#Viktor internally is like 'i am going to respect his decision i am going to respect his decision i am going t--OH THANK GOD HE SAID YES'

[runespoor7]

YOI Hogwarts Sorting

For several characters I mention alternates. 

I also try to focus on the qualities exhibited by characters rather than decide they don’t fit in a House for lacking certain qualities, and some of there aren’t set in stone either.

Yuuri Katsuki: Gryffindor (or Slytherin)

Gryffindor because home boy has anxiety and puts himself again and again through both the competition and his own brazen claims of love/victory. He is very good at doing or saying outrageous stuff while being semi-terrified, and then being mortified, but he does it over and over and over again. It’s one of the things that most define him in the series, how he pushes forward and through his fear. And we learn that mostly, he’s felt like he’s done it alone, for years. He knows intellectually his family and friends support him, but he’s not able to draw strength from that knowledge (unlike JJ); even in the series, thoughts of others don’t really inspire him, his strength comes not from a sense of community, but from himself and from his refusal to give in to what he considers weakness. That’s a pretty damn Gryffindor set of attitudes to me.

Slytherin works for me because I am delighted in playing up Yuuri’s thirst for recognition, surpassing Viktor Living Legend Nikiforov, and gold medals. Yuuri hates hates hates losing. Yuuri puts “victory at the GPF” on his list of Personal Goals for last season, according to the JSF site. Yuuri’s competitive and self-centered (consider: his disregard for Minami; and I wonder at his distance from Sara Crispino, for instance, and his general non-involvement with skaters close to his age like Michele and Christophe. I’d have thought he’d at least have some comments about them and their skating, but nope. Yuuri pays attention to Phichit and Yuri’s skating and that is that). Also Yuuri’s smirking certitude that Yuri’s underestimating him tingle my Slytherin sense just a bit.

Yuuri’s on-ice attitude of “hate me, I dare you” and high goals get him Gryffindor or Slytherin, I don’t care that his anxiety wants him to be low-key.

 Viktor Nikiforov: Ravenclaw

Viktor values surprises, both surprising others and being surprised himself. He’s consistently delighted when Yuuri stuns him with his skating. He likes breaking the routine, trying new foods, visiting tourist traps, witnessing new things. Curiosity pushes him forward. He wants to be challenged, but more because it’s interesting than to get better: Otabek’s skating for instance catches his attention not because it’s better but because it’s fresh and thus interesting.

It makes him sound a very “ooooh, shiny!” kind of Ravenclaw, but I feel like his being a choreographer also deserves a mention. Even his choice to coach Yuuri. Viktor’s a visionary, an explorer. Curiosity, again.

 Yuri Plisetsky: Hufflepuff

Yura would absolutely make an excellent Gryffindor (he is fierce, loud, and reckless) and would probably sign up for Slytherin in a hot second (“if that’s what it takes for me to win, I’m yours body and soul”), but Hufflepuff fits him and his theme to a T.

Yuri’s thing is Agape.

One of the ways this translates is loyalty. Yuri’s the one putting efforts into dragging Viktor back to Russia, the one staying in touch with Yuuko, seeing his family whenever he can – and financially supporting them according to supplementary material. Twice he’s shown encouraging people. I also salute his tsundere dedication to making Viktor and Yuuri’s lives a living hell over what he judges are unworthy decisions or reactions. Yuri wants the people he looks up to to be as good as they can be.

His competitiveness with Yuuri makes his new found hard work a bit complicated to gauge, but I find it telling he starts to work hard over Yuuri and not over someone he genuinely dislikes like JJ.

Please put my furious child in Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff should get more spiky-cred than it’s given.

 Phichit Chulanont: Hufflepuff

Look I’m just not going to spend paragraphs arguing how the guy’s who the series shows as 1)community-oriented, and 2)a Best Friend, would be the Triwizard champion for Hufflepuff.

 Christophe Giacometti: tentatively Slytherin, but I’m not married to that and could see him a fine member of each House, ask me again in a week and I’ll probably like something else better.

An overabundance of choice even worse than Yuri P.

I could actually spend the rest of the afternoon babbling about Chris, but that’s too long and would rely on a half-ton of headcanon/fanon, so.

When I think of Slytherin for Christophe, I think of his anger in his GPF FS when Viktor cheered him on. How dare you, Viktor. Christophe wanted to defeat you. I think of his being 25 and never having won international gold. I think of his deflecting – oh, without Viktor, he’s not really into it – and his staying in the competition anyway. I think he’s good at being discreet.

…but I could see him in Hufflepuff, too, for his role mirroring Phichit as a best friend, for his smile sliding into melancholy at getting in fifth. For not letting his friendship with Viktor be warped by resentment.

He’s certainly smart – and I think, liking being smart – enough for Ravenclaw, flamboyant enough for Gryffindor.

 Otabek Altin: Slytherin

His inspirational monologue boils down to “be as you as you can be; the best you you can be,” with a side of “never satisfied.” What we know of his backstory doesn’t exactly hurt: that boy has made a lot of choices at a very young age to get where he is. He has made a lot of sacrifices. He has thrown himself away to be reborn better. Otabek is all about the price, and patiently working toward his goal. He’s good at bidding his time: see his friendship with Yuri. He is a master of theatrics. (Look. No-one performs a dashing rescue on a motorbike before doing a dramatic reveal of backstory with a perfectly-designed compliment on the eyes of the person one’s speaking with, in a gloriously scenic vista in front of a motherfucking sunset without being extremely talented at theatrics.) Last year, he looked so disappointed with his bronze at Worlds.

I could see a case for Gryffindor, but from where I stand, he’s such a perfect image for a deeply heroic Slytherin it seems a shame not to put him there. 

 JJ Leroy: Gryffindor

On paper, he has attributes I do often associate with Slytherin in others.

In practice, he’s so Gryffindor it hurts.

 Georgi Popovich: …I just don’t know; so much of Georgi is wrapped up in his thing with Anya. He could arguably fit pretty much anywhere.

I have to admit to a bias. Georgi’s attitude toward his ex makes me so uneasy I very much want to avoid putting him in Hufflepuff, because I don’t want to conflate his issues re:women with loyalty. What Georgi shows about Anya isn’t loyalty, it’s obsession and a refusal to see her as a person. He constantly thinks of her as the object of his affections. Emphasis on “object”.

Based on the rich, meticulous narrative structure of both his programs, I’m considering Ravenclaw. Georgi clearly put a lot of personal thoughts in these programs, the story he’s telling is very detailed, well-researched (see the Sleeping Beauty inspiration), and extremely expressive.

Aside from that, I’m left with Georgi’s age: he’s as old as Viktor, always second best to him even nationally, and hasn’t retired – in fact retirement doesn’t even cross his mind. And Yakov thinking that of all his skaters, Georgi is the most receptive.

I don’t know what to make of that, and I’m not married to Georgi being in Ravenclaw, but I do think it’s an idea.

 Michele Crispino: Gryffindor (?)

I feel like Gryffindor would tragically be a good fit. Anyone so caught up on their own narrative of being chivalrous and wanting to protect their sister forever would do well in Gryffindor; the very deliberately heroic imagery of his SP influences me some.

However, Hufflepuff might be a good fit too, much for the same reasons.

 Sara Crispino: Slytherin or Gryffindor

So, Sara’s unafraid of striking out on her own. She’s willing to sacrifice things and she’s willing to be ruthless to get what she wants/needs, see her “breaking up” with Michele right before his FS. She wants things and she goes after them, whether it’s Michele respecting her individuality, Seung-Gil, or interactions with Yuuri. She’s also the one skater able to pull off a specific combination (that I have momentarily forgotten) until Michele homages it, and when talking to him she’s very direct about wanting to reach the GPF.

 Emil Nikola: Hufflepuff

Wants everyone to get along, mellow, takes very well the fact that he’s not going to finish his FS cleanly in his inner monologue.

Precious sunshine.

 Seung Gil Lee: Slytherin

“I want the gold,” his theme for the season shouts at the top of its lungs. “I want it all.”

Then we have the fact that he specifically requested to skate a mambo. Unfortunately, Seung Gil doesn’t elaborate at any point why he chooses anything he did, so I’m left speculating: is it a new approach for him? If so, what is the reason behind the change? Does he want to surprise the judges, for better scores? To be more rounded up as a skater? Is he interested at all in that music and his will to “explore masculine sex appeal” yaddayadda or is he merely taking the approach of imitating Chris, who’s consistently ranked second behind Viktor with that style (so it’s repeatable, unlike Viktor’s own approach)? Depending on these, I guess I might see him in Ravenclaw if we’re getting desperate for Ravenclaws.

 Guang Hong: Hufflepuff (alternate: Gryffindor)

With the caveat I think he’s an actual cutie-pie, etc, and reserve to right to change my mind when I’ve done more thinking about him.

Hufflepuff feels a bit of a cop-out, simply because he’s so moe innocent and young and adorable. I like the idea of Gryffindor, for the riffing on the tone of his FS and his epic fictional taking-the-bullet for Leo.

 Leo de la Iglesia: Ravenclaw

An 18-year-old doing his own choreography piques my interest.

 Mila Babicheva: not a goddamn clue

I have zero idea what Mila’s inner life looks like. She teases Yuri and she’s clearly fond of him, she’s friendly with Sara (if not a friend), and she’s often used as audience reaction (whether it’s cackling/being D: about Georgi, wishing Viktor had been there for Yuuri to skate his FS well at the Rostelecom cup, or noticing Otabek). She likes fun.

But I have no clue about her motivations or her fears or her goals, so. Be free, little headcanons.

 Minami Kenjirou: cutest little Gryffinpuff

Hush, that’s totally a House.

[yoi-secret-valentines2017]

Distance

Summary: Yuri’s ups and downs as he goes to the Four Continents Competition to see Otabek compete. 

Words: 1,388

Notes: this is a fluffy one, also includes long internal monologues by none other than Yuri Plisetsky, also, Otabek’s younger sister is inspired by this.

I hope you enjoy this @panda-nati! Also, this isn’t your only gift ;) I’ll send you the link to the other one after this gets published.

—-

Yuri Plisetsky regretted the decision of booking the same flight as Yuuri and Viktor Nikiforov-Katsuki. An even more regrettable decision was sitting next to the obnoxiously happy married couple for a nine hour flight. Though as regrettable those aforementioned decisions were, he couldn’t say that  the reason he endured the cringiness of a couple in love wasn’t for a good reason; he was going to see his friend (and current crush) Otabek Altin skate at the Four Continents competing in Gangneung, South Korea.

If there was one person that Yuri had even remotely a  smidgen of respect for (outside of his Grandpa, of course), it would have to be Otabek; hell, he wouldn’t even mind if Otabek beat him at some random competition because Otabek was that cool (well, he would be okay with it as long as it wasn’t a major competition of course, but even then Yuri would probably give him a thumbs up or something along the lines of that).

Had the flight been painful? Extremely so. Yuuri and Viktor had been disgustingly touchy with all that hand holding, cheek kissing, fingers-through-hair brushing and bleh. The worst part of it was that they had said “I love you” incessantly– so incessantly that it felt like they were saying a variation of that with every few words; it even radiated from how they touched each other! Was it that necessary to cling to each other that way? What was  even worse was Yuuri’s attempts to call Viktor by some Russian petname and Viktor reciprocating that action in his husband’s native tongue. No matter how many times Yuri tried to block it out with some raging metal music– and the occasional fluffy cat videos that nobody but him could know about– but none of it really effectively soothed Yuri’s irritation at the two. By the end of the flight, he was seething with pure discomfort and of course some rage that had been amplified by angsty teenage hormones, and when the gates finally opened Yuri had been rushing out of his seat (so much so that he almost ran over some poor old lady because of how intense his need to get away from the two love birds was that strong; though, he did have to admit that it was better that the two were annoying him with their affection instead of bickering or fighting, but his teenage brain blocked out this rationality with rage and annoyance, as it does any other teen).

After they had gotten off of the plane, they sat in some chairs near the waiting area and discussed plans and the technicalities of what they were going to do before, during, and after the competition. Yuri was a bit bored and honestly jet lagged through the entire conversation. He didn’t really care much for plans during the competition because it excluded him since he had already competed–and won– the European Championships the month prior, and he and Otabek had planned to spend the days before the competition hanging out.

“Oi, old man, I’m hungry,” Yuri complained to no avail as Viktor, at the ripe old age of 29, didn’t seem to hear him. Yuri repeated, “I’m hungry,” as he fiddled with his phone some more. If the flight and the fatigue hadn’t rendered him a bit grumpy already, being ignored sure did.

Yuri tapped the older man on the shoulder. “Oi I’m hungry, let’s go get something to eat.” Thrice, Yuri was ignored. He is literally deaf, Yuri thought, I knew you were old Viktor but not that old. In that moment, Yuri had found a perfect opportunity to reach his hand into Viktor’s coat pocket and slip out his wallet without the older man noticing since he was too absorbed in the conversation with his husband to actually pay attention. Yuri snuck off without either of the two noticing, snickering at his success as he wandered around.

Thanks for some cash, Viktor, Yuri thought as he merrily skipped down to where all the food was.

————-

After a bit of wandering, Yuri managed to find some food places. It was there that he realized that with Vikor’s credit card he could probably spend as much as he wanted– have you seen how much this guy makes–and that spending a load of Viktor’s money on food was the best revenge for 9 hours of constant “Yuuri~” this and “Yuuri~” that.

After heading to some fast food joint and ordering a burger (a rarity since he was an athlete and all; but he had to admit that he burger was pretty satisfying, as proven when he scarfed down the entire thing in a matter of mere minutes), Yuri passed by a coffee shop. Initially, he payed no attention to it since he didn’t have any particular affinity for coffee, nor did he got to coffee shops often, but he did remember Otabek mentioning how his younger sister would often go and buy something called a “frappucino” and that they were pretty good. Besides, the smaller drinks that don’t even seem all to fancy cost like a whole five dollars anyways so what better way to waste spend Viktor’s money?

He had a hard time picking at the menu, but he eventually went to choose a Caramel Frappucino, Otabek’s little sister’s favorite. Once his order came in, he immediately thought of Otabek and sent him a candid shot of his expensively luxurious drink.

Almost as soon as Yuri sent out the text, his text chime for Otabek sounded; My sister is so jealous right now. Yuri snickered in response.

And how about you, beka? Are ya jealous of me too? Yuri texted in response. He took a sip from his expensive, fancy, froufrou drink, making note about the sweet, almost dessert like taste that lingered in his mouth– not what he was expecting from a coffee shop, and definitely out of character with Otabek’s edgy and urban style. Yuri nearly snorted with laughter as he imagined Otabek and his liitle sister sipping on this dessert.

I actually am haha, Otabek replied, that drink is really good, huh?

I can’t believe you actually drink this beka. Do you drink this while leaning on your motor bike like some tough guy? Yuri couldn’t help but be amused by how the conversation was going.

I might not be able to be intimidating while drinking a drink like that but I swear my sister looks like she’s a mob boss when she drinks this.

Especially on that motor bike of yours? Wearing her bedazzled leather jacket and biker boots?

Especially on that motor bike of mine and of course with her bedazzled everything.

Yuri could barely holding in his laughter as he opened an image Otabek had sent him: it was his little sister, pink dress and bedazzled leather jacket all, glaring intimidatingly into the camera with lowered sunglasses and a caramel frappucino in her hand. It had to be one of the cutest pictures he had ever seen of the ten-year-old and he was loving every second of it. The picture was too adorably perfect not to be saved.

Tell the little brat that she has even me looking up to her right now with that level of cool she has going on, Yuri texts back.

Yuri almost immediately felt a sort of pang of nostalgia in his heart. As much as he did want to see Otabek more, the only times he could were during competitions; for the rest of the year, they were constrained to communicate mostly through texts and video chats. None of those were the same as actually seeing Otabek in person. It didn’t make up for all the simple touches that they weren’t able to share, nor did it make up for the all the time they couldn’t share just being close together. There always felt like there was distance between them when they talked on the phone that would always disappear when they got to see each other. Yuri wanted that distance to close.

The sound of a text message arriving maade Yuri’s heart race out of surprise. Yuri, look up the text said. With slight confusion, Yuri did look up. A smile had never spread across his face this fast.

“Otabek!”

And thus the distance was starting to close once more.