While the Wimp's Away

[Snotlout]

(ooc: March 26. Same time as Gratitude of Vikings and Dragons. Open to Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Astrid.)

While Hiccup was having a resoundingly awful day, Snotlout felt safe to say that he was having a wonderful day. Not only had he succeeded in tormenting Hiccup with some nasty insults he had spent the previous night thinking up, but he also had had the pleasure of seeing him fall face first in the mud and currently was relishing in the fact that Hiccup had vanished again. If it was going to become a habit, Snotlout hoped that it would be a permanent one. Alternatively the black-haired Viking would have preferred if Hiccup just never came back at all. It would be better for all of them, especially himself and Stoick. Who knew? Maybe if Hiccup did end up dying on one of his journeys then maybe Stoick would make him next in line to be chief. Now that would be something.

Still, Snotlout would freely admit that he was bored. Without Hiccup to torment there wasn't much to do. He casually scratched one of his arms before letting a dragon-sized yawn escape him and leaning back against a building. "Jeez... where's everyone else when you need them? I'm bored." Snotlout grumbled.

[Astrid]

"Practicing so for when your sorry butt needs saving." Astrid called out approaching the pig nosed teen. A bead of sweat dribbled from her forehead but was quickly wiped away with her fore arm. Other than that slight bit of removed evidence, and slightly frizzy blonde hair, Astrid looked fairly normal. Her double edged axe swinging freely with the motion of her arm. She'd answered Snotlout's, probably rhetorical, question. It wasn't really a joke though. The raven haired teen had a tendency to show off during a fight, causing major trouble on her and others' parts.

Astrid stopped a few feet from Snotlout, hand on hip while her axe dug head first into the ground so that she was able to lean on it nonchalantly. The blonde had just come back from a little practice with her aim and force she could apply with her favorite weapon. She'd made a point on keeping her vow on practicing to gain an advantage in the mud. Her leggings and boots splattered with flecks of the brown goop.

The blonde hadn't been there to see Hiccup take his own, ungraceful, spill in the soggy ground. Though if she had, she would have been pretty sure she looked much better off. She was as bored as ever having finished a good few hours of practice with a few small breaks scattered in.

[Snotlout]

"Hey, I can't help it if Hiccup needs rescuing a lot of the time." Snotlout retorted. It may have been safe to say that the remark, which probably had been pointed at him, had either gone over his head or he was just choosing to ignore the fact that Astrid did indeed have a point. The arrogant pig-nosed teen did have a rather large tendency to show off when in action, and that typically led to needing to be saved. As far as Snotlout was concerned, though, he didn't need saving. It was merely poor luck on his part that the dragons didn't just drop dead when he happened to try and kill them. "That guy's the worst Viking in history. How he managed to kill that Nightmare, I'll never know." he stated with a grunt.

"But looks like he's out of our hair for right now. Must have run off into the woods like a baby after he fell face first in the mud. Serves him right, really." Snotlout laughed. To be perfectly frank, the raven-haired teen didn't particularly care about what happened to Hiccup out there. If he died it was all the better for Berk. If he came back it gave him the opportunity to deal with him himself. Either way, Snotlout wouldn't mind. "Gives us real Vikings more time to ourselves, right?" he asked.

[Tuffnut]

Tuffnut smirked. "You got that right man. We are better off without him." he said as he approached the two. He leaned against a building watching the sky for a moment, itching and hoping for another dragon to show up. Oh, he had been waiting for action. Why was it that Hiccup got to have it? It wasn't fair!

[Snotlout]

Snotlout gave a typical thuggish grin as Tuffnut approached him and Astrid. Things had been much too quiet without his supposed sidekick at his side, and he had been wondering where Tuffnut had gone. Seeing the other blond appear made Snotlout feel all the more relaxed. Oh yeah, Snotlout could have been training at that very moment. He could have actually been trying to improve his skills. The truth of the matter, though, was that Snotlout didn't think he needed to improve that much. He'd show off his skills when the time came, and he certainly would be better than Hiccup the Useless ever was.

"I'll say. I bet that wimp's gotten himself in trouble of some kind." Snotlout laughed. It never occurred to him that maybe all the bullying he did might not have been appreciated by some of the other Vikings, maybe including Astrid, but if he cared he definitely didn't show it. The raven-haired boy just wanted to make things difficult for the supposed golden child... even if he really wasn't one. Hiccup had been failing miserably ever since that night he had killed the Nightmare. All the more reason that Snotlout needed to prove that he was better. That Stoick could do better in terms of an heir.

"Even if he hasn't, I bet Stoick'll give 'im an earful for wandering off again. Or... we could just pound him into the dust. Whatever works, really." he remarked casually, almost as if he had said nothing wrong in the slightest. That was just how Snotlout worked. He didn't think there was anything wrong with the way he did things.

[Astrid]

"Yup, Hiccup needed a lot of rescuing killing the Nightmare." she said nonchalantly, hiding a smirk in the shadow of her face. Of course she knew the truth, and the truth was, Hiccup probably could have used rescuing. The death had never been intentional, but she'd never admit it to Snotlout. It was to fun to watch him squirm about not being the first to draw first blood, while Astrid knew that she'd been the first to actually intentionally kill one. It gave her a swell of pride. Astrid had a slight twinge of... worry? As Snotlout told her Hiccup had wandered into the forest. The last time he'd done that, he'd come back fine, but the other time, well, he'd almost been eaten by a Nightmare. But dragons wouldn't attack at this time of day... She shook her head, she shouldn't worry.

And then another blonde head appeared. "Oh yeah, what's dumb without dumber?" she rolled her eyes, sarcasm dripping from her tone. She rolled her eyes at the two boys. She'd grown to not hate Hiccup. Her hand twitched involuntarily to hold her axe handle, before sliding off gently.

"Save it you two, your heads are as thick as a gronkle's hide." she almost snapped, but managed to soothe her voice into a humorless laugh. Astrid looked at the two boys, icy eyes guarded. It was odd how uncomfortable it was to be around them. Normally it wasn't like this, she could easily slide into the conversation without the need to defend. All before she learned Hiccup's secret. Most might think that it would have been better for the secret not to be spoken in the first place, but to Astrid, her pride had been healed. Snotlout, though, might've had a point. What would Stoick do? If Stoick realized Hiccup had disappeared... she highly doubted it, she'd become more aware of the chief's unconscious efforts to avoid his son's personal life.

The blonde girl caught herself in her thoughts, briefly wondering, why she was thinking of all this. There were certainly more important manners and topics to address in the privacy of her own head....

[Tuffnut]

Tuffnut rolled his eyes. "Your humor is amazing." he said with a cold voice. He though however knew as much as she did about Hiccup's secret. However, he decided not to have it effect him, after all it wasn't his business. He could easily ruin Hiccup's reputation with one word, yet he decided it was best not to say anything.

[Snotlout]

It took a few moments, but the remark about their heads being thicker than a Gronckle's hide did eventually sink in. "Yeah... hey, wait a minute!" a truly astounding moment of brilliance for Snotlout. It had taken him a whole two minutes to put together just what the remark had meant. "We're not stupid. We're just... manlier." Snotlout decided to say. Not the greatest comeback in the universe, but it would do.

Snotlout dismissed Astrid's seeming unwillingness to make fun of Hiccup along with him and Tuffnut as her simply not wanting to talk about it at that moment. it was a fairly common topic of discussion among him and Tuffnut, anyway. They needed something else to remark upon. But what? Snotlout crossed his arms, almost appearing to actually be thinking for once, before coming to a realization that standing around and looking cool wasn't exactly accomplishing a whole lot. In fact, they could have been doing something much better with their free time. Especially with Hiccup gone. Without the scrawny Viking around, they didn't have to concern themselves with anyone getting in the way of them actually having a good time for once.

"Why are we standing around just talking when we could be doing something, anyway?" Snotlout asked at last as he took two steps away from the building and let his arms drop to his sides again. "I mean, how often are we going to have a chance to be alone in the village without Hiccup tailing us? We should do something!" he proclaimed. Just what that 'something' was, though, he was uncertain. Thinking wasn't exactly one of Snotlout's greatest qualities, after all.

[Astrid]

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[atrb=background, img844.imageshack.us/img844/3396/astridpostingbackground.png] Astrid gave a little applause at Snotlout's amazing revelation, rolling her eyes. She was now almost positive a gronckle was smarter than this raven haired nitwit. "I waited 2 minutes for that revelation, I'm not waiting a third." she smirked at Snotlout's words. She gave another roll of her eyes between the two boys, studying them. Snotlout looked manly, but did that mean that she couldn't kick him from one side of Berk to the other? No. She crossed her arms again, looking quite bored at the two, as if they held no interest for her. And than Snotlout gave her an amazing opportunity. Waving a hand in front of her face and scrunching up her nose as the boy appeared to be thinking. "Ugh, Snotlout, stop I'm starting to smell smoke.... and something dead." She let the toothy smirk show, as she watched the raven haired boy, a challenging, taunting gleam in her icy orbs. One hand lightly brushed the battle axe she was leaning more lightly on. And than, Snotlout's moment of thought, seemed to die. "And what do you suppose we do?" Deja vu. She remebered having tailed Hiccup for a change, and asking him something similar, after she realized she'd been the first to actually kill a dragon. The scrawny red head was lucky she'd been in such a good mood that day. The broad, dark haired boy was no where near Hiccup discussion wise. She was honestly surprised he could actually fight dragons. As well as his mother claimed to have never dropped him on his head. The blonde cocked an eyebrow at dark haired and blonde boy, curious as to what one might have in the dormant mind of theirs.

[Tuffnut]

Tuffnut wasn't exactly sure what they could do. He normally got his kicks by arguing with his sister or bugging Hiccup. Though neither were there at the moment. So what could they do? Turning to the dark haired boy he shrugged his shoulders. "Not sure man, not much we can do, unless you have some ideas."

[Snotlout]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,400,true][bg=061351] Yep. Right then and there, Snotlout's moment of glorious thought seemed to die. He stared blankly ahead, trying to process some form of idea, but only appeared to succeed in giving himself a headache. That was enough to let Astrid's remark about his thinking slip past him without a remark in turn. Thinking was hard, man! They couldn't just stand there all day. Hiccup was sure to return from the woods sooner or later, and once he did their moment of freedom would be gone. It would be back to resenting the redhead's existence and silently plotting out ways to eliminate the competition. ...Or just resenting Hiccup's existence. The idea of Snotlout plotting anything was just too hard to process. Well, somehow or another Snotlout did eventually come up with an idea. How that much had come to be would probably never be known, but the raven-haired teen looked as though he had an idea. "What about tussling? That's something we can't do with Hiccup around, seein' as he's too scrawny. Better than just standing around, right?" Snotlout finally asked.

[Astrid]

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[atrb=background, img844.imageshack.us/img844/3396/astridpostingbackground.png] Astrid started clapping slowly as Snotlout's face twisted back into something more... normal. The teen had looked like he was in pain, or that there was something for of in the distance he just had to see but couldn't. It was pretty darn funny. But like all good moments, it ended and Snotlout had actually thought of something. "Thank the gods you stopped thinking Snotlout, your head might have exploded in a few more seconds." She sneered. She'd laugh her head of if the raven haired boy had given himself a headache by the period of thinking, than again, he probably had. Snotlout was definitely not the brightest of the vikings, heck the only reason he survived dragon attacks were his brutal and massive strength, as well as everyone pitching in on the 'Save Snotlout's life' foundation. One of its many purposes being to keep Snotlout from acting severly stupid. Astrid pondered tussling for a few minutes, and it wasn't really a bad idea, she was pretty bored, and without Hiccup around, who'd most assuredly get hurt by standing to close, it seemed like nothing could go wrong. "Not a bad idea for once Snotlout." Astrid commented, pulling her axe from the ground and throwing it a nice distance away. She turned into a sort of half crouch, arms balled and protecting her face and chest. "A dare you to come at me," and a smirk slid across her features.