riverview | [ text | un: trickster ]

Oh. Yeah. We have dragons on Berk. I've figured out that that's not normal for anybody else. It makes for good stories, though.

[ Loki has never heard of Berk and he was familiar of most of the locations the Norsemen were located in. Because of this, his curiosity is peaked. ]

Tell me one of your dragon stories then. It has been a long time since I've heard of them.

Well, let's see... One time, my friends and I helped a Fireworm Queen defend her nest from a Cavern Crasher. We'd tangled with her before, but she came to us for help to get rid of the intruder that wanted to eat her eggs. The Cavern Crasher gives off flammable mucous, and can slip into really tight spaces by collapsing its skeleton! It would have been really cool if it didn't nearly kill us, haha.

Hookfang, my friend's Monstrous Nightmare, and the Queen finally combined their firepower and cooked the mucous right off the Cavern Crasher, and drove it off from her nest.

I have to admit, your world is the most interesting one I have heard of in a long while.

Is it your duty to manage the dragons around your village?

Berk is a really unique place to live. It's only been five years since we started living with dragons instead of fighting them, but the island has never been better.

[He's really proud of his home.]

Something like that. The dragonriders and I are one of Berk's lines of defense, and we help dragons around the archipelago when problems come up.

[ Dragons!!! Even Loki finds that legitimately cool and sees no reason to disguise it. ]

Do you have etchings of these dragons? I would like to see them.

I have some of my drawings! I had my maps and one of my books in my saddlebag when I came through the portal.

Tell me where you are.

[ Wait. Manners. ]

If you do not mind.

I don't mind. We're staying in the communal housing, floor 1. The common area.

I shall be there promptly.

[ Because he is a little excited to see. What kind of aerodynamic design would they possess? Are they large like the drakes of old? Or more streamlined? It has been a while since Loki has bothered with the Communal Housing, but a quick transport spell gets him on Floor One, where he surveys the surroundings with a cool (not at all eager) gaze. ]

[The common area is a bit in disarray, currently. One of the couches has been pushed askew, opening up more floor space, and a young man in leather armor is sitting on the floor with his phone, tapping out a reply with fingers unused to typing still.

And there's a dragon slightly larger than a clydesdale that seems to be responsible for the disarray, judging from how he's sticking his head under the area rug curiously. When Loki magics himself into the room, Toothless sits up quickly, rug draped over his head, peering at him with huge green eyes. Hiccup startles to his feet (foot) too, dropping the phone.]

Oh! Hi! Are you- Uh, 'trickster'? That was fast, wow.

[ Loki waves it off. His other self prefers to dazzle those who knows him, like the little Viking Ivar. But as much as Loki would enjoy attention, he finds himself shying away from playing up that part. It is an illusion, the gods they used to be and Loki far prefers himself, terrible and ruined as it may seem. At least he gets to decide the shape of it.

His expression does not change but there's a faint light in his eyes as he observes the dragon. He's smart enough not to come closer without encouragement and he tears his gaze away to regard Hiccup formally. ]

A little magic, nothing more. This, I presume, is your dragon?

One of these days I'll get used to magic, haha. [He's met the other Loki. They shared a flight far above the city. He doesn't make the connection, though; they don't look all that much alike, and their demeanors are certainly different. Hiccup relaxes a little when he realizes that this is the person he was talking to, and smiles wide, posture easy, waving a hand at the night-black reptile.

Toothless tilts his head to the side curiously, trilling out an inquisitive noise before he drops to his belly again and starts pulling the rug off his head with his front claws. His tail swishes, the mismatched fins knocking something decorative off the wall.]

Ever graceful and magnificent. [He remarks dryly.] Yeah, this is Toothless. I'm Hiccup.

Toothless. An unusual name.

[ Loki conjures up a small ball of light for Toothless, flicking it onto the ground for him to play with. ]

I am Loki. I did not think there would be magic on your world.

[ Toothless does not feel like a creature of magic. At least nothing that Loki can senses.

The second time I got close to him, he didn't seem to have any teeth. Night Furies' teeth retract. [He laughs a little, fondly, watching his dragon. Toothless spots the ball of light and his ear fins perk up, his body slipping into a cat-like crouch, tail swishing back and forth. Then he pounces, mouth partly open and gummy.]

No, we don't have real magic at all, just in stories. It's been interesting, being here and seeing all this new stuff and new people, hearing about new worlds.

Yes.

[ His voice is distant as he watches, the faintest edges of youth crinkling at the corners of his eyes. Loki straightens himself. ]

Most of the literature on Asgard when it concerns the nature of drakes are old. Practically derelict and we no longer seek them out. I never quite enjoyed the sport of it myself. So I am curious to see your notes on them.

Right! [Hiccup goes to dig in a leather bag for a worn, old-looking book. It's hand-bound in leather and the pages are made of thick yellowish paper, definitely materials from long before modern paper refinement and machine binding.] It's not all my notes, my friend back on Berk has a lot of our research too, but it still might be interesting. [He removes the folded, pasted-together mess of his archipelago map and lays that on the table for safekeeping before he hands over the journal.

The pages are filled with charcoal sketches of different species of dragons, labeled diagrams, quick facts in Norse runes. The first pages are all about Toothless.] You don't have dragons in Asgard?

No. Most of the fantastical beasts are relegated to other realms along Yggdrasil's roots. And Asgard has hunted down many of them.

[ He glances at the notebook, his eyes trailing over deep black lines. ]

The sizes are strange. The wingspans do not match creatures that seem so dense. Are their bones hollow like a bird's?

Oh. [He seems a little sobered at that. He knows, intellectually, that worlds are different, and Asgard is probably very different, and who knows what creatures lurk in the other realms, but the thought of hunting anything down puts a slight furrow in his brow. It wasn't all that long ago that vikings hunted dragons, made trophies out of their heads and bones and skins. Talking about dragon biology, that's much easier.]

No, not usually. Maybe some species... We have tried to puzzle out how a Gronckle is able to fly, they're really heavy. Night Furies probably have the biggest wingspans, though I think Timberjacks come close, proportionally speaking of course.

[ Loki peers closely at the drawings. ]

So perhaps it is the wing structure that matters rather than the overall density. I assume the tail is necessary to maintain balance and to cut through the air pressure. Perhaps the ridges at the top would do the same.

I know with Night Furies, the fins are important for flight. [He points to one of his early sketches of Toothless from above, the smudged out left tail-fin.] Toothless was injured here. He couldn't get any altitude or steer himself until I built him a new one. It's different for every species, though, since they don't all have the same physical structure.

You built it? Impressive. How well does it operate and work in the air?

[ He doubts Berk has many technological advancements. ]

I was apprenticed in the forge when I was young. There wasn't much else I could do. [He rubs the back of his neck idly, a little embarrassed.] It's not that impressive, there's a cord that runs along his tail and body and connects to a pedal on the saddle that opens, closes, and shifts its position. It was a lot of trial and error, but works pretty well. One of my diagrams for the saddle and tail rig is in the note book somewhere.

Ah.

[ There's a knowing tone in his voice. ]

There is no merit to a person who is not a warrior. According to most.

[ He moves on immediately, gesturing to the fin. ]

There are lighter metals here that you can use. More durable as well.

Something like that. [Loki seems to get it, so Hiccup is glad he doesn't have to elaborate. It's easy to shift the subject, because he lights up with a craftsman's curiosity when Loki mentions lighter metals.]

Lighter? Like what? That would open up a lot more possibilities, for the tail-fin and for my flight suit... [It's hard to tell if he's talking to himself or his conversation partner at times.] Oh. But I haven't seen a forge here.

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