Every year, the most important figure skating competition in the solar system, the Grand Prix Final, takes place on Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io. Valeria Arqueros, the four-time interplanetary champion with a hidden fetish for domination, abruptly switches from the Uranian team to the Martian team, much to the horror of the skating community. Valeria, full of rage but outwardly pristine in every way she wants to be, is obsessed with perfecting the elusive quintuple jump. It’s hard to focus, however, when she starts being followed around by her fellow Martian teammate, Lu Brooks (they/them), a boyband member in another life who apparently gets off on displays of power, ice skating-related or otherwise. Lu thinks they know something about Valeria that she doesn’t, and their infatuation with her seems to go beyond the idolatry she’s used to from other skaters. But if Valeria becomes sexually entangled with Lu, it’s certainly not anything serious. She’s got more important things to think about, like pushing the limits of human physicality so she can become the greatest skater who’s ever lived. She has no desire to bond with her other teammates, including Bella Fuentes, her youngest competitor and the darling of Mars who seems to be imitating Valeria’s career as well as her unpredictable temper. Surely Valeria will only be a Martian for a single season before returning to Uranus, where everything is familiarly cold and uncomplicated. Surely her old coach slash former guardian Morozova will welcome her back once she sees her skate a quintuple axel. Yes, Valeria doesn’t have time to party with the likes of Lu or anyone else; she’s going to win gold on every planet in the Grand Prix Final circuit and then repeat it for another decade more until her body collapses like a dying star. Sure, maybe figure skating’s about love, Valeria thinks, but it’s even more so about violence.