A Surface Too Thin
⋆꙳•❅*°⋆❆.ೃ࿔*:･*❆ ₊ ⋆꙳•❅*°⋆❆.ೃ࿔*:･*❆ ₊ ⋆꙳•❅*°⋆❆.ೃ࿔*:･*❆ ₊⋆A Surface Too Thin
The Great Lake had frozen over. Not the unreliable skin of light frost, but something solid. The lake lay motionless, stretched out in a pale, unbroken expanse that mirrored the cloudy winter sky above. The inspection had been immidiate. Her measured steps along the edge and outward ruled that the ice was strong. Sturdy enough to hold her weight. That was all she required.
By morning, Isabeau found herself pulling her figure skates out from the locked trunk in her dorm room, and placing them neatly in her bag alongside a spare set of blade guards and soakers. The walk from the dungeons to her preferred spot by the lake was longer than what most tolerated, but Isabeau never minded. In fact, her steps were purposeful as she enjoyed her walk through the crisp winter enviornment of Hogwarts.
When she finally reached her spot, Isabeau carefully set her bag down. She took out her skates and set them beside a smaller log close to the ice. Isabeau took a seat on said log, double cheking the guards were tight on the blade before she removed her boots and slid the skates onto her feet, lacing them up methodically. Tightening, adjusting, tightening again. She repeated the process until her skate was the perfect fit, like always.
Only then did she stand. A single meausred breath escaped her lips as she stepped onto the ice and removed her guards, placing them close to the edge. As she glided a few feed forward, there was no protest from the ice. No fractures and no shifts, so far smooth and unyeilding.
Isabeau moved further out, her blade tracing the surface with a satisfying scrape, the sound clean, precise, and correct. Exactly as it should be. She began with a few of her basic skills, warming up forwards and backwards crossovers, followed by some basic single foot turns and some easy spinning. Her transitions were seamless, motions smooth as she executed the skills with perfect and practiced ease. Something simple and familiar to get the feel of the ice beneath her blades.
Once her edgework warmups were completed, she began working on the fun stuff. Her jumps. Back at home, she had done well with her singles, and had moved onto working her doubles. Her focus narrowed as she went through a couple of waltz jumps and the rest of her singled with clinical precision. She landed them all smoothly, her landing sharp as her blade met the ice from the air.
Everything was easy, perfect even. Clean and efficient. Her double salchow, lutz, flip, toe loop, and loop were nearly perfect. Her landings were steady, her rotations were solid, and the entrance to the junps were exactly what she wanted. Her double axel, however, she couldn't quite seem to get.
Her first attempt at her double axel, she underrotated. Subtle to the untrained eye, but she felt it immidiately. The landing wavered, forcing Isabeau to make a correction she should not have needed to stay on her feet. Her jaw tightened.
The second time, she overroatated, sending too much power into the jump. An overcorrection. The timing was off, the rotation, too far past the double mark, sent her body sliding on the ice. Her control fractured as a frustrated huff left her lips, her closed fists hitting the slippery surface.
She fell. She had actually fallen. It shouldn't have been difficult. In fact, the jump should've been reliable. So reliable to the point it was almost automatic. She sat on the ice for a moment more. Her mistakes were careless and completely unacceptable. Gritting her teeth, Isabeau took a breath and pushed herself up.
The control she held herself with was beginning to run thin as she ran the jump again, and again, and again. The composure was still there, pulled taut with each and every mistake that she made. The air quiet for the most part, filled with her breathing and the sharp sound of her blades on the ice.
She would not stop. Not until her double axel was perfect. Flawless in the way it should be.
06/12/25, 9am
@Ophelia Vanderbilt
Last edited by Isabeau Nevara on 24 Jun 2026, 17:57, edited 1 time in total.
sta 6 ⊹ eva 6 ⊹ str 6 |
E N C Y C L O P E D I A |
wis 5 ⊹ arc 5 ⊹ acc 7 |
A Surface Too Thin
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O P H E L I A |
|
V A N D E R B I L T |
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Coded by Cirrus Nam
A Surface Too Thin
⋆꙳•❅*°⋆❆.ೃ࿔*:･*❆ ₊ ⋆꙳•❅*°⋆❆.ೃ࿔*:･*❆ ₊ ⋆꙳•❅*°⋆❆.ೃ࿔*:･*❆ ₊⋆English / ThoughtsA Surface too Thin
The jump got better as she kept going, but it still failed. Not as obvious as her other failures, but she could still feel it. The slight misalignment of her blade, the fraction of a second too late or early on her rotation, the landing that required and demanded correction when it should've been effortless.
The blade of her skates scraped harder against the ice as she steadied herself, her body overcompensating to keep herself from falling.
She huffed again. "This is what happens when you slack off for months." she told herself angrily, her irritation seeping into her posture and body language. Back at home, when it wasn't winter, Isabeau found herself training her jumps on a patch of synthetic ice that her parents had bought her. It wasn't the same, but it was good enough. Now that she was finally at Hogwarts, she hadn't discovered anywhere where she could properly train her technique and jumps.
The result of months without training—failure.
She reset herself again with her careful precision, shoulders square as always and her chin lifted up to try and reassert the composure that had been steadily running thin. With another exhale, she pushed off into the beginning entry of the jump.
This time she didn't falter on the entry, it was the momentum of her rotation. Too much. She could tell as she was spinning in the air. She pulled out too late, her skate landing harshly on the ice as her body overrotated. Her balance tipped as she nearly fell, somehow managing to keep herself on her foot.
Isabeau's hands curled at her side, her fingers tightening into fists in frustration. She stomped her foot. She was getting tired of this cycle of failure and imperfection. She could've done this flawlessly on her synthetic ice in July. That thought was an unpleasant poision in her mind.
A frustrated and angry sigh left her lips, the cold beginning to bite through her clothes. It was sharp, but she barely registered it. Just like how she didin't notice the growing fissure in the ice below her.
Isabeau reset again, preparing herself for another attempt. Her jaw tightened. If this one wasn't perfect, if it failed again... no. She wouldn't allow herself any more failure. With that in mind, she began the beginning sequence of the double axel again.
06/12/25, 9am
@Ophelia Vanderbilt
sta 6 ⊹ eva 6 ⊹ str 6 |
E N C Y C L O P E D I A |
wis 5 ⊹ arc 5 ⊹ acc 7 |
A Surface Too Thin
_____________________________________
O P H E L I A |
|
V A N D E R B I L T |
_____________________________________
Coded by Cirrus Nam