[ open | july post ]

[bringbackgold]

who: Otabek + open
what: Catchall for July. Currently - at the rink. Will update if needed! :)
when: Through July ; Mid day.
where: The Rink
warnings: Nothing to worry about.

ooc note - feel free to send me a message here or on agalio if needed




At the rink; Afternoon

Every second, every movement, every step. It was all a show. Regardless as to whether or not he had an audience, Otabek treated each practice seriously. He treated it like he would be performing to win that gold and bring it back to Kazakhstan. He worked himself hard over the few hours he had at the rink every day. This day was not different. He arrived there shortly before one. He walked towards the edge of the rink and sat on a bench near the door. The ice was always freshly cleaned with the Zamboni at 12:45, so when he arrived, they were always finishing. He could step on fresh ice and enjoy the feel of it beneath his blades. He took of his shoes, sliding on his skates. He tugged the laces tight, and slid the guards off of the blades. He dropped his jacket on the half-wall by the rink, checking the music on his phone, and putting in earbuds before hitting the ice.

The songs that played help keep him focused. He moved smoothly on the ice, warming up. He started with some step sequences, first. Feet moving easily over the ice. The movements came easier as time passed. And as he got more comfortable with the step sequences, he moved onto jumps. Singles - first. He was sure to pause and just skate for a few moments between jumps. He didn't want to wear himself out too quickly. Pacing, his coach would remind him, pacing was important.

As he progressed, he finally moved onto quads. He went through the Quad Salchow first. The move that he remembered learning from someone who was his friend once. His expression shifted for only a moment thinking about the fact that they had shared a lot then. After a brief moment, he returned to his serious, concentrated expression. He tried for a Quad Flip, and flopped. It didn't go well - the first several temps resulted in him hitting the ice or touching down. He'd get up, move, and work on a step sequence between each attempt.

It felt so quiet out here, even with the sound of the music in his ears. And then, he looked up towards the edge of the ice and saw someone, so he made his way over to them, tugging the earbuds out of his ears. "Here to skate?" he asked.

Comments

[realimperfect]

Honestly, she probably could have gotten a lesson or two from Viktor and Yuuri while they'd been here in the Quarantine. She'd spent much of her time with them trying to figure out how it was that they'd come from the Eluvio to here, discussing with Yuuri why things may seem suspicious or just off, those kinds of things. Sensible, at the time, but now with all of her digging...

Well, it was time probably better spent just exploring the Quarantine as a whole. Hindsight and all, really. There wasn't anything that could've been done about it then.

"Makes sense." Honestly she didn't mind it - other than the occasional wobble she was becoming steadier on her feet, more sure as she fell in to the rhythm of skating like this. Not all bad, at any rate, just a process of learning the foot movements and not questioning herself too much. She'd never danced beyond a little bit of a formal ball room balanced on Daedalus' shoes, when she'd been much smaller, so there was little to draw from, there.

"Yes, they do, but at a certain point I need to have it figured out." Constantly having to ask and ask about things that seemed so common place across many versions of Earth wore on her nerves from time to time. "I don't mind asking questions just not things that seem to be so common place."

[bringbackgold]

Otabek considered the entire thing, and then, he offered. "I'll show you sometime." Sometimes, seeing was better than telling, and he found that was the case with figure skating. He felt more at home out here on the ice, than he often did walking around. He had been out here for the better part of his life. Or at least, long enough that this was his life now. He loved everything about it, and had so much to thank for it.

He did note that she seemed to be getting a hang of moving on the blades. It was a tricky sport, really. It was deceptively hard at first. But he found once one got the hang of it, it wasn't something you lost. He liked that he got to share his sport with someone unfamiliar.

"Hmm, I guess," Otabek said. "I'd rather ask than make a horrible mistake. Even for common knowledge things." Truth. He knew that even things others mostly knew, he didn't. There was no way to know everything. He expected that he'd always be learning. "Is it so bad to not know things?" he asked.

[realimperfect]

"That sounds like the best plan, honestly." With many things she'd discovered as of late that was the case, seeing was better than having it explained to her and trying to make sense of it in that way. Most things it was just a matter of having nothing to base her imaginings off of, really, but once she'd had a demonstration things had gotten a little easier.

"Fair point." She concedes on his point about asking instead of making mistakes, though -

"I think to some it just... makes me seem a but unwordly. If that makes any sense at all." She knew she'd lived in a literal dome of isolation, but this was at times a little too intense for her. Particularly with the sheer amount of things she found she had no idea about.

[bringbackgold]

He shifts his feet, skating with ease for a few moments. He was comfortable here, relaxed and easy. The fact that he was so comfortable here made talking easier for him, as well. He took in everything she said when she talked. He's a quiet person by nature, so listening is easy for him. He knows that showing is better, it is why he offered. He was learning that many here were unfamiliar with the sport. He knew Yuri and himself had joked about doing a show, but maybe they should consider doing it for real.

"Maybe," he said. He considered most people here otherworldly, really. He had met many different and interesting people so far in his time here. He had met a robot and an alien and all sorts of different and interesting humans.

"I get what you mean though. Still." His point applied. He was sure even the people from here sometimes asked questions about things. Just everything about this place was a little odd at times.