The next schema they rolled onto was a pebbly beach, much like sadness, but it was a short beach and then tall cliffs.
"Oh, I don't like this…" said Sadness, with worry.
"Calm down. It'll be fine." Astrid said, though as she glanced over the cliff face, she worried that they'd have to climb.
"Looks like there's a crack," Sadness pointed down the way.
Indeed, it looked like the cliff was just a wall.
"Good eye!" She rubbed his head affectionately.
Sadness actually smiled at her.
Astrid and Boat Hiccup both took hold of the boat and hoisted it onto the beach, then they all together walked down to the crevasse.
Astrid went first, noticing that there was a declining slope to the rocky path. Once they reached the bottom, the path was blocked by a shield wedged in the rock.
Astrid frowned in confusion.
"The cove by Raven's point," provided Boat Hiccup. "Hiccup brought a shield with him when he went to confront Toothless, but got it stuck in the rock."
"Oh yeah!" She laughed. "I always wondered how it got there."
Astrid and Boat Hiccup went over, while Sadness crawled under.
The cove was almost exactly how she remembered it. A large basin in the rocks, with a spring in the middle. The main difference was this cove was covered in flowers. All closed, mind you, and desaturated, but flowers nonetheless.
A new Hiccup laid on the ground sprawled out among the sleeping blooms. He wore a coral colored shirt, and a crown of flowers on his head.
"I didn't know Hiccup liked flowers," Astrid commented as she carefully stepped through the garden.
"He doesn't feel any more strongly about them than most people," explained Sadness.
Boat Hiccup elaborated, "These are most likely representative. Like the boulders in the last schema."
"Representative of what?"
Boat Hiccup shrugged. "I can't remember, not until he wakes up." He gestured to the Hiccup on the ground.
Astrid huffed. Maybe she could glean information from the flowers themselves then? Gently, she touched a closed bloom and watched it open in front of her eyes.
Then she was hit with a memory. It was short, and she couldn't quite glean the context. Stoick picked him up in a side hug and shook him slightly. "Good on ya, lad. Well done!"
"Thanks dad," Hiccup returned, sheepishly.
And then it was over.
Well, this place had to be a good emotion at least. With the flowers…maybe he was Love?
There was only one way to find out.
Still careful of the flowers, Astrid danced her way over to the new emotion, and stood over him, trying to see his face.
His eyes were open, but unfocused and dull as he stared at the sky.
She leaned in more to catch his attention.
He noticed her, and turned ever so slightly to meet her eye. "Astrid?"
"Hi," she smiled at him. "Are you Love?"
He shook his head slowly. "I wish I was. I wish I could be anything but this dull nothingness in me."
"Woof, if I didn't know better, I'd assume you were Sadness."
"Is that what I sound like?" Sadness sniffed.
She just patiently patted his head, but kept looking at Flower Hiccup. "So, do you have significant memories associated with you? Like Sadness had these boulders that represented the saddest memories Hiccup had."
Flower Hiccup jerked a thumb backwards, gesturing at some larger flowers blooming near the rock wall.
"Yeah, that makes sense."
She waltzed over and prepared to touch a sunflower, though she hesitated for a moment, remembering the tragedy she saw the last time she looked at Hiccup's core memories.
Astrid shook her head. "No, this is a different emotion. This will be better!"
Her fingers caressed the yellow petals, and she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder as she was thrust into the memory.
She just heard Hiccup's voice as he was talking to a much younger her. "Ow! What was that for?"
"That—was for scaring me." She said, with a little smirk on her face.
"Oh so what, is this going to become a thing now? Between you and me—?"
It was the weirdest sensation of being kissed by herself. It wasn't the same as her memory of kissing Hiccup that day. Because it was how he remembered her kiss felt.
Belatedly, she realized the vision had gone dark—Hiccup had closed his eyes—and then she was there again, all smirks and smugness, and a blush that she would have denied for days back then.
"I could get used to it." Hiccup responded, casual to most, but to her, who listened to him ramble on for hours, he sounded absolutely winded.
And then it was over, and she was in the cove.
"Astrid? You okay?" Sadness asked, holding her hand. "You're all red."
She couldn't help but chuckle. "I'm fine. Just…embarrassed."
She allowed that thought to linger for a moment. What would shame have to do with flowers?
"You aren't Shame—or Embarrassed, right?" She called to Flower Hiccup.
From where he laid on the ground, he sighed. "Guess not."
She looked at Boat Hiccup. "What about you? Shame or Embarrassed?"
He shook his head. "Doesn't sound familiar."
"Keep going," Sadness tugged on her arm. "There's more."
Astrid gave him a little smile, then reached out and touched a large rose.
This moment didn't take place much farther back than the last one. She could hear screams, and her whole body was drenched. But most importantly, Stoick had his hands wrapped around Hiccup's and stared up at him with sad eyes.
"I'm proud to call you my son."
This memory made her chest ache. Coupled with what she saw in Sadness' schema, it was no surprise that this was an important memory.
"Thanks, dad." Hiccup returned, right before the memory ended.
Sadness had also touched the flower, trying to be helpful. "It was right before Hiccup went up against the Red Death," he explained. "You dropped him off on the boat, but it sank before he could free Toothless. Dad saved us from nearly drowning, and then saved Toothless."
"Hmm." Astrid hummed. "I get it. The last thing Hiccup saw him do was chain Toothless up. It must have meant a lot for Stoick to humble himself like that."
"Hiccup loves dad. Even when they butted heads, they loved each other."
She nodded, knowing it was true. She had a hard time believing this wasn't Love's schema.
Instead of guessing again, she looked at the last flower. This one was bigger than the others, about the size of a dinner plate. A black Dahlia. Black was an awfully dreary color though, right?
She placed her fingers on the petals.
The memory came and went quickly, though she didn't understand it at first and had to review it a few times.
At first, the soft petals were under her fingers, and then, a cool, rough, scaly nose. The vision started off black, as Hiccup had his eyes closed.
And then they opened, and Toothless was there. He stayed for only a moment, and then darted away.
Astrid watched it three times before she caught the subtle signs. Then she got goosebumps.
"That was the first time, wasn't it?"
Sadness nodded.
"Wow…" she whispered, suddenly feeling like she had intruded on a sacred moment.
So their first kiss, words of affirmations from his father, and training Toothless. What emotion did they have in common? Nothing for her, since she felt very different between each one.
"Oh!" She exclaimed, garnering all the attention from the Hiccups. It seemed so obvious now. "Happiness! You're Happiness!"
The movement in the schema was slight as all the flowers in the cove slowly bloomed.
Happiness scrambled to his feet as his color came back.
Astrid smiled proudly.
Happiness ran to her, stumbling slightly as he hadn't regained his stance before sprinting, and threw his arms around her. "Astrid, you genius!"
She hugged him back. "I know."
Sadness also joined in on the hug, and the smile that Happiness wore changed.
The two emotions looked at each other with bittersweet smiles. "Hi Sadness."
"Good to see you, Happiness."
"Ohhh I get it now!" Astrid exclaimed as she watched. "What you meant when you said you influence each other. Happy-sad is what you feel when…well, like at a funeral for someone old, or saying goodbye."
They both nodded, agreeing. "We don't see each other often," said Happiness. "Bittersweet isn't a common feeling. Especially for Hiccup. Last he felt it was when he left Berk for the Edge."
Astrid nodded, feeling the same.
Suddenly, the black dahlia beside them exploded into petals, and a spectral Toothless appeared, bounding around in the flowers.
"There you are, Bud!" Happiness cheered. "I wondered where you went!"
Astrid smiled as she watched Toothless frolic. "I guess it makes sense that Toothless would be in the Happy schema."
"It's Hiccup's favorite memory. Well, I'd say it's a tie between the three, but being around Toothless always makes Hiccup happy."
"And I don't?" She sassed, a hand on her hip.
"Oh, he's happy around you, alright." He smirked, knowingly. "But there's other, more nuanced emotions at work."
"Like what?"
"I think I'll leave that up to them to explain it."
Sadness also smirked but quickly looked away.
Happiness jolted slightly. "Wow! I just—Astrid! You're here!"
She chuckled. "What? You just noticed?"
"Yes! I mean—sometimes, when he's thinking of you, there's an aspect of you that appears here. But you're really here, right? How? This is crazy!"
Boat Hiccup, who had been quietly examining the flowers up until this point, answered. "A witch took Hiccup's soul. Gothi retrieved it and put it into a tea, and had Astrid consume it. We're in her body."
Happiness looked surprised. "Wow really? How bizarre!"
"That's what happened?!" Sadness bemoaned. "Oh that's horrible!"
Astrid just instinctively pulled him into a one-armed hug at her side. She felt like she was getting rather good at handling him. "I mean, it's not great, but we're dealing with it."
"And look at how much closer we've grown together because of it!" Happiness chirped. His smile was blinding.
"Ah, right, Happiness. Always looking on the positive side."
"Is that why I was—how to explain it?—asleep?"
"Yep. All aspects of Hiccup's personality are asleep. So I have to go wake them up before I give him his soul back. You are the fourth."
He smirked. "You've only done four?"
Astrid groaned. "What do you mean, only?"
"Technically only three," clarified Sadness. "He's still asleep." He pointed at Boat Hiccup.
"Ugh, right. How many more are there?"
"Well," Happiness started listing them off on his fingers. "There's Creativity, Fear, Love—"
"Wait!" Astrid patted her pockets and then pulled out the notebook she had earlier. "Write them down in here!"
"Good thinking!"
Astrid peered over his shoulder as he and Sadness collaborated to fill out a list of all the aspects. As they worked, she noticed Boat Hiccup wandering around between the flowers again.
She contemplated taking the list and just reading off all the names to see if he woke up, but she had a feeling it wouldn't work like that. Sure, she had guessed a few times, but when she woke them up, it was when it was clear. She wasn't guessing, she knew!
"I think that's all of them," said Happiness, giving her back her book.
"Thank you, I really appreciate it." She glanced over the list and checked off Happiness, Sadness, and Creativity. "Happiness?"
"Yes Astrid?"
"Would you mind if Sadness stayed here with you and Toothless? He said he was lonely in his schema."
Sadness blubbered. "Y-y-y-you're dumping me here?"
Astrid patted his head. "I have a lot of work to do, and I think you'll have a better time here."
"We'll have lots of fun!" Said Happiness, hugging Sadness. "And then we can meet up with them after Astrid puts everything back to rights."
Sadness nodded in agreement. "Good idea. Some of the schemas are unpleasant anyway."
Astrid's smile deflated. "Great. So excited for that…"
"Ready to move on?" Asked Boat Hiccup.
"Yep! See you guys later!"
"Good luck!" The other two cheered.
Boat Hiccup was silent until they made it up and out of the crevasse. "Wanted to leave behind the burden?"
Astrid gawked at him. "Rude! He is not a burden!"
"Astrid, level with me. Sadness, here and now looks like a personified Hiccup. You feel bad for him, yeah. But take a step back. When our teammates are bummed out about something, don't you get annoyed? You see them dragging their feet and you get mad. And with your own sadness, you get frustrated. Why would Hiccup feel any different?"
She shuffled her feet on the beach, considering his words. "I guess…it depends on the reason we're sad. If it's because of something trivial, then I'd see it as a burden. But if I'm mourning the loss of something, that's important."
"Good answer. I bet Sadness would be happy to know you don't hate him."
Astrid mulled over this as they pushed the boat into the water.
—
Back in the real world, Hiccup was on inventory duty. It was the perfect mind-numbing task for an emotionless husk.
"Hiccup!" Fishlegs cried, bursting in the door.
"Hey Fishlegs," he responded, unperturbed.
"You have to come quick! It's Toothless! The twins and Snotlout—I told them not to but…I can't explain, you just have to see for yourself!"
Calmly, Hiccup set his paper and charcoal down and then allowed Fishlegs to herd him, with much prodding to go faster, down to the edge of town.
Though, the smear of blood across the snow should have been a give away.
Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout stood by woefully, heads lowered and tears on their cheeks. Toothless laid in the snow, unmoving and surrounded by a growing sea of red.
"Huh." Said Hiccup, hands on his waist. "That's…not good."
"Not good?!" Shouted Snotlout. "Your dragon is dead, Hiccup! And that's all you have to say?!" He grabbed him by the shoulders and shook with passion. "Can't you find one scrap of humanity in this husk? Can't you push out a single tear for your best friend?! Or does he mean nothing to you?!" He nearly wailed.
Hiccup screwed up his lip and then shrugged. "I got nothing. I'm sure when my emotions come back I'll be devastated and kicking myself over this but…yeah, I just don't feel anything. I know I should, but zilch."
Toothless let out a long mournful whine as he rolled around in the cranberry juice.
"I mean, maybe it's just because I knew you were faking, but the image would have at least freaked me out for a minute."
Snotlout punched him in the shoulder.
"Ow."
He then grabbed him by the face and said sternly. "We're going to get you to emote something by the end of the week or my name isn't Snotlout Jorgensen! You hear me?!"
"Yes. I hear you. And please, be my guest."
There are rumors going around that this site is dying. I will continue to post here until it does. In the meantime, you can find me on Tumblr P-Artsypants, and Ao3 and Instagram P_Artsypants
