(first stake) video ✧ open to both courts

[herotypical]

[ the locket swings jarringly into action -- like a camera stuck to a pendulum, shuddering back and forth and only occasionally picking up a stern-eyed blonde. ] Ugh. Whose idea was it to glue a webcam onto a necklace--

[ there! steadied. there is first a grimace and then a forced smile and then a flutter of girlish eyelashes. ] First order of business? Those of you still bumming around the Station -- could you tell me how those repairs are coming along? I'm feeling a serious oncoming modernity craving. Like, a gallon of lattes and underwear that doesn't require learning whole new categories of knots.

Second: does anyone know how to make a quick buck outside shilling it for either court? [ she is not a fan of either of the caers. ] Preferably while also maintaining some facade of dignity.

And third and last but absolutely never least: does the name Sunnydale mean anything to anyone? Y'know, anyone other than the someones I've already talked with. [ hey! it's worth asking. doubly so now that it looks like she's here for the long(ish) haul. double ugh. ]

Comments

2/2

[herotypical]

Shut up.

[smithwork]

I think you have a serious communication problem, miss.

[herotypical]

Buffy. Please. Call me Buffy.

[ but yeah a communication problem is one very understated way of putting it. ]

[smithwork]

Hiccup — as in, yes, the intestinal reflex. Hi, Buffy.

[herotypical]

Hiccup.

[ shut. up. ]

Well. At least you weren't named Burp. It could be worse.

[smithwork]

[ Snorts. ]

My cousin Snotlout and friend Fishlegs might agree with you. Vikings give their kids names that are supposed to scare off spooks and inspire terror in the hearts of their enemies.

Obviously, their imaginations don't stretch too far.

[herotypical]

And -- if I'm following this logic -- vikings therefore find hiccups to be, uhm, spooky?

[ wow vikings are so disappointing. ]

[smithwork]

Uh, that would be a no. A hiccup is what you call the runt of the litter. Pigs, yaks, that sort of thing, the one you'd usually throw out. [ Very chill with this now, although he was far less so at fifteen. ] I was born prematurely and wasn't the beefiest growing up.

[herotypical]

Oh

[ dude that is a sob story. but he doesn't sound exactly broken up about it -- so she plays by ear and doesn't offer up too many sympathetic clucks of her tongue. maybe just, like, three. ]

Charming. Consider me glad I was never born a viking.

[ seriously she doesn't wanna know what dreadful name she would have gotten then. buffy can be bad enough. ]

[smithwork]

Well, you don't look that different to my girlfriend and she got landed a pretty name. [ Don't mind the small tick of a fond smile. ] Astrid. It means 'Beauty'.

[ Ooo, that makes him perk up and wave a hand as he thinks. ]

Although, I mean, that's just what it sounds like in whatever we're talking now. Drabbish? That's the translation. It would actually be Ástríðr and Hiksti Skripi Ýsa þriði — [ putting actual effort into speaking his native Old Norse and not Drabbish, enjoy that ] — the latter meaning my full name of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third.

Annnd I'm obviously having a whale of a time mending this wall because I'm trying to kill strangers by babbling them to death.

1/3

[herotypical]

[ look that's all very sweet and awesome about your sweetheart, kid. but-- ] Your middle name is Horrendous?

2/3

[herotypical]

[ oh god and his last name is a fish.

shut up shut up shut up. ]

3/3

[herotypical]

[ huff. alright. composure, summers! ]

Trust me. I am the last person you will ever need to fear talking to death.

[smithwork]

I got the best pick of the bunch, I know. It's less, "Hiccup the Horrendous, hear his name and flee!" and more "Hiccup the Rather Chatty, sit down and have something to drink with him".

[ Not awe-inspiring in the least but he's long outgrown hoping he'll ever do that. Except during the run for the hills hoo-hah he and Toothless get up to sometimes, that's always fun; scaring the new villagers on other isles and then going to apologise meet them. ]

Do you hang out at the Station often, Buffy?

[herotypical]

I did. Briefly. But it was kind of a shambles and we moved on -- [ as in it didn't immediately offer up any solid leads as to how to get the hell outta here. but now -- a little more settled and a little less alone, however shattered her uneasy friendship with spike has come -- she's starting to feel bad for having left behind a small city so clearly hurting.

he was a bad influence on you, she tells herself. ]

I'm thinking about going back. I'm tired of the non-electric crowd.

[smithwork]

The electronics actually make me a little nervous, I've been using candles in my room in case I have another accident. Apart from the Lap Tops? Those things are great, along with the Why Fie.

[ Can you hear the odd pronunciation in those words, Buffy. Don't laugh. ]

[herotypical]

[ dude even she barely understands wifi. nineties girl. ]

It's the hair dryers that really matter.

[smithwork]

[ Buffy, it's sad you're as computer literate as a 1000+ year old man. ]

Oh, and hair straighteners? I almost branded my neck, those things are death traps! I gave up on them.

[herotypical]

[ hey! she has willow for that. ]

Holy crap. Seriously? [ WAIT A TICK. ] You're a viking so...what? Axes? Great swords? Maybe some war hammers?

It'd be straight up embarrassing if a hair straightener defeated you.

[smithwork]

Oh, please, there are far less dangerous tools in a forge. I say this from extensive personal experience.

[ He's going to be fluffy-haired forever, too bad and so sad. ]

[herotypical]

-- You forge things?

[ this just got legit interesting. ]

[smithwork]

Yeah, I've worked as a blacksmith since I was eleven. [ Reading that look, gurl. ] I don't have a forge with me right now, if you were wondering.

[herotypical]

Talk about a summer job.

[smithwork]

It was the only thing worth doing on Berk, growing up. How about you, what's your whole home-slash-job deal? You mentioned a place called Sunnydale. That sounds nice.

[herotypical]

It was. Now it's a little less...well, everything. But I was working at a school.

[ kinda. sorta. yes. ]