a bad idea.

Just be careful what you wish for.

[ aithusa understands his words though she cannot reply, not with her own, even with all the healing she has done so far her voice remains absent. instead she communicates in other ways, with rumbles and cocking her head this way and that, mimicking him as he plays at it.

morgana shakes her head, the usual sharp edges of her face and voice all but gone at the sight, she sits in a place she does not truly know what to do with. free ( momentarily ) of the malice that would flow through her veins. ]

No, it is alright. [ ha, funny thing for her to say. ] Her experiences with humans are limited and most of them had been poor, this is good for her.

[ Hiccup finds himself sharing his attention between them. ]

Can you receive letters in Mair? Maybe I could draw some dragons for Aithusa and she could see what some of her cousins look like, that might be interesting for both of you.

[ And they could both know that not everyone is cruel to what they don't understand. ]

[ if only he knew the extent of the cruelty, the evidence still sits on aithusa's scales as it does on her own skin. absently she takes hold of her right wrist, a motion that captures the white dragon's attention. ]

Aithusa would like that.

[ It definitely looks like Aithusa needs a dozen hearty baskets of fish, chicken to put the meat back on her bones. Those scars make me think of the ones Toothless wears, those that Hiccup's ropes seared through his hide when the Night Fury was first shot down; it weakens something inside of him, and he likes Morgana all the more for caring for the creature. ]

We have a Book of Dragons, back home. [ A highly secret one, supposedly, except the fact every single tribe across the archipelago knows about it now. Just like Heather, there's something about Morgana that Hiccup knows is alright (and hopefully won't have to be wrong about first, before being proved correct). ] I wish I had it with me to share with you.

[ it is confronting how kind he is, how much care is in his voice. how she cannot find a falsehood despite how much she wishes she could, wishing there was something she could hate. she wears her hatred and anger like a cloak to keep her warm, without it she feels naked and vulnerable. ]

It sounds as dragons are plenty in your land. [ what would albion have been like if the dragons were never hunted down and killed? would aithusa have grown to be happy and healthy with her kin? ]

No. I do not know how many are, nor do I care, but I have encountered those who are not.

[Unless knights actually were, in which case, well, someone should have given her the memo or something.]

There are. We were at war with them for generations, but that all changed five years ago; now, if you don't have a dragon on Berk, you're the odd one out.

[ It's better than he ever could have hoped. ]

What a sweet place it seems. [ aithusa would do well there, she thinks, the white dragon would do well anywhere that is not albion. ]

[That's - very touching. He looks surprised. ] You barely know me, Hiccup.

I know you're not into eating brains. Besides, if I know one thing from meeting you? It's that you're a good person.

I just don't want to hurt anyone else.

[A beat. ]

You're very sweet to strangers, Hiccup. Thank you.

We Berkians are all about helping those that deserve it, it's the Viking way. You're welcome.

[THE VIKING WAY HIS FOOT he watches the history channel!!]

Right, of course. I don't suppose Berk is an island?

[ History is wrong!! ]

It's part of an archipelago, we're pretty far north of the Nóregr mainland. Some of the maps I checked out in the library make it look like Berk sinks into the ocean and becomes a land called Svalbard.

It's rowdy, I'll say that. Less sweet than practical, really.

That makes a lot of sense. You're nothing like the vikings I've read about.

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( ✈ first flight; VIDEO, both courts — forward-dated to 1st, post-feast )

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