pour one out for eddie diaz, a man who will someday try to ask his best friend out on a date only to realize he's already used up all of his best moves on what he thought were bro hangouts
ⓘ Tip
If you feel unfulfilled by how you spent your time today, you can stay up late to try to combat the sense of dissatisfaction. This will ensure that you feel even worse tomorrow.
“You still want?” “I still wunnt.” leads me to believe that once shane drops masking a little more, he starts feeling comfy letting himself echo ilya from time to time. it starts out with words and phrases that conveniently double as an answer to whatever they’re talking about. like above, ilya asks him something and shane answers using the same words and same inflection, just with his monotone little drone. “You have remote?" "I hayve re-mote."
he fucking loves the was ilya says “probably.” ten out of ten times if ilya’s saying probably, shane’s bringing up the rear with a deadpan but delighted “prah-bubly.”
ilya doesn’t say anything at first bc shane’s kind of always done this? it’s just much more frequent now. but then shane starts quietly echoing stuff even when he’s not being asked something. like he’s literally just repeating random words that ilya says, even in the middle of his sentence. and finally ilya is like hey what the fuck. why are you being an asshole? like he knows his english pronunciation is still not great with some things after all these years, but it’s kind of a dick move to point it out so much!
and shane is first and foremost confused by this! it was never about roasting him or being mean and he has to sit him down and explain to him that no no. since the day they met there has never been anything more satisfying to his ears than ilya speaking. his brain likes the way the words sound coming out of ilya’s mouth and shane needs to feel them in his mouth too. it’s an echo of delight, not derision.
once ilya understands that he’s not being hate-crimed by his own boyfriend twenty times a week, he’s all good with it. maybe even a little endeared, because that must mean shane feels comfortable around him, right? eventually, it doesn’t even register as strange to have a one-note parrot within his vicinity, occasionally repeating bits and pieces of his sentences when it suits him. that’s when shane really starts to let the echo flag fly.
he doesn’t even need to be talking to shane specifically anymore. if it’s coming out of ilya’s mouth, shane’s brain is latching onto that shit and trying it on for size. like when they’re on the road for a game and tensions are midwest-hellhole-green-sky high. ilya’s trying to calm down a particularly antsy group of coastal rookies like “Yes we all have alerts on our phones. Is tornado probably - just keep an eye out.” and the rookies are like, shitting their pants and stuff and meanwhile Shane’s in the background muttering “Ees tornaydo prah-bubly” under his breath, attention otherwise focused on zipping up his travel bag.
they’re out with some of the guys and marlow is purposely being a pain in the ass about leaving just to stress ilya out/get him back for years of ilya foolishness and ilya is standing at the curb about to crash out like “Marly I will leave your drunk ass here if you don’t get in stupid uber right now!” meanwhile, mumbled from the safety of the sidewalk: “Stoopid oo-burr…”
sometimes he'll be on the phone in the living room and can't even make out shane's exact repeat from where he's meal prepping. so it's kind of like soothing background noise, ilya speaking freely while there's this lowkey undercurrent of shane murmuring in the kitchen, happy as a clam to get his brain scratched when they're not even in the same room.
idk i just think ilya's got a very brain-petty voice and pronunciation of things, and i like to live in a world where shane lets himself enjoy that.
it's just really apparent that people think it's okay to want pain but morally abhorrent to want to give it. sorry but the sadist gets to have fun too. it's actually pretty crucial to the process.
Image ID: A screenshot of a tumblr comment that says "yeah, its only abhorrent imo, when the recipient is non consenting, i've" the screenshot cuts off.
dont think theres something a lil fucked up abt asking ur partner who u have only recently entered a committed relationship with to move cities to a team where he will be doomed to failure at his public facing job and will basically only know your parents and his hockey team? all the while knowing you would never be happy making this choice yourself? and then yes shane isnt a mind reader and ilya makes his own decisions but like. surely u can expect some awareness of the context from ur partner who loves you! and this isnt even me being like shane sucks this is me being baffled that anyone would write a romance novel where the premise is that one character is at such an obvious power imbalance with the other and the other one is like ?? well u agreed to this. i thought this is what you wanted. the first two thirds of the book feel like ilyas getting attic wifed. like im not sure what people are misinterpreting on twitter but shane is kind of a bad partner in the long game. just the premise alone is insane. i actually am begging u to recontextualize this for me bc i love shane and i would love to read tlg without being like WHY IS SHANE SO EVIL three chapters in. i want to love him. i want to!
are you kidding? like are you actually joking? “attic wifed” what are you talking about? i’m not recontextualizing anything for you because you have not even understood the context that already exists. maybe go back to page 1 and try again. “why is shane so evil” pardon? like you have to be baiting me. you can’t be serious. ilya is the one who said he wanted to move to canada and join a canadian team. he said that first, because he wanted that, and shane said okay if that’s what you want then here’s how we can make that happen. did you read the book with your eyes closed? Attic Wifed what the fuck? shane is consistently a very good partner to ilya. HE is the one who suggests ilya get therapy, HE is the one constantly doing emotional check-ins with ilya even though ilya shuts him down and tells him to fuck off every time. “expect some awareness” shane is nothing but aware idk what you’re fucking talking about he says like six times “are you okay please talk to me” it doesn’t get more aware than that. like you really can’t be serious. you think ilya is a prisoner? you think ilya would’ve given up his entire legacy and the captaincy of an original six franchise to move to bumfuck nowhere for his boyfriend against his will? you seriously think shane manipulated or forced him into that? if this isn’t bait then you’re actually kind of missing the whole entire point idk what else to tell you. “i want to like him!” sure you do. i’m totally getting that vibe from you. for real. genuinely i’m actually floored what the fuck do you mean “attic wifed” ilya is captain of an emerging team making millions of dollars smoking pot with his new queer besties and having ice cream sundae movie nights with his dog and his in laws he is not in a bronte novel he is a grown ass man with a whole entire career and a backbone and an agent and an attorney he is literally making all of these choices on purpose because he wants to. Attic Wifed. jesus christ. why would you ask me, a shane hollander blog, this
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