03 | Accidental Video

[icecastlemadonna]

[When this video turns on, it's facing out at the interior of the Mahogany Ice Rink. It's now evening, and the Mahogany Mamoswines have finished practice and gone home for the day, so the ice is currently empty...except for Yuuko, who can be seen skating in slow circles. She'd gotten a job here a few weeks ago and has been pretty good with managing the hockey equipment and helping to maintain the ice, but now that she's alone and at a skating rink for the first time in months, she just can't resist doing some after-hours skating herself.

She doesn't seem to be aware that she's being filmed; in fact, it looks like she's entirely lost in whatever music is playing through her head as she skates. At first she just slowly skates around the rink, but soon she picks up speed and does a few spins, first crouching down into a sit spin and then on one leg with her body parallel to the ice and her free leg held above hip level in a camel spin. At the moment, she's forgotten that she's been brought to the Pokemon world and is now immersing herself in the past, back to when she and Yuuri would practice their skating together at Ice Castle and try to copy the great Victor Nikiforov.

Then she picks up even more speed, and for the first time in a while, she does a jump, taking off from the back inside edge of one foot into a triple Salchow. The Salchow was the first jump she ever learned, but it's been a while since she attempted a triple; she manages the three rotations, though her landing is a bit wobbly.

There's an excited chirping behind the camera after Yuuko lands the jump, and that seems to snap Yuuko back to reality and look towards whoever's filming this.]

Wha--Twizzle?! [Yuuko's face turns red...mostly from embarrassment at being caught on camera during a private moment, but also from annoyance. She starts skating towards the camera, and the excited chirping turns into a nervous "eep!" at her darkening expression.]

What have I said about using my 'gear without permission?!

[The camera shakes and is then knocked onto its side as whoever's holding it hastily puts it down. You can briefly see a Sylveon bounding away through the doors to the front desk with Yuuko chasing after her, though Yuuko can't go very fast since she's wearing skates.] Twizzle! You get back here right now, young lady!

[The camera runs for another minute before a Snorunt hesitantly turns it off. Sorry about that last bit, folks.]

Comments

[lyingheart]

[ Poor Yuuko... either way, poor Yuuko. ]

Starting younger tends to be a preference in many areas where training is involved, especially of the body. Or so my father believed with his hand to hand combat training.

What's the point to these competitions? What does winning at them achieve?

[icecastlemadonna]

There's definitely a lot of physical training involved in skating, yeah.

Well...it's a sport, so there's already the element of showing how physically capable you are while doing it, but in figure skating there's also a lot of emphasis on performance. You have to show that you're athletic, but also how creative you can be with the music you choose and the choreography, especially since you're given a time limit to your programs and there are only a set number of jumps you can perform.

my inner yoi heart is crying

[lyingheart]

I don't think I'm seeing the end goal. I don't really think I understand what you mean by sport in this case, either. You have to show all of this, and then what? What's the benefit to being the best?

mine does that all the time

[icecastlemadonna]

[This is a question that Yuuko has to mull over for a bit before answering. She's loved figure skating for most of her life, so she knows it's easy for her to assume that other people will automatically understand what she loves about it. Also, she's wondering if sports are really a thing in Annie's world or not.]

I guess it's to show just how hard you're willing to work in order to win. If you keep pursuing your skating career, you'll eventually end up competing against people from all over the world, and you'll be proving that you're one of the best there is at what you're doing, especially with all the physical and mental energy that's involved. And if the audience enjoys your performance, then I'd say that makes it even more worthwhile.

Of course, that could apply to whatever you're most passionate about, but since sports are about using and improving your physical skills while competing, I guess they're the most obvious example.

such a mood

[lyingheart]

[ Baseball exists, only she won't say that in public because... it doesn't exist on the island most of the people from her world were born on. #warandpolitics ]

Proving you're the best at what your doing achieves what, though? Increases your status in your country? Access to resources you didn't have before? Prestige? Fame? And in those cases, what does fame allow you to do or have that wasn't possible before?

[icecastlemadonna]

Well, sure, you can earn quite a lot of money depending on how well you do in competitions, and if you're skilled enough you're sure to be famous at some point. I have a friend who's probably the best male skater in the country. [Even though for a long time, Yuuri wouldn't have seen himself as that good.]

Professional figure skating IS still a career, after all. But I guess in my case, I've never seen it as just a way to make money. I've always loved skating for its own sake, and back when I competed I loved being able to perform for people so I could share that love with them.

[lyingheart]

[ So in the end, it sounds like there's money as a motivation, and... fame, whatever that means. Having it framed as a career too shifts how she's looking at it. ]

When you say it's a career, it makes more sense to me. We don't really have anything comparable where I'm from, so the whole idea of it is strange to me.

[icecastlemadonna]

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised about that, considering how everyone who's brought here comes from different worlds. I'm starting to realize that it's not easy to explain something that I'd usually take for granted back where I'm from.

[lyingheart]

It's nice hearing people can have such positive things to take for granted. Even if it isn't applicable to life here, or life where we've come from. Is there much fighting where you're from? I can't imagine people having time like that for sports if there was.

[icecastlemadonna]

Well...there were a lot of bigger wars in the past that involved more countries, but there hasn't been a war like that for a couple of decades now. Most countries are fairly peaceful to live in now, but there are other places where people aren't so lucky. I guess it depends on where you live.

[lyingheart]

[ This is where she has to lie. Annie sighs, putting off replying at first. She's still performing for an audience here, albeit one of three instead of one of hundreds of thousands. ]

Countries? Then your world has humanity thriving across all of it?

[icecastlemadonna]

Yeah, there's quite a lot of people living in my world. Though the city I live in is getting smaller lately...

[Yuuko would ask if that's not the case in Annie's world, but she gets the feeling that would be kind of insensitive.]

[lyingheart]

People live a much more limited existence where I'm from. What's happening with your city?

[ A truth, in guise of a lie. The world outside Paradis is much larger, and has many nations and many peoples, but the existence she and those of her bloodlines have is limited, no matter where they are. ]

[icecastlemadonna]

I see...so there really wouldn't be much time for sports.

It's mostly just the aging population, really. Plus, the place I'm from has much more densely populated cities than where I live, so people have moved away.

[lyingheart]

They're a luxury for the rich, many times, or the poor, in quiet moments. Not a career for anyone I know.

I see... which is affecting the economy, I'd guess?

[icecastlemadonna]

It has. My husband and I work at the rink we used to practice at, and for the past while business hasn’t been too great since there were less people in our town who were interested in skating. We’re hoping things will pick up soon, though.

[lyingheart]

Is there a reason to expect things will change?

Sorry about the sudden font change, I’m on mobile

[icecastlemadonna]

A friend of mine recently won the silver medal at the Grand Prix Final, and he’s already a bit of a celebrity in our hometown, so we’d like to think that might inspire more kids to learn how to skate. It’s kind of wishful thinking right now, but still.

[Though there were all those teenage girls who wanted to take skating lessons once word got out that Victor was in Hasetsu...]

hugs, it's all good, mobile tagging is enough of a beast as it is, laughs

[lyingheart]

I admit I don't know what winning silver means in this context, but I assume it means he did well. Is it primarily a sport or activity aimed at children?

[icecastlemadonna]

It may just be second place, but silver's still a pretty big deal! It basically means he's one of the six best male skaters in the world. [Even moreso if he ever made it to the Olympics.]

Like I mentioned, many figure skaters start training when they're pretty young. But there are competitions for pretty much all age levels, so the idea is that you work your way up through more difficult competitions as you get older.

[lyingheart]

So silver is for second place? Out of all male skaters in the world? Congratulations to him, in that case. He must be very skilled.

What's the upper age limit to something like this? There must be a point where the body can't hold out like it did when they were younger.

[icecastlemadonna]

He is, though for a long time I don't think he really believed that.

Well...most skaters typically retire in their mid to late twenties, or even in their thirties if they're really pushing their limits. Most of the time they become coaches and teachers to younger skaters after retirement. I've given skating lessons to kids before, including my own girls.

[lyingheart]

A decently old career for something with high physical activity. I'm surprised people compete into their thirties.

You have daughters?

[icecastlemadonna]

It's a demanding sport, so it's not that surprising, really.

Yeah, I have three of them. They're triplets, and they're a handful for my husband and I, but we still wouldn't trade anything for them. They're already pretty into figure skating themselves. [Though at what cost, Yuuko sometimes wonders.]

[lyingheart]

I'd think that would make it surprising, but I suppose the quality of medicine and food and the rest must be very high on your world. If people in their thirties are out-performing those in their twenties, physically speaking.

Sounds like you've passed on a family tradition. Are you expecting any of them to turn it into a career?

[ Her understanding would be yes, this woman does: but that's also because she knows so little of it, and knows more of parents molding children to be what they aren't. ]