Als Vuur

heated rivalry gif meme

I was inspired by Frederic William Burton’s “The Meeting on the Turret Stairs”. A modern twist where after Shane leaves Ilya in his hotel room in Vegas, this is a visual portrayal of their true feelings. Ilya’s anguish not wanting to let the man he is beginning to fall for leave his embrace. Shane is fighting with his own heart, too lost in his head and embarrassment that he closes his eyes against the rejection and unsent messages on his phone.

ilya used to have one in each pocket. in his wallet. in his phone case. in his jacket lining. in the car. in his shoes. one tucked behind his ear next to the cigarette (which he also seems to have given up on. suspicious 👀)

but suddenly after the summer of 2016 they’re gone. nowhere to be found. carmichael had asked for a condom when they were out partying but when ilya told him he had none…the whole club went silent like?

you don’t have one?! you?? cliff takes his temperature and st-simons checks his pulse.

“no, my jane likes it raw”

and so he gets himself into position near the visitor locker rooms and he gestures to ilya as he’s leaving said locker rooms (looking very shellshocked and quiet and scared mind you) and he takes him to the side and just says

“hey i was with hollander when they were taking him away and he kept trying to tell us to talk to you. tell you that he’s ok. man i don’t know why he was insisting but—”

and he just cuts himself off because rozanov’s face is doing something really weird?? Almost like affection?? Then it’s wiped clean and he’s rambling off this excuse of “oh we got friendly at all stars this year he must have seen me stay on the ice once he got hit okok thank you so much for message i have to go”

and the security guy watches ilya practically run to the team bus and just stands there and goes. huh. that’s weird.

bitty made the jump from youtube to tiktok influencer and posts booktok thirst traps of his own husband in between pie tutorials. self diagnosed adhd that he does not treat but does mention a Lot. banned from instagram bc he got into too many fights w randos in the comments.

jack is planning on retirement any day now. he’s chill he has his books he’s gonna enroll for a history masters program after he retires and maybe get a few gigs as a color commentator. played golf with shaq once. in process of adopting a kid w bitty after failed attempt a few years ago

shitty is a lawyer for the ACLU and also does work for his state chapter of planned parenthood. they’re trying to get him to join the board but he’s resisting for time reasons. there’s a picture of him kneeling wearing a kente scarf during 2020 floating around on social media that the smh group chat spams whenever they remember it.

lardo is chilling as an artist shes pretty well known in the boston scene. she and shifty have a second apartment in nyc. professor of practice for a course at BU. shaved her head during the pandemic but it’s grown back. at least one full sleeve of tattoos. tied her tubes after having one kid, who goes to a hippie quaker private school.

holster is making gobs of money doing data analysis for the same consultant firm he worked in out of college. uses AI constantly for his work since it’s necessary and gets into fights w shitty and lardo about it sometimes. 100% on his male pattern baldness journey but will deny it to anyone who points it out. secretly is considering plugs

ransom made it to med school eventually and just finished his residency for a specialty in dermatology. makes videos on tiktok promoting his practice that go viral bc he’s hot. great work life balance and he and holster are lowkey DINK kings who have a regular rental place in the caribbean every summer.

let's be pebbles and misbehave on our field trip to mr. grace's habitat :D

and, i’m no biomechanics expert, but eridian locomotion seems incredibly thermally intensive. i expect prolonged physical effort would heat up rocky’s ACS until either it can’t create enough of a temperature differential to move his legs, or it starts to cook his worker cells. and this kills the eridian so there might be a biological mechanism to stop it, or maybe their body just tells their brain that they absolutely have to stop moving now.