DA DA DA, WE'RE DEAD.

he might as well not even ASK this question anymore; the dragon’s positive croon is almost mandatory at this point. night fury and rider have an insatiable curiosity between them -- one which may get them into trouble from time to time, but, well, that might be the FUN of it. 

today’s find? a lone tower, standing oddly in a secluded cove that seems cut off from the surrounding forest; actually, if he and toothless hadn’t been flying, they never would’ve seen it. ivy grew around its base, and it looked like the half-crumbling relic of some castle, the rest of which had disappeared. the surrounding area looked entirely abandoned -- though hiccup knew there was a large port city not far from there, as he’d seen the castle turrets on his flight.

toothless angled lower towards the roof of the tower, and hiccup looked around for any sign of life. he’d made the mistake of ACCIDENTALLY wandering into people’s homes before... but nothing moved except the normal sounds of the trees around them. besides, there wasn’t even a DOOR, he realized as they swooped to one side of it; there was only a lone window, which no one could reach unless there was a hidden ladder somewhere.     “ come on, let’s see if we can check out the inside, ”     he said, and toothless hovered lower, until boy and dragon were practically poking their heads into the window.

when you think about st.ar w.ars verse and you’re not sure if you want

a. hiccup to not be force sensitive at all and just be this badass but probably unaffiliated with the empire/first order/rebel alliance/resistance mechanic with a droid he names toothless.

A MEME SOMEWHERE , not accepting !

hands raise automatically in a gesture of ‘ okay, i get the picture, don’t hit me ’. it had just been on INSTINCT; they had both been in the way of falling debris from an exploding ship, and he had grabbed her arm to yank them both away from being crushed in a spectacular explosion. ( he’d already lost one limb; he’d like to keep the others. ) still, her BLASTER in his face was enough persuasion to not try it again.     “ okay. NO TOUCHING. got it, crystal clear. ”

“ okay, so, let me get this STRAIGHT. ”     hiccup’s voice is a mix of exasperation and incredulity that might never have been rivaled in his twenty years before -- and he had seen a LOT in his time. a finger pinches the bridge of his nose, but the other hand has to remain on an antsy toothless, who kept his teeth bared at the large man in front of them.

“ you see a FIRE BREATHING DRAGON show up on your island... and your first instinct... is that it’s a SNACK granted by the gods? ”     sure, this doesn’t look like a place that has the widest food selection, and this guy could rival even hiccup’s father in breadth and height -- but even STOICK THE VAST wouldn’t be so dumb as to try to eat a dragon.

a quill clutched between long fingers was jiggled back and forth as its owner’s brows furrowed, tongue digging at his cheek. hiccup’s free hand dragged over his face, a sign of FRUSTRATION with tonight’s homework as he flicked his attention between the scroll in front of him and three massive books open across the desk. he’d been here an hour already, and he only had a foot of parchment to show for it, and that wasn’t even a QUARTER of what he had to finish by tonight.

“ you ever think mcgonagall does this on purpose? ”     he asks finally, slumping back against his chair. he kept his voice down, so as not to agitate madam pince, who was already in a foul mood after having caught two second years trying to use magic to change book titles to curse words. hiccup didn’t often study in the library -- or with OTHER PEOPLE, really -- but cedric had offered and he’d been buried in a mountain of essays that he needed to get through anyway, so a little help couldn’t hurt.     “ it’s like she knows when we don’t want to write a five foot essay on how odysseus could’ve turned his pig sailors back into people. ”