punchandkiss | First Viking Assault

[When the camera turns on, it’s upside down, and shows a lovely pair of fur lined brown boots sitting on the ground, folded beneath a red leather skirt covered in…are those spikes? They certainly look like spikes. The camera shakes a few times, and then violently shifts to the left as though someone smacked it. And then there is a sigh.]

This can’t be right.

[The voice is female, and frustrated, and after a moment the camera moves wildly again, as it lifts up into the air, showing an image from above of a blonde teenager sitting on the grass somewhere, leaning her back against a tree, and there is a green pokemon curled up on the ground next to her chewing intently on what might be a rock. She looks like she’s about to throw the pokegear away, even make a little growl of frustration, but she happens to glance up at the last second and see that the screen is actually doing something.]

[She brings it back down, frowning at it (still upside down) as she taps the screen with her thumb a few times and finally turns it the right side over. After a few more seconds of poking and prodding, and a few more of pushing her Pokemon out of the way when it becomes a bit too curious about what’s on the shiny machine, she slumps down where she’s sitting and just stares at the screen.]

Okay. That guy. That professor said I can use this to talk to people. Other people, I mean, besides…everyone in this town…people who also woke up in a weird house with a little creature following them around, I mean.

[Some of her anger might be showing through there.]

So, hello. Hi. Whatever. I’m Astrid. I need- [She cuts off as the Axew suddenly pokes his head back into view again, and there’s more shuffling as she pushes him back off-screen.] Sit. Stay. Right there. Good boy.

Anyway. Other than some stuff that didn’t make any sense, all I know is I’ve got this guy following me around and something about training and collecting and…look, it doesn’t matter. I just need to know where Stormfly, my dragon, is…and my axe…and how to get home.

In that order. Thanks.

[Some more fumbling and after about fifteen seconds of a lovely shot of the palm of her hand, Astrid manages to turn the device off.]

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[The shaking stops after a moment, at least, and she just frowns at the blank screen.]

I'm fine, Hiccup. Well, as fine as I can be without Stormfly or my axe but...what's going on? You sound terrible.

[She pokes at the little device again.]

And why can't I see you? I can see everyone else.

They're...safe, at least.

[Hiccup's heard by now that people from the same world can come from different times--he didn't get it, sure, but he knows that concept exists. Still, he can't help but sound a little wistful. Astrid still has Stormfly. The dragons hadn't abandoned them, for her. Not yet, anyway.

~~Because obviously you couldn't be ahead of him if you had a dragon.~~]

We're in Johto, though we're in different villages. Or cities. It's like this place that takes people from all different kinds of places and times, then gives them pets to train and breed.

[If he didn't feel like crap, he might be able to explain it better... But the world may never know.]

And I'm, er, sick. Which is why I have it set to only send you sound, instead of sound and pictures.

[The guilty tone in his voice alludes to an unspoken apology.]

Safe and not here.

[She wasn't thrilled with that. She never would be, probably. But she supposed 'safe' was better than 'vanished forever'...even if she knew it amounted to the same thing.]

Joetoes. [She says this wrongly, without necessarily meaning too, she's just not focused enough to care at the moment. Cities she's never heard of and villages she's never heard of...that she can roll with, she's sure there are lots. But it's still disorienting. And the pet stuff she'd picked up from other people. More importantly...]

Sick how, Hiccup?

[He was her only connection to home, she didn't want him catching something terrible and dying or something.]

[Hiccup understands, which is why he lets her complaining go without judgement. He had been lucky enough to be greeted by Toothless when he arrived in Johto, though the Night Fury had long-since left. While he went through his day-to-day life feeling more than content, not having his favorite, bumbling dragon around anymore did upset him.

Also chuckling a little at that pronunciation.]

There's no 's'. But it is a weird name...

[Pause.]

Oh, you know. Nothing major. Cold. [Understating that quite a bit, but...essentially it was the truth.] It's been going around, too, so it's not like it's a case of 'Gee, look at that boy. So small, so feeble! No wonder he got sick.'

Johto. [She says the name twice before she's happy with it, and then back to the topic at hand.]

A cold that makes you hide from your little magic window thing. Just a cold. [Skeptical Astrid is Skeptical.] Besides, you're not that small or weak. [Erm. She probably could've reworded that.]

[Very good Astrid! He has no doubt that you'll be picking up on things soon enough. You always were quick.]

Well, uhmn. Thank you, for that... [It was a stab to his pride, even he had brought it up.

Still... With how suspicious she was already, she would be finding out soon enough.] Alright, just... Don't freak out? [And with that, he finally switches over to video, to display his new, bundled-in-blankets lifestyle. Even with the top-most blanket drawn over his head like a hood, it's pretty hard to miss the horns sprouting from his forehead and moving back almost in a manner similar to a Night Fury. His voice, when he speaks, is far more uncertain.]

See? ...Just a cold.

[She doesn't mean it, Hiccup. She just says things without really thinking them through. A lot. And he is kind of scrawny...cute, but scrawny.]

[She frowns when he appears though, studying the screen for a moment before she spots the...what? What in Odin's name...]

...Hiccup are those horns?

[Can't you just tell him he's cute without the scrawny? =c

LONG. PAUSE.]

...Yes?

Edited 2012-07-25 23:01 (UTC)

[Maybe. In private. If he's lucky. Probably not over the magic window though.]

[She looks less than pleased.]

The colds here give you horns.

[Oh, the magic window screws everything up...]

Not...all of them [He sighs.] Alright, so it's not a regular cold. But I was honest about everything else. It has been going around, so I'm not the only one.

[He figures it's best that he tells her the other part, before she finds out on her own and punches him for it.]

It, uh. Gave people powers, too.

[Yes, that's right. It's all the windows fault.]

...Powers. Okay what? Are you going to be okay? It's not going to kill you, right?

[Not that she's worried, or anything. ...except for the way she kind of obviously is.]

I'll be fine. [But eeee, Astrid is totally worried about him.] I'm already getting better, I think. The accidental snowstorms have pretty much stopped.

[In many ways, that was a relief. He hadn't liked the bursts of blizzards that completely trashed his room the past week, and the mutations had been more than disconcerting. Really, though, it was the mystery behind it all. Carmen had figured some of it out, yes, but all-in-all...]

[No she's not shut up.]

Accidental snowstorms.

...You were making it snow?

[She is and he knows it!]

Not on purpose, or anything! [Yeah, Hiccup, she probably got that from the 'accidental' part.] And it's not like it happened all the time.

[Astrid sighs. Hiccup sick was one thing, Hiccup making it snow because he was sick was another. She almost looks lost.]

Maybe this is all a dream...

First Viking Assault - [Video]

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