[video]

[forbiddenfriendship]

[the video feed turns on, and a giant, curious yellow eye stares back, accompanied by a deep, rumbling noise that sounded a bit like a cat's purr. Off in the distance comes a young man's voice talking in Norse - although thanks to the communicator's translation, there's an easy English text version popping up]

Toothless, what are you doing with that…[there's a crash, as the voice has apparently just dropped something]...oh gods, it's a magic book.

[the giant eye twists away, as Toothless lifts his head up to look inquisitively off at something to the side - the source of the voice, presumably. The angle is strange, and all you can see is part of his head, but it's clear enough that Toothless is covered in black scales, and big.]

Okay, okay…Toothless, just come over here, okay buddy? [Toothless rumbles softly, but takes a step away from the book, and out of view.] That's it, come on…let's get away from the magic, probably cursed book…oh gods, why me…

Comments

[attention_wenches]

Boredom is a factor...

[Loki shakes his head, deciding not to be distracted.]

Perhaps I'm biased. The only other dragon I've seen more closely than flying above the mountains is in a menagerie in Alfheim. Decidedly mean creature, I was told. It took a good stab at eating one of the Jotnar white bears and has to be kept rather away from visitors.

[forbiddenfriendship]

[Hiccup freezes, his eyes going wide as saucers as his jaw drops]

You've been to Alfheim?!

[attention_wenches]

[Travel between the realms is perfectly simple for Loki, and travel to a friendly, peaceful world ruled by near relations so simple he's rather annoyed it doesn't happen more often.]

Yes, visiting my grandparents. It's been ages, unfortunately. I was about knee high at the time, so my memories may be fuzzy. I did like it there, I'm sure.

[And it was one of very few perks to being the younger prince. It was safer to let him leave Asgard's walls, and he'd had such stories for Thor when he returned. A sweet memory all around.]

[forbiddenfriendship]

Your grandparents live there? Then...you're an elf?

[attention_wenches]

[Loki snorts.]

Have you ever seen an elf? I'm fairly certain a homely little scarecrow like me would have been left for the bears as a baby.

No, my maternal grandparents rule the place. Ostensibly. It was a strange piece of diplomacy and my suspicion is that the elves just nodded a bit and went on doing what they liked, but it does seem to have calmed down objections from the royal Vanir. ...Though marrying Mother to the Allfather was likely more effective, now that I consider.

[Lucky he's given up on pretending not to be a prince. Loki may be almost as clever as he thinks he is, but he's also rather sheltered, and Hiccup acting like he understands the context makes it easier to just plow along assuming the politics of the nine realms aren't inscrutable to him. Even if he doesn't know what elves look like.]

[forbiddenfriendship]

Okay, no, but Alfheim's where the elves live, and...wait, they run it? And your mother married...oh no.

[And now Hiccup's gome completely pale, because if his father is Odin...]

Oh gods, I am so sorry, I didn't realise that were...oh gods...oh gods, that means you're a god too...oh I am so sorry, please don't smite me, I didn't know...

[attention_wenches]

[Oh, no, and they were having such a reasonably useful interaction. Sure, Loki was dominating the conversation shamelessly and being imperious about it, but he didn't know he did that, so he didn't take it into consideration.]

Please don't do that. It's extremely uncomfortable. Some of us have far too much sense to go to Midgard and parade about for the fun of it. Though I think my brother rather enjoys it if you see the towering blond oaf with the overlarge hammer?

[forbiddenfriendship]

You mean Thor? I did meet him...[Aaaand Hiccup still can't get used to be able to say that he met Thor] Oh gods. And you, you're a god. I'm sorry, I am...so not used to meeting gods. At all. And I am so not the kind of person that gods would be talking to, really, and...oooh I don't even know which god you are. I am so sorry.

[sorry Loki, but it could take a little time for Hiccup to stop freaking out here. It's his default reaction to meeting gods, okay?]

[attention_wenches]

I'm not... Oh, nevermind.

[If that's what the humans are going to call the Asgardians, fine. And if the kid still has some kind of respect for the institution of godhood after meeting Thor, fine.]

My name is Loki. Now please stop it.

[He knows rather little of his older self, and therefore has no idea that a day will come when he does have a place in the Midgardian stories. It just doesn't seem like something he'd do.]

[forbiddenfriendship]

[Oh, you've definitely got a place in them, Loki. And Hiccup's eyes have now somehow managed to get even wider]

You - you're Loki! Oh, this is...this is amazing, actually.

[Loki. Loki. Hiccup has actually spoken to him, and Thor. Oh gods. No one is ever going to believe this. No one.]

Uh...could you possibly tell me exactly what it is that i need to stop? You know, so that I can...properly stop it. [Angering a god. Bad idea. Very very bad idea. Except Hiccup's not quite sure how he's angering Loki.]

[attention_wenches]

The... god nonsense. Do you know how difficult that makes it to have a conversation? It's like watching visitors from the country crowd around warhammer-for-brains while he's just taking up space in a tavern. Only I'm in the center of it.

[The small, plain second prince didn't get nearly that sort of attention simply because people were unused to royalty. Avoiding it was usually deliberate, but that was a defense mechanism.]

[forbiddenfriendship]

But I can't stop you being a god! [this is so not how gods act in the stories...]

[attention_wenches]

[Loki is, after all, the trickster, the spark, the rule-breaker whose strangeness drives most of those stories, for good or (usually) for ill. Loki, in other words, does what he wants.]

You can stop talking about it, can't you? If I had a temple to stand about in I'd use it to practice controlled fires and runic incantations, not hosting obsequious midgardians. We had so many options a moment ago. Dragons, Alfheim, communication devices, my brother's amusing foolishness... Pick something.

[forbiddenfriendship]

[Okay, this was tricky. Loki's a god, and you couldn't just not honour a god. On the other hand, you definitely couldn't disobey a god...

Hiccup's going to shut up about gods, but he's not going to lose the 'oh gods I'm talking to a gods' look]

Uh. Dragons?

[oh gods he hopes he picked the right one there]

[attention_wenches]

[One of the more right answers, in any case. He's intrigued by the dragon.]

Yes, that will do.

[The face like he's just been hit with a fish isn't idea, but can be worked around. Loki's all cheerful interest again.]

I suppose it's funny that I've never seen one tamed before. Usually someone will try to ride anything.

[forbiddenfriendship]

Oh, he's not really tamed. More...trained. Toothless is still very much his own creature.

[And at the mention of his name, Toothless insistently shoves his own face into the picture, making an inquisitive rumbling noise]

[attention_wenches]

That makes a certain sense.

[Its antics are still quite amusing. Loki's never had a great deal of luck with animals, but this one is charming. He's a bit reminded of that creature Thor seems to think they should acquire, even if it's a great deal larger than a cat.]

And hello to you, too. Toothless, is it?