inspiration, perspiration, brainrot

I would like to propose that Scott/Ilya/Shane be referred to as C³.

Do you know one of the easiest way to build bonds with people? Ask them questions about themselves. We joke about Shane's thousands of question to Ilya, but that only fails with Ilya because Shane is unwittingly touching so many pain points. Hayden and J.J. would eat up with a spoon. This generational player wants to know more about them? He's interested in J.J.'s restaurant hobby and Hayden's children? He dryly funny and fantastic at the game you all love? Fucking sold.

Hayden is so excited (tv show here) to get Shane over to his house. He calls Shane to update him about the baby and wants Shane to come with him and the kids to the aquarium. Shane joins family dinners with ease and holds a baby like he does fairly regularly. They're not just co-workers who are kind of friendly. They're genuine friends.

When J.J. sees the X-Squad people, he doesn't hoard the experience, he calls Shane who he must know likes the movies and invites him to come along immediately.

They like Shane a lot! They hype him up and get excited for him when they think he's getting laid. When Hayden figures out Shane is uncomfortable he even re-calibrates the joke (if poorly) to "Get laid weirdo, or NOT, I don't care". Trying to tell Shane as best he can that he knows it's none of his business and he just wants Shane to go have a good time.

The ways that Shane can be awkward don't seem to phase them. When Shane doesn't respond to J.J.'s 'I'll fuck him for you' moment fast enough, Hayden even steps in to turn it around J.J. and draw attention away from Shane. J.J.'s intention in that moment is to tell Shane he has his back anyway. He has no clue how it comes across. Shane is his teammate and friend and if Rozanov is an asshole to him, J.J. will square up, not to worry.

I just wanted to let you know that your podfic audio files seem not to be working today (at least for me). I tried on two different devices with the same result. Maybe the server you host them on is down?

This how I find out that after fifteen odd years on this site, haiku bot finally got me.

Heated Rivalry. Sequel to The Hottest Cold War. Explicit.

Chapter 5: Sweat and Grit. January 2017. Shane POV.

Excerpt:

"I'm curious," Shane had said.

"Curious?" Ilya kissed his shoulder. "Hollander. Curious how?"

Shane gave him a sideways look and Ilya's eyebrows flew up into his hairline. "Just. Curious."

"This is a loaded word," Ilya said and poked him in the side. Shane slapped at his hand then winced and reached for him.

"Sorry."

"For what?" Ilya waved that away, but he did take the kiss Shane offered. "Do you want to fuck Scott?"

The question was playful and if Shane had managed a playful reply, who knows where it would have gone. These days though, Shane was trying hard to be as honest as he could with Ilya. If he couldn't be with him, then with who?

There’s been chatter and debate on threads (don’t judge) about the reason Ilya can’t have caffeine.

Some parties are insisting it is due to his “mood disorder”, presumably depression, and medication for same.

Others (a large amount of whom are depressed ADHDers who mainline caffeine and are shocked that it is contraindicated) either never gave it much thought or assumed it was due to Ilya’s nerve injury.

What says the author?

I do have an answer! I always knew why, but never found a satisfying place to put in the narrative.

There is some debate (seemingly, I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV, I just did a lot of googling and only read abstracts) if caffeine is good or bad for neuropathy pain. I settled on bad for Ilya, partially because it might increase any tremble that he had (just as a stimulant in general) and also exacerbate any anxiety he had which would in turn make the tremble worse. The bad feedback loop of him getting the shakes causing anxiety and in turn making things worse is what we see him trying short circuit before Shane ties his laces.

So basically, both camps are a little right.

Ilya resisted giving it up, but his doctor coaxed him into trying it for a month and unfortunately, he had immediate results (once the caffeine-deprivation headaches subsided).

One of the things I wanted to do was show that Ilya had made a lot of accommodations for himself that he doesn't fully acknowledge. It wasn't until Shane takes the narrative at the very end of the story that there's a listing of the accommodations around Ilya's home that never come up in his internal monologue. While he's progressed a lot, Ilya will never be a perfectly reliable narrator.

5k. Teen and up. Heated Rivalry. Shane/Ilya. Joey/Jackie/Hayden. Fabian/Ryan. Harris/Troy.

A countdown to the moment that makes the season.

Excerpt:

Tomorrow seemed a lifetime away. Tomorrow could be a thousand different things. Today was Milo picking up his little spoon and banging it against the tray.

"Da, da, da, da," he said happily with each smack.

I haven't read many that are Svetlana-centric! I wish I had some good links to offer you Anon. But I can poll the readers! Anyone got any recs to share? I'll reblog this post with them.

I do have one funny one that I love where she's a prominent character. It's a textfic centered on all the POC characters in the show and slowly adds in an OC or two: