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callioope · 1 year

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I'm this close to finishing the first draft of my rebelcaptain fencing AU... yes, I know I've been saying that since NaNoWriMo 2020. My new year's resolution for 2023 is to finish and post it!

In the meantime, here's a brief summary, a link to the snippet from chapter one, and a snippet from chapter two.

Description: A rising star in youth fencing, Jyn Erso was once on track to become an Olympic-level athlete. But then, age 16, she quit unexpectedly. Her break from fencing unraveled her life. Three years later, she still refuses to discuss the subject, even with her father, a former Olympic medalist, and her best friend, Bodhi, who’s just returned from competing in the Olympics. It’s fine, it’s working – until she meets Cassian Andor, the kindest, most interesting person she’s ever met. Except for one problem: he’s also an Olympic-level fencer.

Excerpt from chapter two:

Jyn crosses her arms and waits. She’s elbow to elbow with strangers in the crowded cafe she and Bodhi chose for their weekly lunch. It’s not normally this popular, but it seems the dreary weather has convinced everyone and their mother that a cup of soup sounds quite nice.

Sighing, she glances over her shoulder, towards the filled seating where Bodhi has aggressively commandeered a table. He waves when she catches his eyes. She smiles back, but then looks past him, at the gray sky and gathering water droplets on the windows.

The days trudge along, minutes dragging like hours. It’s been two weeks since she scampered like a coward from Cassian’s home, from a well-cooked meal, from hope and possibility. Sometimes, she thinks she sees him passing on the street or in the hallway, and she ducks into an alcove or a classroom. Saw would be ashamed. That thought does nothing to help, merely reminds her why she’s in this mess in the first place.

“Order for Erso!”

She jolts back to the present, sees an employee place their order on the counter: a tray for Jyn’s meal, a tray for Bodhi’s, and two drinks. If only Bodhi hadn’t needed to stake out a table; now she’s stuck trying to balance it all.

“You seem like you’re carrying a lot.”

Turning, she sees her English professor. “Hi, Professor Malbus. My friend went to save a seat.”

He nods. “Chirrut’s doing the same.”

“Well, it’s good to see you.” Jyn moves towards the seating area, but her professor keeps talking.

“While you’re here,” he starts. It sounds ominous, and it occurs to Jyn that had her food been called just twenty seconds earlier, perhaps she could have avoided this conversation entirely. “I wanted to talk to you about your last paper.”

“Oh.” Yeah, bad feeling justified.

“I appreciate you handing it in early,” he says. The writing takes her mind off things. “But it seems a little rushed. You still have time before the deadline, if you want to take another stab at it.”

His phrasing pierces her a little more pointedly than he probably realizes. Am I really this sensitive to it after all this time? What doesn’t help is that she’d actually spent quite a bit of time mulling over that assignment.

“Of course, professor.”

He frowns. “I’m sorry — you’re busy. Let’s talk it over in my office hours next week.”

“Thanks.”

Her steps might be a little heavier as she leaves the counter area and winds her way through the seating, but at least she’s pretty sure they wouldn’t qualify as outright stomping.

At least this day couldn’t possibly get any worse.

Midway through the seating, she realizes she has no idea where she’s going, and she looks around again for Bodhi.

And instead, she finds Cassian.

Never think it can’t get worse, she reminds herself.

In fact, Cassian is, for some reason, talking to Bodhi, so at least she’s succeeded in locating her final destination.

She stands there staring for far too long, other customers bumping past her, until Cassian glances away from Bodhi just for a second, just long enough to accidentally meet her gaze.

She wonders if she looks as caught off guard as he does.

Bodhi follows Cassian’s gaze. “Oh, finally!”

His words jumpstart her mind, and she covers the remaining distance between them.

During that time, her mind screams, “How the hell do you two know each other!”

But instead, she says, “Sorry for the wait.”

“It’s fine,” they both answer her, although Cassian’s sounds a little less sincere.

All three of them frown. Bodhi and Cassian glance back and forth between each other and her in confusion.

Slightly faster on the uptake — she did have a split second advantage — Jyn places Bodhi’s food in front of him, all the while avoiding the intensity of Cassian’s gaze. “So,” she says, staring at her seat but not getting into it, “how do you two know each other?”

“I — we — what?” Bodhi says. He shakes his head as if to shake his thoughts loose. “He’s our bronze medalist in epee.”

Jyn’s eyes widen, but it shouldn’t be that shocking. She had remembered he’d taken gold at that Junior Olympics all those years ago. Just because she left fencing behind didn’t mean everyone did. Bodhi, after all, had stuck with it.

Before she can respond, Cassian says, “Wait, how do you two know each other?”

Both Jyn and Bodhi hesitate. And then Bodhi sends Jyn a look that somehow manages to be both apologetic and defiant, and says, “We used to train together under Saw Gerrera.”

Cassian meets her wide-eyed gaze with his own. “You’re… Jyn Erso?”

Sighing, she settles into the seat next to Bodhi. “Yeah.”

“Fuck.”

“Wrong f-word.”

His gaze bores into hers, like he’s trying to figure her out. She thinks — she hopes — that maybe he has enough information to understand why she ran, since she hasn’t been able to find the words to explain it.

“Well…” he finally says. “I should go.”

“No one’s going anywhere,” Bodhi says, and they both jerk guiltily toward him, “until we get to the bottom of this.”

That wasn’t the line, Jyn thinks inanely. But Bodhi thinks as fast as either of them, maybe faster, and apparently has no need to ask the same question a third time.

When he doesn’t continue, Jyn says warily, “There’s no … bottom… Bodhi…”

“Yes, there is, and you both are stuck in it.”

She looks down at her food, pokes her salad with her fork.

“It’s fine,” Cassian says. “You don’t need to—”

“Sit!”

Startled into compliance, Cassian sits. Despite everything, Jyn smirks. Cassian, it would seem, is less familiar with Bodhi’s determined “I will aggressively logic you into happiness” routine. It really only works because disappointing him is literally the worst feeling in the world, worse even than losing a fencing bout had been, once upon a time. And that’s really saying something because she wasn’t the most gracious loser.

“You’re miserable,” he starts, pointing at Jyn with his own fork, “because you haven’t seen that photographer chef since that date two weeks ago. You know, the one where you were all, ‘this is the best date I’ve ever been on’…”

“Whoa.” Jyn’s eyes dart nervously between Bodhi and Cassian. “I didn’t say it like —”

“And you’re miserable,” Bodhi says, turning to Cassian, “because the last date you went on, two weeks ago, the awesome writer undergrad you met left early and hasn’t returned your calls.”

“If she’s not interested,” Cassian says, without looking up from the table, “that’s not her fault.”

Jyn winces like he just thrust his sword into her heart.

Of course, it would seem that she’d struck him first.

#rebelcaptain #jyn x cassian #rogue one #jyn erso #cassian andor #my writing #rebelcaptain fencing au #wip #work in progress

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coeurdastronaute · 2 years

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Winter Olympics, Ch. 4

Previously on Winter Olympics

The cheering of the crowd didn’t really come in over the whooshing of the air through her helmet, not until she slowed. The wind was generous at her back so she felt like she was flying even more. The thick, grey clouds felt like they were nearly within her grasp sometimes.

There was a rhythm to half pipe, to her routine, one that she’d memorized to highlight her mastery, one that was so much fun, she couldn’t believe she got to compete with it, one that she did better than anyone else, and with a few surprises thrown in. When she hit the final trick, she pumped her fist and tossed her hands up, happy with the entirety of it, more than she ever thought possible.

Nearly out of breath, Clarke stopped near the fences where her coach and parents waited to congratulate her. She knew before she looked up that it was going to be a good score. She felt it. It was one of the most flawless runs she’d ever had. It was like dancing to her. If she’d been a pianist, she would have hit every note with just the right amount, at just the right time-- a symphony from her board.

When the score was announced, she heard Bellamy above the rest, screaming for her, earning a hug from him quickly before her mother swallowed her and Kane patted her back with a half hug around her.

Grinning madly, Clarke tossed her head back and closed her eyes. 92.8. She’d qualify first. It was tough mark to beat, not that Anya couldn’t. Clarke just had to hope the Canadian was a little less capable today. The Australians went wild as Clarke walked past, allowing them to swallow her as well. Her cheeks were going to break, she was certain as she entered the waiting area after a quick interview.

“You’re an asshole,” Anya punched her shoulder and then hugged her tightly. “That was amazing. Seriously. I’m going to go DQ just so I don’t have to feel bad about myself.”

“Shut up. You’ve already qualified,” Clarke rolled her eyes.

She shoved her helmet and goggles into her bag, making sure her board was stacked before pushing the sweaty tendrils out of her eyes.

“Yeah, well now I have to up my game,” she shrugged. “First Aden gets the first goal. Now Lexa with a hat trick. I swear you’re going to make me look bad in front of my grandparents. Of course they couldn’t be here for my early run.”

“I promise to do worse next time your grandparents are coming.”

Clarke filed the news away about Lexa, outrageously happy to hear that she’d performed well. She assumed a hat trick in hockey was the same as in soccer, and if so, that was impressive as hell. Sexy too.

“Did they win their games?”

“What?”

“Your cousins. You know, the more talented ones in your genetic pool.”

“Aden is heading to a shoot out, so not sure yet. Lex…” Anya picked up her phone, rereading a text. “Lexa won 5-0.”

“Wow, that’s… that’s like the spanking I just put on you.”

“You’re seriously an asshole,” Anya growled, earning a smile. “My grandparents got to see both of them kick ass, and I already qualified.”

“So you’re not going to go put on a show?”

Clarke did her best to tame her hair and prepare for media questions in the press room. She imagined there’d be a few after a run like that.

“Safety run for me, coaches orders.”

“Put a little something on it for them at least,” Clarke shrugged.

Anya debated it before nodding and deciding something right there. It was easy to talk like that, almost like teammates. Even though they were on teams, it was a very lonely sport, one that was sometimes hard to make friends in. Clarke valued being friends with her competitor. They made the other better. Anya was the reason she’d just put on the run she had.

“Didn’t hear from Lexa last night. You found her place okay?”

“Yeah, thanks,” she blushed a bit, preparing to change out of her boots, not looking up. But Anya didn’t press, just stood there and nodded thoughtfully.

“Well, if she’s your lucky charm, I really fucked myself, didn’t I?”

The pair shared a chuckle before the Canadian heard her name called to get up to the start. Clarke held her breath though, hoping that was it. It was a tacit acknowledgement, but it was loud enough, she thought. Lexa was camaraderie and a bit of an escape in the middle of the most stressful two weeks of her life. That was it. It didn’t need to be dissected. Clarke found a bit of reprieve, and she wouldn’t think about it too much. She certainly didn’t want to get a talk from an overprotective family member. Not for a crush, which was all this was.

“Go put on a show, Jansen,” Clarke called. “Tomorrow we’ll start over and fight for gold.”

“Won’t be much of a fight,” Anya tossed over her shoulder as she tugged on her helmet and walked out of the tent.

Left to herself, she heard the crowd roaring for whatever the next competitor was doing. Clarke took the moment though, and basked in her most perfect run ever. It was a feeling that nothing could ruin. She marinated in that moment and smiled as she finally caught her breath.

Maybe it was a lucky charm.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dinner was entirely too nice. Clarke hadn’t expected to feel so good, or to have her parents be so excited for her. Maybe it was the arena, that they could see and hear and understand what it all meant to her. Maybe it was just figuring out that she didn’t have to put all of her hopes and dreams before them for their approval. Maybe it was just a hell of a run, and even they could understand something like that.

“You did so good. It’s still a little terrifying watching, but wow,” her mother grinned as they found the restaurant Kane had googled and added to an itinerary. “You did great. I liked your double alley oop. The announcer said it doesn’t get done ever.”

“Yeah, Bellamy wasn’t sure about adding it, but I thought it looked good in practice. My first score was good enough, but I wanted to really set the bar, and with Anya attempting the 1080...”

“An Olympic finalist,” Kane shook his head and smiled. “If I would have known this was waiting the first time you fell on your butt when I took you down the bunny slope… I just wouldn't have believed it.”

Clarke couldn’t help but smile as they sat at their table. It felt a little good to make them proud. It felt even better that they made the effort. It felt like a compromise had been reached somehow.

“What are you guys going to get up to tomorrow before the finals? I’ll be able to hang out more after. Big Air isn’t for a week.”

“I got invited to go see an old friend, Dr. Jaha. Do you remember him?” Abby said as she perused the wine list. “He left to take a position out here when you were… Maybe six or so.”

“Vaguely.”

“We’re getting a tour of UBC’s research labs,” Kane explained. “I think it’s a bit of an undercover sales pitch to your mother, but what do I know?”

“They don’t have the budget for both of us,” she shook her head. “And I’m happy at my lab.”

“Would you take it if they did?” Clarke wondered.

Abby looked to Kane who just looked back and offered a small smile and a shrug. Clarke liked their language. She liked that she had a shit father, and a great dad who supported her as best he could. Marcus Kane bought her the first snowboard she ever owned when she turned eight. He also built her mother a house.

In the dim light of the restaurant, Clarke finally let out a breath, that she was happy they were there, and for a moment, she didn’t feel like the fuck up that couldn’t talk to them about life. She felt vaguely like an adult. Her parents might debate it given that she played in the snow for a living, but after the performance she just gave and the fact that she made the finals with a shot at a medal. It proved something.

“Maybe?” Abby shrugged again, something she wasn’t known to do, giggling slightly. “You’re always in Colorado or Idaho anyway training. I might see you more if we lived on the same continent.”

“I still train in the summer back home.”

“Maybe four months,” her mother reminded her. “If you’re not competing.”

“You don’t have to uproot your life for me, seriously.”

“We’re putting the wagon way before the horse,” Abby reminded the pair. “We’re getting a tour and having dinner with a dear old friend. Nothing more.”

“He’s sending a car,” Kane leaned closer with a grin, spilling it all to Clarke. “A folder of information was delivered to the suite about an our ago.”

“Sounds a little less friendly and a little more showboating,” Clarke agreed.

“Yes, can you bring a bottle,” Abby asked the waiter, ignoring them. “Champagne. My daughter just qualified for an Olympic final tomorrow. Yeah, her,” she nodded as the waiter politely smiled at Clarke. “We’re going to celebrate.”

Clarke rolled her eyes and adjusted the napkin in her lap.

“Just one glass. I do have to get up and, you know, compete.”

“We’re celebrating you accomplishing all you have,” Kane shook his head. “And tomorrow, we’ll celebrate your medal.”

“Don’t jinx me.”

“You kicked ass today. You’re going to do the same tomorrow.”

“I know we haven’t always understood, or thought this was a good idea, but you’ve…” her mother smiled warmly at her across the table. “You’ve really done something amazing and important, Clarke. You can still get a degree, but I want you to kick ass tomorrow.”

“I’m going to try, that’s for sure,” Clarke agreed as the bottle was delivered. “But I think we should drink to Mom’s woo-ing and maybe getting a better funded lab.”

“We can drink to it all,” Abby shook her head as Kane poured. “To being at the Olympics, with our daughter, the Olympian.”

Unsure of where the change in their attitudes was coming from, Clarke didn’t question it too much. It felt good, to have their support. It felt good, for them to acknowledge that they saw the hard work she’d put in. So she took her glass and clinked it with theirs.

“To being here,” she echoed before taking a sip. It tingled her throat and she hopped into debating what to get for dinner with her parents, warm and bubbly all over.

XXXXXXXXX

It wasn’t that late, as her parents dropped her off at the Village before returning to their hotel for the night. Clarke checked her watch again and sighed as she stood in the middle of the small, wintery town that had popped up, picturesque and full of athletes and trainers mingling and walking through the brisk cold, puffs of their breath disappearing into the crisp, clear night sky.

With a heavy sigh, she squinted and looked up at her building before shoving her hands in her pockets and checking the time again, though it hadn’t changed since the minute ago when she looked.

It wasn’t that late, only after nine. Her competition wasn’t until six in the evening the following day, despite knowing full well that she’d be preparing in the hours before. And she kind of wanted to know what was going to happen next to Luke and Leia and Han. Mostly the movie, she told herself as she set her jaw and made a hard right, veering toward the other side of the Village.

When she got off of the elevator on Lexa’s floor, Clarke heard the noise and grew a little nervous. Naturally, she’d celebrate with her team. She should have left. She could have backed right into the elevator had she any sense at all. But the doors closed and her back hit the metal and Clarke realized she was there, now.

“Oh my, oh my,” some cheered as Clarke walked through the hall, dodging bodies toasting to their success, all manner of red, white, and blue on display. “We have a visitor!”

Clarke recognized a face or two from when she’d looked through Lexa’s Instagram. She gave the gaggle that sprawled on the floor and bed in one room a small wave and smile. One climbed up and approached the doorway, tape still on her legs, hair in a messy, wet bun.

“Hey, you’re… the snowboarder, right?” she grinned. “From Australia?”

“Yeah, that’s… I’m one of them, at least.”

“The one who had a great run today?”

“It was alright,” she shrugged.

“We watched the video. Pretty sick.”

“Thanks. Felt good. I should congratulate you all. Impressive win. A shut out, if that’s what you call that.”

“All me,” she beamed proudly as the rest of the team hooted and clapped. “I’m Em. Goalie. Thanks for hosting that welcome party the other night. We all had a blast.”

“That was you?” a few called from the floor.

There was music playing quietly, or at least what seemed quietly because they were all feeling quite excited and loud, recounting and celebrating. It was a little disorienting, to see so many women in sports bras and shorts, just walking around with abs and muscles. It was like being trapped on Themyscira. And Clarke didn’t know where to really look, except that Lexa wasn’t there.

“I heard there’s going to be one on the sixth floor tomorrow, celebrating the first round of medals. Some French speed skaters.”

The team got excited again, drowning out any more suggestions, agreeing that they had to go, which made Clarke feel a little accomplished at least. But the goalie was still standing there, eyeing her a little more carefully than the others, less easily distracted.

“You’re here to see our fearless captain then?”

“I, uh,” Clarke furrowed, racking her brain to figure out if Lexa was the captain or not. “If she’s the one who had the hat trick, then yes.”

The goalie nodded and leaned against the door as she crossed her arms. It didn’t really seem right that everyone in the room had biceps. And traps. The traps were…

“She’s at a family dinner still. It was a pretty decent day at work for the Woods clan, despite you kicking Anya’s ass.”

“I wouldn’t call her third place finish in qualifiers a huge loss.”

“You must not know them that well,” she snickered to herself.

“I think it’s a bit different for Anya.”

“Maybe. But still, a lot to celebrate. Do you want to wait? You can hang out with us. We aren’t that scary.”

A loud argument broke out followed by shrieks of laughter.

“I might head back. Try to keep calm tonight and prepare, I guess,” Clarke decided. “If you… could you let her know I stopped by?”

“Have you maybe considered giving her your number?”

“I kind of like keeping it… casual? That’s not the right word. Low-tech.”

“I’ll let her know a beautiful Australian was looking for her. I’m sure it’ll tickle her after the day she’s had. A hat trick in her first Olympic game and a babe making house calls.”

“Aw, you think I’m a babe?” Clarke teased.

“Not my type. Just thinking about what Lex might call you.”

Clarke chuckled and rolled her eyes.

“I appreciate it. Thanks. And congrats again.”

“Yeah, you too,” she called as Clarke made her way back down the hall.

Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe Clarke didn’t need to see a complete stranger, three nights in a row. It was probably safer that way. Less of a risk of getting attached. Clarke pressed the button and left the women to celebrate their victory. She didn’t think about the looks Lexa’s friend had given her. She didn’t think about the tiny prickling disappoint that she didn’t get to see her. Clarke walked back to her own room and watched the highlights of Lexa’s game on her phone as she trudged through the cold.

XXXXXXXXXX

In just over an hour, Clarke did all of the work she could. She’s returned emails, something she was never keen on doing. She checked her schedule her publicist sent over. She posted a few pictures from the events, and commented on others, putting in her activity time. In a very dumb turn of events, she checked Lexa’s social media. Lexa being pummeled by her teammates in the locker room was featured. Followed by the her knocking gloves after a goal, shouting her joy. The last picture was Lexa at a table in a restaurant similar to the one Clarke had just found herself at with her parents, dimly lit and full of amazing food. She smiled and let an older gentleman Clarke assumed was her grandfather put an arm around her, her cousin on the other side. Clarke recognized Aden from the cafeteria and a smaller woman tucked against his side. Coach sat at the head of it while Lexa hugged her grandmother tightly.

It made Clarke smile, to see it.

She liked it, as if by reflex, as if it was normal to like the picture of a girl she’d slept beside twice and kissed and been disappointed in not seeing.

So convinced was she, that when there was a knock on her door, she assumed it was Bellamy who had taken to incessantly bothering her to come hang out with the rest of the team. But it was nearing eleven, and she couldn’t do it.

But then there was Lexa Woods, standing at her door, no longer trapped as just a picture on her phone.

“You,” Clarke murmured, surprised and relieved.

“Me,” Lexa smiled, bigger than ever before. “You.”

Clarke didn’t say anything, just shifted slightly so the hockey player could pass. She closed the door and watched her aimlessly walk around, hands in her back pockets, stupid smile firmly on her lips.

“Anya was singing your praises tonight. Apparently even she can’t do a double alley oop. At least not yet, she reminded me.”

“I might not have shown her that one yet. Thought she’d like the surprise.”

Lexa nodded and toed the ground, her shoulders moving as she took a deep breath.

“You kicked ass today. I couldn’t make it in time to watch, but I was watching with my dad during Aden’s shoot out.”

“Heard you did alright yourself,” Clarke shrugged. The smile got dopier, if it were possible. It was incredibly endearing. Too much. “I was impressed. I only asked for two goals.”

“I’m a bit of an overachiever. It’s been a curse, really,” Lexa shrugged, carefully taking her coat off. The sweater below clung to her broad shoulders as she flexed and folded it over a chair. “I was given a message by secretary slash goalie that, and this is a quote from her, not my words at all: ‘a smoking hot Australian snowboarder showed up to celebrate with me,’ and that I was an idiot for not giving you my number.”

Lexa had taken the few steps that separated them while Clarke remained rooted against the door. They were nearly toe to toe. Clarke thought she could feel the words wafting across her neck.

“I quite like her.”

“Is it true then?”

“That you’re an idiot? Probably,” Clarke grinned. Hands moved to her hips and she jutted them out slightly.

This Lexa… this Lexa was different than the girl from the hallway and the girl who watched Star Wars in bed. This Lexa was not the Lexa that flopped around in the bed, refusing to get out. This Lexa had a smirk to her. This Lexa grabbed Clarke’s hips and dug her fingers in a little more firm than before. This Lexa was brimming with confidence and sureness that was, as Clarke had feared, downright lethal.

“That you wanted to celebrate with me.”

“I’m actually very invested in Leia,” Clarke decided, looping her arms around Lexa’s neck. “I was promised another movie, and I figured you might need to wind down after your day.”

“I could go for that. But what about you? Wound up at all? “

Her lips were hovering right there, but Clarke didn’t lean forward an inch. They danced, around each other slightly, until their noses touched, until Lexa closed the distance.

“A little,” Clarke swallowed roughly.

When Lexa dipped down to kiss her, finally, Clarke sighed against her mouth before tugging her arms tighter. It was not like the first kiss. It wasn’t even like when they were nearly naked in her bed just a day ago. This kiss was… This was the kiss. She didn’t have time to dwell on what the kiss meant, just that it was the kiss. The defining kiss. The important kiss.

Lips moved to her neck as she rooted her hands in Lexa’s hair. Hands held her still, tugging her closer.

“I’m not distracting you, right?” Lexa whispered against her ear. But Clarke was in a fog, and she shook her head, finding lips again and biting.

When Lexa tried to pull herself away to make sure, Clarke didn’t let her.

“No, you’re not, I promise,” she murmured.

“You have finals tomorrow.”

“Yup.”

Clarke tugged at the sweater until Lexa stood a little straight and finally let her go enough to tug it over her head. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were dilated behind those glasses, now slightly askew on her face. Clarke pulled them off of Lexa’s face before carefully folding them and placing them on a counter behind her. She reached back forward and tugged Lexa’s shirt until she was pressed against the door once more, the hockey player’s entire body pinning her there, hands rooted on either side of her head.

“This is okay?” Lexa asked one final time, holding herself just in Clarke’s focus.

She hadn’t lost her confidence, her smirk, as she ran a hand along Clarke’s neck and tapped her thumb along the collarbone there.

“Yes. I promise.” The hockey player searched her face, squinting slightly, wagering if it was. “Call time isn’t until two, and frankly I have a lot of nervous energy after my performance today and expectations and my parents… so yeah. This is very okay. Very needed. Celebrate all over me, if you want.”

With a burst of laughter, Lexa nodded and debated before turning her sights back to the task at hand. They grinned at each other for a moment before Lexa leaned down again, putting her hands back on Clarke’s hips before slipping them around her.

In an instant she was wrapping her legs around Lexa’s waist and clinging to her neck even tighter than before.

“Don’t hurt yourself. I can’t be the reason for the demise of the US National Women’s Hockey Team captain before she’s out of prelims,” Clarke teased.

“Let me show off a little,” Lexa shrugged. “I might have some energy I need to burn off.”

“So you’re going to bench me?”

“Would you like that?”

It was oddly appealing in a way Clarke hadn’t considered before. Before she could put too much mental effort into the image though, Lexa knelt in her bed and slowly lowered her, hovering them there while kissing her neck.

“Please fuck me,” Clarke whispered against Lexa’s lips as she was pressed into the pillow.

Lexa moaned at the polite request and bit her neck as she scratched at her scalp. Clarke filed away the fact that dirty talk and scratching seemed to do the trick.

In a matter of a minute, she’d been stripped down completely as Lexa knelt between her legs and surveyed her. Clarke watched her face, and she saw her chest heaving, as if she were nearly out of breath. Lexa pushed her hair away from her face before deciding on a hair tie from her wrist to hold it back.

“You,” Clarke nudged her chin.

Lexa knew. She tugged off her shirt and bra and Clarke took her turn appreciating. She touched the tiny little maple leaf tattoo on Lexa’s hip, not noticing it before.

“What if I told you that you were the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen,” Lexa asked, finally holding Clarke’s gaze.

“I think we’re past the chatting up portion. You did good.”

“I still needed you to hear it.”

A hand was pressed against her chest, then slid down her torso before moving back up again. Clarke watched Lexa focus on her hand before adding the other, touching all that she could. It made her back arch up to help.

“Have you decided the answer to my favorite question?”

“What’s that?”

“Whose bed?” Clarke grinned as hands grabbed her hips again and pressed them into the mattress to keep her rooted.

“Is this an invitation?”

“I swear to God, if you don’t--”

Clarke choked on the words as Lexa leaned down and settled between her thighs. They knew which bed.

A really good, very tiny distraction, she chanted to herself as her eyes bolted shut and her head tossed back. She rooted her hands in Lexa’s hair again and gave in.

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freifraufischer · 3 months

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The New Zealand Problem: Painful Choices Edition

Courtney McGregor has recently given an interview where she explains that she's not being permitted to trial for Oceania championships because the criteria require results from the last two years (which she doesn't have). There is a lot of anger and frustration from the gymternet about this but I have a theory about what is going on with New Zealand Gymnastics refusing to allow McGregor to compete for the Oceania trials. It's going to seem a little byzantine as I explain it.

First, remember that Gymnastics New Zealand wants to get a WAG to the Olympics and the New Zealand Olympic Committee is the gatekeeper here. The Olympic Committee has set the policy that you have to be in the top 16 in your sport before they'll send you to the Olympics. A few weeks back I asked Courtney how that was done in 2016 for her and she said that she wasn't directly involved in the conversations but that her impression was that it couldn't be based on a single score or result. She was allowed to go based on her 2015 Worlds, 2016 Pac Rims, and 2016 Test Event placements. The fed needs to be able to make a large picture case for the athlete to the NZ Olympic committee.

Let's start from the basis that Gymnastics New Zealand already knows they can't make that case for Madeleine Marshall or Reece Cobb based on their 2023 Worlds results. Marshall was their best AAer in 93rd and Cobb had their best apparatus result in 56th on Beam.

McGregor would have no spectrum of results to make a case. Even if she won Oceania champs it would be just one result and remember she told me it couldn't just be 1 result. Her last international result was 5 years ago where she was 102nd in the AA at worlds and 17th on vault. I think McGregor is a beautiful gymnast and competitive on the basis of what the New Zealand policy wants their athletes to be. I just strongly suspect GymNZ doesn't think they can make that case for her to the Olympic Committee because of her lack of recent results.

So what's the harm in letting her compete?

Well from a strategic point of view if your goal is "get a New Zealand WAG to the Olympics" ... there is a downside to having her in the field. And yes I know what I'm about to describe is a bit twisted.

Georgia-Rose Brown came 4th and 5th at the Baku and Doha World Cup bars finals last year. She's also in the group that GNZ has elected to send to World Cups this year. Based on "you have to show a set of competitive results" I think GymNZ thinks they can make a case for her. Ideally the case for brown is 2 World Cup finals in 2023, and hopefully a couple more in 2024, with her qualifying at Oceania Championships. I believe based on my understanding of the New Zealand Olympic Committee policy they would send Brown on that basis.

But if Courtney beats Brown at Oceania championships the case for Brown changes. It's no longer a case where (ideally) Brown has a bunch of World Cup results and qualified through Oceania championships. She now has World Cup results which by themselves get her nothing and Brown hasn't qualified in her own right at Oceania championships. They've passed on McGregor for not meeting the standard, and they simply aren't going to consider someone who didn't qualify in their own right.

Is this frustrating and warped and counterintuitive to the idea of competition? Yes. No argument from me. But we're already in a situation where an athlete can win a spot at the Olympics and not be sent. Gymnastics New Zealand looks like the rigid bad guy here for not allowing Courtney to Trial for Oceania Champs. But I doubt they are. I'm sure they would LOVE to be able to to send Courtney to the Olympics if she qualified. It's not personal against her. It's triage.

All of this doesn't mean I don't hope Courtney is able to convince them to send her to Oceania anyway. I hope they do. I'm just trying to get people to see that it's not a "no lose" situation for Gymnastics NZ.

#gymnastics #olympics

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sasuhinasno1fan · 11 months

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Finding you again- Zutara Month Day 20 Part 1

So in honor of day 20 of @zutaramonth prompt ‘College’ I’ve decided to bring back a fic I was working on for Zutara Week 2021, my Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo au, with fencer!Zuko and rhythmic gymnast!Katara. This one is based off the prompt Hair from that year, but it also fits since they’re all attending sports university. It’s an update from the last time I posted this and I’m hoping to actually do all the chapters this time. Anyway, enjoy!

College

“I hear you’re not even father’s son.”

“Disobedient child!”

“Never forget how much I love you my little duckling. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

“Zuko?” closed golden eyes opened and turned to see his coach standing in the doorway of the changing room. “Ready?”

“Yeah. I’m coming.” He tucked the hairpin in his hand into his bag and pulled it onto his shoulder, picking up his foil.

“Do you think it’ll happen again?” Piandao, his coach asked, taking the bag from Zuko after he made sure his student had his items first. “The panic attacks?”

“I don’t know. I still don’t know the cause.” Zuko reminded, fitting his gloves on.

Piandao sighed and stopped the young man, “And I take it you haven’t gone to the therapist I suggested to your uncle?” Zuko didn’t answer which made the bearded man sigh again, this time full of frustration. “Going to therapy is good for an athlete, especially if it helps your panic attacks. You do realise if you weren’t doing so well in training, the school would actually consider removing you. not to mention those who have connections.”

Zuko didn’t need to be reminded that the one person he wanted to avoid for the rest of his life was unfortunately still involved just because of where he went to school.

“I still get the best wins at practise. I beat Jett all the time.”

“But Jett is department captain and wins competitions. It’s been a year since you’ve been able to place in a competition, let alone not get disqualified. Zuko, if it happens again today, I’m pulling you from competitions until you start seeing the therapist.”

Piandao walked ahead, leaving him standing there. The threat was there and worrying. Thing was, as much as he wanted to do this, he knew he was going to end up having a panic attack again.

Never forget how much I love you my little duckling

Those words felt like a lie every time he heard them in his head.

“No?”

He felt uncomfortable as he stared at the guy in front of him. Mako Choi was an up-and-coming fencer. His own brother was well known for his own skill in taekwondo. After his match – where like he predicted, he’d gotten disqualified after the whole room went double, his hearing got wonky and not to mention, his heart beating like it was trying to escape his chest – Mako approached with his coach, asking if Zuko would train him for his Olympic qualifying match in a few months.

“I just don’t see what you can learn from a guy who’s been disqualified from every match since the season started.”

“A lot from the guy I’ve admired since he’s entered the competitive scene.”

Fiddling with the strap to his bag, Zuko shrugged. “Sorry. I don’t think it’s a good idea. That’s my coach over there, Piandao. He could recommend someone better.” Skirting around the two, he darted to where he left his bike, trying not to feel guilty. If things had been normal, he would have agreed. Mako would have hated his teaching style, he was sure, but at least he could have tried. Right now, all he wanted was to go back to his dorm and sleep, even if it meant dealing with Jett later. He was sure it would be snide remarks and threatening to have him do the worst event for the school’s upcoming Sports Day.

He was all set to go, Piandao just coming out of the gym, still talking with Mako and his coach, when his phone rang.

“What Sokka?”

“So, Coach texted the results of the match. Jett wants to talk to you; says he’s got the prefect thing for you to do to make up for your loss. The rice lifting challenge.”

Zuko had to bite his lip to keep from screaming. Their school’s sports day was each Department against each other in different events. It also had the tradition of one member of the Department being a cheerleader. Each event and challenge gained them points to winning the whole Sports Day and usually ended with a bonus in their funding usually for food. The idea of the lifting challenge was like it sounded: to carry as many industrial size bags of rice, like the one the school cafeteria ordered, and hold it for as long as possible, adding more bags to hold every minute. Usually, the Karate Department would be the one to win, Fencing never even coming close.

“I’m not going.” Zuko said, making up his mind. He’d dealt with enough today and not to mention what he was going to have to deal with once his uncle heard he hadn’t gone to his therapist appointment. He hadn’t said it to Piandao, but Uncle Iroh had booked one, he just never went.

“What?”

“I’ll hang out at Lu Ten’s office or something, but I’m not going. Not to the crapshoot of a meeting or to Sports Day. I don’t care what he threatens me with. I’m only coming back to drop my kit off.”

“Um, well…” Sokka sounded hesitant still, instead of warning him to not piss off Jett. Zuko knew what was coming next wasn’t good. “I actually heard Mai was back. Didn’t make it past the preliminaries for the national team I hear.”

Clearly, this day could get worse.

“Screw it, I’m not coming back for the next few days. I’ll be with my uncle if you need me.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Normally I’d be begging you to come back so I don’t deal with a pissed off Jet, but ask Toph to do your event for you. it would put the Weightlifting Department in danger of losing but it would be big help to her. They’ve still been trying to mess with her and she’d love a chance to get back at them. Just come back to campus, drop off your things and ask her. then I’ll take you out for lunch at my dad’s restaurant. You love his marinated salmon.” Sokka enticed.

Zuko sighed. “I want two orders. And you’re paying.”

“Done! Get here soon.”

Zuko didn’t bother answering, stowing his phone away and pushing off, heading towards Republic City Sports University.

Multiple girls watched the blue ribbon flow like water as Katara did a back leg grab turn. As she brought her leg down, she twirled her ribbon to the side, ready for her coach’s next instruction.

“Good. Very good.” Yagoda said. “your turns have gotten much better. I see someone has been practising her stretches on both sides. Now, I want to see your fouettés. If you want to place in the upcoming competition and qualify for the national team eventually, your routine has to be perfect. Ty Lee, pay attention, because I want to see your fouettés after.”

Suki looked at the girl dressed in pink, who pouted at her matching hula hoop. She didn’t know why she was pouting. Ty Lee was already the most flexible out of the whole department, fouettés were easy for her.

Before the girl in blue could start her turns, the door to the practise studio slammed open, the door slamming into the wall. Standing with all the self-importance in the world, her gold eyes gleaming much like her smirk stood Azula Lung, daughter of the Prime Minister of the Fire Nation and ace of the Karate Department at the school. She had a massive amount of sway within the school just because her father. Not that she was a spoiled girl who would threaten her father on people. Oh no, she took care of giving threats herself and she took care of them well. Some people had assumed her father bought her admission, at least until she competed in her first competition with the rest of the department. She placed first, gained a record and left her opponents in bloody messes. Azula had skill and she knew it.

Seeing that she had everyone’s attention, she easily strolled inside, another girl following her. While Azula was dressed in reds and golds, this person was mainly in black. Her lightweight trench had long sleeves that mainly left her nails exposed, the red catching on the lights in the studio. She looked bored and sullen.

“Mai!” Ty Lee cried, running over and throwing herself at the girl. She looked uncomfortable with the hug but she didn’t push Ty Lee off of her.

“Mai has returned from her qualifying competition for the national team. We’ll be taking Ty Lee with us.” Azula announced, not even asked, announced to Yagoda.

Thankfully, while any other coach would bend easily, Yagoda did not. “You can get Ty Lee after practise is over. She still has her own hoop routine to show me, not to mention her routine for the Department cheerleader for Sports Day.”

Azula scoffed. “Sports Day, waste of time. She won’t be attending.”

“She will if she doesn’t want to be benched from the next competition.”

Azula’s smirk turned into a frown as she glared at Yagoda. “You really wanna do this?”

“This might work with your coach, but you’re not my student, and you don’t pay my salary.”

“We’ll see about that. Ty Lee, plan for us to go to Ember Island this weekend. I’ll take care of this.”

Azula turned and walked out, Ty Lee still holding onto Mai.

“I just can’t believe you’re back! I missed you soo much! Are you visiting before you head to the Olympic dorms?”

“Ty Lee. I’ll explain later.” That was all Mai said before peeling off her friend’s hands and walking out.

Katara watched Ty Lee pout, her whole-body slumping before Yagoda clapped, getting everyone’s attention.

“Let’s start again. Katara, fouettés please.”

While Katara was able to land her fouettés with little issue and do a perfect run of her ribbon routine, she kept thinking about what Azula had threatened. Everyone on campus knew that the Karate Department had gotten the old Weightlifting Department’s gym thanks to Azula. No one knew if the threats – because what else could it have been? – had come from Azula or her father. Just that before everyone knew it, the Karate Department was moving into gym that the Weightlifting Department had worked tirelessly to get hold of from the school, leaving the overworked Department to take residence in one of the older gyms. The last thing she wanted was for Yagoda to lose her job thanks to a spoiled girl.

“She won’t fire her. I mean, Ty Lee is her friend.” Suki said, spinning one of her clubs around her hand with ease.

“The same Ty Lee who didn’t seem that bothered her friend was threatening her coach.” Katara reminded, watching Ty Lee run through her routine with ease. She was Katara’s biggest competition, as Suki had no desire to aim for Olympics, instead using rhythmic gymnastics to better her tenssen jutsu skills for when she eventually took over her family’s dojo. Katara truly believed Suki would give Azula a good fight if she’d joined the Karate Department instead.

“Ok, fair. But come on, Yagoda was on the national team until her retirement age, both as a single competitor and as part of the group team. the school would be insane to fire her over something as small as ignoring a student’s demands, even if it was from Azula.”

Thankfully they weren’t going to fire Yagoda. Threaten her Department was a whole other matter.

“They’re threatening to cut our budget if Ty Lee isn’t excused? You can’t be serious!”

After practise was over, most of which had been with Yagoda on her phone arguing with someone – the Dean it would later be gossiped about – she’d called Ty Lee and Katara over and gave the news.

“You’re seriously going to accept this?”

“Katara, if it were up to me, I would ignore Azula’s demands but I can’t without it affecting the whole team.”

“Why are you letting her push people around like this?” Katara asked, turning to Ty Lee.

The girl shrugged, turning the hoop in her hand. “That’s just the way Azula is. She gets what she wants.”

“Yeah, and leaves a wave of destruction behind her.” Katara muttered loudly enough. Ty Lee flinched slightly but she can’t find it within herself to feel sorry. “So, she can’t be our Department cheerleader. Now what?”

“I want you to take her place. I know,” Yagoda interrupted, seeing Katara revving up to complain and protest, “It’s a lot of extra work, but think of it as planning your own routines. I’m usually helping you or giving them to you. if you come up with a good enough routine, I’ll let you perform it at the upcoming competition.”

“That’s not fair! What about me?” Ty Lee complained.

“Maybe don’t use your friends to back out of commitments. Make sure to pass the outfit you got to Katara, it was bought with our budget and I’d rather it didn’t go to waste. Katara, meet me here during open hours so we can go over the routine for Sports Day.”

Ty Lee huffed. “This is so unfair. I’ve been begging to do my own routine for a competition for ages.”

Rolling her eyes, Katara looked at Ty Lee. “And me being forced to take your place so the rest of us don’t suffer is fair? Grow up Ty Lee. You have all the chances to be amazing at this and you give it up to please your friend, who honestly, is nothing but a bully. And the fact that you seem blind to it says a lot about you.”

She didn’t let Ty Lee respond, putting her ribbon away before following Suki out the door.

“Wow.” Suki said, once they had fully exited the gym. “you let her have it.”

Katara dropped her bag on the ground and pulled on her jacket, the Southern Water Tribe symbol proudly displayed on the back. “I’m not gonna feel sorry for her. I mean, who does Azula think she is, just lording over everyone like that, like she’s some princess or something? So, her dad is Prime Minister; technically speaking, so is mine. You don’t see me using my name to do whatever I want.” She complained as she pulled her hair out of its bun.

“because you’ve got sugar in your veins.” A new voice said.

Coming up behind them, led by an oversized Bernese Mountain dog was Toph. If Azula was the Karate Department’s ace at only a sophomore, Toph was the Weightlifting Department’s as the youngest freshmen to be admitted into the school with the most amount of records ever gotten as an incoming freshman. However, many of her teammates didn’t believe she deserved to be there. For one, Toph was blind and another was she was the heir to one of the richest families in the Earth Kingdom. They seemed to ignore Toph ran away from home to even apply and if anything, her blindness made her work even harder. She was sarcastic and sassy and on the worst of days grinded every one of Katara’s nerves, but she was a true friend and Katara felt lucky to have her.

The nicknames she could have done without.

“I heard Azula. What’s the thief up to now?” Toph asked, letting her guide dog lead her past the two rhythmic gymnasts, knowing they’d follow.

“Dragged Ty Lee away for the weekend, leaving Katara here to take her place as Department cheerleader. On the plus side, Katara was given permission to create her own routine for the next competition, which upset the poor Ty Lee.”

Toph burst into laughter. “Serves her right. If she didn’t like it, maybe she should find new friends.”

“I am happy, but it’s already another thing to add to my plate, not to mention practising, checking on dad and now doing what I think is one of the dumbest traditions in the school.”

Toph cackled in a way that told the others she knew something. Toph had this way of just knowing people and hearing things which she used it to her advantage all the time.

“You won’t be saying that when you hear who some of the Departments’ cheerleaders are. Wanna take a guess as to who’s the Fencing Department’s cheerleader?”

Katara looked over at Toph, who’s smile grew maniacal. Usually that meant someone was going to get embarrassed as hell. It usually tended to be Sokka.

“Wouldn’t it be one of the girls?”

“Nope.” Toph shook her head, popping her p.

“Is it-?”

“Katara, watch out!” Suki cried.

Turning the corner, a guy on his bike appeared and with a panicked look, veered off course at the sight of her. She still stumbled over her feet and fell to the ground, her hands pricking in pain as they were scratched. Thankfully though, her jacket took most of the damage. The guy on the other hand, tumbled onto the grass as he was thrown from his bike, the vehicle in question clattering loudly.

She took in the pale skin and dark hair surrounding his face, his gold eye grimacing in pain. It didn’t stop her from noticing the large burn surrounding his right eye. she noticed that his school jacket was the same one Sokka wore, meaning he was in the Fencing Department.

“You should be more careful.” She meant for it to come out a bit nicer, but the anger from dealing the whole situation with Azula and Ty Lee slipped in.

clearly the guy didn’t enjoy being yelled at as he snapped back. “I didn’t see you.” he seemed to rethink his anger and continued in a calmer voice. “Are you ok?”

Katara sighed, trying not to keep hold of her anger. It was an accident and yelling at him wasn’t going to do anything. Though, his pale skin and gold eyes reminded her of Azula, but he hadn’t been the one to manipulate the whole school to get what he wanted. “I’m fine. here.” She got up, pulling his bike up while he grabbed his kit that had fallen off. Other than a few grass stains, he didn’t look too hurt.

“What’s up Sparky?” Toph called, Badger bringing her over and with surprising accuracy, punched the guy in the arm, hard.

“Ow! Stop calling me that.”

“This is Zuko. His dad owns that really cool tea place I keep telling you guys about.” She loosened her grip on Badger’s lead, his signal that he could greet people, as he nosed Zuko for pets. “This is Sugar Queen and Honey, aka Katara and Suki. They’re both Rhythmic Gymnast.”

“Nice to meet you.” Zuko said, wiping his hands from the slobbery kisses Badger gave him in return from the pets on his pants before fitting his bag on his bike again.

“So, have you seen it? what does it look like?” Toph asked, leaning in as Zuko took the bike from Katara.

The gymnast wondered how the two met. Zuko, from what she could tell, was quiet, seeing how he was answering most questions with a few words. Toph was wild and had no filter. Maybe he was different in front of others he knew better.

“How do you – you know what? Never mind. I haven’t seen it, and I don’t know if I can guilt him into showing me. He’s already holding Jett off for me.”

Toph’s face contorted hearing Jett’s name. while she hadn’t been there for Jett’s dating and cheating scheme, Toph didn’t like Jett on principal seeing how Sokka complained about him all the time, he didn’t seem to care that he cheated on Katara and that he was rude to anyone who wasn’t he close friends. While Toph could stand being around Pipsqueak on the weightlifting team, Katara would have to remind Toph that setting Badger on Jett wasn’t a good use of a guide dog.

“What’s his problem now?”

“I’ve been instructed to do the rice lifting challenge for the Fencing Department, but after the day I’ve had, not gonna happen. Any chance you wanna stand in for me?”

“Didn’t you have a competition today?”

“Why do you think I’m avoiding Jett?”

It wasn’t often Katara saw Toph look sorry and with pity. Getting Toph to apologize was near impossible and she’d cover her emotions with her snark most of the time. Clearly whatever relationship she had with Zuko was something deeper than she understood.

“Alright. I overheard the Weightlifting Department talk about switching the orientation of the gym to mess with me, so anything to piss them off.”

“Perfect. I gotta go before Jett finds me, but good luck. And sorry again about knocking you over.” He said to Katara, before he got on his bike and took off.

“So how do you know him?” Suki asked.

“I go to his old man’s tea house sometimes; he was working there and I got to know him and his family. He’s Sokka’s roommate apparently.”

“Oh, that’s Zuko! He’s a pretty good fencer from what I hear. Weird though, I haven’t seen his name in the announcement of students placing.” Suki said, speaking about the posting on their school’s website so they could show off their students and people could keep track.

She had a point. Katara never remembered seeing the name either. She also found it a bit strange Sokka never dragged his roommate to meet the rest of them but at the same time, never really said a bad word about him. There was something about Zuko though that seemed familiar. It wasn’t the burn around his eye, in fact it was his eyes. There was something about the gold that seemed different from other Fire Nation born. It was on the tip of her tongue but nothing came to mind.

“Hey, let’s go find Sokka. Maybe if we catch him off guard, we can get him to agree to let us wax his legs.” Toph said, taking Badger’s harness again.

“Ok, why?”

“Well, you’re cheering for your Department. Who do you think is cheering for the Fencing Department?”

“Oh!” Suki bursting into laughter, grabbing Katara’s arm, “We’ve got to go see this.”

At least there was a small positive for the day. Before they got far, Katara noticed something glinting in the sun. it was a gold hair clip, the design of the Fire Lily shimmering with the inlaid stones. It was exactly where Zuko had landed. She quickly scooped it up, letting Suki drag her along as she took a good look at it. it was beautiful, a bit old if the oxidation on it was anything to go by, but still pretty none the less. But why was Zuko carrying it? his hair was long, but not long enough to need a hair clip like the one she held, not to mention it seemed a bit feminine. So why did he have it?

“What do you mean she wants to get back together?”

Zuko looked up at his cousin, who stopped his job of placing stickers on the bottles. He knew his uncle was going to be coming in with another batch and if they didn’t move quickly, he was going to scold them.

“She moved back. She didn’t make it past the preliminary rounds. She and Azula found me as I got back on campus and she told me she wanted to get back together, that I was the only person she could date. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.”

Mai’s reappearance in his life was something he could have done without. While he gladly gave up any relationship between him and Azula, his relationship with Mai was nice. It was safe and they understood each other. At least until the day he had his first panic attack and it caused the first of many disqualifications and Mai wouldn’t answer his calls. In fact, with Azula smirking in the background, she dumped him like he was nothing, saying her career in archery was more important than him. He wanted to make it as a professional fencer, but never at the expense of the people he cared about. When she stood in front of him, after another disqualification, asking to get back together, he yelled at her. Told her to leave him alone and follow Azula’s orders like the good dog she was. He didn’t regret his words, even after seeing the look on her face.

“Wow. She’s got some nerve.”

“Lu Ten! Zuko! You two better not be talking and not finishing those bottles! That delivery is due in an hour!”

“We got it dad!” Lue Ten called before turning to his younger cousin. “What are you gonna do?”

“Ignore her. There’s nothing I want from her anymore, so it’ll be easy. You’re putting that on crooked.” He pointed out, looking at Lu Ten’s bottle.

“Shit. I could kill Aang. Who orders tea for 3 different Departments the day before they’re needed?”

Zuko didn’t bother mentioning that their younger cousin wasn’t the smartest person with some things. While he focused on putting the correct stickers on the types of bottled tea, all he could think of was where his mother’s hair clip disappeared to. He knew he had it in his bag, resting on the top of his gear. It wasn’t there when he emptied it and it was no where in his room at the house. He had no clue where it could have ended up. The campus was huge and he’d been around quite a bit before heading home so if it did fall out, it could be anywhere.

“Guess I’ll have to ask Sokka.”

“Sorry?”

“Nothing.” There was a lot involving his mother he didn’t want to tell his cousin or his uncle. “Hurry up before Uncle comes with the next batch. Everything starts at 1 pm and I don’t need Jett getting ideas of dragging me back in.”

Thankfully they finished on time and Lu Ten drove them to the school. While he directed Lu Ten to where the Fencing Department would have their tent, he stacked the coolers on top of each other and headed to where Aang said the Track and Field Department would be set up. The noise from Sports Day and people gearing up for events surrounded him. The year before he was ready to try and get his Department on the tiers, even with Jett being an ass. This year, he wanted to be as far away from this as possible.

“Watch it!”

Stopping, Zuko turned to see past the coolers, surprised when he realised, he nearly crashed into Katara again. The last time he saw her, her training clothes were blue, made even more aware with her Southern Water Tribe jacket she’d been in. this time, it looked like Ty Lee had gotten a hold of her and threw her into her own closet. Her cheerleading uniform was bright pink, the Department jacket somehow matching. He guessed Ty Lee had that made since all the Departments lettermen jackets where some shade of grey.

“It’s you.”

“Sorry. We’re creating a habit.”

“Hmm, more like you are, but that’s fine. what is this?”

“Tea, from the Jasmine Dragon. My cousin put in a massive order last night so it’s getting delivered now. It’s for the Track and Field and Weightlifting but I’m sure Toph wouldn’t mind you stealing a bottle.”

“Tempting, but if my coach sees us downing extra sugar before the day is over, she’ll kill me. I heard from my brother that Jett is trying to hunt you down and since I hate Jett, you should probably deliver that before he finds you.” Katara said, pointing over her shoulder, to where the main field was.

“Thanks. Sorry again.” He walked around her when she called for him. He looked over his shoulder, watching her walk up to him, tugging something from the bun she wore. It was a hair clip, a very familiar one. “That’s…”

“I found it the day we met. It was where you landed so I thought it might be yours?”

He dropped the coolers on the ground, taking the hair clip from her. It looked slightly shiny, as if it’d been cleaned. He was about to ask, looking up when he stopped. He really got a good look at Katara, her bright blue eyes, the braid that spilled onto her shoulder, with the minor kinks from being in a bun.

“You, you went to Ba Sing Se Preparatory.” he stated.

“Yes?”

“You screamed at those bullies.”

He couldn’t believe he forgot. Her blue eyes briming with anger, the conviction in her voice as she yelled at the bullies from down below, even Sokka trying to calm her down. her family saved his life.

Zuko crawled carefully on the ledge as he wiped down the windows, the rest of his class pushing desks out of the way to be swept and mopped. Most of his classmates didn’t want him anywhere near an open area, especially with his limited vision but he’d just gotten his bandages taken off and he wasn’t about to let it hinder him.

Without them on, he didn’t see Mom flinch at the sight of them, though the massive burn that he now had wasn’t any better, let alone the lack of hair that had been left too. The fights between his parents were getting worse and Azula’s teasing was starting to become more hurtful than playful. He wanted it all to stop. If he pretended that things were ok, maybe they would be eventually.

“Hey scarface!” Zuko looked over, 3 of his school bullies storming over. He tried not to flinch, already knowing what they were going to yell at him about. They’d been doing it all day. “We lost the race thanks to you!”

Zuko used to be more confident. But after the burns, a few harsh words and he’d start retreating back down into himself. These bullies took advantage of it. During their Sports Day, Zuko had dropped the baton in the relay race and ran in the opposite direction of everyone else, away from the bullies yelling at him.

“Mr. Reversal, can’t believe you’re so stupid.”

“You need a walking stick, scarface? Huh?”

Zuko felt one of them shove him and he expected to hit the window frame. Instead, he went flying out the open window. Zuko would mostly remember being caught by an older man with darker skin, most likely from one of the Water Tribes, with kind blue eyes, who held him as he burst into tears and two younger children. The boy patted his back, telling him not to worry because his sister would take care of it and the girl screaming up at the bullies from the ground floor. Her long braid swung back and forth as she shook her fists and threatened to do violent things to them. her eyes seemed bluer than her families, like the clearest ocean.

Katara blinked at him before she gasped. “Wait, Zuko Lung? You, you were in the River Class with Sokka. You disappeared not long after my dad caught you.”

“My uncle, he took custody and it was far from where he lived, so I had to…I can’t believe I forgot about you. Sokka’s my roommate.”

With a smile, Katara shrugged. “no one ever said he was smart. Are, are you happy? Before you left, you always seemed…”

For the first time since this whole list of messes started, Zuko felt like his smile was real. “I am. I mean, I’m dealing with different things, but for the most part, I’m happier than I have been in years.”

“Good. I should really let you go deliver those before Jett shows up. But, don’t be a stranger, ok?” Zuko had only just picker up the coolers again when Katara got his attention again. “How did you know it was me? You didn’t recognise me yesterday.”

“Your hair. I remembered your braid most of all from that day.”

#zutara month #zutara #Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo #fencer Zuko #fencer sokka #rhythmic gymnasit katara #rhythmic gymnast suki #weightlifter toph #track and feilder aang

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 1 year

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Hey, did I ever tell you people about the night a whole building full of people who had a thousand reasons to hate each other came together for about ten seconds? Here’s a story. It’s not about comedy. Well, it’s sort of slightly about one comedy movie, but it’s not a British one, and that’s not the point.

It was at the Olympic Trials, which took place at the end of 2019, since they were supposed to be for Tokyo 2020. Didn’t end up working out that way, but we didn’t know that in December 2019. In December 2019, we thought this mattered so much.

Three athletes from my team competed, though only one had any hope of winning. Only one coach from my team had the credentials required to sit in corners at that high-level a tournament, so there wasn’t really a need for anyone but him and the competing athletes to go. But we were lucky that the tournament was only about five hours from where I live, and it didn’t cost extra money to put more people in the truck and in the Air B&B. So I went down as a spectator, along with a friend/co-coach of mine who also wasn’t certified to coach, but wanted to watch.

This was one of the only times I’ve ever been at a tournament where I wasn’t a competing athlete or an active coach. For once, I was able to just sit back and enjoy watching my sport, performed at the highest level our country has to offer. All those top-level people whom I normally watched a few at a time, on YouTube and in smaller tournaments – they were all there together, in hotly contested high-stakes matchups.

As I sat in the stands and enjoyed the spectacle, I realized one of the only other times I’d done this was at the first big tournament I’d ever attended. The first time I ever travelled and stayed overnight for my sport, the first time I attended a tournament in an arena instead of a gymnasium. It was in 2005, when I was fourteen years old and qualified for the high school provincial championships.

That was so many years ago now, but I remember it well as the week I really decided that this was what I wanted to do with my life. I’d been doing the sport for almost six months, I liked it, but I’d only seen it on the local scale before. That tournament was so much bigger than I’d imagined it could be. It had athletes who were so much better than any I’d seen before. It had higher stakes.

I wasn’t ready to compete at that level; I sort of lucked into winning my first match and then quickly lost my next two. That meant my job was over within the first few hours of a three-day tournament, so I had many more hours to just sit in the stands and watch. That was the first time I learned that I can watch this sport for hours and hours and hours, with nothing else to do, and not get bored. I watched the people who were good enough to finish in the top six, or even win, and couldn’t imagine ever being that good. But I wanted to try more than I’d ever wanted anything. I pretty much decided that week that I never wanted to do anything except this, I wanted to dedicate every second of my waking life to getting as good as those people who competed in the finals of that tournament, and I stuck to that. Three years later, I did win that tournament. I became the first female athlete from my city to ever win the high school provincials championships in that sport. Which... I realize it doesn’t sound like much, when written down like that. But it was everything to me, at 17, after I’d worked so hard for it for three years. And I remember the moment I decided to work for it, when I was fourteen and sitting in those bleachers.

Sitting there all day at the Olympic Trials made me think of all the hours I’d spent, fifteen years earlier, sitting in the stands of that arena, watching the matches, and falling completely in love with the sport for the first time. The Olympic Trials were on a different level, of course. What impressed me to the point of being mesmerized at age fourteen were high school championships – not the same league as adults competing for spots on the Olympic team, which I watched at age 29. But it was a similar feeling, of getting to just sit and watch this sport that I’d never stopped loving.

I didn’t spend the whole weekend in the stands. I wasn’t certified to a high enough level to get into corners, but I did get a training partner’s pass, so I was allowed into the warm-up room to help the athletes get ready for their matches. It was a room with mats in the middle for training, and along the walls, they’d cordoned off little sections for each team, to be used as mini-change rooms. Which I realize, now that I write this, doesn’t sound impressive. But at the time, that was a sign that we were at an amazingly cool and high-level event, that our team was good enough to have a little section with our name on it at the Olympic Trials, next to the names of all the best teams in the country. I went in there and worked with all three athletes from my team before their matches, letting them practise whatever they wanted with me.

The one athlete we had with a chance of winning is my current roommate. As of when those trials happened, I’d been living with him for almost a year. I’ve now known him for nearly twenty years – I actually first met him at those provincial championships in 2005, when I was fourteen and first fell in love with the sport, and he was eighteen and won a gold medal. I still remember how incredibly fucking exciting it was to watch this guy from my own city win that impossibly huge tournament. He was the only person from my city to win a gold medal there that year. I joined my local club, as soon as I got home, and he became my teammate, and I thought that was so fucking cool.

To be honest, once the initial shine of star-struckness wore off, this guy and I didn’t get along great. We didn’t dislike each other. We were just very different people. We didn’t interact much in our many years of being teammates, and when we did, it was often awkward. You know that Catsdown bit when Huge Davies says him and his dad just have no chemistry so every conversation between them is vaguely uncomfortable? That makes me think of my roommate and I. No chemistry. Different interests, different approaches to life, somewhat clashing personalities. However, in early 2019, he happened to be looking for a roommate, in a two-bedroom place with a good location and cheap rent, at the same time as I was looking for a new place to live. So I moved in, and several years later, here I still am. It works fine. He takes over the house and I almost never leave my bedroom when he’s home.

Our other two athletes at those Olympic trials were a boy and girl, aged 18 and 19, who were dating each other and were our two top athletes at their age group. We knew it would be a long shot for them to win even one match at the Olympic Trials, but we hoped they’d be on the Olympic track by 2024, and we thought it would be valuable experience for them to see what competing at that level was like when they were young.

Our two teenage athletes, as we expected, lost pretty quickly. But my roommate had a hell of a day. He beat several very good opponents, and got into the gold medal match. His finals were against a guy he’d beaten at the national championships in the previous year, but it had been close. So this could go either way.

There was a break before the finals, when we went back to the Air B&B to shower and drop off some stuff. I remember driving back to the venue with my friend, feeling really excited. We’d both been in the sport a long time, had competed and coached at relatively high levels, but had never seen this level in person before. It felt like a big deal, even though we’d only be spectators.

When we got there, one of the first things that happened is a guy from a nearby city was hitting on our female athlete. Luckily we were already late for a planned team meeting, so I had a good excuse to shoo him away by saying she was needed with our team. He asked me to just give him one more minute, just because she was about to give him her number. My answer was:

“No, you fucking idiot. The part where you get her number is exactly the part I don’t want to let you finish doing. Her boyfriend is one of our best athletes, and they’ve already cheated on each other once, and that caused more than enough drama on the team. You beat her boyfriend in a close match earlier this year, so if she cheats on him with you, the ensuing drama might cause our entire team to implode. Also, you compete for a university team run by the coach who’s known for being a terrifying figure and will kick people off his team if they’re caught dating anyone. Not just dating a teammate, but dating anyone. I think it’s fucked up that he’s allowed to control his athletes’ lives to that extent, but he does, and my team currently has an uneasily peaceful relationship with him that we occasionally exploit to train our better athletes in his room, and I am not about to jeopardize that by having this be the reason he kicks out one of his best up-and-coming athletes. You should know better than to risk your spot on the team as well, just because you apparently want to steal your rival’s girlfriend. Now go away.”

Obviously I didn’t say any of that. I said we have a meeting to get to, and then we fucked off. We went into the warm-up room to meet with the rest of the team, and on the way, I almost walked into my former university coach.

That was quite an awkward moment, because he and I had not been on speaking terms for several years, due to some shit that happened after I left the team. Basically, I sent my best athlete, a guy I was very close with, down to that team, and it went quite badly. I didn’t like the way they treated him. They didn’t like the way I did things like still refer to him as “my athlete” when he was on their team.

But he didn’t want to be their athlete. He was calling me all the time to tell me how much he hated being there, and I knew he was right, because I’d seen them treat people badly when I’d been on that team too. It cumulated in one time when I drove him home from a tournament without his coaches’ permission, which is a huge thing you’re never supposed to do. He transferred universities and moved back home, and my former coaches hadn’t spoken to me since. Which made me feel quite sad, even though I fucking hated them by then. Because I’d once been their athlete and craved their approval. Also, I only really hated one of them. The other I still sort of liked despite it all, he’d helped me through a few really tough matches during my time there, and I’d hated burning my bridge with him.

That guy, the coach I didn’t hate, was the guy I walked into at the Olympic Trials. I apologized without even noticing who it was, and then I looked up, saw it was a guy who wasn’t on speaking terms with me, and stopped talking. We had an awkward moment of eye contact before going on our way. But he didn’t spare too much thought for me, because he was busy. He was preparing to coach one of his athletes – my former teammate – who’d competed at the 2016 Olympics, had made it to the finals in the 2020 Olympic Trials, and was about to defend his spot.

There was a huge amount of controversy around that. His opponent in the finals was a guy who lived in the States, trained in the States, and just registered with a Canadian team so he could compete at the Canadian trials. My former coaches had spent the last two years in legal disputes, trying to claim that he did not spend enough time in Canada to be eligible for the Canadian Olympic trials. They paid lawyers to claim this repeatedly, sometimes in actual courts, because when the Olympics are at stake it matters enough to do that. My personal opinion is I’m pretty sure they’re right, but also, that former teammate of mine liked to sexually harass female athletes on my team, and on other teams, while I was there. So I don’t really care about him enough to want his side to win anything, even if they’re right. And they didn’t win – the other guy was legally declared eligible, and now, as expected, they would meet in the finals of the Olympic trials.

Anyway. I got past my coach. Got through the team meeting. Did a bit to help my roommate warm up for his finals, and then I went into the stands with my friend who was also spectating. Our teenage athletes went off to sit with some of their friends from other teams, which is good, because that meant my friend and I didn’t have to pretend to not have the flask that I had hidden in the inside pocket of my leather jacket, like a character in a movie.

Drinking was prohibited in the stands, but obviously everyone who didn’t have to coach, ref, or compete got at least a bit drunk. I put whiskey in a flask I’d brought from home, which is actually a piece of Welcome to Night Vale merchandise that says: “If you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget”. I could probably have got away with taking it out and drinking from it in the stands, but I worried about getting in trouble, so throughout the evening, my friend and I kept taking turns to take the flask to the bathroom during breaks between matches, and having a drink from it in there (don’t worry, our other friend who was actually able to coach in corners, and therefore wasn’t drinking, drove back to the Air B&B that night).

The second time I did that, I went into the bathroom at the same time as a woman who coached the biggest, most successful team in the country. This woman was a huge figure in our sport, largely due to the fact that she’d won three Olympic medals, in three different years, back when she was still competing. I didn’t want to take the drink in front of her, so I went into a stall.

When I did so, I had a brief moment of feeling like I was outside my body. I thought, not for the first time that weekend, of my fourteen-year-old self, spending all day sitting in bleachers and falling in love with a sport, so impressed by those top high school athletes from across the province. I thought… yeah, she’d find this pretty fucking cool. She’d be impressed if she knew that fifteen years later, I’d be going into a bathroom stall next to a three-time Olympic medalist, during the finals of the Olympic trials, so I could take a swig of whiskey without that Olympic medalist noticing. I mean, fourteen-year-old me wouldn’t be pleased about the whiskey, as I was pretty staunchly anti-alcohol back then and would remain that way for quite a few years. But overall, she’d be impressed.

When I came out of the stall, the Olympic medalist looked at me with eyes that said: “I can smell the whiskey and I know what you’re doing.” And I looked back at her with eyes that said: “Well, I know you’re sleeping with your co-coach, even though that’s a massive conflict of interest due to your job on the board that both oversees and funds teams across the country, so your influence allows him to get away with all the shady shit he does, including physical and psychological abuse of his athletes. A pattern of predatory behaviour that goes back to at least when he started sleeping with you, back when he was still married and you were an athlete he coached who was much younger than him. And instead of figuring out that was fucked up, you stayed with him and now you allocate him disproportionate funds and protect him when he hurts other people. So do not fucking judge me for drinking whiskey, because I know what you do with your life. Also, your team doesn’t have to drink in bathrooms because it’s run by the people in charge of enforcing the rules, which means the rules don’t apply to them, so I’m sure they’re just drinking in the stands. And also, remember when I was twenty-two and you tried to ‘talent ID’ me, but you were clearly just worried that I might be a threat to one of your athletes and you were trying to scout out the competition, and I pretty much told you to fuck off? Well that still applies. You can still fuck off.” I didn’t say any of that, or anything at all, obviously. But I tried to convey it with my eyes.

I went back to my seat, with my friend. We watched the finals. Many of the matches were really, really exciting. Near the end, my roommate was up. It was only then that my friend and I realized the problem with the fact that we’d happened to sit in the middle of a whole bunch of his opponent’s teammates. When his opponent walked out, the people around us erupted in cheers.

When my teammate/roommate walked out, it was much quieter. My team is small, is newer on the scene at that level, and we only had a few people there. So my friend and I yelled as loudly as we could for him, to try to make up for our lack of numbers. Across the room, I could hear our two high school kids yelling for him too.

The match started, and the cheers for his opponent continued. Suddenly, I didn’t care anymore than I often found my roommate kind of annoying and we didn’t get along that well. He was my annoying person, and I was pissed off at all people around me who were against him. Throughout the match, I got into it, yelling in support for him. My friend and I attracted attention, of course. People started looking at us like we were on the wrong side, and then they started deliberately trying to drown us out.

It got worse as the match progressed, because it was very close and intense. The two of them went back and forth until the last seconds. It lasted a long time, because they both started bleeding at different times, and the match had to be paused while they dealt with that. In the end, my roommate lost by a couple of points. The two men stood up, both visibly bloody, while everyone around us cheered.

Things quieted down a bit during the next match, and the one after that was my former teammate versus the guy who isn’t actually Canadian. My former teammate walked out to, unusually for that night, almost universal cheers. His opponent, due to not being an actual part of any Canadian team, had no teammates on his side. Everyone in the building knew about the court cases, everyone was upset about this outsider trying to beat our defending Olympian, and for once, everyone was on the same side.

The imposter walked out to silence at first, and then there were some scattered boos. And then, something fantastic happened. I could watch every comedy show that’s ever been recorded, and will never see anything as funny as this. As the American imposter walked out to the mat, my friend next to me yelled out: “He doesn’t even go here!”

Throughout the room, there was laughter and murmuring of agreement. There were more boos, spurred on by her outburst. And in that moment, none of the rest of it mattered. The fact that I don’t get along with my roommate. The fact that I don’t like that woman who runs that other team or her co-coach/illicit sexual partner. My two high school athletes and all their drama, and the people from other teams who hit on them. Controlling university coaches who won’t let their athletes have personal lives. My issues with my former university coaches and teammate. The fact that about ten minutes earlier, my friend and I had known everyone in our vicinity was against us, cheering loudly against my roommate. The politics, the corruption, the infighting. The hundreds of bits of drama from different coaches and athletes and refs and teams across the country, spread out across that room. For just a moment we all forgot about it, and came together to enjoy a perfectly timed Mean Girls reference. A reference like that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I’ll never forget that feeling. Sitting there and realizing I wasn’t surrounded by enemies, I was surrounded by people who had bought into the same thing I had and dedicated their lives to it, just like me. We all had this shared experience. We all cared so deeply that we were willing to fight tooth and nail, literally and figuratively, for this thing we loved. I thought of the day I’d fallen in love with this sport at the age of fourteen, and how every person in that room had had a day like that once, and they all stuck with it, just like I did. That mattered so much more than anything else. That meant we were all more like each other than we were like the vast, vast majority of people in the world.

Then the American imposter beat the shit out of my former teammate, and took the spot. That deflated us a little, but it’s probably for the best, because as I’ve said, I have good reasons to not like the guy much. That moment of feeling at one with everyone else in the room was never going to last. But I still think that moment was beautiful.

Then we all went home, and a few months later the world ended, and no one went to Tokyo in 2020, and none of this fucking mattered anymore.

There’s one more part of to this story. The day after the tournament, after I got home, I heard a song that I’d never heard before. It’s bothering me now that I can’t remember why I heard it, as it wouldn’t have been on the radio or anything. All I can think of is maybe I was clicking around on YouTube and just came across it. Maybe I was still excited from the tournament the day before, so I was playing a bunch of rousing music, and that made YouTube recommend this to me. What I do remember is hearing it and being blown away by both how good it was, and how perfectly its tone captured the way I’d been feeling for the last day. The way I’d been overwhelmed with passion this thing I loved. If I’d listened to the lyrics that closely, I’d have learned that disappointingly, like most things, it’s actually about sex. But from hearing it without knowing the details, it felt like it was about something much bigger than that.

It was a very good song, and I should have downloaded it and added it to my collection, but I didn’t. I think I was busy working when I first heard it, so I didn’t do anything with it, and then I forgot about it. I heard it on that one day, but not before or since, until this morning. This morning, when I was listening to an old Daniel Kitson radio show, and he put this song on.

…Yeah, sorry everyone, the twist at the end of this story is that it turns out this was secretly yet another post about a Daniel Kitson radio show all along. Or at least it was inspired by that, because I heard this song on the radio show, and it made me think of the other time I’d heard it, and then I decided to write this whole thing.

After it finished playing, Kitson put on a John Grant song or some shit, and then back announced them together with no mention of the fact that this song does not belong in the same sentence as John Grant. And that annoyed me. This song is so fucking good that it annoyed me to hear someone regard it with anything less than requisite awe. Even though, to be fair, I did hear it several years ago and then forgot about it. But now that I’ve heard it again it’s going into my collection for sure.

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polyamorouspunk · 5 months

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Heyy tumblr bestie!!

Life is still absolutely *WACK* but its *fine* I took today off work to just not and get my shit together a bit. Dad got biopsy results that he’s refusing to look at, niece is being pulled out of school cause of death threats, and Im just here lol

On a brighter note though! I got invited to a dnd campaign for January so I’ve been working on a really fun new character!! AND, Im taking Mountain Boy to my family’s Christmas party tomorrow which is great cause I’ll get to avoid all the ‘why no boyfriend?’ Questions but also SO nerve wracking cause my family is MUCH crazier than his. But Im excited anyways to make him play cards with me there and meet my fam (except my brother and nephew cause they’re down in Kentucky cause my nephew qualified for the junior olympics for track)

Anyhow, I hope you have a good weekend!! Lots of love! 💛💛💛

-key

Hey there! Love you so much too!

I’m glad Mountain Boy is meeting your family today! Congrats to your nephew! In our family newsletter I saw that on Thanksgiving one of my cousins had a gymnastics meet that they were inviting the family to and I was like man I would go if I still lived in Connecticut. I remember being invited along to my neighbor’s once and it was neat. When I was up visiting you my cousin was doing hers at the college which I think I told you about, you said it was pretty far away, like 5 hours right? She ended up spending the night with me at her grandma’s house the night before I left and I was taking a plane back to NC and she was going to be driving to NC that day as well. Her and her mom just came down to visit the 2nd week of November so her mom could run a race with my mom’s other cousin. And I’ll be looking forward to coming up next summer to visit you again!

I really would love to play dnd but I don’t have anyone to play with and I think I would need to play in person to really understand what’s going on. I was part of a test pilot group for a dnd-style game my friend and their brother pioneered and when I went to stay at their house my friend was like “by the way we’re talking about this game we made up” and both their brother and I were like “yeah OUR friend group was the test subject for that” and they were like OH RIGHT I FORGOT. They have a Friday family game night that I was crashing (they invited me to crash it since I was sleeping there, and invited our other best friend and her husband to crash it too if they wanted) but since it was Halloween it was more of a party where my friend and I watched Bluey for 2 hours and ate food their mom had made and we exchanged gifts and I got gifts too and I was like 😭 thank you 😭

I’ve been keeping it on the down-low but I’m dating again (really lowkey for right now because holiday season is retail is nightmare) but I haven’t really told anyone outside of my discord server because I was like “hey advice on this” and then my friend on discord I talk to every day and my best friend since she had to third-wheel the last date we went on since she was diving me around. My other friends have met her before but I doubt anyone remembers because my other best friend has the WORST memory (like forgetting we were the ones who demoed their game) but my other friend might remember because we all went to college together. I should tell my other friends I just have not.

Sending your dad so much love and support, as well as you and Mountain Boy and the rest of your family.

#punk gets mail

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romcombc · 5 months

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Book Review for Icebreaker

It has taken me FOREVER to write this review and it still feels like I just finished this book yesterday. The layers upon layers between Nate and Anastasia burrow so deep into your psyche that you find yourself thinking about scenes long after you close the book. If you are a fan of Elle Kennedy and have finished the Off-Campus Series - consider this a second helping (yes, I am aware of the Briar U Spin-off).

For as long as she could remember, all Anastasia ever wanted to be was a figure skater. Now, with her partner Aaron, she finally has a chance of qualifying, moving her even closer to her dream of competing in the Olympics. Said dream quickly turns into a nightmare when the antics of the school's hockey team causes one of the only two rinks on campus to shut down, forcing the skaters and hockey players to split rink time. With competitions coming up, consolidated practice time and distractions are not an option, even if the drop dead gorgeous Hockey Captain is apologetic and determined to "make nice". As the hostility builds, the coaches come up with a bright idea to have an icebreaker exercise. Despite skepticism everywhere, it works and bonds are formed. All is well until one run-in leads to an unexpected connection. Reminding herself that she doesn’t do relationships and can live without the drama, Anastasia suddenly realizes there is something (or someone) else she can’t seem to live without.

Icebreaker is definitely one I will read again in the future. Again, it wasn’t the type of book that will have you weeping (fanning yourself – definitely) but it will get those gears moving and give you a lot to think about when it comes to love, life, relationships, friendship, hopes, and dreams.

Check out the spoiler free review in the Facebook Group - The Romantic Comedy Book Club or read the entire review on the main website: https://romcombc.com/book/icebreaker/

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marknephew0 · 2 years

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Buy Retro Roller Skates Online Fundamentals Explained

Obtain sincere assessments on best products & services — provided weekly to your inbox. Just legitimate email deals with get updated. Sign Up Obtain occasional updates and exclusive provide for The New York Times's products and companies. recaptcha status Recaptcha calls for verification I'm not a robot reCAPTCHA Privacy - Conditions Give thanks to you for subscribing. An inaccuracy has developed. Please attempt once more later on. You're currently signed up to this email. View all New York Times newsletters. Since the pandemic began, many people have decided on up roller skating as a activity to keep them moving. Right now in December 2016, this kind of workout has become popular one of children. The same time the NHL announced that it was banning roller skating on boards, it additionally stated that if a activity would get prohibited the upcoming week due to an raised number of children being impacted that time, the video game would be suspended consistently. Whether you're influenced by numerous TikTok videos or just really want a fun outside activity as summer season begins up, roller skating is a classic worth taking up. With some local and indoor play and a handful of nearby skateboard staffs participating, we've found the kind of end result we consistently hoped for during the previous several months. Ski School There's a little little of a preconception surrounding working a ski training program that you may not understand is all around, also though it's most likely not that important.

If you're simply starting out (or incredibly rusty since your childhood years), finding the best beginner roller skates may seem like a daunting duty. But in the new thousand years, it's a lot easier to get started through training yourself, and the knowledge is not dropped. It's better to observe what works for you and discover effectiveness, also though the challenge of discovering your produced requires you to learn coming from various other individuals's experiences so that you may begin your own. "It may be a little overwhelming at times, knowing the different footwear, platter, steering wheels you need, the toe plugs or toe quits," mentions Aimee Mousessian, who was a affordable artistic curler skater for 12 years and currently glides on the side along with the LA Roller Girls, a roller skating amusement provider. "But like my dad, I just like to possess exciting.". The primary objective is to produce it so that those who overlook out can come back for a lengthy time. Your excellent skate will depend on a selection of factors, from your capability degree to your feeling of style. Very most notably, and very most important of all, has to be your attitude. This can easily be a concern of obtaining a sturdy perspective, or having a specific viewpoint on skateboarding so that there would be some understanding for what has took place to you and whether you are ready to do well. At the end of the time you should regularly have your peace of mind and not attempt to succeed. If you're simply starting out, Mousessian recommends finding a footwear that provides great deals of ankle joint support and a tight match. It's not possible to create a rubberized or bent boot that's too flexible for an lengthy treatment along with the very most reliable of lower leg push – which would need a broader, thicker footwear. Therefore with that, let's get to the full set of steps you require to take to make the most of your leg press performance. We put together a checklist of the ideal roller skates and customization recommendations, located on the referrals of two qualified skaters. We asked our close friend and colleague Kevin to send his top six for the yearly Winter Olympics. For the the majority of component, Kevin is the best. 1. Receive Down to No Additional Rope (coming from Baja Bicycle Books): You can't go wrong along with these. The 5 ideal curler skates in 2022: Greatest beginner roller skates: Roller Derby Candi GRL Carlin For those who desire to start skating but aren't ready to make a huge financial investment however, Candi GRL Carlin skates by Roller Derby are a good, exciting pair to begin along with. A great beginner style curler skater who loves their higher high quality, high functionality and high protection, they're produced along with a super sturdy plastic body system made for great riding comfort. Preshous Jordan, who began skating during the course of the pandemic and has given that participated in the LA Roller Girls as a rhythm skater, acquired this precise set when she was just beginning out. Now in her mid-40s, Jordan has been skating under the advice of the likes of her spouse, who trained her while her family was on the verge of collapse. She believes that the only technique this could have took place was if the gals had taken the time to check out on Jordan. These bright-colored skates happen with a synthetic suede shoes, light weight aluminum platter, foot cease, and 82A steering wheels, creating them really good for both in the house and outdoor surfaces. The high-performance skaters are likewise built with a smooth lining, and it has actually an unique leather sole. The leather-made inserts that help make this skate shoes look like the leather of a cross personal trainer are additionally available — it's super easy to slide the leather-made liner over the skates. The footwear is available in four colors and happens in women's measurements. Need More Info? has a delicate, velvety feeling that can easily be worn anywhere. The white is made of a blend of cotton and rayon. In comparison to the black, I didn't see any sort of various other understated distinctions between the two. Generally, I was pleasingly surprised by the truth that I acquired the footwear straight out of the box. I additionally saw the flexible really felt quite pleasant and comfy, yet not quite secure. Jordan suggests these for those looking to dip their feet in to roller skating. Squealing at an fictional ballet dancer After a day of skating, you will definitely notice that many riders usually tend to placed their arms down and position their upper arms in front of their physical body. This suggests that when you don't take your eyes off a ballet dancer, he are going to almost certainly land on the ice for you! A little of recommendations right here goes a lengthy way!

#skating

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your-mail · 2 years

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Euro 2022: Ukrainian referee Maryna Striletska hoping to forget about war

Maryna Striletska's life was turned upside down one morning in February when she woke to find her dogs barking and her husband weeping in front of the television.

"I'll never forget the moment," she tells BBC Sport. "He was watching the news with tears in his eyes and said 'the war has started'."

One of Ukraine's top assistant referees, Striletska had made history just four months earlier as part of the first all-female team to oversee an England men's international.

But that World Cup qualifier between Gareth Southgate's side and minnows Andorra at the Estadi Nacional felt like a world away as army vehicles rolled through her village, 19 miles from the Russian border.

"In the first day, for 24 hours, trucks and military cars came through," she recalls. "The Russian army were friendly, asking us which way to Kyiv.

"They thought we needed help, brought flowers and bread, but after a week they realised we didn't want this help. After that they started to be angry and started shooting civilian cars and I thought maybe I want to leave."

Eventually, Striletska did exactly that, packing her belongings into just one bag and setting out on an arduous dash to safety in Switzerland.

Since then, the 38-year-old has taken up her flag again as an assistant referee in the Swiss men's third division. Next month, she will arrive in England to officiate at the Women's Euros.

The refereeing family has thrown the Ukrainian trailblazer a lifeline. But speaking on Zoom from the bedsit she now shares with her daughter Eva in Basel, she says her outlook on life has changed forever.

'The referee world is like a big family'

Raised in Luhansk, Striletska was more interested in athletics than football as a teenager, but she combined the two at university and played on for six years after her graduation.

"I ran like a crazy horse because I was doing athletics," she says. "I wasn't so good with the ball, but I like running!"

The former midfielder was persuaded to put her athleticism to a new use in 2006, when the Ukrainian FA sought to recruit female referees in each of the country's 24 regions.

"In that time, we had maybe 10 girls in Ukraine refereeing, so each federation decided to find one girl," she says. "They asked me and at the time I was not so happy, but I tried."

Today, Striletska is one of a raft of top-drawer Ukrainian female officials, who include the first woman to referee in the country's men's Premier League, Kateryna Monzul.

Striletska has assisted Monzul in the women's World Cup, Olympics, Euros and Champions League, as well as the men's Europa League, Nations League and under-21 European qualifiers.

Assistant Svitlana Grushko, Referee Kateryna Monzul and assistant Maryna Striletska warm up prior to the match between Andorra and England

Maryna Striletska (right) alongside Kateryna Monzul (centre) and Svitlana Grushko before England's men's World Cup qualifier with Andorra

Kieran Trippier of England talks to assistant referee Maryna Striletska during the match between Andorra and England in October 2021

Maryna Striletska was part of the first all-female referee team to oversee an England men's international

"It's our team, Kateryna, me and Oleksandra [Ardasheva] or Svitlana [Grushko]," she says. "This is a small team, a small family. It's really like sisters.

"But now, since the war has started, I'm seeing that the referee world is like a big family and I feel I am part of that; people want to help."

'For three weeks I cried every day'

It was mid-March when Striletska finally decided to heed the advice of her sister in Switzerland and flee war-torn Ukraine.

The home life she had known - weekends working as an assistant or video assistant referee in the Ukrainian men's Premier League and evenings coaching two girls' teams - was already over.

But the constant fear of bombing from low-flying planes as they roared over her house and concerns for 11-year-old Eva's safety had begun to take its toll.

So, Striletska packed her daughter, a friend's wife and their two children into a car and set off for Poland, sitting at the wheel for hours at a time to beat nightly curfews.

"It was difficult because all the road signs had been taken down," she says. "We had to hide in a village on the journey while we waited for tanks to pass through.

"One time we went to a church and slept on the floor, I'd driven for 18 hours and just wanted to sleep. At 6am we would start again.

"It took me four days. After we got to the border we were queuing for 17 hours, but then after that it was easy - I felt we were safe."

Striletska could only hope that her husband and fellow football coach, Sergiy, would be safe as he had to stay behind.

"He will defend our home because for us it is a second time," she says. "We used to live in Donbas and in 2014 we lost everything and I never saw my parents again before they died."

Reunited with her sister in Switzerland, Striletska initially struggled to think about anything apart from her husband and the war, but football has given her an outlet.

"For three weeks I cried every day," she says. "I was forgetting I was in the world of football because I was thinking about the war. That's why I had to start refereeing."

Maryna Striletska in Lucerne

Maryna Striletska says she is grateful for all the help she has received since arriving in Switzerland

Striletska says the Ukrainian FA, having offered to help all its referees, contacted their Swiss counterparts on her behalf; they gave her matches in the men's third tier Swiss Promotion League.

"I'm so thankful for this because the Swiss federation have given me a lot of games," she says. "It helps because at least for two hours I can forget about the war and just see defenders, attackers, offsides!"

'Enjoy the moment'

With her daughter settling in school, Striletska has been spending her days following her Fifa fitness programme and learning German.

"Switzerland are doing a lot for Ukrainian people, all museums, trains, buses are free for us," she says. "I really can't thank this country enough, they've even organised a free language course for us."

Despite her gratitude, Striletska is desperate for a speedy return to her homeland. For now, though, she stays in touch through the internet.

"Now our region is more or less normal, the Russians have gone to Donbas and the east," she says. "Sometimes my husband says they hear explosions, but not like it was before. Even our sports hall starts work and I'm doing training sessions with the girls online."

Another morale boost is the call-up for a second women's Euros alongside Monzul, who also left Ukraine and has since refereed in the women's Serie A in Italy.

"I was really happy to get the news about the Euros," Striletska says. "It's an unbelievable feeling, I can forget about the war and I'm looking forward to us working together again."

The two were last in the UK in November for Arsenal's Women's Champions League tie with Danish side HB Koge in Borehamwood, then England's Women's World Cup qualifier with Austria at the Stadium of Light.

Striletska's life has changed beyond recognition since then, and so have her values.

"After this I realise you don't need a lot in life," she explains. "Money is not important, the most important thing is relations between people.

"People are helping me, talking to me, bringing fruit for my daughter, small things but helpful, and these are the things that are important in our life.

"We're always trying to reach higher, work harder, buy things, but really, you just need to enjoy the moment."

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shineonyoucrazyyandere · 2 years

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Could you do one of the jofoes falling for the jojo’s sister who is a figure skater and ballerina. A character from part 1-5 please I dunno much about the other parts. Or if you want a jojo falling for the jofoes sister. Head cannons please. Also your writings good. Much better then mine

Yandere! Yoshikage Kira x Figure Skater! Higashikata (pt 4) darling

gonna go with the something just out of your reach angle, and maybe just how Kira tries to internalize falling in love, even if it’s horribly obsessive.

Also Jofoes is gotta be the best shorthand name I’ve heard for the Jojo villains

As much as this working man stuck to a strict schedule every day, he did have have a few interests outside his obsessive behavior. One of the few things he relished in watching was figure skating. He was never the type of man to be into sports. But this stuck for its more calming elegance, nimbleness, and precision.

One specific participant stuck out to him, standing at approximately (y/h), with (length h/c), and (e/c) eyes he couldn’t help but fixate. Something about your unique style stood out to the blond whether it be male or female. Not only that, he could very well tell even behind a television screen, you kept your hands in beautiful condition.

He expected to see you more often on screen, however it seemed from local news you had gotten exceptionally lucky to do so. Regardless of this small obstacle, he took to some private research to any college you may have been attending. It just so happened you had been going to one in Morioh.

“Higashikata....” the surname slipped as a murmur until he spoke of your first. “y/n”

He took your name to heart almost immediately, as well as the most recent photo of you as possible. Honestly you were quite lucky that he was available for the fact his last girlfriend had just recently expired. Unfortunately you wouldn’t be coming back to this city at the moment as you were training in Osaka. With the hope of qualifying for the olympics in the near future.

There was no way of pursuing you outside of leaving Morioh, hunting for your possible location. Even considering his job, he rarely ever had to travel outside the city if ever even. It was a lot for a serial killer like himself to even consider. Especially if you became high profile in the public eye. He also had to keep in mind of the family you had, however his stand could make that less of a worry.

Across the coming days, the thoughts of you become more intrusive. He seeks any appearance you make on the radio or tv, taking in every syllable you spoke. It was a strange feeling not to have the immediate pleasure of having a darling’s hand in his own. A light hope that you would return to satiate his need for your company.

The days lengthened into weeks, then eventually a couple months. He could manage his routine still with some sloppiness, even if it was slightly torturous. Kira could at least convince himself you were just an image, meaningless in the longterm. Though something under the surface of his sociopathic tendencies screamed otherwise. For now he brushed it off, continuing to commute to work as he always did.

It became increasingly difficult to avoid conversation about you. At first it was a few clients casually mentioning their favorite sport. Some of them happening to mention figure skating of all things, nonetheless your own name specifically. Then coworkers would do the same, it was as if something was making a mockery of him.

Another night of obsessively clipping his nails, Kira had taken upon a new habit of listening to the radio every evening he knew figure skating would be mentioned. When your voice never came from the speaker, a disgruntled sigh escaped the man’s lips.

”Where are you?” was the only thing that he mumbled.

Yet again he still attempted the facade of trying to keep a normal life, it was honestly easier to keep everything together when he was covertly killing women.

That evening he decided to take a walk and see if he could possibly find anyone who could be some sort of substitute for his desperation. Yet he found himself nitpicking each of these individuals hands more so than usual, even if they were visibly flawless.

In the end, he ended up finding someone who appeared to have a similar build to yours. As cold as their hand was now, no longer being attached to a human body he should’ve been satisfied.

But he wasnt

But he wasn’t...

He squeezed the amputated hand harshly in his hands, before reprieving his sudden grip.

“I apologize...my temper flared out of control” he whispered into the fingers of this corpse. Lifting it carefully to make it caress his cheek.

”y/n...”

It felt wonderful to say your name like that, almost exhilarating even. The blond’s heart beat in his chest a tad bit faster.

“darling~”

Warmth. Something he hadn’t felt in a while....

Images of you spinning gracefully while gliding across the ice had lingered across his mind.

Yet you weren’t in his possession or anywhere in his vicinity, it was an utter disappointment.

How could a man fix such a situation where he didn’t want to leave Morioh?

That, he simply had no answer for, which was out of his realm of normalcy. He could only hope to find you about around here eventually, to take for himself. It was a delightfully optimistic thing, perhaps even delusional as well. But everyone had to come visit family if they cared for them. Only one visit is what it could take to end this frustrating experience .

He had to keep an appearance of a normal life until he could pounce. So that maybe you both could have something to share.

#yandere x reader #yandere imagines #yandere jjba #yandere #yandere scenario #yandere jjba imagines #yandere jjba x reader #yoshikage kira #Yandere yoshikage kira

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nevermindirah · 3 years

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I hope Simone Biles gets to curl up in the fluffiest blanket and hear the funniest jokes from her very favorite people today.

She's 24 years old — she's an adult, and damn did it show today when she was put in the position of announcing to the world that mental illness symptoms caused her to withdraw from an Olympic event. But fuck, 24 is so young. The idea of being forced to disclose what are probably very severe mental illness symptoms to a global audience while those symptoms are happening, my heart just breaks for her.

The media talks about Simone Biles like she's a superhuman. And hell yes, she's the most exceptional gymnast in history! Rave about her all day long! But she is a goddamn human being. I'd forgotten that Larry Nasser abused her, because the media attention is so laser-focused on her historic talent. The media didn't let me forget that asshole abused Aly Raisman.

I just, the human mind was not built for the intense scrutiny this young woman is facing. And so many of our institutions were built specifically to extract money from the dehumanization of Black women. I just really, really hope all the people who love her are holding and protecting her.

Simone Biles makes stunning withdrawal; U.S. women’s gymnastics takes silver

American gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from her final Olympics team competition in Tokyo on July 27, which ultimately lead to Team USA taking silver. (Allie Caren/The Washington Post)

full article under the cut

By Emily Giambalvo Today (Tuesday July 27, 2021) at 1:39 p.m. EDT

TOKYO — When Simone Biles soars through the air, her skills flow in an effortless rhythm that makes the extraordinary seem simple. She’s been superhumanly dominant for nearly a decade, even with a load of pressure and expectation always resting on her shoulders. But as Biles pushed off the vaulting table Tuesday night, her first flight of the evening, a peculiar sight emerged: She looked lost and shaken as she flipped and twisted, unable to perform the skill she intended.

So Biles did the unthinkable. She stepped away from the meet and her role in the United States’ quest for another Olympic gold medal in the women’s gymnastics team competition.

After her unusual vault, Biles scurried out of the arena with a medical staffer by her side. She said she realized she wasn’t in “the right head space.” When she returned to the competition floor, she pulled her sweatsuit over her leotard and hugged her three teammates, who suddenly became aware they would have to compete without her.

At first, they were stressed and in tears. Ultimately, they earned a silver medal, placing second to the Russian Olympic Committee team.

At 24, Biles is the veteran on the women’s team. But she says she doesn’t trust herself as she used to. The sport doesn’t feel as much fun, she says. Nerves bubble to the surface, especially in the high-stakes environment of an Olympic gymnastics team final. And on Tuesday, it all became too much for the world’s best gymnast.

“I know that this Olympic Games, I wanted it to be for myself,” Biles said afterward, tearing up. “I came here, and I felt like I was still doing it for other people. So that just hurts my heart that doing what I love has been kind of taken away from me to please other people.”

Biles stands among the world’s most popular athletes. She holds power to spark change with her words. She’s been an outspoken critic of USA Gymnastics, the national governing body she represents, and how it failed to protect gymnasts from sexual abuse. Biles is the only self-identified survivor of former national team doctor Larry Nassar’s crimes still competing at the elite level.

After the United States qualified for the team final in second place on Sunday, Biles wrote on social media: “I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times.”

When asked about those comments following her decision to withdraw from the team final, Biles said: “Yeah, that s---- heavy.”

Five years ago, when Biles led the United States to a gold medal at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, she probably wouldn’t have made the choice to withdraw, she told reporters. She said she might have pushed through, attempting dangerous skills while second-guessing herself and “fighting all those demons” that occupied her mind. In 2021, she said, withdrawing was the right option — for her safety and even for the team’s medal chances.

“We want to walk out of here,” Biles said. “Not be dragged out of here on a stretcher or anything. So it's like, got to do what's best for me and that was what was best for the team.”

Biles arrived in Tokyo with the expectation that she could earn up to five gold medals. Now she has a silver and a spot in five individual finals — the all-around competition, as well as the final for each apparatus. But she doesn’t know what lies ahead for her at these Games.

“We’re going to take it a day at a time and we’ll see what happens,” Biles said. She confirmed that she had no physical injury, “just my pride is hurt a little bit.”

With the all-around final Thursday, Biles admits that there will be a quick turnaround. Annie Heffernon, the vice president of the U.S. women’s gymnastics program, said USA Gymnastics has a plan in place to help get Biles the professional support she needs. Biles said in the past, therapy has helped with mental health challenges. But this high-stress atmosphere of the Olympics made the struggle on the competition floor too much to overcome.

“Going into the next couple days, it’s like …” Biles said, pausing to collect her emotions as her teammates wrapped their arms around her. “Sorry,” she then said. “It is what it is. Whatever happens, happens.”

Biles could return to herself — a dominant gymnast who understands that her performance here is secondary. Or she might not feel comfortable enough to compete again. Biles said her goal for the rest of the Olympics is to “focus on my well-being and [that] there’s more to life than just gymnastics.”

As Biles trained for her second Olympics, she said she wanted the Games to be about herself — not about what others thought and not all those otherworldly expectations that she can somehow usually meet anyway. As these Games approached, she said, she felt that mind-set drifting. The struggles seeped into her training, prompting mental errors. The vault in the team final was the first public sign that something was not right, but her teammates had witnessed similar episodes in practices.

“She was giving us a little heart attack,” teammate Jordan Chiles said.

“It just sucks that it happens here at the Olympic Games, because it can happen any other time,” Biles said. “But with the year that it’s been, I’m really not surprised how it played out.”

As Biles stood on the sideline Tuesday night wearing a white sweatsuit and cheering for her teammates, she processed the drastic decision she had made on the sport’s biggest stage.

“At the end of the day we’re human, too,” Biles said, “We have to protect our mind and our body rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do.”

#this is devastating #simone biles #mental health #abuse cw #misogynoir #i'm so tired #olympics #mine

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