"What, you think the Council's beyond bribery? You got more faith in them than I do." He sits in the seat Anwei got for him, pulling a chair out of thin air for her too. "Besides, doesn't Hiccup have a girlfriend? People will do a lot to save the people they love. Not that I'm suggesting anything, obviously."

He shakes his head, but he does actually grin that she referred to him as the 'brains'. Due to either his age or his special brand of friendliness, his innate intelligence tends to get downplayed by his fellow crew. In some ways it's nice to be able to surprise people, but in some ways it's discouraging. "It's okay. You got to be the brawn in that science experiment gone wrong."

He raises an eyebrow at her, not missing the way she stiffens at his words. He furrows his brow in curiosity, although he knows better than to dig around too much in Anwei's past. It's ugly and if she wanted to talk about it, she would. He can respect that and while he doubts there's much she could tell him that would surprise him or make him change his opinions on her, he doesn't doubt she could tell him things that would give him nightmares for weeks.

"Honestly, I hardly tasted it," he confesses. "No, I'm just talking about trying stuff for the sake of trying it."