The Arcana Has It All

Antares, they/them. | 30 | bisexual | ask me about my obsessions, I’m so normal about them

[sashthesloth]

The court jester has arrived

[chloematis]

Tell us a joke little guy!

[my-2nd-account]

Rock bottom has a basement

[softwaring]

by tucker

[rodrickheffeley]

I love this autistic gay boy

[nerdreamer]

[samwisefamgee]

[etaka]

[aromancy]

[natalieironside]

No this is book accurate

[hollanderthoughts]

I want to be heard (doesn’t speak) I want to be understood (doesn’t explain) I want to be seen (acts like if a missing person was right in front of everybody)

[thombalan]

[lavenderprose]

"Vegas is sad because Ilya didn't actually want to be doing that :( He was trying to create distance between them :("

And what if I told you that Ilya engineered that hookup specifically because he wanted to dom Shane that night and he knew that if he got Shane in that hotel room that Shane would submit to him so beautifully and what if I told you that actually that's what they both wanted so fucking bad and what if I told you that the only reason the Penthouse hookup is bad is because Shane DID NOT COMMUNICATE what he wanted. Which was kisses. That's all he wanted. Not softer sex not Ilya being "gentle" not the denial of an aspect of his sexuality. Which is submitting sexually.

Vegas is sad because they aren't communicating well and they have feelings for each other and Ilya is refusing to recieve even the most basic aftercare (Chatting. Ilya enjoys to chat with Shane after sex, we've seen it before) and he's too in his own head about other things that he's failing to provide Shane's preferred aftercare (kisses) and neither of them even knows that that's a fixable problem at this point. THAT is the saddness of the scene. Not the kinky sex. They absolutely should have been having their kinky sex they just needed to be doing it more safely. But they're 24 and Ilya is about to reenter the Slavic Torment Nexus and Shane thinks he deserves to be sad forever until he wins a Stanley Cup. So.

[carfuckerlynch]

hey does anyone have that poem. about the author seeing two boys cuddling on a hotel lobby couch, where he refers to it as something like an island of safe anonymity or smth. its been 5000 years my college boyfriend had it written out and pinned to his wall

[carfuckerlynch]

THANK YOU @witchoflight it is indeed "on traveling together" by Kayleb Rae Candrilli

[ferncloud]

caught 🩸 PDX

[fealty-to-thee]

Having a blorbo is SO wonderful bc you get free joy for thinking about them being happy but also free joy for thinking about them being miserable. No losing

[2nd-massachusetts]

*gently takes your face in my hands* hey. remember that fandom is for fun. if you're not having fun it is ok to step back. if you're intentionally making it unfun for others it is ok to step back. none of this is real. go sit in the sun and smell a flower. i love you.

[virginshane]

so here’s the thing: shane hollander has a big dick. ilya’s eyebrow raise in the shower, his heavy breathing when shane first took his clothes off in front of him. the big dick was in the room with us. blowjobs do NAWT look like THAT unless there’s some length to cover. anyway, shane’s size has caused him a lot of embarrassment in the past after all he is a guy who’s internal monologue is allll about fitting in and Being Normal but hey our guy is noticeably larger than your average dude and. shane has had to hear every possible big dick joke in the locker room. poor attempts at sex with girls have ended with them saying it hurts. so shane hollander feels like a freak of nature. conclusion, maybe his dick is just not meant for sex, maybe he isn’t meant for sex. it hasn’t felt that special to him anyway. a freak dick nobody wants. too bad. cue ilya, cue the flint, we know what happens. to shane’s surprise ilya gives him a blowjob and moans happily around his weird too big not meant for sex cock, even says his cock is pretty. ilya don’t make fun of me i know it’s weird, i know i’m like, abnormal or whatever. meanwhile ilya is like dear god good creator for your mercy on my soul i have won a jackpot. let me show you how pretty your cock is, hollander.

[virginshane]

thank you @williamstorrie WILDLY important point!!!!! ofc ilya is almost the same size as him but he has never had to hear what shane has because of course ilya rozanov is slanging it. meanwhile shane has had to deal with stereotyping jokes on top of who’s horse is that jokes to be made to feel Extra Weird. !!!!!!!

[belleandkurtbastian]

TV!Ilya is significantly MORE driven by intimacy than book!Ilya is, and that’s sort of a side-effect of the show’s rewrite of Svetlana and Sasha.

In the books, Ilya has hookups and Svetlana is his most regular hookup outside of Shane and is clearly a friend… But Ilya and Svetlana don’t have the deep backstory of childhood, and the FIRST TIME Svetlana is brought up in the book is during Landrygate.

Book!Ilya still feels a deeper connection to Svetlana than any of this other hookups, both because of the hockey and the Russia of it all, but it’s nowhere near as intimate a relationship as in the show.

Meanwhile, in the book, Sasha doesn’t EXIST. He’s not a character, he is a throwaway line about how Ilya used to hook up with his coach’s son.

Show!Sasha is a REALLY interesting adaptation in this context, because while Svetlana is more prominent in the show than the book, her rewrite is a pretty logical extension of what their relationship already was on the page. Sasha’s rewrite completely recontextualises him, because SEEING him and Ilya interact it is quite clear that they were more than just fuckbuddies, and that at some point along the way Sasha, Ilya, and Svetlana were ALL friends.

The upshot being that all three of Ilya’s notable partners in the show are people he has a deep intimate connection with, and that REALLY recontextualises the Hollanov rivalry in some ways too. “Sports rivalry is super intimate” is like… the thesis statement of Heated Rivalry, but this direct comparison to Svetlana and Sasha, Ilya’s childhood friends/fuckbuddies, puts a MUCH sharper point on it.

[64mpg]

i can’t wait to be saved miraculously and get out of all of my predicaments

[20thcenturywomen2016]

I’m a lover by nature except for when I’m a wretched hater cunt bitch which I also am by nature

[brightloveee]

I know we talk a lot about how Ilya turned himself from a ho into a housewife, and how much he loves to be a My Husband guy. "My Husband" this, "My Husband" that, "Have I told you about My Husband Shane Hollander?" And yes. True. Love that.

BUT, do you ever think about how quietly, but equally, chuffed Shane is to be a My Husband guy too?

There are definitely points in Shane's story when he thinks This Fcked Up Thing Between Them will never amount to anything but sex – he doesn't dare even entertain it until the cottage. And there are YEARS in between when Shane is pretty much convinced that in order to have a happy future, he would need to be in a heterosexual relationship. He has a lot of internalized comphet notions that take him trying and failing to date Rose to dismantle. Based on his upbringing and environment, he thinks he NEEDS to be with a woman in order to have a long-term partner that he can be with publicly. Rose is the ONLY person he's ever liked enough to even consider, but he can't even like HER enough for that.

There has to be a period of mourning, after that conversation with Rose, when Shane thinks maybe he WON'T get to have a partner. After all, things with Ilya are FAR from assured at that time.

Meanwhile, he's certified Husband Material. As I've Shaneterpreted before, he's a major Protector and Provider. He's DYING to do Husband Chores for someone. Man the grill. Mow the lawn. Make the fire. Kill the spiders. He's worked so hard, he's built this big cottage, and for what?

He WANTS to share it with someone, and for a while there's a strong possibility that he won't, and he'll never get to have that.

So when it all works out, and he gets to think of himself and Ilya as an "Us," I think he gets a little smile to himself. He's calling the pharmacy like, "Hi, yes, I need to refill a prescription for My Husband." "Hi, is this the lost and found? My Husband lost his earbuds again." "Two tickets, for me and My Husband."

He looks normal. For all the world he's as calm and collected as ever. But internally, he's JUMPING for joy. He gets to have a husband! And it's ILYA!