RECAP: Morgan had gotten to the bottom of Gustav's motive for stealthily exiting the debate process, and this was it; he was uncomfortable anyways, but he just couldn't put himself into doing what he was asked to do by Morgan, where he, alongside Snotlout, would have helped to make Morgan look good in the debate, which he felt was an unfair advantage, and had a puppet-feel to it. With his exit, the plan has officially been confirmed to be Snotlout and Morgan with their secret alliance in the debate. Alongside that, Morgan hadn't forgotten the close-call Cloudjumper gave him at the cove a specific amount of days ago, and as a result, he confronted Cloudjumper at the arena in order to make it clear that he's not scared of the big dragon, and he intends on making himself walk on a thin bit of string. From unintentionally making Toothless return to his mate-desiring side when Morgan wrapped his arms around his black, cold, scaly neck, the biggest outcome was him finally getting a viking title; Morgan the Marvellous.
Morgan ended up diverging from Hiccup and Valka to walk back to his hut to prepare for the debate, whilst the two of them had walked to the Great Hall itself to ensure that everything was in place.
When he returned to the hut, he felt dignified from the title he was basically handed from Valka herself; Morgan the Marvellous. Not only did this give him plenty of reliability in the eyes of the vikings (hopefully), but the title itself sounded smooth and as if it was supposed to be. This dignified feeling however didn't stop his internal feelings from crawling up into his insides, in which they were generated from the unpredictability of what may happen in the debate. Morgan got to the building of his hut, and he let off a big huff upon looking up and down at the wooden structure of it. He turned around so his back was facing the hut, where he basically looked out to the village casually, pulling off a relaxed expression as his palms were tucked inside the pockets of his fluffy-waistcoat-like-short-sleeved viking coat. His insides told a different story, though, as he could feel his arms shiver, and whenever he raised his palms up directly in front of himself, you could see them shiver like the clappers. The pressure isn't just on for him; it's more than the pressure. Alongside this, it's about fulfilling his dream of experiencing what it's like to actually be a politician who has the opportunity to grasp upon power, something he's had curiosity about since gaining a spike in his passion of politics. Never in his life time though, did he imagine that that would come in the form of an election in the universe of How To Train Your Dragon. To be honest, he didn't imagine actually being here prior to him waking up at the cove, either. He took it happily, though.
"BOO" a familiar voice emitted, which sent a shiver down Morgan's spine briefly. The source of the voice laughed at the clear shock he had sent to Morgan just now.
"How long have you been here? I didn't see you when I was walking back here just now?" Morgan said, turning around to Snotlout, who was stood next to Morgan's hut.
"I was hiding out on the other side, then I heard your footsteps, so I simply walked here as you were facing over there, but before that happened, I was waiting for you whilst you decided to procrastinate on me and stay over at the academy arena.."
"It was well-worth it though. I've got something now that, according to Hiccup, I should have gotten weeks ago after I initially got here. You know how vikings on this rocky island have titles and whatnot? well, say hello to Morgan the Marvellous over here.." he let his arms dangle in the air, with his fingers on both palms spread out widely, feeling good about himself.
"Uh, cute, real cute, the Jorgenson here is like the juggernaut name, and you're like the uh...the chicken title" Snotlout said, laughing once again.
Morgan removed his arms from the air as he too held onto the smile he had gained just now.
"A juggernaut, huh? right righttt...sorry, I won't question the all-mighty juggernaut, woaaah"
Morgan waved his palms around as he said that, showing off his sarcasm to Snotlout, playing along with the funny side that Snotlout tends to bring out of himself for pretty much anything. He deliberately widened his eyes at Snotlout for a short period of time, too.
"If you want the facts, Morgnope, I came here to be told what you want me to actually do, because like, I'm quite in the dark you see.." Snotlout subsequently muttered, sounding slightly more serious in his voice tone.
It was a very simple plan that Morgan had in mind, but with Gustav out of the picture, it's got a bigger risk of falling apart and being exposed. Essentially, he want's Snotlout to avoid being direct about his agreements with everything that Morgan himself will say, where Morgan would find it more preferable for Snotlout to say a phrase like 'To be fair, it's not a bad idea' and so on. He want's Snotlout to ask him questions, should there be an opportunity to do so, so he can basically elicit Morgan into looking good. The whole idea behind this is if that another viking of Berk finds him smart and knowledgeable, and knows that Morgan possesses the capability of being Chief, then that will catch into the hundreds of vikings watching the debate, thereby getting them to vote for Morgan to challenge Hiccup. The only way to know if this was actually a viable and reliable path to take is to test it out later on in the debate, meaning it's one big gamble.
"Just...just follow my lead but like uh...not where um...christ, this is harder to explain than I thought..." Morgan said, looking at the grass as he couldn't figure out a way in his head to word what he want's to say to a point where it can be understood without ambiguity or difficulty. "So like, if I'm making a point and then it's your turn to talk, just say something like 'I mean, following up on Morgan's point there, which I find quite good' and you don't wanna completely praise me, just do it in a way where you're like...almost as if you're half-praising me, if that makes sense, otherwise everyone will suspect something on us.."
Morgan cleared his throat and raised his fingers up to it to get rid of the aching sensation as it felt dry from all of the talking.
"I get it...this is insanity, you know? and I mean this, I'm not beating around the bush here, this is just pure insanity...I better be proud of what the outcome of my work here is?" Snotlout, like a greedy child, said.
"You will. I uh, since you know about that actually, I spoke to Gustav before I came back, which was partially why I stayed behind in the first place.."
"You did? what did the little dwarf say then?"
"Basically right, he said that he doesn't wanna do what he was gonna do alongside you, should he have stayed on. Personally, I'm quite shocked at it, but hey, I guess some people are pressured easier than others..."
"You're telling me. One time, Hookfang found a female Monstrous Nightmare, and I could see in his eyes at the time that I had mounted pressure on him in the portion of the size of that cliff right there.." Snotlout pointed over towards the giant cliff of Berk, the cliff that contains the Great Hall, "in choosing either me, or that female Monstrous Nightmare...and then boom," he clicked his fingers, "I came out with the victory in the end, nicely done and perfected like a good Jorgenson does..."
"Huh...glad I told you then?" Morgan said, feeling like Snotlout had thrown a thousand stories at him at once, when all he expected was a response to Gustav's motivation to leaving the debate.
"But truthfully, that young one has a longgg way to go, you know. He may of saved you from your death when you were tossed off of Berk and nearly into the water, but I..I like to consider myself as the general of him, and he's a tiny tiny Recruit, hey?"
"Okay, we...we're going off track here Snotlout, like, hahahaha, completely.." Morgan said, laughing at the drastic changes in the topic that Snotlout keeps on making.
"Speaking the facts isn't diverging from the path, chicken"
"You've got a point, but what you see as facts, I see as me being unable to talk to you about one concern I've got, a GREAT concern, too.."
"Well then, say it? come on, it's not hard?"
Morgan was secretly enjoying the back-and-fourth rapidly switching exchanges he and Snotlout were having just now. It may sound like a genuine argument and nitpicking, but deep down, it's just one big game of trying to sound bigger and smarter than the other, with Snotlout being his classic self.
"Right, so like, bloody hell, what the hell has happened? I really didn't expect those guys to be there, like...Astrid? I dunno Snotlout, there's a good chance that I won't win tonight. Then you've got Gobber, both of which are top vikings. Do you think I should of thought this through before actually going through with it?"
"Big deal, we're at this point now, let's not give up already. I'm merely here for your sake, chicken, and I can only say that I tried, if you do lose"
"Hmph.." Morgan hummed, just wanting to get the debate over with at this point; the unpredictability was just too much to cope with, and especially since that dragon back at the hangar had dropped the leather book into the water earlier on.
"I will admit straight up, that I did underestimate it. I wouldn't be surprised if that comes around and bites me on the backside"
"Negative nancy, aren't you? you said at one point, when I first met you, it was your dream to come here..and now isn't this, doing what you're gonna do tonight, also what you wanted?..well in fact, I'd disagree with you, since it's easy to constantly be ignored around Berk, even if you're of a status like my top one. I mean, I always seem to go unnoticed by Astrid all the time. Even FISHLEGS gets her attention, and I'm tossed into the water like a bunch of dragon eggs, how comical, huh? hahahahaha..." he sarcastically laughed, once again diverting into a sentence of an irrelevant nature to the topic that they were talking about.
"To be fair, if Fishlegs was in it, I'd have a bigger chance, not that I'm picking on him or anything but uh, yeah" Morgan shrugged, keeping his eyes on the grass as he was trying to kill off his fears of the unpredictable.
He let off another sigh, in order to cool down his insides as they felt like they were tightening up due to his nervousness. Snotlout, meanwhile, had ducked down after noticing a miniature stick, just on the grass next to Morgan's hut to pick it up. Once he picked it up, he, like a little child, started slapping it against the hut before simply trying to snap it in half.
"I just can't believe all of this is happening because of Hiccup's so-called like...what did he say? concerns, I think"
"Why, what did he say?" Snotlout, in an intrigued voice, asked, as he dropped the two pieces of the snapped stick back to the grass.
"I just...when I remember what Hiccup had called this entire thing for, I honestly don't even know what to think of it...basically, he was already uncertain about his capability of being Chief, but with my situation with Tuffnut, he claims that that's only fueled his initial uncertainty even more, because he felt like he didn't deal with it good enough..so like...wow, I guess. I don't know whether to consider that a flattering thing or not"
"Ah well, wouldn't we all be concerned if one of us took it? Just to be serious for a moment, I personally think he's dragged it on, like, what's there to be concerned about? it's been ages since he took the position. I dunno, it's just how twerps think, I guess?"
"Whatever you wanna think, Snotlout"
The sky above Berk was darkened, and although the village was lit up, nobody was here; it looked like it was finally time, but Snotlout and Morgan didn't head for the hall straight away. They took some time to talk with each other about some more details that they'd need to know for later on. Morgan realistically couldn't provide Gustav with a high position, should he luckily and somehow become Chief of Berk throughout all of this, any longer, due to him dropping out of the debate. With Snotlout, the deal is still on, and it seems like it'll satisfy Snotlout enough to the point that he's willing to help out somebody who's technically still a newcomer viking to Berk, somebody who, despite having a crowd of vikings at the hall for the commemoration that night, still isn't that known across the island with the rest of the vikings.
Morgan was taking in a ton of deep collections of air through his mouth; it was only an imminent amount of time until he and Snotlout start their journey to the hall for the debate. In his mind, he was trying to recall, whilst studying the village nearby as the sky became darker, with Snotlout just wandering around in circles, what he had done today. He can recall instantly, the hangar trip he did today, where he made the dreadful error of losing the book to one of the dragons. Despite losing that, though, he was able to recall mostly everything he had written in it with ease; the fact that the fire-extinguishers are a waste of wood resources considering that they're only useful in the Dragon Races, and that a dragon has to PRECISELY fire it's burning flames right underneath it, rendering it practically useless due to the rarity of that occurrence.
He's also sticking to the plan of starting up a compulsory viking defence training academy that'll take place at the arena, where the youth vikings of Berk will be given training's so they'll be ready at a younger age to tackle any obstacles, whether it'd be Drago's attempt at taking over once again, or just generally any threat. He based this idea off of the fact that the events of How To Train Your Dragon 3, whatever they may be, will take place inevitably, and from what he had seen on the rumours on his laptop before being lucky enough to wake up here, it's that the dragons themselves may potentially disappear, so what Morgan want's to do specifically is to have the vikings ready to stop that prospect happening as soon as the signs show it approaching, whether or not he's still here by those events. If there was one dragon that he wouldn't mind taking the disappearance however, it was Cloudjumper, and for obvious reasons.
The concluded idea he had obtained from visiting the hangar was that he'd promise an expansion of it, so more and more wild dragons could come to Berk whilst they aren't taking up the entire spaces of the island in the process. He's talking about an expansion where it'll b able to house over 100+ dragons, meaning that he'll need more resources, which is where the demolishing of the fire-extinguishers come into play. His visit to the hangar had made him realize that it was pretty small and contained, and it clearly needed more space.
Another significant promise of his that he had listed in the book from his memory, was the peace process; he wouldn't commit to sending the vikings into violence at all, and he simply cannot force himself to say that he would do that at all, so instead, he'd resort to negotiations with the side that has the problem and poses the threat. Morgan felt like this was the smarter way about throwing the water onto the fire at an early stage, rather than igniting the flames with a full-on-conflict where the lives of Berk's vikings will be put on the line in a pointless battle. One thing he can say though, is that if the peace process fails, he'd have to resort to different solutions, although, in his head, he still didn't imagine having to send the vikings of Berk to do battle, so those other solutions could be similar to the attempt at negotiations with the enemy.
"Right then Snotlout, I uh...holy crap, I feel genuinely weak inside...oh man...are we uh, are we...ahem...are we ready to go then?"
Snotlout looked up at Morgan as he leaned his back against the hut.
"Whenever you are..." Snotlout confirmed, moving his back from the hut to a straight-standing stance, walking over towards Morgan.
"You know what...I've just realized something, haha...how ironic of you that you always be sarcastic with me and talk to me as if I'm basically uh...some sort of brain-dead person, but I'm actually taller than you...woah...didn't realize that at all, but it's worrying to me that I didn't notice that earlier since it's been crystal clear this entire time, haha..."
It was true. Morgan was 5'9 in his height, whereas Snotlout was a whopping 5'6. The fact that Snotlout's older and is still shorter in height than Morgan, who's younger, is embarrassing on Snotlout's part, to say the least.
"Yeah yeah, I was kinda hoping that you wouldn't notice that at all, urghh.." Snotlout moaned, making a frown known clearly and blatantly across his face.
It at least encouraged Morgan to know that he was taller than ONE of the vikings of Berk.
"Alright, let's just throw all that aside, even though I was the one to bring it up..and let's just quickly summarise what needs to be done...you just...occasionally, not constantly, praise my points, and then when you have the chance, ask me some questions, right?" Morgan said, nodding towards Snotlout as his heart beat had suddenly ascended in it's speed out of the nervousness in him.
"You're repeating yourself there, stop getting so worked up, we get this over with, you win this entire thing, and then you can give me the promise you proposed should you succeed, right? Morgan the so-called Marvelous?"
"Indeed. And hey, just like, realistically, there's no way I'm gonna win this tonight, but it's worth a shot, isn't it?"
Morgan and Snotlout nodded reluctantly at each other after Morgan himself had emphasised that he realistically won't win the debate because of the simple fact that he's like a rookie amongst veterans of Berk. It'll be one hell of a challenge, but a political challenge that he'll enjoy should he hopefully get over the nervous feelings running rampant through his body at the moment. The two of them stood up straight in front of the hut, where the sky was officially dark blue; taking that first step towards the hall was shocking enough for Morgan, he was that nervous.
It was finally time for the election to fully kick off; the debate tonight, which is basically the showcase of the potential opponents, and then the week after this one will be the start of Hiccup's campaign and his opponent's campaign to be Chief. As Morgan was walking alongside Snotlout, his entire body felt like it was being squeezed like a sponge because of the amount of sweat he could feel emerging not only from his armpits, but his chest, everywhere, and the heat-sensation he could feel wasn't helping matters either. It's time to get serious.
After a brief meet-up between Morgan and Snotlout, the time has finally come; there's no more waiting around to be done, because the debate has finally arrived; despite some changes in the competitors in it, it's still nerve-racking for Morgan specifically; he's like a rookie, whereas the likes of Astrid have been on Berk for absolutely ages, meaning that he'll have one hell of an obstacle to overcome. There's just so many possibilities about the outcome of it that it had actually generated excessive sweating for Morgan. The only question that really needs to be asked at this point is; will this go well for him, or will it end up being a complete mess and a miscalculation?