learning.

[dragon_rider]

WHO: Hiccup and Ernesto
WHAT: You take a Viking to a steam-powered city and you DON'T expect him to try to climb over everything to figure it out?
WHERE: Godsblood
WHEN: Sometime after the portal between Greentruth and Godsblood is revealed
WARNINGS: Just big dumbs being dumbs


Godsblood was no Berk. It may have been built on the water and had a familiar seaside air, but it lacked the vibrance Berk had. Not that Hiccup expected it to be much like his home, but he's also unsettled for how wholly different it is. The Hairy Hooligan tribe of Berk didn't really value learning unless it was about defeating dragons and fighting for so long a time that a steam-powered city was far beyond his imagination. And his imagine was vast, having created his own wind-based power system for his forge back on Dragon's Edge.

This was different and it made him feel small where he was already feeling small).

Thankfully, his own thoughts of self-doubt are eclipsed by his sense of wonder. If there's one thing Hiccup will never grow out of its need to investigate and learn about things he doesn't understand — If there's one thing that made him seem the Hooligan he undoubtedly was at heart, it's that he doesn't seem to find any problems in trying to climb things to get closer to what he's looking for. He'd started innocently enough, investigating a piece of machinery from close up — Not too close, feet firmly rooted on the ground, and trying to hide his genuine curiosity at its functionality.

He figured out what it was doing ages ago, but now he needs to know how it was doing it... So he might have ducked around a shop, found a pathway to climb up and was now angling for the best way to climb up the side to get a closer look at the gears. Unfortunately, the climbing route is a slippery due to aforementioned waterways and the wind pulling up water. Also, it's really not designed to be climbed on, but that doesn't keep him from half-dangling up there to get a better look anyway.

Sorry, Ernesto. Are you sure you really want to get involved in this mess?

Comments

[goldendeceiver]

That's unfortunately something that Ernesto can kind of relate to in some regards. Though the kind of dangers the two men face happens to be different, the war that continued to rage across his country did a good deal to stifle innovation in most parts of Bolivar. It's kind of hard to sit down and get to inventing when supply lines are screwed up by fighting cutting off your material sources.

Besides, people are more likely to focus on weapons innovations than anything else. Even Ernesto himself specialized in weapon modifications.

His brow furrows at the confession though, and he presses his finger thoughtfully to his chin.

"So you at least have turbines, huh? That's a decent start to knowing how this all works then."

He moves his hand away from his chin now, gesturing to the building next to them.

[dragon_rider]

Hiccup swung his arms at his side as he considered the building. He finds outside of innovation, he's not a fan of Godsblood. The locals aren't bad, but there's something stifling in the city itself — Too metal, perhaps? It's difficult to place his mind around.

He turns his attention back to other with a short nod. "I think I have a good idea on how it's working, at least," he admits thoughtfully, turning his head upwards with a thought, "but I want to learn what I can. If I can learn that, I can work on ideas for different tools for us to use.

(Please don't let him learn to make a fire-breathing costume again, it'll only be a trainwreck waiting to happen).

[goldendeceiver]

Sadly Ernesto has absolutely no idea about Hiccup's past fire-breathing costumes, and the disasters that resulted from making them. What he does know is that Hiccup is making it loud and clear in this conversation that he's an inventor, and even if he's behind Ernesto's time in regards to tech, if they can catch him up to speed with Horos at least? Well... it's certainly (probably) not going to hurt the Pleroma's cause.

"We can probably try to get you talking to some of the engineers who maintain some of these machines, though you'll want to be careful when talking to them. It's reasonable for the common person to not know the details of how they work, but you don't want to sound completely unfamiliar with them. It'll make you sound like you're not from around here. Which, coincidentally..."

He stops to point at the building Hiccup was just scaling.

"Climbing around like that will too."

[dragon_rider]

Hiccup scatches the corner of his chin in thought. There was probably better ways to learn about things he admits to himself, but he was nothing if not himself. Learning about how something ticked from observing and being close to it was just as easy in his opinion. He'd always been taught hands-on or by experimentation, after all, that he offers nothing more than a laugh.

"I guess you're right. I just saw something moving and wanted to see how it worked up close," Hiccup mentioned off-handed, rolling his shoulders with a shrug, "asking about it really wasn't a thought."

His sheepishness wears off to a more disbelieving laugh. With a shake of his head he waves a hand in dismissal. "Whaaat? No way," Hiccup remarked, "I could've been just a guy who was looking at shingle repair! You know, they really could use some work up there. It's not supposed to be that slippery, it probably means they need to replace them. We should tell them while we ask about the building."

Hiccup spoke with rapt attention, eager to dismiss how it wasn't totally normal even if he does realize it wasn't. There are far more important things to focus on than his oddities as a member of the Hooligan Tribe (like dragging Ernesto with him to ask the owners more).

[goldendeceiver]

"Mm... a roofer that they didn't hire to do any repair work, and who also doesn't have a single tool on him?"

Hiccup realizes how suspicious that sounds, right? There's no way he actually thinks that's a remotely believable excuse, does he? Honestly, Ernesto likes the people he wound up on this strange world with (the ones that haven't tried to stab him so far at least), but some of these people really don't know how to blend to save their lives.

"I think we'll be better off if we head out of here, and find some other buildings that will be a little less conspicuous to ask about."