[attr="class","tbeapponetop2"]

[attr="class","tbeapponetop3"]

[attr="class","tbeapponeper2"]


If there's anything Valeriya Yuna, two-time Grand Prix gold medalist, one-time Worlds gold medalist, prodigal skater who has medaled in nearly every event she's been in- if there's anything this famed skater would tell the world through her skating, it's that her medals are never enough. Her records are never enough. Her fame is never enough. No, she's going to become greater, greater yet. She will become greater than even the bright star we were originally treated to when Val first debuted to the world. Perhaps the skating world can be relieved at this- for as long as Val isn't satisfied, neither is Ren. And as long as neither of them are satisfied, we'll get beautiful spectacles like this years Grand Prix Finals, in which, thus far, defending champion Val is second to her long time rival, Ren, going into the free skate...[break][break][break]

postitive traits driven + graceful + powerful + strong-willed + intelligent

negative traits easily angered + conceited + stubborn + harsh + never satisfied

[attr="class","tbeapponebio2"]

And now, the free skate from Valeriya Yuna.

She will be skating to "Black Betty" as covered by by Caravan Palace.[break][break]

Breath. All the lights are on you. The ice is cold, but the eyes from the crowd- those are warm. You skate around the rink, listening to the cheers, your outfit a pretty, sophisticated thing in black and sequins, your hair tied up into a smart bun, a black hair clip in it. Around your waist, a thin sash. This is the fourth time you've worn this outfit this season, and it's still so different from the pretty red dress you wear for your short program that it makes some people stop and pause. But this whole free skate is different. You normally skate to orchestrated pieces, after all.[break][break]

You get to the center of the rink. You breathe. Your coach nods, and the music cues on.[break][break]

And then, you slowly rise up into a pose, pose to the music, wait until the voice starts to kick in, start gaining speed. Speed's important in figure skating. Speed is important in your life. Without enough speed, without enough power, you can't hit your goals, you can't hit your jumps, you'll hit the ice. So you need to pick up speed, and, on the music, just before the melody kicks in-[break][break]

This is the first jump of her program. She's attempting a triple Lutz-[break][break]

-you drive the toe of your skate into the ice. Opposite edge to opposite edge. Counter-rotated- that is to say, the takeoff edge travels opposite to the direction you turn. It is the second most difficult jump- so of course, you execute it flawlessly. This first jump wasn't one you normally messed up this season, anyway. Around your waist, the chain you always incorporated into your costume, a single, very important Pokeball hanging off of it, swings. Hope's Pokeball. Hope isn't your first Pokemon, except in some ways. You hatched her from an egg you found abandoned before your junior debut- and then, as a small Amaura, she saved your life. You never went anywhere without her after that (though you think your fans just think of her as a good luck charm).[break][break]

You grew up in Snowpoint. There was a rink there, but it was small, run-down. Snowpoint in general could be described that way sometimes- small, run-down, trapped in the past that the temple on its edges symbolized (camel spin, you lift your feet around you, not a jump- you don't land on the same blade). The two Pokemon you got there, Raven and Yuki- they were your parents' gifts to you. They were never really close to you. Not like Hope. They were a place you were always going to leave. That was one jump landed, though. One jump out of seven (eight if you counted the half-loop, but the judges only counted it towards points in the combination). You could do this.[break][break]

-look at that beautiful jump. Here's a skater who's rarely flutzes her Lutz, as they say. *laughter* She has a lot of difficult jumps here- never attempting anything less than a triple out of combinations. If she lands all five cleanly, she'll be one of the first female skaters to manage it. Coming up, her triple axel. While almost her signature jump, due to being one of the few women's skaters who can jump it, she has not landed it without deductions all season.[break][break]

The triple axel. It was an axel that got you out of Snowpoint, it was an axel that got you on your trajectory up, up, always further up. It took a lot of strength to power through an axel at your size. True, at the time, it was only a single axel, but after a visiting skater had just about murdered you for attempting a jump that, in his words, "could have gotten someone killed", he showed you to a coach. You were training for the Junior's season not long after that. The triple axel- it's the sign of your superiority, of how you were always meant to go greater places.[break][break]

It, next to the quad Salchow, is the most difficult jump landed by a female in competition. You are one of the only skaters who can land it. Jumps, your TCS- it was a strength that easily carried you into your Juniors seasons, putting other interregionally classed juniors skaters to shame, easily. (Not that you could quite land a triple axel, then- but an axel at all always wowed the judges.) You were a prodigy. You were the best. You-[break][break]

-you jump.[break][break]

One. Two. Three. You land facing the opposite direction- Axels have an extra half rotation. You land the most perfectly you have in ages. The crowd roars. Their eyes lift you up. You aren't just some juniors skater anymore, now are you? You're thinking of putting a quad in your next program. You need to land it in practice first, true, but you have a man's strength in jumps. That's what got you this far. No, you don't just have a man's strength in jumps- you have a gymnast's strength in components. You were the best at every technical aspect of a skate, to the point where your performance- you almost didn't need it. (You carry Hope with you as you go. You will crawl your way out of Snowpoint. You will become great. Someday, the world will have their eyes on you.)[break][break]

Flawless! That was- John, that was one of the most beautiful jumps I've seen this whole competition. She got such speed going into it, beautiful rotation. Not this competition, Tom- I'd say that's one of the most beautiful triple axels I've seen since Mao Asuma. Just beautiful. Moving into a choreographed section. This skate was choreographed by the Unovan Anna Heartrell. And, as we enter the second half of the skate, where Yuna's put the majority of her jumps- a risky move that's made this routine shakier than normal for her all season- she's attempting a combination.[break][break]

You aren't content to die unremembered. Your senior debut- it was at seventeen. Your first time on the Grand Prix circuit, you take home two bronzes. To your horror, it doesn't get you to the finals. Fine. You've got to go further than that. (Still, at the end of that memorable bronze-metal skate at the Trophée de Kalos, someone throws an actual Pokeball onto the ice. That's how you end up with a cushy Clefairy. You buy a moon stone with your slowly rising sponsorship deals, just to spite the original owner.) Now, a choreographed sequence- it's getting you to that combination jump. This program- it's meant to be about how you grow and how you are the best. About how the best isn't quite good enough- but you can't help but keep looking, can you?[break][break]

Triple flip. You propel yourself from an edge. Half loop. It's a transition to- a double Salchow. You're going to make that a triple for Worlds. Maybe you'll tweak some other elements as well. You strut across the ice, though, in this program. You have to make yourself exude confidence from every pore. Your desire for strength is what brought your home rink to Lyeant instead of Sinnoh, early on in your career. You will continue to drive yourself towards where the strongest places are, the strongest people, until you make yourself a living legend. You will be known for your jumps.[break][break]

Your second season in seniors, you first meet Rena Akuma.[break][break]

-triple flip, half loop, double Salchow and this one's clean as well! Beautiful! The crowd's spellbound by this entire free skate. It's one of my favorites Yuna's ever put on. It's got such passion to it, the kind of step sequences and artistry we aren't used to getting from her. There's such a charisma about this particular free skate, though- and, of course, the jumps are spectacular as always. It's fitting for her theme this season- growth. Coming up on the triple loop.[break][break]

That's the first season you land your triple Axel, and the skating world goes wild at the jump. This is also the season you get your Mawile, because you needed a fifth Pokemon, a third Pokemon- one last Pokemon that wasn't Yuki and Raven, who were your only remnants of the snowy, icy place you'd dragged yourself from, the place you'd dragged yourself from where a newly-hatched Pokemon needed to save your life. Now, the world watched you. Your triple Axel ought to have finished winning you the medals those season. Too bad you didn't know the things you know now. You didn't know how to strut. You didn't know how to breathe the music. What you breathe in is pure ambition and strength and power and technique.[break][break]

You get a silver in the finals to Rena Akuma after barely missing your Axel. Her PCS score taunts you.[break][break]

It's at that moment that you gain a new ambition. You will beat that pretty face into the ground. (You don't realize it then, but it's in that moment that you promise to yourself not to stop skating until she does.)[break][break]

(You're exhausted, but you have no trouble with the triple loop, because honestly? Flubbing this would just be embarrassing after landing a perfect triple Axel.)[break][break]

And it's clean! Honestly, Tom, is this the kind of program you would have seen Yuna do three years ago? No, no it isn't- and I suspect that has everything to do with Rena Akuma. The two of them have quickly become one of the storied rivalries of skating, and it's probably her who's pushed Yuna to try so hard to improve her PCS. Here's the first program I've seen her do, though, where I truly think her performance values could catch the intimately charismatic Akuma, currently first. But with this program, and the high TCS that she's already building up, Akuma may not be first for long. And- here she is coming into her last jump. A triple toeloop is planned.[break][break]

But somewhere in-between? A war happens. You skate anyway, even as the region crumbles around you, shaking. You've gotten used to your home rink here. You've gotten used to your rival a few rinks over. You fuel your fire.[break][break]

(Here's the thing: there's a Pokemon that saved your life around your waist and there's a rival you go back and forth with, breaking each other's records, waiting outside the rink. There's a shattering region around you. You are a phoenix. This is really a skate about that. This is a skate about how you will take weakness and you will force weakness to make you stronger.[break][break]

You side with Parallax, because you think they understand that. So of course, Rena joins the Republic.)[break][break]

One last jump. A few more spins. One more step sequence. Your last jump is coming up, just before the music hits its greatest swell. You don't even have to worry about this one, but you do anyway- your heart is pounding. Your limbs would be shaking, if you let them. This was not an easy free skate. You throw, though, all your anger and your brightness and your knowledge that you will make history stare you in the eyes and think "this was the queen of jumps, the best skater of a generation, a human to be remembered", you throw that desire to push through difficulty into the jump and you land it with such a sudden sense of grace and beauty and not just that, but power and you and the bravado the show requires. It's the easiest jump. The crowd doesn't care.[break][break]

AND SHE'S DONE IT! THAT'S ALL HER JUMPS CLEAN! WHAT A SPELLBINDING FREE PROGRAM BY VALERIYA YUNA! THE PERFORMANCE! THE DIFFICULTY! SHE TRULY REMAINS THE QUEEN OF JUMPS![break][break]

The music crescendos, you step, twirl through a step sequence, your body aching hard as you go just a bit further- you reach the center of the rink, stretching your body into another spin, your final spin, working to spin on the music. Your heart beats in time with the music, even as you're breathing hard. The music ends. The crowd explodes. Flowers fall down onto the ice as you sink to your knees, barely keeping yourself from collapsing, before picking yourself up for a quick lap around the rink before going to the kiss and cry.[break][break]

The scores please for: Valeriya Yuna.[break][break]

As Ren prepares to enter the ice for her own skate, you look her in the eyes.[break][break]

Beat that.

[attr="class","tbeapponebot2"]PLAYED BY SECOND

[attr="class","tbeapponebot3"]