i harbor so many fantasies about fics that i'm not going to write where shane snaps and very seriously tells ilya that his response to their outing and shane losing so much respect in their field was so bad that if the situation had been even slightly different he would have considered leaving him. like the way things are he cannot do that because he's just blown up his life to be with this man who he really really does love, but this man also disrespects him and lets others disrespect him. they're supposed to be equals, they are supposed to love and respect each other, and none of that was there during the worst moments of shane's life. i think ilya should spend some time living in fear of shane walking out on him and should do some serious reflection on how he thinks about his partner. and then they work on their communication and are obnoxiously happy and in love, knowing that they both care enough to put the work in.
I would honestly prefer this over what happens in canon.
The thing is that I legitimately want Shane and Ilya to be in a healthy relationship. I want them to be happy and in love and supported by their partner. And that just isn’t happening with the end of the long game.
If I had a partner react to me being subjected to workplace discrimination that ended with my career being fucking totaled by cracking fucking jokes about it, I would serve him with divorce papers because that’s the only way I would be able to stop myself from shooting him with a fucking gun. Ilya is just frankly not a good partner in the long game. Shane’s talking about how he doesn’t deserve how he’s being treated post-Trip and Ilya’s getting so fucking excited that he’s holding his breath because it means he may get to have Shane on the Centaurs. His compassion for what Shane experiences is borderline nonexistent, and I’m guessing it’s because the author herself has no sympathy for what Shane’s experiences. And that’s consistent throughout the book. There’s a scene where Ilya is making fun at Shane’s diet in front of their friends while Shane tries to get him to stop. Like. There is a different from being teasing and being cruel. Ilya consistently makes fun of Shane around things that are genuine points of sensitivity. That is not teasing. That is cruel.
Do y’all know that John Mulaney bit where he’s talking about how ridiculous it would be if he got up on stage and made jokes like “my wife is a bitch and I don’t like her”? But that’s legitimately how some comics act?
That’s how Ilya in the long game feels to me. Like. Does he even like Shane. Because almost every joke he makes is at Shane’s expense, and he is constantly telling Shane that he should talk less and putting him down.
Their relationship just feels so legitimately unhealthy by the end of the long game that I can’t stomach it. I want them to be in a healthy, supportive relationship where they actually appreciate and uplift one another. I am not going to call a book that ends with one partner laughing at the other for the devastating loss he just suffered a happy ending. It’s fucking ridiculous
