versimilitude

|| abby she/her || 22 || terfs dni ||

[stolenchapstick]

i have to remind myself everyday

[knucklecurve]

mind you, ilya spent an entire book thinking about hurling himself off the roof of the canadian tire centre in large part because his new shitty team was impinging on his sporting-competition-with-shane kink. what makes you think this man harbors secret aspirations to wearing bedazzled letterman jackets with a baby in each arm

[lesbianroselandry]

honestly, i think the trophy room sex scene really encapsulates that rachel reid writes about instutitionalized, systemic bigotry as though it's something that can be solved with personal confidence. this is a running theme throughout all her books but especially game changer and the long game. both shane and scott don't want to come out publicy because they play a full contact sport and are fully aware that a lot of their coworkers are homophobes, and they (quite rationally!) fear not only potential future workplace discrimination, but also straight up physical assault.

however, the narrative frames this as a choice borne not out of reasonable trepidation, but rather as one made from selfish cowardice. kip claims scott is forcing him back into the closet and even asks him what's the worst thing that could happen? about coming out, as if the answer to that isn't blatantly obvious: a hate crime? ilya accuses shane of all sorts of nonsense, from "not choosing him over hockey" to being selfish and naive (because somehow shane simultaneously is very aware of how much would go wrong if he and ilya came out publicly, but also has "no idea about the dark side of hockey". how does this incredible dissonance work? don't worry about it! rachel reid sure didn't! shane is an idiot when she wants him to be and a paranoid hyperaware selfish asshole when she wants that instead).

so like, of course she writes as though shane being upset about workplace harassment and discrimination is something that can be solved by ilya ~fixing~ shane's self-esteem with hot sex. it's the culmination of this entire victim-blamey attitude that systemic problems can be solved by #slaying hard enough and simply not caring what other people say. of course workplace discrimination and harassment will simply stop being an issue if you stop being a vulnerable target and remember that you're awesome, right? right? that's how this works? just don't let them get to you and they'll stop because they'll realize the error of their ways! it's foolproof.

like .. . . ... .. .. . . this strat has already largely been discussed as deeply flawed and often unhelpful re: playground bullying. among children. do we actually, seriously need to establish that "ignore it until it goes away" is not a real solution to institutionalized bigotry? seriously?

[fortuneaday]

[shanehollanderjpg]

i'm always, forever, running back to you

spring into summer – lizzy mcalpine

[proseandpeonies]

i had on a long dress and a mosquito bit my ass. abolish the state of florida.

[proseandpeonies]

so i’m actually covered in hives

[ellisonwongparty]

i have a very brad bird ratatouille reaction to The Long Game in that i just think it's such a good title. i am not here to debate the actual contents of the book. do not subject me to that that's not what this is about. but The Long Game is such a good title. like it perfectly encapsulates the central conflict of the book, and it's got game in the title, which is a reference to sports. because they are hockey players. in a forbidden, long term relationship. they are playing the long game, if you will. it's like kind of genius. brad bird voice it's got rat. it's got food. ratatouille.

[proseandpeonies]

i had on a long dress and a mosquito bit my ass. abolish the state of florida.

[pov-rosie]

All the little kisses Ilya gave Shane —A Full compilation.

[plumeriyaaa]

Whatever You Wanna - Annabelle Dinda

[rival2lover]

the room fills up with people who are convinced i'm not just some kid faking it for your love

shane hollander x favorite daughter by lorde🩻

[ticklefighthockey]

i love that shane's whole emotional experience of heated rivalry is just him being like why is he mean to me then nice to me then mean to me then nice to me then really nice to me then really mean to me then nice to me in a way that bewilders & disconcerts me so much it briefly turns me heterosexual. and then he's mean to me again. oh it's because he's scared. yay! i can work with scared. i intend to marry him

[transgenderer]

i feel like "man massively cuts foreign aid spending, resulting in hundreds of thousands fewer lives saved, is he a mass murderer?" is kind of an interesting thought experiment. but its really really bad it happened in real life. in real life its just very simply one of the worst things you could do in your life

[shanebug]

i think it would be fun writing alive eccentric boymum irina who feels threatened by shane esp bc ilya kept something from her (shock!) for so many years... oooh... like she has this attitude of "i know my son sleeps around but it's because none of these women are good enough for him to commit to, i know, he tells me everything, i am always going to be the main woman in his life" and then it turns out not only has ilya been keeping this massive secret from her for years but he's suddenly VERY committed and to a man? and you know boy mums have weird ideas about gender so it really throws her off like oh my god. i didnt plan for this. i have all this internalised misogyny and now i cant direct it at my son's partner as planned.

and also she's threatened by the hollanders in general bc they are more functional than the rozanovs and she feels judged by them and worried that ilya loves them more than her... and maybe yuna and david DO judge her a bit especially before they know about her history (in this au she left grigori) and struggles but also i cant see them making that obvious

i think ilya and shane are so happy to organise a dinner where irina and the hollanders meet and it's a bit weirdly tense and ilya kinda has his eyes opened to some things about his mother that he thought were normal. and shane doesn't tell ilya this but next time he's alone with his parents he's like "okay just say it" and maybe yuna says something like "you know we love ilya but well meeting his mother well it makes some things about him make sense" and shane's like "how could you say that" but inside he's like "well they have a point" not that he'd ever admit that to anyone

also i like to imagine svetlana meeting shane and when they're alone for a minute being like "ilya is my family and i love irina but she did spend years convinced i was coming between her and her son. even when ilya and i weren't fucking. and we were 13. good luck."

i love some realistic family drama it must be said

[girlwithnoface]

and ill never go home again!!! place the call feel it start favorite friend!!!!!!! and nothings wrong when nothings true!!! i live in a hologram with you!!!!

[hollanov-ann]

[lesbianroselandry]

do you ever think about ilya's face in that bit in the stairwell scene...