Alright, so I got caught on an idea, as happens when I get frustrated with people's creations, I was reading In Dragons We Trust by Zenmaster21, and it did something interesting, as it claimed to only flip Astrid and Hiccup's roles while replaying the first film. It didn't actually do this, it instead only made Astrid weak and not respected and Hiccup stronger, and a bit more respected. This changed up the character dynamics a good bit in ways that were actually different, and so it pulled me in. Now the first issue I had is by "replaying" the first film, I mean it just basically ripped the script, changed up a few parts, added a few others, and then re-released it. Now I have nothing wrong retelling parts of the films, I did it in one of my fics, half a chapter was basically the first scene of the movie. The issue is I tried to avoid that to the best of my ability, and only used it to setup the story. The problem here is the exact objective is to retell the story with as few changes as possible, which includes a Snotlout hitting on Hiccup for some reason, and Hiccup and Astrid simply just swapped between each other in many scenes. Alright, now that I've complained about my issues with a story that is years old and nobody probably cares, I should explain what I'm doing.
Well for one, now I've got this concept in my head, the idea of re-doing the first film with these changes, I'm just gonna see how far I getting writing it. Except I'm not redoing the first film. What I'm instead gonna do is more than a simple character role flip. The only thing I'm gonna say here (as I'm writing this as it develops in my head so...yeah) is I'm keeping the core plot devices and such, but it's more or less a what if that follows it own tale.
So lets begin, I hope this doesn't suck.
Chapter 1: Berk, with a little Something Else
Welcome to Berk, a charming village where winter never settles and every waking moment is spent chilling in your bones. Every day spent could set you up for a thousand spent inflames and you'd still need a cover. It's about as wet as an island of sea bearing fisherman warriors can get, and it's just as bland. The food we manage to catch is just as bland, and the people made extra brutal for it. This desolate wasteland is king to only three types of comforts, ice, seawater, and bass.
But enough of my home, there must be more to it then fish and frozen blood? Well as a matter of fact there is, we have traders, bakers, blacksmiths, and warriors, many jobs to fill. The only problem is we don't function like most other villages, while you'd expect the town drunk, or bandits, in this case more likely pirates, if they even had the resistance to try, but regardless, you'd expect a village to be plagued by simple problems, one which might involve a flu that kills most of the population, or locusts devouring the crops. But you see, that's not what we suffer from, our issue is a little older than those, and a little more life threatening. We have these pests, these flighty creatures that come every so often to take our food and leave us to starve, the specific distinction these creatures have from a locust however is that they're thousand ton beasts who spit flames. We have a dragon problem. How bad is it? Well on a scale of one to ten, I'd say killing entire households, burning the remains, and ransacking the remaining food.
That being our residential problems, I've got a much more specific problem, my name's Hiccup. Yeah odd name, but it could be worse, I could've been named after a troll or giant, being the runt though I got the special privilege of Hiccup instead. Although I don't know if anyone exactly consider me a runt now. I mean I'm not bulky, I'm not really as strong as most of my "friends" even, but I'm definitely not weak or sickly. But I suppose I've yet to truly outgrow the title, and maybe that's just the problem.
Side point, I should probably clarify what I mean by "friends." So there is Snotlout, a much huskier cousin of mine who believes in his own pride, to the point he believes he's better than everyone else; in every way you could be both a snob and a slob at the same time. Next come the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, the village tricksters trying to wreak havoc, and usually they succeed. They look mostly the same, however they fight over just about everything. Then comes Fishlegs, the upcoming dragon expert, devoted to pretty much anything you could know about dragons. Lastly comes Astrid, a probably more adept runt than me, determined and competitive, but in a much worse position than anyone, she has looks to hold back some form of respect. While she isn't outright clumsy or harmful to the village, her nature to be out in the open just to prove herself has proven to be more a flaw then an advantage, especially when she can't defend herself against the beasts ransacking the village.
She's a fierce person, easy to enrage, and if it's bad enough, she can be a true threat to your health out of pure fury. But she doesn't contain the strength alone to master her opponents, and outside of that fury, she can't effectively wield her weapons to the extent she needs. Maybe if she...
Nevermind, anyhow, we've lived on this icy rock for seven generations, and each one has been fighting dragons. Dragon killing is everything round here, any respect you don't have by stature is earned through dragons. From birth to death, everything we do is fight dragons, and we don't see it ending soon. As Vikings, it's in our nature, why not leave you ask? Well we're Vikings, we're stubborn, we aren't willing to give up our home. But from what I've heard of our latest rations, it might be more sensible an option, but when did anyone say Vikings were sensible either.?
The clang of iron being struck against iron can be heard from the distinct building in the market of the village. It's nearly past sunset already, and Hiccup, the smaller sized, auburn haired, green eyed teen is repairing more swords with little effort. While Hiccup is repairing, Gobber, a blond haired, poorly beaten Viking missing an arm, leg, and teeth, looks towards the sky in question, preparing for the upcoming fight he smells coming.
"There's to be a raid tonight," He tells his apprentice still staring at the sky "Prepare for a hard night lad."
"Really? Harder than dad's been pushing me?"
"Now you know he's just trying to protect you, he wants you to be ready."
"Ready for what? When he inevitably gets disappointed?" Hiccup responds discouraged.
"Now you know him, he has a hard time showing his care, he just wants to push to be better." Gobber carefully responds, not wanting to upset his apprentice to another week of isolation.
"Yeah, definitely feeling the hard part, not as sure on the care part. It's just..."
"Hold that," Cutting the younger man "We'll talk later, dragons. Warm up the smithy."
Hiccup, pushing aside starts preparing the forge for the onslaught upcoming. While this goes on, havoc quickly starts consuming the village, fighting starting at every corner, fire bursting to life on every other house. "Prepare the torches" and "Where's the nets?" are sounded off in the background. Eventually the torches inside the village are lit and raised, while the trebuchets armed and manned. In this time, the common Deadly Nadders, a large widely colored scaled wyvern covered in spikes, Gronkles, a dark colors wart look dragon whose wings flap like a bee, and Hideous Zipplebacks, whose double head green skin earned them a hard reputation again even multiple opponents, are the only ones so far seen attacking. Quickly enough the forge is being overrun with repair and weapon requests, and the two smiths can't fulfill them fast enough.
Thus Astrid, a blond haired girl of fifteen years old, ran out upon hearing of a dragon attack, anxious to try putting herself into harm's way for a chance to gain some stature in the village. With her axe on her back, she begins searching for a fight, while being constantly advised to either get inside or go help the bucket brigade with fires. Her uncanny ability to just barely miss danger only to put others in it had earned her the title of unlucky despite always coming out unscathed.
And even though that past week her father told her that she needs to stop rushing out into the fray of things, she didn't bother to actually consider her words. In her time she believes she almost took down three dragons, and saw that as overriding his sense. However this time, Spitelout, a large brute naturally second in command of the island, telling her to get to the fire brigade and pushing her aside, telling a subordinate to watch her. She couldn't rush out under watch.
So she was forced to deal with playing fire brigade until she was free of the supervision. Another downside, she was forced to stay with the other teens part of the brigade, half of which she couldn't stand. Ruffnut and Fishlegs were alright occasionally, at least when the former wasn't being outright dumb, and when the latter wasn't randomly spouting off dragon facts. For Tuffnut and Snotlout however, they were insufferable in her experience, alternate twin being reckless and stupid, not that she had could really criticize recklessness, but the stockier teen was a snobby, sloppy mess of a brute. Often trying to hit on her, or outright any female he could eligible find, or declare how good he was at whatever. Sometimes he'd just rudely pick on the someone with little reason, sometimes it was younger kids out and about, or it could be Hiccup, Fishlegs, or her if he was feeling especially bad, though it was more usually Hiccup. Even though he rarely ever warranted it.
But in the end she just sat near them, but opted to ignore them. She was wishing that Hiccup at least wasn't needed at the forge, he'd make for better company than the rest of the brigade. At least we'd be up over these morons she thought.
She and the rest of the brigade spent their time finding and putting out fires, in the process Snotlout was trying to hit on her every so many minutes, Ruffnut and Tuffnut seemed to be trying to instigate more fires, and Fishlegs was pretty much the only one of the group watching for fire. She was keeping a distance eye on the fires as well, but being more concerned with getting out and earning some honor, she really was just watching for any supervisors that might prevent her from achieving her goal.
After some time putting out fires, she got her opportunity, being left alone long enough she pulled her axe off the brigade cart and ran off. She ran until she found a lonesome Monstrous Nightmare, a wyvern known for its liquid flammable saliva and the uncanny habit to set itself on fire, knowing how dangerous a target it was she still strived to take it down if it killed her, this was her chance. She had a hard time moving carrying her axe, but she was unwilling to drop, that slow down cost her rushing at the dragon and it nearly singed her, dodging out the way though she was able to smack in the face. That however raised the stakes causing the dragon to smack her back with its claws and then ignite itself, before it could actually manage further retaliation, it was with a hammer from the streets, and then Stoick, the Chief of the tribe and red haired monster of a man, jumped in front of her from the opposite direction of the hammer's origin and picked it up. HE quickly smacked the beast across its face before it could recover, causing it to fly off while the tribe leader lifted Astrid away from her spot on the ground and carrying her to the brigade cart.
"Who in Hel's name let her run off?" But nobody responded. "If I have to figure who was supervision duty after this..."
"I was Chief" said the one assigned by Spitelout.
"I'll deal with you later, get her inside, the forge is being overworked and we need resupplies." And with those words, Astrid was even more angry. The only time when Stoick would suggest somebody go help out at the forge was to get them out of the way, they'd be much easier to keep busy and to keep track of without leading them to somewhere out of the village. It meant she was forced to stick back and do basically nothing. On the bright side, Gobber and Hiccup were probably working overtime and those two working were better company then the brigade at its current state. The fact Snotlout is trying extra hard that day to be "flirtatious" making him worse to her then usual.
As she was being directed, she had heard a screaming hiss, and soon enough everyone knew what that meant. The most dangerous and elusive dragon had come out and was taking shots. The Night Fury as it was coined, never stole food, never fought on the ground, and didn't miss a shot. Add the explosive effectiveness of each attack, devastating in too many ways to count, and that it had gained the reputation for never being seen, it had become the ultimate fear to Berk if not the entire archipelago. It became known never to engage the dragon, to such a degree that rumors that even seeing it clearly would kill the witness. Astrid wasn't even sure how you'd take down such a fast beast that never lands, given she never believed in the rumors spread about them.
But with that she was directed by her supervisor to the forge and left there, upon entering, she was swiftly greeted by Gobber before he ran out to assist with the attack. He asked her to help out the front. All she could think was for a two limb cripple, he's pretty effective against dragons. She then entered Hiccup's work area, exchanging quick greetings and an explanation of what Gobber told her and got to work helping Hiccup repair as many weapons as possible, or providing weapons when needed. When the shop showed slight signs of slowing, Hiccup immediately stopped working, went to the back and pulled out a mixed metal and wood contraption that left Astrid clueless.
Before he could leave however, she stood in front of him to prevent that, she had an idea of what he might try to do, but she wanted to confirm it. "So what are you doing?" She asked casually.
"Just going out for a few, I'll be back quick."
"Oh no, I'm not sitting here while you go play when you oversized crossbow, I'm coming along." She insisted.
"But who's gonna 'hold down the fort'?" air quoting Gobber's usual exit phrase.
"Given I'm no smith, my ability to tell people they'll need to wait for weapons probably doesn't mean much, doesn't seem to be much of a fort to hold down."
"Alright fine, I'm going up to the cliffside to watch for the Fury, see if I can get a few shots, do you want to come?" He asked with a sigh.
The girl simply got out of the way and as he moved towards the cliff, she followed behind. Upon reaching the cliff, Hiccup prepared his sling and waited for a shot. Astrid standing on the side was eager to do the unthinkable, taking down a Night Fury would earn them a reputation not only as the best dragon killers on Berk, all before they were actually put into dragon training, but possibly the best dragon hunters in the archipelago, they'd make Berk feared and respected in ways never before known by the tribes, they'd have earned their right to sit by their family in pride. They both were extremely aware of this, though Hiccup had thought it more through. But he needed a clear head to make the shot. Looking towards the sky, they both started to hear the inborn fear of Vikings. As the whine started getting louder, Hiccup noticed a pattern, he could use the stars to track the Fury's position, watching the stars he waited till it was at its closest, which he knew would be when it hit the trebuchet they were next to. So as soon as he heard the beast fire, he fired, being sent back by the kickback of the machine.
In the process, he and Astrid saw and heard the beast get struck down. This bewildered both to speechlessness, after a minute of basking in what they had just accomplished, they had to confirm that they both saw and heard the same thing. Upon validating themselves, they were overjoyed and full of pride. That was until a Nightmare came from the cliff and crushed the machine, standing in front of the teens growling. Astrid's first instinct was to use her axe to hit it, to kill or drive away, she didn't care, she didn't have a plan for dealing with the unexpected dragon. She managed to harm the dragon's scales and disorient it enough so they could proceed running away, Hiccup being further ahead. As he ducked between buildings, he watched Astrid to make sure she'd be alright. When she caught up to to him, they came to run towards the forge, Hiccup hoped that somebody would be able to at least scare off the Nightmare there, upon reaching it, fighting upon other parts of the village started to fade. The Nightmare was unaware that his time to escape was thinning and as it attacked the teens in the forge, who continued to wait for someone to help them, it failed to notice Stoick and Baldr, Astrid's large blond haired father, rushing towards it to attack.
First Stoick got its attention by hitting in the side while Baldr threw a hammer at its stomach to set it off balance while it had its head inside the forge. In that time, Stoick engaged it with the hammer on a one versus one while Baldr lead the teens away from the act. At the end Stoick scared off the beast after it ran out of juice and he beat it many times.
Looking back at the forge, seeing how damaged and much of a mess it was, he was furious at the two he considered responsible. Gobber quickly came from behind Baldr, who was holding his daughter while Spitelout was holding Hiccup. Gobber looked into the forge, sighed, rubbed his face, and then shook his head. He wasn't even slightly mad, he was actually rather use to it between himself, Hiccup, the dragons, and occasionally Astrid, the entire smithy was probably the most consistently scorched thing on the island. What bothered him is Stoick was gonna hold this once again on their two heads, not entirely unjust, they did disobey orders, but he just wasn't as willing to strike them on that. He supposed spending as much time as he had with both of them may have been a contributing factor, but regardless, he sympathized with them for it.
"Who let her out into the fray? This is twice tonight now I had to get involved, Vikar, your on probation. And what was Hiccup doing outside the forge? Who let him out?" The burly red haired man yelled. Hiccup tried to interrupt him, "Sorry, dad, but to be fair, I shot down a Night Fury." But Stoick continued, ignoring him "You know what, it doesn't matter, get them back to their houses, make sure they get there" He instructed Gobber, who slapped Hiccup behind the head and led both teens to their respective houses, starting first with Hiccup's. As they went on, Snotlout and Tuffnut stood by picking at Hiccup, ignoring Astrid. Ruffnut didn't care for the whole thing, and Fishlegs just stood there letting it play was until Gobber shoved the two going at Hiccup.
"Does he even care? It's like I don't ever actually talk. As if when I speak, it's all just proves how unlike we are? And all it does is piss him off."
"Now you're going about it all wrong, it's not you, it's your way thinking that he can't stand."
"Thanks, I actually needed that," Hiccup deadpanned.
"Alright look, you're a good fighter, probably one of the best of your generation, he's made sure you would be, but when you keep bucking him every chance you get, and invent these things, the way you go about it all makes him uncomfortable. You're just trying so hard to be something he does understand, instead of trying to be what you are."
"And what would that be?" Astrid asked.
"Something else."
"Well that's a crystal clear message that makes so much sense," Hiccup was however more encouraged to prove that he really was a Viking, and not this something else now, though he only showed a facade of discouragement. Both Astrid and Gobber could see through the disguised emotions, but didn't bother to comment on it.
Yay, I did something stupid and started another fic. In all honesty I should probably stop doing this and finish my other fics first, or find someway to work on them all at once but whatever. And you know what, I plan to get on that somehow someway. As I said, this was basically random inspiration sparked by Zenmaster21's fic, specifically all the issues I have with it. So I guess what I'll say here is I do plan to do my other fics, I actually have one of them finished now, just gotta perform some edits and junk. As for my plan, honestly anything I say will probably be contradicted because I'm inconsistent bastard like that, and I need to reorder a lot of other things before pulling fics out on a consistent basis.
But here's the idea I want to do if I can manage it, (being the inconsistent bastard I am, take it with a grain of salt) I'll probably get randomly inspired by fics or stories every so often, I might occasionally thus write out a full chapter of a fic or something and just throw it at the wall, see if it sticks, if I can keep up some momentum, stick to it for a bit, burnout, maybe try another one, and then repeat that process through all my fics. The fact I only come back every so often also screws with that. If I'm lucky though I might be able to manage having a bunch of random stories I can jump on and off at a whim. Achieving that, I'll probably be more likely to write something then do the lag behind I usually end up doing. Yeah, focusing on a singular project is a thing I need to fix, but whatever. Honestly I'm just hoping at this point that I'll pull off getting momentum for a story. That's my (hopeful) reasoning for posting this.