pretty neat

Ilya smiled at the understatement.

"We couldn't be prouder of the man he's become,' David continued. "I don't have any Stanley Cup rings, but I have Shane.''

Chapter 39, The Long Game

....

It's Christmas of 1988.

There's one more present under the tree, and Yuna's eyes are dancing as she hands it to David. He opens it to find the tiniest pair of shoes he's ever seen.

"No. Really?" He's dizzy.

"Really," Yuna grins, and her eyes are shining with tears, and David loves that face more than anything. He hopes their baby looks just like her.

.....

It's a bitterly cold day in February of 1989 when David puts the shoes away. He pushes down all the anger of it's not fair, why us, why our baby. Yuna needs him.

The doctor had said you're young, you can try again.

But Southern Ohio had a hockey rink, and hockey ended up saving them all. And now Cliff gets to travel, and pay his mothers mortgage, and send his sister through med school, and collect tiny, cheesy magnets for his fridge.

When Roz first came over to his place, he asked Cliff about almost every single one. Why he picked the Space Needle over Mt. Ranier, why he doesn't have the Hollywood sign, what this landmark on the Winnipeg one was. Roz was good at this, at reaching out, connecting. He was really bad at being reached out to.

The next fall, Roz came back from Russia with a magnet to add to his collection, "Moscow" written underneath a building. When Cliff asked what the building was, he explained it was the Bolshoi Theatre, and how his mother would take him and his brother to go see the ballet, and how he pretended it was boring but really, he always thought it was amazing.

Seven months later, Cliff was grabbing a drink for a girl he invited over, when he realized the Moscow magnet was missing. He panicked, and with no explanation to his date, quickly dropped to the floor and started grabbing behind the cabinets, under the fridge. He audibly exhaled when he felt the rubbery edges of it tucked up against the floorboards, and nothing felt right until it was back, stuck to the fridge with the rest of them.

honestly it's less specific things and more, like, this very weird vibe that I get from some people who talk about Svetlana. The girlboss of it all, if I'm being honest. Or the way that they tie her life so completely to Ilya despite there being a great deal of evidence to the contrary. Or even the assumption that she would be willing to do certain things for Ilya that would limit her own autonomy--marry him for citizenship, carry a child for him and Shane, just to name a few.

I know that Ilya says that thing about Svetlana being willing to help him in the case of the citizenship stuff and it's not really challenged in the narrative, but I have my issues with it. Svetlana has a great deal of love for Ilya but I don't know. Knowing that Svetlana in the show is Black, that her mother is specifically a Black American woman (I believe that this is implied given the Svetlana having American citizenship thing) and knowing how that would inherently change her character versus Book Svetlana, I just...feel like that should have been changed or addressed in some way. Or at least it should have been made clear that that's a symptom of Ilya himself having blinders about Svetlana and her race. Which would make sense, but I think that's something that people would be REALLY mad about me talking about so I won't.

Whenever people talk about Svetlana I think about my Black wife and my Black MIL and my Black extended family and I find it hard to think that the things that people are saying about Svetlana are nearly as nuanced as they think they are. Like, oh Svetlana is so strong! Svetlana is the sensible one! Svetlana would do anything for Ilya! She has no romantic feelings for him and never has and in fact Svetlana isn't interested in romance at all! That last one specifically bothers me and it is EVERYWHERE in this fandom. That's not to say that you can't headcanon a character as aromantic but why Svetlana specifically? Why not Rose? Why not, like, Luca fucking Haas? Why the only Black woman? These are the questions we need to be asking ourselves.

For contrast, I see people giving Rose so much more internality than they give Svetlana and it bothers me a lot. Even I'm guilty of this at times, I fear. This is a reason why, frankly, I'm a little bothered by the Roselana stuff. At times it seems like people are trying to 'soften' Svetlana by pairing her with Rose, or else that they are trying to make her...I don't know, less of a threat to Shane? By pairing her with Shane's girl bestie? It feels dismissive. Not to mention I've never been fully satisfied by any of the portrayals of Roselana as a couple that I've seen. The realities of being in an interracial relationship, ESPECIALLY with a Black woman, are much more complex than anyone is willing to recognize. And these are things that you absolutely NEED Black people in your life to even begin to understand. I have been with my wife for nearly eight years and I have learned so much in that time and I am still constantly improving myself.

The things that I see people say sometimes just completely dismiss the context that Svetlana in the show is Black and treat it as something to be ignored or as some sort of inconvenient truth. Almost the only time I ever see it addressed is in anecdotes about Svetlana being bullied growing up in Russia. Which like. That's not fair. At LEAST as much attention should be paid to the ways in which being a Black woman have shaped Svetlana for the better. I've had the privilege to be around the culture that my wife grew up in and it's so rich and nuanced and special to the people who cultivate it. Black women are the driving force behind so much good. Sometimes it seems like this fandom only wants to talk about the characters of color in the context of how much they hate being people of color. Which is. Not good!

1) Set off your smoke alarm or play the sound on your phone (if your home has no smoke alarms, pease get some!)

2) stand BY THE FRONT DOOR to hand out treats

Do this a couple times and then keep it up NO EXCEPTIONS. Accidentally set the alarm off cooking? Treats by the door. Smoke alarm sound on TV? Treats by the door. Changing your smoke alarm batteries twice a year like you’re supposed to? Give them a test run and your pets get treats by the door.

Most dogs and cats will clue in VERY quickly that hearing that specific sound means go to the front door and wait for treats.

If there’s an emergency and even if you leave by another way, you will still know the most likely place your pet(s) is and can direct first responders to help.

LIKE....it's the way shane looks a hair shorter maybe/more vulnerable just bc of how ilya's Looming like that, but if u look at the details, ilya's avoiding shane's gaze/focused on the sensuality-eroticism of it all (shanes mouth/maybe even lower hard to tell) while shane stares right through him like I Know You trying to figure him out, pinned with a fucking gaze holy shit, AND THEN you notice shane's arm is reaching around in the bg to sort of cage ilya in against the wall HELLO??? like it's just such a GREAT visual to summarize the arc of the entire first season/book. yes ilya is the one to chase first, explore the sexuality of it all, but (other than the failed tuna melt), shane's the one to lock it down in the end. tampa. cottage. he's getting his man one way or another, nowhere to run or compartmentalize, it's SOOOOO AHHHHH

so percy was DEFINITELY intended to die and he DEFINITELY knew that and he was also definitely resigned to it. and to be honest he might have actually died because he had already made his peace with it, he wasn't really looking for a solution at that point, he lowk was going to take the easy way out and just do his best to bring kronos with him

It would've been something insteresting to explore in SoN with Percy bc we have known him for 5 books already, so even small differences would be significant to the readers, like him going by Perseus instead of Percy or small stuff like him not particularly caring about the color blue, since he doesn't have the memories that make it mean something to him, or not having beef with Marte since he doesn't remember his deal with Ares.

Rick cheated a lot by having him have strong feelings about stuff, but I think it would've been interesting if he truly only had muscle memory to go by.

This would also have been interesting with Jason, bc we could learn stuff about him in tLH and later find out that it wasn't true.

Imagine Percy getting paternal affection for the first time in his life but then slowly coming to the realization that Gabe was a bully who hated him, but Poseidon is a bully who loves him. Poseidon encouraging Percy's anger and violence because his sons are entitled to be as angry and violent as they want. Poseidon magic-ing him out of trouble for fighting at school because Percy should be allowed to hit whoever he wants!