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

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( ✈ 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. )

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I haven't had a left sock in a while, I highly doubt it could.

[ Have a nod, bruh. ]

The place I'm in right now sounds like where the Dark Elves, the Dökkálfar, are supposed to live, and down in the southern lands is the place everyone says the Light Elves, the Ljósálfar, hole up in Álfheimr. Caer Glaem. It all sounds so similar in tone.

[ Shrugging, Hiccup sits back. Gobber is starting to seem like the wisest person on Berk, all of a sudden. ]

Which mean I've been conscripted by the lawless weirdoes, in effect.

I meant about Thor.

[He snorts. Lawless weirdos, it's so .. accurate ... Kieren's such a rebel too... ]

Caer Scima's been hospitable enough for me. I mean, aside from the war.

[He's not had many problems; he's met nice people. People he likes. He gives a small smile. ]

I've been thinking about traveling for a little while, though. There's a whole world out there, seems a shame not to see it.

[Not to mention a dead city that he wants to see first hand. ]

[ Don't jOKE ABOUT THOR, that god gets angry as shit, son. At this point in the conversation, Hiccup has had the debatable good fortune of chatting with a mouthy Scottish girl too, so he sounds a little wry when he answers. ]

A few people around here seem to expect others to walk huge distances if they don't feel like grabbing a horse. Is that really the only want to get around? Besides the fairy-ring things on the map, the imps told me about those.

[ If it's all the same to the Drabwurld, Hiccup would much prefer not to vanish himself out of existence in one place to arrive in another, even for the sake of time-efficient travel. ]

I'm afraid so. If you find your dragon, you'll be in better luck than most of us. If I'm being honest with you, the horses are the reason I've put off going anymore. They're sort of huge and look really uncomfortable?

[BUT THEY'RE ALSO so pretty. He wishes he could call a taxi or hop on a train. ]

I'd rather take my chances with the fairy rings.

Yeah, they are. They were when I had two feet, for that matter. Dragons are smarter, and I trust them more than magic at this point.

[ Because #kidnapped, mostly. ]

How long have you been here, Kieren?

Three months.

[His smile subsides, just a little, his tone more solemn. Three months since he's seen his mum and dad. Three months since he's saw Simon's offensive giant sweaters.

He's not sure how he feels about that. ]

There's people who've been here longer than me, though. Three months is nothing.

Doesn't time work differently in the aelfen realms? That's what I always heard. They steal children, like you said, and then put them back a day later looking fully grown.

[ That seems more annoying than sad, to him. ]

Probably? But to us, it's still a long time. It might be hours back home, but we live a whole life here wondering what our families are doing without us.

[He's so resigned to his fate here; he can't push and stomp his way out of the Drabwurld. ]

Of course. I was already in the middle of trying to stop a war back home, I really don't need this sort of thing on top of all that.

[ Passing a hand over his face because arrrrgh, Drago's a pain even when he isn't in the same damn world. ]

Are you okay? You seem ... down.

Sorry. Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about my mum.

[He goes for a smile, resists the urge to go into detail. Some stuff is just 2 heavy for first conversations. ]

How was your anti-war effort going back home? I'm not sure the sentiment will work here, if I'm honest. They're really into it.

It was ... still being pursued. [ Which is as much as he can say for it, at this point, with Valka refusing to go with him to talk to Drago. No one will listen to him, it's maddening. ] I'm not fighting a war here just because they say so.

Now you're starting to sound like the rest of us.

And it only took a half-hour to do it, I'm catching up.

We've got a fast learner on our hands here.

Hopefully I won't be left out in the cold on that topic, I can't imagine it's an unsociable one despite where we're temporarily lodging.

If you find a quicker way to travel, I'm sure there's more neutral inclined hosts out there. Or you could always come with me to Quendi? It's hard to fight a war in a city that's dead.

I have to stay put for a short while and make sure Toothless isn't lost here, but thanks. He'd be put off by how different all this stuff is. Plus, he'd be worth more to anyone in a battle than I would to them.

That's understandable.

Did you name him ironically? I can't really imagine a toothless dragon.

He has retractable teeth, I didn't know he had any when we first, uh. First met.

[ The second time they met, technically. He was a bit busy having a teen-life crisis when he first let Toothless go. ]

Oh, like a great white shark?

Yeah, kind of. Night Furies operate on stealth and speed, pretty much everything about him is streamlined.

[ Except his tail, but Hiccup omits mentioning that just yet. He doesn't want everyone knowing Toothless can't fly without him, it might paint a target on his dragon's back. ]

That sounds incredible.

[He missed all the dragon drama here, too busy settling in ... drawing his sister ... worrying in a very British sort of way. ]

Err - I'm not sure if this is a rude question, but back home wild animals are usually tamed in captivity. I can't really imagine putting dragons into big habitats though, so I suppose he must have just taken a liking to you?

[Then, a little dazed: ] Sorry, I'm still getting used to the fairies. I didn't think I'd meet someone who's close with a dragon.

Toothless isn't tame, you can't really ever ... do that, to a dragon. My dad had a Thunderdrum called Thornado that he released back into the wild to take care of some stray babies of the same breed, we see him sometimes in the ocean with the others of his Tidal-class. He's got a shoal of his own, now.

[ Old Thornado, that guy was great. Loud as fuck, obviously, but great. Hiccup smiles without realising, because talking about dragons? Is never rude with him.

Seriously, it could be three in the morning and he'd probably be okay with it. ]

Me and Toothless met up in secret, we got to know each other away from everyone else so it was a little touch-and-go for a while. We had to figure out a way to communicate. Night Furies are the smartest and fastest dragons, he understands everything I say and I don't have to mess about mangling Dragonese in front of him, which is lucky because I can't really differentiate between 'yak' and 'hug', which can get a little bruising.

Dragons can be insanely dangerous. I don't think that changes no matter where you go, but that doesn't mean they immediately default to it.

[Dragons sound like cats which is really endearing. Kieren smiles; it's different watching Hiccup being so passionate about dragons, than it was watching Simon talk about his beliefs. Simon had looked exhausted. Hiccup looks thrilled, just by the thought. ]

They sound a bit like cats, nature wise? Domestic cats, I mean. I think the wild ones are less inclined to give you a cuddle if you ask nicely.

[Gosh, Hiccup, this is cute as heck. ]

Did you know this much about them before you met Toothless?

Don't ask Toothless for a cuddle, he'll just sit on you and drool. [ Nodding omfg. ] And dragonspit serves as glue, so. Y'know, not the best hugger in the world.

[ He's lying, he loves Night Fury squishes. ]

Actually, dragon breeds resemble a lot of different animals. Toothless is like a ... like a shark-cat, he has four paws and a tail as well as his wings, and ear-fins that poke up, with his retractable teeth and dorsal fins. [ Hmm, what else. ] Deadly Nadders have two feet and their wings are part of their arms like a bird, Gronckles are like fat little rock-dogs blown up to a hundred times their size, Monstrous Nightmares are sort of your traditional lizard-y type, and those ones have actually been known to cross-breed with the two-headed Hideous Zipplebacks to create Monstrous Zipplebacks.

[ ~~Or the film's merchandise sector got their dragons muddled and it was literally the funniest marketing screw up ever, god bless.~~ Hiccup's eyes brighten as he chats on and on, relaxing into a slouch that angles him toward the locket and Kieren. It takes the focus off being lost, alone and weirded out, which he is grateful for in spades. ]

Before I met Toothless, Berk had been at war with dragons for generations. They took our livestock and we killed them for it, they killed us in retaliation ... It was a mess.

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