under the sky

Runner. Baby Dinosaur Cuddler. Millennial. she/her Current obsessions: Red, White and Royal Blue and The Tarot Sequence, Heated Rivalry.

[fillianore-moved]

so metropolitan museum of art has a register of books they’ve published that are out of print and that you can download for free! they’re mostly books on art, archeology, architecture, fashion and history and i just think that’s super useful and interesting so i wanted to share! you can find all of the books available here!

[asjreadsxx]

This audio kept showing up so I had to do this ☹️

[sheheatedonmyrivalry]

There is a kid out there who did every single one of his school essays and projects and short stories and friendly introductions at the beginning of the year about Shane Hollander. He did his book reports on the books Shane recommended in interviews. He saved his money to buy that stupid cologne Shane advertised. He got a puck from Shane once at warm ups and he slept with it in his bed for three weeks. He writes his moms name on his stick tape because Shane did it first. He watches the Olympics in awe. He gets into fights with kids at school about whose a better hockey player and its Shane all the way, no matter what the other kids told him or what their moms and dads said. Shane is the best.

And this kid did not have a lot of friends. His teachers thought he wasn't very smart because he made everything about hockey. And they dismissed him when he struggled with math and reading. "if you could just put some of your hockey energy into school, then maybe you would get better." His classmates laughed at the hockey themed valentines day cards him and his mom had to hand make because nowhere was selling hockey themed valentines day cards. And they laugh at him when he repeats the same thing over and over about "getting pucks deep, pucks deep, pucks deep." When he would play all by himself on the yard pretending he was skating, picking up any big stick he could find on the ground, they'd push him around. "Can we play? We'll be defenders" and ram him and take his stick. And he'd just go through all the penalties they would have just gotten over and over again until he can calm down. He celebrated every birthday at the ice rink in his full hockey gear even though he didn't really have classmates showing up. Not for lack of invite.

And his parents try to steer him away from it. They try and watch new sports, they try and get him to watch kids shows, get into things kids his age like, but all he wants to do is watch reruns of the metros cup wins. Wants to wear his hat backwards with his black shirt because that's how Shane looks in the interviews. Memorizes the answers he gives in french even though this kid never learned french in school. And its useless. This kid is hooked and they just kinda have to ride this wave.

So when the announcement comes for the Game Changers camp, these parents do absolutely everything to get him there. They don't care what it takes, this is like a light for all of them really in the midst of all the bullying at school and the meltdowns at home and the obsessive routines that fall apart if even one thing is out of place.

And they explain to the camp that their boy might have a hard time. Might need some time to adjust. That he struggles with math, and reading, and can get caught up in all the rules sometimes. Preemptively trying to say "he's not a bad kid. he's trying his best."

So at the end of the first day, his parents are prepared for a meltdown. Its new, its a lot of kids, the rink can get loud and cold, and he doesn't always do well with transitioning out of hockey. He's hard to pull off the ice at home.

And they can see some upset under the surface when they arrive. He clearly doesn't want to go home. Thats no surprise.

What is a surprise is the way Shane gets down on one knee next to where the boy is sitting upset on the ground. He doesn't move to touch him. He just gets down and the two of them softly have a chat. The boy is tugging on his hair and nodding at what Shane says. And eventually he stands and the parents walk over to them.

"You must be the parents. Its good to meet you," Shane says softly. "I was just going over some things about tomorrow. So that way he would know the schedule."

And they can see their son isn't quite happy, still clearly exhausted. He'll nap in the car and be grumpy at dinner. But he is much more regulated than they expected him to be.

"And, I was telling him about my schedule when I go home. About getting some quite time, making sure I can decompress. I think that's what all good hockey players need, right buddy?"

"Right buddy," he repeats.

And for all the understanding that seems to be there, his parents are just grateful that of all the things their kid could have a special interest in, its Shane Hollander.

[beckleston]

Why am I crying???

[my-castles-crumbling]

drawer - hollanov - @taylorswiftmicrofic - word count: 545 - click here for my hollanov microfic archive on ao3

Ilya awoke in the middle of the night, the strange sounds of a foreign place enough to make him restless.

He was still nervous. The jitters of finally being here, of what he might slip up and reveal of his feelings, weighed heavily. What might happen from here?

Doing everything he could to not wake Shane, he slipped from the bed they were sharing and padded into the pristine kitchen of Shane's cottage (a word that he decided Shane needed to relearn the meaning of) and looked around for something soothing to eat.

Honestly, his hopes were not high. As ridiculously thrilled as he was to be here, in this place, with Shane, for a whole two weeks, he had not travelled here for the food. He knew that he would likely be subjected to horrors like zucchini pasta and breakfast smoothies and spinach hidden in ungodly places.

But fuck, it was worth it to be here with Shane.

So he started quietly opening cabinets and drawers, hoping maybe he would find a protein bar with a drizzle of dark chocolate or something.

He was shocked to find so much more.

Bags and bags of chips and snacks and other junkfood, all of the things he loved. Reusable grocery totes stuffed with all of his favorites. Beaming, he pulled one out from a shelf and reached for a party-sized bag of Doritos, only to see a slip of paper fall.

Absent-mindedly, he picked it up.

Things to buy for Ilya, it read at the top.

Ilya stilled.

It was a list. A long list, written in Shane's cramped, slightly-messy handwriting, not only detailing Ilya's favorite things but annotated with Shane's thoughts about them.

He couldn't help but break into a smile. Of course Shane Hollander didn't use something as simple as his phone's notes app. No, he was a pen-and-paper guy, walking around the grocery store like an old man with his list in his hand and his stupidly attractive glasses perched on his nose.

Ilya knew he was smiling like an idiot at the thought.

Cokes, one line read, Cans, not the bottles, enough for two a day.

Swallowing, Ilya bit his lip. Yes, he did prefer the cans. But he'd never said anything. Had he told Hollander this?

Doritos, another entry detailed. I think red? They were in his cabinet. Get both to be sure.

He snorted lightly. Of course, Shane would cover all of his bases. But he remembered what Ilya'd had in his cabinet from that night so long ago?

The notes went on.

Guesses at Ilya's preferences in coffee, cereal, cookies, and meals. Ingredients for traditional Russian dishes. Memories of things Shane had seen Ilya consuming in photos.

It was a wonder the cabinets weren't bursting with food.

And Ilya stood there, in the early hours of the morning, staring at the undeniable evidence that this man knew him. Or, at least, was making a very good effort to try to do so. 

Suddenly, he did not want to eat Doritos anymore. All he wanted was to go back to bed and hold Shane in his arms. 

But as he placed the unopened bag back in the cabinet, he slipped the list into his pocket.

That, he was keeping forever.

[nikkimsworld3]

[ateazure]

"and the stars look very different today..."

[penandinkprincess]

I know in my heart that ilya rozanov is buying girl scout cookies each year like nobody's business

they get him with every single cookie booth

does he actually need a fifth box of thin mints this week when four of them are still completely unopened? no.

but their little faces are so cute and they are such good little sales people and oh look his wallet is in his hand now, yes miss scout, what is your recommendation-

shane comes to his house for the first time during cookie season and sees like twenty boxes on the counter and is just? the fuck? is this??? you fucking with me about my diet??

and ilya just makes a helpless little hand gesture because it's frankly just out of his hands.

[beckleston]

The little neighbor Willa down the street in Ottawa discovers this about him and he becomes her cookie sponsor. Wait, are girl scouts only an American thing? Any school fundraiser, team fundraiser, lemonade stand, Ilya is there. Yes, I will support you in your endeavors.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

US Book ban on LGBTQIA books

The Nationwide Book Ban Bill Moves to the House: How to Take Action Now

The nationwide book ban bill, HR 7661, has progressed out of committee and into the House. Here's what you need to know to take action.

At least hit the shiny repost button if you're going to do nothing else. This should not stand.

Stop the bill dead in its tracks. LGBTQIA people have a right to be represented in books.

[daysleftofsecondterm]

1,034 days left

[aphantasias]

sexually inexperienced shane assuming he & ilya's incredibly romantic sex is probably totally normal and he's just particularly bad at handling hookups while an extremely sexually fluent ilya privately and repeatedly spirals over how Not Casual their sex is and how little control he has over it. poetry

[aphantasias]

shane doesn't have enough experience to know better BUT ILYA has waaaaay too much experience not to!!!! which makes all of his behavior with shane when they're bumpin SO scrumptious because while yes i do believe he's a great and attentive sexual partner in general, i don't believe for a SECOND that he ever fucks ANYBODY like he fucks shane. with that level of reverence? possessiveness? hunger and curiosity and delight and agony all at once? nah. if he was looking at all of his hookups like that before he was even inside of them he would have like 500 children

[chubby-cry-baby]

married shane x ilya

ilya pays the bill at restaurants by lying that he’s going to the bathroom - shane starts doing this too and now it’s a race to see who can covertly pay first

shane is super outdoorsy and can fix a lot of stuff around the house AND has tools!!!! ilya calls him mr get it done after hearing the GloRilla song

shane INSISTS on russian only days to accelerate his learning

shane uses ilya as his personal weighted blanket and other sensory grounding techniques (“can you grab and pull my hair” “kinky” “no - actually later”)

shane collected ilya’s hockey cards but had to have a huge binder of everyone’s so it doesn’t seem like he’s only collecting ilya’s cards - ilya has shane’s rookie card in his wallet (awwww)

lots of cuteness aggression doesn’t matter who’s around!!!!!!

“listen” “listening”

ilya’s entire camera roll goes from random pictures to shane shane shane - shane sleeping shane eating shane standing infront of the tv claiming he’s not watching shane in hockey gear shane cooking shane with anya shane with the angry kitten face shane at the cottage shane at the camps shane in his childhood bedroom shane shane shane

when apart; ilya sends 100 voice notes a day to shane (shane listens to them all together like asmr)

ilya will kiss shane just to steal lip balm

if shane is laying on the couch ilya will lay on him and put his head in shane’s shirt (“you’re stretching out the material”)

ilya learns “i hate to see you go but i love to watch you leave” and uses it constantly

their shared google calendar is run like the navy (“hollander i don’t see blowjobs on thursday? i will add” “STOP IT MY MOM SEES THIS CALENDAR”)

ilya lowballs people on fb marketplace and then uses shane’s account to lowball them further

ilya’s snoring is so bad you can hear it from other rooms but it’s the only noise shane can sleep through its like white noise for shane

ilya winking at shane is to shane what shane wearing glasses is to ilya

ilya writes to do lists / grocery lists in cyrillic and his penmanship is gorgeous (shane is surprised his jock hockey player husband has nice handwriting and that it took him 10 years to see it)

ilya calls troy his best friend and shane gets jealous

shane carries the bags when they go anywhere

ilya is shane’s emergency contact but shane’s parents are ilya’s emergency contact

“my shane”

[jaymanclayton]

As much as David loves Yuna and Shane, you just know some days he's just happy to have Ilya, who is emotionally intelligent and has a great sense of humour and some balance in his approach to hockey.

They exchange looks often, "you're hearing what I'm hearing?" and they probably cook together too.

[beckleston]

Ilya who didn’t get to grow up sharing peaceful space with his family absolutely thrives on Hollander family dinners. Cooking with David heals a little part of his soul.

[notahungrywish]

When Yuna has her “no son(in law) of mine will have inferior brand deals and management” takeover shortly after she learns about Shane and Ilya, how long do you think it takes her to figure out his money situation with his family?

I’m imagining her/maybe Shane playfully ribbing him about how he has no real financial manger or decent investments and what do you MEAN you just let a paycheck like that sit in your account while buying luxury cars every five minutes no wonder your net worth is shockingly low for your value, etc etc. and he’s not even offended he’s surprised and pleased that his new family is so invested in him and also enjoys watching where Shane gets some of his crazy. Like Ilya Mommy Issues Rozanov is “yes please ma’am optimize my finances and worry about my wellbeing harder” while he shovels whatever David made for dinner in his mouth.

But then at some point while she’s (lovingly) harping on his financial irresponsibility he just kind of quietly mentions that actually so much of his paycheck was going back home to his family when he was younger that he needed to blow shit on cars or whatever pretty quick if he didn’t want it to disappear. And she realizes that yeah he’s a little dummy who spent a concerning amount of money on VIP sections last year and thinks bank account interest is investing but he was also a child supporting his entire family in a foreign country with no one bothering to look out for his best interest or explain planning for a future.

David gets treated to impassioned rants every night about how “David I’m not convinced anyone even read that boy his contract in Russian”.

She starts managing him as well, obviously, and she’s kind of disturbed by how easily he just signs whatever she puts in front of him and doesn’t bother asking questions before agreeing to hand over all his management to her. He just seems thrilled she got him a Lamborghini partnership and an invite to fashion week.

The only time he puts up a fuss is when he realizes she’s not planning to take any significant cut of his money because “you’re family sweetheart” and he looks like he got smacked in the head with a shovel and has to go outside on the porch with Shane for a suspiciously long period of time.

Just to make sure it’s not suspicious that Yuna Hollander is now managing Ilya Rozanov she takes on a few more clients too. And if she specializes in managing rookies with no support network or active language barriers then that’s just a coincidence.

[blacksheepcolorfulskin]

WHY IS THIS SO GOOD?!

[the-ladyrae]

They put drugs in this show, and this edit is the closest I've come to being able to snort it like cocaine. Excluding binging the entire show in 6 hours after first turning on episode one to see what all the fuss was about.

[vibrantbloom]

"He's going to worry" is such an underrated moment for showing that Shane knows Ilya's in deep. They haven't taken the leap yet, skirting the edges of whether they're going to do this. But still you have to tell Ilya that Shane's safe, he'll worry.

And woah, does he worry.

[hrgifs]

Oh, I think I know how the staff likes to be treated after all these years.

[millinerswings]

"I like you" isn't just a stepping stone to "I love you" - it is a distinct narrative beat in its own right.

As the audience, we already know that Ilya loves Shane because we heard him say it in Russian. But we also know that love is not enough - Shane loves Rose but they weren't compatible. Sometimes love isn't enough, for a variety of reasons.

This is why Shane and Ilya are terrified of coming to the cottage. Because we still don't know if they're compatible beyond the incredibly hot sex and psychic level hockey passes. The tuna melt date was nice before Shane crashed out, but that was just one afternoon.

"I like you" is the missing piece in their relationship. I know that I love you and I desire you and we play good hockey together, but do I like you?

The cottage scenes answer: yes. I like playing with you and I like cooking with you and I like talking to you and I like sharing space with you and I like sleeping next to you and I like waking up with you. I like you.

I like you and I love you and I still have no idea how we can possibly make this work but I really want to figure it out.

[fluorescent-iridescent]

Game Changers’s hockey cards (っ◔◡◔)っ

[fanart by mahpmahp]