I'd like to think that the dynamic between David and Yuna Hollander is an only child-30 siblings type deal.
Fannon has generally accepted that Yuna had fertility issues and that is why they only had one child due to some things that David says in the second book, so there's a fair chance that she is also an only child and inherited that issue from her mother.
Meanwhile David would have a large tight knit family. Think the Boyles or Schrute like type dynamic. Fiercely loyal, tight knit, a little too close.
When Shane does an I Know A Guy For That, in reality, he means I Have A Cousin Who Does/Is/Has. And maybe Ilya is freaked out the first time he has to come to a picnic that includes four-generations or 'family field day' with thirty cousins + Shane apparently knows each and every one of them personally.
That special form of Hollander Style Autistic Traits Ć100. They fit into each other so well because they all have similar traits. Just a thought!
Ok, what if when two soulmates happen to be in front of a mirror at the same time they can see each other? It starts almost immediately so Shane at three or four is sitting on his parents' bed watching his mother get ready and instead of himself he sees another little boy with a halo of curls. They stare at each other. Shane, confused, waves. His wrong reflection does not wave with him. The other boy tilts his head and blinks in confusion. His mother doesn't notice. After a beat, the other boy pulls a face at him and sticks out his tongue. Purely on instinct, Shane sticks his tongue back out at him. They both laugh and then the other little boy freezes and runs off. Shane's reflection returns.
"What's funny, baby?" his mother asks.
"Nothing." Shane says because he has no idea what that was.
It takes awhile for happenstance to strike again, and even then it's only glimpses for awhile. Then at ten, they move and Shane has his own bathroom with a big mirror. Sometimes when he's getting ready for school in the morning, brushing his teeth, the other boy is there instead, but he's dressed like he's going to bed. By now, Shane has heard about soulmates, he wonders if the other boy has too. So Shane mouths 'hi'. The other boy frowns and mouths back something else entirely. When Shane shakes his head, the boy wrinkles his nose. It takes a few tries before Shane painstakingly writes a message out backwards and show it to the mirror 'My name is Shane. I speak English. You?'
The other boy stares at the words, frowns and then runs off. Shane waits and even though he winds up almost missing the bus it's worth it because the other boy holds up a sign with weird lettering, but he's patient enough to hold it until Shane can take a picture with his Polaroid. It takes weeks of looking in the library (Shane doesn't ask his teachers much of anything usually and anyway, he doesn't ever know what to do with himself during library time, so it gives him a project). He determines the other boy is using Cyrillic. This explains less than he'd like. The school library doesn't have any books about Cyrillic. Defeated, he finally caves and tells his parents "I see a boy in the mirror, he uses this alphabet, can I get a book?" His mother hugs him very hard. Soulmates, he learns, are rare and precious. He also learns that maybe his parents were worried about him in ways that don't entirely make sense, but okay. Fine. Glad we squared that away. Can I have a dictionary now?
If it had been two years later, he might not have asked. He would have been too afraid of what it might mean to have a male soulmate. Lucky they moved. Lucky that they brush their teeth and the same time.
Shaky-handed characters and pantomime get them to 'Ilya' and 'Shane'. A lucky glimpse in a locker room bathroom gets them to 'hockey'. They start to use clocks to make sure they don't miss each other. When Ilya misses one of their schedule times, Shane can barely think about anything else all day. He knows they won't have a chance again until tomorrow, but when he goes to pee before dinner, he finds Ilya in the mirror, his eyes red-rimmed. For the first time, Ilya seems way too far away. Shane put his hand to the mirror and when Ilya put his hand up too and it's shaking, Shane wants desperately to be closer. That's how his mom finds him on top of the vanity which is not doing well with the weight of a preadolescent hockey player with his whole torso pressed to the glass. She doesn't make him get down. Maybe because he's crying too without any idea what they're both sobbing about. He won't for years.
It goes and goes. Shane interrupts Ilya getting ready to go out, finds him styling his hair. Shane mimics him with a smile and Ilya wrinkles his nose at him. Ilya watches Shane floss in bafflement, but takes up the habit too, seemingly so he can make fun of the faces Shane makes. When they happen to catch each other in hockey gear, they use their fingers to signal goals and assists. Shane keeps track in a little book that holds a lot of things. No one else can see Ilya, anymore than any one can see Shane on Ilya's side, but they learn to be careful in public restrooms, coming up with a clear subtle signal for 'not home' since they can't see the others location. They watch each other grow up. They learn how to write in each other's languages and backwards at that.
And finally, finally, comes the sentence that makes Shane's heart skip a beat. In Ilya's pretty handwriting (good even in his second language and backwards which makes Shane unbearably jealous and proud):
I will see you soon.
They meet at four sitting on their mother's beds across the world from each other. They meet at twelve, sharing a pain that doesn't need words to be clear. They meet at fourteen, Shane fresh out of the shower and Ilya shirtless, things wakening in Shane that he thought he would never understand. They meet at sixteen, hands pressed to the place on Shane's mirror that is always marred with fingerprints.
They meet at seventeen. Shane sees him across the parking lot and tries to stay cool, walking instead of running. He watches Ilya try to light his cigarette and gets there before flame touches it.
"You're not kissing me for the first time tasting like cigarette smoke, asshole."
"This is not romantic," Ilya protested. "This is not first time I hear your voice."
"I love you," Shane said irritably, "do not light that thing or I'll throw up."
Ilya's breath caught. "You do not know me. You do not love me yet."
"I do," Shane said stubbornly. Then he stuck out his hand, "I'm Shane Hollander."
With a smirk, Ilya took his hand. "Ilya Rozanov."
Shane didn't let his hand go. He held firm and Ilya didn't try to pull away.
"There, now we know each other. I love you. Kiss me."
"Shane. I have to go back. It is no good there if we..."
"I know. Mom read me a bunch of articles," Shane said with a shrug. "But there's no one else out here. Kiss here. Everything else later. Okay?"
"Okay," Ilya said.
They kissed in that terrible parking lot and Shane never wanted it to end. He pulled away with a soft sigh.
"Wow."
"Wow," Ilya repeated teasingly. "You will say this when we beat you too."
"Not happening," Shane laughed. He was still holding Ilya's hand, a circuit completed.
When Shane got back in the car, his mother asks, "How did it go?"
Shane has a number in his pocket and a promise for a mirror meeting tonight once Ilya's roommate goes to sleep that makes his ears burn.
"He's kind of an asshole," Shane said, delighted.
"Okay," his mother laughed. "I can't wait to meet him."
And it's not that it's easy. Ilya goes to Boston and Shane goes to Montreal. They will have years before they see each other more in person than through reflections. But when Ilya gets ready for game 7 of the Cup, he does it with Shane smoldering with lusty jealousy from twelve inches away. And when it's Shane's turn, Ilya wears his jersey alone in the privacy of his house so Shane can see it before he heads off to victory.
Even years later, when they're married and more often before a mirror together than trying to communicate through them, sometimes they do it anyway. If Shane is washing his hands, ready to go back out to a photoshoot, he'll look up to find Ilya flirting with him or holding up Anya to make her wave at him.
There is always a handprint on their mirrors.
Sometimes they are apart, but they are rarely alone.
queer rep goes thru these cycles where every couple of years lgbt people are like "we get no rep in media and the representation we do get is way too sanitized and it feels so fake and flat. wheres the queer characters that are messy and flawed and REAL??"
then someone gets brave and makes a character who is a real bastard and makes all the wrong choices and is maybe even malicious at times and they make this character explicitly queer. and then fans are like "this is what you think of us?? worst representation ever" and the creator gets absolutely lambasted, ESPECIALLY if theyre queer themselves
then everyone else sees this and either thinks its too risky to include a queer character, or wants to make sure they're only doing the good and nice representation with no flaws or mistakes
then queer people are like "we get no rep in media and the representation we do get is way too sanitized and
Everyone sees a post-retirement Shane meltdown coming a mile away unless they find something to fill the hockey shaped hole in his brain, and someone casually throws out Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Shane figures well why not, canāt hurt to go to one class and see how it feels
He goes in and immediately, day one, gets his ass absolutely handed to him. Slammed to the ground, choked out, beat to shit, no rest no mercy the entire time and he LOVES it. Getting pushed and tested, needing to figure out strategy, fully working his muscles and getting thrown around. He comes home bruised and sore and canāt wait to go back
Ilya isnāt super sure at first about his husband getting recreationally beat up, especially after going to a practice early on and getting nauseous from watching people choking Shane and purposely putting him in so much pain heās forced to tap out. The spouse of another person at the gym says to wait a few months before trying to watch again
But after a while he starts regularly hearing Shane laughing and Anya happy barking from other parts of the house, and walking in to find the two playfully wrestling around. Or when they watch the Pike kids they all want turns to get flipped around and wrestled by uncle Shane
And then of course one day Shane texts Ilya saying he wants Ilya to help him learn a triangle submission, and he adds a winky face and Ilya is just ??? Ok? I guess? But then he looks one up and well. That sure. Uh. That sure would be his husbands big strong sweaty thighs locked around his head and you know maybe he shouldnāt be too hasty to judge this hobby
Very soon Ilya is looking up moves for them to āpracticeā and he starts to see the appeal of his big strong husband being able to manhandle him and also anyone else. When he finally goes to watch another practice he sees Shane taking down guys six inches taller and fifty pounds heavier with ease and no actually so sorry they canāt go out to eat with everyone afterwards he needs to get his hot sweaty husband home immediately
The hockey world struggles to hide how pissed they are the first time Shane wins a tournament because of course he canāt retire normally and had to go and become the best at something else, specifically something that means he could beat the shit out of any of them if he wanted
ilya in the locker room talking with some of his teammates when he suddenly stops mid-sentence and goes āsomething wonderful just came to mindā and dykstra asks āwhatās it?ā and ilya doesnāt even answer, just gets up and walks straight over to shane. he stands in front of his husband and shane looks up with his eyebrows raised and asks ācan i help you?ā and ilya goes āyes actuallyā and shane motions with his hand for him to continue and ilya says while puckering his lips ākissā and shane snorts, holding ilyaās face in his hand, squishing his cheeks and giving him a peck and ilya says with his voice muffled āyou can do better than thatā and shane kisses him properly. then ilya just turns around and walks back to where he was and keeps talking to his friends like nothing happened. theyāre all already used to his shanenigans.
Obsessed with deadbeat dad Ilya Rozanov. Not a real dad - he keeps it wrapped. But the Raiders keep trying to get him to take European rookies under his wing. He does pretty good at the on-ice mentorship but off the ice, heās hanging out with those guys for 3 business days and then getting too preoccupied with either chasing that Hollander sugar-free cookie or getting so depressed heās googling āhow to disappear forever without anyone noticing redditā
I can't do the cool fake social media in-universe screenshots but! Kip Grady posts something like "Ugh men š®āšØ" on Twitter (before Scott, he's just a dude right now) and some chud responds like "Erm well have you considered that YOU are A Male yourself???" And Kip goes "Yes and so you can imagine how irritating it is to date them, I make strides towards self improvement why can't Jefferey." And this goes viral and several years later somebody goes SCOTT HUNTER IS DATING THE WHY CAN'T JEFFERY GUY because this has become a meme. And the real Jefferey is like a crypto scammer now
Like, I very much appreciate people trying to be mindful of their consumption and trying to be sustainable. But I need y'all to understand that it literally does not matter. The top 10% are doing more damage than all of us together could ever prevent.
you know, until we remember what to do with rich bastards.
genuinely I'm so sick of people wanting all fiction to be ethical. can we all just get a little gross with it. the point of fiction is that it's not real. we can be unethical in fiction; same goes with being perverted with fiction, being unrealistic with fiction, and being grotesque with fiction. not all fiction has to be ethical, not every character has to be ethical, and that's okay. can we stop with the puritanism. be gross. be unrealistic. be whatever. if I don't like it it's not my business as long as we're all clear that its fictional.
via ered.bsky.social, the only kinds of unethical fiction:
people in the replies are going "what about books glorifying unethical things" and "what if it's propaganda" and you, my friends, are who this comic was made for
Shane and Ilya are not exactly celibate during the season, but its when the season's over, obligations met, nothing scheduled for a week or two, that they go to the cottage and just *indulge*. They bring out the restraints, have a free-use day, plan the scenarios that may leave one or both if them limping for a bit (Shane would absolutely spiral if a sex injury caused him to miss play), that sort of thing. They very purposely kept those ten days commitment free.
Yuna, a business woman to the bone, sends a few emails about a collaboration with a really very exciting brand. Then a few texts. Shane, a little annoyed, more than a little sex-drunk, sends some vague excuses about 'later'. Then Yuna, who takes a hint about as well as her son, stops by the cottage. It's on her way, the collaboration really is very exciting, Shane would really like this one, and it'll only take half an hour, tops.
By sheer luck, both Shane and Ilya are clean, fully dressed, and not currently hard when Yuna drops by. The campaign *is* actually something Shane likes the sound of, Ilya can tell, but Yuna seems completely oblivious to the awkward vibes. Maybe even Shane is mostly unaware of his own frustration. But Ilya is not.
When the papers are signed and Yuna will forge ahead with the arranging etc, Ilya walks his mother in law to the door.
"Mama Yuna, thank you for stopping by with cookies (for Ilya) and fancy green tea (for Shane), and this is very good campaign, and we appreciate everything you do. But we are on silent retreat, yes?"
And Yuna starts to say something about how and what, and is that- before she remembers the last time Shane went on a 'silent retreat'. About meeting Ilya, and seeing a new side of her son. The side that had hickeys and a bruise she really didn't care to dwell on.
"Ah." Yuna says eventually. "Apologies." There's a pause. "Next time you boys go on a silent retreat, maybe put those dates in the calender?" Then Yuna briskly walks to her car, goes home, and puts her entire mind towards arranging this collaboration and nothing else.
Shane nearly hits the roof when he gets a calendar notification and sees that Ilya has put in 'Silent Retreat' for the both of them. But to be fair, they don't hear a thing from either his parents for the whole time remaining.
It becomes a code for them. Luck has four consecutive days off for the team, and the guys are discussing what they will do with them.
"I think we'll probably go to the cottage, kind of a retreat." Shane says when Wyatt asks. Ilya perks up the same way Anya does at the word retreat.
"Yes, just relax. Small silent retreat." Ilya confirms, somewhat gleefully. And the silent part is apparently glossed over, as Bood pipes up that Cassie wanted to go to a spa retreat, and which one were they going to? Cause Bood loved them, but he did not want to see his coworkers at the spa. Ilya winks at Shane, and names a spa Shane knows exist, but is quite a bit outside of Ottawa and the conversation moves on. Shane is half-hard when they get to the car.
They are at a gala at some sort, and it's fine. But it's been a long night, and there are a lot of people, and noise and weird foods and some sort of artisinal ginger ale that is NOT the same. Ilya finds Shane in a half hidden corner.
"Enough, yes? Time to retreat." And Shane knows exactly what he means, and yes. Retreat please.
A barbeque at Bood's. It really was a great night. Easy, nice food, good friends, mellow music..
"I've had a great time, but if you're okay to go, I could use a bit of silence." Shane says to Ilya, who is obviously okay to go. And the cens are great about Shane's (non diagnosed) oddities and don't suspect a thing.
Then, in the middle of the season, Shane has an Idea for the foundation. He texts his mom. Calls his mom. And she doesn't respond.. Shane eventually gets a text back about calling him back in a few days. But Shane really wants to discuss his Idea, it's big and important, and both his mom and dad are off. He'll just drop by quickly to discuss things.
Then he gets a calendar notofication: Silent Retreat - Yuna & David.
Hayden who just spent the entire Summer at home with the twins and baby Arthur so he's still in full on dad mode when the season starts.
Shane gets up during the night to get a class of water from the bathroom. He accidentally wakes Hayden up just as he's getting back into bed because his elbow knocks against the bedside lamp. Hayden, half asleep, just rolls out of bed on instinct. His eyes aren't even fully open as he tucks Shane into bed, kisses his forhead and mumbles a "night night" before he falls face first into bed and is back to sleep immediately.
- Spent an entire conversation cutting an Apple into slices and handing them to J.J. without even noticing (J.J. is a bit confused but he does like apples so who is he to complain)
- Pats Shane on his back after he finished his meal. "Hayden...dude are you trying to fucking burp me-" "Shit fuck sorry! It's a habit!"
- One of the girls put a nightlight in his duffle bag (because obviously their Dad needs one to sleep if they do!) and Hayden plugged it in without really thinking about it. Shane just side eyes him like, dude if that's what you need to sleep well before a game against New York fine but that is a choice??
- Grabbed both Shane and J.J.'s hands when the Airport was particularly crowded. Got teased about that for the next three away games.
- Notices Shane's shoe is untied and gets on his knees and tying his laces for him before realizing what he's doing. "Uh, Hayden?" Shane asks, wide eyed, having not even noticed that his shoe was untied. Hayden blushes.
"Sorry, dude. Habit. I'll try not to do it anymore so you don't have some guy falling to his knees in front of you out of nowhere"
The Silmarillion is a book that fills me with many emotions, but the only part that makes me feel anger -not tragic grief at the narrative, but real anger- is the ending where the Lord of the Rings is summarized in three paragraphs.
It makes me feel anger because it gives a comparison for just how summarized the rest of the Silmarillion is. The entire fall of the Noldor, written in a way that condenses Frodo and Samās whole journey to āalone with his servant he passed through peril and darkness and came at last in Sauronās despite even to Mount Doomā.
What else did Tolkien imagine over five hundred years of history that didnāt make it into any of his notes? What did he not imagine that still must have occurred? Who are the Boromirs and the Eowyns and the Bilbos of the first age? What witch-kings did they slay and what quests did they begin? What were the riddles and the detours and the love stories?
Its all been forgotten. No one knows anymore, and itās likely that no one ever did. Not even Professor Tolkien.
