permets-tu, darling?

In what way is calling Thanksgiving a colonialist holiday the actions of “a woman scorned?” How about “a person with a cultural critique / historical perspective that is shared by many.” Also, call her by her title and her last name, not her first name and “democratic socialist.” The difference in how she is treated versus her male opponent is so blatant.

Shane hits free agency. There's no news about where he's going, if a team signed him up, or anything. Absolute silence from him and his team. People are either starting to panic thinking he's going to retire (at 30???? Shane Hollander????? Retiring?????), or that no team wants to sign him. It's chaos.

Then Shane's official account retweets a mini-documentary from a small local news station of Ottawa.

It starts with the reporter explaining that by going through their archives, they found out an old documentary from twenty years ago that they made with a class of local elementary students, and they thought it would be fun and nice to do a before/after, what did they become follow-up.

At first it alternates between footage of the first documentary, showing the students, etc, and then they switch to a bunch of adults talking in groups and eating at a buffet. You can easily recognize some of the grown-up children. Some of them not at all.

Then they go for the final question they asked the kids twenty years ago: what do you want to be when you'll be older? They show first the kid's answer, and then the adult they later becomes explains what they do now.

There were, of course, a lot of doctors (turns out med school really wasn't for me!), actresses (my parents tried to put me in a theater group and it was a disaster. never again.), various "a mom" and "a dad" (most of them did become parents), firefighters (I didn't make it but I did end up in a fire once), also a very strong "I'll be Prime Minister of Canada" (I work in politic now. I'll make it one day, just you wait!).

And then we cut to ten years old Shane Hollander. Very serious, very blunt, very sure of himself. "I'll be a hockey player."

There's a small laugh from behind the camera. " A hockey player?"

"Yeah. I'll be the best hockey player in the world and I'll get a lot of Cups and beat a lot of records."

"Would you be playing for Ottawa then?" the reporter asks.

Shane grimaces a bit. "I mean I love them but they're bad." Then he seems to think on it. "But since I'll be the best I can go play for them and make them win Cups too." He grins, now, earnest.

Hard cut to now thirty years old Shane Hollander, leaning back against a table, in jeans and an Ottawa Centaurs hoodie. The 81 on the sleeves reveals it's a Rozanov edition.

"Well I recently got married. We just came back from our honeymoon, actually." Then, he grins. "I'm a professional hockey player."

The reporter — the same one from twenty years ago — laughs. "What about the rest of your prediction?"

"Well, I'm one of the best current active players right now. My husband would say he's the best, stats would probably be mixed about it—" There's more laughter from behind the camera. "And until the end of the current season, I was a Montreal Voyageur."

"Until the end of the season?"

"Well," Shane says with a casual shrug, "our values didn't align anymore. And there was another place I wanted to be. I said it the first time, right? I need to bring some Cups to Ottawa."

Now, it's a gasp from the reporter. "So...?"

"As of two days ago, I'm officially an Ottawa Centaurs." Shane is smiling, and it's simple and fond and so terribly happy. "I'm very excited to play for my hometown, with this team. And, also, with my husband. I think it'll be very fun."

"And to get us some Cups, of course."

Shane grins, again. It's a bit smug, maybe, and there's a sparkle in his eyes. "Of course. I did promise it, didn't I? I respect my promises."

Their favourite is "Mr Landlord" where Shane buys a shitty little house or apartment or something, and pretends to be a landlord renting it out, while Ilya pretends to be looking for a cheap place to stay. And they haggle back and forth about a price because the rent is always too high, until eventually Ilya is like "Maybe I can pay the lower rent and make the rest up to you in another way." 😏

And then they keep it for several weeks, sneaking away to the house or apartment to fuck on a shitty mattress in every room until they get bored and sell it again.

Cue Ilya making a rare appearance at Bood's Barbeque because it's the team's chance to meet little Milo for the first time. Everyone congratulates the parents and oohs and aaws at Milo. Cue Bood asking "anyone want to hold him?"

And Ilya is the first to volunteer, already reaching out his hands. And Bood, like any new parent, starts the "Alright here we go, now be careful to support the head-" only to trail off because Ilya does not need any help. For some strange reason, Ilya fucking Rozanov is a pro at holding a baby, murmuring to him in Russian swaying him softly in his arms.

The Groupchat ("CenBros NO CAP") goes wild because how the fuck is Rozy so good with babies. And then one of the rookies is like "maybe he has a baby??" and at first everyone scoffs because, hello. This is Ilya Rozanov we're talking about.

On second thought, though.

Ilya did move to Ottawa seemingly out of nowhere.

He did buy a house in the suburbs.

He is strangely secretive about who he's texting all the time.

He is skipping almost every team event.

Suddenly it all makes sense. Ilya has a girlfriend (wife??) and he moved to Ottawa for her so that they could raise their child together. And of course he's almost never attending a team outing or leaving early, he has a child at home! Of course he's secretive about it, Ottawa or not he's still Ilya fucking Rozanov, papped every second day. It only makes sense that he'd want to protect the identiy of his girlfriend (wife??) and child.

The final piece of evidence is overheard by Holmberg and Young on a random Thurday after practice. Ilya clearly hasn't noticed them as he walks to his car, a fond smile on his face and obviously focused on his phone call. "Goodnight, I miss you very much. I will be home soon", he says. It's followed by laughter and Ilya adding that "Yes, of course is necessary! I have been away all day, my daughter must hear me say goodnight to her."

Holmberg and Young (standing next to Young's car and therefore hidden from Ilya's view) stare at each other with open mouths and wide eyes. Because holy fucking shit Rozy just confirmed he has a daughter?? And based on the conversation also a girlfriend/wife??

and i'm laughing about ilya feeling absolutely BETRAYED the first time anya hops off of his lap to trot after shane up to their room

his OWN DAUGHTER-

ilya, she just likes our bed and knows i'm going up

-TO BETRAY HIM LIKE THIS, AFTER EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE-

dude, you could also just come upstairs if you're that fucking bothered about it

-NO LOYALTY IN THIS HOUSE. NONE. ALL AROUND HIM ARE TRAITORS-

The gravity makes him disabled in a way he himself would recognise as disabled, he struggles to walk, gets tired out extremely easily and has increased joint pain. Falling has worse consequences due to the extra weight his mass now carries, I can see him having an increased risk of dislocations and broken bones if he falls than he would have on earth.

But what about the ways he's disabled that he might not necessarily see as a disability, especially not with how his biodome is set up? The ways that simply being human makes him disabled by eridian standards?

By eridian standards, Grace is blind-deaf or at least severely sight-hearing impaired. In his biodome everything is set up to accommodate him, but if he ever has to leave? He needs disability aids to help him get around. Not just the things he'd see as disability aids, like his cane/crutches/wheelchair, but also his torch.

His inability to see 360° at all times is also a disability in eridian terms. They have to be careful about being on the right side of him, about not stepping behind him or changing anything behind him as he's about to move because otherwise he might trip over it and hurt himself. The same might even go for things in front of him when he's outside the biodome, because they can't see the light of his torch and they don't know for sure where he's pointing it.

They'd have to change a lot about how they do things to accommodate him and I really like that.

Grace would need far longer to be told things and to remember them, would need to write things down, especially if they're complicated. Yes, he's a VERY smart man, but he learns through repetition, the same way most humans do. Eridians can hear something once and then that's it. It's in their heads forever, they can recall it whenever they need.

I really like that by eridian standards, the way humans just exist would make them disabled with pretty high support needs if they were an eridian. The way they hear-see, the way they think and remember, how easily damaged they are, how little they can carry, how easily you can knock them over.

Covid is the only virus found year round in national wastewater. That means covid is always circulating somewhere, that someone is always carrying the virus wherever they go. Upwards of 50% of all covid transmission happens when someone is asymptomatic or has yet to experience symptoms, so as much as I'd prefer "mask when you're sick and you must go out," it's not a solution to constant covid transmission.

If y'all want covid to actually be gone, we need to take steps to make sure it doesn't spread. That means masking (especially indoors), filtering indoor air, improving ventilation, getting vaccine uptake above the ~18% where it currently sits, providing sick leave for everyone so they stop bringing it into work/school, test/trace/treat to lessen new long covid cases that take years to recover from (if they ever recover), and avoiding indoor dining and face-to-face meetings especially when viral levels are high, and at least rapid testing a couple times before and after meeting people (metrix or pluslife are more accurate, but more expensive/less accessible). (They also make multi-tests that can detect covid, Flu A/B, and RSV, and you shouldn't spread those either.)

like give me a shane who responds to months of ghosting + vegas 2014 by going okay. i understand. no strings attached, it's just sex, i will not make any emotional bids because he doesn't actually like me. he doesn't want to be my friend and he doesn't want to hang out or chat or anything. it's just sex. he doesn't like me. but it's good sex.

(which is why he's so thrown off guard by everything about the tuna melt situation. he's got rules in his head based on what their past relationship has been like, based on what ilya himself made clear to him in 2014, and whatever ilya is doing now is completely breaking all of those rules!!!! what is happening!!!)

but specifically i really want to see them finally talk about it and shane's just like wait. you cared about me this whole time????? what the fuck??

and ilya's like. um. yes? (a little hurt, but pretending he's not) did you. not? care about me? at all??

and shane's like what? no of course i did, i cared about you the whole time but i just thought you didn't give a shit about me until recently. like i thought you just didn't like me and only liked my body, i guess.

and ilya's just like . . . . . . . . . . you thought i saw you as, what, a sex doll? you thought i didn't like you at all, and you. you still met with me every time? you thought i didn't fucking like you or care about you even a little bit and you still let me fuck you?

and shane's like. shrug. yes?

The age of eligibility for an ABLE account, allowing USAmerican disabled people to save up money without losing their government assistance for having “too much,” is going to go up to cover disabilities diagnosed by age 46 (currently it’s age 26), meaning a much larger number of people will be able to access them. As the article notes, many Americans don’t know these accounts exist, let alone whether they or someone they care for could qualify for one, so please share this information around.