i looooooooove how annoying shane and ilya must be as the two best hockey players in the world just both of them being able to see the game at such an elite level and notice things no one else does and theyre basically speaking their own language to one another and saying things like "i dont even count a hat trick if its on an empty net if the goalie isnt there its NOT a real goal i think they should not count these" "absolutely if theres no challenge it isnt real" "exactlyyyyy" and they will say things like this in front of players who have Zero career hat tricks
hayden is struggling in the postseason and says its bc he is "playing with a broken rib" and privately shane is thinking "okay but just one though jesus christ" and ilya is texting him like "is pike playing on severed legs" "broken rib" "ok???? just one????" and shane is like wow thank god finally someone who gets it
I think it would have been so fun and enriching for both Shane and Rose to have a little more time with Shane's situationship before the Hollanov Soft Launch. Neither of them ever went to college. They barely went to high school. They've been locked in on their respective high-intensity low-privacy careers since they were fifteen. Shane has been fucking with a fuckboi for seven years without ANYONE to talk to about it. Rose is just as starved for genuine human connection as Shane is.
They should have been given time to sit on Shane's couch while Rose plays Twenty Questions trying to get to the bottom of who Shane is fucking.
Shane should have told Rose about the Tampa hotel room and Rose should have hit him with a pillow and said, "NO. The fuck boy does NOT have a heart of gold, Shane Hollander."
Shane should have had the opportunity to text Rose, "I'm making a bad choice," and then two hours later, "Fuck I am DONE I am NEVER doing this again" because Ilya got up to shower too quickly and Shane hurt his own feelings about it.
There should be a series of texts in Rose and Shane's history that just say, "Relapsed," all of them sent at three in the morning accompanied by a selfie of Shane in Ilya's fuckass navy blue sheets. Rose's habitual response is Not a relapse if you never stopped 😐
They should have met up after Shane was up all night getting just absolutely railed into the mattress and Rose should have reached across the table to lift up Shane's hangover sunglasses and said, "That dick better be unbelievable," and Shane should have miserably said, "It is."
Shane should have gone incommunicado for four days after telling Rose that he was going to spend a long weekend in Boston and finally when Rose texts him a screen shot of an LAX -> BOS flight list and the words, "Proof of life or else." Shane just responds with a picture of Ilya's back turned and his hair a mess as he rummages in a cabinet for coffee beans. Rose responds, Whore. And then, two minutes later, Tell the fuck boy I said hi.
tonight’s boring headcanon is brought to you by the fact that i think david’s a little nerdy and influenced shane to also be a little nerdy. david loves star wars and lord of the rings, and introduced shane at a young age. they’ve watched the movies, read all the books, did LEGO sets. and then one summer at the cottage after a day of swimming and eating hot dogs, shane makes ilya watch star wars, explaining all the lore and complexities along the way. but he’s bamboozled when ilya asks “and the robot is—” “droid” “and the droid is gay, yes?” and shane doesn’t know what he’s talking about but he points to c-3po (the cuntiest baddie in the universe) and shane’s horrified like “no he’s a droid he doesn’t have sexuality” and just to be antagonistic ilya is like 🙂↕️ “yes he is gay i know this for sure” and says r2d2 is his stout lover and shane is Bothered
The primary intended audience of this bit of meta is anyone who didn’t expect to find themselves in RPF-land – and yet. If that’s you and you stumbled across my Tumblr specifically, I’m guessing either you’ve come from Heated Rivalry fandom into learning more about hockey and then the Hockey RPF scene, or you stumbled into Shailinin (or other FSRPF) like I did due to Recent Events but without having spent a bunch of time in a semi-adjacent RPF fandom and are now feeling…weird…because RPF is just not something you do. And yet here you are. (Come to the dark side, darlings, we have all kinds of cookies adaptable for your personal nutritional needs.)
Secondary audiences are people who want to know more about me as a writer (since I’m trying to get more active with writing), and also…me, because I want to get all of this out in one place. As such, this post might be subject to editing. Originally written April 2026 but things change.
For some context if you don't know me: I’m blueorangecrush on AO3, she/her, usually called BOC in fannish spaces. I’m a Fandom Old (Xennial) with two kids old enough to be in fandom but we all try not to directly encroach on each other’s playgrounds. I’ve been in Hockey RPF fandom since 2014, and while I am certainly no big name fan, I might be a medium name in certain subgroups. I run a Hockey RPF exchange every year (Hockey Holidays) and write a lot of rare pairs. While my “normal” (non-RPF just sporting enthusiast) hockey fandom rests with the Islanders and Sirens, I got into Hockey RPF via the late end of the Disney movie love story days of Jeff Carter/Mike Richards, I find myself writing the Lightning quite a bit and I’ve ended up pinch hitting exchange gift fics for all kinds of “I don’t go there buuuut I’ll make it work” situations. I write in other fandoms as well, but Hockey RPF is my homebase. (Yeah, I’m that author, the one who wrote two fics in your fandom, a smattering across a lot of small fandoms, and then a whole bunch of Hockey RPF. A lot of us around here are also that author.)
Before I landed here, the closest things I had to “home base” fandoms were a semi-obscure one I still write for occasionally (Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber), and two others (one very large, one very small, neither of which I am planning to name) that I don’t interact with anymore because of the creators of the media turning out to be complete trash fires. And that kind of informs where I’m going next with all this.
People get creeped out by RPF. Fact of life. There is a layer of moral discomfort attributed to it that I understand and sympathize with but having thought about it a lot over the years I simply disagree.
Why?
Mostly because…I’ve seen a lot of “unhinged” terrible behavior a) towards creators of works that get a lot of conventional, non-RPF fan attention and b) towards the athletes we RPF about in non-RPF contexts (creepy stalker fans, creepy stalker fans of opponents, and – all too often – sports media itself).
The overwhelming majority of us in sports RPF fandoms just want to “play with our dolls” (and just as importantly, the setting!) in peace. We do get the occasional people who want to punch holes in the fourth wall, who have believed so hard in what they think they see that they’ve decided to approach the actual people involved about it. And that’s BAD. RPF fandom collectively recognize that’s inappropriate behavior. The only time I’ve ever NOT been mad about RPF containment breach was that one crossover fic about a particular athlete getting to punch a fictional character he deeply (and justifiably) hated, which both the athlete and the author of that villain apparently enjoyed seeing.
But you know what else is bad? Sending hate to screenwriters about how homophobic they must secretly be if they don’t include your specific same-gender ship in their next season. Pressuring authors to read your fanfic and then suing them for not including you as a collaborator in their next work (aka the actual reason that almost all authors will not look at fan creations based on their works, and you are not going to be an exception). Or, uh, demanding that a hockey player who had a bad night Venmo you to pay you back for your sports betting loss. (That has been a whole thing and it’s really disturbing to hear about!) Or threatening their wives and children and pets. No, we shouldn’t be asking real people about their real sexual and romantic lives as fodder for our stories, but we also shouldn’t be doing any of the rest of this. Bad “fan” behavior is not unique to RPF fandoms and should not be seen as such.
Another reason I don’t see it as inherently wrong to be an RPF creator: there is a sliding scale of RPF. There are a lot of biopics out there that definitely aren’t claiming strict accuracy, and that can sometimes be extremely jarring for those who knew the subject of the film personally. I’m thinking of how Dianne Feinstein was very pleased that the film Milk was made, but because of her close personal connections to some of the most harrowing parts of the events the film was based on, she never could bring herself to watch it. There are fake autobiographies and real “names changed to protect privacy” situations. There are works centered on original, fictional characters that make heavy use of current or historical real people as background backdrop characters. There are Chuck Tingle parody names that everyone knows “who” is “really” being referred to. There are also characters in some media that are clearly based on real-world counterparts, and sometimes the inspirations freely acknowledge their fictional versions – I’m thinking of Denis Ten and Jason Brown acknowledging in different ways on their respective social media that the Yuri!!! on Ice characters of Otabek and Leo were at least very heavily (and clearly) based on them.
Which brings me to my next point: being in sports RPF fandoms has had a lot of upside for me. It’s made me a more informed and observant enjoyer of the actual sports involved, which has in turn made certain social situations easier because in a lot of places sports can still be a semi-neutral “safe” thing to talk about. RPF also made me a better writer! I could go on about why the whole stereotypical “you know you’re in for a treat when the works page has two for your fandom and lots of Hockey RPF” thing is a thing, but I don’t want this to get too long. I’ll just lean on Fredrik Backman’s Beartown for a quote: “Why do we love hockey? Because it tells stories.” Really, that says it all. Almost.
I do also think that the shared knowledge that we’re already At The Devil’s Sacrament helps weed out a lot of the fears of telling a Problematic Story. It’s already “problematic” – it’s RPF! And now that that’s out of the way, we can actually tell the stories we want to tell! (And that comes back to other fandoms, because all anyone has to do is look in the works list and they’ll know that we write RPF and like it.)
That being said, if you’re going to get involved in this scene, you need to do some thinking about where your boundaries truly are. There are the basic courtesies that I believe should be followed so as not to interfere with the people inspiring us to write or with other fans, and then there are my personal lines that I don’t expect everyone to share but that help keep certain mental lines clear and avoid accidentally crossing them (I’m ADHD as all heck and don’t want to make “forgetful” mistakes that would constitute a more serious breach).
The basics: Don’t bring up RPF to the people you’re RPFing (even if they are out and/or married to each other, it’s still incredibly rude and creepy) or people adjacent to them, or to the media (even when the media seems to be inviting it e.g. the Sharks’ WillMack thing), or to mainstream sports fan settings, or to people who clearly Don’t Want to Know and will make things difficult if you aren’t able to restrain yourself. Don’t tag or caption on large public sites (X/Twitter, TikTok, Insta, Reddit, etc.) in such a way that your RPF headcanon squee or cute photo edit is likely to get picked up by the subjects, or the media, or non-RPF-enjoying fans of the players or the sport. Do tag correctly on AO3 (and you really should AO3-lock your RPF for a number of reasons). If you’re in an exchange that is RPF-based or that allows RPF, make sure you understand who and what is considered fair game for RPF writing or artwork in that exchange.
Some of my personal lines:
Blueorangescribble is my fannish sideblog – because likes on Tumblr work how they do and so do follows, you can probably figure out my main if you’re looking but I do keep RPF and most RPF-adjacent things off of my main. There’s someone I follow on other sites under my wallet name that I’m pretty sure is also following me here because of Hockey RPF fandom, I’m just not sure which Hockey RPF writer she is. And that’s fine. (I have once managed to have the “uhhhh hey so I think we are following each other in two separate spaces” conversation successfully, and we got to meet up at an Islanders game, which was amazing. Fan friends BEST FRIENDS for real.)
You might notice that I seldom to never tag real names, but I do have consistent tags for the skaters and players I talk about a lot. Sometimes they are esoteric to me – for instance, Ilia Malinin is “raspberry boy”, Casey Cizikas is “beloved sunbeam on skates”, and Anthony Beauvillier is “sunbeam 2.0”. Sometimes I’ll use a common-use fandom tag, like d10 for Denis Ten.
And sometimes the real name tags are unusable anyway. If you try to search Misha’s full name here on Tumblr right now you get a whole lot of half-dressed women who have nothing to do with Misha at all. So there’s that. The actual Shailinin tag is better for general Misha content at the moment than searching his name, which bothers me but is what it is. BTW my tag for him is just “misha my beloved” – there’s a now-former hockey player who is also extremely associated with pandas in general and Kung Fu Panda in particular and I don’t want to confuse anyone!
I can’t say I’m 100% innocent of tinhatting, but the point where I stop is “I have no idea about their actual sex life? But these specific people are clearly each other’s Person.” And even then I will keep that squee and speculation amongst friendly fannish company.
I won’t RPF as a main character anyone who is currently under 18 (though I will flashback scenes to younger than that when it makes sense) or anyone who isn’t notable enough to have an English-language Wiki page. If anyone like that is significant as a background character, I’ll mention that in author’s notes.
I will write freely about the ways in which the sports and governing bodies can be kind of bullshit and hurt people, and about sports and society and horrible media and bad sports-parents etc. As a longtime Hockey RPF person, my personal mission statement has pretty much become this:
I hate that I love this sport so much because there is so much wrong with it! Therefore, I write fix-it fic, and I also write darker fic that follows the wrongness to a logical conclusion.
My sentiments towards the figure skating side thus far are similar.
That said, I probably won’t write super up close and personal tragedy aftermath. Which I realize is a balancing act, and kind of an I know it when I see it line. To give an example, a significant plot point in one of my older fics is the death by suicide of a former NHL player who was known to my main character but not someone particularly close. I probably would not have written the sibling, known close friend, or (actual or RPF-made-up, secret or otherwise) lover of that player.
I also realize that the people we write might…behave in disappointing ways sometimes. Often, even. Comes with the territory. My personal line for that has generally been “this person was credibly named in a mainstream media source as arrested for or convicted of domestic violence or sexual assault” means I won’t write as a main character, but if they’re unavoidable as a teammate or a coach etc. I won’t simply pretend they aren’t there (unless there is another reason to do that). If I’m writing for a collection or exchange with stricter rules, I obviously follow them. But this is another instance for me of hey, we’re already At The Devil’s Sacrament, let’s create what we want to and move on.
I feel more comfortable participating in RPF fandom because I have thought about all of this. And most of the time it’s a great, fun, creative space to be in. I love it here and am happy to help newbies out. <3
A while ago one of those posts went by that was like “the leads of the previous show you watched are now in the show you are currently watching. how do they handle it?” and I was like ok the heated rivalry boys in black sails would just. Die. They’d just die. RIP.
But the more I think about it the more I think the opposite is where the comedy is.
I cannot stop thinking about what a fucking year Ilya had in 2014
Putin warns gay people not to spread propaganda during Sochi Olympics
Every Western media outlet wants a sound bite from Ilya, a Russian superstar who’s lived in the West for five years, regarding the gay propaganda laws
Ilya has to thread the needle of neither denouncing or promoting Russia’s stance
Ilya leads the National Hockey Team to a demoralising crash out
The prettiest man in the world makes the unbelievably stupid decision that now is a good time and place to talk to each other in public for the first time ever
He is upbraided by his Papa
Sveta completely misreads what he needs, and he can’t even be mad about it because at least she’s trying
The Bolotnaya Square protesters are convicted
Russia moves troops into Crimea
He keeps frantically googling pictures of Shane in the middle of the night
Russian opposition leaders are detained
G8 suspends Russian membership
Boston makes the playoffs
The Russian government enacts laws tightening control of dissemination of information, categorising bloggers alongside journalists
The Donetsk and Luhansk referenda, unrecognised by the international community
Boston wins the Stanley Cup
Has panic attack in a bathroom, is immediately accused of being an asshole for arriving on time
Successfully convinces himself he’s capable of having sex with Shane without feelings, definitely doesn’t cry once he’s alone
Super super fun happy times summer with his ailing father
MH17 shot down by Russian-made missile
Russia hits back at sanctions by banning food imports, sends food prices soaring
Oil prices crash, halving Russia’s national budget
Foreign ownership in Russia media is capped
Has Totally No Strings No Feelings secret sex with Shane, everything is Chill
Russian financial crisis hits, prices of food up 40 to 50%, some KHL teams can’t even pay their players
And all throughout this, every time he opens Facebook he’s tagged in yet another hundred fucking ALS ice bucket challenges
Will genuinely never stop thinking about the interview where they asked Chris hemsworth mark ruffalo and Halle berry to guess the names of the couple in heated rivalry. And they were like. What’s heated rivalry. And the interviewer explained it to them and one of them went. “closeted hockey players…..? They can’t tell people they play hockey…………….?” Important to remember this exists in the world. #exiting my echo chamber
fuck it. goncharov au of heated rivalry. ilya and shane are katya and sofia. svetlana is goncharov. this is so stupid and does not work even a little bit. scott hunter is icepick joe.
Listen Shane might’ve brought up the dubcon bellboy rp but Ilya had already started them in on ‘there’s only one bed.’ These boys finally get some time alone together and the first thing they do is start putting themselves in Situations, all the situations they wish they could be in in real life that seem so much more possible in the daylight at the cottage.
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