Last night I was reading a fanfic that I was really enjoying until the inevitable happened and the writer casually mentioned that Ilya is book smart. And look, I don’t think Ilya is dumb, he speaks two languages and he’s incredibly street smart. But I will never agree with this fanon version of him sitting around reading philosophy books and Dostoyevsky.
Ilya was never shown reading books, but people still write him as some type of closet philosopher, and I really don't understand why. Is it just because people want him to be perfect in every single way? Ilya isn't a brooding dark academia intellectual. He’s a jock hockey player who likes to party and have sex with random people and play amazing hockey. He reads people and situations, not 19th century literature, and forcing him into that box completely strips away who he actually is IMHO.
Then there’s this weird fandom swap because the character actually shown reading books is Shane, but his reading gets routinely reduced to "he only reads hockey books." Even if that's true, reading deeply in the field you work in and are passionate about is just as impressive as reading classic literature. If Shane is spending his time reading about the history of the sport, probably minorities in hockey, and locker room culture, that makes him a dedicated, analytical reader. Reading non-fiction specialization to understand your craft and your world is real reading.
It’s just wild to me how fandom handles this. Shane gets his actual canonical studiousness dismissed as "just hockey" while Ilya gets turned into a tortured philosopher simply because fandom has this elitist idea that a character needs academic credentials to be "smart." Letting Ilya just be a street smart and talented jock doesn't make him less interesting, to me personally.
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Ok, what if when two soulmates happen to be in front of a mirror at the same time they can see each other? It starts almost immediately so Shane at three or four is sitting on his parents' bed watching his mother get ready and instead of himself he sees another little boy with a halo of curls. They stare at each other. Shane, confused, waves. His wrong reflection does not wave with him. The other boy tilts his head and blinks in confusion. His mother doesn't notice. After a beat, the other boy pulls a face at him and sticks out his tongue. Purely on instinct, Shane sticks his tongue back out at him. They both laugh and then the other little boy freezes and runs off. Shane's reflection returns.
"What's funny, baby?" his mother asks.
"Nothing." Shane says because he has no idea what that was.
It takes awhile for happenstance to strike again, and even then it's only glimpses for awhile. Then at ten, they move and Shane has his own bathroom with a big mirror. Sometimes when he's getting ready for school in the morning, brushing his teeth, the other boy is there instead, but he's dressed like he's going to bed. By now, Shane has heard about soulmates, he wonders if the other boy has too. So Shane mouths 'hi'. The other boy frowns and mouths back something else entirely. When Shane shakes his head, the boy wrinkles his nose. It takes a few tries before Shane painstakingly writes a message out backwards and show it to the mirror 'My name is Shane. I speak English. You?'
The other boy stares at the words, frowns and then runs off. Shane waits and even though he winds up almost missing the bus it's worth it because the other boy holds up a sign with weird lettering, but he's patient enough to hold it until Shane can take a picture with his Polaroid. It takes weeks of looking in the library (Shane doesn't ask his teachers much of anything usually and anyway, he doesn't ever know what to do with himself during library time, so it gives him a project). He determines the other boy is using Cyrillic. This explains less than he'd like. The school library doesn't have any books about Cyrillic. Defeated, he finally caves and tells his parents "I see a boy in the mirror, he uses this alphabet, can I get a book?" His mother hugs him very hard. Soulmates, he learns, are rare and precious. He also learns that maybe his parents were worried about him in ways that don't entirely make sense, but okay. Fine. Glad we squared that away. Can I have a dictionary now?
If it had been two years later, he might not have asked. He would have been too afraid of what it might mean to have a male soulmate. Lucky they moved. Lucky that they brush their teeth and the same time.
Shaky-handed characters and pantomime get them to 'Ilya' and 'Shane'. A lucky glimpse in a locker room bathroom gets them to 'hockey'. They start to use clocks to make sure they don't miss each other. When Ilya misses one of their schedule times, Shane can barely think about anything else all day. He knows they won't have a chance again until tomorrow, but when he goes to pee before dinner, he finds Ilya in the mirror, his eyes red-rimmed. For the first time, Ilya seems way too far away. Shane put his hand to the mirror and when Ilya put his hand up too and it's shaking, Shane wants desperately to be closer. That's how his mom finds him on top of the vanity which is not doing well with the weight of a preadolescent hockey player with his whole torso pressed to the glass. She doesn't make him get down. Maybe because he's crying too without any idea what they're both sobbing about. He won't for years.
It goes and goes. Shane interrupts Ilya getting ready to go out, finds him styling his hair. Shane mimics him with a smile and Ilya wrinkles his nose at him. Ilya watches Shane floss in bafflement, but takes up the habit too, seemingly so he can make fun of the faces Shane makes. When they happen to catch each other in hockey gear, they use their fingers to signal goals and assists. Shane keeps track in a little book that holds a lot of things. No one else can see Ilya, anymore than any one can see Shane on Ilya's side, but they learn to be careful in public restrooms, coming up with a clear subtle signal for 'not home' since they can't see the others location. They watch each other grow up. They learn how to write in each other's languages and backwards at that.
And finally, finally, comes the sentence that makes Shane's heart skip a beat. In Ilya's pretty handwriting (good even in his second language and backwards which makes Shane unbearably jealous and proud):
I will see you soon.
They meet at four sitting on their mother's beds across the world from each other. They meet at twelve, sharing a pain that doesn't need words to be clear. They meet at fourteen, Shane fresh out of the shower and Ilya shirtless, things wakening in Shane that he thought he would never understand. They meet at sixteen, hands pressed to the place on Shane's mirror that is always marred with fingerprints.
They meet at seventeen. Shane sees him across the parking lot and tries to stay cool, walking instead of running. He watches Ilya try to light his cigarette and gets there before flame touches it.
"You're not kissing me for the first time tasting like cigarette smoke, asshole."
"This is not romantic," Ilya protested. "This is not first time I hear your voice."
"I love you," Shane said irritably, "do not light that thing or I'll throw up."
Ilya's breath caught. "You do not know me. You do not love me yet."
"I do," Shane said stubbornly. Then he stuck out his hand, "I'm Shane Hollander."
With a smirk, Ilya took his hand. "Ilya Rozanov."
Shane didn't let his hand go. He held firm and Ilya didn't try to pull away.
"There, now we know each other. I love you. Kiss me."
"Shane. I have to go back. It is no good there if we..."
"I know. Mom read me a bunch of articles," Shane said with a shrug. "But there's no one else out here. Kiss here. Everything else later. Okay?"
"Okay," Ilya said.
They kissed in that terrible parking lot and Shane never wanted it to end. He pulled away with a soft sigh.
"Wow."
"Wow," Ilya repeated teasingly. "You will say this when we beat you too."
"Not happening," Shane laughed. He was still holding Ilya's hand, a circuit completed.
When Shane got back in the car, his mother asks, "How did it go?"
Shane has a number in his pocket and a promise for a mirror meeting tonight once Ilya's roommate goes to sleep that makes his ears burn.
"He's kind of an asshole," Shane said, delighted.
"Okay," his mother laughed. "I can't wait to meet him."
And it's not that it's easy. Ilya goes to Boston and Shane goes to Montreal. They will have years before they see each other more in person than through reflections. But when Ilya gets ready for game 7 of the Cup, he does it with Shane smoldering with lusty jealousy from twelve inches away. And when it's Shane's turn, Ilya wears his jersey alone in the privacy of his house so Shane can see it before he heads off to victory.
Even years later, when they're married and more often before a mirror together than trying to communicate through them, sometimes they do it anyway. If Shane is washing his hands, ready to go back out to a photoshoot, he'll look up to find Ilya flirting with him or holding up Anya to make her wave at him.
There is always a handprint on their mirrors.
Sometimes they are apart, but they are rarely alone.
A few weeks post Starcourt, Steve and Robin have found a gay club in Indy.
Steve has already questioned Robin if she thinks people can like ‘both’ and she was like ‘sure why not. Wait-‘ and that was how Steve found out hes queer but they don’t find the word ‘bisexual’ until a few days later on their first Indy trip, scouring libraries and bookstores for ANYTHING
Anyway it’s a few weeks after Starcourt now and theyre at a club but Steve is still bruised up from the Russian torture. Robin has wandered off to the bar for some drinks so Steve is dancing alone for a minute when someone says “Harrington!?”
Eddie largely hasn’t cared much about Steve Harrington during school as he wasn’t the worst of the crowd that made his friends lives hell and he expected to never see him again after the guy graduated but here he is at a gay bar of all things looking like… well, terrified because Eddie just shouted his name and also like he recently got a severe beating. “What happened to your face?”
“I fell!” Steve shouts over the music, and then cringes like he knows Eddie won’t believe it.
And Eddie feels a shiver go down his spine because if it was a regular old beating or fight wouldn’t he have just said that? And he said he ‘fell’ which is the same excuse his mom gave when-
Eddie gently reaches out and tugs him away from the dance floor. “Seriously Harrington, are you ok?”
Steve looks genuinely surprised that Eddie is asking, which, fair, they’ve never spoken before outside weed deals. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Is whoever did that around right now?”
Steve blinks and looks around with wide eyes. “God, I hope not!”
That’s not very reassuring. Hes about to say something else when someone says, “Oh, Munson!”
He turns and sees Robin Buckley holding two drinks, one of which she passes to Steve, who gives her a bright smile.
“Hey Buckley, any idea what happened to Harringtons face? He says he fell.”
Robin chokes on her drink and gives Steve an incredulous look. “You said you fell?”
Steve looks sheepish. “I panicked?”
“Well?” Eddie asks, a little annoyed now.
Robin takes a breath and says, “So we were working at Scoops when we got stuck in the elevator - we were going to grab a delivery - and we got stuck because suddenly there was a fire. By the time we got out people were running everywhere and some stuff fell on Steve and he was also trampled.” Once finished with her explanation she turns to Steve who tries to give her a subtle thumbs up but Eddie sees it a mile away.
So that was definitely a prepared lie. Whatever actually happened to Steve, Robin knows about it and Steve has asked her to lie about it for some reason.
“So you two are friends then?” Eddie asks with a raised brow.
They both grin and throw an arm over each others shoulders and say, in unison, “Platonic Soulmates with a Capitol P!”
“Also I’m bisexual.” Steve says pointedly, trying for a flirty glance up and down Eddies body but hes so drunk it comes off more as a leer. Eddie pretends it doesn’t affect him at all even as Steve adds, “And single.” while Robin guffaws at his antics.
to me, shilya are two big predator cats wrapped around each other, biting each other's ears, purr-growling continuously, kneading flanks with claws out, blinking impossibly long eyelashes at each other, and sprawling in sun patches with their limbs and tails so intertwined you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.
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Just wanted to remind everyone: I’ve said it before but I don’t hate Rachel Reid as a person, and I don’t condone any violence, threats, misogyny or ableism towards her.
But there is nothing wrong with anyone being critical of her as an author, and since she’s accepted accolades for being a pioneer and “changemaker” for her work representing queer and POC characters, I will judge her work by that standard.
Most of us can agree that she’s a highly flawed author, some would say flawed to the point of being bad, some would disagree. There is a huge inconsistency in what she’s telling and what she’s showing, and she retcons certain issues to fit a narrative. Certain important concepts that drive character action drop out of the series with no clear explanations (like Ilya being afraid to come out because of Russia).
My predominant feeling towards TLG is FRUSTRATION. It COULD be an adequate book within its genre of a lighthearted romance, and Season 2 of the show certainly isn’t 100% hopeless. The showrunners just need to realize (at least in private, I know they can’t badmouth the book in public) there are serious problems and make adjustments. They could even embrace some of the fanon and make them explicitly shown.
They need to let go of Rachel Reid’s central framework that Shane’s selfishness is essential to the conflict. Not only is it not essential, it wrecks both main characters and weakens homophobia as the enemy.
They cannot be afraid of making Shane look sympathetic.
Here’s my “fix-it”, if you will (and I know a lot of this won’t happen).
If Ilya’s desire to come out is unduly influenced by his mental illness, and he’s an unreliable narrator, establish him that way by showing that he hasn’t thought about the consequences adequately and that his demands of Shane are unfair. Have his line of thinking be challenged. When he goes “I’ve chosen hockey over you”, at some point, somebody could help him realize “No you haven’t. You don’t have any idea what would actually happen to you if you come out. Your sacrifices are hugely disproportional to what you’re asking of Shane”. He could also come to this realization himself and do some reflection after trip gate. In the conversation where he “opens up to Shane about his depression”, he could also acknowledge he was wrong to pressure Shane and that Shane’s fears were justified instead of just talking about how the way he sprung Bood’s party on Shane was misguided.
The unreliable narrator idea could also be established by making it clear that Shane’s fear of coming out is reasonable, instead of selfish and out of proportion to the perceived consequences (ie let go of the Shane is selfish framework!!!). The league should come across as much more homophobic and oppressive than it is in the book. The Voyageurs should be shown to be homophobic from the get-go, and hopefully this will be shown through the coming out scene. The characters who have come out before should suffer negative career consequences. If Scott Hunter is “spared” for the sake of optics, then the microaggression and homophobia inherent in tokenism should be very discomforting (there are opportunities to show the seriousness of this in the book too, considering there are multiple chances at private conversation between Scott and Ilya). Ilya should have more empathy towards Shane, and proportionally, his anger needs to be directed more towards the league than Shane (ideally he shouldn’t feel any anger towards Shane for something he can’t help, but he’s only human).
At the very least, do not portray him as happy about tripgate. It would go a long way if he’s shown to be grieving Shane’s loss alongside him instead of being all “yay! I get everything I want now”. Think about his anger, humiliation and pain after Sochi. His reaction to Shane being ousted from his team, losing captaincy, being tarred and feathered should be on par with Sochi. Excitement is a bizarre emotion to have when the man you love has suffered this sort of loss.
On that note, Shane should be allowed to grieve, and the outrage from Ilya and Shane’s loved ones should be more prolonged and intense. The fallout from tripgate is the single greatest demonstration of professional hate crime against a queer player across the entire series, and reactions from all characters should be proportional to that.
If anyone follows my comments and posts, my views are evolving and I welcome discussions. If anybody likes TLG and are firm believers in the head canons and fanons that make this book more palatable, that’s great and I urge you to maybe not reread it too much because exploring this book more deeply was a bit painful for me.
one night after dinner, yuna and david discover that ilya hasn’t really played board games before.
david immediately brings out boxes of different games to describe them to ilya. they end up playing a murder mystery game, and shane wins because he could keep his expressions completely flat. and he’s really convincing.
board games become a staple when shane and ilya come over. ilya always happily loses to yuna at monopoly, and ilya does a lot of research to try to beat david at scrabble. the centaurs are surprised at some of the new, esoteric words that ilya uses.
I love playing with the Boxing Day fight and balancing out the narrative so it's not so heavy on blaming Shane for everything, but it's also SO juicy to play with Shane taking on all of the blame and guilt that Ilya heaps on him at his lowest and internalizing it, and breaking himself trying to make up for something he isn't actually responsible for fixing and forcing Ilya not only to recognize and acknowledge how unfair it was to put all of that on Shane's shoulders but also apologizing and working to do better going forward.
I want Ilya to get to a better place with his mental health and finally look back and realize how unfair he was to Shane, and I want him to be horrified when Shane is like "but I deserved it, yeah maybe you were a little hard on me but that's because I wasn't being a good boyfriend," and I want him to hear Irina telling him "Papa is hard on me but it's because he has high expectations." I want Ilya to have a nightmare about the Boxing Day fight where he DID hurt Shane when he shoved him against the wall and have to confront that moment of anger. I want him to scroll through Shane's Instagram, perfectly curated and professional, and see hundreds of hateful comments under even the most benign post and realize that he's been holding onto resentment about Shane not plastering their relationship all over social media now that they can.
I want Shane to tell Hayden to fuck off when he makes another snide comment, and when Ilya expresses his surprise Shane explains that he couldn't risk even more disruption in the room in Montreal when management was already looking for any excuse to get rid of him after he came out, that if he hadn't pulled their miraculous cup run off there would have been a lot of very pointed comments about bringing in new blood and shaking things up, and what would they have done if he'd ended up somewhere further away?
I want Ilya to think about how Hayden hated him and JJ broke Shane's trust and Rose was never around so actually, who DID Shane have to talk about their relationship with, besides his parents?
I want Ilya to catch Shane flinching when one of the guys makes another crack about him not having a leadership position and realize he's been pouring salt in a wound he didn't see for months, and worse, letting the team do it too.
I want Ilya to see the impact that his behavior has had on the man he loves and work on fixing it, instead of spiraling into self loathing or being dismissive.
And I want Shane to see Ilya take ownership of his own contributions to their issues and stop thinking of taking on all the blame as something else he just has to deal with to get to be with Ilya.
I think Shane has a reoccurring fantasy of him doing yoga or woking out and Ilya just pushing him down on his yoga mat or the floor, pushing down bis shorts and just taking him right then and there
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what if shane was so so sleepy but also so horny that he let ilya fuck him nice and slow until he couldn’t hold his eyes open anymore and he mumbles to ilya to keep going before he’s out and ilya keeps thrusting oh so slowly as to not wake shane and shane feels so good and used when he wakes up in the morning
lucas haas drunk and buzzing after winning rookie of the year, somehow climbed into cliff marlows lap and is grinding away, desperate and begging, whining and crying
meanwhile cliff marlow is experiencing the second coming of christ, he never knew he needed a rookie in his lap begging to come in his pants, while he himself is so close he can taste it jesus christ is this how roz feels?
Exactly an hour and forty-five minutes after accepting Rookie of the Year, Luca Haas takes his first shot with the veterans.
Cliff is in charge of this particular rite of passage now, because Scott Hunter quit hanging out with them after the show ever since he got gay married, and Ilya has already slipped off somewhere (presumably to go fuck Hollander, though Cliff’s pretty sure most of the other guys at the bar don’t know that) and with no one else stepping up to show the rookies how to fuckin’ party, he had taken it upon himself to make sure it got done and done correctly.
He scruffs Haas gamely behind his neck and gives his shoulders a shake as the booze burns its way down his throat. Atta boy, nice going rook, congrats man, fuckin’ beauty, you. A flush rises in the boy’s face, and it’s far too early for the alcohol to be the cause.
He’s a good looking kid, Haas. Sandy hair and green eyes and supermodel bone structure barely concealed beneath a stubborn layer of baby fat. Girls would be tripping over themselves to get at him.
An hour and fifteen minutes after his first shot, Luca has had many more, and is solidly inebriated. He’s standing (less standing and more leaning-on-for-dear-life, really) beside Cliff as they chat with the goalie for the Guardians, and once the man finally says goodnight, Luca leans closer.
He presses his groin against the back of Cliff’s dangling free hand, and it’s at this point that Cliff realizes with a jolt that Haas is hard as a rock.
“Mister Marleau,” he sighs, batting his pale lashes up at Cliff like a goddamn cartoon. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
“Uh,” Cliff says brilliantly. “Yeah, kid. Sure.”
Luca smiles, blushing all the way. “It’s just… I heard a rumor,” he giggles. Giggles. Like a fuckin’ schoolgirl. “About you and Cap, back in the day.”
Oh God. “Yeah? And what was that?”
“Well, I’ve heard that… when you won really big… like the Cup, or one of these things,” he says with a gesture to the after party around them, “you two would take a trip together to celebrate. A trip to Paris.”
Cliff suddenly fears he is going to pass out. All the blood has reversed course from his brain to his dick in a rush that’s so fast it makes him dizzy. This young, talented, gorgeous rookie is hinting that he’s aware, however vaguely, of his and Ilya’s past sexual exploits. Why is that turning him on?
And why does he answer: “Yeah, haha, we went a couple times together. To celebrate.”
Luca’s smile grows hungry and slightly wild. “To celebrate,” he repeats. “I did good, too. I won. Best of my draft class.” A whine has crept into his voice, and he’s leaning so close to Cliff that his lips are almost brushing his neck.
“Will you help me celebrate my big night, Mister Marleau? Please?”
Cliff’s cock kicks in his pants. Ilya was going to kill him.
Then again, Ilya isn’t here.
Cliff turns his free hand where it still hangs at his side. He cups Luca’s erection through his nice tailored pants and delights in the tiny, breathy moan the boy lets slip as he grinds forward into Cliff’s hand. He’s pretty when he needs something, Cliff realizes.
“Tell you what,” Cliff murmurs, “I’m gonna give you my extra room key. 1733. You head upstairs and wait for me, okay? And if you change your mind, no hard feelings. I get it. In the meantime, I’m gonna make the rounds again. I’ll be up there soon. Then… then we’ll celebrate, baby. Okay?”
It still gives him a plausible out. An exit strategy. Maybe Luca will chicken out. Maybe he’s drunk enough that he’ll get up there and just pass out on Cliff’s bed. Both of those things would be fine. But if Luca really wants this… well. It takes two to tango or whatever.
Luca takes the proffered room key. “Don’t take too long,” he purrs as he pockets it. “I’ll be waiting.”
Luca departs. Cliff watches him go, then makes his rounds. Says his goodnights and goodbyes and congratulations one more time. Then, twenty minutes later, he heads for the elevators.
He is ready for an empty room. He is ready for an out-cold rookie starfished on his bed. He is even ready for an awkward, second-guessing kid who will stammer apologies as his nerve fails and he squirms out the door.
He is not at all prepared for the sight of Luca Haas, rookie of the year, naked on his bed, his ass in the air, two fingers working in and out of his hole as deep as he can get them, eyes glassy and needy as they latch onto Cliff in the doorway.
“Please,” he moans. “Please fuck me, Marleau. I’ve been so good. Please.”
Cliff Marleau is a lot of things. But he’s also only human.
“Okay, baby,” he says quietly as he approaches the bed. “Easy, doll. Relax. Let Daddy take care of you.”
Exactly three and a half hours after he accepts the award for rookie of the year, Luca Haas comes on Cliff Marleau’s long, thick cock, and they’re both pretty sure they see the face of God.
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Shilya honeymoon shane has his little fruity drinks the whole time With little umbrellas his sunglasses are on Hes putting sunscreen on ilyas tits He has his vodka cran
