#tw for mentions of unhealthy coach-competitor relationships

[henrysglock]

Listen to me. Listen. If you give me the chance to talk about a Henry figure skater au I will NEVER shut up about it. He's so incredibly elite skater coded you don't even know. Brenner is so incredibly "coach who's after glory and doesn't care that he's pushing kids to their breaking points" coded.

I'm going to talk about it under the cut because I have SO much to say

Henry's signature jumping pass is a delayed double axel. What he misses in points on it, he makes up with artistry points and upgrading other jumps to quads. He's one of the few mens skaters who can do a proper Bielmann. His technique is strong, but his artistry is stronger. His nimbleness on the ice and the way he seems suspended in midair on his delayed 2A are what gets him nicknamed "the spider". He's generally quiet and unhappy, which everyone mistakes for him being heartless and aloof. He's not, it's just that Brenner doesn't know when to stop pushing, which is why Henry is never smiling in his press releases. He got two consecutive grand prix finals gold medals before The Scandal where he supposedly attacked a fellow skater before having The most disastrous injury the skating world has ever seen. He's rumored to have killed himself after the whole debacle. (He's not dead. He bums around Hawkins Community Ice Arena at the early freestyle sessions that No One ever attends...except Eleanor Hopper, when Jim can get his ass out of bed to take her) Virginia originally wanted him to "be a man" and do hockey while Alice did FS, but he's not um. built for that, exactly. So she stuck him with Brenner hoping Brenner could make something useful out of him.

When they were younger: Scott (who's part of AV club in addition to working on the school paper) was Not a team sports guy and would rather find more interesting things than football, and who better to talk about than the kid who's going to junior nationals?? They fall out of touch when they've graduated and Henry's time is completely monopolized by Brenner, who wants to craft him into the perfect super-weapon of a skater (spoiler: all he actually does is give him a mental breakdown, a physical breakdown, and get him banned from competition by framing him once he's showing signs of becoming obsolete)

Henry's disaster injury that I mentioned earlier comes about from years of simply being pushed consistently past his limit mentally and physically. He's exhausted. Everyone's body has a breaking point, and he happens to hit that point in the middle of an uncharacteristically sloppy routine on a botched 4Lz. He cracks his skull on the ice, and he's "lucky" he didn't die. It may not have killed him, but it did make his memory of the events leading up to the injury spotty at best, which makes it that much easier for Brenner to pin everything on him being a bad seed with whom he did his best.

After being all but excommunicated from the FS community, Henry drops off the face of the Earth. No one but Scott, Victor, and Alice know what he's up to (which is: dating Scott and having a much needed mental health break).

Henry flies under the radar that way until he meets El, who happens to have been training under Brenner for several years. Henry totally poaches her from Brenner, even though he himself has zero coaching experience. It's alright, because he and El are on the same wavelength when it comes to their approaches to complex skills. The only pictures of him smiling at press releases are after he takes El on as a student.

El absolutely smacks Angela in the face with her skate. Jonathan, high, tells her it could have been so much worse, at least she had her rubber blade guard on. Henry poaching El from Brenner is what reintroduces him to the skating community, but his defense of El in her mini-scandal reopens the overdue investigation into his own scandal. Deeper digging reveals the depth of Brenner's involvement, as well as evidence of decades of concealed abuse within the relationship.

Henry and Alice did pairs as children, and they were actually a pretty good team. Alice fell out of the sport after a bad fall, which Virginia blames Henry for (and Henry silently blames himself for). The blame and guilt in that regard only makes it easier for Brenner to be a piece of shit and get away with it.

Lonnie wanted Will to do hockey. Will isn't the hockey type, but he does enjoy bumming around with El and the Party at public skate. Mike is literally Bambi on ice, but it's endearing.

Jim 100% thought Henry was creeping on El at the early freestyle sessions until he figured out that oh. Henry's with Scott, and Brenner's the sicko. He and Henry started out on the wrong foot and never really recovered from it. They're like two feral cats forced to share territory.

This is 100% me self-indulging with Henry and El's mentor-student potential. He's her rink Dad, okay?

HCIA is nicknamed the "Rainbow Rink" a) because of the rainbow tiling on the lobby floor, and later b) because it's associated with Henry, who's rumored (later confirmed) to be gay.

Scott is also Bambi on ice. It's okay, it's just another reason for him to hold Henry's hand <3