[sladucer]

Say it again in russian please...

[stardustpainter]

Ilya trying to outplay his demons

[stuckinapril]

I promise you things will get so much better when you start processing people’s behavior as information rather than a verdict on your self-worth. If someone doesn’t text back, suddenly pulls away, whatever it may be, the solution isn’t to put on a tap dance for them and try to regain their approval. It’s not to crash out on them and try to force them to react a certain way. It’s just to take a step back, take a deep breath, and assess what this tells you. What’s this saying about them? What’s this saying about you??

[darlingofdots]

let's think of some Bits in the Hollander-Rozanov household because every good relationship needs incomprehensible and insufferable Bits:

the random Russian nouns as pet names, obviously

turning to Anya to arbitrate who won the race/loads the dishwasher correctly/scored a sexier goal etc

Ilya. Ilyusha. Ilyushenka. Ilyushenkechka.

and who won Rookie of the Year????

"I have never said this in my life"

threatening to tell Yuna

"pass me the remote?" — "come and get it" — [wrestling]

butt slapping. at every opportunity.

"we will have to shoot you like lame horse" when one of them gets so much as a papercut

idioms translated literally into the wrong language

"this is not hall of fame behaviour"

"who should I bring as my plus one" and listing random people while the other pouts

[thecraftgremlin]

Where’s that one post that’s like Reasons Why My Wife Cried This Week and when are we gonna get a fanfic of that but Ryland Grace.

[stargirl-and-potts]

Reasons my human has cried:

* New student, very small. Grace said it was pebble. Pebble is small Earth rock. Pebble likes name.

* He found out Eridians have no gender rules.

* Students brought him mineral sample. After he stopped crying he said he loves show-and-tell game. Human naming conventions oddly literal.

* I told him Earthsun grew bright.

* I took him up atop atmosphere bypass elevator to look at stars.

* He woke up from nap and found me still with him. I did not wait on his chest; he says I am heavy like “elephant” and he “couldn’t breathe.” I laid my arm over him instead, kept him close, feeling safe. He said “cuddle” was warm.

* Before class he heard younglings singing.

* He has plants in house from sprouts on ship. Plant grew “bud.”

* Engineers got seawater temperature right. He took off shoes and stood in water, sighing. He didn’t care about pants getting damp. Cried until shirt was also damp. Humans very endlessly wet.

* He missed “Doritos.”

* Adrian helped food scientists make taumoeba dried paste. Made it crunchy after heating. We fused it into triangle form. Told him it was Tauritos. That made him laugh-cry. Laugh-cry is rare and precious.

* He remembered Eridians have no gender rules.

* We made him celebration outfit. Used metals he calls pretty. He can see frequencies named “colorful” and “shiny.” These make humans happiest.

* I gave him hug when he wasn’t expecting it. Easier to hug close now with exosuit. Hug when Grace sitting down so he does not fall over.

* Told him to think long time, stay with me as long as he can.

[gaynehollander]

I am forever, at least partly, thinking about how the language barrier has shaped public perception of Ilya. Yes, some of his asshole persona is owed to his natural showboating and joy of ragebaiting but I firmly believe a large part of it is due to most of his public communication taking place in a language that isn't his own and one he doesn't have a firm grasp on in those early years.

A reporter asks him a question that he doesn't fully understand and it's easier to blow it off with an off-hand comment than to admit that he's struggling. He says something that was meant jokingly but some of the terms he uses are harsher than he intends and his inflection doesn't necessarily signal the playful nature in a way it would have, were he a native speaker. He'd rather keep his answers brief than say the wrong thing or visibly scramble for words and by the time he gains fluency, public perception of him has already been cemented.

[parcai]

we GOTTA talk abt Ilya being raised russian orthodox bc i do not stop thinking abt it & all rr said is he thinks he believes in god yes, and that's it..

the thing about ilya being raised orthodox is that religion for him was never really about god. it was about his mother. the smell of incense and candle wax is irina before it is ever anything holy

so yes. he walks into churches sometimes. not to pray, not really. just to stand in the quiet of them. lights a candle because his hands remember how. grigori would never set foot in a church: too much submission implied, too much kneeling before something bigger than yourself, and grigori has never knelt for anything in his life. which means the church is the one room that has never belonged to him. ilya knows this. he goes anyway

but then the second interpretation sits heavier and i can't stop turning it over:

what if irina's faith wasn't really hers either. what if the cross and the head covering and the quiet sundays were just another thing grigori dressed her in. a modest wife. a pious wife. visible proof that she was his, that she submitted to god and therefore to her husband, in that order, in that hierarchy. she is the good wife because she is a woman who knows her place in the divine order and the domestic one are the same thing.

and ilya has been wearing her cross.

and he's forty years old and he suddenly cannot look at it the same way.

because he's been carrying it like it was her—and maybe it was just another leash. maybe she prayed every night not out of faith but out of desperation, asking something to save her that never came. maybe god was just one more authority that told her to stay.

the rage that would come out of that realization. not clean grief, not even clean anger at grigori specifically, just this horrible sick feeling at the whole structure of it. at every institution that told irina her suffering was holy. that endurance was virtue. that a woman who stays is a woman who loves.

ilya who was raised to believe in something and instead watched it fail her, and still can't bring himself to stop lighting the candles.

[escapistinmindpalace]

guys did i miss that there's a making of/annotated skript coming out or is this new info?

[shastafirecracker]

eridian children in Grace’s class interested but slightly disappointed to learn that much earth life is bilaterally symmetrical with even numbers of limbs

Grace going “oh!! But!” and teaching them about starfish, to their absolute delight

new eridian schoolchild trend of starfishing aka flopping flat down with all legs out and moving by wiggling and squirming around, giggling. parents hooting at Grace in despair. why did you teach them this

[audhdspacewizard]

Knowing that Eridians have much longer lifespans, and also he can't be at every school on the planet at once, Ryland Grace decides to record a bunch of entertaining science lessons with Rocky's help.

Hundreds of years later, Eridian kids still get excited when the substitute teacher rolls in the 3D shape projector, because they know they're in for an episode of Friend Grace the Science Ace.

[melandrops]

the aroace read of ryland grace is so personal and haunting. "you don't even have a dog." was it not enough to love the world for the sake of living in it. was it not enough to live for the thrill of discovery. was it not enough to smile at your students. was it not enough to be afraid.

[dareiaious]

one thing i want in unrivaled that will make me imprint on Ilya even more: i need him to start forgetting russian. Not in a major way of grammar, or basic words, or reading speaking, but in more subtle (ME I DO THAT) ways

- at that point he has been working, living, and just existing in States/Canada for over a decade. His partner speaks english, and not enough russian to hold a proper conversation. His in laws speak english. His teammates speak english. The only russian he realistically gets is the regular therapy sessions. At some point brain switches for english be the first language you think in

- and it breaks him (me). He talks to someone in russian, and tries to find a word for something very specific, and just CANT. but he immediately knows it in english, so he says it and hopes other person understands

- his default swears switch to english. he wants to kill himself over it because it feels like a true betrayal

- he only learns things about home upkeeping in english, so he can talk to plumber and explain the pipe is leaking, and understand when electrician is asking for an electric panel, and if it’s fuses or switches. he doesn’t know what any of that is in russian

- he starts to watch and read everything in english, and watching an american movie in russian feel wrong. He actively seeks out russian books and movies and drives to toronto to get to that one russian bookstore

- His favourite show to put on the background becomes one of the hbo comedy shows and the moment he realizes he goes in youtube and breaks his algorithm by looking up the russian sitcom from early 2010s about students living in the same dorm, binges it for several hours and gets more homesick than he has felt in years

- someone asks him where he is from, and his brain short circuits because he doesn’t know whether they are asking about his accent or about the place he flew in from and just smiles

- someone tells him his accent sounds german or french and he nearly decks that person

- he randomly thinks about the russian celeb that used to be a god back home, and googles them. They are either dead, moved to Israel, moved to Europe, or openly support the war. he tries not to think too much about it

- he looks up his childhood apartment building on the google maps and doesn’t recognize anything around it, but it’s also the same place he grew up in. There’s no snapshot of it from before he left, and he realizes if he forgets what corner store was there when he was 15 no one will remember it anymore. he tries not to cry about it

- he works on application to getting rid of russian citizenship, realizes he doesn’t have his ИНН anywhere and he just stares into the void for good 10 minutes

[marz-rm]

Achilles and Patroclus Posting this while Hudson is in my Milan. This took way too long to draw (especially Connor's hair) but pretty satisfied with how it came out. There's another version on patreon with the bg and wallpapers!

[wine-dark-sky]

I just know that the rest of the league was PISSED at Montreal for driving Shane away by being homophobic dumbasses because now he's in his husband's arms at Ottawa and they're the sleep paralysis demons of the entire NHL.

News of the trade drops and every hockey player in the eastern conference wakes up with a looming sense of dread and awareness that they are now in danger. Filing a work safety complaint before games against Ottawa because having to play against both Shane fucking Hollander and Ilya godamn Rozanov on the SAME TEAM should really count as an OSHA violation. No comment, we're too busy holding a team prayer circle before the game🙏

[chloemew]

Absolutely enamoured with this snail mug I got yesterday....

A snug of snoffee

[lilysaintcrow]

one more thought, not super spoilery, but the scene with Judd on the phone felt really poignant. not just a religious way but in the way that touches that part of your heart when you wonder about “Your Why” in certain jobs.

I work in a library. 99% of the time I absolutely love my job, I cried and begged to be here, I love it. But there’s those heavy days that really test your faith, so to speak.

and I definitely saw myself in that moment where Judd goes from “can we hurry this along, I have something important to do” to “Oh. This person really needs help. This is my calling.” And it made me cry in my seat. It’s a really good movie.

[chidorinnnnn]

so you’re telling me one of the characters in wake up dead man is a formerly beloved author who, after the culmination of his wildly popular fiction series, has been radicalized online by right-wing conspiracy theorists, has abandoned his successful writing career in favor of spending all of his time on social media (and what little writing he does put out on his substack is praised only by his staunchest supporters), and is SO convinced that everyone’s out to get him that he’s dug a literal moat around his (distinctly castle-shaped) house?

lol. lmao, even.