Fic Update Thread 54: Find a spot out on the floor!

[Mamorien]

A Thing of Vikings (HTTYD/Disney's Mulan/the 11th century): Bridges and Supports.

In the end, it is fair to say that the dragons shaped Berk’s culture well before the Hooligans learned to partner with and ride them. From the birth rate dysfunctions that made every child born on Berk precious and worthy of investment and cultivation, to regular raiding that forced the creation of a highly communal social structure that focused on mutual support of all members to keep them capable of functioning, to the regular damage on their buildings that cultivated a fixation on investment into housing and infrastructure, and most famously, how the demand for loyal members of the tribe led to both a flattening of social hierarchies and the rabid opposition towards thralldom.

The irony is that many of these cultural elements ended up being adopted by the component cultures of first the Kingdom of Berk and later the North Sea Empire in general, as subsequent events helped push circumstances that were broadly similar, if vastly different in scale, to the conditions back during Berk’s tribal days. Instead of regular damage to their infrastructure from raiding, warfare and the accepting of refugees helped bring about a widespread building boom across Berk’s territory—to this day, it is still a point of pride in many Eirish cities that they have emergency housing standing by in case of need. And the birth control methods brought on by proper medicinal use of Deadly Nadder venom reduced birth rates voluntarily over the coming generations…

On Sigurd's estate, Inga tends to her knitting, a new experience for her. On Berk, Trader Johann meets with the party from Zhōngguó and a party of one from Eire. The next day in the chief's King's Hut, Hiccup has his own discussion with the Councilor and her party, albeit interrupted by a Mushu-harried Toothless, while down in London, Stoick's recovery continues. At Castle DunBroch, Hawiz has a request for Elinor. At Good-Cold's nest, Valka wonders how to keep flyers free without enthralling walkers, and whether it's already too late. At John the chandler's hotel on Eigg, Lulach of Alba gets manhandled by a pair of Bogs; the next day, Kerensa and Eleri decide to be helpful at some of the parchment-work he's been avoiding. In the mead-hall over on Berk, Hiccup has parchment-work of his own to handle, but his improved pen design will make it less of a pain, certainly less pain than a certain clanhead is facing. Back at the hotel, Lulach gets even more help thrown at him by Kerensa's mothers, Gwen and Cwen. In Glenfinnan, Hawiz is still having nightmares about Henry the Sinister, but a local boy may be able to help her recover. And we close in the Taifa of Algeciras, where Caliph Viggo Grimborn is juggling secrets with Father Salucci when someone far away throws him a curve-ball...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089.../144555301