Hi! feel free to ignore this if you don't want to do it, but I was wondering if you could maybe make like a timeline or something similar (you can make it as brief or detailed as you like) for willmack. I'm not sure how much you know, but from looking at your page it seems like you are pretty caught up with them lol. I've been getting into them and fanfics about them lately but I'm always confused with the timeline, mostly around their college/uni years. I'm also british so understanding american university is super confusing lol. Like, I thought Will was a year older than Mack, yet they started uni the same year? and it seems like Mack started uni at 17, did he just start a year early or is that normal for Americans (or specifically American hockey players?). and also I've been trying to learn all the rules etc about the NHL itself (i'm pretty familiar with british ice hockey, but not american, so I understand the actual ice hockey part well) but I am confused about the draft. Will was drafted a year before Mack, yet they started playing for the Sharks at the same time? also why did Will get drafted, then go to uni for a year, then go to the sharks, whereas Mack went to uni for a year (a year earlier than usual), then get drafted and immediately go to the Sharks. Unless I'm just wrong about what I think happened lol. Sorry this was long and you don't have to answer if you don't want to/don't actually know the answers to my questions lol. i've been trying to learn via fanfiction, tumblr and twitter, but I'm still a little confused. I've also realised I started this by asking for a timeline, you can still do that or just answer my questions, whichever you prefer! thank you so much :).
Omg an excuse to infodump!! yay!!
A few quick disclaimers:
Despite knowing a lot of lore, I don’t really know the rules of hockey. I’ve only been here for a few months but i will do my best!
We are going to be talking a bit about Will’s friends, Gabe Perreault and Ryan Leonard (aka Leno). They’re not super relevant to what willmack is up to right now, but they DO provide important context to Will as a character. Also I like them so I want to talk about them.
This is going to be a lot. I’m going to do my best to break it up but brace yourself.
Some Background
Will Smith met Ryan Leonard when they were both about 7-8 years old. They both grew up playing hockey in Massachusets, both come from Catholic families, and seem to have maintained a good friendship. Gabe Perreault is from Illinois so I don't know exactly how they met, but it seems like they were about 16 years old.
The three of them are quite close, but it does seem like Gabe and Will were closer with each other than they were with Leno. They shared a dorm together in their freshman year, and based on some comments from one of their teammates at the Worlds Jrs, Leno was kind of a third wheel in this friendship.
The closeness of Will's relationship with Gabe really mirrors how close he is to Mack nowadays- though, in my opinion, Mack is more similar to Leno. Do with that what you will.
Now, I don't see this mentioned a lot, but Gabe and Mack have known each other for years. Presumably they met when Mack was playing for Chicago Steel (2022-23, so they were 15-16), which is in Illinois. There's the picture of them below, + Gabe consistently commenting on Mack's instagram posts up until a couple years ago. I'm not sure how close they are/were, but Gabe did make this Malkin Celebrini comment that drives me up the fucking wall.
Also, Mack and Will played against each other at least once in 2020, when Mack was 13 and Will was 14. And we do know for a fact that they remember this.
American College + Student Athletes
idk about schools in the UK, but American colleges and universities take their athletics very seriously. Playing in college is often a gateway to playing in actual, professional leagues. So for student athletes, the school that you choose is very important. Colleges specifically scout kids in high school for their sports, and if you're good enough you can get all kinds of scholarships.
Will is what's called a legacy at BC, meaning he has family that has attended and graduated from the school (usually legacies have an easier time getting into a school). They also have a really good hockey program. Plus, it's a Catholic school, and both Will and Leno are Catholic. The two of them sort of peer pressured Gabe into committing to BC with them. I'm not sure if Gabe is Catholic but I haven't seen anything to suggest that he is.
All three of them were communications majors and took all of the same classes (except for one; Gabe took French which he already speaks becuase his family is from Quebec). This was just a stepping stone for them, but from what I can tell, they were all planning to play at BC for two years. This deeply awkward video shows them all on campus together.
Macklin's Age
So yes, Mack and Will were playing college hockey against each other at the same time (the 2023-24 school year. You can see them on the rosters at Boston University and Boston College respectively for those years). And yes, Mack was 17 when he went to college. It's not unheard of to graduate American high school at 17. Plus, athletes at Mack's level do sometimes advance through high school courses so they can get to college quicker- and knowing what we know about Rick, that seems likely. Mack and his older brother Aiden were playing at BU at the same time.
What's Up With The NHL Draft
So "draft" is kind of a loaded word that doesn't accurately describe what it actually is. It works more like a lottery. It's intended to give teams who are not doing so well the chance to get better players. You have to be aged 18-21 to be eligible, which is why Mack and Will were not drafted in the same year.
Getting drafted by a team just gives that team the rights to sign a player. It does not mean that you start playing for them right away. Sometimes a team's roster is full, so they get put in the American Hockey League for a while (which is what's happening to Gabe Perreault right now). Sometimes a player wants to keep doing college hockey or just has another commitment, so they wait a few years to sign (for example: Aiden Celebrini was drafted by the Canucks in 23 and is still in college as far as i know).
Anyways. in 2023, Will gets drafted by the San Jose Sharks. But he doesn't sign the contract right away. He, Leno, and Gabe have already committed to playing hockey at Boston College at this point, and he wants to play hockey with his buddies.
BU versus BC
Boston College and Boston University have a long-established rivalry, as we can see in this video ft. all of our guys! Will, Leno, and Gabe were on a line together, and they did really fucking good. They were widely considered the best line in college hockey (the jack hughes in that article is not the one you're thinking of), and saw similar success when they played together at World Juniors.
Now, BU may not have the best line in college hockey, but they do have their prodigy Macklin Celebrini. I can't stress just how good of a player Mack is. That makes him a real pain in the ass for BC. Mack has said that during college, he didn't like Will. It doesn't seem like they interacted much off ice, but the rivalry was strong.
Summer 2024
So the San Jose Sharks won first pick at the 2024 draft, which basically means they won Mack. A few days before the actual draft ceremony, Will signs his contract with the Sharks for the 24-25 season. Why did he do this? Well, we don't know for sure. Obviously in RPF world it's most fun to think that he wanted to play with Mack, or that his weird throuple situationship blew up in his face and he just wanted to start over. But I have not seen him give a definitive real-world explanation as to why he signed when he did.
Mack signs his contract pretty much immediately after getting drafted. That boy had one goal and it was to get to the NHL as soon as possible.
It does seem like Will and Leno had a bit of a falling out around this time. We don't know why exactly- possibly because Will went back on the plan to stay in Boston for two years? But neither of them have actually confirmed this; our main evidence is some instagram stories shenanigans.
Mack and Will meet properly at the Sharks training camp or whatever it's called, and they bond extremely quickly. In this pre-season video and also this video you can see they're already glued to each others' sides before the season even begins. They first became roommates during this time. They do not currently live together (though personally I give it two years before they find a nice little apartment).
2024-25 NHL Season
Once Will and mack are playing together, they only get closer. In their NHL debut video, they mention that Will drives them both everywhere because Mack doesn't have a license yet. Plus they spend all their time together, so why wouldn't Will drive them?
Obviously these are very skilled players, so they make their mark on the NHL rather quickly. But more importantly, we learn a bunch of new lore about their friendship:
They go on dinner dates together all the time, (not with the rest of the team! just them!) and keep a scrapbook of photos about it.
Will and Mack always room together when they're on the road. They do not need to do this. Also they once coerced Toff into having a sleepover with them, which is how we learned that Grown Ass Man Will Smith Hockey orders milk and cookies to his hotel room every night (for no reason at all).
Sometime in January they made a bet that when BC Beat BU, Mack would have to wear a BC jersey, and vice versa. In January, Mack walked into the SAP Center with a BC jersey. In March, Will wore a BU jersey.
In April they make a joint appearance on Never Offside, a podcast co-hosted by Toff's wife, Cat. This is where we first learn the windshield story. Basically Mack got impatient waiting for Will in the car and punched the windshield hard enough to break it. They both find this hilarious. Mack did not apologize, according to him, because he was going to pay for it anyways.
2025 Off-Season
Will and Leno seemingly make up? It's complicated.
Will showed Mack the movie American Pie at some point. If you don't know, American Pie is about a group of high school boys making a bet to try and lose their virginities. It's an interesting pick, to say the least. They are also known to enjoy rom-coms.
Mack and Will played against each other at Worlds, representing Canada and the US respectively.
2025-26 NHL Season
(This is what I know the most about because this is when I started watching)
Will changed his tiktok profile to be a joint account with both of their initials (William Charles Patrick Smith and Macklin Richard Celebrini).
They dressed up as Dumb and Dumber for the Sharks' Halloween party.
Will makes a goal and Mack spins him around and kisses him on the cheek. Which I guess could mean nothing.
So. There's a woman named Judi Jupiter who roams the streets of New York City and interviews "fashionable people" for her tiktok. She ran into Will, who then dragged in Mack, and filmed four videos with them. They are painful to watch but here's one of them. I do not have the heart to find the rest. Also Will initially lied and told her he was a college student.
In September we get perhaps the most important video ever. THEY DON'T KNOW THEY'RE BEING FILMED HERE!!! THEY'RE DOING ALL THAT FOR REAL!!!! AND EVERYONE AROUND THEM IS SO USED TO IT THAT THEY BARELY EVEN LOOK!!!! If you only take one thing away from this post it should be the balcony video. Genuinely what is wrong with them.
Whatever this is
At the Sharks thanksgiving party Will brought chocolate chip banana bread and Mack ate the vast majority of it. (also Will served it with a spoon???)
On December 3rd the Sharks played the Washington Capitals in San Jose. This is the first time that Will and Leno played against each other. We saw pretty limited interaction between them, though there is this video. The Capitals won 7-1 which I'm totally not still upset about. Leno scored two of those goals. Leno did also body-slam Mack at some point I think? It was a pretty important game so I imagine you'll see it referenced quite a bit in new fics.
On December 13, the San Jose Sharks played against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Will got hit by a player named Wortherspoon, hard enough that he was out for the rest of the game (and is still out as of December 17th). Mack immediately started wailing on the guy that hit Will and locked in so hard that the Sharks managed to come back from a four goal deficit. Like this game was historic and it only happened the way it did because of these two gay idiots.
In Conclusion
There's plenty of public dates they've gone on (often supervised by Delly or Toff) that I haven't mentioned because we would literally be here all day. I'm sure there's more I'm missing as well. Honestly I get a lot of my information from just trawling through the willmack tag on a regular basis. This is a good source for some cute stuff they've done this year. As new things come up I will undoubtedly be talking about them lol.
I must always recommend this masterlist because it's truly so helpful in terms of both lore and characterization, if you ever feel inclined to write willmack.
So yeah! Hopefully this was helpful and coherent. If you have any more questions I'm always happy to answer!
I want to rail you UNTIL you sob uncontrollably, WHILE you sob uncontrollably, until you are NO LONGER ABLE to sob, and then more 🥰
Twirling my hair, so you wanna fuck me until it feels like I'm barely clinging to life? You want me to break on your cock? Want me to struggle against the overwhelming until I dont have any fight left? That's so 🥰
Hi there! I love For Truth's Sake and have been working on my own little contribution (starring a magical tower!) However, I am an exclusive partner with DriveThru RPG, which means I receive a higher percentage of royalties in exchange for only publishing ttrpg through them. Would it be okay to publish a For Truth's Sake setting on that site rather than itch, provided you are still correctly credited as the creator of the SRD?
Thanks for your time!
Great question!! As long as proper credit is given I’m totally fine with that
Hello kind stranger, thank you for opening pandora's box! Tomleno is soooo near and dear to my heart and im glad i get to take you on this journey.
Shocking: this all comes from conversations with @sj-sharkie (blue) and @sodaliighter (purple). The instagram search feature kinda sucks, so most of the early stuff is lost, but I've done my best to gather relevant information.
Real Person Facts
This is probably where we reach the most with our rpfing, but we’re not pulling everything out of thin air. Theres Leno saying that "older guys" make him wear suits?? (which we know now probably means Tom). There's some lovely videos and gifsets that drive me insane. (1, 2, 3, 4, probably more i'm forgetting). There's Tom trying to get into a fight over the Trouba hit. And don't even get me startedddd on Leno with Tom's son, Teddy. Apparently he and Lappy are Teddy's favorite players. Also there's Tom posting this:
Anyways on to the fictional stuff!!
Standard RPF disclaimer that everything I'm saying from here on out is stuff we made up in the gc and is not representative of the real people. Do Not share this outside of tumblr.
Who Even Are These Guys
First of all, I want to point out the fact that Tom used to be in Leno's current position. He was a first round pick for the caps, and back in 2013 Tom was the team baby. He was nineteen and they brought him on mostly to fight, and he was (and is) so loved. It's not a coincidence that when Leno was drafted, everyone was saying the caps were getting more of Tom Wilson. And I think that's a uniquely fascinating position to be in. You used to be The Kid, and suddenly ten years have passed and there's a new kid and you're going to be captain sooner rather than later. It's fucking scary. Especially when you factor in all the players Tom started with. People like Niklas Backstrom, Michael Latta, TJ Oshie, Braden Holtby, and now John Carlson are no longer with the team. Tom has new friends, yes, but a lot of his friends are gone.
And that's part of why Tom's interest in Leno works for me. Tom sees in Leno something he could've been, something he was. Tom doesn't get to be carefree anymore. It's part attraction, part jealousy.
As I've said, Leno really is the Team Baby. This goes back to him being the youngest of four, and being very babied by his older sisters (you can see pics here that were all posted by his sister Alyssa). With kids his own age, he puts on an a bit of an act. Leno's the Funny Dumb Guy! He's big and tough and he gets into fights! He's an asshole on the ice, and that helps to distract people from the fact that he's a huge softie. This barely even speculation; if you scroll through Will and Gabe's instagram's you'll see some very tender, gushing comments from Leno (as well as some nonsensical ones, but that's to be expected). He's also a very physically affectionate guy. We'll get into that in a second.
Before we go any further, there's two big headcannons I need you to get on board with:
1. Will Smith Hockey is evil. Like levels of evil i can’t get into here. He’s bad and toxic and he fucked w Leno’s head a lot and then dipped. And Leno is not self-aware enough to realize how screwed up his idea of intimacy now is.
2. The Washington Capitals are all fucking. They’re doing crazy nasty puppyplay shit in that locker room. Sometimes couples break off and do their own thing for the night, but its mostly the orgies.
The Will Smith Hockey Effect
Back in BC, Will, Gabe, and Leno had a weird toxic drawn out three-way situationship. This obviously didn't work out for a number of reasons; primarily that Will Smith is a manipulative little shit with the world's worst commitment issues. For the most part, they were just friends who fucked sometimes. But it meant a lot more to Leno than it ever did to Will. Leno wanted something real.
Leno and Will are still kind of friends? It's complicated. They get dinner when they're in the same town, and they send each other reels sometimes, but they don't really talk much. Will is dating Mack in this world. He'll sometimes post about it on his private story, which he hasn't bothered to take Leno off of. And Will is a much better partner to Mack than he ever was to Gabe or Will. They're actually, officially dating, for one. Will can be more affectionate with Mack, even if it's only in private. And it drives Leno a little bit crazy. It's proof that Will is capable of changing, but Leno wasn't worth changing for.
Lucky for Tom, he gets to put up with Will Smith for the rest of his career!
Subspace On The Ice
This is kind of a weird one, but based on the photo below we came up with the idea of Leno being in something adjacent to subspace while on the ice.
So, it's not actually subspace while they're in the middle of a game, but it's something similar. It's maybe closer to a runner's high.
This is something we decided he did with Will first, actually. Somehow Someway, the BC line stumbles into putting Leno into subspace without any of them actually knowing what subspace is. They just think Leno gets kinda weird and spacey during sex. And Will didn't really mind because Leno's easier to direct when he's like that.
And obviously yes he would be going into subspace during sex. Look at him.
A lot of Tomleno to me is Tom gently coaxing Leno into a safe relationship. Leno's only previous experiences with intimacy are with Will and Gabe, and it's never been particularly healthy. He's been taught that, because he's so emotional and clingy, he's a burden. But Tom is stable. Tom actually knows how to practice kink safely. Also he can pick up a 200-something pound man with one arm. Remember when Tom did that. I think about that so much.
Tom Knocking Leno Up
I'm just gonna let the screenshots speak for themselves on this one.
Bonus Content
Over here is a ficlet I wrote about Tom beefing with Leno's cat.
Obligatory shoutout to @sodaliighter (purple) and @sj-sharkie (blue) bc this all comes from the trenches of our gc. This is a favorite topic of ours. Standard rpf disclaimers that this is all made up and also should not leave tumblr.
First of all, I really like the idea of Will Smith Hockey being evil and manipulative. Not completely consciously, mind you, but To Me he has been stringing Leno along for years now. This mostly stems from that one quote about Leno being a guy you can boss around. My favorite version of this is Will and Leno being fwb at BC (Gabe too but this isn’t about him), and it meant a whole lot more to Leno than it did to Will. And then Will up and leaves with almost no warning so he can go play with their direct rival. I love playing around with the various ways that would mess with Leno’s head.
Another important piece of this is just how similar Leno and Mack are as people. And i don't just mean in the will-smith-likes-beefy-brunettes way.
I will say, these days I’m personally more into tomleno, but mackleno still holds a very special place in my heart. During the Olympics, we were having fun with the idea of tom and mack getting to know each other (and possibly hooking up, but that’s a different conversation) and how fun that would be because Tom would probably know most or all of the evil shit Will got up to.
And as for Will himself:
There’s just soooooo much potential for awful rancid proxy sex between Mack and Leno. It’s two people who don’t really like each other but also don’t know each other, but they’re both desperate for the same person. And Will is unable or unwilling to give them what they want, and the only person who Gets It is the guy you hate!! Unfortunately nothing i’ve written is anywhere near ready to publish, but they are honored guests at the mind palace.
omfgggg I’m so obsessed with ur latest willmack fic would you ever do a directors commentary of it? it’s only the first chapter but it’s so rich with symbolism already x
oh you’ve done something very dangerous (given me an excuse to yap my ass off), so here’s some annotations of the first chapter! I’m going to include a lot of messages between me, @osc-osco-oscah (blue) and @sodaliighter (teal) because they helped a LOT with this.
This goes without saying but I’m going to be making a lot of statements about who Will and Mack are as people, and those are just extrapolations loosely based on what we know about the real guys. It’s real person fiction. I do not know what they’re like in real life, I’m building a character based on videos and articles about them.
for anyone not up to date on willmack lore, this masterlist by @alltimecharlo is extremely extremely helpful.
Video of Mack being asked if he’s going nonverbal (for the life of me i can’t find the clip by itself so you get a tiktok edit)
The windshield story (at about 12:00)
The Rick Celebrini lore (1) (2)
also a quick thing I wanted to add at the end here: obviously some people are going to be turned off by the use of the f slur in this fic and that is completely fair. For what I want to do with this story, though, I think its inclusion is important. Will is not accepting of queer identity. it's something he's gonna have to struggle with a lot. From my notes:
Will is having a bad time of it. His family church is on the "hate the sin love the sinner" side of things, he has an uncle who "used to be gay" but went through some counseling with the pastor and now has a wife and kids. So to Will, being gay is a temptation that people struggle with just like lust or greed. And boy, is he struggling. When he does recognize a Gay Thought, he sits down and meditates/prays about it, and takes a long cold shower when needed. He still refuses to even think the word gay about himself.
Mack is a little better but not by much. He has had sex with a couple of other guys in college. He's basically one of those guys that will hook up with other men but won't actually call himself gay. He's very self-deprecating (not just for the gay thing) and unfocused and anxious. his dad did a real number on his self-worth. He's obsessively codependant with Will, literally couldn't go a day without the guy. He does understand why on some level but he's not quite ready to do anything about it.
Anyways ik this was a lot, I hope you enjoyed! as a reward for getting this far you can have a tiny (mostly non-spoiler-y) snippet of chapter two!
The next morning, Will went to confessional. Told Father Isaiah everything with his cross digging into the flesh of his palm. Swore that he would never touch another man again, recited dozens of Hail Marys until he was crying and choking on the words. When he stepped out of the confessional booth, Father Isaiah patted him on the back and said, “You’ve done the right thing, my child.”
And then he got drafted, and Will took the first flight to San Jose he could get.
wait okay yesssss i love your mackleno breakdown… you and your gc… i literally get yall so bad #igetit. need to know yall’s spin on leno being chronically online which in hand leads to him being the first like in all of mack’s personal ig dumps & when the official nhl page posts about mack (my loser… <3)
Oh my dear friend, you've sparked a Conversation.
As always this is basically co-written by @sodaliighter and @sj-sharkie. A lot of these messages were voice notes so not as many screenshots this time.
There's several factors here, and the biggest To Me is that he's sooooooo lonely. I like to think he heard Dubie say that two kids would be too much, didn't realize it was a joke, and now he thinks he isn't allowed to go over. That boy is living alone for the first time in an unfurnished apartment, and he his spending roughly six hours a day laying on the floor and sending reels to Gabe. He's probably pulling up willmack's dumb joint hype edit to cry to at like one in the morning.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but Leno is very much putting on an act. He want to seem tough but also chill and easy going to disguise the fact that he's a big baby. Liking Mack's posts is the equivalent of puffing out his chest and going "No It's Actually Fine That You Guys Are Friends I Don't Care It's So Cool Actually". It's also a liiiiiiittle bit for the Social Media of it all. I doubt he thinks that fans are paying that close attention, but guys like Voter or Fowler or other mutual friends might notice, and he can't have them thinking something's wrong!!
(Recently we've had a lot of fun with the idea of the Caps hating Will and Leno not really knowing why. He hasn't fully processed that that was a really toxic situation and that Will did a lot of bad things to him, but the caps are able to piece it together. And Leno keeps trying to tell them nooooo it's okay he's my friend he's nice!! So maybe it's for them, too.)
And of course it's also a jealousy thing. Everything that Will and Mack are doing now and things Will used to do with Gabe and Leno!!! And they don't get to anymore!!! and as Soda put it:
This was in a voice note but Mal brought up this point: both Leno and Mack can be such attention whores. They're both from big families, it kinda comes with the territory. And yes, Mack is usually more subtle about it. But when it comes to Will they are both all over him. And Will knows that even if he only does the bare minimum, they will continue to be obsessed with him. Both Mack and Will are constantly vying for Will's attention in one way or another. Mack's the lucky one, he gets to have Will whenever he wants. But Leno? All he really has of Will's life right now is through social media. I think he's constantly checking instagram to see if there's anything he can latch onto.
God... I can only imagine how the blanket photo found Leno... do you think he knows yet. surely he knows by now.
Anyways bonus Olympics tomleno thing because why not:
