YOI Multishipper Problems

[prillalar]

[ Before the ramble (or vent) begins, some signal boosting:
+ rareshipsonice - Yuri!!! on ICE Rare Pair fanwork exchange! Basically anything other than Yuuri/Victor and Otabek/Yuri. Currently in nominations.
+ yurionicefans - YOI DW comm! ]

While working on some fic that doesn't involve any of these characters, I was listening to Steve Winwood (I'm an old) and Back In the High Life Again came on and I had a mini-breakdown over Chris/Victor, mainly from frustration that it's next to impossible to write them post-canon.

I love Yuuri/Victor but I'm a multishipper and Chris/Victor is my favourite Victor ship. (Nishigori/Yuuri is my other main ship, just to get even more impossible.) And I've never been in a fandom before where the juggernaut was so juggernaut-y and soulmate-y and canon-y that to write any other end-game pairing with either of them is nearly unthinkable.

I don't want to go canon-divergent; it's not my thing. Am I doomed to never being able to write what I want? Or is there perhaps some way to break Yuuri and Victor up post-canon that I wouldn't have to spend more than about 25% of the Chris/Victor fic dealing with? (Victor dealing with it, I mean, not showing the break-up.)

I realise I will have to sign a waiver indicating I understand no one will read this fic. And that I may also be consigned to perdition. It might be worth it.

Okay, whining over, thinking begun.

Comments

[yuuago]

Ooh, I didn't know about the DW comm! Thanks for linking that.

is there perhaps some way to break Yuuri and Victor up post-canon that I wouldn't have to spend more than about 25% of the Chris/Victor fic dealing with?

Well, from my perspective - their relations, as we're shown in the show, go down rather quickly. And they don't seem to be very good at communicating. So a breakup seems like a reasonable thing to imagine happening.

As for not having to spend more than 25% of the story dealing with it - for me, it would be adequate to devote maybe a paragraph to it; say that it happened, maybe give a few details, and then move on. Setting it a couple of years after the breakup can also be useful, give things some distance. If I'm reading something for the A/C pairing, while A/B is the soulmate-y juggernaut, I'm not there for some long detailed explanation about how A/B broke up - just referring to it happening is enough. Get it over with and move on to the A/C that I opened the fic for, you know?

'Course, I don't know what you have in mind for this particular story, and I'm mostly speaking from experience with similar situations in another canon. But, yeah.

[marks]

Set it a year after yuuri dies, I'm sure no one at all including me would have a problem with that!

[prillalar]

Yeah, I hope the comm will get some traffic!

I was unclear about the 25% thing (and just edited the post) -- I mean time for Victor to deal with the aftermath rather than actually showing the breakup. Maybe I feel that way because I haven't worked through it at all yet. (I find it's the same with established relationship stories. I often can't start writing them until I've written at least one get-together story first.) I do feel like I want to see the fall-out for them because if I don't go through that, I won't know how the break-up changed Victor. Even though the canon only covers about 8 months of them together, it's seems pretty major for Victor and it's something I'm interested in. So, it's tricky!

(I've been thinking a lot about post-canon YuuVic break-up & get back together ideas as well.)

[prillalar]

You have the best ideas! I'm sure I'll see huge changes in my popularity!

DW subscribers: 0
Twitter followers: 0
Tumblr followers: 50 but they're porn blogs

[inkstone]

I agree with a lot of what yuuago says, but I definitely understand your dilemma. I don't know that I've ever seen the juggernaut ship be so juggernauty and canony before.

On the other hand, I am a huge advocate of writing fic that isn't on the well-worn path of fandom and canon, audience be damned.

[prillalar]

I know, YOI is just so different from what I'm used to! And do love the juggernaut, I just love other pairings too.

Maybe I need to start with the YuuVic break-up and get back together story (which would be unrelated) to get more insight into how that might happen.

[merit]

I'd, probably out of laziness, probably start a fic like that when they were already broken up. START WITH THE ANGST. And the flashbacks to any arguments they had if I felt the need. Icy meetings where they try to be civil but there's a lot of allusion to the arguments, the relationship they had, the efforts they have made to move on. Enter Chris, hanging over Victor. Possibly tracing the curve of Victor's ear with his tongue.

I'm pretty terrible at OTPs. I like to see what happens when characters clash! I develop preferences, but only read one pairing??

Followed the comm! I have been meaning to get involved more in communities, be the change and all that.

[merit]

I loled.

[marks]

AO3 Subscribers: -1

Hal: "How did that even happen?"

[marks]

I'm a problem-solver.

[prillalar]

AO3 coders applying a hotfix to excommunicate me from fandom.

[prillalar]

Yeah, definitely good idea to start broken up. I need to work out how and why; I'm a bit stuck there for now, but I just need to think about it more. The icy meetings scene is gold! Oh, Chris!

I think I've only ever had one true OTP. So much more fun to play around, so to speak.

I've never been part of a DW comm with much traffic but maybe we can get this one moving. I would love it -- it's so hard to really connect with like-minded fans in YOI because everything is so huge and decentralized.

[merit]

I settled on the ear licking. Explicit gestures, elaborate tongue motions, grinding - the possibilities are endless! especially when you want to mess with your crush's ex.

Same! I have a fandom5k fic to finish but I should be to think of something to post while angsting over plot.

That's the problem with big fandoms! I've mostly been involved in tiny book fandoms of late so that was a pleasant surprise :)

[prillalar]

Ear-licking Chris is best Chris! The twist is he used to get with Yuuri too and Yuuri assumed he'd be the one to get Chris in the break-up.

Okay, maybe I just like Chris too much.

[merit]

Oh Yuuri. Though that would be an amusing element - who gets who after the breakup.

[moetushie]

I'd read it. Although, yeah, not many people would. Outside the superheated bubble of Victuuri, the Yuri!!! On Ice fandom seems to act like any other sports anime fandom. Rarepairs don't exactly do well here, I say, as I'm currently knee-deep in a WIP about a minor sports anime character.

Anyway, I love Chris/Victor and I *can* see it working, post-Yuuri, although in my hc, it would pretty far along when they're both retired and are irascible old men (for the given value of old -- I mean, in canon a 25 and 27 year old are considered over the hill, yeesh), sitting around and judging young, obviously less talented and beautiful skaters. What has the sport come to?

After all, Victor and Yuuri's grand passion fizzled out a long time ago -- eros is never meant to last! -- and Chris, as observant as ever, makes his move?

But, whatever you chose, I'm sure it would be a great story, and worth telling. Even if not many people read it?

/also hi, hope you don't mind me subscribing to you & sorry if I'm being presumptuous

[prillalar]

Yeah, it would definitely be a passion project. :) I'm having trouble judging YOI vs other sports anime because most of my other sports anime fan-time has been on LJ. (I was on fandom hiatus for about four years until Jan 2016.) But most of those, and the others I'm in now, are team-based and I think that leads to more mid-level ship popularity.

When I figure out how to make Yuuri and Nishigori run away together, Chris can pick up the pieces. I wonder who will age better, Chris or Victor?

I'm sure I'll work out how get started eventually. Discussing it with everyone has helped a lot.

Subscribing is always fine; adding you back. :)

[moetushie]

I wonder who will age better, Chris or Victor?

That's an irresistible question. Probably Victor, except for his hairline problem. Chris looks like he tans, and that's not great for the skin!

[prillalar]

Chris would probably care about it more too and end up getting a little too much work done. I'm picturing it now and it' snot pretty.

[moetushie]

Maybe this is why late-life Chris/Victor is NEEDED. When Victor tells Chris that wrinkles are sexier than an eerily immovable plastic-looking face, maybe Chris will believe him!

[prillalar]

I have to confess I added this to the Idea Jar file but marked it Chris/Georgi instead.

[(Anonymous)]

"I need to know how and why"

hc: victor and chris used to be together, but they are young, etc. they break up over something and yuuri is victor's rebound fling. I find this to be canon compliant because (a) Chris can be interpreted as jealous over Yuuri and (b) I truly, madly, deeply don't buy it that a international star athlete would turn 27 without having a life and fun enough that a drunk loser humping his leg would turn into a revolutionary "OMG I was lost and lonely and had no inspiration and now I found you!" (which seems to be the main fanon interpretation of why they get together but which i find incredibly juvenile).

If Yuuri is Victor's rebound fling, it's normal for things between them to be very intense on Victor's part as he clings to what he imagines is happening in this new romance that was not happening between him and Chris. (It is normal for things to be intense on Yuuri's part because Yuuri is a fanboy).

It would also be normal for said rebound fling to come to an end, and for both Victor and Chris to come back together at a new stage of their professional lives and at a new level of maturity.

I am aware you mostly write short things whereas I'm essentially pitching you a novel, but you can totally drop the reader into the opening stages of the second time Chris and Victor get together and drop hints on the backstory as you go along.

[(Anonymous)]

hairline problem = voting for shaved-head victor

[moetushie]

Nice, nice.

[clawdine]

I'm laughing at the dead Yuuri option. I would read that.

I honestly think Viktor would be really sad if they broke up. But all wounds heal in time and all that. Actually just imagining the awkward silence is giving me a lump in my throat. As long as everyone is happy in the end though!