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]

Ehhh. It could be worse. [Snotlout, anybody?]

I wouldn't say no if you wanted to show me a few things. I think I've got the basics figured out, but we don't have anything like this on Berk.

[brightline]

Wow, man. That's rough.

It took a bit of getting used to for me too and I'm only from like. I dunno. Twenty years give-or-take some alien intervention of tech before this place. What year are you from?

[thisisamazing]

Things can change that much in twenty years? [He laughs a little nervously.] No wonder I don't recognize anything. We uh, we still use yaks and carts, or boats, to get around. Well, I don't, I have a dragon, but. You know.

[brightline]

Insane, right? People are totally intense about their demand for new gadgets and tech and stuff.

So you're not used to all the cars and trains and stuff, let alone computers. I think you're doing pretty good, so far.

[thisisamazing]

Well, you can't stop progress, I guess. But wow, that's- a lot of progress. [Granted, Berk had upgraded from a bunch of people with axes fighting dragons over sheep to a more technologically advanced viking living with dragons and a bunch of Hiccup's inventions, but still. That's all a far cry from phones and electricity.]

Thanks. It's not quite so bad once someone explains the basics, but yeah - it's a lot to take in.