Fletcher Tringham (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greennotgold) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
trans_92010-07-01 03:16 pm
greennotgold) wrote in trans_92010-07-01 03:16 pm
Entry tags:
Things gone by [Open]
Fletcher should have known that it couldn't last. They'd actually been happy, relaxed, and enjoying themselves for once; of course it had come to an end. Everything had come crashing down around them. He should have predicted it. And Fletcher had spend the entire fight cowering, hiding, and clinging to his brother.
And now he was back on the ship again. He could have gone back to the science labs and picked up his plantsuit research again, or over to Hydroponics to do some work there, but right now he just felt lost. Again. As usual. He was ten years old; what could he do when a crisis like that came up?
Instead of doing something productive, Fletcher had run off to the Sensoriums. Right now, he was lying on his back in the garden at Belshio's house. Resting on his chest was a copy of the hologram picture Edward had taken back on shore leave: Fletcher and Russel standing in front of the line of statues that the two older brothers had transmuted. He wasn't looking at that right now, though; he was staring up at the bright blue simulated sky, watching the clouds float by.
And now he was back on the ship again. He could have gone back to the science labs and picked up his plantsuit research again, or over to Hydroponics to do some work there, but right now he just felt lost. Again. As usual. He was ten years old; what could he do when a crisis like that came up?
Instead of doing something productive, Fletcher had run off to the Sensoriums. Right now, he was lying on his back in the garden at Belshio's house. Resting on his chest was a copy of the hologram picture Edward had taken back on shore leave: Fletcher and Russel standing in front of the line of statues that the two older brothers had transmuted. He wasn't looking at that right now, though; he was staring up at the bright blue simulated sky, watching the clouds float by.
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"And if making other people makes you happy, then it's important, too. Don't forget that part of it," said Hiccup. "It's important to look out for your tribe, for your people. But it's also important to make sure you're happy with yourself, too. And to be who you want, instead of just what you think other people need you to be."
Another eyebrow raise.
"I learned that one the hard way."
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"What do you mean?"
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"What I mean is sometimes when you try really hard to be what other people want you to be or what you think they want you to be, you ignore the parts of yourself that--"
Even if he was better at self-reflection than other Vikings, he wasn't the best at it. He had to really think about it.
"--that might be good at something that's a little off the beaten path. It's like sometimes if you try too hard, it makes parts of you go quiet and you risk never learning what you'd be good at if you let them out. Like, me? I don't really like fighting, but fighting and killing dragons was what my tribe was all about. Anybody who was anybody had killed a dragon. So that's how I shot down Toothless--and I hurt him. And--and I almost killed him, so I could prove to my village that I wasn't weak. That I wasn't useless. That I was just like them."
He looked over to Fletcher.
"I almost killed the dragon that became my best friend in the whole world because that's what everyone else wanted me to be: a dragon-killer, just like them. But there was a part of me that doesn't like fighting, that didn't feel right about killing him--so I let him go. And over time, I became his friend. And I used other things I was good at to fix his tail."
"Imagine," he said, "what would have happened if I'd been what everyone else thought I should be instead of who I really was. You'd be talking to a really different person right now. And I think maybe a worse person."
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"I see," he replied, looking down in thought. "I wouldn't want to ruin everything like that..." He didn't have much more to really say.
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Suddenly, he thought of something.
"Hey, know something you could do that'd really be a help to someone?"
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"Ah? What is it?" He was all ears.
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"You know, I'm new here, and I don't understand a lot of things," Hiccup said. "I don't have many friends here--and I was never really good at making friends in the first place. Do you think that maybe you could be my friend?"
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"That'd be great!"
Yay, rugrats.
Still, if it cheered Fletcher up, right on. That was what this was all about. Hiccup had a soft spot for kids, even only because they were smaller and in need of more kindness, guidance, and protection than he was. And maybe some of those kids would be closer to his age--Hiccup was getting the idea that the definition of "kid" was a little older in some of these places.