Liza 🐶📚🇵🇱

25, She/her. Pessimist with big heart, animal and book lover, spending too much time on AO3 and having eternal existential crisis - yep, that’s me!

[andwhatexcellentboiledpotatoes]

I was inspired by this post to write about how I think this would go...

****

It's 1:30am when Marleau calls. Ilya would have slept through it if Shane hadn't wacked him in the face with a pillow and mumbled "Dude, your phone is ringing, make it stop."

"Oh." Ilya rubs his eyes and picks up his phone. "It's Marly."

"Probably drunk calling you again." Shane says into his pillow.

"I will just make sure he is alright. Go back to sleep." Ilya says, running a hand through Shane's hair.

"Mmmm...kay.."

He heads out of the dark bedroom, tripping on a pair of disarded pants (his), closes the door behind him and switches on the hallway light. "Marly, are you calling me because you forgot your address to tell the Uber driver again..."

He stops, because it sounds like the person on the other end of the phone is crying. Ilya pauses, double checks. Yup, it's Marleau's name on the screen.

"Roz, I'm sorry, bro...."

"Are you okay? What's going on?"

His best friend hiccups. "I...I..."

"Marly, what is it? What did you do?"

"I'm straight!" Marleau almost wails.

Ilya sits down on the floor, his back against the bedroom door. If this is a dream it is a very weird one.

"Um.. okay... I know that. Why are you telling me this in the middle of the night?"

"Because I tried. I really tried, okay, I promise." Marly's voice is slurred, his words running into each other. Okay, so Shane was right about the drunk part...

"You tried what?"

"Guys, Roz, guys! Well, one guy. Figured I should just start with the one guy. And at first it was okay, kissing him was fine, and I liked it when he sucked my dick, that was really good, but then I went to suck his and it was just weird and gross! It tasted all sweaty and I didn't know what to do with my teeth and my tongue and then he told me to fuck him and I figured I could do that, cause he was like, turned around, so I thought it would be just like with a girl, but his balls were right there and I swear they were looking at me, and I... I couldn't do it! I made him leave..I'm sorry."

Marleau takes a breath for the first time and Ilya takes the oppertunity to jump in. "Marly, are you telling me you got drunk and hooked up with a guy?"

"What? No, the drunk part came later. I figured I had to be sober to see if I really liked it."

Ilya pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes. "Okay, yeah, good, that's... I guess that's good." He takes a deep breath. "What guy? Where did you find him?"

"On Grindr."

"What?!"

"Well yeah, it seemed like the quickest way."

"Since when are you on Grindr?"

"Um, since this afternoon. I made a profile saying I was curious. I got a lot of matches, and this one guy said he would show me what I was missing, so I just invited him over."

"Oh my god, Marly, you're lucky you didn't get murdered! Okay, so you tried it and it wasn't for you, that's fine." Ilya says. "I don't understand why you're so upset about it."

"Because..." Marleau sniffs. "I thought maybe I could be bisexual too. You know, like you. But I'm not, okay, I'm not and I'm sorry, and... and..." he hiccups. "Are we even still going to be best friends if we can't talk about sucking dick together?" he wails.

"Marly, what the hell do you mean?"

"Well you know, that's how we bond, you and me, we talk about the girls we like and hook up with, and all that, and now you're like, in a proper relationship with a dude, and that's totally great, I'm happy for you, you know that, but that means you're never gonna be interested in girls again, so like, what are we even going to talk about?"

Ilya puts the phone on his knee so he can rub both his eyes."Marly. Bro. Are you telling me you hooked up with a guy because you thought it make us stay friends?"

"Well, I don't know. I'm sure you have all these gay friends now who you can talk to about fucking guys, so maybe you don't need me anymore and..."

"Marleau, you beautiful idiot." Ilya interrupts. "I can't believe I have to actually say this, but I am not friends with you just so I have someone to talk to about my hookups."

"You're not?"

"No. I am friends with you because I like you as a person."

"Really?"

"Yes. I promise."

Marleau sniffs again. "Okay. So I'm still your best friend?"

"Yes."

"Cool, that's cool."

They are both quiet for a few seconds. Marleau blows his nose.

"I cannot believe you sucked a guy's dick just to try to stay friends with me." Ilya says.

"Shut up." Marleau sounds almost like himself again. Crisis averted.

"No seriously, I think that is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me..."

"Fuck you."

Ilya laughs, and he can hear Marleau laugh too. "I'm going back to bed now, okay? Will you be alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about me."

"Okay, I love you, dude. Even if you are straight."

"Thanks Roz. I needed to hear that. Love you too."

Ilya hangs up, chuckles to himself. Then he gets up, goes back to the bedroom, switching on the big light. "Shane, wake up, you are going to freak when you hear what Marly just did!"

[rosegarden06]

“If I could cut this award down the middle I would because if these gay yearning little bottom eyes didn’t have a big sexy Russian to feast upon my performance wouldn’t be as good so to the honorary Canadian Connor Storrie, I share this award with you.” 😂🥹😭

————

————

Some other thoughts…

My partner vs. my girlfriend

Love you vs. I love you

Thank you so much for always keeping me stable vs. Thank you for always being there for me

Her shoulder pat (nothing from him) vs. a hug or kiss

[ravenclairee]

HUDSON WILLIAMS accepting the award for Best Lead Performer (Drama Series) at the 2026 Canadian Screen Awards

[hollanovbiter]

in case anyone needed a canadian geography lesson:

the Bell Centre (the arena where the Mtl Canadians play) is 223km (139 miles) away from the Canadian Tire Centre (the arena where the ottawa senators play)

Shane’s apt is canonically in Brossard, a neighbourhood in Mtl just across the St. Lawrence river (hence Shane asking Ilya if he’s crossed the bridge yet in TLG.) Which is about a 20 minute drive from the Bell Centre.

I don’t recall Rachel mentioning a neighbourhood where Ilya’s house is. But it’s canonically 15 minutes away from the Canadian Tire Centre, with a Starbucks on the way.

SO assuming that Ilya’s house isn’t 15 minutes North/East of Ottawa i.e. farther away from Mtl…

Shane Hollander drove 2 hours and 20 minutes (not including traffic) with a plug in his ass

[actuallysara]

Hudson Williams: Shane Hollander understander of all times

"I fell in love with Shane immediately. I mean, I was falling in love with him even when I read the sides, which were just the audition... like, two scenes I got for the audition. By the time I finished reading episode 6, I was crying. I felt like no one else was allowed to play him. I needed to play him."

"Shane is very affable, even though he's sort of a departure from myself. As much anxiety as I have, Shane has quadruple, tenfold more, and it's just pouring out of him at all times. And that was fun to play, even if sometimes my stomach hurt. I always thought of him as sort of this pretty, neurotic character; this little concoction of this flowery, determined, sort of alpha in some ways, or sort of wanting to appear so, and then just this pretty little sensitive painting in other ways."

"I had Heated Rivalry read, and then read again, and annotated many times, on my Kindle."

"After reading Jacob's scripts, even before the book, I immediately saw how he would operate. My dad is on the spectrum, he knows it. He's a mechanical engineer graduated top of his class, first in class in everything, very technical genius in a lot of ways, but sort of socially... I think he would say that he doesn't want to deal with emotions. He has told me, I'm not even paraphrasing, "I relate more with Vulcan than human," referencing the Star Trek, the hyper-cerebral alien creatures. I love my dad to death, and I've always felt very connected to him. He has a sensitivity to him that is very boyish. I think when I read the script, I took a huge page out of living my life with him. Rachel Reid has said Shanel is autistic, so I think I knew how it should look. I empathized with him a lot immediately."

"Shane is hyper competent at this one thing. He's stereotypically masculine in a lot of regards. He's a kind person, and he's so overtly Canadian. He's harboring something that he thinks is a career-ending secret because he just doesn't have the emotional maturity or societal maturity to sort of understand what his own queerness means. To him, it's most likely detrimental, which is the wrong assumption to some degree, but it shatters his own idea of what his masculinity is, or at least it cripples it. And yet, he still never harms a fly."

"Shane is like a giant wooden suit with not too many articulating joints. I love him dearly, but he is exhausting because although it's my accent to a degree, it's not my voice. I'm very expressive, I'm loud, and he is tight-lipped and tight-throated, and he walks like a little frickin' square. He's like a Roomba, and has the emotional expression of one as well. So it's exhausting, but the friction is also sort of liberating in a sense that I can just be very sardonic and not necessarily earnest all the time. I'm trying to work at that. Even if Shane just says "you're an asshole" or "fuck you," his heart is on his sleeve no matter what. It's just pure earnestness and a real lack of ability to articulate himself into a lie or a less truthful place. His heart is always in his eyes, and that is kind of refreshing to be in, but it's also scary."

"Sometimes I think people might not like him, but it's like, "Oh, I hope people understand him." This is someone who's very close to me. These are family members. These are friends. These are neurodivergent people I know very well. So I'm also scared for him because a lot of the time I'm like, do I make him more cinematic and more sellable and more of a charismatic performance? Shane is not charismatic. There's a wardrobe person on set who said, "Hudson, you're hot as hell, but Shane's unfuckable." And I was like, "Well, yeah, I guess that's Shane."

"Shane feels very much like my father in a lot of ways. Thinking of him while playing Shane, that was a part of the build, the very first ingredients. I think I said my dad has a boyish quality, but he's also mechanical. Shane is boyish, but he's also mechanical. Getting to live with that, be frustrated by that, be frustrated by the restrictions of it, it just made me feel even more empathy and love for my dad."

"To cry in someone's arms is possibly the most intimate thing I think a human can do, let alone bare your heart on your sleeve and have to look someone in the eye. It's terrifying for me, and I'm an actor and my job is to be some soapy bitch. But for Shane, it is like death."

"Shane is not the most observant fella. He doesn't even have a gaydar. So I think Scott was someone he admired and represents the guy who's done it and been in the league-macho, competent. And to see that guy kissing smoothie boy on screen in front of millions of watchers is like a little pressure off his shoulders of going, "Okay, this makes this a little less scary. I'm not sure I'm going to do that, but I'm glad someone did."

"Shane's on the spectrum so he has to be specific."

"And then also the scene where, it's very sweet, when Shane mentions that they can start a mental health organization. I don't think Shane knows how sweet that is to Ilya. I think it kind of comes from Shane's pragmatism and he's sort of thinking, well, this was good and Ilya will appreciate this, but I don't think he knows to the extent."

"And then the final nail through the fucking skull in my eyes was the scene with Yuna. That was the scene that felt the most pointed in my upbringing. You know, Asian family... There were some stereotypes that are true, in my experience and a lot of Asian kids' reality. Perfection, discipline, a lack of straying left and right meant a lot of old, outdated conventions and old biases. Being gay is one of them. So having that release... I didn't know at that point if Yuna would tell him, "Okay, well, do you want to be a part of this family or not? You're not going to be talking about that again." To the degree of which she brought him in and said, "That's okay," really just sent me."

"Shane and Ilya get their ending, but as a reader bringing in my own experience of what that sort of overbearing mother means and the fears that it comes along with, this is the looming anxiety that carries Shane through all those seasons, all those years. "What would my mom think? What would my dad think? Holy fuck, I am breaking their idea of this perfect little image of a hockey player I have built over these years and sort of fabricated, to a degree."

"No, Shane does not know he's autistic. Although autism has always existed, the idea of it being a spectrum... that conversation started to reach me in a more open, accepted way in like 2017, 2018. I kind of forget the exact dates of when our show wraps up, but the overlap would probably be nearing the end of where we leave them in Heated Rivalry And I don't think Shane would be having those conversations in his social circles."

"He would need to go to a therapist, and Ilya is the only one in therapy in season two. And I don't think either of Shane's parents are the type to be like, "There's a spectrum. You're on it." They just think he's driven and antisocial. To me, reading the scripts, it didn't even have to be acknowledged. I was like, "This guy is farther along the spectrum than a lot of people." And I kind of aw, even how the dialog was written, how it manifests. Sometimes autism's portrayed in movies with quirky head movements, weird blinks, and weird inflections. And it's like, Okay...? That is sometimes truthful but that's always the reach. That's always the way it's expressed. And it's like, No, sometimes it is flat affect. It's just being immobile in your seat and taking 10 seconds to move your hand to do something because you don't know what this movement looks like or means."

"Shane is not a talker. In our show, he talks very little, and so we need to kind of set that up. Even Shane just coming up to him and saying, "Ilya Rozanov?" is huge, and it needs to be huge for the rest of the show."

[softshane]

please let‘s remember that criticising rachel reid doesn’t automatically make you misogynistic. just because she’s a woman doesn’t mean she’s immune to criticism. and we’re criticising her for how she constantly belittles, dismisses and outright hates her autistic character of colour.

rachel saying that she regrets suggesting that shane may be autistic while currently partnering with an autism charity where you can bid on a 30 minute call with her is worthy of calling out. rachel saying that ilya should have gone for svetlana in the show and that there will be ilya/svetlana fics when the book and show wouldn’t nearly be anywhere near as successful without shane since we’re all here only because of how much we love shane and ilya is worthy of calling out. rachel saying that his diet - which is not ridiculous, let me be clear here - is another thing shane focuses on too much instead of actually important things like his very sad boyfriend is worthy of calling out. shane clearly has an eating disorder which is constantly belittled and dismissed by everyone around him but his issues are never taken seriously and properly addressed because he is a side character in his own book, a mere plot device to tell ilya‘s story. rachel saying that she wanted shane to tell jj and then following up with shane is stupid as if she isn’t the author and could have easily written the scene differently is worthy of calling out. rachel saying that shane‘s reaction to ilya‘s texts in tlg would be huh weird, followed by her calling shane an idiot is worthy of calling out because anyone who understands shane‘s character would know that this is most definitely not how he would react; he would know something‘s up and be concerned because he‘s been clocking ilya‘s depression all of tlg. rachel saying that tlg was all about the ways shane had been selfish and essentially putting the entire blame for the conflicts in tlg on him when ilya had also been selfish is worthy of calling out (and this isn’t to pit them against each other but merely to acknowledge that they both are flawed and fuck up and that’s okay - i love them both dearly). rachel doubling down on shane not having trauma when he’s a neurodivergent closeted gay man of colour playing a sport that’s known for its racism and homophobia, but because he didn’t have an abusive family, he couldn’t possibly carry trauma is worthy of calling out. rachel refusing to understand her own character because she clearly can’t be bothered and only cares about ilya is worthy of calling out.

yes, shane isn’t perfect but her treatment of and outright hatred for her own character is completely unjustified. again, the story doesn’t work without shane. we all wouldn’t be here without shane. he’s such a beloved character, and i simply cannot fathom creating such a complex, nuanced character seemingly by accident, only to completely misunderstand him and complain about his actions that you wrote.

I will continue calling rachel reid out for shit like this until she takes accountability and shows an ounce of willingness to learn from the criticism we offer. and these are all valid criticisms that have nothing to do with her being a woman. but if that still makes me a misogynist in your eyes, cool. I don’t give a fuck. I love Shane, and he deserves so much better.

[mrkestis]

Yuma and Kaori performing the Time to Say Goodbye step sequence together.💙

[flyingrhinoceros]

Red Bull Target Jumping still needs some work, but it’s so fun! Perfect way to end the season. I have no idea how I'm going to survive without the comps on the weekends 😅

Thank you for this season, ski jumping family! It was a pleasure 🫡💛

[skijumpingf1]

The proud look from domen, the admiration from Nika

[just4vibez]

😭😭

[flying-rusalka]

[flying-rusalka]

[skijumpingf1]

Choose your fighter: Domen carrying Nika after Nika and he won the world championship or Cene carrying Nika after Nika got a new world record

[proti-toku]

New world record

[skijumping4life]

NEW WORLD RECORD!! NIKA PREVC EVERYONE 🥹🥹🥹

[servingsato]

Kaori Sakamoto on Amber Glenn:

“I think the things that Amber has done for the sport is really just not about the Olympics, every competition she shows us support. She shows me support, and she encourages me, she praises me, and having someone around me in competition creating that atmosphere is really, really, something that makes me feel stronger and assured. Usually in our sport when we are rivals, we tend to not get too close before the competition, but I think Amber broke that stereotype. She’s the kind of person who thinks, ‘What can I do,’ when she sees someone in trouble or in pain, and she’s able to put that immediately into action. I speak for all of the Japanese skaters, we are all very grateful. She does it because she wants to, and I think I am sort of similar in the same type of person. I really want to help people. Even at my own expense sometimes. I think I really, really, admire Amber as a person.”

Source: Ice Skating International Online

[flying-rusalka]