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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[ Is she trying to make herself look taller over a locket? She is. Okay. You do that, girl, even if it makes no difference because height doesn't really factor into this meeting while it isn't in person. (Deja Vu of trying to talk to Snotlout aged fifteen, honestly.)

It's not a battle, or whatever she thinks it is — it's common sense as far as foreign introductions go. ]

Nice to meet you.

[ He supposes. >:U ]

[Hush, you, it totally makes sense. This level of technology is unheard of where she comes from (she was even excited over a flushing toilet and bathrooms with running water, ok?). She kind of deflates a little though, pursing her lips together.]

You too.

[Now that her steam is out of the way, she rubs the bridge of her nose with a small sigh and glances off to the side. She actually noticed that the backdrop to his room is kind of similar to her own, but hadn't paid attention to it until now.]

I don't suppose you've seen a bear around here, have you? I asked the imps but you've probably noticed they're impossible to deal with.

[ (Obviously this place is fairyland because THE TOILETS ARE INGENEOUS AND HAVE YOU SEEN THE RUNNING WATER???) As she loses some of her pep, his guarded expression eases at the corners. ]

A bear? No. Not one that wasn't stuffed and mounted, anyway.

[ The decor leaves a bit to be desired. ]

[She's used to the kind of decor around here, considering her dad's fondness of stuffing and mounting trophy hunts. Merida's brow furrows and she bites her bottom lip, gnawing on it for a moment before she speaks again, sounding a little more subdued than the annoyed Scot she first was. She mutters something like 'maybe she's somewhere else then' under her breath before she clears her throat.]

Look, I'm...not good at this, but sorry about gettin' on your case about horse ridin'. I'm just a little wound up right now.

That's ... okay. Are you okay? [ What was that mutter, did he catch it right — ] Have you lost a bear?

I'm fine.

[She can't help that it comes out as a huff before she shakes her head.]

If she's here, then we were separated when th' imps snagged me. If she's walking upright an' acts prissy then she's herself, but if she's on all fours she's...

[Dangerous, her mind supplied, but she doesn't say that.]

Given over to th' bear.

[ ... Wut. ]

I'm not entirely sure I follow your meaning. You're looking for a prissy bear? Is —? H-How does a bear come off like that?

[SIGH]

Because she used to be human. [Head in her hands.] A witch turned my mum into a bear an' it's not my fault.

[Though she's starting to believe that last part less and less.]

Oh, silly me, of course. Used to be human. [ CASUALLY GESTURING, uh. ] And have you had this problem since you were kidnapped here or before that?

[ Let's just have a totally normal conversation about witches and spells and mums turning into bears, he can only try to field this as it comes at him. ]

[She can't help rolling her eyes.]

Before. We were runnin' from Mor'du an' I was on her back. That is before those stupid imps dragged me here.

What's a Mohdoo? [ Stop assuming he knows everything about your life, Princess, gosh. Squinting. ] Why did a witch turn your mum into a bear, anyway?

Edited 2014-09-29 01:26 (UTC)

You're sayin' it wrong. Moordoh, like moor an' do. Mor'du. His name literally means great black, an' he's a demon bear that's been plaguin' th' lands since before I was born. My dad fought him with his bare hands an' walked out of it missin' only a leg to protect me an' mum.

[Now that she thinks about it, how old was that witch anyway if she'd sold the same spell to Mor'du? She winces a little at his question.]

It's...complicated. An' a long story.

Mor'du. [ Muttered at first, then repeated once or twice to get it down; languages are his forte once he gets the chance to study them, so he doesn't fuss about with being corrected.

He also doesn't miss the wince, giving a shake of his head dismissively. Personal details aren't needed, even though Hiccup is curious in turn. ]

I'll let you know if I see any bears fixing the curtains.

[ Peace offering? ]

[She nods in approval when he gets it right, looking a little surprised. Most people she knows wouldn't care to learn another language, and she only knows a couple others aside from her native Gaelic because of her lessons (even if her German is rusty).]

Thank ye. An' I'll let you know if I hear of an Astrid or see your dragon friend around.

[Peace offering.]

Edited 2014-09-29 01:48 (UTC)

[ It's accepted with a nod. He pauses, voicing something on his mind as he takes in the decor behind her on the locket's screen. ]

I doubt either of us will find Astrid in this particular castle. If the old stories are true, she'd be over in the kingdom full of lawful folk, with the more cool-headed of the aelfen.

[She takes in his words, remembering the tales her mother had told her about the unseelie and seelie courts, the faeries at work there. Merida nods, leaning back against something with a small sigh.]

If anythin', that's where my mother probably is too, with th' seelie folk. She's th' peacekeeper an' law maker among th' clans, makes th' decisions that would benefit th' kingdom. [Including marrying her daughter off without asking if she's okay with it.] She can walk through a hall of brawlin' men an' make them stop just by lookin' at them.

I think my mother would just hit them over the head with her staff and quieten down a room that way.

[ Valka, yo. ]

That's more my dad, honestly. Though it didn't quite work out that way during th' recent gatherin'...

[Her mother would probably frown at his mother's actions. 'A princess does not place her weapons on the table' and all that.]

[ Telling Valka not to put her weapon on the table is so laughable, really. She'd probably fly off on Cloudjumper and eat fish somewhere where her ~free spirit could have as fewer manners as she pleased. ]

Oh? What happened there?

He, ah, wound up getting involved himself. My mother pinched their ears an' dragged them into submission an' back to the subject at hand.

Sounds like my dad. What was the gathering about? The last was five years ago for us, they don't happen very often.

[She kind of sinks back a little and purses her lips together, scowling off to the side.]

My hand in marriage.

[ Pffft. ]

Sounds awful. Who did you choose?

You have no idea. I didn't have a say in it.

[She lets herself smirk.]

So I beat them all in a contest meant to prove their worth by shooting all three targets directly in the center. Split the last one's arrow in half.

[ One thing really sticks out. ]

How can you not have a choice in who you marry?

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