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[roastedbrisket-blog]

Watching the 2011 Footloose movie and all I can think about is footloose Hollanov au

Here’s my deeply unserious and completely unrealistic AU outline, if someone likes it PLEASE write it

Ilya as Ren, Shane as Ariel

Ilya moves to Regina Saskatchewan (Bomont) after he and his mother escape Moscow. He’s a hockey player but he also loves to dance bc his mother was a classically trained dancer and he snuck into clubs or something idk

Shane is a deeply closeted hockey player, but he has this habit of sneaking around with this also closeted and mega homophobic asshole who really just uses Shane to feel good about himself - bc obviously Shane is a big hockey star and everyone loves him and he’s untouchable. I’m thinking this is like Dallas Kent if he were bi or something (and he’s Chuck, obviously). Dallas is the mayor’s son, also on the hockey team.

We’ve also got footloose plotlines, so Shane’s best friends Hayden and J.J. died in a car crash coming home from a dance. (Shane had left early and Carrie’s some guilt bc he knows he could have gotten them back safely bc he would’ve been sober.)

Shane does love to dance as a way to release tension. It’s good cardio and he just kind of escapes his mind and lets the music flow thru him. So he does the sneaking around with Dallas and they both sneak into clandestine dance parties (even if Dallas ignores Shane and dances and hooks up with girls only to call Shane at the end of the night to give him just enough attention to string him along.)

Ilya joins the high school hockey team and quickly it’s Ilya vs Shane for captain but there’s also this mega sexual tension between the two of them. Shane holds back bc he thinks there’s no other option for him but Dallas. Ilya is of course consent king and they end up together.

Idk just thinking about Ilya coming in and he’s so confident in himself and he’s out and proud and so beautiful, and Shane sees a way out of the miserable arrangement with Dallas. Ends up coming out and they fight the law against dancing and Shane gets to heal from the survivors guilt and Ilya gets to heal from the traumatic departure from his home and reconcile with the reasons for it. Through dance.

Also: Cliff is Willard (specifically Miles Teller Willard). Zane Boodram is Woody and he’s the captain of the team. Rose Landry is Rusty.

(Idk what to do about the religious trauma of it all bc I can’t imagine Yuna and David being preachers or anything, and I can’t imagine them being anything like Dennis Quaid in the movie.)

[fuuuckwhoknows]

I love the idea of Shane’s chirps just being observations.

It started when he was a kid and he was trying to help everyone get better at hockey including the opposing teams players, he would say something like “your stick grip is weak” or “you’re slow on your right” (idk i don’t know hockey very well ESPECIALLY little kid hockey) but he says it totally deadpan because little Shanebug doesn’t understand tone yet.

This makes the other teams so mad! They try and fight him constantly! Little bitty baby hockey fights and then Yuna sits him down in middle school after the first fight that he actually gets hurt (black eye and bloody lip) and asks him what he is saying to make everyone fight him?

“Nothing mean I swear mom!!! I’m trying to be nice and help correct their form”

And suddenly Yuna gets it and explains to Shane that not everyone but especially not the opposing team likes to have their flaws pointed out to them even if it’s coming from a good place and how that could be seen as chirping.

So he stops for a while, then his coach for world juniors tells him to try and piss off Rozanov enough that they can draw a penalty. So Shane does what he does best and points out a flaw at each face off. Jokes on him though because Ilya is actively changing those things and getting better every face off because he is taking it for what it is, advice.

Which pisses Shane off, he thinks his chirping tactic won’t work now that he is older. So he points out at his first scrimmage at practice in Montreal that the center who has been there for years (who he is probably replacing) is favoring his left side is staying too far left to compensate (again I don’t know hockey so I am trying to translate things I know about soccer lol)

And the center loses it on him! Immediately yelling about the lack of respect and how a rookie makes it to the MLH and thinks they are hot shit.

So Shane realizes his chirping DOES work just not on rozanov and becomes a menace he studies game tape specifically to find holes in his opponents game and pre prepares chirps and it fucking works because all these men are so far up their own asses that they just get mad instead of using the advice.

Idk I just needed Shane Chirping but in a very Shane way. Like he really just wants to play hockey but chirping is part of hockey so he studies chirping but doesn’t want to do any of the “classic” chirps (your mom! Your wife! Your girlfriend! You’re gay! Type of stuff) so he invents his own chirps out of his amazing mind

[glindapenguin]

Love this, love Ilya just taking it seriously and using it to improve. (Thinking ‘urgh what a stupid earnest idiot Hollander is, but he’s right so I’ll use it’.) I like the idea that it’s not until he’s at Boston and his teammates start losing the rag whenever Shane ‘chirps’ them like that that he realises what its intended as. (Shane absolutely never chirps him like that any more.) When one of his team mates is really annoying him and bitches about it in the lockerroom later, he takes great - secret - pleasure in telling the guy that ‘Hollander is right, I’ve been telling you that for weeks, maybe you will take it seriously now’. Once he’s captain he instigates a rule that the rookies have to report all Hollander’s chirps to him - word for word, which is a real challenge cause they’re usually spitting mad - so he can sneakily use Hollander’s insights to improve his rookies. Eventually Shane has to stop using his favoured chirp style on Boston cause he realises what Ilya’s doing.

[alasse9]

heated rivalry fic: so you must like me for me - COMPLETE, 36K

art by @anonymouspinkturtle

Relationships: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov

Summary: Shane wants to figure out if he's gay before he gets drafted—and no, the way he felt when Ilya Rozanov smirked at him with a cigarette between his lips in Saskatchewan has nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, the random guy he hooks up with to try and make sure one way or another takes a picture, and Shane gets outed before the draft. In the ensuing scandal, he goes seventh overall, to Ottawa.

It turns out having the worst thing you can think of happen to you when you're seventeen years old can end up being pretty liberating.

Chapter 1 of 2 on Ao3 HERE

Chapter 2 of 2 on Ao3 HERE

[roastedbrisket-blog]

Listen…I did not like role model very much. The biggest reason why doesn’t really have anything to do with the characters, it’s just that Rachel Reid chose to use victims of sexual assault as a plot point in her male characters journey. She never names any of Dallas Kent’s victims, and Troy never meets any of them. The whole thing where he posts and is like “I play for the centaurs and I believe victims of assault” just really rubbed me the wrong way.

And look, I know what I was reading was not a commentary on sexual assault or toxic sport culture. But my point is, if you are not going to treat these topics carefully, why include them? There were so many other things she could have done for Troy’s “redemption arc” (more discourse on that garbage later - again, this is criticism of RR bc I don’t really have anything against the idea of Troy as a fictional character, I like the dynamic between him and Ilya and I thought him and Harris are cute together) than to use such a sensitive topic and just make it all about a man who needed a redemption arc…and never really addressing what needed a redemption arc without some caveat that it wasn’t really as bad as it seemed (I’m thinking of the line at the beginning where Troy thinks “I never made homophobic comments around Ryan after he came out” when he literally did in tough guy about Shane and Ilya). Come one Rachel. Why not have Troy call Dallas out for being homophobic? I feel like that would have been so much more meaningful, bc the hockey world would’ve been like…hey remember when this guy called another guy a homophobic slur like last week? And Troy would have to reconcile with that.

But in role model, it’s a video that gets leaked of Troy calling Dallas a rapist, and Troy spends over half the book almost regretful about it and kind of whining about how much his life sucks and how tortured he is?

Personally, I found it really hard to get through. I kind of only finished it out of spite. Couldn’t even finish common goal bc it was way too cringe. I feel like the only good one was tough guy.

[spock-shock]

OK so Andy Weir doesn't understand Star Trek on any level at all huh [link]

[paulgadzikowski]

I've seen posts quoting that comment and also passages from The Hail Mary Project which disprove his assertion, so apparently he doesn't understand his own work either

[dimplesandfierceeyes]

White men often think their work is apolitical because they rarely have to face the myriad way lives intersect with the political sphere

[roastedbrisket-blog]

This is where he lost me in project Hail Mary. I loved the book, to be clear. But this part? I was like “tell me you thought your humanities/history/poli sci classes were beneath you without telling me you thought they were beneath you”. Like what are you talking about civilizations were only about food before the Industrial Revolution 💀 are you forgetting the countless philosophers…? The birth of democracy? The arts? RELIGION?? Fucking Isaac Newton discovered gravity before the Industrial Revolution. This part was so at odds with the rest of the book in my opinion. But it also made it so clear what Weir thinks about the world, about people in general. After reading this part in PHM, I was not surprised at his whole “reading is not political thing”.

I didn’t even finish my international relations degree and even I know this is wrong.

Also his books are so fucking political. He’s like “imagine a world where we keep funding nasa enough that we send multiple missions to mars” in the Martian and I’m like “wow! Radical! What a world that would be! Imagine we funded science not just for militarization purposes!” Like what did you think that implied?? “Imagine a world where politicians put aside their biases for just a couple years, long enough to allow climate scientists to actually have an effect on the world, even if they had to use their knowledge to exacerbate global warming. Imagine a world where politicians are not short sighted for just a couple years and actually believe scientists just enough to let this amazing woman take over and make a plan to save the world from alien life. Imagine religious fanatics didn’t stop them.” Like I’m not supposed to think about the implications of that any further? He also said “yeah so we have to pave over the Sahara desert. Not any other desert, gotta be Sahara.” Like I’m not supposed to think about why the Sahara? Like I’m not supposed to look behind the “scientific” explanation?

[deja-b00]

somehow it comes up that troy had a crush on shane and was going to ask for his number. and after troy gets ribbed by his teammates and ilya makes a big scene, shane is like, “well i never would’ve gone out with you lol.”

and troy smiles, “right, because you were with roz the whole time.”

“i mean, yes, but also because you and dallas kent spent years calling me and jj ‘rush hour’ and asking hayden if his wife was his beard to cover up for his big gay relationship with me.”

the rest of the centaurs blink. harris puts his head in his hands and groans.

and troy’s like, “oh. right. sorry about that :/“

[jewelcoatfish]

i also read a post that the cens being awkward and cold to shane at first bc they think he’s the reason ilya’s sad and withdrawn from the team, so i’d love for these both to come into play where the cens have to face the truth that not only was shane suffering from a lot more than they can imagine, one of their beloved teammates was the direct instigator and cause for him being afraid of coming out.

i think it would be harris, during one of the cens get together, when they’re all a bit tipsy and harris asks is troy awkward around shane because he used to have a crush on shane, and after wooing and teasing sounds this scene occurs.

it was wyatt, iirc, that played with troy and saw how he behaved, and it really put into perspective to him if that the environment was making troy, a gay person, behave like a bigoted asshole, so how would it treat shane, who is not only a poc but also closeted and in a relationship with his rival for 3 years.

i don’t think ilya knows the extent of bad treatment shane underwent either, because for the first 7 years of them involved they didn’t talk about feelings, and the next 3 they were under so much pressure of keeping everything up and running there was just too much to pinpoint a specific instance, and so at that point he was like, hmph, maybe shane not wanting me to come out to troy before made sense.

[hollanovhaunting]

I need someone to write a fic where

1) Shane is moving to the Cens and it actually IS very awkward and the Cens are not lovely and wholesome right off the bat because

2) there is a widespread misunderstanding when Shane and Ilya get outed where the Cens, missing ALL of the context, are assuming that Shane must’ve been a shit partner with how rough Ilya was doing this past season and assume that Shane was *forcing* Ilya to stay closeted because he’s *ashamed* of Ilya and their relationship

3) Shane is actually pretty hurt by the Cens being cold and distant with him but doesn’t complain about it because literally everyone else ever has behaved like that towards him in his life except for Ilya, Rose, and the Pikes. He’s very much like “well well look who’s inside again” about it.

4) Ilya doesn’t realize the Cens are thinking Shane is BadTM because he’s wrapped up in how happy he is to have Shane around now. He actually does not realize any of this is happening until their first week of practice as a new team and he sees his team icing his husband out

5) Ilya tries to talk to Shane about it but Shane is very much like “don’t worry Ilya this is normal and I’m fine cause I have you” and it makes Ilya want to kill the Metros three times over

6) Shane also agrees with the Cens about himself being a shitty husband when he hears the reasoning behind their behavior. So he just decides to work hard at being a husband and a teammate and keep his head down.

7) Ilya doesn’t know what to do. Shane is adamant that he doesn’t want Ilya to confront the team and that he can’t control what others think about him and he doesn’t want it to be a big deal. But Ilya is also seeing Shane be as sad and withdrawn as he was last season and is actively getting worse- being more strict than ever about his diet, constantly working out and straining himself, being first on the ice and last to leave

8) some of the Cens slowly start realizing that they have Shane wrong over more time with him- mainly Luca, Troy, Harris, Wyatt, and Bood. But they have put walls up that they don’t know how to tear down without spooking Shane.

9) The rest of the team don’t realize how shitty this must be for Shane until the Cens go up against the Metros and they realize that they’ve been treating Shane the same way his old and terrible teams did- they watch as Shane takes scathing insults with a blank face, gets back up without a word after being smashed against the boards, gives a polite smile (the same smile he’s given them when they’re being passive aggressive) when receiving glares and threats from his ex teammates.

10) idk it can go many ways from here- Shane gets hurt and has to leave the ice and the teams finds him genuinely upset and they all have a confrontation- or the Metros target Ilya and the Cens see Shane lose his shit and how in love and protective he is- or the Cens stop icing him out after this and slowly start to actually get to know him and maybe apologize. Idk. The world is your oyster or whatever. I just want Protective Cens but it Backfires Pretty Badly.

11) Bonus points if Ilya eventually confronts them and then, when he hears their reasoning, is very much like “you??? Hurt my husband??? For me??? He wasn’t a bad partner??? I have depression??? Is chemical imbalance not abuse???????” And is absolutely pissed lmao

[gingerpolyglot]

This has utterly consumed me since I saw it but the piece that I'm stuck on is what if Shane truly just. Doesn't notice.

Because the Cens are absolutely icing him out but compared to the active malice he's used to he totally sees what Ilya means about how great they are!!

Yeah, they don't invite him out with them and he's kind of a pariah at team dinners but that's just how it goes? He's boring, he knows that, and now that they're not desperately trying to spend every spare moment together Shane doesn't mind Ilya going out without him, honestly it's kind of nice for them to have time apart.

And sure, they don't joke around with him at practice, but Shane's always been kind of intense and he knows he misses a lot of social cues about that kind of thing, but nobody is putting the burden of winning entirely on his back and he's not catching flak for every tiny mistake.

And maybe it'd be nice to have someone to celly with besides Ilya but he only ever really had Hayden and JJ in Montreal anyway, and hey, he's getting proper defensive coverage again so who cares?

Like imagine the bar being SO LOW that the Cens' behavior barely registers for Shane as a problem because it's STILL such a step up from what he's used to. He's still surprised every time nobody says a slur to him, which has been a daily occurrence since practically mites.

And then The Big Thing Happens, maybe he gets hurt in a game against Montreal and the Cens see how he just puts up with SO much shit and it makes them reflect a little and they get all apologetic, and Shane is just like. What are you apologizing for? For not liking me? Nobody likes me, it's really not a big deal guys, and Ilya is in the corner, heart breaking quietly, because he somehow missed all of this and more importantly he is starting to realize how seriously he underestimated the amount of shit Shane was getting in Montreal and why he was so terrified to come out.

[roastedbrisket-blog]

I haven’t even read TLG yet, so ignore if this is wrong, i can’t stop thinking about this and the posts about Troy and his coming out experience and they are fitting together in my brain like this:

I imagine that after all the outing, after Montreal, after everything, the other players in the league see Shane as the weakest link. Yes, you have Ilya and Troy who are both out. But Ilya and Troy have built personas that are more or less compatible with toxic masculinity. Ilya was infamous for being a “ladies man” and an absolute menace on the ice. He starts fights, he gets under other players’ skin. And while hes shown more vulnerability up to this point (the foundation, his sexuality), I would think it unlikely that the image of Ilya people have built in their brains to switch on a dime. I imagine he’s still a masculine man to the assholes who would use his identity against him. Similar for troy, probably to a larger degree. Especially since it seems Troy’s coming out was a much more subdued affair than Hunter’s or Hollanov’s. So yeah, Troy’s advocating for women in the face of Dallas Kent’s scandal would draw ire from the rest of the players in the league and so would his sexuality. But also he’s probably known for being an insufferable asshole and punching down - that’s not an image/reputation that just goes away, even to homophobes and assholes.

Shane on the other hand has been this golden boy, nice guy, “pacifist” (obviously he would fight bc it’s hockey but he’s known for “not fighting”). I would imagine that hockey culture would call him soft. Plus the fact that he’s half Asian - an ethnicity where the harmful stereotypes include submissiveness, weakness, etc. Shane being with Ilya, this man known for being Masculine TM, a player, brash, and arrogant, puts him in a more vulnerable position than Ilya. I imagine the “top/bottom” discourse immediately latches onto their dynamic and turns it sour. I imagine the perfect nice boy persona Shane’s spent his entire career living up to quickly becomes the thing his opponents weaponize most viciously. He “left” Montreal in disgrace, and I can see the hockey world viewing Shane’s move to Ottawa as an admission of guilt, of sorts. He left in disgrace for a team that historically sucked, and (idk if this is canon or fanon) he’s probably being paid WAY less than he’s worth. Meaning, players are more likely to view him as a worthless cheater who hung his team out to dry for his boyfriend but somehow still gets to play hockey. I would imagine the other players in the league (not just Montreal) HATE Shane, and relish in the opportunity to tear him down, especially bc he was so high on a pedestal and especially bc he’s actually a much better, more skilled player than they are.

What I’m trying to get at is that I imagine this scenario described above playing out where the Cens are braced for impact, they’re ready for players to come for their friends (Troy and Ilya), and it’s just kind of…less than what they were expecting. It still happens, and any instance of homophobia is unacceptable, but it’s like maybe 5% more than what was already being thrown their way.

And then, they realize. Oh. It’s because everyone is piling it on Shane.

How could they have missed it? Well, probably bc Shane had run this exact scenario in his head many times. Probably bc he spent the last season dealing with an uptick in hateful comments and behavior being thrown in his face. Probably bc he’s dealt with more hate than Troy and Ilya have their entire careers even before he was out to his team, before he was outed. Probably bc even at their best, I don’t imagine the metros ever going to bat for their teammate when some random player throws a racial slur at him.

In my head, Shane might not even miss a step. Like yeah, he notices, but to him that’s hockey. It’s the price he pays, the price maybe he even knew all along he would pay, to be a hockey player in the NHL.

I don’t know how Ilya and the cens would grapple with this. I imagine Boos would probably feel similar to Shane in some respects. I just like the idea of greater empathy toward Shane, and I think it would do something to Ilya’s psyche to really have his eyes opened to Shane’s whole life/career like this. If it were me, there would be really complicated feelings - I would feel wretched for not noticing and I would feel like a failure of a partner for being wrapped up in my own chemically imbalanced brain when someone else suffers more or differently. I would want to fix it. I would want to go nuclear. But then Ilya would have to grapple with the limitations of what he can actually do, and how little a difference he can actually make.

Ughhh there’s just something about Shane Hollander that I can stop thinking about.

[incurablyromanticsblog]

When I get the CONFIRMED adaptation of a book published 20 years ago and that I read YEARS ago, and it's plot includes a girl who can talk to ghosts then WHAT

[sadmortician]

A hundred times a day

[docrobinavitch]

the more this season goes on the more i’m like. you know what. why isn’t cassie mckay the heir apparent. open and empathetic. doesn’t bring her baggage into cases. incredible teacher. takes criticism well and grows from it. has healthy boundaries. adapts well to chaos without crashing out. cassie mckay is actually the perfect doctor and leader.

[roastedbrisket-blog]

LITERALLY ITS HER AND AL HASHIMI KEEPING THAT PLACE TOGETHER. I love when Robby is all mad that she left to go help someone and she just fucking ignores his bitchiness (until he lashes out that Roxie died, after which they both soften) and then he immediately looks to her when ICE comes in

[djo]

If Samira put in an order, there was a reason. I trust her. Maybe you should too.

THE PITT 1.07 | 2.11

[roastedbrisket-blog]

Let’s talk about the face Langdon pulled when (I think?) he tweaked his back putting down the kid. (I think that’s what happened?)

Langdon has gone throughout his day without a real trigger for his addiction. He’s been really lucky! Good! But let’s not forget that the ED is where he was actively feeding his addiction. Let’s not forget that he stole from this place.

That face, to me, spells some major trouble for him. Because I could bet all the money in my bank account that if that was me, my first thought would be, “I bet I could get away with it again.” I bet his mind went to its previously trodden pathways of “just once, I’m actually in pain aren’t we supposed to treat people in pain?”

My stomach dropped when I saw that scene. KUDOS to Patrick Ball, because WOW that was some amazing storytelling in just a few seconds.

That face, paired with the fact that he finally confronted santos and we learned so much about what consequences he actually faced? To me, that spells out that Langdon is NOT ready to come back - I really do not think he’s faced the consequences he needs to face. He’s getting the help he needs, yes, but not enough of it bc he hasn’t told any one of his superiors the whole story. Robby is the only one who knows, and he’s been very clear that he’s leaving, so Langdon has been developing a good working relationship with Al Hashimi…without any real accountability.

You know what that will likely lead to? Relapse. Bc Langdon will think that he can get away with it again. His mind will rationalize everything away, and will say “hey that wasn’t so bad, so even the worst case scenario is totally survivable, why don’t I just keep doing this when I need to?” But Langdon has not faced the worst case scenario. Not even close. So yeah, he’s in a huge amount of danger because he’s lacking accountability.

Santos is the only one who’s doing anything to give him that, and she doesn’t even like him. She’s helping him more than anybody else, and she fucking hates him.

This show is such a masterpiece. Kudos to Patrick ball, kudos to Isa Briones, kudos to all the writers and directors!

[roastedbrisket-blog]

Learning that Langdon is still married has made me think some things about him this season. Don’t get me wrong: I am thrilled that he has her supporting him, I’m thrilled the show decided to not go the divorce route (I hate divorce storylines). However. It made me think about Langdon and his apologies this season. His “apologies”.

We’ve only really seen him make 3 this season: Louie, Mel, and now Dana. Each of them were so fascinating and told us so much about his character. With Louie, it felt really genuine and it was sweet, but also kind of not the right time? Like Langdon seemed to prioritize his need to apologize over Louie’s physical needs. It also read like he was bracing himself for impact, like he was ready for Louie to get angry and blow up or just not forgive him. It just made me think that for Langdon it’s all about him, it’s not really about Louie.

Now Mel’s apology? That was really genuine, and it looked uncomfortable for him. He had to tell her he was an addict upfront, and she made no accusations or judgements. She said “you never let me down” and he said “yes I did”. This one was also fascinating to me, and (I’ve seen this take before) part of me really thinks this was a genuine apology because it’s easier for him with Mel. It’s easier bc it’s clear she really looks up to and respects him, and that fits with who he wants to be, and - from what I see - who he still thinks he is. He sees himself above her as her mentor and teacher, so this apology allowed him to control his narrative in a way that Louie’s and Dana’s didn’t because they didn’t follow the script he had in his head, but Mel definitely did.

Now Dana’s? That was an incredible scene. I LOVE how they did this scene in the same setting as his last scene with Dana in season 1, where he’s begging her to vouch for him on what is probably the worst shift of her life. And then this one, it’s right after Louie dies, right after she has to clean Louie up and defend Emma from an aggressive patient and they’re in the same fucking break room and he’s still making everything about him. I love how she kind of subtly brushes him off, “you can check me off your list kiddo”. It left me feeling incomplete and I loved it because to me, Langdon still hasn’t learned a very important lesson: Not Everything Is About Him.

He’s been skulking around the hospital all woe is me I’m an addict and I’m working the 12 steps look how much progress I’m making and still my boss who really stuck his neck out for me and I spat and shit on during the worst day of his life still won’t let me apologize but I gotta get it out before he leaves bc I don’t want to keep feeling guilty. BUT. That’s really selfish in my eyes. Robby doesn’t have to go back to the way things were before, nor do I think he even can. And that really sucks for Langdon, understandably, but ultimately that’s not something he can control, and by trying to he’s just making it worse, making it harder for Robby to get his head right about him, harder to let the sting of betrayal and disappointment and hurt begin to heal.

Don’t even get me started on Langdon and santos!! He’s making all these amends to people he thinks are worth it or people he thinks deserve it, but nothing to santos? For being a shit mentor/teacher? For trying to ruin or stagnate her career by shit talking her to Robby? Santos should be a really important step in his healing process, and yet…he’s avoiding her and she him. She’s still scared of him, even though she not only did NOTHING wrong, she did everything RIGHT!

Langdon said he almost lost everything. Then right after he said that his wife and kids stuck by him. He doesn’t even know what losing everything is, he has no idea what that could even do, and I’m HAPPY about that! But because he doesn’t really know, he’s treating the people he hurt like his own personal feel better vending machine when in reality most people don’t give a shit that their coworker was an addict bc they have their own lives and their own shit to deal with, and the ones who do were really hurt by Langdon and it’s not fair of him to expect immediate forgiveness or even acknowledgement of his progress.

He made his choices. It’s his job now to recover and make amends. It’s not their job to accept those amends.

[roastedbrisket-blog]

Okay wow I’m so proud of myself for this take bc I WAS RIGHT!!

I LOOOVVEEEDDD that scene with Langdon and santos! I loved how messy it was. I loved how he was earnestly trying…but only earnestly trying in the way that someone who has not been fully humbled can try. I loved seeing the consequences that santos faced for her COMPLETELY LEGAL AND ETHICAL DECISION. Langdon IS still the golden boy!! He hasn’t even lost that!

It really surprised me that she says “there’s only 3 people in this hospital that know what you did!! You should have been fired! But nooooooo people are pissed with me! Like I did something wrong!?” I’m so surprised that it didn’t get out at all, but then also not surprised in the slightest.

Because at the end of the day, Langdon is acting exactly how I would expect someone to act who thinks he’s been humbled who thinks he’s learned everything he needs to, but OH BOY does he have so much more to learn. Boy does he have so much more to atone for. He’s acting just like my brother who learned empathy for the first time at 24 after taking shrooms - like he’s enlightened and he’s just waiting for everyone else to get on his level.

The argument santos has with Garcia makes SO MUCH more sense now! I don’t think Garcia knows Langdon stole drugs. I don’t think Whittaker does either!

If I was santos, I’d be going fucking crazy. If everyone blamed me for the “fall from grace” and they didn’t even know the full story?? They didn’t even know how far that fall could have - SHOULD HAVE - been? They didn’t know how I was covering for him STILL? Yeah I would’ve blown up in his face too. I’d be shaking with rage at the injustice of it all.

Langdon going “I almost got divorced I almost lost my kids” and I FEEL for that I really do. Yeah, that must’ve been hell. But…you still have your wife and kids and your job and (now we’ve learned) your reputation. I have so much empathy for him, but he has no idea what rock bottom feels like.

[rainbow-femme]

OK but. For all his not being great with social cues, Shane was the first person to realize Ilya was playing and played along

The first time they meet Ilya is pretty standoffish and the only moment he adds to the conversation is when he calls out “You will not be so friendly when we beat you” which a lot of people would get mad at him being, you know, a cocky asshole as is his reputation. But Shane just smiles and says “That’s not gonna happen” then gives him the cute penguin wave and leaves

Ilya beats Shane in that game, then at the draft, then starts baiting him with the cycling, then gives Shane the sarcastic “Sorry” when Shane answers that the day was almost everything he’d dreamed of

And again Shane doesn’t get mad at him he just smiles and says “No you’re not”

Because Ilya is just playing! He’s just doing the thing hockey guys do and poking fun at other players. But he’s also objectively better than most other people so they take it more personally than they do other players

He’s a big puppy trying to play with other puppies but because he’s stronger they get upset and don’t want to play with him, Shane is the first one who plays back and doesn’t take it personally

Like no wonder he set up the commercial with Shane, that would probably be pretty nerve wracking on his own but he knows Shane is nice and won’t be mean to him or get mad at him, and when he starts laughing part way through other people might have gotten mad at him for not caring or not taking it seriously, but Shane just starts laughing too

He’s the only person able to match his skill at hockey, he’s the only person to actually begin getting him as a person since he arrived, he plays along with the banter and matches Ilya’s energy without ever taking it personally

And honestly given the reputation he had before he’d ever even set foot in North America, Shane was probably one of the few people in over a year who was just plain nice to him

[buffyandwillow]

this was supposed to be a simple comic and then it took endless hours to finish rip. i love their summer flirting across timezones.

i also cross-posted to ao3 if you'd like to leave a comment!

based on something tim stützle said about training with claude giroux:

"I mean, we go at it in the summer, too. Last summer he texted me at like 9PM German time. He texted me, hey can you go run 5k for me, because I wanna, like, check times, and he knows I'm probably better than him, so he wanted to push himself. And I went to the gym at like 9PM and ran 5k for him, and I beat him pretty good and he wasn't too happy about it. He didn't believe me, so."

[skulandcrossbones]

heated rivalry 1x06 // pride and prejudice 2005

[nicolegendary]

damn, hudson williams gets it [x]