Wait tell us more about the nickname Hallpass Shane has
i use hollpass as a nickname for shane here. 😈🔥 and i just think it's interesting if we imagine:
shane's teammates call him hollpass (pronounced like hallpass), bc rookie year, they once were joking about what celebrity chicks are on their hallpass lists. shane who was tired and jittery and flushed said, "no, i wouldn't," instead of playing along. and a vet who's got 10 years on shane and been traded around a bunch and who resents shane landing the A his first fucking season on the team, when he doesn't even reliably remember referee names yet, says, "fuck, well, i guess when you're pretty enough to be a hallpass yourself, you don't need one, huh?" and everyone laughs loud and the vet smiles and it's such a great joke and such a funny time to have shane's teammates make digging comments about soft he is or how he'd be totally bangable if he was a girl, which makes shane feel totally fine. absolutely nothing to worry about or think twice about or cry about. and so, it's totally fine that the nickname sticks and tends to come out whenever they're out partying. because it's super duper uber funny, isn't it.
it definitely doesn't eat away at shane.
It certainly doesn't exemplify a lot of racialized emasculinization he bears the brunt of all the time, and the envy of other players when he's really good at his job and lauded for it, OR even the fragility of other men faced with a beautiful man. does it. 👌
okay hear me out, hear me out. the concept! is very meaty and compelling. but i find what i am most interested in is most often the thing that's given the least amount of screentime in soulmate AUs. and that is the ✨worldbuilding✨
i think all AUs that fundamentally redefine a core tenant of society (ie. omegaverse, werewolves are known, magic, etc.) should actually radically shift the norms and rules of the universe in question.
ie. how do arranged marriages work? is there a religion around soulmates? how do jobs/medical benefits/etc. have to curate themselves to adapt to the possibilities of someone forming a bond? does bonding happen instantly without pain or notice? what are the physical feelings, can it be played with or replicated or stimulated or suppressed? how does it affect sex - what are the KINKS stemming from this? how are tattoos allowed if the soulmate name is tattooed? if not, how do we see the bond, what does it look like chemically? and how do you fake being someone's soulmate? what are the implications for people working in high stress environments if they can randomly lose control and focus? what are the implications of using soulmates to a job's advantage, through telepathy, senses, etc.? if having a soulmate is so lauded, where is the discrimination and devaluation systemically of non-bonded peoples? is this actually a nuclear model or do you have bonds for all types of relationships a la sense8? WHERE ARE THE MATCHMAKERS/BOND INVESTIGATORS? WHERE ARE THE POLY PEOPLE AND POLY BONDS AND AROMATIC AND ASEXUAL BONDS! HOW DO PEOPLE TRUST OTHER PEOPLE PRIORITIZING THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WHEN THE THREAT OF A BOND LOOMS THAT WILL SUBSUME THEIR PLACE IN A LOVED ONE'S LIFE AND SO ON [shaking the gates let me innn]
i'm not asking for 250k on it, just from a carrying out the premise to the second layer of explanation. what if ! we treated soulmate AUs like a magic system and consider its implications and limitations as they affect the actual structure of the narrative. i think we the audience would buy into these AUs so much more deeply, if those considerations were met.
and that's my stance on that. but they really are fun and juicy and i am a romantic, so wow. to blave. #fated. i'm a sucker for it.
so like, there's a drawing made by oda where usopp is holding a card and the card has a skull (you know, like death)
my (sadly) favorite theory of them all is that he'll die at elbaf, most likely protecting the crew. some say he'll die in wano, but i doubt it's cus elbaf keeps coming up and he WANTS to go to elbaf so...
ye.
and hmm, ships?? lawlu, zosan and frankyxrobin (not sure what their ship name is lol)
-🧪
p.s- zoro and law are bottoms. you can not change my mind. :)
LMAO DJDJDJEJJDIWNSJSJSKS😭😭😂😂 omg nooooo!!!!!!!
I highly doubt that Oda will let Usopp die jdjdkejdjd Cuz like Usopp is a well-written character and a very important Straw Hat so just no way he can die djdjskjsjdjd 🥺🥺🥺
Personally I think Elbaf will be the place where Usopp really becames a warrior of the sea like he always wish to. Also, very likely that Luffy will meet Shanks there (my theory) and there will be a scene Usopp meet his father djdjk. But idk, i just think he, of all people, can't die like that.
I have a hockey culture/time period question if you don’t mind! I know hazing has been an issue in almost all sports. I was wondering in your opinion would that have been something Shane/Ilya would have experienced or would their natural talent made them sort of “untouchable”. OR would that same talent make them even more of a target?
I’m imagining the added racialized element with Shane would put a bigger target on his back even if it was subconscious. Ilya’s father we see is incredibly important so I imagine that that might make him more insulted from harm but who knows.
Kinda fucked up, but also can you envision Shane or Ilya PARTICIPATING in hazing of others? More so in a team hierarchy sort of way. Maybe nothing awful but- just little things.
always up to talk abt hockey. yes, they would have been subject to hazing/other proliferated predatory/derogatory abuses/violations from kids AND adults in the hockey feeder system. i appreciate folks not wanting to get into it, but there is no untouchable guy in hockey. so yes, the latter. skill makes a target bc everyone wants to be the best or get one over on the best.
cannot find the link rn, but there's a good bit in a sid cr*sby retrospective that highlights his childhood tournaments, & how he was already so obviously better than the other kids, that he had to stop wearing his jersey in between games in the arenas bc parents/adults would see him and start harassing him for their child's sake; and they targeted him w deliberate attempts to injury/maim.
that's just a small bit of what's available publicly to see.
that's the culture.
yes, it would be worse with shane. exceptionally. with shane there's always gonna be overt (NOT subconscious) racist & violent white capitalist hegemony thinking he is not 'worth enough or white enough' to take on as a part of their for-profit elite white men's club. kids emulate and reflect this, to violently attack players of color.
players today in the league deal with this in a spectrum: if they fight/push back against racist comments/literally having things thrown at them, they are labelled a troublemaker (nazem k*dri). if they make comments pointing out that players are required to assimilate w league culture and not rock the boat, they are punished publicly (zayne p*rekh). if they make a young, dumb mistake, local law enforcement will move to try and end their career, instead of supporting them like white players through an entire SA trial (gavin mck*nna). IF they do none of the above and they break records and churn out killer point totals per season and rarely fight, (and even wear a police jersey on walk-in lmfuckingao) they will still somehow not the be the 'right(white) kind of player' to publicly commend (jason r*bertson).¹
so shane is in a three prong lock of: conformity to white masculinity, lack of bodily/identity autonomy, and systemic state-sanctioned racism and classism.
shane cannot win. and these overarching racist structures will manifest in microaggressions and overt violence against him. the churning animal of the canadian youth hockey system is rife with abuses from coaches paying to get certain kids transferred to their teams for win records/betting, to racist and homophobic epithets being standard, to youth hockey players this month, april'26 getting brought up on charges of SA with a weapon against some of their teammates in a hazing ritual. it's difficult to convey how integrated hockey is with culture and community particularly in rural canada, and how many financial claws it has. but shane was more than probably billeted with a (white, rich) family during his upswing through juniors and he has to play with almost entirely white/privileged kids and no exceptional status is gonna change that, and him being gay will infinitely complicate that and put a bigger target on him. (+ shane growing up haafu/diaspora child, quebecois forced assimilation/linguistic racism, autistic and undiagnosed, overly invested mother figure, ocd coping tendencies, made captain of og-6 team so young, eating disorder, etc.)
ilya is not insulated from harm, no. the russian hockey system exists as an extension of the state via kremlin policy (state-sanctioned propagandized cultural/gender norms and literal regulations for youth sports and the importance of it for russia's image/economy). part of which we can infer, like in the military, includes generational hazing practices echoing dedovshchina. ilya's father, as a general/member of state, is literally feeding into this ideology with his in-text abuse: "apologize to russia/are you not ashamed?".
ilya could have come up through the system through a designated sport school/UOR, which puts scrutiny and additional pressure on him and creates an isolated boarding-school environment which are renown as canada's, for featuring coach abuse and hazing rituals. systemic bodily violations a la overwork, forced drugging, lack of ability to quit the sport, etc. is proven.
so ilya is in a three prong lock of: conformity to culture, lack of bodily/financial autonomy, and state surveillance.
and contextually i think it's important to note the visceral pressure for russian players to maintain conformity thru state control and play for russian teams, adhere and vocally support socio-political ideology, etc. is lifelong. players have had their visas complicated to prevent them from leaving russia to rejoin the NHL after summers (kiril k*prizov), have been coerced to signing contracts to play in russia before leaving for the NHL/had to secret themselves out of russia to play (evgeni m*lkin), have been abducted from outside a rink and taken to complete military service (ivan f*dotov), have been threatened w jail/death to shut the fuck up abt russia's genocide against ukraine (nikita zador*v), etc. every one of them that will speak, reports feeling terrified for their families back in russia if they step wrong. ilya is already in a place of threat being so publicly a russian athlete, let alone tossing being partly gay into it. (+ ilya growing up in domestic abuse/parental suicide home environment, depression, cptsd, hypersexuality, russian in america, made captain so young, immigrant status instability, etc.)
for both of them, being preceived as gay is a dangerous evolution of the threat of being seen as not a team player, not a regular guy, not a hard enough worker. hazing doesn't stop at juniors. this is why they are both terrified in text, during the timeline of s1.
neither shane nor ilya exist in safe spaces, even while hockey is their escape and their joy. that's what makes it complicated. it's never just a game.
so, asking if they would participate in hazing is sorta like asking if they care about hockey, imho. they want to play hockey. to play hockey, you have to be able to be in the locker room with the rest of the guys. and to be in the room, you have to assimilate and conform and endure. yes different rooms have different tones, but everyone young and serious is jockeying for a place in the majors, is indoctrinated into this for-profit abuse system that demands children's bodies and isolates and attacks them to prevent change. hockey hazing culture is rooted in violent misogyny and how men perform that to the judgement of other men. juniors guys referring to girls they sleep with as 'kills', nhl as the only league without a domestic violence policy, etc.
and that becomes wanting to stay in the majors at all costs, and hypermasculine misogynistic performance to white NA capitalist standard is the requirement. guys get real ugly about that and you have to pay your dues, prove you are part of the hockey machine, just a cog. no better than anyone else in the room, what happens in the room stays in the room, no matter the ice. and they don't view this as hazing the way we analyze it as hazing, really. they view it as just how it is. and everyone either makes it through and proves they're a man of the team or they wash out.
shane and ilya made it through. that's what it takes.
thanks for the frank questions. this post is not suuuper detailed, but i think this is important to talk about, obviously. i think we owe it to real kids/folks in these industries to discuss this stuff and keep it in our minds when we engage in fanworks abt HR. bc our support of a hockey tv show feeds into support of hockey as a sport. and that's complicated.
some supplemental texts for shane+ilya+hazing:
@rozzed 's adroit and cutting exploration of generational hazing re: david and shane: here, here
@transshanehollander 's essential, more eloquent, and thorough discussion of structural racism shane endures in childhood/the league and how RR frames it: here, here
Contrails by grudekoks (glanzkohl) which frankly explores the depth of possible cultural and sexual trauma for shane and ilya
i looked over it and i ached by IsvsWorld which explores shane's relationship w his own racial id/hockey system/microagressions
chapter 1 of cracked plexiglass by syntjjh which focuses on hockey being synonymous with white nationalism in canada
@yiiiiiiiikes25 's deft and detailed exploration of sexual assault, institutional misogyny and conformity to capitalist structures: here
@kiyaar recs starting reading on generational military hazing in russia as related to russian masculinity policing: here, here
important context for reality vs. fandom: current uptick in bos, MA youth hazing from players and coaches as a response to HR popularity that talks abt the pervasiveness in NA sport
two links aggregating further readings abt hockey+hazing+racism+gender: here, here. feel free to put in comments any works/fanworks you found particularly insightful!
footnotes
yes, jason is american. i'm pointing to him bc his point totals are close to what shane would be churning out and it has not mattered his entire career wrt the racism he experiences.
hi sorry today i am thinking about possessive ilya demanding that shane show him his hole after he's been out without him to prove he hasn't been with anyone else. smell yo dick style.
well, honestly. yeah. funnily enough, me and @csmelt have been talking about unhinged pick-me situationship-era shane and what jealousies he would concoct (including texting ilya aggressively whenever ilya does a fuck-batsignal on insta. like, queer up unprompted hole pic at 4pm on a tuesday) and i agree, we should take a look at ilya, too.
just really leaning into the skeevy demanding pushy fuck boy of it all in a way that should have made someone run, but makes shane smile his little smile and sink into his hoodie and get warm and type, fuck you, i'm not doing that!, while he is actively sliding down his pants because roz texted HIM first and shane loves to win.
and way down the line, all ilya has to do is get a lil ornery flush and he's texting shane: proof, now. and shane's up and at em, got his lighting set up and lucky jockstrap lingerie set ready, enjoying proving he's the best hole for ilya. and ilya IS the cat that got the canary, feathers sticking out of his mouth. conniving and scheming up Situations to make shane Perform proof of ilya's perpetual and aching welcome in shane's body.
if you think about it, it's like long distance free use. bc i think long distance love can really make routine and habit into something to be indulged in. and i can see hollanov rly concocting so many intricate rituals around possession, sure, but also just affirming to themselves and each other: this is who my body waits for. this is who lights me on fire and he can do that even from across the country. giddy.
so, ain't that a fun comforting concept for hollanov :))
i don't understand why so many people think ilya is the opposite of fastidious or neat (and conversely that shane IS suuuuper fastidious or neat as a joyful characteristic).
they are both rich guys with people who are paid to clean up after them literally 24/7 at home and at work. their houses and clothes and dishes will literally not be dirty.
hockey players are notoriously superstitious and demanding about how they want their equipment, their set-up, and their routine. and they spend their lives on the road. packing and unpacking the same bags, taping the same stick, being ironed down by the same hegemonic-conformist culture. they get real good at it.
shane has specific anxiety around being gay/changes affecting his hockey specifically and that drives his devotion to not deviating from routine -> and if that reads as OCD, then compulsive checking does not equal fastidiousness, its an attempt to regulate his internal world thru his external world. if it's autisim, then resistance to change, focused interests and sensory reactivity are literally textbook and it's an attempt to regulate his external world thru his internal world, which can or can't be fastidious/neat.
ilya specifically demands control in his life to an exacting degree that requires work and attentiveness because he was stripped of it in childhood.
this manifests in attention to details, control over situations and people, and purposeful approaches to his actions and others:
- in his super neat home where yes everything is labelled by his nutritionist/cleaned by a housekeeper but he cares about just how cold shane's ginger ale is etc. sets a timer for the sammies and controls his own emotional activation w his family before returning to the couch bc he wants to convo to go a certain way/also pushes shane through the convo
- in conversations like sochi/post first time anal/shane panicking at the cottage/sveta jane-pushing/etc. where he shuts down or pushes paths of action/non-action and controls the tone and information being conveyed.
- in his appearance/fashion with his curated and rich and clean outfit choices and well kept hair.
- in the club when he may be seen as 'messy' by being promiscuous but he deliberately chooses to go out as a coping technique and rejects or picks girls to get with and is very forthright about it from all we can see -- not misleading or letting it get in the way of other things.
- in family matters keeping track of his father's abuse/demands towards ilya and then his father's medications/illness/QOL as well as being the primary monetary support for all his relatives with listed examples bc he knows what the money is being spent on! and criticizes his brother for not being as organized. and puts money and gifts in a trust for his niece and sets boundaries to what alexei gets/does not get.
- in sex with shane where he guides shane and takes his time with each act, likes to be called by honorifics, likes to order shane around, likes to have all of shane's complete attention and often cleans up quickly.
- in his plans for the future where he makes plans about his relationship with shane and tries to make conversations/interactions go just how he imagines them. thinks about signing with boston and thinks about his contracts and his immigration status and how to get what he wants.
- etc. etc. i could go on
ilya demands high levels of performance from people as a captain and as a lover and can be very hard to please. locker room: you fuckers each owe me 3,000$//cottage couch vacuum blowie. in hockey/sex, his intense drive and agitator antics mean, if anything, he is aware of mess and how to cultivate the illusion of it or take advantage of it.
shane and ilya do not have to be the opposites in everything. in fact, they are very similar in many, many ways.
i think people are overly invested in false dichotomies in life. they want a binary system to help them actualize how things are in opposite to something else, not as the thing exists. because that is fundamentally less labor, to just say. oh thing 1 vs thing 2. but these are illusory, reductive dichotomies: male is not the opposite of female, curly hair is not the opposite of straight, blue eyes are not the opposite of brown. etc.
so how i think this 1 vs 2 seeking philosophy presents itself in fandom is that have one character who performs at just the same level as another and doesn't show signs of being particularly messy in any way getting labelled as messy/unorganized, simply because the other character has been labelled as neat/meticulous.
also specifically i wonder if ilya's slyness and meanness is just twisted into being messy in an attempt to soften it or reduce it to something cutesy that shane can take care of as an attempt to ""power balance"" their D/s.
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send me a 🌻 and ill just tell you whatever the fuck i want 🤗🌈
TPE ft. human furniture, dry sex, and pain play yippeeeee. love the focus on the undernegotiated bits of their dynamic and how blurs into other spheres of their lives
Autograph by Anonymous
the scope of this is tight and eviscerating, the lengths ilya takes shane and the lengths shane wants to go for ilya are both held up to the light gloriously + chastity + body writing
Toilet Training by nightrose
it's what you think it is, but what i really appreciate here is the not often portrayed facet of submission for the sake of submitting to what the dom wants, bc the dom wants it
Hinge by destielpasta
real juicy free use that gets into shane staying in the exact position/place that ilya leaves him messy and ready to use again + vocal control
Slipping Into Place by Pluppelina
quick and fun free use that stirs around some demeaning humiliation + alleyway possessive sex
excoriation by intertwingular
you probably know but. this is a stupendous character study that picks at shane like shane picks at his skin and it rly eroticizes that cigarette scarification babeyy
in the spirit of:
those who are patient by Ccainao3
classic, of course, but i think the way particularly part two knuckles into shane waiting exposed for ilya in a hallway like entry furniture/being left in the dark by ilya/submitting to his body being used by ilya is Tasty
Drag Hunt by R_Knight
from the author notes: "shane: like ok listen so i'm your dog i'm your fox i'm your furniture i'm your silly rabbit." shane is wood begging to be carved, if u catch my drift
crossfire by makemegentle
cliff+hollanov: objectification via misogyny and roleplaying shane as a shared memory made muddy
