The Odyssey but retold as a low-stakes modern adventure of one guy out with his girlfriend leaving the bar with his buddies to do just one (1) simple thing real quick, it'll take like 15 minutes tops, he'll be right back, but then some bullshit happens and the trip keeps getting more complicated as more bullshit keeps happening while he just tries to get back to the bar because he promised his girlfriend that he'd get back and he knows that she's still there because she told him she'd wait there.
And by the time he finally gets back it's almost 3 am and the bar is about to close while she's sitting there stone cold sober, surrounded by 5 drunk guys unsuccessfully trying to convince her to give up on waiting for him and go home with one of them instead. And the guy shows up to proceed to beat the shit out of them before explaining himself to her like hey sorry bullshit kept happening, my phone fell into a storm drain and my wallet got stolen when I was trying to find someone who'd borrow me a phone so I could call and
His girlfriend had been fending off the 5 drunk guys for most of the evening by explaining that even if she was going to ditch her boyfriend, she can't possibly leave without finishing her beer, which she is keeping perpetually full via careful sleight of hand where she's just pouring it back and forth into and out of the pitcher.
However the drunk guys are also drinking, and eventually she can't afford to buy another pitcher for the table so she can't keep up the ever-full beer glass trick. At this point she has to resort to setting up the pool trick shot that she's never seen anyone but her boyfriend pull off, and says she'll leave with whoever manages the shot first.
That buys her another hour or so and then, finally, her boyfriend makes it back. He looks like shit, hair down and just a mess, he's wearing an entirely different jacket that he got from an alley, and barely recognizable—especially to 5 guys who've been drunk for hours now. He lurks for a minute, finds out what's going on, and proceeds to pull off the trick shot first try. Throws the jacket off, fixes his hair with a hair tie his girlfriend lends him, finally looks like himself again, and THEN beats the shit out of them with the pool cue.
For bedtime rules bb!shane: I see you and raise you a child who refuses to get out of bed after being tucked in for the night because That’s Against Bedtime Rules. Signed a child who lost a tooth and almost refused to go tell her parents about even they the tooth fairy def needed to know.
What shenanigans are happening to Shane because it’s after bedtime and he’s Not going to get out of bed? I think he watches spaghetti escape and only mentions it the next morning.
OH GOD WAIT. THIS MEANING THAT WHEN HE *DOES* GET OUT OF BED AFTER BEDTIME, IT MEANS SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG.
which means when yuna wakes up to shane and david having a hushed conversation at 3 in the morning, she's immediately just oh my god my baby what's wrong with my baby something is wrong with-
and then she has to hear that The Snake is LOOSE!!! IN HER FUCKING HOME!!!!!
and shane is in tears and clearly upset because that's his FRIEND!! and he's MISSING!!!
and yuna is trying SO HARD to be a supportive and loving mama to her very distressed baby right now, but internally she is just
I have been thinking about the post that said one of the biggest blow up arguments they have as a couple is Ilya opening up about taking care of his mom on her bad days and Shane saying you shouldn’t have had to do that you were a kid. like it’s been replaying in my head on a fucking loop. It’s really so… cuz like. Okay well first of all Ilya is saying it in a way of like. It was honor to have been able to care for his mama. He’s so thankful to have those memories even if they hurt. He’s so taken off guard by the idea that he shouldn’t have been doing that (not what Shane said) that it sounds very cruel and callous to him when that’s absolutely not what Shane was trying to convey. Ilya would so mad about it and so so unwilling to want to share things about his mama with Shane after like he doesn’t want Shane to judge his mom in any sort of way because any judgement on Irina trickles back down to him because he’s just like her in all the worst ways. Like he would hear “your mom shouldn’t have done that to you.” Which immediately translates back to him as “you shouldn’t do it to me. It’s unfair to make me take care of you.” and more than anything he just never wants to paint a bad picture of his mama. He wants Shane to love her without knowing her, because he’ll never know her, and that’s devastating enough. He has to love her. Ilya has to portray her and represent her in a way so that he loves her. and poor Shane truly was just sad for baby Ilya. He doesn’t think any less of Irina it’s just factual to him that Ilya should not have had to do that. He was a kid. he means it in the way of I wish Irina hadn’t been sick I wish you could have more memories of your mama taking care of you. I’m sorry. You were just a kid and I’m so sorry. And that’s not what Ilya hears at alllllllllll
Something I genuinely wish was explored more in the ATLA universe/fandom is how Katara is the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe. Like, I understand why it's not spoken about as much as Aang being the last airbender, because he is simply the only airbender left. But Katara is the last link in her entire tribes history of bending.
Sure, the Northern Tribe might have benders, but they have such a different culture/identity around bending compared to the South. We see in Hama's flashbacks that the Southern Tribe had male and female benders at the helm, fighting equally, learning the same things, sharing the same tactics. They weren't left behind as strictly healers or defenseless women given a man's gift, they were strong.
And the thing that separates Katara and Aang's stories being the last benders of their nations is that Aang remembers what it means to be an Air Nomad. There are obviously blind spots because of how young he was, but Aang knows the customs and the culture and spiritual practices. He was able to pass those down to Tenzin and his grandchildren, he was able to start the process of rebuilding what was lost.
But Katara? She was even younger than Aang was when the Southern waterbenders were eradicated. There are Southern practices that are most definetly just... a fractured part of history because she never got to experience them. There are ways of hunting, of building, of navigating the waters, ways of healing, probably even spiritbending, that are simply lost to time.
And maybe her grandmother can clue her into it, memories from a nonbender living aside benders, but it's not the same. She didn't get to hear it from the waterbenders, she didn't get to learn from a Southern waterbender, she doesn't even know what to rebuild because it was never something she was versed in.
That's why The Puppet Master is such a heartbreaking episode. Because Hama could have been the Southern teacher Katara clearly wanted, she could have shown her more, but ended up passing on her legacy of Bloodbending. And on the inverse, I can't even fully call Hama a villain for wanting Katara to know how to bloodbend, because the ache of thinking you were the only one left for so long, the rage against a Nation known for destroying nations, would've driven anyone insane.
We know that Tenzin felt an intense pressure to keep rebuilding Air Nomad culture, but I'm so convinced that Kya probably felt something similar with Southern waterbending.
so impressive of mxtx to have the golden core reveal be as bad as possible for jiang cheng. putting it right after the ancestral hall scene. the actual offender, wei wuxian, passed out. have it be revealed by the worst possible person ever, the wen who wei wuxian defected yunmeng jiang for. and for whatever reason, lan fucking wangji is there. truly being shot from all sides
I know that when Ilya finally finds out that Shane had put on a suit before their first hook up he's gonna be insufferable about it he'll be like "Shane, kotenok, it's time to suit up we're gonna have sex"
Every time they go to have sex for the next ten weeks, Ilya pauses and Shane gets concerned by the look on his face until Ilya just says ‘uh. Shouldn’t you be wearing your suit’ and Shane nearly gets up and leaves the room (as a bit)
"'We could only have one child,'' David said quietly. "We thought about adopting, but we decided in the end to just focus on making Shane the best person we could. I think we did an okay job of it.
Ilya smiled at the understatement.
"We couldn't be prouder of the man he's become,' David continued. "I don't have any Stanley Cup rings, but I have Shane.''
Chapter 39, The Long Game
....
It's Christmas of 1988.
There's one more present under the tree, and Yuna's eyes are dancing as she hands it to David. He opens it to find the tiniest pair of shoes he's ever seen.
"No. Really?" He's dizzy.
"Really," Yuna grins, and her eyes are shining with tears, and David loves that face more than anything. He hopes their baby looks just like her.
.....
It's a bitterly cold day in February of 1989 when David puts the shoes away. He pushes down all the anger of it's not fair, why us, why our baby. Yuna needs him.
The doctor had said you're young, you can try again.
.....
In the spring of 1990 the flowers are blooming to life and Yuna's belly is starting to look rounder. David looks around the empty bedroom in their Ottawa house and thinks green might be nice, something that works for a boy or a girl, a nice cheerful shade. Next week he'll buy the paint.
The call from the hospital comes before he gets the chance. When he looks at the doctor's scrubs he thinks green is the ugliest colour on earth.
.....
They don't talk about it. Not when the leaves are changing colour and the nurse offers them congratulations. Not at Christmas or New Year's as they turn the calendar over to 1991. It's Valentines Day before David gets the courage to touch the rounded swell of his wife's body and he cries when whoever is inside touches him back. It doesn't matter that they don't have a name or a face yet, he loves them so much it hurts.
.....
On a Friday morning in May, David holds his son for the first time. His face is scrunched and blotchy red and angry. He's the most perfect thing anyone has ever laid eyes on.
He watches Yuna sing and rock him near the nursery window at home, her face glowing. He thinks the yellow paint was definitely the right choice for their sunshine, their only sunshine.
.....
Shane is a chubby baby (they laugh themselves sick when the baby shoes don't even fit on his fat little biscuit feet) but by the time he turns two he has leaned out into a little boy, they think maybe they are ready to try again. David imagines a girl this time, introducing Shane to his baby sister. Melissa sounds pretty. The baby name book had said it meant honeybee and doesn't that just fit perfectly amidst sunshine and flowers and springtime?
.....
It never happens.
Shane is an only child at four and five and six and he's becoming something special on the ice, all the coaches say so. David thinks that they have no idea what they're talking about when they say that because Shane Hollander has always been special from the time he kicked and rolled inside his mother, before he ever knew what cold was.
If he's all they get, they will make sure he knows he is everything.
.....
Sometimes David wants to take Shane by the shoulders and apologize to him for making him think he has to be everything. You don't have to try so hard to be perfect for us, he wants to say. You're perfect to us because you're you, you're ours, don't you know how we prayed and hoped and waited just for you to exist, don't you know that's enough?
Much, much later as he waves to him (to them) in late evening sunshine, he sees Shane relax behind the windshield with a loving hand on the back of his neck. David feels something inside of him loosen.
.....
On Shane’s wedding day, David embraces both his sons and dances with his wife and my god, if this is all he ever gets in life, no man has ever been so lucky.
.....
"Are you ready?" Shane is smiling and his eyes are shiny. Ilya looks much the same.
David is dizzy. But he nods and holds his hands out. Shane places the baby in his arms and oh, she's so tiny. He forgot how tiny they start out.
Her little knit hat is yellow.
"Hey there, honeybee," he murmurs, and his voice is foggy with unshed tears. "I'm your grandpa."
I love when The Character has a breakdown. Are they gonna go catatonic? Start crying hysterically and can't stop? Get so mad they could blow up a mountain? No matter what it's always fantastic.
i dont think straight people should be allowed to do "enemies to lovers" i think if a man is your enemy you need to trust that you were correct the first time and slay him in battle
unc yaya is baby arthur’s gay awakening :) #mythesis
sweet arthur is very shy and in his own world in general a lot but around ilya he turns mute. and hides behind shane a lot.
”ilya and the girls are going to the yard to play, do you wanna go with them arthur?” shane asks and arthur shakes his head and looks up at shane with sheer terror, gripping his pant legs like going in the yard with ilya and his sisters is a suggestion of a torture chamber
amandla
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