I'm just going to say two things about the avs-knights series:
1) Colorado what the actual FUCK
2) If I'm Pavel Dorofeyev and I've been the slayer of dragons and nhleurope decided to leave me out of their poster, I'd be sending a very strongly worded letter
There's Only One You 2026: a sports rpf short fanwork challenge
Tired of trying to finish your 45k fic on your 30 minute lunch break? Getting bogged down by portraiture that takes over 12 hours to complete? Want to record a podfic that takes exactly as long as the intermission break? Presenting: There’s Only One You - a sports rpf short fanwork prompt meme. YEAR FOUR 🗣️🗣️
All fanworks + all sports rpf welcome.
Prompt format: 1 pairing + 1 word.
Fanwork fills have maximum length: Fic: 2k words // Podfic: 20 minutes // Fanart: 2 hours of effort // Playlists: 10 songs // Vids: 2 minutes // Creative non-fiction: 2000 words // Fan poetry: 25 lines or 5 stanzas, whichever comes first // Zines: 8 pages or 2 hours of effort, whichever comes first.
🔊 SCHEDULE 🔊
Prompts open: NOW!!
Posting opens: March 6 [tbd]
Prompts close: March 13 [at 8pm ET: world clock]
Posting closes: March 20 [at 8pm ET: world clock]
Fanworks revealed: March 21 [at 10am ET: world clock]
Creators revealed: March 26 [at 10am ET: world clock]
World clock leads to timeanddate.com, where you are able to check your timezone against mine.
READ THESE:
INFO.
FAQ.
RULES.
Bonus Info For A Good Time:
Rule changes (for 2026)
Incomplete list of acceptable fanworks!
Participant sidequests!
Art by the amazing @sorrellegiance thank you sor we love you!!
holding celebrities to your own personal moral bar and feeling personally betrayed by them not living up to those expectations, is parasocial and not a healthy way to ingest media of any kind. You should maybe take a break from following celebrity culture altogether. you will not find an "unproblematic fave" in a hockey player. they don't exist in your real life either. you are also not 100% unproblematic, and i can say that generally without having any idea who you are.
we all have our lines for what we will and will not accept from a celebrity before we become unable to support them, and there's nothing wrong with saying "my line has been crossed. i'm done with this person." taking care of yourself should always be your first priority. you can drop teams, players, mutuals, whatever you need to do to feel comfortable, and no one can or should make you feel bad about that.
and here's the one the people from the first point aren't going to like. it's also fully acceptable to say "my life experiences have set my line way further down the road, so nothing that has happened is a deal-breaker for me." and carry on with your fandom identity relatively unchanged.
no one but you gets to tell you how to feel, and anyone trying is just trying to make themselves feel better. so just do what you have to do, and remove yourself from situations you don't feel comfortable in.
notice that i did not say surround yourself with people who share your exact morals and opinions at all times, because 1. they don't exist and 2. building a new echo chamber with sturdier walls is not going to help you deal the next time one of the complete strangers you project onto does something that doesn't fit the script you've assigned to them
Welcome to Not a Cow 2026 — the fourth year of this Dallas Stars fic fest!
A lot has changed since last season, but the sheer amount of love the boys have for each other has not! If at any point you have been moved to inspiration by that love, now is your time to shine. Has something from the Olympics or Olympic break break left you picturing the fic of your dreams? Did a plot pop into your head after seeing some of the fun socials content we've gotten this season? Are you simply always compelled by Victory Green? This is the space to share that with the rest of us!
We'd absolutely love to see love for everything from the team's biggest ships to the ones you'll have to originate the tags for. Let's have some fun with it! Go wild!
i do think the trick to enjoying olympic hockey when your country has never been in it is to pick one of the guys neither the broadcast team nor the photographers particularly care about and just make up your own little stories
friendly reminder that misha's planned program content for the free skate didn't have a 4F. friendly reminder that misha had never successfully landed a 5-quad program despite trying multiple times this season. friendly reminder that only he and petr gumennik managed 5 quads. friendly reminder that misha still remains the only person ever to do a 3A+1Eu+4S in competition. friendly reminder that misha can (though doesn't often) also do a 3A+4T, which only one other skater has ever attempted (shoma uno, 2019 world team trophy, where he fell on the 4T). friendly reminder that misha always had the skillset to win.
In my attempt not to spring this on y'all...also with the Winter Olympics this year, I felt we may need to have the prompt meme in the back of our minds 🤔
🌻 Schedule 🌻
Prompts open: February 27
Posting opens: March 6
Prompts close: March 13
Posting closes: March 20
Fanworks revealed: March 21
Creators revealed: March 26
There will be more details towards the end of the month, including exact timing for opening/closing/reveals. I also have some pretty significant new rules that I will be adding, but I will be sure to detail those thoroughly here and on AO3.
Mark your calendars and I'll see you on February 27 👀
Canadian figure skater Maddie Schizas had to ask her college professor for an extension on an assignment due to getting the dates mixed up as well as being in they Olympics
And he responded! He said absolutely and told her to just focus on the competition and that they’re all rooting for her 🥹
He also posted his first and only photo on Instagram of him watching her in the Olympics with the caption “I’m so proud of you Maddie!”
Here is the fifth and final part of my series on getting you ready to watch Olympic figure skating! Which by the way starts Friday, Feb 6!!!
Part 1 (the basics)
Part 2 (men's skating)
Part 3 (women's skating)
Part 4 (pair skating)
And this part is about ice dance!
ICE DANCE OVERVIEW
Ice dance is the most difficult discipline to understand for the casual viewer. Pair skating is essentially singles skating with two people, but while ice dance also consists of two-person teams, it has a completely different origin. It is derived from ballroom dance, and has only been an Olympic sport since the 1970s. (Figure skating has been in the Olympics since 1908.) Elements include things like step sequences, choreographic sequences, dance lifts (which are more creative than pairs lifts and don't go fully over the head), and twizzles, which are these synchronized turn things:
The two segments for ice dance are called the rhythm dance and the free dance. The rhythm dance has an annual theme that all teams must follow, and this year's is 90's music. It's also supposed to be "upbeat" and "engage the audience." (I'm restraining myself really hard from giving my opinion on the current state of the rhythm dance. It's fine.) Dance teams can choose any music they want for the free dance.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand how it’s scored. No one does. Not even the athletes. You might think I’m joking but there have been like four scoring controversies already this year because no one fucking understands what’s happening in ice dance right now. Best thing to do is turn your brain off and have a great time. Ice dance is REALLY fun to watch and I highly recommend giving it a try! Just try not to care too much about who wins. It’s a trap! she said immediately before giving you information that will make you care who wins
(that is technically a picture of them and the most clearly I want to see these people on MY blog)
The lore: Ohhh I hate having to list this team first. Oh I hate so much that they have the highest season's best. That feels so bad. Okay. So. This is a brand new team consisting of reigning Olympic Champion (from 2022) Guillaume Cizeron, and Laurence Fournier-Beaudry, a French-Canadian who recently attained French citizenship. These two people have undoubtedly some of the best skating skills in the world. Cizeron is pretty much unmatched among male ice dancers. But the history of the team is vile.
The short version is that Laurence's boyfriend and former ice dance partner, Nikolaj Sørenson, was credibly accused of rape and banned from the sport. Meanwhile, Guillaume's former partner, Gabriella Papadakis, decided to retire due to abusive treatment from Guillaume and their coach. (Gabi has been very clear that she did NOT want to retire, she wanted to keep skating, but could no longer tolerate Guillaume.) So Laurence and Guillaume, both now partnerless, teamed up with each other. They have been dominant this season, earning sky-high scores (despite some weird deductions) and going almost undefeated. They have a very good chance at a medal and there's a very good chance it'll be gold.
What's their vibe?: So bad. Both have been very public and vocal about defending Nikolaj Sørenson to the press. Laurence is still dating him and Guillaume considers him a close friend. I haven't even mentioned Guillaume getting Gabi FIRED FROM HER JOB. The full details of the situation are here but trigger warning for graphic details of the rape accusation. Skating-wise, they have a very "contemporary dance" vibe. Though they are strong skaters technically, they are weak performers, and lack the connection that dance partners build over many years of skating together.
If this all makes you feel angry and depressed like it does for me, at least we have Niina Petrokina murdering Guillaume for her latest Cellblock Tango performance?
2. Madison Chock / Evan Bates (USA)
Best result: World Champions (2023, 2024, 2025)
Season's best score: 220.42
The lore: Chock/Bates are veterans. They've been skating together for fifteen years, and this will be their fourth Olympics together (the fifth Olympics for Evan Bates, who competed in Vancouver in 2010 before teaming up with Madi). They have won Worlds AND the Grand Prix Final for the past three years. They haven't been off the podium at the US Championships since 2012. (That's FOURTEEN national medals, seven gold.) At this time last year, before we heard that Laurence and Guillaume were teaming up, I would have said no one could really challenge Madi and Evan for gold at the Olympics. But now... the two teams are very close. Madi and Evan are the only people who have beat Fournier-Beaudry/Cizeron all season (at the Grand Prix Final), but Laurence Fournier-Beaudry tripped on her skirt and banged her knee in the free dance, so we still haven't seen them go head-to-head with clean programs. (Everyone besides these two teams is skating for bronze.)
What's their vibe?: While Fournier-Beaudry/Cizeron (ugh) are ahead in technical skill (UGHH), Chock/Bates have a connection and a spark that comes alive on the ice. I mean, they are married, but not every married couple has the on-ice chemistry that Madi and Evan do. They are also very professional and well-packaged. They're known for taking feedback well and making adjustments, so a program that was lackluster on its debut will be a masterpiece by the end of the season. I personally think they've pulled this off again with their bull/matador flamenco free dance. They'll need to rely on their superior connection and performance skills to beat the French team.
3. Charlene Guignard / Marco Fabbri (Italy)
Best result: World Silver Medalists (2023)
Season's best score: 210.34
The lore: For most of this quadrennial, Guignard/Fabbri were solidly one of the top three teams. But in the past year or so, their stock has been trending downward. They placed 4th at Worlds 2025, missing the podium, and received much lower scores than usual at their first Grand Prix this year. This caused them not to qualify for the Grand Prix Final, which they'd competed at (and medaled at!) for the past three years. Their recent silver at the European Championships might be a sign of things turning around, and they may get a boost from performing in front of a home crowd in Italy, so I definitely would not count them out for bronze.
What's their vibe?: Charlene and Marco suffer from their packaging. They're a classic, lyrical ice dance team, and when they go outside that box it can look awkward and clunky. Many blame their robot-themed free dance from last year for costing them a World medal (though teams like Lopareva/Brissaud, the second-place French dancers, have done weird techno programs successfully). Similarly, their Backstreet Boys rhythm dance this year isn't doing them any favors. I think their Diamanti free dance is much more suited to their style and much more successful. They are also an off-ice couple and have been dating since they teamed up in 2009.
4. Lilah Fear / Lewis Gibson (UK)
Best result: World Bronze Medalists (2025)
Season's best score: 210.24
The lore: Affectionately known as the Disco Brits, Fear/Gibson's high-energy performances made them popular with fans for years before they started actually winning anything. They're easily one of the most fun teams to watch, but their skating skills are notably weaker than the other high-level teams. They managed to win both their Grand Prixs last year because other teams had errors, and rode that momentum to Britain's first World medal in ice dance since 1984. (And maybe their first Olympic medal in ice dance since 1984??) They've been right in the mix this year for the biggest medals, earning bronze at the Grand Prix Final behind, of course, Chock/Bates and Fournier-Beaudry/Cizeron. I would say they are weak favorites for Olympic bronze.
What's their vibe?: It's true that Lilah and Lewis don't have the strongest skating skills, and they know it, and their programs are very well constructed to hide it. (This isn't a criticism btw! I think it's smart and a credit to their coaching team.) They're not the fastest team, but they are always in great physical condition and skate to really fun music so you don't really notice or care. Their programs this year are a Spice Girls RD and a Scottish Highlands themed FD to a mix of The Proclaimers and Auld Lang Syne. They're really entertaining and should go over great with the crowd in Milan, which could very well be the deciding factor for the podium.
5. Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier (Canada)
Best result: World Silver Medalists (2024, 2025)
Season's best score: 208.75
The lore: Man this is a weird season of ice dance. Usually ice dance is a sport heavily dependent on reputation, and the order that teams finish in is kind of pre-determined by a lot of factors (how long they've been competing, who their coach is, how powerful is their country's skating federation, etc). (If you're thinking that sounds astoundingly corrupt and unfair, you are right!) This system is unofficially referred to as Wait Your Turn, since younger teams often have to wait for more senior teams to retire before they have a chance at medals. It's not a good thing, and I want it to die, but I gotta say when ice dance scores DON'T work that way, it's kinda disorienting.
Because for pretty much this whole quadrennial, Gilles/Poirier and Chock/Bates have been the top two teams. And when Chock/Bates pulled definitively ahead, Gilles/Poirier were still pretty much always the silver medalists. I would have said they had an Olympic silver medal on lock, but first of all Fournier-Beaudry/Cizeron debuted and bumped them down to presumptive bronze. And then this season Gilles/Poirier have just not really been scoring well. They were scored pretty harshly at their Grand Prixs, and came in fourth at the Grand Prix Final, causing one of the many scoring controversies this season.
I think these lower scores are SOMEWHAT justified—some of their technical content has been sloppy, and their Vincent van Gogh free dance isn't really hitting—but that's also true for other teams who haven't been judged as harshly. So it really just feels like the tide of judging opinion has turned against Piper and Paul for no clear reason. I love them and would like to see them get a medal, but they need to really bring it at the Olympics.
What's their vibe?: Beloved weirdos with theatre kid energy. They really know how to commit to the performance, especially the DRAMA. Their deal is the opposite of Guignard/Fabbri: they shine when they're doing something out of the box, and don't do as well when they skate to more traditional themes. I love their RD to RuPaul's Supermodel where Paul wears a corset. (Also shout-out to their FD from last year which innovated huge back cutouts for men.) They have also been skating together since 2011. This is the year for ice dance teams with 15+ years of experience.
There are a lot of other very strong teams I LOVE who are competing at the Olympics (Alison Reed/Saulius Ambrulevicius from Lithuania, Olivia Smart/Tim Dieck from Spain, Emilea Zingas/Vadym Kolesnik and Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponamarenko from the USA, Evgeniia Lopareva/Geoffrey Brissaud from France) but I do think the teams I've listed are the most likely ones to be on the podium. Just know I love a lot of these teams and probably the whole top ten are going to be fantastic.
Anyway, that's the whole series! Feel free to send me any questions or comments, and please watch Olympic figure skating <3
areudirty
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
tangentwithtanner
kaledo-art
blakekathryn
prguitarman
annaxmalina
germansingergirl
kianamaiart
titsay
baratheonpilled
