π¦’ Yasha Lebedev
World famous for his extraordinary talent to bend his body in insane ways without breaking a sweat, this contortionist virtuoso can make the most flexible snake woman feel envious and wish to follow him to learn how he does it.
However, as extreme as his flexibility is, every medical examination of Yasha's body keeps the scientific community just as impressed as his fans – not only does he have zero health issues, but his skeletal and muscular structure suggests that he has reached a level beyond human capabilities, as if each bone in his spine had been honed to perfection by a divine craftsman and each tissue in his limbs designed for maximum elasticity.
Yasha, in his interviews, often recalls the time he fell from a pine-tree as a child. As he landed on the ground, he was astounded by how it felt like his body had absorbed the impact, bouncing back almost like rubber. His friends had to talk him out of trying it again, fearing for his safety.
And we can trust him on that: pine-trees are indeed very common in Siberia where he was born. While most people who met him for the first time assumed he must have been born into a famous circus family and mercilessly trained by them since birth to become a contortionist, but Yasha's true origins are in fact very humble – neither he nor his parents knew anything about contortion until he was around 7 years old.
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One day, his father, Slavislav Vicheslavovich Lebedev, a journalist for the local Siberian newspaper "Moose News", came home holding something that made the whole family gasp in disbelief: fresh tickets to spend an entire summer at the Black Sea!
The family settled in Yalta, close to the shore, and Yasha spent hours playing in the sun. He made friends with some other kids who were around his age and his parents agreed that it was okay for him to be on his own, as long as he was in their company.
Yasha had fun in their company as they played every game they could think of. Then suddenly a young woman approached them and called out to the kids. Yasha thought she might be someone's mom, but his friends said she was a coach who would keep them busy for a couple of hours. The young woman then came over to Yasha and introduced herself as Marina.
Marina asked if he wanted to join in on their training too. Yasha happily agreed because he didn't feel like going back home yet.
What he witnessed over the next couple of hours left him in a state of wonder: the things his new friends were capable of achieving under her tutelage seemed like they belonged to some fairy tale about boys learning to fly or perform other magical feats. But this fairy tale was unfolding, or rather, folding right before his very eyes...
By the time that summer drew to a close, Yasha could arch his back so far backwards that his face would peek between his own thighs, granting him an entirely new perspective – that of a contortionist, for whom no pose is beyond reach. Marina couldn't help but marvel at her new protΓ©gΓ© – Yasha was the first boy who had mastered this level of flexibility in less than three months, and she could barely even imagine what he might be ultimately capable of!
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Marina brought it up in an official meeting at the Ministry of Sports, and she immediately gained government support to move near Yasha's home in Siberia so that she could personally train him every day. After about 3 years, with incredible results, Yasha's official demonstration made headlines for the year, if not the decade.
Yasha no longer needed to worry about work or money, he even dropped out of school after getting the best private tutors who taught him everything about physics, chemistry, math, geography, as well as several foreign languages including German, Italian, Polish and Chinese.
Master Yanfeng Gu, a young instructor who taught Yasha Chinese, was an unlikely kung fu master. Despite his youthful appearance, he had incredible martial arts skills. He demonstrated some impressive techniques to Yasha, like squeezing his own waist with his bare hands until they fully enveloped it, reducing his waist to the size of a neck.
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Yanfeng Gu became Yasha's favorite teacher who taught the boy not only the intricacies of the Simplified and Traditional Chinese language, but also things like twisting his torso 360 degrees or wearing a dog's collar around his waist as if it were nothing.
Despite his fragile teen appearance, Gu had the strength of a gorilla in his arms, and he left no joint in Yasha's body unturned, giving him the new ability to twist every limb like a ball-jointed doll, as well as getting his backbends to the Octafold level.
The Octafold was a legendary pose, like a unicorn or a phoenix of the contortion world. Chinese contortionists compared it to mythical dragons, speaking of ancient dragonborns who performed the feat for the Jade Emperor.
Yanfeng Gu took it up as a challenge to make the pose real, betting on his incredible strength and Yasha's unbreakability.
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After three years of relentless stretching, Yasha's toes finally touched his head, unlocking the position that once seemed out of reach. Thanks to the incredible elasticity of his joints, Yasha could bend backward, getting his head and shoulders through his own legs, then continue stretching further around his body until his head touched his feet in what seemed to be a Backbend 2.0.
On that day, Yanfeng Gu made a shocking revelation to Yasha. The boy had come to trust his mentor implicitly, but what he heard next left him reeling. In all seriousness, Master Gu revealed to him the astounding truth: He was none other than Yasha's very own grandfather!
Yasha felt hurt at first, he knew about this grandfather in China but he had passed away over ten years ago – he saw him only once, the old man looked big like a mountain, with long white hair and beard like milk rivers from some book illustrations. Back then, Yasha couldn't believe that such a strong old man could pass away shortly after his visit.
The boy narrowed his eyes, contemplating the memories that had suddenly resurfaced, and trying to figure out how he should react to this seemingly insulting comment from someone he learned trust with his spine and every joint in his body.
But then Master Gu shared some surprising details about their last meeting, details which only they both knew – nobody else could possibly have known. Not even Yasha's parents!
He told the story of Yasha's half-Chinese mother, Yana, her childhood after she was born to him and his girlfriend Darya, the alluring Siberian shamaness he met during his travels along the Silk Road.
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When Yana was born, Yanfeng Gu was terrified. He never planned to impregnate any woman with his cursed seed, but the cunning Siberian shamaness tricked him into it, believing his seed and her genes combined could produce a true contortion masterpiece, the most bendable girl on earth!
Yanfeng Gu told her she wasn't far from the truth, but if people discovered Yana's abilities, they'd come after her with torches and pitchforks. His cursed seed would bring doom before Yana even turned 18! He told her to take their daughter far from the Silk Road and bring her up somewhere she had no chance of learning about contortion.
So Darya had to escape with her baby daughter, fleeing all the way to Siberia. There she found a remote village where the most flexible thing people could do was bending the backs in the fields while harvesting the crops. It was hard to find such a humble place but she made it.
But as fate would have it, a few years later a suspicious yoga sect showed up in the area and pitched their tents near Darya's perfectly inflexible haven. Worried that the bearded guru and his nimble followers might start putting their feet behind their heads at any moment, she quickly packed her belongings once again and moved elsewhere.
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Almost two decades went by without incident, and Yana grew up blissfully unaware of extreme flexibility. She loved milking cows, kneading the dough, and crafting little clay figurines, always worrying her mother with her fixation on soft malleable things.
Fortunately, her breasts blossomed unusually well, and she already had a boyfriend before even considering the idea of having one. Her mother Darya gave them her blessing – finally something to shift Yana's focus to harder things.
Yana and Slavislav decided to tie the knot on her 18th birthday. Their first baby arrived just nine months later, and was a delightful surprise for the young mother, who had been warned about the pain of childbirth. Yasha, however, seemed as soft and moldable as the clay figures she used to love making in her younger years.
Yanfeng Gu came personally to help with the birth and after palping the newborn he smiled, realizing that the curse was much weaker within him. He advised to give the boy at least 7 years to harden his bones, then he would come back to check on him again.
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Yasha was shocked to learn this story. Yanfeng Gu, an ancient exorcist monk who had been born over 500 years ago, explained that he had once been cursed by a witch after a strange battle. As a result of the curse, every time he grew old he would suddenly find himself as a young man again – but while the curse made him immortal, each time the sudden transformation posed a big problem for him because people wouldn't recognize him or believe him.
For the first time in his life, Yanfeng had someone who believed him, and that person was his own grandson Yasha. From then on, every day spent training with his Grandfather was as precious as gold.
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Master Gu taught him to twist himself like a rope and tug his body into all kinds of tight knots. He knew Yasha would be able to keep some of these tricks hidden from the prying eyes. The times had changed but the risk of getting in trouble for having superpowers was still high.
Despite these constraints, "The Unbreakable Boy" became an internet sensation with his contortionist acts, trending on every platform worldwide. Even the traditional media couldn't resist him, featuring him on TV and radio shows, as well as in books and magazines. His feats of flexibility were celebrated all over the world, even beyond visual means – inspiring countless articles and podcasts discussing his unbelievable bendability.
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Yasha's life became a whirlwind of world tours, interviews in every possible language, posing for the world-famous photographers and taking part in contortion competitions. It was there that he met Andrzej, a Polish contortionist, whose flexibility was often compared to Yasha's.
The whole world was buzzing with excitement about the impending showdown between two extraordinarily flexible individuals, eager to see who would emerge as the sole champion.
However, when Yasha and Andrzej unexpectedly crossed paths in a narrow corridor, their competitive instincts were overtaken by an intense mutual attraction.
Before they even had time to think about discussing the upcoming battle, they found themselves passionately making out in a secluded alcove – the rest is a long history of their blossoming relationship.
Yanfeng Gu didn't want to tell them about the Polish witch he once met on the Silk Road, knowing her fate was far less fortunate than that of the Siberian shamaness, and Andrzej had to be raised in an orphanage for the first 7 years of his life.
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Yasha's parents were excited about how his life turned out – they couldn't even imagine their son becoming a world-renowned contortionis one day! Especially his mother, who felt like a little girl every time she saw Yasha bending his body on the telly in ways that reminded her of dough.
She still didn't know much about the training behind contortion, but whenever Yasha visited, she loved to give him a playful stretch, admiring his body's ability to do anything she could only think about.
Yasha's father would do his best to help during those playful family reunions, equally stunned by his son's fairytale-level elasticity, only comparable to the softness of his mother's breasts.
After witnessing Yasha's amazing evolution, his father became convinced that miracles did exist and shifted his focus from journalism to writing children's books about daring boys who could bend themselves in incredible ways on their magical journeys through the woods and caves of Siberia.
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Yasha's grandmother, Darya, the Siberian shamaness, was overjoyed to know that Yanfeng Gu's seed finally bore fruit after so many years.
Despite the temporary moratory on contortionism, the final result was worth it. The whole world was talking about Yasha's talent, no more talk about evil abominations and shapeshifters who had to be burned.
Yet, she wasn't known as Mama Fortuna for nothing – she made sure to keep her shamanic talismans charged, spending an hour every day in her secret shamanic hideout, meditating in a tight triplefold, activating all the chakral powers in her spine to bring fortune wherever her bendy grandson may roam.