Prompt: Game Changers Camp. @shanesummerfest Prompt: Wrapped @hollanovmicrofic ~730 words.
"This is your car?"
"Yes," Roz said flatly, sliding into the driver's seat.
"Oh, sorry." Wyatt climbed into the passenger side. "I just thought from your Insta that you'd be driving something a bit more flashy."
Roz shrugged and buckled his seatbelt. "Is practical. Good for Ottawa snow."
Well, he wasn't wrong.
It was Wyatt's first day at the Game Changers' Camp, and their first order of business was to pick up lunch for everyone.
An incoming call came through the car console.
Roz picked up. "Hollander, you are on speaker. Hazy is here too."
"Hi Hollzy!" Wyatt chimed in.
"Hey guys, I just wanted to get your ETA."
"Traffic is not bad," Roz replied. "So, I think maybe ten minutes, probably."
"Okay, sounds great," Hollzy said. "Keep me updated. Thanks for the help!"
As the call disconnected, Wyatt noticed the console display read 'Jane'. Interesting, he thought. Must be an inside joke.
---
When they got back, Roz disappeared for a bit before joining Wyatt in the lunch line.
"Wow, someone's hungry." Wyatt whistled, eyeing the massive pile of food Roz was gathering: two rice bowls, two salads, a stack of side dishes, a ginger ale, and a Coke.
"Ah, yes," Roz laughed, trying to balance the tower of food containers. "But not that hungry. Hollander's stuck on the phone."
"Ah, I see," Wyatt said. Also interesting.
Wyatt took pride in noticing what most people missed. He was an All-Star goalie after all. His job relied heavily on tracking the smallest movements. Instinctively, his brain was already compiling a list of Very Interesting Things at camp.
Like the way Roz always stayed close to Hollzy on the ice, never drifting too far. Or how Hollzy’s eyes wandered, scanning the rink for Roz when he wasn’t around, and constantly checking in when he was. Or the fact that whenever they were close enough, the two of them whispered to each other in Russian.
---
Wyatt didn't really think much of his mental list until Hollander's parents dropped by during their afternoon break.
"Oh, Ilya! We have something of yours," Mrs. Hollander said, pulling a flannel shirt from her bag and handing it to Ilya.
Ilya inspected the shirt. "Ah, no. This is Shane's."
Shane's.
"Well, Shane says it's yours. So take it," she stated flatly.
Ilya shrugged. "Okay." He threw the flannel over his shoulder.
What was that about? But before Wyatt could dwell on it, he was being introduced to Yuna and David.
"Wyatt, it's nice to meet you," David said, shaking his hand. "We really appreciate you taking time out of your summer to coach for the foundation."
"And we're so excited that Ottawa finally got a great goalie," Yuna added warmly.
"Oh, thank you. I'm happy to be here!" Wyatt felt himself blushing. "It's so nice that both of you could drop by! I hope it wasn't too much trouble."
"Not at all!" Yuna waved it off. "We live nearby. Actually, just north of here—"
"Mom! Dad!" Shane dropped in from behind them. "Can I steal you both for some photos for the media?"
They excused themselves and took their leave.
---
After the day wrapped up, Wyatt headed to the locker room to pack up his gear. His body was on autopilot while his mind ran through the mental list he'd compiled. Honestly, he wasn't expecting to collect so much information, feeling a little saddled with the overload.
It'd been a long day, and he didn't know what to think anymore—except that he seriously needed to read less superhero fanfiction—because clearly, his brain was going into RPF overdrive. He sighed, throwing the rest of his gear into his duffel haphazardly and zipping the bag shut.
When Wyatt reached the parking lot, he spotted Roz and Hollzy just ahead, so he picked up his pace to catch up.
"Hey!" Wyatt called out. "A couple of us are getting drinks at Kelsey's. You guys want to hang?"
"Oh, I, uh—" Hollzy stammered. "I, erm, am having dinner at my parents' tonight."
"I am busy," Roz added. "But I will be at send-off tomorrow, yes?"
"Yeah, no worries! See you both tomorrow then!" Wyatt waved goodbye.
As Wyatt drove out of the parking lot, he pretended not to notice how Hollzy's car wasn't heading north at all or how Roz's car was tailing right behind Hollzy's in the exact same direction.
genuinely insane to me that bikinis are the Default swimwear marketed & sold to women. that's nylon underwear. & if you don't want to wear one people treat you like you're childish & insecure & suggest ways to "get over it"
"i feel uncomfortable with the idea of wearing what amounts to fast-drying underwear in front of other people, many of them complete strangers" "have you tried gradually acclimating to showing more & more skin? have you tried being more confident? are you ashamed of your body? don't you want to show off your beach bod?" girl what the fuck are you talking about!!!
wearing a bikini is all about confidence & self-love 🥰 but remember to wax all that icky yucky body hair first!!! 🤢 nobody wants to see that 🙅‍♀️
ilya makes shane smile in that way where only the very corner of one side of his mouth twitches and turns up, the really sweet one when paired with his gentle eyes, and ilya reaches out and touches his thumb to that spot, says, "mine".
shane raises his eyebrows. "what?"
"this," ilya says, moving his thumb back and forth. "when this goes up. is mine."
"oh you're claiming my smiles now?"
"yes. also this—" ilya seeks out and pokes a spot high on shane's right cheek, "—this freckle."
"mmm, okay. anything else?"
ilya makes an 'I'm thinking' face. "probably. but I cannot think of anything now. I will get back to you on this," said in the tone shane reads his emails in. shane smiles fully and leans in. ilya copies him till they're nose to nose. brushing.
"well you don't have to think about it," shane says, "because it's all yours."
ilya asks, "what is?"
"me." shane puts his arms around ilya's neck, tilts his head, says into ilya's lips, "I'm all yours."
i love how shane has zero awareness of how cool he actually is and how much people are dying to talk to him but they keep a Respectful Distance because he's such a mythic bitch
shane gets semi tipsy at one team event and starts talking about some strategy he saw or hockey history book he read and everyone is focused immediately hanging onto every word - until he abruptly stops himself because he thinks he's being Unbearable Only Hockey Guy again when in reality the entire league looks at shane like he's holding some hockey secret fountain of talent that will make them talented too
and when he DOES end up relaxed enough to share something personal everyone is even MORE invested and trying not to spook him and trying to keep him talking and making jokes because Oh My God Shane Hollander is talking to them, Shane Hollander is Cooler and Funnier than originally anticipated (and everyone already thought he was a legend)
this is also SO frustrating for ilya especially when they're out and people are openly flirting with shane and eating up every word that comes out of his mouth (he also opens up a lot more when he's with ilya because duh but this makes everyone MORE infatuated with him) and ilya just watches everyone fall in love with his husband while he shifts between possessively glaring at anyone who looks a little Too adoring and being full of his own admiration for shane and rubbing his thigh under the table
but then they go home and shane's like shit i probably talked too much about hockey right? or wait did i interrupt the rookies too much? we should've tipped the bartender more he was so nice all evening
and ilya is seeing red both because this man can't see how incredible he is while everyone else can AND because this man is in fact his
I honestly don’t know much about manta behavior, but I found the original source for this video, which states that this is actually the end of a mating chain that turned into a mating ball.
The video was taken by a nature photographer with a Master’s degree in Marine Biology with Oceanography, so I’m fairly confident we can trust his call on the behavior shown here.
The best part is these are known individuals in the region! Project Manta does a lot of research on manta rays around Lady Elliot Island - they’ve named these four Mark, Carlos, Flora Hilda May, and Renata.
Here’s the original video with original audio, caption below.
Old Millennial American speaking here. I need you to adopt this mentality as early as possible and hold to it. The older you get, the harder it is to begin this practice and claw back the extremely unhealthy effects of a workaholic lifestyle. I am speaking from 20 years of experience.
This does not mean having a shitty attitude at work, or not doing your job, or relying on co-workers to carry your water.
This means you do what it says above. It also means not making work and productively your entire personality; not tying your productivity to your value; and not becoming so emotionally enmeshed in your work and workplace so that you are living and dying by what happens there.
Good luck out there. American workplace culture is mostly designed to work you to death. Moving against that tide can be challenging, so having a healthy mindset is important to living a life not consumed by your paid labor.
do people really conflate shipping something with thinking that the relationship is good and healthy and non-toxic? that's a crazy way to live. shipping something (to me) just means finding it an interesting dynamic and wanting to explore it, it says nothing about the "morality" (for lack of a better word) of said relationship!
Fun Fact: @iamthececimonster - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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turnnoffyourmind
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