Is it still a Swan Lake program if you don't flap your arms at least once?

[allekha]

I have finally given in and started to use my rusting Instagram account, mostly because someone's started doing interviews with LGBT+ skaters and allies on it and I want to watch them. (I still don't really get how to Instagram, though. Or why Instagram.) Tomorrow will be an interview with Mae 🥰 Really happy to see this happening, esp. after the whole Yagudin... thing. (Also happy to see Zhenya posted a comment in support of Adam, even though it's probably not the best move politically and she's been friendly with Yagudin in the past. And lots of other skaters have done so, too :) )

(Side note, but why are so many people involved in Russian FS who are old enough to know better acting like such children on social media? I get that there are some strained relationships involved, but warring with others with petty posts and personal attacks and poetry - are they twelve?)

I saw R this weekend before the protest - I helped him with some socially-distanced filming of a photoshoot. This time, the model was clearly very experienced, and watching her constantly adjust her poses reminded me of those videos of Taobao models. It was also great just to see R again for the first time in three months! His mom gave me some baby spider plants, which are now sitting in the window next to the money plant she gave me. I think I need to buy more potting soil to house them, and the money plant could probably do with a bigger pot soon. Outside, I didn't plant a garden this year because of a bunch of uncertainty - though maybe it's not too late to put in some flower seeds? - but my mint is springing forth in its pot and I think my lavender might not be dead.


I have work I need to get done, but I've also started on my rareshipsonbingo table:

Christophe Giacometti/Christophe Giacometti	Georgi Popovich/Katsuki Yuuri	Lilia Baranovskaya/Yakov Feltsman/Christophe Giacometti	Victor Nikiforov/Georgi Popovich	Katsuki Yuuri & Nishigori Takeshi & Nishigori Yuuko
Anya/Christophe Giacometti/Georgi Popovich	Celestino Cialdini/Katsuki Yuuri	Katsuki Yuuri & Victor Nikiforov & Nishigori Yuuko	Yuri Plisetsky & Georgi Popovich	Mila Babicheva & Sara Crispino
Phichit Chulanont/Lee Seung Gil	Michele Crispino/Katsuki Yuuri	FREE SPACE	Katsuki Yuuri/Nishigori Takeshi	Lilia Baranovskaya/Yakov Feltsman
Nishigori Yuuko/Yuri Plisetsky	Christophe Giacometti/Victor Nikiforov	Nikolai Plisetsky/Victor Nikiforov	Phichit Chulanont/Katsuki Mari	Katsuki Yuuri & Okukawa Minako
Katsuki Hiroko & Okukawa Minako	Nishigori Yuuko & Yuri Plisetsky	Christophe Giacometti/Katsuki Mari	Katsuki Mari & Yuri Plisetsky	Anya/Anya's Fiance/Georgi Popovich

I'm also happy with my prompts table - pretty much all of the prompts on the list are good, anyway - but I think I could make more than one line on this one. There's some good and also some unexpected ships on there, like:
Chris/Chris - character most likely to try selfcest, yes?
Lilia/Yakov/Chris - one where the ship itself makes a great prompt. Maybe this is how they get back together? Probably alcohol is involved
Victor/Georgi - this is what I'm working on now, as I already had an idea for it
Michele/Yuuri - Michele MUST PROTECT Sara from this DRUNKEN PERVERT even if it means getting involved with him to distract him!!!
Chris/Victor - yay, my rare OTP made it onto mine :D
Nikolai/Victor - probably not going to write it, but it makes me wish I could draw, because can you imagine Yuri's expression after finding out?
Yuuri & Minako - been thinking about writing something for this relationship - will probably pick something off my prompt card for a starting point
Anya/Anya's Fiance/Georgi - and maybe this is why they broke up lol, sorry Georgi

Comments

[yuuago]

Chris would DEFINITELY fuck his clone. xD Or selfcest or whatever.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for these. :D

[allekha]

Definitely going to have a lot of fun with that one :D And with whatever else on here I decide to try writing, I think!

[adrianners]

I didn't engage with much of the backstage gossip in the Plushenko vs. Yagudin days, but the level of personal, vicious pettiness in their rivalry was super blatant just from basic US TV coverage (not that it stopped me from picking a side, but teen!me wasn't yet tired enough of the Mean Girls shit). Can't imagine what it looked like in Russian media. I'd love to hear a Russian perspective on what the hell is up with the skate fed in general. As you observed, so much public drama from the coaches on down, and it's certainly not new behavior.

Tbh, Yagudin was already starting to creep me out with half his Instagram being promos for his daughters. They're like five and ten! They don't need their own accounts and hashtags! I open IG maybe once a month and still noticed a pattern of general creepy showbiz parent behavior. The shit he said about Jason a while back was the reminder I needed to log in and unfollow him, and then he did... that. I want there to be lasting consequences, but the Russian fans I saw replying to Adam and Jackie didn't seem optimistic that he'd lose the commentating gig or anything similarly impactful.

That's one heck of a bingo card! It's always fun how these things end up being a mix of—for lack of a better term in my brain right now—"plausible" ships and total randomness that really makes you come up with unique scenarios. On that note, I'm intrigued by the Anya/Chris/Georgi square. The timing of that threesome seems self-explanatory, but I can't decide if it has no reason to happen or a million reasons. Chris finding himself the lucky middle of an aggressive "Look what you've lost" competition, maybe?

[allekha]

I am less informed about the background than you, it sounds like; I just know that they hate each other and their coaches also hated each other(?) and also Plushenko is going at it with Eteri on social media as well. What gets to me is that I don't hear about very much about internet drama from the actual teenagers and young adults skating for Russia - just a little here and there that is much lower-stakes in comparison (like Liza liking a few nasty comments about Zhenya last year or that girl who made a dumb joke about doping). I don't try to follow that part very closely, mind.

What he said about Jason (and other skaters) was absolutely unacceptable and unprofessional in every way. And why pick on Jason, of all people? By all accounts he's the sweetest person. And what he said about Adam was even less professional. In a just world he'd at least lose the commentating position because of that, if not for the vile homophobia :\

Ooh, yes, that's another good one on the card; I kind of missed it in favor of the one with her fiance. I'd feel sorry for Chris in that situation, but maybe he'd make the best of it, try to figure out how to turn things back onto the sexy path.

[adrianners]

That whole thing just happened to be going down right when I was getting more into men's skating on the amateur side (soooo much of my 90s skating experience came from pro comps and shows still being a regular thing on US network TV, it's surreal compared to now), so it was hard to miss when these guys were practically unbeatable except by each other.

I figured at the time that targeting Jason was because he "acts gay" (you know, expresses enthusiasm, has female friends), and that seems even more likely now. On an equally cynical note, he's also become a strong threat to the Russian men and their wild inconsistency, and he's done it without a quad. Bit of a sore spot for the Russian dudes there. =\

I like the idea of Chris redirecting the bitter oneupmanship so everybody ends up having fun! That feels very him.