bluandorange:

spacehelmetforacow:

Astrid’s back is covered in burn scars from when she threw herself between Mama Death’s flames and the twins. She barely survived her journey to Corona and is basically just skin and bones. On top of this she doesn’t speak the language and their system of money is foreign to her. Berk didn’t really have money. The community was basically a giant family, so they shared amongst themselves. She starts to steal just to survive.

She suffers from pretty severe PTSD and barely sleeps for nightmares. Even after Astrid learns the language, she doesn’t really talk or try to connect to anyone. She’s basically entirely closed off emotionally. Unlike Flynn, she’s greatly respected within the unlawful community, and since she won’t talk they take to calling her “The Hollow-Eyed Warrior” because dammit I like stupid titles like that.

The stealing-to-survive thing goes on until she’s about 18, which is when she starts to be able to think outside her trauma some. She realizes that (however unlikely) there’s a chance the elders and children left behind in the village are still alive, and resolves to get enough money together to try and find Berk again.

At this point she recruits the Stabbington brothers, ostensibly to help steal the crown. In actuality, she’s going to loot the castle for goods that are easier to convert into cash and leave the crown with the brothers to pin the theft on them. Unfortunately, she’s spotted by a guard as she’s leaving the castle and has to run past the brothers without making the handover. They’re still arrested because it’s pretty obvious they were involved, but some guards also pursue Astrid.

She goes through the forest to loose them and stumbles onto Rapunzel’s tower. She’s pretty exhausted and gets sloppy, hence why the knocking-her-out-with-a-frying-pan works. She wakes up tied to the chair and when Rapunzel comes out from the shadows, something about her mannerisms instantly reminds Astrid of Hiccup. She partly agrees to help Rapunzel because of this similarity, but mostly at this point because she needs her loot back if she ever wants to find Berk.

And then we skip ahead to a scene later in the story, because I haven’t got things figured out in chronological order. Just after Astrid finds out about Rapunzel’s hair being able to heal things, Rapunzel finds out about the scars on Astrid’s back. She offers to heal them, but Astrid declines. She feels like the scars are the only reminder she has left of home. I need to flesh the conversation out in my head more, but it eventually comes around to Rapunzel thinking her only worth is in her hair, and for the first time in her life she is validated as an individual when Astrid tells her that she more than just some magic hair. That’s going to be an important part of the set-up for Rapunzel deciding to cut her own hair toward the end of the story (the story which will likely only exist in my head).

That’s the end of my ramblings for now, hurrah.

yes please thank you may I have another

._. Yes please