How Do You Think They Killed Time?

Lost in the Pages

Between Two Tomes

You know what hurts most about this scene?

I noticed while rewatching some httyd 3 clips, that at this point Hiccup didn’t have his leg, obviously because he had to lose it to get rid of Grimmel.

But it’s so much more than that.

As Hiccup draws away from Toothless after saying goodbye, he hobbles and Astrid helps him stand.

He literally can’t stand alone at this moment.

A major part of him is missing in this scene, and a major part of his life is now leaving. The leg itself symbolises their bond, and now it’s gone.

He has to lean on Astrid physically and figuratively, because his best friend is now gone. He can’t rely on Toothless, can’t lean on him.

It almost mirrors the scene in the first movie where Toothless helps him stand with his new leg, instead now he is going, giving the responsibility of helping Hiccup up to Astrid.

Anyway I’m gonna go sob and deny this movie exists-

One of my favorite headcanons/related Astrid theories, resaid in a very poetic way

okay so my theory about How To Train Your Dragon is that Astrid loved Hiccup WAYYYYY before the events of Romantic Flight but due to how the vikings lived in near constant combat with the dragons and young children/teens being forced to learn how to defend themselves and their families from an early age, she closed herself off to those feelings because by all accounts Hiccup was doomed to die. she resented how useless he was in combat, and she resented how much she cared. she was mean and dismissive to him out of fear that she would inevitably have to mourn him soon, and the colder she was the easier it would be.

then, miraculously, Hiccup begins to show some kind of competency in dealing with the dragons. but he's still not defending himself. he's finding strange ways of controlling them, but he's still as physically weak as he was before and Astrid can't see how whatever he's doing will help him outside of the training ring. great, you found out that Deadly Nadders like chin scratches. what about the Monstrous Nightmare burning down your house?

all this just makes Astrid angrier. how is Hiccup succeeding without violence? how will he survive without violence? violence is what she was born into. what does he know that she can't comprehend?

it's only later, when she sees that this scrawny beanpole of a boy has found a companion in a Night Fury, the embodiment of Death, that the miracle of him starts to make sense. he knows so much more than what any of their people can comprehend. and he wants so badly to show her. and for the first time ever, Astrid has hope.

i believe that this explains Astrid's comfortability and affection for Hiccup that she shows during and after the events of Romantic Flight, why she wraps her arms around him and kisses his cheek after everything. considering her personality, i don't think Romantic Flight shows her falling in love with Hiccup for the first time. i think she has loved him for a long time, and was too trapped in self-protection to allow herself to feel it (similar to Katniss regarding Peeta). but now she has hope that maybe he won't be ripped away from her. now she sees how much more there is to him, sees that he embodies Mercy stronger than Death.

There has to be some kind of irony in that a lot of those “choose all the x in this (grid) picture” captchas require a robotic kind of choice making. It’s usually like:

If: x = at least 1 pixel of box

- Then: click = yes

Those warped number and letter captchas are another story, though.

Finally, I finished the new reference sheets for this little oc series! Now I can scream into the void about them, and then probably go back to alternating between reblogging fandom stuff and sheer radio silence until my next spontaneous oc post. Not that anyone’s in the audience anyway, but yknow, they’re also visible on my Toyhou.se.

Offbeat Avenue is a strange slice of fantasy universe that I’ve been tinkering with for several years. It ultimately revolves around the everyday troubles and chaos of two human-demon halfblood twins, whose measly mentally ill little lives are the somewhat disparate foreground to an arguably unnecessarily vast interdimensional magical backdrop. The titular place is the street which they live on, in a human city with an ambitious tech scene, modern socioeconomic classism, and a mysterious, rumored-to-be-enchanted forest. The main themes include found family, the power of community, and self-improvement.

Being as old of an oc project as it is, it’s just plain convoluted. Somewhere in my dusty old skull is a dream to turn it into an animated show or comic or creative property of some kind, so I’ve been clanging away at it intermittently between the woes of art college and lying motionless in my room after every stressful day of doing things… Well, that and comfort characters is my favorite kind of copium. I assume the sea of fandom-focused Tumblr is an ok place to drop these rambles because I guess it means I don’t have to really confront my fear of putting my work out there, yet. (How does one learn to balance professionalism and being real with an audience? I swear I just feel lame and overshare-y every time.)

Anywho, the main cast is as follows:

HATSUMOTO HIRABAYASHI: A human/demon halfblood that inherited so little magic that everyone decided it entitled him to the family heirloom of an animated snake amulet guardian. Good thing his parents gave that to him before dying in a car crash. Add in a second car crash and “gift” of a bionic eye, and now he feels indebted to the local faceless tech corporation that inspired him in his youth, who’s generously given this high school dropout a rather unfulfilling janitorial job at one of their offices. Hooray. At least he can talk a walk into the fenced-off mysterious forest behind his backyard when he’s sad.

He’s known for being an anxious depressed mess with a nerdy heart in robotics, reptiles, and fantasy. You can tell them apart because upon being thrust anywhere out of his house, Hatsu will always look like he’s hoping he can melt into dust and disintegrate. Despite being 6’7” just like his brother, he slouches practically enough to pass as 5’10’. Sometimes, you could catch him jotting down sci-fi dreams and ideas in a notebook that he will downplay as “nothing”.

Romance-wise, his girlfriend is a witch (belonging to WhiteRabbitTea’s “Storytime” on Toyhou.se) who, in addition to being caught in her own battles, has been trying to convince Hats that he’s strong enough to fight his battles— both the one with his inner demons and the one with his sucky coworkers.

DH (demon hatsumoto) HIRABAYASHI: A human/demon halfblood that inherited so much magic that he hardly knows what to do with all the portals, teleporting, and time on his hands. Too bad his parents didn’t warn him how to use it before he caused a car crash. Add in an existential crisis and inferiority complex from magical soul troubles in his youth manifesting as something akin a Hollywood version of DID, and now he’s very dangerous and maladapted even after Hats’ gf helped separate them with a mirror spell. At least his skills help him be a fearsome mercenary. Hooray?

To the dismay of his brother, he’s known for interdimensional chaos so superficial that it usually entails him opening portals to just use the void beyond as a cooler for vodka. His shark tooth grin is just as infamous, next only to his insatiable appetite. A guy’s gotta get the energy for his demon magic somehow. Other than, he has a surprisingly artistic streak, especially in graffiti.

Romance-wise, his theyfriend is a witch (also belonging to WhiteRabbitTea) in a similar existential “evil twin” situation, who compliments DH’s loud, brash violence with a quiet, poetic glare. They’ve tried to convince DH to stop burning his own paintings, but finds better success at calming him with home cooked food.

WILLA WARDLOW: A little bunny girl stuck in Hatsu’s city after a family trip to study the enchanted forest went up in flames. One traumatizing adjustment later, and she’s sent to live with the Hirabayashi twins, sparking a newfound sense of brotherly responsibility in Hatsu and a newfound protectiveness in DH. She herself wasn’t born magical, but the arcane happenings around her are very inspirational.

Not many know her, since Hats’ anxiety means he tries to keep her at home and out of trouble, but to the rest of the cast, she’s either known as the ambitious witchling—drawn to fantasy literature, role play games, and studying the oddities of her brothers’ neighborhood— or the glue that keeps the twins reluctantly together.

MALLY STONEBREATH: What was once a human was turned into a hodgepodge of cat, wolf, dragon, and who knows what else by an unauthorized homemade mad scientist living in Hatsu’s neighborhood and obsessed with the forest. He, then a baby, was deemed a failure and thrown away like a doll before being found by curious dragonlings playing raccoon. Long story short, he now lives happily with a draconic polycule family in the enchanted woods. Under the cover of night, he likes to wander into the city, inheriting his brothers’ curiosity.

Their family named them “Malice” as an inside joke for how their optimism and naïveté often landed him in trouble. Eventually, their nickname came about as a more accurate way to describe them. Other than that, ideally, no one outside the woods but Hatsu and his few friends know about them at all. Said small circle sees them as a ray of sunlight— the new perspective that Hatsu kinda needs… even if they have trouble understanding how positivity can be toxic.

ELIJAH EMERAGOLD: A teenage elf that doesn’t really remember his bio parents or the demonic force that pushed them to emigrate across dimensions anymore. His main concern these days is managing the bar that his late adoptive human grandad left him, making sure his brother doesn’t get back into depression drinking, and grappling with his sheltered childhood. This latter battle has led him to seek out real battles as a mercenary— a hole that he dug with the help of a shapeshifter, and which constantly brings him face to face with jaded pessimism and questions of morality.

He’s known as the stoic, grumpy counterpart to his brother— someone who bar patrons know not to pester, or else. Unfortunately, his friends know that this murderous silhouette is mostly a facade; he’s really a relatively stand-up, if not pretty stuck-up, silly little guy. His brother, most of all, knows him as the quiet, smart, prone-to-being-overstimulated, musician and archer.

ELLIOT EMERAGOLD: A elf that’s still rather stuck in the nervous, agoraphobic habits ingrained by well meaning parents as refugees from the demon king’s conquests. After the disappearance of his parents and death of the kindly bar owner that took them in, he tends to spend his days steeped in a somber grief, not that most people notice with his warm smile and friendly demeanor.

He’s known as the life of the family bar, entertaining patrons both magical and not with telekinetic tricks and casual conversation. He loves hearing the stories of other people’s adventures and travels— except for that of his brother and his merc friends. He often feels like he failed Eli as an older sibling.

Romance-wise, his boyfriend is Zack (belonging to cnidaria4’s “What Do They Know” on Toyhou.se), a kind of demon, who can, in short, relate to having met a very unfriendly world. They compliment each other well— the introvert to Elliot’s thoughtful extrovert.

AMY MIMIKRE: A pink shapeshifter inheriting the infamous mercenary title of her family, alongside the questionable ethics and logic that comes with having been raised in a life of crime— by which I mean, she’s loyal to a fault to those she sees as worthy company and crew, but also sees no issue in hiring teenagers. The more the merrier, am I right? No interdimensional nomad’s life is complete if they’re always lonely at camp.

They’re known in the verboten underbelly of magic society as “The Pink Thunder”, a vicious predator that can appear either as a house cat or a full on panther depending on the size of your bounty or whether you’ve wronged her. Her friends know her more as a quirky older sibling, who can both give a tough spar when you need a distraction, or even occasionally sprout some kind of odd wisdom about chosen family or having confidence.

Other than that, there’s some other side characters, including a dwarf mayor of a criminal town that runs on a truce agreement, the exasperated Lord of the Underworld, the occasional odd neighbor, and more that hasn’t yet exactly been fleshed out!

I guess I’m done rambling for now.

I smooched him guys!! The smooches came from me!!! He’s my wifeyyy heheheheh

Also pls pls pls commission me (link is in my pinned)

Bothersome beast, comforting friend

grown ass man

Narinder/Narilamb doodles somewhat inspired by @bamsara ‘s trod AU and just general cotl brain rot

Finally tried my hand at drawing them and now I want more 😌✨