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[berkian]

Mun Name: Lucy! Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username: You E-mail: have AIM/MSN: this! Current Characters at Luceti: Ikki (Legend of Korra) / breezing Character Name: Astrid Hofferson. Fandom: How To Train Your Dragon. Gender: Female. Age: 15. Time Period: Post Gift of the Night Fury. Wing Color: Steel gray. History: Here! Personality: Astrid Hofferson is a viking girl. And the first thing you have to know about Berk vikings? They are crazy and stubborn to their bones. Who else would choose to live on a rock where dragons attack near-daily, and home-repair vikings are always in demand because the village is burnt down pretty much every other day? No one, that's who. And Astrid was raised to be yet another one of those crazy Berk vikings, to fight dragons and build up burnt down houses and to stubbornly cling to the frozen rock of horrid weather and fauna that was (and is) Berk. She was entirely prepared to do this, occupational hazards and all. Before she even started dragon training Astrid was shown to be an extremely capable fighter, and had clearly had training before the actual training, likely at the hands of her viking parents. She was easily the most driven student - the twins fought one another, Snotlout was more interested in impressing Astrid, Fishlegs was...Fishlegs, and Hiccup was sort of driven in every other direction but dragon slayer except at the very, very beginning. Astrid's attitude towards her peers changed over the course of the movie. While at the beginning she seemed to swing between semi-friendly tolerance (except for Hiccup, who she ignored) to annoyed exasperation, by the end of the film Astrid fell firmly into a more friendship-oriented teamwork role (although she still gets annoyed at the others pretty frequently). Astrid is still shown to be extremely independent despite this, but to a lesser degree than she first was. These days she's actually willing to rely on the people within her group (important point of fact, because she's fairly home-and-clan oriented) and she works well with the others, although she tends to work the best with Hiccup, who...let's face it, is just the most competent out of the others, okay? Also, she genuinely likes and understands him, which helps, because while she thinks of the others as friends, she still tends to be annoyed by Snotlout most of the time and ends up scolding Fishlegs more often than not. Despite her tough exterior, Astrid is a good person. Even when she was furious at Hiccup for cheating and apparently trying to run away in shame or something her very first instinct to danger in the woods was to shove the weaker viking behind her and face it head on. Of course, it ended up she was the one who needed protection from a protective toothless, but it still stands that rather than leave Hiccup - the person she was most upset with at that moment in time and who she liked the least - to fend for himself Astrid stood her ground between him and a dragon. She's instinctively put herself between danger and others before that instance - shoving Roughnut back in training, before they went back-to-back - and likely will again in the future. She also didn't take too long to win over once she saw what was really going on with the dragons of Berk. Yes, she was upset for the first five minutes of her kidnapping, and yes it was difficult for her entire world view to be forced into flipping, but when she was faced with irrefutable proof that the dragons weren't bad she didn't cling to her misconceptions. She also genuinely attempts to help the people and creatures she cares for. Throughout the later half of the first movie and all of the second movie Astrid plays the role of a sounding board to Hiccup's ideas, and offers him encouragement (...albeit sometimes misworded encouragement). She's shown to honestly enjoy the company of Toothless and to feel a strong bond to Stormfly, and while she'll scold and nag the other four members of the "riders of Berk", Astrid would put herself on the line for any of them. She's fiercely loyal once she's been won over, which...stands to reason, given that she started out pretty hard to win over. The change in Berk from dragon-slaying to dragon-taming has softened Astrid's temper somewhat (and only somewhat); she's no longer expected to kill dragons for status, but she does expect to defend Berk to her dying breath, because guess what? Berk has more problems than just dragons because vikings choose really stupid places to live. It's an occupational hazard, apparently. Despite the good heart and the somewhat-less-unfriendly nature, Astrid is still overall pretty reckless and stubborn and tends to come up with a violent answer (read: her axe) to most problems. She's quick to action - good or bad - and she's less certain in situations that don't require her to be good with sharp metal objects. She's a viking, basically, although she's a viking who understands the times have changed and who is committed to going along for the ride. She...needs reminding of that, from time to time. She also hasn't quite lost her temper, although she's on the whole somewhat cheerier (which, let's face it, having a war looming over your head tends to make things serious business, so having that war ended? It gave her chances she'd never even dreamed of). Astrid reacts before she considers more often than not, and Hiccup does tend to get punched as often as she might reach out to him affectionately. She still gets into arguments with others, although she's never quite gotten into arguments with the people in charge of her or the others - i.e. Stoick or Gobber. In those cases she tends to nominate Hiccup forward, since he is (sadly) the most well-spoken of the dragon riders in her opinion. ...Yeah, that's as sad as it sounds. Strengths: physical; Physical strength? Astrid's strongest point. She's shown to be incredibly capable in canon - of all the dragon trainees, Astrid can generally carry the most or pick up the heaviest weapons/manage not to fumble her weapon and shield, and shows herself to have really incredible reflexes in comparison to the rest, even when the comparison is between Astrid and the decidedly more muscular-looking Snotlout. She's a favourite for the best dragon fighter in the first movie before Hiccup cheats his way through with brains and weak-limbed actions, and this in no way changes as time goes on. She's easily the second-best rider in Berk (...although the competition is not exactly stiff). Astrid is good with fighting, good with carrying, and all-around good with anything involving her body, because she's comfortable in her own skin and prefers physical resolutions to anything else. That's not to say she immediately jumps to a violent resolution (...these days. ...mostly. ...if Hiccup offers an alternative fast enough.) but she has herself admitted to being more of an "old-fashioned take it down with an axe and then lop its head off kind of girl". mental; Astrid flips between Only Sane Man and reckless viking lass depending on whether or not Hiccup has the sanity ball or threw it at her (or if he's moping, when she also typically wins back the straight man ball), although she does default to Reckless Viking Lass more often than not. Either way, she's almost always seen as one of the more mentally-talented vikings of Berk, albeit in a different way than the protagonist of the series. She's not an inventive genius like Hiccp, no, but she does tend to present herself as a smart cookie (and can usually be found snarking or side-eyeing at her viking compatriots when they do something she deems especially idiotic). It's more that Astrid generally picks up on things quickly (in Riders of Berk, she was the only viking of the academy gang to realize Hiccup had given their group an acronym that spelled DUMB) and is good for a strategy in battle. She's also one of two of the kids who'd bothered to read through the Book of Dragons before their training ever started, the other being Fishlegs. She's shown herself to have an avid interest in Hiccup's work with dragons post-first movie, and has even displayed a willingness to think up things outside the norm herself with...less than stellar results, shall we say. emotional; Beyond keeping her head in battle for the most part no matter how furious she gets - Hiccup is basically the exception to the rule in the first movie, or rather it pisses her off when she realizes he's cheating at dragon training somehow and then when she finds out what is going on, but after that flare-up Astrid is a steady(ish) sort of person for Hiccup to bounce his worries off of - Astrid really doesn't have a lot of emotional strengths. In her view emotional strengths equal locking her emotions down tight rather than letting them get in the way or letting them strengthen her. She's not the sort of person who relies on her emotions at all, because vikings don't do that shit. She does attempt to give advice when needed and to offer encouragement (this is hit or miss; sometimes her brisk, gruff sentiments are enough to give her friends a kick in the right direction, and sometimes it's just a matter of why would you even say that obviously that makes it worse). She is marginally better at doing Sensitive Astrid with Stormfly and Hiccup than she is with other people, but that's not saying all that much. At least she tries? Weaknesses: physical; As physical stuff is Astrid's biggest strength, she has fewer weaknesses in this particular section (...with a lot of weaknesses in the other two). While she's tough and pretty strong, Astrid has no superhuman powers or abilities, and is only as strong and fast as a well-trained viking girl of fifteen years old could be. Also? She falls off of her dragon in fights a lot. Granted, she normally lands on her feet and comes up fighting, but goddamn girl learn to stay on your dragon. mental; Stubborn as all hell. It's a viking thing, okay? Astrid has gotten better about being open-minded as time has gone on - Hiccup is a good influence on her! Except when he's a bad influence and makes her think that new ideas are good and therefore she should come up with some, because no, no, no she should never bee allowed to invent any sort of idea ever apparently because it ends in bad tasting drinks and/or explosions - but while she's gotten more open-minded she still falls into old patterns of thinking and acting. She's more willing to let Hiccup challenge her ideas than she is anyone else, probably because he's been proven right so often. Snotlout, Fishlegs, Roughtnut, and Toughnut, though? Astrid gets uptight and huffy if her other friends even suggest she's wrong about something, or if they try to argue her out of something. This goes double for people she doesn't know, although she...tries to keep an open mind. She does. It's just hard sometimes, okay? emotional; Emotions are not Astrid's strong point. They are actually not really the strong point of any viking (Hiccup is legitimately their most sensitive member). She doesn't like admitting to having "weak" emotions, and actually isn't that great about talking about them. Every single time she's shown affection towards Hiccup in canon, it generally has to do with hauling him over for a kiss rather than discussing anything that might be going on, and having a talk about feelings is pretty much Astrid's worst nightmare. Seriously, can she just go attack something with her axe instead? That's much more her speed. She's most comfortable showing that sort of thing to her own dragon rather than any of her viking compatriots, although she does also tend to be more comfortable about that sort of thing with Hiccup, who trips less of her "we are viking, we are strong" reflexes and who fills a position that allows her to show him affection. When she is affectionate it tends to be physical and she doesn't tend to talk about it too much, which probably makes her harder to read than she actually intends to be. Samples First Person: voice post; [ It's been about a day and a half since Astrid woke up here, and she's pretty certain she has enough information to actually make a move. ...And if she doesn't, well, screw it because she's not sticking around in the woods in a flimsy white dress reading from a magical book for any longer than she has been. The book talks and writes and shows pictures (that one had nearly knocked her out of the tree she's taken up residence in for the moment) and Astrid's pretty certain she can figure out how to make it work in her favour. She's just not sure exactly what the hell is going on, even after reading or listening to the most recent things available to her. There's talk about "Luceti" and "New Feathers" and also "Halloween" and overall she's given up deciphering the meaning of the magical words in the magical book and is going to take a leap of faith and just...ask. Admittedly she's been spending a lot of time just working up the nerve to use the mystery magical book, but, well, what other options are there? She's far enough out in the woods that wandering off would probably end badly. ] Hello? Is this thing working? How are you supposed to be able to tell? [ Magical books are pretty new to her. There's a frustrated little sigh. Following the sigh is muttering, meant to be under her breath but still audible, because controlling her voice is the least of Astrid's worries. ] This is the sort of thing Hiccup or Fishlegs would like, not me. I don't even know if this is actually something that works or if I've officially lost it. Next thing you know I'll be thinking I'm a dragon, living on the edges of town hunting sheep. That's always assuming I have officially lost it, which would explain a lot more than being sane would. I'm sitting in a tree with a makeshift spear. That's probably not the best sign for sanity. Unless you can't find your axe, in which case making a spear is pretty sane a choice. I mean, it'd be less sane to sit in a tree without any sort of weapon, right? Why am I even talking to myself about this? This is ridiculous. How does this ever help him? ...Whatever, if it isn't working or real, I guess I'll figure it out in a minute or two. [ Raising her voice again. ] My name is Astrid Hofferson. I'd appreciate any directions you could give me to... [ distinct hesitation. She's...not totally sure what's happening still, but she's pretty certain "Berk" is out of the question for just now, and so she'll shelve that until she has enough on her side to worry about it. ] ...Whatever village is nearest, I guess. Third Person: Before Astrid was even fully awake she was reaching for her axe. It was pure reflex. She never felt decent until she had a weapon on her person or in her hands, and beyond that alarms were going off inside her head. Something wasn't right. This wasn't her bed, although the hard ground didn't feel too different from the slab she slept on. And while Astrid frequently left the window open for Stormfly to peer in, it was too cold even for that. And her hand was closing on empty air. That was enough to throw her entirely into wakefulness, and even then Astrid couldn't make immediate sense of her circumstances. A forest, yes, but not the one in Berk. Astrid knew those woods, and these weren't them. And the weather - the snow should still be on the ground, but there was only frost here, a prelude to winter. A prelude to a weaker winter than she'd ever known, if Astrid was any judge. What are your assets? Just like any battle. What do you have to your name? The mental tally wasn't promising. A white dress she'd never seen, flimsy and useless as armour or as...well, clothing. Her hair band, at least, was there - but also fairly useless for anything but keeping her hair out of the way, unless she somehow got close enough to strangle someone with it, and that just sounded all around like a bad idea. An ache on her back that, upon further examination, made Astrid still and force herself to count her breaths until she calmed down enough to continue on (she tugged on one, gently, and the pain was enough to confirm that was a horrible idea, so...ignoring the insane possibility that the things that were on her back were what she thought they were). What looked like a journal - she'd never seen this particular book before, though - on the outside but...more not-that on the inside (except also that, somehow). So...what do you do first? Find something to use as a weapon. Scout the area. Examine the weird book. Right. It's a plan of action, and it's easier to commit to that than it is to spend time thinking about everything the plan couldn't possibly cover. Astrid glanced around, steeled herself, and got a move on. There would be time for freaking out later. Preferably when her circumstances were less apparently dire.