#english has similar expressions too of course everyone says 'oh my god' and 'holy shit' and 'jesus christ'

[vilevampire]

Hey, you like Raimundo along with Jack, right? And you're Brazilian. Feel free not to answer this if you don't wanna okay. I just thought you'd be best suited. Like when you commented on the "Rai" nickname.

I'm wondering if you perhaps have any thoughts or headcanons on him, family, hobbies, his inner thoughts, cause I wanna flesh him out for my fic and stuff. I'll give you credit for the ideas of course

even though I'm not that active in the xs fandom currently you've surprisingly come to the right person bc I've rambled a bit about raimundo hcs before to my friends. I had to dig up some discord messages to find all my hcs

I hc raimundo to be white-passing and mixed race, which is like the majority of brazilian ppl tbh. side note: in brazil "race" is defined almost solely by skin color, so like if I left my country it's possible I'd be considered a person of color because of my features, but in brazil I'm considered white. raimundo would be in a similar situation

so in these discord messages past!lucas has said "the only mentions of his background is that he has 8 siblings with a lots of aunts and uncles" and "he mentions that the 'rough' part of rio is his 'element'". now, I, lucas of the present, barely rmr this bc it's been forever ago since I watched xs, but I'm trusting past!lucas on this I think he would never lie to me. based on that I'm a fan of the theory raimundo is an orphan and grew up as part of the lower class. I don't think I ever theorized what the fuck happened to his parents, but I like the idea of him acquiring abandonment issues because of it. since he grew up poor I think he'd also have a lot of survival skills, knowing how to make due with very little, etc.

I actually just thought abt this but it's very uncommon for latino people to only have two names. I myself have four, bc the family names just keep adding on top of each other when u marry instead of being absorbed into the husband's name. so realistically raimundo would probably has at least one other family name

not exactly a hc but something interesting to note about mundo is that he is a good example of something we call a "malandro" in brazil. a malandro is a brazilian concept of a cunning anti-hero who outsmarts, deceives and takes advantage of others, usually for personal gain. describing it like this makes it sound like a bad word, but it has a positive connotation. like culturally being malandro is considered a good thing. we even have a saying that goes like "every day a malandro (in this case a scammer) and a sucker (in this case the one who gets scammed) leave their houses.", implying that if you're not the one taking advantage of others, you're the one being taken advantage of. I don't think this was intentional on the xs writers' part to make raimundo embody these traits so perfectly that r culturally significant to brazil but and I find it interesting.

similar thing to above we also have something called "gambiarra", which is like achieving something through improvised means instead of the "correct" (and usually more expensive) way. also very important to brazilian culture and I think raimundo would be adept in it

[sugoi-writes]

FUCK. I WROTE PART NINE AND HAD IT ALL READY TO GO AND THEN MY KID GOT HER HANDS ON MY PHONE AND CLOSED THE APP. THANK LUCIFER I HAD THE FIRST HALF SAVED AS A DRAFT BUT STILL. OTL sending this separate because I was paranoid she'd do it again and I would have to write the second part a third time 😭 also realizing I forgot to put my sig at the bottom of Pt.9

..... Annnnd of course, after pressing send I remember that I forgot to rewrite the part where reader chokes Alastor when they cum. just shoot me holy motherfucking shit

At some point I'mma just make these into a full blown PWP fic. It seems like they get longer with each installment 🤣 (I'm sorry btw, I always feel kinda bad whenever I leave long messages in anyone's inbox 😫

AYEEEE WELL YA KNOW WHAT THEY SAY - GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE!! 😘❤️‍🔥

It's a fitting pet name Hunny Pun! You're the queen of puns and you're so so SO sweet like a Honey Bun! is that icing or Alastor's jizz on you??? ... im so sorry i'll see myself out again 😭 CAN'T FIND AND KISS ME IF I FIND AND KISS YOU FIRST BABES~! ❤️❤️❤️

I can't hold on to my anonymity anymore guys so I'mma be making Pt.10 my reveal post~ it's killing me that I can't leave rabid fangirl messages on your works like you all do here for me! I really did wanna wait until I got the Smutmus Holy Trinity complete or at least in the revision stages but just- GAH! I NEED YALL TO KNOW HOW AMAZING I THINK YOU ARE. Beautiful beautiful minds, inside and out i can't even-!

Seriously though, I can't even begin to express how grateful and happy I am to have met any of you! And there are no words in the English dictionary (or any at all really) that I could use to describe what I feel about how accepting and supportive you've been! I could NEVER thank yall enough for helping me to find the joy in writing again. I love all three of you so much and I'm honored to call you friends!! 🥺🥰💋

- ☄️❤️ Smut Santa

False Alarm for the Next Part!! And honestly, thank God, the vibe is still not charged HAH--

Oh no!!! I'm so sorry that happened to you!! I had a similar experience when writing my part 2 to my Nun! Alastor fic. Fun fact: had to re-write it 5 times because I kept forgetting to save it. ;;_;; hhhh my baby fever is so bad I'm crying, but man, KIDS! What a little stinker 🥹❤️

Also, my ask box is usually super empty? Like, you could LICK the floor with how neat and empty it is? I LOVE messages? Even better if they long like Alastor's girthy fucking co--

We--We were- when we??? ALASTOR GETS--??? MY HANDS AROUND HIS???

*Danny.Exe has experienced an Error*

*Rebooting*

OKAY IM BACK--

☄️❤️Anon... babycakes. At this rate I'm gonna do more than fucking kiss you. I think we're past that now. And if you keep calling me 'Hunny Pun', or similar pet names, I'm just gonna jump your bones--

Hug you!!!! I meant hug you!!!

It's Alastor's jizz. It's canon-- NO DONT LEAVE I NEED TO KNOW HOW I GOT IT ON MY FAAAAAAACE

GUYS CODE TREAT, CODE TREAT, THE ANON VEIL IS DROPPING!!! ITS DROPPING DHDHDJDHDJ-- You will never gain a mutual as fast as you will then I SWEAR

☄️❤️!!! Smut Santaaaaa! 🥹😭❤️ Your mind is a beautiful, smutty, enchanting place!!! Knowing that you've been religiously cranking this out, while also having a kiddo... Seriously, how do you do it??? If anyone deserves the praise rn, 🎵it's you??? It's you, ITS ALWAYS YOU!!🎵 ❤️❤️❤️

Don't push yourself too hard! Please? ❤️ I will treasure these rare, scrumptious little treats for as long as I have brain cells left ❤️ I will call you friend until you tell me to quit or I lose my voice for good. And even then, my lips will keep moving and repeating the same thing until I'm blue in the face. ❤️❤️❤️ you are such a sweet, sweet, soul, and I can feel your vibes, and they are so wholesome! I can't wait to meet the person or sexual fiend behind it all! I feel like I speak for us all, and not just the main 3, but EVERYONE: everyone who has read your posts love you to bits. And they love your work to bits. Best believe when you publish your first work, we'll be there. En masse. And we will be EAGERLY returning the love you surprised us with.

Thank you for all that you do. On this post in particular, you deserve a foot rub, a forehead kiss, and a hug that lifts and spins you off your feet! 💗💗💗

Have a blissful, best of days you can have, dear! You deserve it! 💗

[arigatogatos]

Making the Draenei Language - Part 2

Part 1 | Part 3

First off, thanks to all the people who’ve expressed interest in this project! It makes me super happy that people think what I’m doing is interesting :D

Anyway, last time I went through and got a basic idea of the structure of the language, this time we’re diving into WHAT 👏 THAT👏 MOUTH👏 DO (and also spelling)

... and by that I of course mean phonetics (the study of the sounds produced in speech), phonology (the study of which sounds differentiate meaning) and phonotactics (how sounds are put together).

Phonetics and Phonology

Before we can even consider choosing some sounds for the language lets take a moment to consider those TEEF! 

Taking my main boy Aegagrus (drawn by the wonderful @rurukatt, definitely didn’t put this in here cuz I still love this pic) as a model for my headcanon of Draenei teeth, we can see how those might get in the way of some sounds... but just like, specifically [f] and [v] (sounds in square brackets represent sounds not the letters, to hear what they sound like go here!) Both of those sounds involve making the same shape with your mouth - touching your bottom lip to your top teeth, but when you got some real long or pointy teeth, that might be a little bit hard to do! (or an accident waiting to happen if they’re sharp enough)

There’s only a small problem with this though, we have some canon words that use these sounds e.g “Pheta vi acahaci” - Light give me strength. I’m gonna explain this away by saying that we’re dealing with an approximate transcription using the Latin alphabet and English spelling conventions, which definitely wasn't designed to write down languages outside of well.. ideally Latin. I mean there’s a reason why English spelling is the way it is and one of those reasons comes down to using an alphabet too small for the number of sounds in the language. 

Tangent aside, this means those two sounds are probably something like [ɸ] (again click here to hear these) for f and [β~ʋ] for v. These are sounds similar to [f] and [v] but they don’t involve teeth touching lips, check, and they’re probably what human transcribers misheard as [f] and [v]. 

Going through the other transcriptions in the data and making some guesses as to what they could be, we end up with something like this:

and huh that seems familiar... wait a second!

Yeah that’s just Hebrew without voiced fricatives, affricates or the sound [j] (the ‘y’ sound in English), and a bonus rhotic. I mean that’s probably to be expected as Draenei are heavily coded to be Jewish (a good post on that), so it makes sense that the sounds are also similar. It’s a shame to have such quote-unquote normal sounds (the th sound [θ] in ”thin” and “ether” is only in 4% of the worlds languages!) but that’s what you get when English devs make a game for a western audience, you get... ~~the fantasy accent~~ a.k.a discount slavic/germanic accents. 

By the way [r] is the ‘trilled’ or ‘rolled’ r and [ɾ] is a ‘tapped’ r like in Spanish "por favor”.

Also, as another side note, this sound [ʔ] - the glottal stop is present in English too but you probably don’t recognise that it’s there. It’s the ‘-’ break in between “uh-oh”, and its also present in some dialects of American and British English where the [t] in words like “bottle” (bo’el) and “water” (wa’er) are replaced with the glottal stop.

Anyway, onto vowels! And yet again we come back to the problems of English spellings. English has approximately... too many vowels. In my dialect of Australian Standard English there’s up to 20 different vowel sounds depending on how you count. I mean all things considered we've done pretty well with the 5 vowel symbols we've got but good luck trying to accurately represent all this:

(not to mention the diphthongs) with just a e i o u. Most languages only have ~5 vowels so that’s about what I’m looking for. Taking into consideration all the English wackiness in spelling, we end up with what I think are 7 vowels (the pronunciation examples are definitely not gonna be spot on due to regional differences, learn the IPA its good):

[i] - meat, me, three, e-mail

[ʊ] - (short though) good, should, wood

[ʊ:] - (same as above but long)

[e] - bed, head, red

[ɔ~o] - (somewhere between the vowels in) bought, bot (those of you with the cot-caught merger are having real fun now)

[ɐ] - (this one is really only in Australian English) but, strut, bud

[ɐ:] - (same as above but long) bard, palm, start, hard

The two vowels with long forms are the interesting ones. All throughout the canon text we see ‘aa’ and ‘uu’ popping up again and again in things like “Maraad”, “Sayaad”, “Enkaat”, “Vaard”, “Tuurem” and “Krokuun”. Now this could just be stylistic choices made by the dev team to make the language seem more ~exotic~ but I think that it is definitely a case of phonemic vowel length. That’s where distinctions in words are made by elongating a vowel - something Latin had. But it’s not to be confused with what English calls ‘long vowels’, which are really the leftovers from actual vowel length after everyone in 1500 decided to pronounce every vowel just... completely different for some reason. The Great Vowel Shift is an interesting read). Anyway, it makes these double letters make sense, and is way more interesting than random double vowels. It’s also interesting that it’s not perfectly symmetric either, not all the vowels have this distinction, which is cool and perfectly natural for languages to do! 

What is weird is that  [ɔ~o] doesn’t have this feature, because in our vowel system, it’s almost directly in the middle of our two long/short vowels so it would probably assimilate and end up doing the same thing! So, going off that I’m going to simulate the beginning of language evolution, where the [ɔ~o] sounds is in the process of diverging into [o:] (oar, caught, thought) when it’s followed by ‘r, t, d, k or g’ and [ɔ] (lot, pot) everywhere else.

So, now we have the sounds for our language, how are they used? (dw hardcore conlanging people, I’ve worked out the rest of the allomorphy rules for the consonants but this post is already loooong)

Phonotactics

Phonotactics is largely about how syllables are formed and what sounds are allowed where. In an effort to try and not make the language *too* similar to English I want these rules to differ from English. Luckily, that’d really easy to do because yet again, English is a statistically weird language! 

Syllables are divided into 3 parts - The onset, The nucleus and the Coda. For simplicities sake this corresponds to the consonants before the vowel, the vowel, and the consonants after the vowel. English lets wayyyyy too many consonants on either side ending up with abominations like “strengths” having 3 sounds before the nucleus and 3 after, or crimes against god like “twelfths” with 4 sounds after the coda.

Draenei on the other hand seems to be at most (C)(L)V(C). The brackets mean a sound is optional, C’s being consonants, L being ‘liquids’ like [l] and [r] (and [ʋ]) and V of course being vowels. Now going through the data (plus some creative input) we end up with some rules as to what can go where...

but we’ll leave the details of that for the final documentation and head onto...

Spelling! Everyone’s favourite...

There have been countless forum posts about how to pronounce ‘Draenei’ and even between developers at different panels there doesn't seem to be a consensus. This is probably due to the inconsistent spellings used throughout the lexicon so far - draenei and auchenai rhyme (I think) but they’re spelt with different endings! 

With the language I have a few main goals

- Make it match as closely as reasonable with canon and common interpretations - Have the spelling be consistent (same letters should always produce the same sound) - In line with the first one, keep as much of the spelling the same as possible - Make it as alien as possible within reason (sadly phonetics and phonology will not be the place to do that)

So coming to a word like “Draenei”, I have to break at least one thingon that list. Personally I want it to be pronounced [drɐ.naɪ] (druh-nai). So, to be consistent with the sounds from before it should be spelt ‘Dranai’ but that definitely won’t do, or I could keep the spelling and pronounce it literally [drɐ.e.ne.i] (druh-eh-ne-ey to give a rough guide for that), which is... equally bad. 

The compromise I'm going with is keeping the spelling of Draenei but making the [aɪ] (ai) sound spelt ‘ei’ across the language. Meaning is gonna be Auchenei. Well, not really because there’s still a bunch of other spellings that need standardising.

the ‘ch’ in “Auchenei” is pronounced with a [k], so is the ‘c’ in “Dioniss aca”. Going through and standardising things like ‘ph’ -> ‘f’, ‘ch’ -> ‘k’ or ‘sh’ depending and rewriting vowels to match the phonology we end up with something that preserves most of the identity and look of the language but just makes more sense! Aukenei would then be the spelling I’m using in the lexicon, probably with a little note for the canon spelling.

So, from now on I'm going to be using the reformed spelling TM, which hopefully will mean anyone attempting to speak this language will have an easier time getting what I'm envisioning, cuz everything is now consistant.

That about does it for this post. Yet again if you made it all the way to the bottom, congratulations! Hopefully the next posts will be a bit more interesting (I’m so fucking pumped for how the culture will impact the grammar and vocabulary holy shit) but I gotta get this one out of the way.

Next time, we’ll be doing word-building - the morphology of the language, Thanks for reading!

[megarowlet]

Think Me Beautiful

A Yuri!!! on Ice Fanfiction

Pairing: Viktuuri Summary: Some people's words give them a hint as to who their soulmate is. Some can tell just based on the timing of the words' appearance on their skin. Viktor's soulmate could be anyone around the world who watched his winning Junior World Championships skate broadcast when he was 16. And over a decade later, he still has no idea who they could be. Read at: ffnet / AO3

AU where words appear on your arm saying the first thing your soulmate thinks about you when they see you for the first time. I added a mechanic where the words naturally fade over time but continue to respond to touch: appearing when the owner touches the skin there, disappearing when the soulmate touches it. Because Plot Device™ and also because people like me would never wear short sleeves again if the words were always visible. 

Original Prompt

Translated into Chinese

Viktor was 16 when he received his words. The thrill of competition made him not realize it for a while, but as he got changed out of his costume after winning gold at the Junior World Championships, he noticed a slight itchy feeling on his left arm and found his skin marked by a line of words written neatly in his own handwriting: "Wow, he's amazing. Beautiful." The thoughts of his soulmate seeing him for the first time, written on the soft skin of his forearm.

Viktor didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Finally, he had a soulmate, but that soulmate could be any of millions of skating fans around the world who'd watched his performance. Others' words often served as clues so they could find each other; of course Viktor wouldn't be so lucky.

So he decided to keep the words hidden. Words naturally faded with time, only reappearing when one passed their hand over them, the touch revealing the markings. So Viktor just never touched that part of his arm. Not in his choreography, not for curious reporters, not even in front of inquiring rinkmates. His soulmate could be anyone, so Viktor showed his words to no one.

As he got older, the media speculated. Viktor, have you received your words? Viktor, is there a reason you're hiding your soulmate? Viktor, is the reason you refuse to reveal your words because you don't have a soulmate? Viktor, Viktor, Viktor.

He ignored all of them with a wink and a smile. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I prefer to keep that my own business. It's much more fun that way, isn't it?"

He kept his fans close, flirting indiscriminately. His soulmate would be able to find him, he figured. Surely, they'd come find him. If he interacted with everyone who approached him, aggressively thinking his name at them, eventually one of them was bound to be his soulmate. Right?

A decade passed.

Viktor threw himself into skating to stave off the loneliness. But he was getting old for a competitive figure skater, and no matter how many gold medals he won or how many fans he greeted, he couldn't find his soulmate. Some had approached him, sure, but in the end it was obvious their words were the thoughts of someone who wasn't Viktor.

"I'm thinking of retiring after this season," he told Yakov during warmups before the Grand Prix Finals one year.

Yakov shot him a sharp glare. "You're skating the short program in a little while; keep your mind on your program."

Viktor took a long swig of water and handed the bottle back to Yakov. "I can multitask, you know."

"No you can't. Hurry and finish warming up. And don't think about useless things. We can talk about it once the finals are over."

"Yes, yes," Viktor said, heading back out to the rink. He ran through part of his step sequence, jumped a clean triple loop. He felt the cameras following him, knowing that his every movement, every nuance of his facial expression was being analyzed by announcers around the world. He was, after all, Viktor Nikiforov. And Viktor always put on the perfect show.

A loud yelp came from the wall, and Viktor turned to see one of his competitors land on his butt, his coach on the other side of the wall clearly surprised. The same skater had done a gorgeous step sequence only moments ago while Viktor was taking a drink, and Viktor trained his eye on the skater's jacket to try and recognize who they were. It was his first time seeing a Japanese skater at the Grand Prix in several years. The country had sort of fallen off Viktor's radar for a bit, but he might have to start paying attention again. Good for Japan.

The Japanese skater's coach seemed to be Celestino, who was fussing over him in English. "Yuuri, what happened? Why did you suddenly— Wait, did you just get your words?!"

Now that got the attention of everyone on the rink. The entire group of skaters stopped and turned to stare. Murmurs echoed among the audience who peered curiously to see what was happening on the ice.

Viktor felt a vague pang near his heart as he remembered his own words. Hopefully this skater would be more lucky than Viktor was, though he really didn't envy the way the skater's words appeared so publicly. Viktor was sort of glad it had taken him so long to notice his own; the attention he'd have gotten if such vague words were shown publicly was something he'd worked hard to avoid.

"Congratulations, Yuuri!" Chris called from behind Viktor. Viktor looked at him as he skated by.

"You know him?" he asked.

Chris stopped and turned. "Yeah, Yuuri Katsuki, the top skater from Japan. Really, Viktor, there's a limit to how ignorant you can be of your own competition. A privilege of being the best, I suppose."

"My attentions have been elsewhere his season," Viktor admitted. He'd been absorbed in his own loneliness and self-pity lately as his age crept up on him. It was pathetic, he knew, but so long as he kept winning gold it didn't matter what he spent his free time doing. If he spent his time moping around in his apartment alone with Makkachin, then so be it.

Back with Katsuki, it seemed he'd gotten over his shock somewhat and was talking to the others gathered around him. The auditorium was buzzing with excitement, but a hush came over the crowd as everyone's ears strained to hear the words this skater had received on live television before an international competition.

At the prodding of his coach and the other skaters, in careful English, he read them aloud, face burning: "Haven't seen him around before. Nice step sequence. He's beautiful."

Viktor's heart dropped to his stomach. No. No way. Right? There was no way. Sure, he'd noticed Katsuki a few minutes ago while observing his competitors' warmups and thought pretty much the same thing, but those words could've been thought by anyone. It wasn't him. He wouldn't get his hopes up.

Beside him, he could hear Chris trying to talk to him, but he didn't register a single word. His eyes could only see Yuuri Katsuki. His ears could only hear Katsuki's frantic stuttering about how those words could've been anyone, it didn't mean anything.

"Viktor, so you did get your words," Chris said, and Viktor realized he'd pulled up his jacket sleeve and had been been absently rubbing at his forearm. The words were clearly visible thanks to that, the Russian much neater now that Viktor was older and his handwriting more legible, but otherwise exactly the same.

"Ah, I…yeah. Many, many years ago," Viktor said.

"What's it say? You've always been so secretive about it."

"It says that I'm amazing. And beautiful."

Chris whistled. "High praise."

"I noticed it after my Junior World Championships win. It could be anyone who watched the Championships, so I didn't want to talk about it publicly."

"Knowing how some of your fans are, not a bad idea. Why'd you show them now? You know some fan with a camera already has closeups. Feeling more open about it now that Yuuri got his like this?"

"No, I just…" Viktor frowned, not wanting to voice that traitorous hope squirming in his stomach. Yes, he was secretly hoping his soulmate was a man, but that didn't mean he had to pin his hopes on the first guy whose words seemed remotely plausible as having come from Viktor. It was mostly women who approached him, so he was getting a little overexcited. That was all.

Meanwhile, Chris seemed to be piecing together the reason for Viktor's distracted state. "Viktor, don't tell me you…"

"Don't get my hopes up," Viktor snapped, turning to Chris angrily. "Please."

Chris just grinned, a slow smile that crept across his face. "Holy shit. Holy fucking shit."

"Chris, just because it's similar to what I thought…I mean, it's not possible, it's been a decade, I don't think—"

"Viktor, oh my god."

"Viktor got his, too? Today's warmups are just full of surprises," JJ said, skating over and peering curiously at Viktor's arm.

"A long time ago," Viktor said hurriedly, hiding them under his sleeve. "They're really old."

"JJ, you've talked to Yuuri before, right? Didn't he become a fan of Viktor after the Junior World Championships?" Chris said.

JJ shrugged. "I wouldn't know. We're not close."

"Chris, that doesn't mean anything."

"But it might. Yuuri's words are what you thought about him, right?"

"Chris…"

"Hey, Yuuri!"

Viktor let out a long sigh. He was really hoping to keep the whole soulmate issue private until he'd sorted it out himself. So much for that.

Viktor watched as Chris sidled up to Katsuki, whispering things into his ear. Katsuki protested vehemently, but Chris's pushiness won in the end, and soon Katsuki was being propelled toward Viktor as the whole auditorium and probably the entire skating community worldwide watched with increasing fervor.

Chris was grinning ear to ear. "Viktor, meet your #1 fan. Became a world-class figure skater chasing you. Isn't that right, Yuuri?"

"Chris!" Katsuki protested. He turned to Viktor, face flushed and panicked. "I'm Katsuki Yuuri. Err, Yuuri Katsuki. You inspired me a lot growing up, so I'm a fan. It's really so nice to meet you."

Viktor's eyes landed on the Japanese writing on Katsuki's arm. When Katsuki noticed Viktor staring, he subtly turned his arm to hide it.

"Chris, what you're saying is impossible," Katsuki muttered, gripping his left arm tightly.

"You never know until you try, right? Viktor over here seemed pretty shaken when you read your words aloud."

"Viktor doesn't have his words, though," Katsuki protested. He looked cautiously at Viktor. "…right?"

His heart pounding, Viktor pulled his track suit sleeve back up, revealing the words he'd rubbed into visibility only a minute ago. "They appeared the day of my Junior World Championship win. It says I'm amazing and beautiful. It could've been anybody."

Viktor didn't miss the way Katsuki's expression shifted. "Chris, he's right. That could've been anyone. I don't even remember what I thought back then, only that he was—" He stopped himself. "Anyway, it could've been anyone, not just me!"

"But it also could've been you," Chris said. "And Viktor here," Chris pointed at Viktor, "seems to have noticed you for the first time by watching your step sequence just now. Why he didn't know who you were until today is another issue entirely, but if those words on your arm are exactly the same as his thoughts upon seeing you for the first time, it's worth a try, right?"

"You're trying way too hard to play matchmaker, Chris," JJ said. "Let them figure it out themselves."

"What? Apparently Viktor's been keeping his words secret for over a decade, so he's not going to make the first move, and I know Yuuri well enough not to trust him to take initiative either. I'm just helping two friends out."

"Thanks, Chris, but I really don't think it's necessary," Katsuki said quietly. He looked up at Viktor with wide, sad, yet hopeful eyes. Viktor's pulse quickened. If it were anyone else, Viktor would have thought him ordinary, but for some reason this man was almost too attractive for Viktor to handle. Maybe it was just Chris's words getting to him, but he felt drawn to the skater in front of him. But it couldn't be, right?

Slowly, Viktor readjusted his sleeve, pushing it the rest of the way past his elbow so it stayed clear of his words, and held out his left arm as if offering a handshake. Since it had come to this, might as well make the leap.

"Want to try?"

Katsuki's eyes widened. He scrambled to push his own sleeve back. "S-sure," he said, voice shaking.

Viktor's heart pounded in his ears as he and Katsuki gripped each other's arms below the elbow and slowly pulled back, sliding their hands down to the wrist.

"No fucking way," JJ whispered.

Viktor felt tears start to fall.

Yuuri's touch had wiped away the words on Viktor's arm, as Viktor's had for Yuuri's.

"Viktor…" Yuuri mumbled, staring in awe at their bare arms. He grabbed Viktor's hands and forced him to reveal his words again. Then Yuuri's own hand wiped them away. Again and again.

"Congrats, Viktor, Yuuri," Chris said, self-satisfied grin on his face. "Looks like you two found your soulmates."

"Yuuri!" Viktor cried, leaping at Yuuri and throwing his arms around him. "Why did you never approach me? Why did I never see you? I'm so sorry, Yuuri. I'm so sorry."

"Viktor…" Yuuri's hands hesitantly patted Viktor's back.

"This is so great. I'm so glad. I finally found you. I finally found you." He squeezed Yuuri tightly, then pushed back to look into his eyes. "I'm not going to go easy on you today just because we're soulmates, though."

"I-I wasn't expecting you to," Yuuri said, surprised. He smiled. "I won't go easy on you, either," he said.

Viktor beamed. "That's my Yuuri!"

Chris thumped Yuuri on the back, and he stumbled into Viktor's arms. "Neither will I. You're up first, aren't you, Yuuri? Warmups are basically over, so I hope you're ready."

"Oh god," Yuuri whispered, reality setting in quickly. During all this excitement, the clock had been ticking.

Viktor pulled him into a tight hug. "I believe in you, Yuuri. I haven't paid much attention to my competitors recently, I'll admit, but your skating earlier caught my eye more than anyone else here."

"That's just because we're s…soulmates," Yuuri said.

Viktor frowned. "Hmm, I wonder."

"Viktor!" It was Yakov. "Viktor, get off the ice! I don't care what happened with your words, I expect you to be focused and win today. Got it? Warmups are over, get over here!"

Viktor released Yuuri. "My coach is calling me. Good luck, Yuuri."

Yuuri nodded, still seeming a little shell-shocked by the turn of events. "Yeah. Thanks. Uh, you too."

Viktor beamed brilliantly.

"Vitya!"

"Oops! See you on the podium, okay?" He winked, relishing in the way Yuuri blushed. Honestly, he should've watched broadcasts of the other competitions instead of being so absorbed in his own mind. Just because he'd never skated on the same ice as Yuuri before didn't give him an excuse to have never noticed this adorably handsome man. All these years, he'd been missing out on so much!

"Viktor!" Yuuri's voice called out behind him, and he turned with a smile. Yuuri had composed his expression, a fierce determination in his eyes. Viktor's heart skipped a beat. Oh. "Please watch me," Yuuri said. Then he'd turned and headed back to his coach for some last words before his turn on the ice.

Viktor watched after him a moment before finally heeding Yakov's increasingly irritated shouts. He'd been distancing himself from his competitors recently, caught up in his own mind, but now that Yuuri had drawn his attention, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to look away.

He looked at the words on his arm, simple compliments he'd spent many hours staring at over the years, now filled with new meaning. He pressed his lips to his forearm, ignoring Yakov's lecturing at his side.

"Nice to meet you, Yuuri," he murmured. "Yakov?"

Yakov paused his lecture to give Viktor a stern glare. "What?"

"Put my retirement discussion on hold for now," Viktor said. He put a finger to his lips and grinned. "I might have another year in me after all."

Yakov fumed. "Oy, Viktor, you can't just…Viktor, are you listening?"

Katsuki Yuuri. His soulmate. His soulmate. He had a soulmate.

This skating season was going to be a good one.