#skater gills

[chowtrolls]

Skater Gills my beloved for that ship meme?

• who falls asleep on the couch

I have a feeling that Synthe could fall asleep anywhere, anytime. Estela COULD if Horrid gave her edibles

• who wakes up first

I think that also depends on if Horrid gave Stel edibles or not. If she's zonked she'd fuckin OUT.

• who cooks the most

SYNTHE i dont think estela can cook. I think she tries and could burn water.

• who's in charge of the tv remote

Estela wants to be but in reality, Synthe can always find a way around her.

• who takes the longest getting ready

Have you SEEN how much hair Estela has. She also does her makeup sometimes or gets fussy over what outfit she wants that day.

• who takes up most of the bed

Synthe by proxy of being taller, and because Estela probably sleeps on them

• if/what pets they have

I think Stella's lusus counts?? He's kinda just. There. Eldritch everchanging axolotl in a fucking huge tank. Stella draws little glasses on the glass for him.

[thepermanentrainpress]

PREVIEW: STARS ON ICE AT ROGERS ARENA - MAY 18, 2023

It will be an evening to remember. The Canadian finale of Stars On Ice returns to a familiar venue in Rogers Arena on May 18, and it will mark Kurt Browning’s final date on the tour - albeit on home soil, as Browning will be joining the U.S. portion shortly after to complete his swan song. The most consistent performer on the Canadian tour, he is leaving behind an unmatched legacy.  

Elvis Stojko will be joined by fellow Canadian icon Patrick Chan, who is returning to the tour for the first time in four years. Chan, known for his artistry and elegance on ice, will be rivaled (only in the friendly kind, of course) by American Jason Brown. In April, Brown captained Team USA to gold at the World Team Trophy in Japan. Doing their part to capture the team title, Alexa Knierim & Brandon Frazier had a pair of first place skates to end their spectacular season. 

The graceful Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, a favourite of ours’ to capture, and two-time national champion Madeline Schizas will round out the Canadian contingent. Returning from last year’s tour, two-time U.S. Champion Alissa Czisny, and four-time Japanese Champion Satoko Miyahara.  

After perusing social media, we know there will be programs to “To Build a Home” (The Cinematic Orchestra), The Backstreet Boys, “Brand New” (Ben Rector) and Journey’s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).”

We are always impressed by the slick and emotive choreography that showcases the skaters’ skills, in jumps, lifts, energy or speed, likely a combination of the qualities that make these skaters elite. Both individual and ensemble routines will fill the ice, and we can’t wait to see the programs live, with crowd interaction as a given!

The tour offers discounts for seniors, CAA members, Entertainment Books holders, groups of 10+ and family/kids (12 and under with the purchase of one full-priced adult ticket). It’s the perfect opportunity for an outing with friends, family and community groups! 

For further information and promotions details, visit their official website and purchase your tickets through Ticketmaster.

[sywtwfs]

CAS Dismisses ROC Appeal in 2022 Olympic Team Event Case; Canadian Appeal Pending

CAS Media Release

Lausanne, 25 July 2024 – The CAS Panel in charge of the appeals filed by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) (CAS 2024/A/10355), the Figure Skating Federation of Russia (CAS 2024/A/10360), and Russian skaters Aleksandr Galliamov, Nikita Katsalapov, Mark Kondratiuk, Anastasia Mishina, Victoria Sinitsina and Kamila Valieva (CAS 2024/A/10356) (collectively, the Appellants) against the re-ranking decision announced by the International Skating Union (ISU) on 30 January 2024 (the Challenged Decision) in relation to the final standings for the Team Event in figure skating at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 has issued its decision: the appeals are dismissed. The Appellants had sought a ruling from CAS re-ranking the figure skating Team Event and awarding the gold medal to the ROC. Following the hearing that took place on 12 June 2024, the Panel deliberated and concluded that the results of Ms Valieva in the Olympic Figure Skating Team Event were correctly disqualified in the Challenged Decision, and that the ROC Skating Team could not be awarded the gold medal. Consequently, the above-mentioned appeals are dismissed. The Panel issued the Operative Part of the Arbitral Award. The full award, with the grounds for the Panel’s decision, will be issued as soon as possible. The second CAS Panel, different from the first, constituted to resolve the related, but separate, appeal (CAS 2024/A/10354) filed by Canadian skaters Madeline Schizas, Piper Gilles, Paul Poirier, Kirsten Moore-Towers, Michael Marinaro, Eric Radford, Vanessa James and Roman Sadovsky, together with, Skate Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) (collectively, the Canadian Appellants), held a hearing at the CAS headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on 22 July 2024. The Canadian Appellants also seek a ruling from CAS re-ranking the figure skating Team Event, as follows: United States of America (Gold); Japan (Silver); Canada (Bronze). The second CAS Panel is now deliberating. It is not possible to indicate at this time when the second Panel’s decision will be issued.

Following the CAS decision on ROC’s appeal, the IOC stated that they would work with the ISU and US/Japanese Olympic Committees to hold a medal ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

IOC STATEMENT ON CAS DECISION: This decision comes just in time to still be able to make the medal allocation for gold and silver possible during the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The IOC will now work with the @ISU_Figure, USOPC and the JOC to bring the athletes to Paris in order to hold the ceremony here in the Champions Park based on the amended results from the ISU. We are glad that this opportunity can be offered to the athletes and teams who, unfortunately, had to wait for a very long time for their medals due to the ongoing legal case.

Christine Brennan of USA Today Sports reports that the medal ceremony is planned for August 7, although this is yet to be confirmed with the IOC.

[frozenjokes]

hi i just saw ur gtws ice skatint art and it reminded me of an AU with all the lim life characters on skates/wheels

incline skating/rollerblades were the clockers, of course, because how could it not?

the nosy neighbors were ice skaters, and particularly they were a duo of figure skaters.

the bad boys were on skateboards. cuz theyre bad boys. i eont have much explanation for this

the HSBB server helped with the ties and mean gills ideas: ties were motorsports and mean gills were surfing/diving/synchronized swimming but i don't really know anything about it lols

sorry for the rant but i saw ur post and i HAD to share this lol. theyre my babies

whoever made that au needs to get married to me IMMEDIATELY

limited life on wheels au maker WHERE ARE YOU????

I have one addition however, which is that Cleo should get a car. I’m thinking a minivan for family events, shipping people around, etc, and also to do maximum damage while running people over. (And plenty of space for kidnappings!) Scar and Bdubs fight for shotgun but Scar wins 90% of the time, and the other 9% is him pretending to lose to Bdubs as an act of brotherly love and sibling ego boosting. (Bdubs doesn’t know and Scar isn’t ever going to tell him. Cleo knows. Etho is suspicious and tells Bdubs as much to which Scar steals the car and runs him over himself.) The 1% is the one time Bdubs bit Scar and the bite got so infected Scar was stuck at home for a week with a fever (and Bdubs was convinced he was going to die). Maybe Bdubs is venomous! insane headcanon time-

I’m a little bit obsessed with the clockers thank you so much for the opportunity to be fucking insane. I think I could write about Scar and Bdub’s relationship for Hours. I find them so incredibly interesting and underrated as like. Story potential??? Scar and Bdubs PICKED SIDES in the divorce!!! THATS INSANE. they’re relationship is so strained BUT THEY LOVE ECAH OTHER SO MYCH ARAGRAGARAGARAFARAT I will stop

also rant more. A message to literally everyone: rant more. Tell me everything you desire in my inbox

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

Shoma is annouced for Stars on Ice 2024 - Japan Tour

Osaka 30th to 31st March 2024

Yokohama 5th to 7th April 2024

(Other skaters annouced: Kaori Sakamoto, Satoko Miyahara, Kao Miura, Miura/Kihara, Mao Shimada, Loena Hendrickx, Junhwan Cha, Stellato-Dudek/Dechamps, Gilles/Poirier, Keegan Messing, Hana Yoshida and more)

[wintrydapples]

Figure skaters as magical doors- a thread:

Yuzuru Hanyu

Junhwan Cha

Satoko Miyahara

Nathan Chen (I tried so hard to find a door for either the hot cheeto costume or the later space one but such a door does not exist, lol)

Rika Kihara

Eunsoo Lim

Keiji Tanaka (really wanted a door for The Shirt from Hip Hip Chin Chin but again, pinterest did not deliver)

Mai Mihara

Karen Chen

Marin Honda

Kevin Aymoz

Yuna Shiraiwa

Piper Gilles (and Paul Poirier but Piper is the one that matches)

Kailani Craine

Misato Komatsubara (and Tim Koleto, but again we're looking at Misato's dress here)

Yelim Kim

Tara Prasad

Mone Chiba

Bradie Tennell

Shun Sato

Adam Siao Him Fa

Haein Lee

Sihyeong Lee

Rion Sumiyoshi (THIS. DRESS.)

Bonus Yuzuru Hanyu with door cats

[sunskate]

Off (ice) Hours Podcast: episode 10 Emilea Zingas (part 2)

has imposter syndrome sometimes (like at 4CC), has to remind herself she earned her place

she's not superstitious at competitions, but Vadym is way more- meditates, everything's organized in a particular order, his costumes, skates. she gets anxious at competitions about her hair and makeup, though -

when she skated singles, she threw on mascara and eyeshadow and called it a day, but she went to her first competition at Lake Placid their first season, and other girls at practice had on fake eyelashes, which she'd never worn in her life, and her coaches asked, where's your makeup? "i didn't know that was a requirement of me right now!" and she was the only skater with a bare face at the practice

other skaters at her rink taught her how to do her makeup. she would sleep in 25 braids before Nationals and 4CC because she didn't want to get up to crimp her hair before performing their RD

Q: is it true that in ice dance, judges - a lot of pressure/attention is put on how the girl looks, like that defines how the whole team looks? A: yeah, a 100%. one of my biggest fears going into ice dance was thinking that i wasn't going to look like a dancer. i just want to say it really doesn't matter what your god-given look is, you can be whatever you want to be. a lot of people told me you just don't look like it, you'll never be an ice dancer. you're such a jumper, you have these huge legs for jumping. you'll just never have that look, and i was really discouraged by that. i let that affect me for a really long time, and now i realize it's not that deep, and you can be whatever you want to be without thinking about how you look all the time. it is a huge part of dance, which i think is unfortunate. like teams who have worse proportions, like maybe the girl is taller than the boy or something like that, it's more difficult physically and people don't like it as much? i guess? i don't want to say that because that's not how i feel, but i can definitely see that people see it that way

sibling teams- could never skate with her brother, it would be more difficult because there's no real boundary for what you can say or do when you're family with someone. that can get messy fast

she looks up to Piper Gilles - her favorite person she's met in ice dance. Emilea has a recurrent ovarian cystic disease, and how Piper handled herself with her ovarian cancer and came back even stronger was inspiring and amazing. and is one of the most talented, powerful, beautiful skaters in the sport today. watched their FD last season crying. Piper carries her weight -

in ice dance "there's a stigma that [the girl] can sit and look pretty and the boy does a lot of work, which there are teams with that dynamic, and it does work, but i think Piper is a good example of someone who doesn't have that kind of presence on the ice. she makes her presence very known, and she's hauling ass in that program. the section after the SlLi - like 2 backwards crossovers basically on her own and then she does this backwards extension - i was just like 'holy- ' she is flying, and she's having no help. she can skate, and that's what i aspire to be like. i don't want to just sit and look pretty, like i want to carry my weight. and i want to be someone who makes a difference in a partnership, and makes a difference in a performance, and she's a great example of someone who does that"

(i *think* this the moment she means, even though it's not after the SlLi - it is an amazing transition into the curve lift)

[macaroni-rascal]

Montreal Worlds 2024 Day 4!

My voice is completely shot, my hands are legitimately sore from clapping, ears still slightly ringing, and I had the best damn time!

FREE DANCE

Mrazek's easily won the Swan Lake Battle, team nepotism were fucking awful, and it was even more apparent when a superior team skated to the same music directly after them. Diana Davis walked on the ice for 4 minutes, and did one lift that was supposed to be impressive, but was just shaky. Woof.

Olivia Smart deserves so much better, judges were not kind.

Lim and Quan got a standing ovation and they more than deserved it, they were stunning. I adored every single second of that free dance.

I didn't watch that team, so don't know, don't care, and fuck 'em.

I still don't love Turkkila and Versluis that much, in person they skate quite small and it felt like the program dragged on forever.

OKAY SO. A documentary is being made about the Reeds it seems like, a dude came and set up a camera next to us because Cathy Reed was sitting two rows behind, and he made the people right behind us come sit in our row and us scooch down so that they could get a good shot of her watching her sister. So that was both cute and a little annoying. We were stuck there also for Cpom, since Cpom had already started by the time the camera guy left and we didn't want to disturb others watching. A nice program from R/A though!

Cpom were SO very good. They were captivating and lovely, definitely had more speed at the start of the program, but wow have they ever improved. A joy to watch.

Back in my seat, in time for the small most boring most rip of P/C program of them all. 2/10.

Lajoie and Lagha had me right from the start. Just. I adore them so much. I'm so proud of them for coming back so strong after injury, I cried, I clapped, I cheered. I was fully moved.

Fear and Gibson were just fucking awful. I hated it. She's throw around in lifts and never needs to hold a position, they are doing push ups on the ice, they are standing still for 45 seconds in their choreo step, they are the second slowest team, and god just can they go away already?

Chock and Bates ARE SO FUCKING SLOW. I don't know if I didn't notice it in the RD, but jesus christ so glaringly obvious they were trudging through molasses the entire program. I didn't like the program. It was two cool lifts, and then a slow slog through Madison Chock being off the ice as much as possible. 1/10.

The first time ever the Italians made me happy. A nice program, a nice moment. The dress mishap at then was a little funny, still annoyed they will likely stay in until Milan.

Gilles and Poirier, the third slowest team. After the emotional moment with L/L, I just wasn't as moved or interested in this program. It felt melodramatic more often than not. Glad for them winning the free, now retire already.

MEN'S FREE

Adam coming from 19th to 3rd, what a moment. The crowd loved the back flip, and in the moment, I did too. Why not? He had nothing to lose. Redemption skates always give me warm fuzzies.

Donovan was a lovely time, she's got such razzle dazzle, he needs to work on his speed though.

Goodbye two spots of Canadian Men, that's all I have to say about that.

Love Selevko, he's my favourite.

Kao, it was not your day, or your competition. He kept drilling and fucking up his quad in front of me all warm up, I wanted to shake him.

Jun, it was also not your day or your competition, but you have a nice ina, so it's all cool.

Deniss was a lovely moment, I enjoyed his skate a lot. When he got standing ovation, a rude American behind me loudly said 'why are people standing up, he didn't do that well?' Which was wild.

Jason Brown!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So beautiful. The single axel honestly made me laugh. What a treat it was to see him skate.

Lukas was also a very fun moment, he's a skater I enjoy waching.

Shoma, I love you. <3

Yuma! What a moment, a shame about the triple axel, but that step sequence is so gorgeous. Can't wait to see him grow and evolve as a skater.

Ilia was there. LISTEN. Okay. Objectively the things he is doing are impressive, I just personally do not find it interesting. You know what I mean? My and my friend were at a sensory overload high and we just booked it out of the venue during his standing ovation before the scores cause we had to get out there. That rude American I mentioned would not stop fucking yelling at the top of his lungs during the skate, I had to plug my ears several times. Good for him, but he's not my thing at all.

GENERAL THOUGHTS AND HAPPENINGS!

Okay, so that rude American I mentioned a couple times, he was honestly hilarious. Another guy was sitting next to him, and the rude American kept giving him all wrong information about skating. Just confidently, with his whole chest, attempting to educate someone with nothing but false info. He kept calling jumps wrong (called flips toe, calls loops sals, and sals lopps), he said that V/M skated to Umbrellas at their first worlds (it was their second) he pronounced salchow like sal-CH-OW, no card C, but chow like chow down, he called several elements wrong all ice dance events, got coaches wrong for several skaters, etc. So hilarious.

I saw Corey Circelli and almost asked him he's like Italy but then didn't.

On our way out, we walked next to Lia, Trennt, and Hannah Lim all talking about Ilia's skate, that was fun.

Thinking of drafting an official complaint with the Bell Center to make their seats 4 inches bigger on all sides. I'm so serious my right hip, and lower back still hurt. Those seats were made for babies.

My wonderful amazing friend who I hadn't seen works at the Bell Center on the weekends, and I got to catch up with him, and then during the men he brought me a hot chocolate. Shoutout to him, he's the bees fucking knees.

I shan't be going to the gala. Thought I could do it, but I am so sensory overload from four straight days of bright, loud, and crowded. I am a person that like dim, quiet, and 3-4 people at most, and I am at my limit. Also, fuck those seats, I can't sit in them for one more minute.

ALL IN ALL! I had SO much fun, it was truly amazing seeing all these skaters I've loved for so long, and being able to really watching and analyze so many different things. I've gained new appreciation, new perspectives, and some new favourites. I am, however, very ready to get home to my bed, my cat, and my space. I'm flying out dumb early tomorrow, and I can't wait!

[crazyclownthanos]

husband and wifee

Aicer back when she was younger, i thought it would be neat if her and Noelle had the same robe strap colour thingo (I understand Noelle favourite colour is green hence why her strap colour, but i hc Acier favourite colour also being green, same go for the choice of wearing leg warmers)

Aicer’s fashion inspo reminds of an ice skater lol. but i wanted something elegant yet flexible, i wanted her to wear something that represented her youth hence the short dress, side bangs, messy ponytail. I didn’t want her outfit to ENTIRELY represent Noelle, so i added a lil bit of Nebra’s and Solid’s lavender and light pink colour palette to her outfit.

I want to explore other then adding feathers to the end of their dresses or suits. feathers to the the hem, sleeves.

Triton awfully looks like Nozel. in the future i need to make him look like less Nozel and more like Nebra and Solid!!! Originally I pitched him to be from the Seabed temple, but i strayed from the idea and forged he’s from Atlantis. He has gills, fibbers that once withered or magically or biologically had to rid of when Triton moved to the Clover Kingdom.

The original background:

[tutuandscoot]

Allow me to geek out on some maths for a moment..

Ages of the winners of the Olympics Ice Dance event from the past 2 decades:

2002: Anissina/Peizerat (FRA) 27/30

2006: Navka/Kostomarov (RUS) 31/29

2010: Virtue/Moir (CAN) 20/22

2014: Davis/White (USA) 27/26

2018: Virtue/Moir (CAN) 28/30

2022: Papadakis/Cizeron (FRA) 26/27

The ages of the top 6 (as of GPF 2023) + P/C as of Milano/Cortina 2026:

Papadakis/Cizeron (FRA): 30/31 (3rd olys)

Chock/Bates (USA): 33/37 (5th olys *E)

Guignard/Fabbri (ITA): 37/39 (4th olys)

Gilles/Poirier (CAN): 34/34 (4th olys *Paul)

Fear/Gibson (GBR): 27/32 (2nd olys)

Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen (CAN): 33/37 (2nd olys)

Lajoie/Lagha (CAN): 26/27 (2nd olys)

Of the above 7 teams, only one will be younger than VM were in 2018.

AND PEOPLE THOUGHT VM WERE “ANCIENT” when they won in 2018…

In a world where VM return for the 2026 Olympics.. they would not be the oldest team competing..

Pre-VM, Ice Dance was an ‘older skaters’ sport.

VM made ice dance a ‘young sport’- they pushed the athleticism, skating skill, difficulty, artistry, versatility. Everyone was forced to skate to their standard. They retired at, what is now proven to be, a relatively young age. The ages of the *top* teams looking to the 2026 Olympics, the above teams are made up of holdovers from the VM era, and teams that have not and will never have the opportunity to achieve what VM did at- clearly now an anomaly of a young age, because of the holdover teams- If they do, it will be at the rate of the age cycle that has reappeared starting precisely at the retirement of Virtue/Moir.

VM was the outlier.

[erinaonice]

so this article (helsingin sanomat 19.3.2024) interviews juulia turkkila and matthias versluis on some changes that they've made to their free dance as well as talks about matthias's side hustle as a music editor (summarized and translated by yours truly)

an assisted lift in the free dance step sequence was over the allowed 3.10 seconds by 0.1 seconds and led to juulia and matthias lose the fifth place by 0.07 points

as such they edited the overly long move out of the program.

"we changed the move so we don't make the same mistake, not taking unnecessary risks," says turkkila at pirkkola ice rink, where she and versluis prepare for the worlds

turkkila and versluis arrived to toronto, canada, early on to recover from jet lag and to polish their programs. their rink mates there are the canadian piper gilles and paul poirier

on music: versluis plays the guitar and knows how to edit music, so he has arranged the pair's rhythm dance medley

"we're on version 15 now," versluis laughs

versluis has arranged music to other skaters as well, like a finnish synchronized skating team and the latvian deniss vasiljevs (!!)

vasiljevs premiers a new free program in the worlds with music arranged by versluis

"a request came from deniss. arranging is a bit of a side hustle, I get small compensations from it," tells versluis

in montreal turkkila and versluis compete for the fifth time on worlds level. a year ago the pair was ninth. the placement brought finland a second spot in ice dance, represented by world championships first-timers yuka orihara and juho pirinen, who were tenth in europeans

[foreverambrosia]

Can you tell me about your sk8 si and ships 👀 I wonder if our SIs could be friends? 👉👈 @goldenworldsabound

Absolutely ! I'm all for sharing 🌸

To start, Adam is kinda the villain of my s/i's backstory. Love his character, though we all know he's a questionable man, lmao

Having also been friends with Cherry, Joe, and Adam when they were younger, my s/i was another solidified member of their group. She developed a love for skating and would do it a lot with all of them. Cherry and Joe both developed crushes on her, but she actually became briefly involved with Adam for a while (he's not someone I have actual romantic feelings for, it's all behind them); but Adam hasn't exactly always been kind to people. Their relationship was a bit distant, she admired him but was naive and pretty inexperienced and he never seriously considered her someone he could be with permanently despite any fondness. But, they loved skating side by side together. Her Skater name used to be Eve. But, as she improved and gained recognition beside him, something in him felt unsettled. The first time she actually beat him switched something. He tampered with her board, and during a personal race between them, she fell off a ledge. Adam returned alone, seemingly unbothered, but Cherry and Joe knew something wasn't right and went to find her, discovering her unconscious with a serious injury on her leg.

Their separation was unspoken, but they were no longer involved after that. However, her leg was hurt a lot, and Adam did do a lot to get it treated, but that also put her somewhat under his thumb and she began working as an assistant to him since she became crippled and could no longer skate. Her contact with Cherry and Joe became more limited for a time and she was disconnected from the things she felt passionate for.

She does hold some resentment for Adam and what he had done to her. However, her leg steadily got better, and she made a dramatic redebute into the world of skating at the S tournament Adam put on to get close to Langa and now skates not as Eve, but as Sugar Rush. She resigned from working for him and now pursues art as her career.

Cherry and Joe are complete fools when it comes to Gill. Lots of the bickering they do revolves around her and which of them gets to date her. But when they finally actually go to her after her redebute and ask her which one she prefers, she says she likes both of them. They start a tentative relationship soon after. Cherry and Joe aren't accustomed to sharing, but they both adore Gill and are willing to if it means they can be with her and she's pleased. She helps to mellow out how high strung they are together. Though, not to say they never argue, but she's mastered ways to get them to come to an understanding. Their relationship requires lots of communication, but they have all known each other since they were teens, they've got a solid bond. They mostly all go out together, but she gives each of them ample solo dates too; she focuses often on making sure neither feels too jealous or that they're left out. And the boys work on always making sure their personal annoyances with each other never effect their relationship with Gill negatively. They all care about each other and work together to maintain their little throuple group.

Despite any reservations Gill may have around Adam, she's not opposed to seeing change with him. She might not get at first why someone could actually be into him, but she likes people and would love to be friends with someone new. If they can temper Adam that's a bonus, lol

[an-odd-idea]

Ice Dance Choreographic Elements Ranked, because you all wanted to know

Basically, in ice dance, there are certain required elements like twizzles, step sequences, and lifts. There are also seven types of “choreographic elements” of which each team can do three of their choice, and I have opinions about which ones they choose

7. Choreographic Assisted Jumps: 2/10 nothingburger

Often a “blink-and-you’ll miss it” affair- just three very short lifts (they’re not even jumps lmao). Some are are super creative and cool (see: Chock and Bates folding human origami). Others are not (see: basically everyone else). Kind of a throwaway element for most, like that one class everyone takes because it’s an easy A

6. Character Choreographic Step Sequence or whatever order those words go in: 4/10 can be fun but also really awkward

Sometimes fun because teams can do basically whatever dance moves they want. Sadly, often what they want is a whole lot of nothing while making dramatic faces at the judges (Turkkila and Versluis have the best character step I’ve seen by far this season with that clock arm move they do while leaning on each other, they understood the assignment) And teams usually make a really awkward stop right by the boards because it has to clearly go across short ways, and it just never flows very nicely with the rest of the program, it’s just kind of a weird time even when otherwise done really well. Gilles and Poirier made it flow pretty nicely tho, good job!

5. Choreographic Twizzling Movement: 5/10 uncommon

Probably the least commonly done because twizzles are hard and teams don’t want to risk messing up, and they don’t really lend themselves well to expressive choreography. Also there are a whole bunch of specific requirements compared to the other choreographic elements. The novelty factor makes them cool to see whenever they do pop up

4. Choreographic Hydroblade: 6/10 new- small sample size

Brand new this season, so I’ve only gotten to see a few. Likely to rise in my rating as I see more. Gilles and Poirier have set the standard

3. Choreographic Slide Move: 8/10 awesome! unless they go for the technicality

So fun to see figure skaters slide on knees and arms and thighs and what have you without the fall deduction they would usually get for doing such things. Sometimes they decide to be lame about it and the “slide” aspect is just a hand down on the ice while otherwise just doing a skating move, but there have been so many cool slide moves ever since it became a thing. They’ll do it as a partial lift, or slide spinning on their knees in hold and then separate while still spinning like Guignard and Fabbri a couple seasons ago, all kinds of fun options, I love love love the one Hawayek and Baker did with her on one knee and him stretching out on the ice with his hand supporting him on her boot

2. Choreographic Lift: 9/10 if it ain’t broke…

The choreographic lift is just an extra lift in the program with fewer rules than the mandatory dance lifts. Just as long as it’s between 3 and 10 seconds long and somebody’s being lifted, they can basically do whatever they want, and the possibilities are endless. A lot of the time, it’s like “whoa they did NOT have to go that hard on an element worth 1.10 base value points” Sometimes they go a little too hard and it’s just kind of over complicated and weird looking, but creativity nonetheless. My favorite at the moment is Lajoie and Lagha where it’s basically a stationary lift and it looks like she’s flying right above the ice with him holding her by one arm and one leg

1. Choreographic Spin Move: 10/10 the best don’t @ me

I’ve never been disappointed by a choreographic spin move. They are just so fun, every single one of them. My favorite by far is the type like Chock and Bates last season where he was standing and holding her by the hand while she was in a near split on the ice, and all the similar ones. Spin moves that seem a lot like a dance spin except somebody’s on two feet are less common and therefore a novelty. Virtue and Moir did that cool fan kick and then spun in a dance hold. So much fun to be had, especially at those Olympics where the spin move was mandatory and we got to see so many creative things. Oh oh! and the one Lim and Quan did last season where he spun her around and dipped her while she was in arabesque, that was so neat! Oh and Lauriault and le Gac where she’s somehow laying on his boot? See??? So many good ones, I keep thinking of more

[chupenguin]

Hi! I have been desperately wanting a skk figure skating AU and was expecting I’d have to write it myself but then I found out you have one! Please take this as an invitation to ramble about it, I am listening intently and taking detailed notes like this is a college lecture.

OMG HELLO

1st of all you must know that i actually have 2 versions of this au: skk medal count goes more or less the same but there's a diference

The au I have more worked and developed is a figure skater chuuya only, he's the skater, Dazai is his #1 fan and best friend since dippers, he ends becoming a teacher but he quite likes music, so some times he makes the arrangments for Chuuya's programs

That one is a simple one, Chuuya is adopted by Verlaine when he's 4 or 5, Verlaine is France top skaters, but he suffers an injurie during Torino 2006 and had to retire, so he become Chuuya coach

I love figure skating, I follow it all season so I know more or less about how ISU works and I wanted to keep it more or less realistic: under and over scorings, disliking some music, styles and all that

The only thing I'm more or less ignoring about the ISU is that here they're transfrindly weeeeeeeee Chuuya is trans here

Anyway back to the details Chuuya is also inspird by Yuzuru Hanyu, I'm biased and I'm not sorry

He wins a lot, gets a lot of world reconds and, since he's my fave and this is my self indulgent au, 3 consecutive medal titles: 2014, 2018 and 2022

He'll retire around 26 or so, becuse his style is really agresive, like he has a good technique and he takes care of his body, but he's been hiding injuries and trying quads since his junior days

he's such an artistic skater, deep edges, can do figures, so so so flexible and adaptable... he knows ballet, so he's really a pretty clasic 90s like skater, but with a punk side

Well, you've already seen my post about his programs: he chooses the music he wants, not the one the ISU would like to hear

This happens because, when he was still a junior, he made a deal with Verlaine: If i win the gold at junior worlds, I get to choose my music ALWAYS

AND HE WON

oh and kouyou also trains him, she's his choerographer

but like his brother he gets a bad injury during the Olympics, hide it, and it gets worst at words, so he needs surgery and he takes a whole year to heal

anyway after retiring he goes into coaching, and skk get to get marred and have a kid

also he's terrible at intweviews during his whole carrer, he doesn't have a filter

and he's plushie is of course a tinny dog

The other au is: ice dancers skk

because listen, I love ice dance, and I've been in this fandom since 2016 so you know, the moment i sat in front of my TV watching VirtueMoir skating to Moulin rouge I KNEW THAT WAS SOMETHING MEANT FOR SKK

I know dazai is strong, but I choose ice dancing for them instead of pairs becase I still think that, even if he's strong, Dazai is quite lazzy

They're insane in ice dance, they lifts are, so SO SOSOSO ACROBATIC, they're so in sync that it's scary

also win a lot, they retire a little latter becuse ice dancing is """""easier"""" so they stay in top until their 30s and retire

and well, the kid happens here too because it's my other self indulent thing, he borns during the covid seaons, so they only miss a season and half as they recover and adapt, do a few more seasons where a whole horde of uncles and unties take care of the kid while his parents win medals, and when they finally retire, it's in part so they can foccus on the family they're creating

oh and this chuuya (because i can never leave him alone) gets a small plot of having fribromialgia

the diagnosis is actually what makes skk switch from pairs to ice dance, so it won't take such a tool in chuuya's body

inspiration?? VirtueMoir, SuiHan, Smart/Diaz, Sara/Kirill (can you tell I love pair events???) they're so elegant

Like Poirier/Gilles?? I may have not liked them this season, but the last ones??? the elegance in their Vangoh one?? god insane, i want that for skk

they're elegant and risky and bold, as they get older they lean more in the Daisuke/Muramoto style, older figure skaters everyone looks up to and everyone loves

they're glued by the hip, never seen apart

The base of this one would be their kid in the futyre giving an interview about his parents, like a 10 aniversary thing of skk first OLympic medal, and we'll see their storie like a docuentary

(this is fun because one scene is the reporter showing an old video of skk to the kid and the video is an interview that goes like:

Reporter would you like it if your kid become a figure skater?

skk: no, they would like a sport easier and more natural for the body for the kid.

cut back to the kid in the docomentary sayinf that teehee, he did become a figure skater in the end)

and well that's more or less everything

SORRY IF IT¡S TOO MUCH

also my dms are open if you want to talk

[cloudbattrolls]

Drowned Sorrows

This drabble is preceded by As Mayflies.

Epsilo Volant | Spring Court | Present Night

The pair tumbled from the clouds into a cool pond, landing with a great splash as bubbles rose around them.

Epsilo turned back into a troll as he easily kicked his way to the surface. He treaded water as Ullane hung off him, unconscious again.

More white in her hair. It was half pale now, half dark. Was that slight webbing he saw between her hands?

He cursed softly as he held up her limp, lean body, keeping the woman’s head above water as her long locks splayed out behind her.

At least this time they hadn’t been greeted by an ambush. Yet. 

He looked around. 

This time they floated in a pond full of giant lily pads, large green frogs with multiple eyes watching them but making no move. Perhaps they were regular wildlife - well, regular for the fae realms.

“Weeper and werebeast.”

A voice came from one of the frogs, its mouth hung open and still. Clearly, something else was speaking through it.

“The spring court sends our regards. So long as you do not damage our realm, you may have safe passage back to the troll world. However, we will not allow you to reach Sunrest. We know you wish to bring back the Varzims banished by the winter queen, and we will not let the malediction happen. You understand.”

The voice, while pleasant, became mildly condescending at the last two words.

Epsilo kept a stony silence as he paddled to shore, away from the frog. He knew better than to speak to the fae unless he had to.

He knew better than to trust their supposed promise of returning home. May have safe passage - it was not guaranteed.

The winter court had been frozen in mourning. The autumn court had been violent, eternally obsessed with their own fall.

The spring court, it seemed, were manipulators. More like the fae one read of in wrigglers’ tales, twisting words and stretching the truth to its limit.

He finally reached the shallows of the pond - it was not deep, overall, but it stretched wide from bank to bank, and it had taken him several minutes of swimming to get this far. For once, he was grateful to not have gills; the fresh water would have played havoc with them.

Epsilo’s feet sunk into deep mud as he slogged through clouds of waterweed and pond skaters to finally step on the reed-filled shore. The reeds rustled despite the lack of any wind, and bent toward the trolls as they passed. He ignored it, used to such things by now.

He laid Ullane down carefully, then sat down heavily himself beside her, taking deep breaths as he pushed his wet, wavy hair out of his face.

So. They weren’t to be touched unless they tried to reach the summer court, then?

He was hardly going to put all his faith in that, but the lack of aggression or traps they’d run into so far led him to believe that the spring court didn’t want to fight them unless they had to. 

Perhaps they’d heard what had happened to their fellows.

Good. He and Ullane needed to rest. Sleeping in the cold winter cave now felt like it had happened an eon ago, though it had probably been less than a night. Time was strange here.

He looked around. No obvious place to shelter came into sight; all he saw was a field with some trees and another pond some ways off.

They might be ‘safe’ at the moment, but he certainly wasn’t going to sleep in the open. They’d have to search elsewhere. 

He was used to wet clothes, but he didn’t need mud caked into them. Still, if he stepped back in the water his feet would simply sink in again.

The highblood resigned himself to living with it for the moment. 

He laid down on the damp ground. It felt comforting to the former seadweller. Just a few minutes, and…

When he woke up from his accidental nap, he was lying on a bed of reeds, his clothes now clean and dry. He blinked, and sat up; there were reeds above him too, woven together into what seemed to be a small, freshly made hut.

“Hello?” He called.

“Hello.” He heard back in a familiar tone, and he slowly got up and wandered outside of the structure.

Ullane sat in a chair of reeds, fishing on the shore, eyes on her makeshift line but flicking an ear in his direction. She looked the most content he’d ever seen her, but…

He noticed her irises were almost completely violet now. Hardly any threads of their original yellow remained.

“Wait. Why are you fishing? We don’t need to eat.” The eel-dragon troll asked, puzzled.

She smiled. “Not for food. Study.”

The medic yanked her line up, splattering him with a few stray drops as she reeled in a…

What was that, thrashing on the hook?

One moment it looked like a turtle with fish fins. Then a dragonfly nymph with fangs. Then -

Epsilo looked away, feeling he’d be dizzy or ill if he watched the creature’s flesh ripple and shift any longer.

“The spring court were the most understanding of Uryali.” Ullane said.

“They both share a need for growth. Spring changes…and now it never stops.” She said. “Look out at the frogs, Epsilo.”

The violet looked at the creatures sitting on and swimming around the lilypads.

Tadpoles with back legs but no front ones clung to the lilypads. Tadpoles who were nearly frogs. Masses of eggs. All slowly shifting to different stages of life as he watched.

“No stability.” Ullane murmured as she enclosed the creature in a bubble of violet membrane and reeled it in, then put it to the side next to her. 

“If things never stay the same for long, there’s nothing to grieve, nothing to dwell on.” 

She smiled darkly.

“The court doesn’t need to attack us. They just have to keep the summer gate from settling so we can use it.”

“They can’t get rid of it entirely.” Epsilo pointed out. “Surely you can track it by its growth, or…something.” He said with a sigh, very much unsure of exactly how her powers worked. 

There wasn’t really an ‘exactly’ when it came to horrorterrors to begin with.

Ullane looked amused. “They’ve thought of that. I’ve tried to sense the gate, but they must have it warded.”

“Then we find the wards.” Epsilo said, determined. “Ones that intensive have to require the efforts of several fae, or a very powerful one, like a royal.” 

The yellowblood looked intrigued by his words, her tail waving back and forth as her expression became heavily contemplative; she was clearly thinking hard. 

The shapeshifting creature wriggled in its translucent bubble.

Epsilo looked at it. Ullane followed his gaze. Then she grinned.

“You have an idea, don’t you?” He said, with a trace of grim humor. “Please tell me it’s less dramatic than your last two.”

The medic laughed.

“If I can’t guide us,” She said, her fingers and half-black horns crackling with sparks that were, for once, more reddish than violet. “Then I’ll make something that can.”

She picked up the membrane and it withered just as the ones that saved him from falling had, and the creature stopped wriggling. It stopped shifting, too.

It looked at her with what Epsilo could have sworn was fear in its currently rat-like eyes.

Ullane paid it no heed. She focused, humming, and her power sunk into it with a crackle of energy.

The violet shut his eyes, but it hardly mattered. 

He could still smell the rich and slightly rotten scent of torn-open life, feel the power that washed over him as she rearranged its body.

Did it understand what had been done to it, he wondered, as he opened his eyes and saw it now in the form of a firefly-like creature.

It clung to her arm placidly now, thin legs gripping her skin, and Ullane looked perfectly at peace with that.

“I fed it my blood.” She said. “It will grow, be able to pick up the smell of the wards as even I cannot. My senses don’t reach that far.”

Yet, Epsilo did not retort. They didn’t reach that far yet.

How much longer could she hold onto trollhood? Did she care anymore?

He supposed there wasn’t time to discuss it right now. All he could do was watch over her.

As he watched, the insect rippled and expanding to a length of a few feet, and Ullane lifted her arm to set it free. It hovered in the air a few moments as its clear wings beat rapidly, moving this way and that, then abruptly turned and pointed in one direction.

She grinned at him. 

“Will you carry me?”

“I am not a horse.” The violet grumbled, but he dutifully turned back into a werehyena anyway and Ullane climbed on.

It wasn’t as if he’d refuse, well aware of the ticking clock. He loped after the firefly, not at his fastest pace but a steady one he could maintain, trying to avoid the muddiest parts of the ground.

Their guide flew several feet ahead of them, but thankfully always within his sight. 

At least, he thought as he raced across the water-meadows, avoiding clumps of flowers wafting thick pollen clouds, this was the third court. 

Once they made it through the wards and the gate, there was only summer left.

What sort of hellish greeting waited for them this time? Did Ullane have a plan to fight them? They could be running right into another ambush for all he knew.

Yet it was almost silent. Not a peaceful silence, he thought as he kept going, but a heavy one. A pause that held its breath, waiting for something to happen soon.

He didn’t notice the wisps of fog at first, so thin were they, until they began flowing together above and around him, twisting into low streams of cloud.

Golden pollen mixed with the water vapor, floating in lazy swirls among the mist, and Epsilo felt himself growing…tired…

“Help…” he murmured, speech slurred. “Help me, medic…”

The world tilted, shook, his paws clumsily scrabbling and slipping over the mud, and he -

- gasped, throat on fire, his brain unable to make sense of what he saw.

The spring court had become a muddy wasteland riddled with fae corpses cycling through life and decay, rippling with mold and fungus one moment and visible, living organs the next. 

They did not attack as he stumbled past. He couldn’t see the firefly anymore; he had no idea where he was going. He couldn’t feel Ullane on his back.

They simply stood or laid there, staring with empty sockets - rotten eyes - and as one, they opened their bony jaws and disintegrating pincers to sing. 

Flee, now, weeper and werebeast

Go back now, run to the realm that you came from

Ours will not suffer your touch 

No malediction will warp our souls

As yours, diseased, comes to dust

Ignore it…he knew he had to ignore it…

Weighed down with mud, he struggled to lift his limbs. Every breath was sharp in his mouth. His lips foamed over as his lungs began to give out.

Was this…was he going to…

Ullane suddenly stood in front of him, manifesting from nowhere, her back to the werehyena.

Epsilo was struck with terror. He did not want to see her face.

But he could breathe again. He spat out the foam, his lungs still painful, but working, working again.

Ullane walked forward - her arms now mottled black up to her elbows - and with every step lifted from the mire, the footprint overflowed with dark water.

The footprints burgeoned with spiny starfish flesh.

Curling vines rose from them, thick with insect chitin and porcupine spines.

The corpses’ song cut off. Their bodies were…even further changed, unstable, growing into one another, their flesh fusing, screaming -

Wake up, he heard her whisper.

The highblood gasped again, and shook himself to consciousness back in the real world as he blearily looked up at…

…the gate. A shifting, twisting heat mirage that shimmered before him, radiating summer warmth. It almost blended in with the fog around them, but not quite. 

He really was covered in mud, he realized, and it was now baking onto him. He turned back into troll form and backed away a few feet. 

He looked around to see Ullane, still feeling that twinge of instinctive terror.

But her face was…mostly…the same.

Her eyes were all violet now. Not a trace of yellow remained. 

She didn’t seem tired. The lowblood came over to help him up, and no mud clung to her at all. 

“What…did you do?” He said, voice still rough.

“I turned their own dream-weaving rotten. Gave them daymares.” She murmured with a hint of amusement. 

Her firefly landed on her arm again. Ullane stroked it fondly…and then ripped it in two, but it did not die. Its original wriggling, unstable state fell out of the insect and fled from her.

Epsilo watched and she smiled at him. Her teeth were sharper now, too. 

“It belongs here.” She said softly. She rarely spoke above a whisper now, yet he had no trouble hearing. He could feel her voice too, deep in his bones, a faint vibration.

“It deserves to go home.”

Epsilo nodded and, despite his fear, his reservations, he held out a hand to her.

Ullane blinked in surprise, and stepped closer, taking his thick-fingered palm in her slim digits.

Her hand was cold - colder than a lowblood’s should ever be, slightly webbed and damp.

He squeezed it anyway, and shut his eyes against the blast of heat as they both stepped through the gate to the last court of the fae.

[jennibeultimate]

The state of Team Canada is maddening worrying...

I thought about this for a while but especially Canadian Nationals made me think about it again...so here are some thoughts...or here is a rant

Can you believe that 5 years ago Team Canada won Olympic Team Gold? They had skaters in every field who fought individually for medals. And now????

The only discipline that works fairly well is ice dance with Gilley/Poirier, Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen and Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha (they also have some junior teams who do well) BUT Gilles/Poirier and Fourier-Beaudry/Sorensen are past 30 years old and won't be there for much longer (at most until 2026 Olympics and that's stretching very far) but at least there is some future...but in all other disciplines???? HELP

Women skating is kind of dead. One women for Team Canada at Worlds and Madeline Schizas is the only Canadian female single skater that has some technical content to keep up with the middle of the field. (She may be able to place Top 10 at Worlds but only bc the field is smaller in general) and also sorry to say that Madeline has basically never two good skates.

Pairs is dead as well. They have 3 spots for Worlds but all 3 spots are occupied by ppl who have little experience internationally and are a far cry from the technical content you would need to fight for top spots in an already weak field. (Pairs is kind of dead atm in general with the field being extremely weak in technical content)

With Keegan gone (I watched Canadian men free skate and Keegan made me cry because I will miss him dearly...😭😭😭) Canadian men skating is actually kinda lost or also almost dead...sorry but as much as I like the male Canadian single skaters none of them is even slightly consistent - NONE (Keegan wasn't the most consistent either but at least he didn't implode completely and still had superior technical content to most Canadian men skaters) I mean I don't expect skaters to have clean skates all the time but can I at least expect them to not fall apart completely at every competition? There are ofc inconsistency issues from skaters in every federation (and show me one male skater except maybe NC who consistently delivered) but it's not simply making some mistakes, it's close to disaster every time.

Especially the case of Roman Sadovsky is maddening - like how can such a talented skater always implode in one of his segments in competition? One disaster can happen, but at each and every competition? No way. Something is fundamentally going wrong. And his teams "longterm" (he's not 18, he is 23 years old!) plan is not working. You cannot continue like everything is fine and not change a thing about it when you produce the same bad competitions all over again. It's not his basics being bad, it's just mentally it's not working at all. Lots of ppl after Nats said that he should change coaches and that could be one solution BUT I also think there is more to it than a new team could solve. We can't look behind closed doors and I don't want to assume bad things about his environment or coaches - honestly it doesn't mean a change of coach would mean better results, it's not that easy - BUT something has to change...Romsky seems to be on a stand still and isn't moving forward in any way neither technically (his 3A is not stable at all and his technical content basically is the same for a few years now) nor mentally (you would assume a skater with his age and experience would make progress in keeping up with nerves). And pretending that those things are part of a plan? Who are you kidding? Yourself? (really love Romsky's skating but I am not even sorry for saying this as it's sadly true)

BUT also honestly Romsky isn't the only one with a consistency problem...Stephen Gogolev, Corey Circelli, Conrad Orzel, Wesley Chui...it's all the same (they are younger than Romsky but that's all that is different)

Why am I so hung up on the men? Because there is talent, there are the technical abilities to compete for medals, but the reality is that men skating isn't more successful or less worrying than Pairs or Women Canadian skating.

I really wonder with Romsky in particular but with Canadian skating in general if there is not a systematic issue behind it all.

Like how is such a politically strong skating nation with lots of well established coaching teams not able to reproduce their former successes in the slightest???

What happened???

Not enough financial support for the skaters for enough training ice time? I think I read that they have to finance everything on their own until they have international success but you can't get to international competitions without being able to afford to concentrate on your sport fulltime to learn the technical level to go . But is this really the issue for those who are already competing internationally?

Is the financial situation the reason Canadian skaters hardly train abroad in foreign countries? But would that help?

Do they not have a good support system from their federation? Imo they have supported and relied on their "old" batch of winning champions for far too long that they forgot to develop the younger generations. (I love the old champs Virtue/Moir & Patrick Chan btw) If there was one talented junior skater they kind of put too much pressure and ambition onto them they couldn't hold up too instead of giving them space to grow into their careers. Nam Nguyen and Stephen Gogolev both couldn't produce much success after turning senior, both struggling mentally, technically and with consistency. The latter still has a chance while the former retired with no Olympics experience and the last really good result being in 2015. (Romsky was also one of those very talented juniors but I don't think he was hyped to the extent of Nam and Stephen) Like how can a federation screw up their young talents so much?

We don't know what all of the issues are - I only named what is sort of told and known - just this has to change...whoever is in charge of solving these problems I hope they interfere....

This current Canadian team is weak and the downward spiral is continuing and it's sad and seems unnecessary...