ELIJAH WINTERS.
twenty-one. she/her. professional figure skater.
you know that your skin is glitter and sometimes you choke on it but you have never been breakable.
Laying low when you were as tall an obvious as Donovan was proved to be harder than one would think, but in a random Canadian town out of the way from everything he’d been running from, standing out wasn’t as bad as it was back in the States. It wasn’t easy living in Ellingham though. He didn’t so much mind the town as much as he hated how boring it could get. He liked action and excitement, and though he was a skilled bartender, all the tricks and flair he’d learned weren’t needed around here – not in bars or anywhere else. Still, he stuck around cause it had been the longest in years that he’d gone without getting into trouble, and it wasn’t so bad – sometimes there were parties, like tonight. It wasn’t a rave or an EDM festival, but there was booze and loud music and hopefully hot women willing to make poor choices and keep him company for a few hours. He just needed to find the right one. As his eyes scanned around, he dug in his pockets for his cigarettes, wandering without paying attention to his surroundings, and lit up, inhaling deeply before flicking ashes to the wind without thinking about checking about who they could land on.
“Wow, imagine being this fucking brainless!” She hissed, wiping at the ashes that landed on her pristine white coat. Elijah had come to this party to relax, grab a drink and not be used as an ash tray. The accident, coming home to this dumb town and going to this year’s winter bash just all seemed to line up to be the actual worst year of her life. Her eyes narrowed up at the man her hands curling into fists at her sides as she took a wobbly step towards him. She’d already drank too much and as easy is it was for her to get angry sober, the alcohol and the small black stain on the sleeve of her coat made it even easier. “This is Moncler Grenoble, asshole! The very least you could do is say ‘sorry’. Or, you know, not flick your ashes wherever you please. OR better yet, not smoke at all like a good human being.” Her attention fell back to the smeared ashes with a huff, lips curled into a pout as she brushed over the dark spots hoping that maybe they’d come off.
The bash was stupid. Just as she’d expected it to be but she couldn’t bring herself to go home. Free alcohol was free alcohol no matter how ridiculous the people around were. She made it all the way out there and there was no way she was leaving sober-- no matter how annoyed she was. With a drink in hand, Elijah slowly, albeit awkwardly, made her way towards the fire in hopes of finally grabbing a seat to rest for a minute.
“--Can you set up one of those chairs?” She asked almost if she’d already expected the answer to be ‘no’ but held her hands up to show that they were full anyways. “The rest are taken...”
❝ You know that your skin is glitter and sometimes you choke on it but you have never been breakable. You are a million shades of shimmer and even in the dark you cannot pass for dullness.❞
❄ · · · ELIJAH WINTERS has been in Ellingham for NINETEEN years and they look exactly like KATHERYN NEWTON. Having turned TWENTY-ONE years old on their last birthday, they are currently a PROFESSIONAL FIGURE SKATER and ARE HAPPY WITH THAT. Known as the PHOENIX, it’s no secret that they're CONFIDENT & HARD-WORKING, but also IRRITABLE & ARGUMENTATIVE. If you’re to meet them, please remember that they are CIS WOMAN and use SHE/HER. { JO + 26 + SHE/HER + EST }
Pinterest.
Stats Sheet.
Triggers: divorce mention, light mention of verbal abuse, injury mention.
— Her parents met later in life than most. Her father was thirty-four and her mother twenty-nine. They go married in a rush claiming ‘true love’ and ‘soulmates’ and while it seemed to hold true for Elijah’s father, her mother had slowly began to feel otherwise. Two years after their marriage, Elijah’s birth became the glue to keep their little family together. A wide-eyed baby girl who nothing but love for the both of them-- until even she wasn’t enough. The Winters split little by little: her father’s new business took him away and her mother’s long lost dreams of becoming an ice dancer kept her and Elijah at the ice rinks. Lonely dinners, nights without getting tucked in and birthdays and holidays spent alone-- it took twelve years for it all to fall apart.
— Elijah’s mother introduced her to ice skating as soon as she possibly could. At the age of three, she started mini lessons which as time passed would become more and more serious and the nights spent dancing and skating grew longer-- especially since her mother had chose to homeschool her. Unlike her mother, Elijah had a natural talent for dancing, balance and being able to glide across the ice and it would set her on a path that she wouldn’t be able to deviate from until...she physically couldn’t do it. While her dream wasn’t the same as her mother’s, Elijah didn’t seem to mind. She felt at home on the ice, enjoyed the cold days spent spinning around the rink and most definitely didn’t mind the glittery dresses her mother would dress her in for competitions. She worked hard, probably harder than any child should have and had plenty of medals to show for it. Her mother tended to get greedy for her daughter’s victories and while living her dream through Elijah her eyes where more set on the winnings that her own child. Eventually that greed-- those medals glimmering in her eyes and the money from sponsorships growing ever so steadily-- lead to divorce papers written up by Elijah’s silent father when Elijah turned ten.
— All was well after the divorce was finalized. Everything shifted back into its place despite her father moving out of the old family home-- leaving it to his daughter and her mother though they seemed to spend more time in Quebec City for her lessons. Elijah began seeing him less and less with her mother finding multiple reasons to keep her away from her father ( lessons, homeschooling, dance practice, etc.). It went from seeing him everyday ( even if it was brief ) to seeing him once a week, to once every three weeks and eventually only facetime or a phone call every once in a while. Still, Elijah powered through the grueling practices and tough competitions keeping that hurt locked away so that she could focus on her mother’s goals. She became overworked and exhausted which would lead to the first disaster in her career. It was an easy move, one that she could do in her sleep but that day it sent her into the ice hard enough to turn the world black.
— Her first suspension was at a mere twelve years old and her mother grounded her to the Ellingham estate to wait out the after affects of the concussion. They still trained in ballet and drove up to the rinks every weekened, but those few months were the worst. Elijah sat silently, listened to the curses her mother yelled at her over the potential loss of their sponsors. Elijah knew she’d messed up and somehow she would just take it as it was and improve. Next time she wouldn’t make mistakes. Next time she wouldn’t be as tired. Next time she’d practice harder. Next time there wouldn’t be a next time.
— Over those three months that she was grounded, her mother grew close to a handsome man who’d approached them during one of the practices at the rinks. Coffee turned to dinner dates, dinner dates turned to ‘sleep overs’, ‘sleep overs’ turned to boyfriend and girlfriend and before the year was up her mother had decided to move them into his home. He was nice, sure, but Elijah didn’t care for him. He wasn’t her father but she wasn’t sure how she felt about him either. However, his arrival meant rest for Elijah. She could sleep in...she could be a normal teenager. Elijah, as per usual, kept quiet about her feelings. She used her nights alone to speak with her father and go out with what little friends she managed to keep from childhood. She even managed to get a few whole weeks with her father as long as she showed up an hour early for stretches and kept up with her school work. In a way, she was thankful for her future step-father but that’s as far as she extended her friendship to him. Within the next few years, she would take home two more championship gold medals and in the end her mother remarried.
— Winning the senior Canadian championship gold medal sent her straight to the international competitions. A lot of her time was spent on first class flights back and forth from the areas to home. After years of bronzes and silvers, at the age of seventeen ( 2015: two days before her birthday ) she finally won her first world championship gold. The attention she’d garnered for her skating only tripled after her gold medal. Elijah began refusing unnecessary interviews and photoshoots with magazines, her mother and father accepted all the offers. Her mother bathed in her spotlight while Elijah withdrew focusing on practicing for the next competition. She won gold at the world championships the following three years in a row. The season began again and her preparation for the 2018 Olympics started-- but this time her mother set her eyes on a new category: Pairs.
— In between her olympic training, Elijah began training for the pairs world championship in early april. Putting her trust fully into someone else wasn’t something that came easily to her. She had admired the skill it took to dance and skate as one person but...trusting them with her body, with her choreo, with herself wasn’t something she dealt with easily. She her partner was more than capable of the lifts and tosses but Elijah was fine on her own. She was reluctant in practicing the routines with her partner and often threw him the cold shoulder but as time would have it, she warmed up to him. After the initial adjustment and the whole ‘learn to move as one’, their practices went on smoother and they slowly mastered their moves. The Olympics put a hold on their progression but she came home holding a silver for singles and a gold for ice dance. However, her victory was shortly lived as when she got back home it was back to practicing between the parties her mother threw and the ones thrown for her. This carried on until they were finally ready for the first competition of the new season. The pair made it beautifully through the first half of the routine but a simple mistake, only a misstep caused by rough ice, forced her career to come to a crashing halt. Her partner lifted her into the air effortlessly but his skate caught and sent them both to the ice. Though he tried to avoid it, Elijah took the brunt of the fall injuring her knee, shoulder and head badly all at once.
— The media, of course, blew up with words of foulplay or just how bad she--they were and that’s why she ended up in the hospital nursing the injuries. From the moment she opened her eyes, her mother berated her about the accident nonstop and her partner’s texts of apologies and worries only felt like he was taunting her. And Elijah just couldn’t take any more. So she ran. Right back home to her father’s abandoned home in Ellingham-- to the small little town who didn’t care who she was. She could hide from everyone and everything-- and recover. She would recover right?
— And now she’s spending her time pushing herself to hard, being a grinch with a knee brace--- and pushing her limits trying to practice her dance and perhaps she takes a trip to quebec city sometimes. She’s currently ignoring her family’s calls and her partners as well-- trying to get back to how things were when she was younger ( though it wasn’t too much better than it is now ).
PLOTS:
FAMILY FRIENDS: Her mother is quite a social butterfly and would have networked really well in the neighborhood especially since Elijah made a name for herself. I could see her being a part of a like ‘mom friend group’ LOL and you know how kids always k now the other kids because ‘playdates’ or the like.
CHILDHOOD BESTFRIEND(S): I think it’d be fun if she had friends that started skating with her when she was younger and since their moms wasn’t intense like Elijahs, they kind of always tried to pull Eli out of that kind of ‘you always have to be practicing’ mindset and let it be okay that she wanted to do normal kid/teenager things.
EX FRIENDS: Maybe they had a falling out, maybe Elijah didn’t have enough time for them or she wasn’t around enough and they fell out of touch. Maybe they are jealous of her success and she’s jealous of their normal life.
EX BOYFRIENDS: Elijah would have definitely been the type to date behind her mother’s back ( oH YES she is one of THOSE moms because ‘YOU HAVE TO FOCUS’ ) but she’d be preoccupied with skating to really be emotionally involved. perhaps they could have had a causal relationship or they kind of caught feelings and she’d be the type to run from feelings-- or they both ran. Who knows but i think it’d be fun!
SKATING PARTNER: this one is kind of super important to her story and i have a lot of thoughts for him ( i’ll end up sending in a formal wanted connection for him) BUT i think they would have needed to spend a lot of time together during that year of practice and all the lifts and things. I figure they would be almost best friend level ( at least to other people because Elijah is too busy putting up cold fronts ) but i feel as if the conflict that is between them because SHE sees it as him ruining her life ( OK DRAMA QUEEN ALERT ) but he couldn’t help the accident but i feel he’d try to make amends because Good GuyTM
The only thing I remember from my
childhood is when you are scared, make
yourself tall. I’m the tallest girl alive. I’m
the tallest knife. No throat can hold me.
Dalton Day, from the title poem of To Breathe I’m Too Thin (via kuanios)
Now and again her eyes dimmed with tears, but she did not let them escape down her cheeks. She pressed her lips fiercely together and the tears seemed to retreat back inside her, as if drawn by an inner fire.
Irène Némirovsky, tr. by Linda Coverdale, from “Les Vierges,”
(via violentwavesofemotion)
LESSONS LEARNED—
be selfish. snatch back all the
tarnished pieces anyone has ever
stolen from you. we are taught
not to be selfish at a young age,
but tell me why should i break and break
and break for someone else’s greed?
tangentwithtanner
jacobvanloon
prguitarman
turnnoffyourmind
