(via The Author, At The Ex Bird Place)

I love everything about this. Hick up and Astrid are one of my favourite couples ever. But please, also historical viking essays! 🙏😊

my old How to Train your Dragon obsession suddenly re-emerging now, after I've spent years learning about Historical Viking Clothing and Crafts is great actually cause I get to apply the Fun History Knowledge to my favorite blorbos, and now I have some very specific scenarios.

in Viking culture, gift giving was a big complicated very significant thing. And one gift that was Especially Significant was that of a New Shirt. Women would propose to the guy they wanted to marry by making him a brand new linen shirt. I could go on for several pages about what that tells us about viking culture, gender roles, and also the extremely fun ways viking age stories used "gifting a shirt" as a symbol in romantic stories, but I'll restrain myself. This post is about How to Train your Dragon.

Astrid Hofferson can't sew. There's no way. Girl spent her whole life training to be a warrior, she has not had the time or patience to sit down and learn to sew (even though it involves a whole lot of stabbing things with a sharp object). I mean even her own clothes are made with minimal amounts of sewing (a needlebound tank top and some furs wrapped around her arms instead of sleeves).

Hiccup Haddock Horrendus III, on the other hand, knows how to sew. Sure he mostly works with metal and leather, but leatherwork requires sewing. I'm pretty sure I can find actual footage of him using a needle. Also his clothes are nicely sewn, and since he grew up without a mum, and his dad is a very busy man, he must have made at least parts of his outfit himself.

So my question is: how did they ever get engaged. How did that proposal go? Did Astrid suffer through learning a new skill so she could spend months of her life painstakingly stitching together the Worst Shirt Ever Made? I imagine her rage quitting after she has to undo that one seam for a fourth time, and in true Astrid fashion, just chucking it at Hiccup with full force when he walks into the room.

or! would Hiccup defy Viking Gender Norms because he gets that Astrid has no interest in sewing? and then he gets it into his head that it has to be the most elaborate shirt on the whole island cause it's for his girlfriend and he can't even remember ever seeing her in a nice shirt before? and that's a shame cause she deserves to have nice things! And he overthinks every choice along the way because what if she hates it???? But ofc it turns out really nice and she adores it.

anecdote of the pig, tory adkisson // achilles & partoclus // house of dragon, 1x07 // plainwater, anne carson // ? // ?

I'm not ready for a relationship. I need this time alone.

But I long for letters. For discussions about books. Museum visits and afternoons spent in bookshops

For cups of tea and hot chocolate while curled up watching the rain.

For silence, and stillness and holding in front of a fire. The fire wood that we chopped.

Learning and building together.

I want someone capable. Someone calm and strong. Someone caring and kind.

I long for someone that can quiet my mind.

Someone that can keep up with me. That challenges me. That can hold space for me.

I long for someone that will love me for all the wildness of my soul.

Someone not scared by all I have to give.

With him I won't need to be small and tame

Fun ADHD hack is that you're allowed to just go to the library and reserve a study room for a couple of hours and make all your phone calls or whatever adult shit you need to do but can't because your house is for House Stuff and for some reason your brain has designated "phone calls for doctors and other such things" as School Adjacent and therefore refuses to do it in an insufficently academic environment. Like it's free. You can just do that.

I wish it was easier to talk about mobile phone addiction without sounding like a boomer

Why did you give the last of your food to that poorly disguised mimic? You were finally at peace with letting go, but now this odd thing won’t leave you alone and is even turning itself into various items in an attempt to aid you.

Lightbringer is all packed up and shall be heading off to it's new owner next week!

The excitement at finally living close to mountains soon

a burst of color, part five

a burst of color, part one

flowers on the mountain, part two

flowers on the mountain, part four

flowers on the mountain, part five

flowers on the mountain, part three

by Danielle Nelson

— v, from “excerpt from a book i will never write” (via letsbelonelytogetherr)