#7 and 8 years btw...

[shifterin]

having nearly a decade long slowburn in both of my drs and we're still not even officially together at the time of when i shift... you can never accuse me of not being a yearner through and through

[shopwitchvamp]

Witch Vamp is MARRIED

It's official, as of 7/28/24 Witch Vamp's business partners @jessdean & @themikeydeano are also partners for life 😎

[ray935sworld]

Was thinking about what retired motogp riders might do with all their time and I genuinely believe that Casey is working a normal every day job as a mechanic or smth like that in the back of some Australian motorbike workshop where he just happily repairs bikes and occasionally gossips with the customers

[howtodrawyourdragon]

The Post In Which I Deduce How Old Baby Hiccup Was When Valka Disappeared

You know, in order to write this Httyd Retelling, I have to do some preparing. I have to collect plot points for future storylines, keep certain canonical facts in mind and take a closer look at certain scenes.

Like the flashback scene in which Valka gets taken, for example. Because that'll be a vital scene for the prequel-type fic that I'm currently working on.

And I don't think I've ever realized how truly young Hiccup was when his mother was stolen from him. And I'm not talking about how he was a baby, because that fact is obvious.

I'm talking about how it's possible he was barely 6 months old.

And there are a couple of things about the flashback that point to this.

When Cloudjumper finds Hiccup and appears to play with him, I notice that Hiccup is:

Laughing

Grabbing Cloudjumper's wing talon

Clapping once (which could be a fluke as he is waving his hands around wildly)

Appears stimulated by Cloudjumper's attention and actively seeks interaction

Now, the laughter I won't waste much time on because I don't really see it as an indicator. On average, it starts as early as 4 months, but in my experience that highly depends on the child. I've seen a 3 month old laugh, I've seen kids not start laughing until they were almost 1.

Points 2 through 4, though, are much more interesting as what Hiccup is exhibiting is actually not "true" play, but rather hints that Hiccup is still actively learning to interact with the world around him. This may seem strange for people who don't interact with babies and toddlers on a daily basis, but children actually have to learn to play and this starts by interacting with the world around them.

Putting a variety of things in their mouths, sucking on things, grabbing things (like Cloudjumper's talon), shaking things, etc. This is usually how a baby between ages of 4 to 6 months old begins to learn how to play.

You can try to offer toys to a 3 month old, but chances are they won't do anything with it or even react much too the toy at all. Older than 6 months old, it's possible you can see them actively pick what interests them to inspect rather than simply put whatever they've been giving in their mouths.

In my personal experience, it's not until around 4 months old when babies start to show interest in the things around them. (Which doesn't mean you shouldn't try to stimulate your child by at least offering a toy before that time, we do.)

Something else of note in this scene is:

Hiccup can't sit up

No teeth

Hiccup simply lying there swaddled in a cradle is actually a big indicator that, not only is he not sitting up yet, but he doesn't appear capable of rolling over.

And if you think "Oh! but that's because he's swaddled in furs!" Wrong! Babies of any age are surprisingly determined. If a baby wants to roll over, they will fidget their way out of the swaddle and roll over. In no good conscience would Valka or Stoick leave Hiccup in a cradle unattended if this child showed signs of rolling over.

Now babies can start rolling over as soon as 4 months. (If you know what that looks like, it's quite an endeavor, takes a lot of manuevering, which the previous unattended Hiccup didn't appear to be doing)

And I know you may be thinking; "doesn't that mean Hiccup is younger than 4 months in the flashback?" I don't think so simply because of how he reacts to Cloudjumper, whose attention and stimulation he actively seeks out. Rather, I actually think Hiccup is a little bit of a late bloomer physically.

He was canonically born prematuraly, to the point that his mother feared he wouldn't make it. And often when a child is a late bloomer physically, they actually usually end up ahead of the other kids in other areas. Like mentally, verbally, or with their finer motor skills.

In my experience, children who can walk by the time their first birthday comes along, take longer to even begin to start talking. (which takes the form of making sounds. Not forming words, but voluntarily making sounds)

Meanwhile kids who are barely crawling by their first birthday are usually already showing signs of forming words (usually done by trying to repeat sounds they hear others in their life say) and verbally responding back to the people in their life (though through sounds and not actual words)

Being late in his gross motor skills while actually excelling in his finer motor skills and speech seems in line with the Hiccup we know and love. Even between the ages of 15 and 18, he still appears to be a bit of a late bloomer. The example I'm thinking of is how he can work years in a forge, yet struggle to pick up a single weapon versus to 3 years later when he's a swordsman himself and picks weapons up with no problem now.

That brings me to the lack of teeth.

On average, babies will begin to teeth between the 4 and 7 months old. From my personal experience, it tends to start much closer to 7 months than the minimum 4 month mark. I've even looked after plenty of children who didn't start to teeth well beyond the 7th month mark. (even had one who didn't start teeth until they were almost 1 and then suddenly got multiple teeth in at once.) Hiccup has no teeth.

So lets line all of the evidence up.

In the flashback, Hiccup:

Actively seeks interaction with Cloudjumper

Actively interacts with the world around him, but doesn't know play yet.

Responds positively to Cloudjumper's stimulation

Doesn't yet appear to even try to roll over

Has no teeth

And all of these points point to the very likely scenario that Hiccup was only 4 to 5 months old when he and Stoick lost Valka.

4 to 5 months old.

That's hella young to be losing your mother, a terrible time to lose your wife and mother of your very young child and, honestly, a terrible time for a mother to have her abduction be preceded by watching her premature son and her husband almost die due to her lack of actions.

I realize that I'm ending this post with a hot take, maybe even an unpopular opinion, but as it already takes months for a parent who gave birth to feel somewhat normal again even without breastfeeding their child... No wonder Valka, in this highly sensitive and vulnerable time, internalized that both Stoick and Hiccup would've been better off without her.

Valka, who:

Was still on month 4 after her pregnancy, meaning her hormones would've still been all over the place

Had to breastfeed with a lack of better options at the time, meaning it would remain that way for quite a bit

Had a traumatic labor that involved nearly losing her son

Her son who was born much too early, which would come with complications (right down to getting him to eat at all, for example)

Almost watched Hiccup and Stoick die in a fire right before she got abducted by a dragon, which would've meant hours if not days or weeks of believing she was going to get eaten

Doesn't mean she just gets to stay away for 20 whole years, but it definitely puts a different perspective on her sudden departure from Hiccup's life.

Everyone in the Haddock family was hurt that day. Though, the biggest victim of all was that literal 4 month old boy.

Video from SoloMinike-Movies & Shows scenes HD for reference.

[pufftheninja]

Drew Pirate Leona for my sis and made him a sticker for Christmas (was originally for Halloween, but I couldn't finish it in time).

Merry Christmas, @thatlioninthecorner! 🎄💜🩵

Now I just gotta make a sticker for my man Malleus from my sketch earlier this year 🥰💚💜 Oh, and here's a silly bonus doodle.

[jackabbot]

story of his life

[dracomusic325]

That moment when Runt from JRWI Wonderlust suddenly becomes way too relatable and it causes you to remember something that happened to you 7 or 8 years ago-

Context under cut, tw/cw for bullying, manipulation, and a toxic relationship if you want to know the context

This was something that happened in 6th grade, which was obviously a long time ago for me now, but that scene with Runt yelling at WD for lying made me remember this moment that I had nearly forgotten about. Again, this happened a while ago, so bear with me because I may not remember all the details.

There was this boy I had been friends with since elementary school, his name was Nic. He was in my last two classes of the day in 6th grade, which were history and math. In my history class, he treated me like a friend, because I was his friend, and for some time in my math class, he treated me like a friend then too.

However, my math teacher switched up the seating arrangements and had me sit next to a girl, with Nic and another boy behind me. The girl and the boy didn't treat me very well. They were both bullies to me and would say horrible things about me whenever they got the chance. And Nic joined them. He was suddenly not my friend anymore, but also still was at the same time.

That shit hurt, especially since I hadn't done anything to anyone. The biggest thing that the girl and boy would tell me is that my breath smells or I smell in general. And that hurt, because no matter how hard I tried, it was never enough to get them to stop and I felt trapped. I don't remember if I ended up moving seats to get away from them or if I put up with it until the teacher changed the seating chart again.

It was genuinely the most confusing experience for me because outside of math class, Nic was still my childhood friend, until we stepped foot in math class. It was so frustrating and confusing and to this day, I still don't understand why he did that to me. I haven't spoken to him or seen him since high school, and I didn't really talk to him during high school either. But yeah.

God, middle school was such a shitty time for me.

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Btw, still on that dance episode of Frasier, snickering because I went "I find it hard to believe that Niles wouldn't know how to dance at least a waltz. What did they do at his own wedding, otherwise? Surely, even if Maris never dances, you are expected to dance with other people during the evening at these society ballrooms" and then I suddenly remembered that my only frame of reference for this is... Austen's novels and that I definitely have absolutely no idea what was or wasn't done at those shindigs in the late 80s and 90s.

[still-gathering-roses]

should i take the time as a personal project to painstakingly transfer the hundreds of fics i have bookmarked on my browser over to my ao3 account bookmarks or is that insane person behavior

[bsideheart]

funniest part of grian's hermitcraft 10 to Me is the group launching etho into the stratosphere with fishing rods. nothing will top that

[chipeanuts]

After a month of hyperfixation, I have finally come to the conclusion that Majimako is, and will always be, one of my favourite ship of all time at this point. Thanks for coming to my ted talk stay tuned for more 🤓✌️

[frogofalltime]

is it an autism thing to like. be unable to resist making certain noises automatically every time you hear them ? last night i was watching godzilla with robin (@etherealspacejelly) and it was driving them insane every time i echoed sounds like the train going BLAAAAAARM or the monsters going RAAAAA or certain words that characters kept saying like muto and emp. it was entirely subconscious lmao. i really couldnt help it. and its funny because robin was also doing a similar thing where whenever the main characters name was mentioned he would say FORD in an advertisement voice, or every time there was foreshadowing it would quote hbomberguy. is this the tism or are humans just weird like that

[dan-crimes]

LMAO so funny thing is everyone knows the whole Sonic and Shadow looking alike thing is total bullshit and I totally agree those comments they try to pull in the games and show(s? I'm not technically a Sonic fan I dunno if it's multiple) make basically no sense to me but then my Mom comes in while watching Sonic Prime and says "So what, Sonic has a brother or something?" and this whole other world has opened up to me and I've seen the truth of it all

[britneyshakespeare]

Nothing I love more than having a little tea w the office ladies

[hoooshiiiii]

TW: Rant

Anyone ever wanna do things you’re passionate about but then see other people doing them and start sobbing because you realize everyone who does this thing is already with other people who do this thing and you can’t find groups to join? No? Just me?

[pluggedintosaverockandroll]

i need to resit 4 exams i can live with that