( 2ND Snowy Flight — video, both courts )

[smithwork]

[ Smoke is seen billowing as the locket's owner shoves a door open, coughing and waving a hand. This is broadcasting from the Station, evidently, with the modern-day look of things behind only mildly scorched around one side of the kitchen. Hiccup himself has since bathed after the journey from Caer Scima and obviously raided the Station's underground storerooms for clean clothes; he wears a bright red hoodie that hangs open over a plain tshirt, which in turn shows he still wears his leathers beneath and his prosthetic. Only the flightsuit is safely stored in his underground bedroom.

He spits a mouthful of sooty grime aside, swiping his weeping eyes as he steps out into the sweet relief of fresh air. ]

To anyone who wants to use the Station's kitchen right now, uh. It's down one 'microwave' and 'freezer'. Not our fault, I might add! Well, improving the freezer could debatably be called a mistake on Jack's part ...

[Behind Hiccup, the winter spirit could be seen approaching, sans wearing his cape which he instead uses to try and wave off the smoke in the air. His normally pristine white shirt is no longer very winter-like at all, darkened and dirtied by all the floating soot most likely. Upon hearing his name, he peeks from behind his accuser, not as cheery as he tends to be.]

Excuse me, Doctor Boom. I was trying to calm down the fire that you started because your science-y senses started tingling and you got, and I quote, "curious". I'd say that my miniature blizzard saved your life.

[ Looking more harassed and frazzled than normal too, a twitch goes in Hiccup's jaw. His pitch heightens, although he attempts to keep his irritation down. ]

There's nothing around here that says you shouldn't put metal objects in the box that heats everything up, you'd think it would make sense and just melt it, if anything.

[Excuses that Jack has heard over and over, prompting the repeated eye roll. Instead of arguing further, he brings up a hand over Hiccup's shoulder to grab the locket, directing his attention to it.]

Point is, because of Mr. Metal Bomb over here, the kitchen's been compromised, so if you wanna roast your meal, you'll have to do it old campfire style outside. Or if you have some things to blow up— [Hiccup gets a nice quick pat on the cheek.] —you can refer to Sir Haddock right here. He's apparently pretty good at that.

[ A very flat expression and folded arms await Jack coming full-circle with his own version of events, and Hiccup rolls his eyes so much that it looks like they might slip right free of his skull. ]

Thank you for summing that up. Pardon me for not understanding everything about electronics within a single afternoon. [ The locket is then, for a third time, turned back his way. ] There is an oven left, it's just the box thing that died, and someone destroyed the frozen food cupboard-whatever. I'm going to be cleaning up the resulting mess all day, if anyone wants to, oh, I don't know, help.

[ The latter is said with a pointed look at a certain winter spirit.

Unexpectedly, lost in their bickering like old ladies, the boys have forgotten about the flame-haired (literally, she's still smouldering) teenager in the midst of the kitchen. They both wince near-simultaneously when a thick accent curses loudly, and sporting equally sheepish faces the locket is hastily switched off before Merida can catch them slacking.

Apparently a sixteen-year-old, pissed off Scottish girl with singed hair is a far better incentive for two grown men to clean up their mess than anything else. ]




( OOC: Hic, Jack and Mer are all at the Station if you'd like to dive in with Action, otherwise all three will be chatty on their lockets regarding the big boom from the kitchen today. )

Comments

[smithwork]

It really isn't, it just sort of gave up when a bit of metal was put inside it. I thought it would work like an actual oven, but. [ Shrugging. He's 300% done caring about this kitchen right now. ] And he did, yeah. Jack's the spirit of winter, that's his niche. Snow, frost, putting black ice beside peoples' beds in the morning ...

[baseborne]

I thought he was just boasting, if I'm honest. [Jon wrinkles his nose.] What'd you want to cook up a piece of metal there for, anyway? There are proper forges at the castles.

[smithwork]

To be fair to you, he does a lot of that too. [ Rubbing his face. ] I was trying to use it to heat up some bread I put in, I left one of the forks beside it.

I'm just going to stick with fish stew for a while after this.

[ You can't go wrong with that. Not ever. ]

[baseborne]

There aren't lakes by the Station, are there? [Have the pizza. Jon can vouch for pizza.]

[smithwork]

Isn't there one called Noa or something? [ Fuck superstition, he wants to go fishing. ] I remember seeing one vaguely close enough on the map.

[baseborne]

--If you'd fish there, I suppose. [NO HICCUP DON'T superstitions exist for reasons sometimes. Especially superstitions in magical fairy worlds.]

[smithwork]

[ ssssquinting. ]

What's that look for?

[baseborne]

Men say-- [that there's a dead girl and her dead dog that haunt it, and sometimes they make you dance if you get too close? No, that sounds too stupid to repeat even in his own head. Jon's mouth snaps closed after a moment.] No, never mind.

[smithwork]

Think of it this way, if you don't tell me and I go there to get killed by monsters, you'll feel a slight twinge of guilt. Probably.

[ C'mon, bruh. :T ]

[baseborne]

Not monsters... exactly. [Pls don't make him say it Hiccup he has dignity.]

[smithwork]

It's not a fog monster or anything like that, is it? Because I've had enough of those.

[ Fake-ass Smothering Smokebreath dragons, more like. Sometimes people believe the dumbest crap. ]

[baseborne]

--What? No. What's a fog monster? [Or a Smothering Smokebreath?? Hiccup pls dragons come in one flavor, and that flavor is we all gonna die. RIP Westeros, shouldn't have pissed off the mother of dragons.]

[smithwork]

Just a stupid story my friend Fishlegs convinced me was real for a while.

[ Hiccup will punch Daenerys for you, Jon. He will punch her with words for trying to use dragons as beasts of warfare, he's got your back!! ]

So if Noa doesn't have monsters exactly, what does it have?

[baseborne]

[What kind of name is Fishlegs?? (Jon asks himself, while talking to a man called Hiccup.)]

... I'll sound a fool if I say it. [Just avoid the lake, Hiccup, god! Game animals are so much better than fish anyway!! Jon seriously considers being stubborn, but eventually just huffs out a breath that blows his hair up off his forehead. Super grudgingly:] Oh, fine. Ghosts, is what they say lurks there.

[smithwork]

Ghosts. [ He's not saying you sound stupid, Jon, but you sound stupid, yeah. ] Are they chatty? Do they enjoy a spot of fishing too?

[baseborne]

[This is why he said "no, never mind!!!"]

The fairies say they make men dance. [His tone says he thinks that might be a fate worse than being attacked by monsters. Yeah.]

[smithwork]

[ ... What. ]

These sound like some very socially awkward phantoms.

[baseborne]

[Jon makes a cross face. He won't be laughed at, he's very manly and dignified! Ish. If you squint. In a bad light.]

It's only what the folk here say. If you want your fish so bad, I won't try and stop you.

[smithwork]

Alright, okay. Thank you for the advance notice of ... all of that. Maybe there's a pond or something in the woods around here, there usually is somewhere. Noa can wait.

[ U SAVED HIM, JON. Not really, Hiccup's too lazy to head out from the Station just yet because he can't fly!! but basically. ]

[baseborne]

[Jon: Draubwurld's true hero, you read it here first.]

Why do you stay at the Station, anyway? It's such a queer place, and much in ruin now.

[smithwork]

The living quarters underground are still sturdy, they look like they've been here for generations, and there's more a sense of community since no one cares who's Seelie or Unseelie. I like being able to decide what I think about people without the bias of 'Whoops, they're the enemy' tacked on first because when you spend a day apologising to people for wrecking a wall in their kitchen, they still look happy no matter who they are, and that's how you make new friends. They kind who appreciate you for just being a good person, not just standing beside them on the same side of a field because someone told you to.

[ Oh!! ]

Also, the Lap Tops have a lot of music on them that sounds almost like my people could have sang it. [ He's a homely boy, for all his exploring. ] I like having it play and being able to forget I'm not in my father's house, that the archipelago might be just outside.

I suppose I get a little homesick, every few weeks.

[baseborne]

[Well gosh when you put it like that!!]

The Station is not the only place of neutrality. [Come to Cothromach the weather's fine!] What is a "Lap Top" exactly? Some instrument?

[smithwork]

If I had my dragon I'd be a lot happier about visiting places, I'm not exactly the brawniest adventurer.

[ And his leg would probably get screwed up one way or another, without a hope on the road of fixing it. He brightens when Jon asks about the laptops, eager to talk about them with someone who isn't going to laugh at everything he says in his inexperience. ]

They're connected to something invisible called Why Fie, I don't know how but apparently it isn't magic. It comes from the place that sustains all the other bits and bobs around here. Anyway, it's like ... the Why Fie stores moving pictures and songs, and using the Lap Tops is almost the same as walking into a library to get at it all, only you have to navigate whatever the screen says.

I can't read the English on it, but I learned how to write 'Viking' and I found all kinds of long-ago stored moving images, like what happens when we speak on the lockets.

[baseborne]

[Whoa, whoa, hold up, wait a minute, stop right there, sir. You can't just say "my dragon" like it's normal to have a giant kingdom-conqueror for a mount. All this other stuff can hang on a bleeding second.]

Your... dragon. If you had your dragon.

[You had best explain yourself, Hiccup.]

[smithwork]

Yeah, my dragon. [ ... Oh. ] Did I not mention I have one? It usually comes up somehow.

[ A first!! ]

He isn't here.