video, @hiccup

[thisisamazing]

[The camera clicks on at an awkward angle at first, but soon the young man in a tunic and leather armor manages to right his device and set it on a table. He takes a few steps back to address it with a sheepish smile.] So, uh. Hello, everyone. Wow, this place is something else. A box that allows for instant communication... It's faster than terror-mail! I could really use some of these back home. Uh, anyway.

I've heard a lot about the Perimeter Guard, namely that you guys, uh. Kill monsters. [There's a slight, involuntary cringe at that, as if his soft heart can't quite take the thought. It's startled off him and back into a smile, though, when a large black creature stalks into the room, wide green eyes fixed curiously on him, and then the device.] This is just a little, you know, public service announcement. [Suddenly, the screen blacks out - or, more accurately, becomes filled with the shiny black scales of a Night Fury as Toothless leans in to sniff at the camera.]

C'mon, bud, I think you're- Toothless, don't-! [Toothless makes a sound almost like barks of rumbly laughter, and- then a pink tongue fills the screen. Hiccup wrestles the device back, and now the video is... a little bit watery. The dragon is back on his haunches, 'smiling' a big, gummy smile. Hiccup's voice is dry as he continues.] This is Toothless. He's my dragon, and my best friend, and he's not dangerous unless you threaten him, so if you see him around the city, you know, he's... he's not a monster. [As he fumbles with it, trying to wipe off dragon drool, Hiccup mutters just before it cuts out,] You know this doesn't wash out.

Comments

[thisisamazing]

Toothless is a Night Fury, the only one I've ever seen, actually. There are a lot of other species, though. They're like any other wild animal. [A lot of differentiation in behavior, body type, size, coloring, fire type.]

A... robot?

[lionunchained]

Ah ha. Must make things interesting then, especially if they all behave differently.

[And someone who doesn't know about robots he'll guess]

Basically an animal not born, but constructed out of metal. Let me show you. Black, can you come here?

[This he said to someone else, not Hiccup. Out of view of the camera, there was the sound of metal moving and then Shiro had to adjust the phone as the black lion came over and sat beside him, leaning over to see what Shiro was looking at since it had been called over]

This is Black, one of the lions of Voltron. It's... smaller than it would normally be.

[thisisamazing]

It's no different from people, really. Every dragon is an individual, just like us. [Even if he weren't the only Night Fury, Toothless would still be one of a kind, Hiccup's best friend.

He seems a little perplexed at the explanation of what a robot is, though, leaning a little closer to the camera with unmasked curiosity.]

So, it's alive, but... made out of metal?

[lionunchained]

It'd make sense.

[And when he leans a little bit closer, Black leans closer too, trying to see what's going on on the phone. Yes, this is what Shiro meant by also having something that kept trying to get between him and phone]

In the vaguest of senses, Black is alive. It can move on its own, think, react to things around it. However, because Black is metal, it does not need to eat or breathe.

[thisisamazing]

So it's alive, but not, at the same time. [Living things, in his mind, generally need to breathe and eat and all that.] That's amazing. It thinks?

[Toothless rumbles out a curious sound himself, nosing at Hiccup's side until he puts an arm over the top of his head, scratching lightly at his scales.]

[lionunchained]

Yeah, Black is both alive and not depending on how you consider it. Black thinks. He's rather intelligent and can make its own decisions.

[Shiro can't help a faint chuckle as Black spotted the new arrival in the video. The lion tilted its head to the side, assessing the dragon that had just appeared on the other side. After a moment, Black got up, moving to closer to the phone in Shiro's outstretched hand before sitting down again, letting out an audible rumbling sound]