User blog:DreamingOfDragons72x2/STORY PROBLEM, HELP ME!

So you people know I'm writing a book loosely based on HTTYD. Like the movie, the hero (who is still a hiccup) gets a super-rare dragon as a secret friend. Originally it was going to be a Mystery/Strike dragon, but then I changed some of the early bits and it now would make a lot more sense if the hero's friend was - yes, a Mystery dragon, but - not Boulder, Fear, Sharp...or Strike. Also the Mystery dragons theoretically still follow the same rules for size as their non-Mystery counterparts, and I don't want this hiccup to have the biggest or the smallest dragons (the one he'd never be able to hide, the other just takes a potshot at his own size). The list is narrowed down further by clearing out all the spike-specific, venom-specific, and both armor-specific species. That leaves two breeds for two different dragons.

The problem is, I CAN'T DECIDE!

What makes this problem especially hard is that the Mystery/Stokers and Mystery/Tidals are the two hardest to design. All the others are partly sorted out, but I have no baseline to start with for these two besides their obvious skills. I want the hiccup to get the most awesome creature, but I don't know which that would be. My sister doesn't care, so I figure I will ask my readers to get in on the game. Please, please, please leave comments about this! Voting will last until September 1st.

The Mystery dragon stats can be described two ways: double-strength and double-weakness. The thing about double-weakness, though, is that they combine their dire weaknesses to make a kind of ultimate strength. Alternately, double-strength has those strengths coming together to form a weakness - although it's no worse than a normal weakness, interestingly enough.

First two choices: Tropical Changewings. The Mystery version of my slowest Tidal is double-weakness - not only does it have almost no speed, but it's missing in some other area. For these particular two, the simplest description is their resistance to temperatures: one hates temperatures way over 50-C, and the other hates temperatures way under 50-C. Aside from that, both have sixty tail spikes, six breath shots, and armor rating 12 out of 20.

Pro for both: easy to hide. Changewing, after all - they're masters of disappearing. If the hiccup had one of these two, there would be absolutely no worrying about discovery.

Con for both: not really any light show. Since they can't light their breath, and their tail spikes are dull, and they're slow, they're not all that exciting to watch when they actually want to be seen.

For individual breeds, the cold-hater would be more inconvenient especially in winter, but that might be the one he has better odds of finding - he first meets his dragon at a place that is near a hot spring.

Next two choices are Freezing and Vulkan versions of the high-speed Stokers. These two are double-strength; fastest dragon, with an extra strength. Both have forty tail spikes, four breath shots, and armor rating 8 out of 20, but one is practically immune to freezing temperatures while the other is practically immune to boiling ones.

Pro for both: wild ride. These things have a ton of speed, and they enjoy flying in thunderstorms just so they can catch lightning on their tail spikes - and since ignition's not a problem for them, they have quite the light show.

Con for both: hard to hide. Both are really, more than anything else, hot pink - and camoflauge is as nearly impossible for them as becoming visible is for the Changewing-esque buddy up there.

For individual breeds...the Freezing version would be more convenient, but again, the other one might be what he'd have better luck of finding (actually, it's more like it finds him: it basically hears him singing and comes to listen).

Suggestions, opinions, votes...start with the class if you have to, that has more obvious points to worry about, but please help me out! The hiccup hasn't yet done anything with his forbidden buddy that would warrant a guess one way or the other, but it's only a matter of time before I will need to make that distinction!