The key to writing good fanfiction is to harbor a deeply humiliating desire, and the trick there is that even pretty basic and societally-accepted desires like “being held” and “being wanted” CAN and WILL be humiliating if they’re intense enough. Become so estranged from human connection that the idea of someone playing with your hair fills you with yearning so deep you feel like you’re going to throw up and you will write some banger fanfiction. It might have some other consequences too but idrk about that.
Back in June, I asked folks to tell me about their most self-indulgent Hollanov AUs: those fics that live in your heart or that you're dying to read, even if they make no sense for Shane and Ilya.
The response was more than I could have imagined. Shane and Ilya (and Jane and Liliya!) became about astronauts and actors, journalists and musicians, retired hockey players, fantasy creatures, heroic knights, and party to an organized crime syndicate. They were in the 60s in Moscow and Canada, in Regency England, in a 15th-century monastery. They met as kids, or in high school, or as up-and-coming political opponents. It was a day spent celebrating everything we love about Hollanov without the constraints of pesky logistics or concerns about realism.
And now, we're doing it again!
On the AU-gth (8th) of August, we'll be celebrating another Self-indulgent Hollanov AU Day. To participate, just hop over to my ask box and write to your heart's content. You can share your ideas now, or wait until the big day! Please note that your ask is for Self-indulgent AU Day, so I won't share it early.
When it's the AU-gth, I'll post everyone's fic ideas in a day-long spree! Everything will be tagged #HollanovAUgth if you want to follow along, or go ahead and scroll through now to see what folks wrote last time!
Let's have some fun during the hiatus, shall we?
Thanks to @observethewalrus for the amazing AU-gth pun and to @ilyapasta, @orchidscript, @hollzy-baby, @jeffthemagicdragon, @withoutaplease, and @martelldoran for reassuring me it was a good idea to embrace this fandom's love for special days.
2.7k, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, dogshane thought piece (?)
He remembers playing four square on the playground in elementary school, when they were all getting ready to transfer to junior high, too cool to play pretend but too little to stop playing altogether. Whenever the ball would stutter and skip out of the chalk drawn court, everyone would bicker over whose fault it was, and who would have to get it. Shane wanted to play, not fight with the other kids, so he’d go get the ball. Every time he’d get it, and eventually the others stopped fighting, they knew who would go.
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Shane is not a dog. But Ilya is a good owner.
amandla
snowghoul
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
baratheonpilled
