Artemissa97

You are stuck as a soldier in this historical war

(this is a magical universe where people who wouldn't usually be able to fight would. so you can all suffer.)

so the friendship is based on the fact that in some way both parties think the other man is beneath them. hayden is trying to take on a paternal older brother role because he thinks shane is awkward and lonely and in need of straight male guidance, and in that guidance he never made any space to actually get to know shane because he’s so busy trying to show shane how to be a regular man. and shane is going along with it because all he’s ever wanted is to be a regular man but also, god he can’t imagine anything more pathetic. and so the cracks start to show once shane starts bucking against hayden’s guidance because shane doesn’t WANT to be like hayden. shane doesn’t LIKE hayden. shane has never liked hayden, and hayden has never liked shane, that was never what the relationship was about.

And part of it is just straight up canon, because the first mention of Hayden in TLG is Shane being worried that he's going to "accidentally" give them up, but now imagine if he and Shane had a fight, especially a fight about Ilya. Can he afford that fight? Is Hayden going to keep his secret, no matter how angry he is?

Look, I'm not saying he's going to spitefully go to TMZ or tell Comeau and Drapeau about his relationship with Ilya... but I totally see him ranting to JJ over beers and getting kind of drunk and telling him "you don't get it, JJ, if you knew..." and then he tells him because JJ also hates Rozanov and will be on his side.

And hey I'm a JJ defender, but if he found out about it all from a drunk angry Hayden... I'm not sure he wouldn't be.

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ActionAid India

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🥹🥹🥹 I would like to believe if JJ had gotten the opportunity to be there for Shane in that way, he would’ve gotten over it and done so, after maybe some initial hesitation and shock. And I totally get why he didn’t want to out ilya but i especially love a scenario in which they had made that decision together? That would’ve been sooo great and such a relief for him to not have to lie to one of his best friends after the plane emergency landing. and I think given how he reacted to shane having a crush on Ilya and him coming out to him (well, provided empathy and tried to even set him up) there’s evidence that he would handle it much better than some people(hayden lol sorry) and not constantly try to tell him he could do better than Ilya.

Shane is a grown man who knows his own mind and can make his own decisions, especially about the people he chooses to let into the privacy of his personal life. and Shane made the conscious choice to be with Ilya. to choose a man who plays hockey at a top tier level equal to his own and who gets the world they live in, who is just as competitive and can give as good as he gets, who is gorgeous and very sexually compatible, who makes him feel good and safe and alive and relaxed and understood and treasured, who is completely devoted to him.

and for Hayden to just disregard Shane's choice, to ignore the fact that Shane loves Ilya, wants Ilya to be in his life forever, is willing to risk a secret relationship to be with Ilya....is insulting on so many levels.

Hayden doesn't care. he just does NOT care. not about Shane's opinion about his own romantic life, or even the validity of the relationship he best friend is in. he refuses to acknowledge that Yuna and David and Jackie and Ruby and Jade and Arthur and Amber all genuinely enjoy Ilya's company, his teasing, his kindness, his thoughtfulness. he seems incapable of separating Rozanov (81) from his public branding and persona to see Ilya (Shane's boyfriend/fiancé/husband). he is ready to assume the worst possible interpretation at the drop of a hat and his temper is one of the quickest I've seen to some light teasing.

he's constantly making subtle and not so subtle remarks that Ilya is not good enough for Shane, that Ilya is going to cheat on Shane, that Ilya is using Shane, that Ilya is such an asshole, that Ilya isn't worth it, that Ilya doesn't love Shane or have any depth as a person. he's uncomfortable around Shane and Ilya kissing and the fact that Shane wants to spend less time with Hayden or that Shane will show up with Ilya. he actively encourages JJ to keep trying to set Shane up with guys despite having had PLENTY of evidence that Shane is in relationship and does not want to look for anyone else.

and let's be honest here. Hayden, Shane's best friend in the world, still not fully accepting Ilya as Shane's boyfriend (after months/years) had a huge impact. it told Shane that acceptance of his sexuality was conditional on who he was with. it told him that the best he could hope for was indifference instead of full support. it probably also played a role in Shane being too scared to tell JJ about Ilya (a guy who was very supportive of Shane being gay!) which in turn, made JJ feel like Shane didn't even seen him as a friend and fractured the trust there.

and the final insult to injury, after years of hiding, after the stress and pain and hypervigilance that Shane and Ilya needed to operate under to keep their love safe and secret, Hayden delivers the final blow. that not even in his home, where they thought that they could be safe to show affection, could they be protected. in one of Shane and Ilya's many many many occasions of offering free childcare to the man who is apparently allergic to contraception and needs multiple adults outside his marriage to adequately care for his own kids, they were exposed. and then, instead of having a planned and well worded announcement of their relationship and/or marriage as they intended, Shane and Ilya became a sordid sexual scandal that picked them apart down to their bones.

“Kissing you?”

“No! Giving us away, I mean.”

Ilya huffed. “Is possible. He is not smart.”

Hayden Pike was Shane’s teammate, and, for reasons Ilya still couldn’t understand, was also one of the very few people on earth who knew the truth about Shane and Ilya’s relationship. And he was one of the coaches at their camp, despite Ilya’s protests that he wasn’t coach material.

Shane tugged hard on the curl he’d been gently twisting. “He’s my best friend.”»

The Long Game: Chapter Two.

The first mention of Hayden in the book at all is Shane worrying about him giving away his relationship with Ilya (prophetic!)

«“...and J.J. Boiziau, the tall and sort of handsome man next to him.”

“Watch it, Rozanov,” J.J. said, and Shane knew he was only partly kidding. J.J., one of Shane’s alternate captains and closest friends, had not been impressed when he’d first learned that Shane and Ilya were friends. He’d mostly gotten over it but, like Hayden, had never quite warmed to Ilya. Shane certainly wasn’t ready to tell J.J. that he and Ilya were more than friends. Not yet.»

The Long Game: Chapter Two.

The “I don’t watch any videos back before sending them” excuse would make him monumentally stupid as a man who’s been recording several of them in the METROS locker room. You don’t listen back and make sure no one can be heard saying something they shouldn’t? Something misogynistic, homophobic or racist in the background that you missed cause you weren’t paying attention to them. Or even as a father of 4 recording at home with toddlers? You don’t want to accidentally miss the fact that you’re kid walked past the camera in just their nappy or daycare/school details can be seen or heard in the background or even just them screaming about having the worst mommy in the world because she said no ice cream before dinner.

Even if you’re trying to be quick because of a deadline are you not going to be MORE careful on a day when your best friend is there with his secret boyfriend? Like yeah okay he didn’t expect them to be outside and in view but what about hearing them in the background talking or laughing he wasn’t that far away from the kitchen, you think people wouldn’t realise they know that Russian accent? Or even if Ilya went out alone for Arthur’s toy you think no one would question him being at Hayden’s house?

I'm going to be so for real here: fuck Shane and Ilya. Like, fully fuck them. Yes, he should have checked that day specifically because they were over and he caused so much harm and blablabla--

That's one day, whatever. What do you mean he's not checking every video because he has FOUR CHILDREN UNDER TEN AT HOME???? If their front yard was visible that one time, it's been visible every damn time! I was also thinking about Amber running on her diapers across the yard, because toddlers do that kind of thing even when there are not another three children distracting their mothers.

I was thinking about the summer. About bathing suits. About the twins running around all wet from the sprinklers or the pool, and Arthur, and Amber. But at Ruby and Jade's age I was taking the upper part of my bathing suit every damn time. It was uncomfortable and annoying and I didn't need it, because I was eight. There are so many pictures of it, because why wouldn't there be? I was at my grandmother's place and no one outside my family would ever see it. Of course, no one was recording videos from the house while I ran around topless. And there is nothing sexual on a topless eight year old... but we know what kind of people lurk online. Was anything like that ever in the background? Was it received by a person who wouldn't notice or care? Or was it worse? God, I hope it wasn't worse.

And I had never thought about the uniforms but FUCK. It chilled me to the core. That's a sure way of knowing what school they go to, and anyone can find what year they were born and their full name and that's WAY too much information for random people online to get about your children. What happens when someone shows up at the school trying to talk to you when you're picking up the kids? What happens if it's worse?

All of this is unlikely and none of it, as far as we know, ever happened... But what kind of shit father cares so little about their kids to not consider it??? And you know what? He did consider it. That's why he has a room to record in without the kids getting on the way. Without them BOTHERING him. But their safety was irrelevant, apparently. Okay.

Shane and Ilya were at risk one day. The Pike children are at risk every time he opens fucking Fanmail.

And actually, don't fuck Shane and Ilya. Ten years of hiding and they got discovered because Hayden Pike is a self-centered, lazy piece of shit that doesn't think to check a video before sending it because he doesn't care. Not about Hollanov, not about his children, and also (less egregiously) not about the fans who are paying him for a product.

before anyone says anything: i hate this man. i think he's awful. the fact that shane is best friends with him is a personal insult to me. if a montreal public bus ran him over i would look the other way #withthepeople ✊

the problem imo is that rachel doesn't write him ironically. she genuinely has hayden telling ilya he doesn't deserve to live as a rebuttal to "what are you four, you can't eat mushrooms?" and seems to think this is harmless banter. like look at hayden. funny guy 🫵

BUT.

if you stop looking at him through the lens the books want you to and start looking at him through shane's, he makes a disturbing amount of sense

because hayden is safe. hayden is aggressively, boringly safe. hayden talks about his wag queen wife. hayden talks about his pink-frilly daughters. hayden got married at like 19. hayden is the human embodiment of heterosexual respectability. shane doesn't even have to do anything. just standing next to him makes him look straighter by association

and then after shane comes out? after he loses his team, his reputation, the media, basically his entire support system? of course he clings to the one guy who is at least vaguely kind to him

hayden isn't good. he's familiar. hayden isn't healthy. he's safe. hayden is the friend you keep because every alternative feels riskier

like hayden is stockholm syndrome. hayden is the prison you keep returning to because at least the bars keep the wolves out..

and i genuinely think that makes sense for where shane is emotionally

what i need, however, is the version of this story where shane has been married to ilya for five years and suddenly realizes there are people in the world who are kind without making him earn it. people who don't casually belittle him. people who don't make every interaction feel like surviving

I will say, it's fucked that Shane didn't defend Ilya from Hayden when he passes any reasonable line in Our Dinner With Hayden, but...

The first thing Shane thinks about this man in The Long Game is "I'm worried about Hayden being a coach in the camps because he knows about us and what if he gives us away?" He's not truly worried about Ryan Price, who he doesn't know, but he doesn't fully trust Hayden not to fuck it up AND thinks about how he's not going to tell JJ about his relationship with Ilya because it cannot end well, just look at Hayden's attitude!

Shane loves Hayden. But he knows he's not safe. Why doesn't Shane stand up to him? Well, to be honest, I don't think he wants to risk a Hayden Who Is Angry At Shane when he can give up his secret. Not on purpose! But one slip would be all it took to bring everything Shane is building down...

For Venezuela 💔🇻🇪

Yesterday evening, my home country, Venezuela, was hit by two earthquakes of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude back-to-back, with over 150 aftershocks since then (several of which were of similar magnitude), as many of you may have heard. I cannot describe the devastation. They affected the north-central region, but the most damage is in the capital, Caracas, and La Guaira. So far (06/25/26 ~4:10pm local time), the count goes almost 200 people dead, over a thousand injured, and ten of thousands missing… and counting. I don't know how many buildings collapsed completely, with a lot more with substantial damage. There are areas with no power, so many people lost their homes, all they had.

I'm writing this to ask a favor of you.

First, keep all Venezuelan people in your prayers. Keep in your prayers the victims, those trapped, their families, and the rescuers and volunteers doing their best to help.

If you know someone from Venezuela, give them your support. It means the world to us.

If you're able and feel so inclined, donate to any of the following organizations:

I love Venezuela Foundation - gofundme

Caritas - donation page

Direct Relief - Donation page

Save the Children - Donate here

Global Giving - Venezuela Earthquake Relief Fund

Global Empowerment Mission - donation page

Red Cross - Donation page

Any of your local and legit organizations who have a relief fund or are collecting clothes, water, etc.

Even the smallest donation is greatly appreciated. Also reblog to spread the word!