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virtchandmoir · 5 years

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Olympic ice-dance champions Virtue and Moir: 'We’re so proud of our relationship'

June 18, 2019

The Canadian gold medallists talk to Eoin O’Callaghan about winning gold, maintaining a professional relationship and ignoring fan fiction

Virtue and Moir perform at the 2018 Winter Olympics: ‘I went into the penultimate lift in Pyeongchang and I got chills because I felt the energy and electricity in the building shift’. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

There’s a guy at a bar nursing a drink. He looks up and catches the eye of a girl nearby. They share a knowing glance. And that’s the moment. It’s a scene from a litany of TV shows and films. But, it’s also the story of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s rebirth. And given the hopelessly romantic and cinematic dimension to their partnership, the story fits perfectly.

“We were on a charity trip to Scotland [in 2015] and they were showing an Olympic video,” Moir remembers. “I looked over at Tessa. We kind of have our own language. And I was like, ‘We’re going to do one more Olympics, aren’t we?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, yeah’. I turned around to the bartender, ordered three more beers and just thought, ‘Okay, here we go’”.

At the time, the celebrated Canadian ice-dance duo were on a break. Embittered and irritated with skating, they’d stepped away from competing and were mulling their next move. After a period of unprecedented success between 2010 and 2012, things shifted substantially prior to the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The entire experience, which culminated in a bitterly disappointing silver medal, was clouded by a simmering rift with coach Marina Zoueva and newspaper claims that the ice-dance result had been fixed by American and Russian judges.

It was supposed to be Virtue and Moir’s perfect swansong but instead they headed into presumed retirement full of anger, frustration and resentment. Moir, in particular, was disillusioned by all of it.

“I was just kind of sour with the sport,” he says. “I didn’t want anything to do with it. I went into a period of excessive partying and doing anything that wasn’t figure skating, really. I went and built a house with my brother. I shut the whole world out and shut everything down.”

But the break – regardless of the emotions that came with it – was badly needed. “Gaining the perspective to reflect and reassess was paramount,” Virtue says.

After discussing a comeback in more detail, they earmarked former Canadian ice-dancers Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon as coaches and were eager to move to Montreal and get things started. But during their first conversation, Lauzon wanted them to explain their motivation for returning. It was a pre-requisite, he told them.

“That floored us,” Moir says. “We couldn’t get out of it by just saying, ‘We want to win.’ He just said, ‘Well, that might not be enough. You need more than that if you want to come to our school.’ It came down to the fact that we just felt we had more to give.”

In a new place and with a new coaching team, they were determined to push boundaries and rediscover the sport.

“We weren’t conforming to any one thing,” Virtue says. “We lost this sense of trying to appease everyone else. We were more secure in who we were as people and athletes. We were more secure in what we stood for, what we valued and the art we wanted to create. I always loved skating but you can get hardened by it and it’s discouraging and disheartening. You can lose that spark. Montreal ignited it again.”

In September 2016, they stepped into a rink in the Montreal borough of Pierrefonds and competed for the first time in two-and-a-half years at the Skate Canada Autumn Classic. The short dance was an electric, sensual tribute to Prince. Paired with the tenderness and contemporary slant of their free dance, it was a magnetic and thrilling package.

Even so, it seemed a long shot that they would get the better of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, the French duo who were back-to-back world champions and unbeaten in two years. So, it was astonishing when Virtue and Moir ended the year on top of the Grand Prix podium for the first time in their careers and followed that up with a World Championship gold in 2017.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir celebrate after becoming Olympic champions. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

“I don’t think people truly understand how difficult that is,” Moir says. “Three years is a long time. The game had evolved. And we’re back in the arena, with the bright lights and everyone’s faces looking back at us again. We did everything we could to prepare but there were a lot of tough steps. The goal was to not be our old selves. We knew we made a mistake in 2014. We didn’t pick music that was dear to our hearts and weren’t personally invested in a program. We vowed to never do that again.”

The new era was exciting but still left Virtue slightly underwhelmed. She was expecting something bigger, more explosive.

“I thought we’d have this Ziggy Stardust moment,” she says. “‘Representing Canada, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’ and the whole crowd would turn and gasp and say, ‘Who? Who’s that blonde girl? That’s not Tessa.’ I thought we would totally reinvent ourselves. But it was finding the balance. ‘Are we doing things differently just to be different or to be better?’ And that was a constant dialogue between us.”

For Moir, the entire process became a safe harbour as he navigated a particularly difficult period.

“2017 was probably one of the hardest years of my life,” he admits. “There were a lot of personal struggles. I lost some very important people. I had a best friend and then a grandfather pass away. Through it all, skating became an anchor. I used to think of it as a job. Now it was getting me through and giving me hope. Through all the heartache, it seemed worth it. Heading into the Olympic season, we were ready for almost anything.”

In the build-up to Pyeongchang, they were consistently behind Papadakis and Cizeron, particularly in the free dance. So, they dramatically altered their sombre Moulin Rouge routine to make it more Olympic-friendly.

“We changed about two minutes of our program entirely,” Virtue says. “We listened to people for eight years telling us we needed a big ending, people on their feet and the music to reach this massive crescendo. That’s the Olympic moment people want. Once we were able to find that, it soared and began to take shape.”

It worked.

The subsequent free dance performance sits alongside Torvill and Dean’s 1984 Bolero as the greatest ice-dance moment in history. Those four spellbinding minutes were not only enough to ensure astounding and unlikely Olympic golds for the pair but to also define Virtue and Moir’s legacy.

“I had never felt momentum during a performance before,” Virtue says. “We felt flow in Vancouver [when they won gold in 2010] and we chased that feeling for eight years. I went into the penultimate lift in Pyeongchang and I got chills because I felt the energy and electricity in the building shift.”

A different kind of momentum had been growing for a while too.

Unlike their French rivals, Virtue and Moir took part in the team figure skating event a week earlier and quickly became viral sensations. In front of a global audience, the intensity of their chemistry, their innate closeness and the suggestiveness of certain choreography whipped new-found fans into a frenzy, especially across social media. When they found out Virtue and Moir were not involved in a romantic relationship, they didn’t really accept it. Instead, they started to fantasize.

There are dark corners of the digital sphere devoted to them, including some intense fan fiction. The disciples – and there are a lot of them – obsess over every look and every caress. “It’s probably healthier to avoid it,” Virtue says.

But that’s easier said than done. Last year, Moir spoke eloquently about the impact his unique athletic setup had on his personal life and how some partners found it difficult to properly understand his dynamic with Virtue. Before the Olympics, he was already daydreaming about what was on the other side. It’s why he’s so ready to move on to a new post-skating chapter and focus on things he spent so long sacrificing.

“I was ready for that transition,” he says. “It was always skating first and I was finally at a point in my life where I could be a contributing member of my family and actually search for a life partner.”

Their relationship is a curious thing. When I ask Virtue to define it, she takes a deep breath. “We’re the worst at answering this question”, she begins. “I wish we could help ourselves and everyone else.”

She speaks uninterrupted for a few minutes. It’s essentially a meandering run-on sentence. Then she apologizes profusely for not supplying the right answer. But, of course, she had done. It’s why the moment of their eyes meeting in Scotland explains so much of their story. Words are limiting and what Virtue and Moir have goes far beyond that, almost existing in the abstract.

“We were made for each other, in a work relationship,” Moir says. “There’s real love there. We’re so proud of the business relationship we have. And that’s the story we want to tell more than anything. Judging by my girlfriend’s Twitter, I think fans are disappointed a little bit that we’re not a couple but we have a very amazing, unique relationship that hopefully young people can look at and think, ‘Wow, that should be inspirational in its own right’”.

When they stood on the podium immediately after their Olympic victory, Virtue – normally so poised – uncharacteristically welled up. “It was seeing 20 years flash in front of me,” she says. Her voice cracks so she nervously laughs to cover the lump in her throat.

“The little seven and nine-year-old kids who got together, who didn’t speak and who just skated around a rink holding hands. On the world’s biggest stage, with all of that pressure, in that very moment ... I was just very proud of Scott. It’s funny. We both have this thing where it’s hard for us to acknowledge our own success but we’re able to see it in each other.”

Currently, there’s an adjustment period. It’s not about the Olympics anymore. There are touring shows to produce and various other projects to plan for. They both admit that fully appreciating what they have and what they’ve gone through together is something that will only come much later.

For Moir, he’s still struggling to wrap his head around the last year and a half. “I don’t know how to explain it and I don’t think I even have a proper perspective on it yet,” he says. “It seems like it was a fairytale when I look back now.”

—The Guardian

#tessa and scott #off ice #interview: the guardian #i liked the scotland bit #(the only part i read)

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moonstarphoenix · 4 years

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Internationaux de France Ladies LP Pt. 1

Good afternoon, my friends! And welcome to my new followers! I hope you enjoy my Marvel posts, anti Endgame posts, and my figure skating recaps. I have a constant running queue of posts but if you ever wanna chat, feel free to send me a message, I’ll be happy to respond!

So this afternoon we have the ladies long programs. Two Russians sit at the top followed by two Americans. Who’s going to come out on top? Let’s find out in France!

Nicole Schott starts us off. Interesting music combination of a cartoon about a kung foo panda and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She seems a little tight but she’s mostly landing her jumps with some turn outs. This program is much better for her than her short but her chorerography still leaves a lot to be desired. I do think this style fits her much better. She still needs some connection to it and the audience but it’s not bad.

Maria Sotskova is our first Russian. I really like her dress. It’s pretty. I love that she’s trying for a more mature style. I’m not sure she’s quite ready for it yet though. She’s not landing her jumps which is affecting her presentation as is usually the case. I’m undecided about this program, honestly. I like her skating. She seems very pleasant and lovely and I got glimpses of her personality but this program doesn’t really highlight that. It’s more mature than the baby Russians but I’m not sure she’s ready to pull it off yet. Hmmm. I need to sit with this one I think.

Lea Serna is next. She’s skaking to Game of Thrones. Lovely triple lutz-triple toe loop to start. She’s not the most elegant of skaters and could use some refinement, but there’s a lot of potential. She’s has nice transitions between jumps and there’s choreography and content throughout the whole program. She making some costly jump mistakes. Overall, I like this program. It builds in the drama and is intriguing. I think if she keeps working with Brian Joubert, she’ll have some success in the coming years. Not her best performance but I think she’ll be one to watch.

I am not sure about Yuna Shiraiwa’s dress. It looks like it’s supposed to represent a bloody wound in her side and blood dripping down. I’m not familiar with the music so the dress must be related to that. Okay, I looked it up and the music is from the movie, Amen, and explores links between the Vatican and Nazuu Germany. The plot as most movies about the Holocaust should be is sad and horrifying, so the ‘wound’ on the dress makes sense. Yuna is a lovely skater though. She struggled a lot on the jumps, but she very soft and elegant. There’s intricate and interesting chorerography throughout, but I’m not sure this type of dramatic style is right for her particular style.

I did not know that Mae Bernice Meite was the current French champion! That’s great to hear. She is a fan favorite and one of mine as well. As usual, her dress is beautiful. She’s skating to Adele, a dofter ballad for her. While I still think, she would do better with a more powerful piece, I do appreciate that she tries different styles with each program. She struggling on the jumps and is kind of all over the place but she’s putting heart and emotional into it. She’s not the most elegant skater but she’s compelling and lovely to watch. I like that program and she’s obviously very well loved in France. I also really love Slyvia and John as coaches. I hope she can skate that program clean. It would be an amazing program if she can do that.

Alright on to the next group!

#figure skating #nicole schott #maria sotskova #lea serna #yuna shiraiwa #mae berenice meite

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kateua · 6 years

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Here is a new interview with Fabian Bourzat made by Ukrainian “Segodnya” (you can find a version in Russian here: https://www.segodnya.ua/…/francuzskaya-zvezda-figurnogo-kat…)!

Fabian Bourzat: “I don’t like sad people, they make me sad”

The French figure skating star talks about going solo in coaching, working with Ukrainians Nazarova and Nikitin, a possible collaboration with Nathalie Pechalat, and meeting Jean Dujardin, remembering Denis Ten, learning to let go, and also about his shoes and favourite programs and costumes.

– How did you decide to come to Ukraine with Sasha and Maxim? – We’ve worked together in Detroit for like three years. It’s a very interesting team, I love working with them. Their quality matches my vision of skating. They’re creative and original. They have a lot of flaws, but they want to bring something different to skating. And that’s what I love about them. So, when I quit my job in the US, they told me that they were moving back to Ukraine and they needed someone to get them ready for the season. I was on vacation at that time and said, “Why not”. And here I am.

– Do you want to go solo from now on? – I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do next year yet. But I don’t want to work with somebody else anymore. I think it’s time for me to choose my own path and not follow somebody else’s. I’ve done that for almost four years. It was interesting for me to work with Igor Shpilband, I’ve learned a lot, and I thank him for that. But right now I need to express myself way more through my teaching. So, I’m going to come back to France and try to develop what I can over there.

– Do you want to open your own school? – Yeah, that would be ideal. It’s difficult to find a full-time ice rink in France. Most people there work as freelancers, they work in camps and go back and forth between different places. If I can find an ice rink, yes, I will build a school. Right now I’m working with Sasha and Maxim. I don’t know what will happen in the next few months. But I would welcome them on my team. I also want to bring young skaters and help them grow, to make skating in France more competitive. We have a good history of ice dance in Europe. Right now it’s moving a little more to USA and Canada, and I want to bring it back to Europe.

– You’ve been to different countries. What difference do you see in the perception of skating? – In the US, it’s more competitive from the young age, and it’s something we don’t have in Europe. Here we’re trying to go to school first and then think about sports. And I want to try to balance that.

– You’ve worked with Shpilband both as a student and as a coaching partner. What have you learned from him? – When I was still skating, I loved the way he worked, because he gave me the opportunity to enjoy figure skating again. At some point of your career you start thinking only about competition, performing and results and you’re not enjoying yourself anymore. That’s what he brought me as a coach. As a partner, he has a strong work ethic, he is good at scheduling everything and handling a massive amount of work outside of skating. The structure, as well as the techniques, was really helpful for me. As a skater, I used to work with Alexander Zhulin in Russia, Muriel Zazoui in France, Anjelika Krylova and Pasquale Camerlengo in the US. They’ve all given me so much, and I was able to decide what I wanted to take from them and what I did not, depending on which kind of skater I wanted to be and which skills I needed for that. I think growing around so many coaches helped me to develop a different way of skating, and that’s what I want to give back to the kids right now.

– Is it your first time in Ukraine? What are your impressions? – Yes, it’s actually my first time. It’s really hot! Sasha and Maxim took me to so many different places, but I haven’t seen much of the city. For me, seeing different countries and the way people live is always a different way of approaching life... I love the food here. We had pelmeni, khachapuri, which is Georgian actually, we ate shashlik, cornichons. Borsch? I’m not a big fan of that. But there is a summer soup that Maxim wants me to try. We’ve also got pâté from my mom. The country is welcoming. It’s also because the guys make me feel welcome.

– How about our figure skating? Anything unusual? – There are lots of kids on the ice. I’m actually surprised there are so many boys. It’s difficult to find boys in figure skating. The more people you have to train, the easier it will be to develop something.

– Do you remember the first time you saw Sasha and Maxim? – It was at the 2015 Junior Worlds, the year they were third. I remember that I told Igor Shpilband then that this couple was really interesting, that they were trying to bring something more creative, which is difficult at the young age. They kind of matched the same way I did with my partner at the time, so I was really impressed of their work.

– You said they have flaws. Which exactly? – Well, they need to work a little more on the connection and the feel of the motion. They are powerful skaters with a lot of strength. They are able to get a lift of any kind of difficulty done. I’m here to teach them a different approach of skating, and I think it’s starting to grow into them. They are hard workers, they listen, they follow exactly what I say. I know it’s not easy, but they are committed and they want to succeed. How do we polish their twizzles? That’s my secret.

– What’s the most difficult part of coaching? – I think it’s managing different types of people. You can have young kids, teenagers or adults. And you need to be able to push them without breaking them. Managing and planning is still brand new for me, I need to keep learning.

– The Olympic season was quite rocky for Sasha and Maxim. You had some painful moments in your career yourself. How do you teach them to overcome those difficulties, to let it go? – That’s the exact process. They need to let it go and move forward. Because it doesn’t matter how many times you fall, what’s important is the way you’re going to come back on the ice and step up after that. They have really good skills and they need to be proud of it. Every big champion has made mistakes in their life. Some more than the others. You just need to swallow it, get your shit together and move on.

– How much time did it take for you to move on? For example, from the 2014, which was quite intense. – I don’t know, I don’t know… You just need to completely switch your head and keep going. It doesn’t matter, it’s not going to change. You can’t talk about the past forever, you just need to learn and forget.

– Do you get in touch with your former partner Nathalie now? – Yeah. She’s actually working in France. The fact that I’m going back there makes us get more and more in touch. I was talking to her like yesterday. We’ve never got along as good as now. I’d like her to come and work with me. I know her skills and what she’s able to do. I don’t think she’s ready to work full-time and I’m not sure I’m ready to work full-time with her, but it would be nice to have her input from time to time.

– What was the last time you met her? – At her wedding in May. It was nice, not too many people. It was emotional. She was crying, of course.

– Everyone’s probably asking you about her husband, the Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin. How is he like in real life? – He’s actually a really nice guy. I’ve met him a couple of times. And the more you see him, the less you see the actor and more, the person. I cannot say we bonded as friends, but I definitely understand what she sees in him. If he makes her happy, that makes me happy.

– Do you have a favourite program from your competitive career? – There were so many of them! The Circus program was really nice, also Cats, which was a long-long time ago, the flamenco program that we did with Antonio Najarro, Four Seasons. Mostly because we met and bonded with different people who choreographed for us. The Little Prince? It was not our masterpiece, more like a patchwork of what we did before. A part of Circus and Chaplin in the emotions, a part of Cats because of the storyline. It was a reminder of everything that we did throughout our career.

– Do you miss skating? – No. Why? I’m way older now. Skating is difficult on the body. The run-throughs, that’s what I don’t miss. I feel comfortable as a coach. I was listening to others for so many years, and I think giving is so much easier. Shows? We didn’t do that many with Nathalie, because I moved on to coaching right away. For me, the competitive career was the most interesting, because you were trying your best. When you skate in shows, you do everything for the audience, which is interesting, but you’re not trying to polish your skills, to evolve as a better skater. That’s what I didn’t like that much in shows.

– You were known for some iconic costumes. Which was your favourite or the craziest one? – Circus. Because of changing the costume in the middle of the program. And probably Cats.

– A few weeks ago we found out about the death of Denis Ten. There are different projects being made in his memory in Kazakhstan. Do you know if the international skating community plans on doing something in his memory, too? – I have no idea. For me, he was a friend, a great champion, he was a warm person. I think it’s really sad, and I give all my support to his mom. These are difficult times for her, I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a child. And for Kazakhstan, too. They’ve lost one of the iconic figures and one of the most important people in the country. It’s a tragedy. If I have the opportunity to get involved in some kind of a memorial, I will definitely do that. But for me, to show all these emotions on the social media is not a way to pay tribute to him. The best way is to remember him and to try to be more like him, to be honest, always smiling and trying the best. He got a roller coaster in his life. He was on the top and then he got some difficulties in training and results, but he still fought back. And that’s something we need to remember him for.

– Was there anyone you looked up to? – It wasn’t one person. Because nobody’s flawless. More like qualities from a certain person. What I always notice in people, is if they’re smiling. I don’t like sad people, they make me sad. And I like fighters, like Denis.

– We’ve already talked about your costumes on ice, but you’re also known as a very stylish person outside the rink. How big is your collection of accessories? – Oh-h, I have a lot of shoes, like… a lot of shoes. Thirty or forty maybe. I like to dress differently when I can. When you’re French, you need to be haute couture. I also wear Italian costumes and Japanese shoes. Whatever I like, I just wear it. If people don’t like it, I don’t care.

– Do you watch football? – Sometimes, but I did watch the World Cup. I saw the final with Maxim. I told him, if he wanted to come he’d better root for France. I don’t watch football for football, it’s more about the company. And here, in Ukraine, we went to see Shakhtar Donetsk vs Arsenal Kyiv. Good game. Not that many Ukrainians on the teams though.

– And what about tennis? Have you ever been to Roland Garros? – I did once, a long time ago. I’m not so much into watching sports, I like to do sports myself, to play tennis, do outdoor sports like beach volleyball. I always loved skating on the ice, but after that I just wanted to go home and hide. Because of how media broadcasted everything. And if you’re on the court as a tennis player, for example, you have people who are going to cheer for one and root against the other. I don’t like this state of mind. Most of them are trying their best, and you need to cheer for both.

– Is it not like that in figure skating? There are some hardcore fans… – Not that much. But yes, there are always those kinds of fans. I saw those in Russia, in Sochi. When we were at the Worlds in Nice, the audience cheered for us more than for the others, but they were also cheering for everyone else they loved. It’s the same way in Japan. It depends on the people. That’s why I don’t like to be in the crowd all the time so I don’t have to see what people are like.

– What are your passions beside skating and shoes? – I love arts. I love to play videogames with my nephew. I have a dog. My passions are my family, my girlfriend, my people.

– To wrap it up, what are your goals for the near future? – I want Europe to be back strong again in figure skating. And I want to leave legacy as a coach and have someone who’s going to follow me up at my job and improve it so we could build a European style that will be recognized all across the world.

Kateryna Makarevska for Segodnya

Photo: Sergey Revera (Segodnya)

Source: https://www.facebook.com/kateryna.makarevska/posts/1782547921810355

#fabian bourzat #figure skating #nathalie pechalat #aleksandra nazarova #maxim nikitin #igor shpilband #alexandra nazarova #maksim nikitin #ukraine #france #denis ten #jean dujardin

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lighthouseofthewanderess · 5 years

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Experiment

Have you ever done something you clearly know isn’t meant for you? If yes, welcome to the club of Unlucky yet Brave Experimenters. UBE was a one member secret club for the longest time before the founder, me, dissolved it out of realization that life itself was about experimenting. But I could resurrect it and we can pretend to be the Illuminati or something.

My years of experimenting started long ago. I don’t know if we can count it, but I ate chalk when I was in kindergarten. In my head, I had eaten earth from the garden and it had tasted so rich. The texture was brilliant, and the color stuck to my fingertips. Some of the earth got under my nails and I could snack on that later. Chalk I thought was no different. But when I ate it, oh boy it tasted so much better! It even came in an easy stick format to break off into bites. My grandpa on my mother’s side looked amused every time I bounced up to him demanding slate chalk. I would always say it got over, I’m studying well, or that my friends stole it from me. He willingly gave into my trickery till he caught me chewing on it while practicing my alphabets on the slate. I just couldn’t help it; I need to think and chewing chalk helped. After that, my grandpa made it a rule that I drink a glass of milk -- “she’s eating chalk because her body needs calcium.” he would scold my grandma like it was her duty to have figured this out before him.

Anyhoo, I kept UBE a secret affair. The caterpillar that just won’t float on water? I really thought they were capable of it. The dolls with eyes carved out and replaced with marble? Why was it creepy, she had beautiful eyes now. For a long time I stuck to things around me and it fueled my curiosity but I also got bored of it too soon. I gave it up -- for the poor butterflies, the ants, and flowers that were getting tortured by me. My heart was a noble one. Head held high I went about life accepting things the way they were. Then I got the brilliant idea of experimenting with myself. The mission was simple; do one unexpected thing every day. What was I on the search for? The million different parts of me that make me who I am. It started with the coloring. My teachers in India complained that I might have an eye problem. “She is coloring roses blue and all.” I wish I can see their faces now when there’s not just blue but black roses as well. Ha! Then I thought why not fight for the things I believed in. I undid the red ribbon of a girl in class and when she yanked it from my hand, I yanked it back. It turned into a fight just like I expected and we stood on top of the benches and wrestled with each other. That experiment ended up with bruised elbows and a 100 ‘I am sorry’ on the blackboard. Damn that girl. I was just trying to see if I had a fighter in me. UBE would have to some basic rules that saved them from situations like this. Rule #1: If your experiment involves a person, an animal, a flower or any living thing… do not harm it. Fate will boomerang back. That left me the only choice of putting myself in awkward situations. After pre-school, mom would take about 2 hours to come pick me up. Her job was tricky. So I would play around, seesaw on my own or just sleep on benches. A light bulb went off in my head during one of those slumbers. Next day after I finished up, I climbed the stairs and sat inside the 5th grade class. The teacher didn’t object, the students welcomed me with open arms. Literally. They picked me up and took turns seating me on their lap. The blackboard swarmed with letters and symbols I didn’t understand but I stared at it fully in awe. In my eyes, this experiment was a successful one. I would come back and wait right on time for mom to pick me up. I was so used to the routine that even the lunch my mom packed would be forgotten, eaten only minutes before she arrived. One unlucky day she caught me eating my lunch, which had kind of gotten spoilt in the summer heat, on the steps by myself. I looked super content, but my mom almost burst into tears. After that she got an aaya to pick me up right after school and keep me with her, make sure I was fed on time. Time for UBE to have another rule. Rule #2 - Tread with caution when there are moms involved. They have the power to banish all experiments.

With these two rules, I had my fill of experimenting without hurting anyone for years. Even in the US. Climbing trees, hanging like a bat, fries in my ice cream. Life was so rich when every day was a new affair. There was one time I took UBE to the next level. A midnight release of a new Harry Potter book was announced. There would be games and exciting gifts, almost the whole school was going. But I wasn’t a fan. I knew nothing the other potter heads knew. Rise to the experiment, oh brave one I told myself and dragged my mom with me. At the library every one had dressed up. Polaroids were being clicked. There were cauldrons with little wands. There was a line of people waiting to answer and get their prizes. I happily went and stood there. As my turn approached, I didn’t have the slightest fear that I wouldn’t be able to answer. The point wasn’t to win, it was to experiment. The lady at the counter asked me a question.

“What was the name of Ron’s brothers?” Um, no clue. I shook my head. The line behind me gasped. I heard them whisper that I didn’t know even the basics.

“Okay. Here’s an easy one, hon.” She asked me about the platform number. Someone in line even offered to answer for me. I shook my head again.

“I just wanted to know what the prize was, that’s all.” I said to her, shrugging my shoulders. She smiled and gave me one last questions.

“Who are Muggles?” I paused to give it a thought. The line was getting restless, they hated my guts. Well, everyone has to human right? Plus she used ‘who’.

“Humans?” I stated. Everyone broke into an applause and some even clapped me on my back. Well done they said. At least you know the difference between the wizard and the human world. I was just happy I get the gift. It was a pack of gummy worms. Aw man, really? Rule #3: A smart experimenter assesses risks.

From there I went on try one thing after another. Spanish classes. Adding ‘ito’ to everything didn’t work so I stepped out of class. Bharatnatyam went on for a bit but Ballet was more fascinating. Swimming felt like I still needs to sprout some fins so I made a mental note to try it out later. Caramel apples. Plaster-of-Paris. Swinging from the door. They all went down in UBE’s history. I remember playing the piano for a recital. I practiced with a Casio keyboard at home and rendered the beautiful ‘To a wild rose’ by McDowell. Bach. Beethoven. It started getting too sad for some reason. Switch to something else. Karate. Held onto that till the gold belt and then tossed that away too. I was super restless. I was focused so much on getting my little feet into everything that I never stuck to anything for too long. What if I’m meant to do something more? Ice skating. The flute. Singing. It was all a whirlwind when I look at it now. I don’t even know if I had a favorite hobby. Well, maybe climbing trees. But I couldn’t choose one. Too much experimenting. Rule #4: UBE practices a good interval between two experiments. To learn and experiment better in the future.

Somehow, on the way to India, I lost UBE. Maybe I packed it with the wrong boxes. Maybe I have to join another secret club when I land there. I knew it the minute cranberry juice was placed in front of me, a thousand feet above sea level. I didn’t feel like trying it out. What? That doesn’t normally happen. I tried to sleep it off. Then I blamed it on the jet lag. Then came the ‘national’ language called Hindi and what a horrible experiment. When my Principal, John Zachariah, admitted me in the middle of the year he asked me why I was hell bent on Hindi. Why not try French? “I am a secret experimenter” I whispered when my mom stood far, straining to hear what we were discussing. In a year, I changed that to Tamil, another experiment but a successful one at that. I tried my hand at throwball, loved the matches in the rain. For the sports day, I did the ridiculous thing of trying out for tug-o-war. Here was another joke -- this girl was underwait, a thin fragile thing and she fainted a lot. But when pitched with others at the tryout, I won all three. Pure bone weight. All those glasses of milk and chalk must have nursed my bones. The last significant thing I tried, apart from writing, was the National Cadet Corps. NCC in a lot of ways made me tougher, even thought I was just eyeing the 15% marks that would come out of it. On my first NCC camp, I tried a lot of new things and every night I would ache all over but feel intensely successful as a member of UBE. In the early morning jogs and yoga, I came to realize two things about me. I am not a morning person and Yoga made me sleeps. And just like that, I was able to draw observations about myself after every lab session. Even from the ones I think I would suck at the most. Rule #5 - When you’re unsure about it, that’s the UBE sixth sense telling you that you have to do it.

I have been following these rules for a long time now. I have surprised myself time and again with the things I set out to do. Solo travel. Tattoos. Gardening. Oh what the hell, even babysitting. And I think the only mistake one can make as a member of UBE is fearing the outcome. That gives birth to normalcy and monotony. The kind that makes you pick the same things from a menu, the same colors from the clothes aisle. Choose a heavier ball when you go bowling, take a different route to work, eat Doritos with chopsticks. Sometimes I’ve taken a chance on people too; meeting them once just to see how it goes. I love getting to know them and experimenting in understanding what I feel for them. Even if this goes against Rule#1, I know I wouldn’t harm them no matter what. I know to step back from there. One can argue that repetition of certain tasks and decisions forms tastes, styles, and shapes one’s personality. And I agree. Yes, comfort in the familiar is a safe thing, but then again as Tove Lo puts it, ‘If you had any flavor in the world, would you still choose vanilla?’

#nanowrimo #nano 2018 #nano writing #lifestruggles #life story #life stories #writedaily #loveforwriting #writing #wrimo #day19 #anecdote #experimental #experimentation

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octaviaspvcks · 6 years

Text

TASK [ 003 ] QUESTIONNAIRE

ORIGINS & FAMILY:

Name: Octavia Monraue

Nickname: Octi, Octopus, Tavie, Ava.

Birthday: 17/01/1994

Age: 24 Years Old

Gender: Female

Place of Birth: Great Malvern, Worcestershire, England.

Places Lived Since: Manhattan, Washington, LA, New Orleans, Santa Barbra & Jehirco. Arizona.

Nationality: English, Greek, American.

Parents’ Names: Elimarie & David Monraue

Number of Siblings: None.

Relationship With Family: They had a close connection, especially growing up. They were pushing her hard to be the greatest she could be but she loved every second of it. Now of course there is no relationship after their early demise. She misses them terribly but very rarely speaks of them.

Happiest Memory: The day she achieved her first ever award for making Lucas proud.

Childhood Trauma: Early childhood Octavia was struggling with her learning, although extremely clever it was almost impossible for her to concentrate which really destroyed her confidence. This later came to be a condition called Low Latent Inhibition which affects the way in which the brain perceives things around the person. It took a lot for her to get used to and overcome this obstacle in her life. And of course the death of her parents was something that completely rocked her world. With such a close family and not many friends this seemed to shatter her and the world around her.

PHYSICAL:

Height: 5’7 ( 1.72 m )

Weight: 112 pounds

Build: Athletic and Lean

Hair Color: Brown with flecks of ash

Usual Hair Style: Drop curls

Eye Color: Hazel

Glasses? Contacts?: She only ever wears glasses to add to a disguise.

Style of Dress/Typical Outfit(s): Octavia can be seen with two different kinds of wear, one of her typical day wear tends to be battered black or grey jeans paired with a band-t-shirt or racer tank, black doc martins and her black leather jacket. While her nightwear is a contrast where she tends to wear lavish gowns and expensive designer dresses. This comes from when she used to work as a high class con artist alongside Lucas.

Typical Style of Shoes: Day time you will always find her adorning her doc Martins, she has an array of different colours but her evening she always sports a pair of Louboutin black heels that she received as a present while spending some time in Paris. She has a large array of heels that she likes to wear.

Jewellery? Tattoos? Piercings?: Although not exactly a believer in god she very often wears a cross around her neck that belonged to her mother, she has a nose piercing and wears a lot of rings on her right hand.

Scars: She has a large scar that runs down the side of her rib cage, and one above her lip.

Unique Mannerisms/Physical Habits: She has a lot of British slang and mannerisms from living most of her childhood in England and still holds her accent very thickly.

Athleticism: Octavia is a big fan of running and she is often seen going for a 6AM run to clear her mind, she loves listening to music and working out as much as she can. She attends the gym at least three times a week and loves boxing for sport.

Health Problems/Illnesses: Octavia has a condition called Low Latent Inhibition which affects her ability to concentrate solely on one thing and affects the way in which the brain perceives and maintains information. Because of her high IQ she manages it very well but it is a challenge at times.

INTELLECT:

Level of Education: Octavia only ever got her GED, although when she was a con artist in New York she used to go and sit in university classes under fake names and take classes, she even sat exams under false names just so she could see what she could achieve,

Languages Spoken: English, Russian, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Icelandic, Hebrew & Latin.

Level of Self-Esteem: Octavia has a high self-esteem and she tends to take pride in herself but when it comes to finding love just has little to none at all.

Gifts/Talents: Languages, Music and Numbers are a big part of Octavia’s talent; multi-instrumentalist and bilinguals as well as her ability with numbers and equations. But these are only a few of her talents, manipulative when she needed also learn a lot of things when she was working for Lucas as a Luxury Black Market Art thief. She was good with Racketeering, Bond Forgery and Identify Forgery as well as computer hacking.

Mathematical?: Octavia is a lover of numbers, she could sit and do numbers all day and gets a thrill out of getting equations and quizzes complete as it challenges her mind which she often feels she doesn’t do enough these days.

Makes Decisions Based Mostly On Emotions, or On Logic?: Most of the bad decisions that Octavia makes are based upon emotion. She is a rather logically person, so when she does make mistakes or bad decisions it is usually emotionally fuelled.

Life Philosophy: Always, always trust your first gut instincts. If you genuinely feel in your heart and soul that something wrong, it usually is.

Religious Stance: Atheist. She believes that everything happens for a reason and in reincarnation.

Cautious or Daring?: Daring when needed, she likes to take a risk and loves adrenaline and thrills but she is cautious when it comes to her heart and things that could affect her mentally.

Most Sensitive About/Vulnerable To: She is vulnerable when it comes to the death of people close to her and the fact that she feels inexperienced when it comes to love and letting people in past the shield she has created around herself. She worries that after Roberto’s passing that she could lose other people.

Optimist or Pessimist?: Optimist towards everything but her own love life.

Extrovert or Introvert?: She is neither of these but in fact a Ambivalent. A combination of the two. She likes people but needs to be alone. She’ll go out and vibe and meet new people. But it has it’s expiration, because she has to recharge. If she doesn’t find the valuable alone time she needs to recharge she cannot be her highest self.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Current Relationship Status: Single.

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual

Past Relationships: One Night Stand with Russell Johnson and Crush on Lucas Price.

Primary Reason For Being Broken Up With: Nothing to compare it too.

Primary Reasons For Breaking Up With People: There has never been a break up.

Ever Cheated?: No.

Been Cheated On: No.

Level of Sexual Experience: Octavia has only ever slept with one person, once.

Story of First Kiss: In The Howling rooms drunk on Whiskey and Music while laughing about how much life sucked at times. She kissed Russell in hopes it would dissolve the constant feeling and yearning in her stomach for Lucas.

Story of Loss of Virginity: Octavia lost her virginity recently to Russell

A Social Person?: Octavia is a very big people person and gets/feels better whenever she is around people. But she also likes her space to read and play music, although, she doesn’t mind doing this with people around as long as they leave her be.

Most Comfortable Around: Leo, Lucas, Russell, Mia, Sophia, Camille & Jack

Oldest Friend: Lucas Price.

How Does she Think Others Perceive Her?: Octavia has different opinions, but those close to her she believes see her as someone with an open mind who is willing to do what she has to do to get a job done. She is respectful and loyal and will now bow out if someone needs her.

How Do Others Actually Perceive Him?: Octavia really isn’t sure what peoples formed opinions of her are.

SECRETS:

Life Goals: To meet someone who she can spend her life with, she does not want anything extravagant in terms of money but she does want a love just like she reads in her favourite books and love films--- she wants to have adventures, night walks on the beach and laughter with a glass of wine around a piano at night; all she hopes for beside that is to one day have a little boy and be a mother just like her mother had been.

Dreams: Octavia has a dream that one day she’ll be married.

Greatest Fears: Trypanphobia, Claustrophobia & Pseudodysphagia

Most Ashamed Of: Although she does love her life of Crime she is ashamed of herself for never carrying on with her education and going on to be like her mother and work for the government in languages. She feels she let her parents down, even if they are not around to see it.

Secret Hobbies: She collects stamps from every place

Crimes Committed (Was he caught? Charged?): The list of Octavia’s crimes is extensive especially from when she used to work with Lucas. Some of them contain Forgery, Racketeering, Identity Theft, International Sea Extortion, Mafia ties, Homicide amongst many more.

DETAILS/QUIRKS:

Night Owl or Early Bird?: Night Owl

Light or Heavy Sleeper?: Heavy Sleeper

Favorite Animal: Wolf.

Favorite Food: Smoked Salmon Sushi.

Least Favorite Food: Prunes, Raisins ect.

Favorite Book: War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Least Favorite Book: 50 Shades of Grey.

Favorite Movie: Black Hawk Down

Least Favorite Movie: Star Wars.

Favorite Song: Misererer by Gregorio Allegri, Tebevrae. Allegri.

Favorite Sport: Figure Skating

Coffee or Tea?: Tea

Crunchy or Smooth Peanut Butter?: She hates peanut butter with a passion.

Type of Car she Drives: Mercury Comet 1963

Lefty or Righty?: Right.

Favorite Color: Burgundy.

Cusser?: Swear words are used more often than normal words with Octavia.

Smoker? Drinker? Drug User?: Heavy Smoker and Drinker but she will not touch drugs.

Biggest Regret: Losing her virginity while drunk.

Pets: Octavia has a dog called Yoko.

#eod:task #questionnaire #{ QUESTION TIME }

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