trans_9 | Worlds Apart [closed] [Set before moleplot and aliensplot]

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Worlds Apart [closed] [Set before moleplot and aliensplot]

After training with Zuko (and a shower), Hiccup had just wanted to relax. That meant a trip to Hydroponics, for fake sunshine on his face. At least until he got under the shade of a tree with bright pink leaves, anyway.

It also meant hanging out with his buddy.

There was outright giggling as Toothless nudged his side, rolling him over so that he could squeeze in under the shade, curled around his boy, and then Hiccup lay there against his dragon's side, one foot gleaming in the light, the toes of his other foot wiggling in the grass.

One hand idly reached up and over and scratched the dragon's neck so that his whole body rumbled as he purred.

The teenage Viking looked half-close to drifting off for a nap, but that wouldn't stop him from saying hello to anyone that passed by.

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"'Steve' is a pretty boring, ordinary name where I'm from."

He still wasn't quite sure if he wanted to be involved in this conversation or not, but Hiccup seemed all right... and the dragon still looked content and not like it was going to suddenly rear up and attack or anything.

"Where are you from that there's dragons, anyway?"

"Berk. It's an island. In the middle of nowhere. Noted primarily for it's cases of frostbite," he joked. "The dragons had a nest not far from us, but we couldn't find it to scatter them until very recently and then...we didn't do so much of the scattering as planned. Vikings have lived on Berk for seven generations--and fought dragons that entire time."

Scritchy scritchy.

Looked like they weren't fighting now.

"Man..." No matter who he talked to, it seemed, Steve could never find someone who didn't have a home world worth envying compared to his. Earth was boring and Steve's version, at times, horrible. Vikings and dragons sounded like something out of a fairytale in comparison.

"Doesn't seem that ferocious to me."

At the relative insult to his pride, and at that odd...smell, the dragon shook himself out of his lazy stupor and turned to face Steve, taking a few huffs through his nostrils and giving him a Look. The retractable teeth popped out, his ears laid back flat on his head, and Toothless let out a low and dangerous growl.

1) You do not insult a dragon or ever forget what they can do, Steve.

2) You smell like...like badness.

"I wouldn't, ah, I wouldn't provoke him," Hiccup said, and he tapped Toothless gently on the nose.

"No. We don't do that to possible new friends. Calm down."

The dragon settled again, giving Hiccup a baleful look, but otherwise calming down. He did however, shoot Steve a look that seemed very "I got my eye on you."

Well, if Steve didn't look apprehensive before, now he looked a few seconds from turning tail and bolting the hell out of hydroponics. "Hey, jeez, I didn't mean anything by it," he said quickly. "He just-- looked relaxed, is all--"

Jeez, who knew dragons were so touchy?

... or that they spoke English?

Understood bits of it at least. (Of course, Toothless was hearing it as Old Norse).

"They're pretty smart. And prideful. Definitely prideful."

Hiccup went back to rubbing the dragon's neck to calm him down again.

"He's not tame--he's just my friend. The only reason he doesn't eat people is because most of the time, they're not trying to hurt him or me, and because he likes fish better. But if you don't act threatening towards me, or towards him, he won't go after you. Might growl a little, but that's more bark than bite."

It's safe, Steve. Just be respectful.

"Who's threatening?" Steve asked a little drolly. Don't mind him, he's just defensive, and starting to feel the nervous heat that comes along with Veronica. He's used to it by now, but feeling your body head up a few degrees instantly isn't very pleasant either way.

"Easy there, guy. Sorry."

The dragon seemed content just to get scritchies now.

"So, back to what we were saying."

Because it meant he had a potential kindred spirit of uselessness here...

"Same trouble, huh?"

He went on, "The hard part is I'm trying to learn things, to get better and stop playing damsel in distress in every fight, but that doensn't happen overnight."

He made a bicep with a flimsy arm.

"I mean look at this," he patted his arm, and joked, "With these studly muscles, I can lift a sword with about five whole minutes of effort."

"You're ahead of me, then," Steve said with a mild sigh, crossing his arms and pleased to move away from the subject of how he failed at dragons. "It's not like I can't do anything-- but I'm not in the same league as everybody else. I can't compare."

He scowled a bit. "And there's a lot I can't do anyway."

Hiccup bit his lip.

"Why can't you do some things?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Let's just say I have a little condition." Probably shouldn't have spilled so much to a guy he barely knew, but who cared? It wasn't anything anybody who paid attention couldn't guess.

"So you're ill?" He rubbed his chin. That would make it hard for him to be helpful if he couldn't do some of the things to be helpful.

"Do you have anything to keep you busy?"

"Basically." Yeah. Basically.

"Aside from seeing my girlfriend or getting thrown in quarantine every other week? Not really."

"You know, I could use some help in the forge, if you're looking for something to do. There are people here with steel weapons. I don't know if you could do that with your condition, but the offer's there. There are other blacksmiths, but I'm trying to make it so the free forge can compete--and stay free, instead of ripping people of, of what little they have."

A pause.

"Which is why I should prolly be down there now, but I had practice with Zuko today, so I'm taking a break."

A forge? Steve raised an eyebrow. How... renaissance fair. "I don't know. I'm supposed to avoid getting injured if I can help it," he admitted. "Besides, I don't know the first thing about steel weapons. I'm more of a gun kind of guy."

He was going to say that it was cool and he understood, but found something to be excited about.

"I'm learning to use those! I love those!" Hiccup said, immediately excited. "My dad still doesn't get it. I've been trying to explain it's like a catapult. But small. That shoots faster. And in your hand."

Hiccup immediately froze.

"Wow, and I am must be coming off a giant non-futurey dork aren't I. Sorry."

Now he was embarrassed.

"But you know? Indoor plumbing? New concept for me. Great stuff. Wouldn't work in Berk because the pipes would freeze in winter, but still--very cool stuff. Same with cars. I'd kill to learn how those work."

That seemed to actually brighten Steve up-- a chance to be expert guy. "Guns are awesome," he agreed. "I'm pretty good at using them, so if you ever need any help, you should ask me."

"Cars too," he added. "Or motorcycles. I used to help out at my uncle's garage after school."

"Could I? Really?"

Yay! ~~New friend! Maybe!~~

"...What's a motorcycle?"

"Yeah, sure," Steve offered, and reached into the pocket of his cargo pants where he always kept his Luger, pulling it out to show off. "This one's mine. I got a pair of submachine guns too but this one's way more reliable..."

And then the million dollar question. "Motorcycles? Oh... they're awesome. It's kind of like a car, but smaller and faster. You gotta go to the sensoriums with me sometime."

"Now, what's a submachine gun? How's that different from this kind of gun?" he asked, pointing to the Luger.

Oh, expertise! Or at least enough expertise to teach somebody something! Steve looked noticeably more at ease. "This gun only shoots one bullet at a time, like BANG," he explained. "A submachine gun shoots a whole bunch of bullets for as long as you hold down the trigger. So instead of one big boom, it goes rat-a-tat-a-tat..."

He felt kind of dorky with the sound effects, but there wasn't much better way to explain it.

"That. Is the coolest thing. I have ever heard."

He gestured wildly with his hands.

"Do you know what we have? we have the catapult. Do you know how long it takes to load a catapult? It takes a ridiculously long time to load a catapult. This stuff is just bangbangbangbangbang reload, bangbangbang and so on. It's great."

"Hey now, don't discount how cool catapults are," Steve reminded him. "Not so practical anymore, but they're still pretty badass in the right situation."

But then there were magnums, and shotguns, and sometimes some really cool shit like the grenade launcher he and Claire found in the training facility at Rockfort...

"They're good against dragons."

He patted Toothless on the side.

"But we don't need 'em for that anymore, do we, buddy."

"Against dragons and launching refrigerators long-distance," Steve added. "I saw a TV show like that one time."

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i-saw-myself.livejournal.com - 2010-08-29 04:09 (UTC) - Expand

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