#snotlout can canonically sew. he makes them all little costumes

[heliianth]

omg yes wait, yes to the sending hiccup to mainland to learn and help the economic crisis in berk. Like, what if, he actually started the vigilante-ism by chance? he somehow saw toothless in a dragon trafficiking ring (you said dragons were being domesticated) and saved him. He rooms w/ his cousin snotlout and has to hide toothless in ridiculous places while he tries to find ways to fix his tail and figure out what's going on with that massive underground group hunting for (especially rare) dragons, somehow gets the whole Gang roped into trouble

wait omg i love this.. :( hiccup smuggling toothless into places is such a funny image considering hes a huge fire breathing reptile w a 45 ft wingspan. the twins find out first (bc tuffnut smokes weed w snotlout sometimes), astrid finds out second, fishlegs finds out thru astrid, and snotlout somehow gets made aware Last that there is a night fury in his house . astrid just finds out bc she got forced into a group project w hiccup and like in the og movie shes a little bruiser and toothless is like MY TINY HUMAN?!?!?!?!?!? YOU HIT MY TINY HUMAN? (u said dragon trafficking and my brain immediately went to dragon fights ran by the dragon hunters in that stryke out rtte episode. maybe hiccup gets made aware of it bc hes curious of the rumors that theres a night fury going in, maybe theres a news story of one getting shot down, not rlly expecting to empathize as much as he did, and then is like well . im already a criminal. whats getting into trouble w the black market as well. anyway what im saying is that toothless is the same degree of ride or die)

i like to think astrid in particular is already familiar with stormfly but just never considered her a friend before hiccup and toothless started doing their thing. fishlegs and snotlout rescue meatlug and hookfang from the same dragon hunting organization. barf and belch appear one day and the twins refuse to explain

omfg . STOICK finds out abt toothless bc hiccup gets arrested and one of his charges is having a fake dragon flying license as well as harboring an exotic animal . spitelout is calls him up like "hey bro.. your son needs bail money. im not paying for that shit" this is the first time stoicks heard from hiccup in like three months (he does not answer texts and doesnt believe in phone calls) and he almost dies on impact

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hi! I've read many of your posts and they're awesome! Think of this one! If the Dragon Riders were in a Modern AU what would be their hobbies? What kind of animals will their dragons be?

Thank you so much!

There have been lots of different interesting modern AUs whereby the dragons have become cats, dogs, or even horses. There’s some good appeal to each idea. Personally, I wouldn’t mind making the dragons based upon the creatures they were designed from; so, Toothless would be a cat, Stormfly a bird, Meatlug a dog, and... I guess Barf and Belch would be a snake and Hookfang a lizard or something.

Now for hobbies...

Hiccup

Hiccup is the inventive powerhouse of Berk. In a modern AU, Hiccup would likely be just as revolutionary - and the area where our greatest technological development is currently... is computers. I can easily imagine Hiccup as someone who constantly fiddles around with both computer hardware and software. He’s built his own machines. He knows how to program in multiple languages. I like to imagine modern!Hiccup as a techie who spends a lot of his hobby free time playing around with computers.

If we want, we could also suggest that Hiccup has other hobbies in other areas of invention and creating. Maybe Hiccup is decent at fixing cars, too, or at the very least knows the basics. Maybe he’s taken a woodworking class in high school. His high school physics projects were possibly a little over the top. If Hiccup enters any club at his high school, it’s the robotics club.

Another significant area of hobbies for Hiccup is going to be the arts. Hiccup is canonically a talented artist in the DreamWorks franchise. There’s no reason why Hiccup wouldn’t enjoy sketching and drawing in the modern world, too. His preferred art style is probably realism, with an emphasis of making the image more photorealistic as versus developing a recognizable artistic style. He’s probably drawn a lot on paper, but given as he loves the latest technology, does a bit with digital art, too.

I don’t think Hiccup would have gotten into sports. Stoick might have tried to put his kid into a few sports when he was younger, and maybe Hiccup tried some other sports on his own volition in the desperate attempt to appear “cool.” No success. Hiccup would not be an athlete growing up. The one potential area of exception is equestrian sports. Even if I do like Toothless as a cat best, there’s still something fun to be said about Hiccup having an ability to ride an animal extremely well in a modern AU. Hiccup could be quite talented riding horses, capable of competing in every event from jumping to dressage.

Astrid

Astrid, unlike Hiccup, is an accomplished athlete. She tried soccer/football at a young age and was pretty good at it. She stuck with it for a number of years until she switched to rugby. On top of that, Astrid has trained as a gymnast since she was very young, and also tried her hand at several martial arts. Even for sports she has not officially competed in, she still manages to perform impressively. She steals the day for informal volley ball matches she has with friends, and everyone wants her on their team for ultimate frisbee. Heck, she’s probably wrestled some of her friends to the ground on random occasions, too.

Astrid spends so much time on her academics and competitive sports that she doesn’t have too many hobbies outside of these. She’s never had the time and attention to develop her cooking skills, though on the rare occasion she tries to make eggnog, everyone in the family runs frantically away.

Snotlout

Snotlout in the DreamWorks franchise seems to be accomplished with the needle. Maybe this translates to a modern world, too; Snotlout actually knows how to cross-stitch and work a sewing machine and knit scarves (which he always claims are made by his aunt, not him).

Snotlout also mentions working out in the first HTTYD movie. I bet Snotlout loves going to the gym to lift weights and tone his hot body several times a week. He’s probably not that talented at actual team sports (despite trying to sign up and show off on a few of the most popular sports), but he can make up for his embarrassing year of football by lifting impressively at the gym. Well, he thinks it’s impressive, anyway. And it’s not bad. Though... Astrid can outlift him.

Fishlegs

DreamWorks’ biggest nerd will be a nerd in the modern world, too. To be honest, Fishlegs’ hobbies are really easy for me to imagine!

Fishlegs plays Magic: The Gathering and has even been to a few local tournaments. He knows all the ins-and-outs of the game, the most expensive cards, the best tactics, you name it. You get him started talking about MTG... and he won’t shut up for another few hours. He’s also a huge video game lover and can be seen on the PC or console several hours a day. Especially, he’s obsessed with League of Legends.

Fishlegs enjoys watching nerd culture movies and knows a decent amount of comic book material. He’ll watch superhero movies and get into debates about which hero would beat who in what sort of competition. You’ll find him at the occasional local comic or sci-fi convention. Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Teen Titans... he’s enjoyed them all.

In high school, Fishlegs enjoyed a few academic competitions, especially in the sciences. I am sure he’s participated in both Science Bowl and Science Olympiad. He’s probably gotten a few medals from Science Olympiad at both the regionals and state level... maybe even making it to the national competition.

It’s also fairly easy for me to see Fishlegs as a band geek and/or orch dork.

Tuffnut

Tuffnut also seems to know a bit about needlework given comments in RTTE. He also seems to like interior decorating and other such things. Perhaps in the modern world Tuffnut has a good eye for fabric and tailorsmanship, too. I’m going to suggest this not so much because it’s in his character but because it’s amusing to consider: but Tuffnut making cosplay. That could be entertaining. Or maybe it’s just unusually elaborate Halloween costumes? It’s a holiday he and Ruffnut get a little too engrossed in.

I don’t imagine Tuffnut being involved in too many activities, especially not formal clubs or extracurriculars. However, there’s one exception: theatre. Tuffnut adores theatre, and I’m sure he’s auditioned for a few roles at his local high school. Even when it’s just English class and the teacher assigns the students into groups to act out a Shakespeare scene, Tuffnut gets... overdramatic and involved.

It’s not exactly a “hobby” but I’m sure that Ruffnut and Tuffnut spent many hours together enacting pranks at school.

If Tuffnut got involved in a sport, it’d be figure skating. He’d go for the figure skating; Ruffnut would go for the hockey.

Ruffnut

Like Astrid, I could also imagine Ruffnut as a rugby player. Ruffnut is fierce, downright fierce, at the sport. There’s no fear. There are times that Ruffnut gets irritated and jealous that her teammate Astrid receives a lot of the credit - Astrid is a bit more popular than Ruffnut - but Ruff’s coach is fully aware of how bold and dedicated a player the Thorston twin is.

When Ruffnut enters college, she finds herself participating in some extreme experiences. She’s gone bungee jumping and skydiving multiple times and has greatly enjoyed both experiences.