I donāt often post wips but Iām just very excited for this one. Thereās a lot in store for Quilluary š¤ (starting in nine days)
Hard to guess the prompt cause it's out of frame hehe
If the Clint tag brings you to me... Welcome. Take a seat. Let's get comfy with this concept. I'm happy about this in terms of getting hopefully some redemption and more love for my fave, but damn it was nice not having to share.
Decided to join @stardewfanficwritersguild 's SDV Inktober this year!
And we're starting off with the first prompt "The turning of the Season" with this lovely little scene, which is loosely based on Chapter 17 of the longfic "Falling ore you" by @visionofthebees
With Yuri on Ice and Stardew Valley both celebrating their 10th anniversaries in 2026, I thought it would be fun to play a writing game of conceptualizing what it would look like to cross them with each other! If I were to write the crossover of Stardew Valley characters within a Yuri on Ice AU, hereās how Iād tell the story:Ā Ā
[Note: The other crossover post is here.]
Aged down AU because my god, they cannot be competing as singles skaters in their mid-to-late 30s and 40s. They could maybe compete as ice dancers and thatās about it, but noooooope otherwise. Yes, I do realize this makes the next point extra hilarious because:
Due to the nature of the AU, the Ferngill Skating Union is now co-ed. No, I will not explain how that would work realistically with the current irl scoring system nor jumps. It just is. Given that YOI gave the impression that the Olympics doesnāt exist in its world, I think I can be forgiven for bending sports reality in a lot of ways for the sake of the Rule of Funny.
The Community Center now has a skating rink for reasons that are never explained. The Farmer is in the background and probably did it, weirdo that they are. The Farmer is busy doing Farmer things with their wife Sandy (yes, this is also a marriageable Sandy fic) and also raising children named: Euler, Salchow, and Flip. Because whomst else would name their children fuckass names except the Farmer character?
We start with Clint, ranked sixth in the FSU because he flopped during the Grand Prix Final due to his girlfriend, Emily, dumping him for some reason or other (maybe his fixation on his favorite sport had led him to ignoring her needs or something or the relationship had run its course or whatever). Being both demoralized and having severely unmanaged performance anxiety, Clint bombs hard. (More after the cut)
This is why he is not even able to look his favorite skating idol (Elliott) in the eye and why he gets super drunk at the Gala later. He flies home to Pelican Town to lick his wounds and doesnāt even bother going to Worlds, sinking himself into finishing his masters in applied engineering and his blacksmithing gig job.Ā
During the off season, Elliott suddenly shows up on his doorstep and announces that he is going to be coaching Clint, per their past agreement (which Clint cannot remember for the life of him and is utterly baffled to have his biggest skating hero and crush all over his, well, everything). And yes, they do visit the Spa. Together š
Except, oops: Elliott kind of forgot that heād already promised to create a program for Abigail, who is making her senior debut that season and is already pissed off that Elliott got distracted by a pretty face instead of helping her succeed during the upcoming season. She tracks him to Stardew Valley all the way from her special training program in Castle Village and insists that he choose between them and thus we get the local skating event subplot. Clint manages to do better than expected and she reluctantly concedes him the victory (pun intended).Ā
The reason why Abby gets to be the Yurio character is because a) she could pull off the angry punk kitty energy better than Sebastian imo, b) Yuri Plisetsky was originally inspired by Yulia Lipnitskaya, and c) I thought it would be really funny to put Abby and Clint in a rivalry together.Ā
With Elliottās coaching, Clint prepares for the Grand Prix series (would have to skip the national qualifiers for AU reasons so maybe have a nice subplot about the young skaters who look up to Clint via the local event or something) and also their relationship dynamic grows closer. Clint, insecure dude that he is, still thinks that itās all a dream and will come crashing down someday, so thatās something the narrative would have to address.Ā
I donāt think the plot would follow YOI quite exactly since not every character fits neatly into the same dynamics as in YOI; theyād have their own reasons for skating/coaching that Iād want to explore. That being said, I think either Marlon or Gus would probably work well as Clintās former coach, orrr Iād start making OCs at that point if trying to maintain Pelican Town as the cozy Hatsetsu place Elliott adores.Ā
Given the parts of YOI that havenāt aged well, Iād use the narrative to explore Clintās body image issues and insecurities and have Elliott basically being like, āI think youāre handsome, you splendid idiot.ā Until Clint gets the memo.Ā
I think heād be shaken up by getting dumped and so that anxiety would linger well into the Grand Prix series, especially after starting a new relationship with Elliott. Heād be looking for a lot of reassurance and I think heād especially struggle during the Final.
Meanwhile, Elliott thinks heās failing at his first coaching gig (well, it is a bit unethical to be dating the person youāre coaching, Elliott!) because heās trying techniques that donāt quite work with Clintās learning style and also heās baffled by Clint being very into him but also seeming so surprised by the whole coaching offer and actively pursuing him but largely chocks it up to Clint being shy and insecure and not Clint lacking the ability to hold his alcohol.Ā
ā¦I might regret saying this later, but I do suspect that with the dynamics Iāve suggested, this now makes Leah the Christophe character kadl;akdsjf;akdsj
Also this is now a āCaroline is the Wizardās daughterā AU because while I know what the canon implies about Caroline, I really do also enjoy exploring the AUs where Abby is actually the Wizardās granddaughter and she canāt steal the Farmerās Grandpa to feed her dumplings, on account of him being dead. (Sorry!) That being said, I think it would be very funny to make Magnus and Alecto (from the Alecto the Witch mod) into the divorced couple who are both toxic and super good at churning out young, talented skaters, so Iām slotting them slightly into Yakov and Liliaās roles from YOI.
To me, the special thing about Yuri on Ice is that every figure skater, even the ones who only appeared briefly, were fleshed out enough for their personalities, personal troubles, and goals/motivations to clearly show in their behaviors and individual programs. They were memorable in their own ways. So, I think instead of forcing someone to take a YOI character role, I'd take advantage of the fic premise to feature the competition as character analysis vignettes separate from the main Clint (and his punk rival Abigail) plotline.
Maru would be a good rinkmate for Abby, I think. Supportive and having her own subplot while also having the opportunity to rib Abby over her shenanigans that keep pissing off Magnus and Alecto.Ā Ā
Since I didnāt want to make Abby exactly like Yuri Plisetsky, I think Iād explore her short program development in a similar-yet-different way since she still probably feels like Pierre doesnāt support her dreams enough and Iām not giving her an Otabek-type-skater to romance. Insteadā¦
The rival skating club for Castle Village is the Zuzu City skating club, most prominently featuring: Alex, Sebastian, and Haley. Haley and Abby are the same age and have been skating rivals since they were juniors, always trying to fight for a spot at the top. Yes, I would probably make a small Heated Rivalry reference here because I love that concept post I saw about what f/f Heated Rivalry would look like if it had similar complexities lol. This is also why Haley is able to borrow Sebastianās motorcycle.Ā
Havenāt fully thought out all the other characters yet, but I was thinking in terms of smaller roles in the fic, this would also feature Harvey doing his retirement program year, inspired by a real-life doctor and skater in Finland (Valtter Virtanen, an irl legend). This would be a nod to all those lovely Harvey figure skating AU fanworks Iāve seen in the past year and also give him a good reason to be setting up shop in Pelican Town as the doctor after the Grand Prix series and/or Worlds.
Sports narrative-wise, the fic would be about Clint getting his groove back and learning to let go of Emily and not let it affect his confidence when skating, and this is why he does better during the Grand Prix series than anyone expected. He will still struggle, but I think he has to learn to give himself more credit than he has previously.Ā
Relationship narrative-wise, I do think the whole āget drunk at a gala and grind on your idolā thing is very funny and would probably want to keep that reveal, even if YOI fans would already expect it. Taking a leaf from similar vibes in my Shelliott ballroom concept [link], I think Elliott would need to find his creative spark again through proximity to Clint and Clint would learn to have his own sense of self-worth, one that is not necessarily tied to how well heās doing in sports or if someone is into him romantically. Thatās something I like to touch on with regular non-AU Clint, too, and I think a YOI cross would be a good way to do that, given how much of the original narrative is very Man vs Self.Ā
I would love to hear from the Clelliott fans on what they think of this idea and from SDV fans in general re: if youāve ever thought about writing or drawing a figure skating AU and if so, what was the concept you had?