pick someone who's supportive

connectedpapers

the basic rundown is: you use the search bar to enter a topic, scientific paper name or DOI. the website then offers you a list of papers on the topic, and you choose the one you're looking for/most relevant one. from here, it makes a tree diagram of related papers that are clustered based on topic relatability and colour-coded by time they were produced!

for example: here i search "human B12"

i go ahead and choose the first paper, meaning my graph will be based around it and start from the topics of "b12 levels" and "fraility syndrome"

here is the graph output! you can scroll through all the papers included on the left, and clicking on each one shows you it's position on the chart + will pull up details on the paper on the right hand column (title, authors, citations, abstract/summary and links where the paper can be found)

It has a daily mode that resets at UTC midnight. I’ve had fun with it with some friends - hopefully other people find it fun too :)

which combined with ilya loving just making things up and saying them (as seen in the "yes, the rumors are true-" scene) offers the very funny idea that ilya actively tries to offer as much privacy as possible by just throwing out stories about them at random so there IS no central story for people to hound shane about.

assorted backstories a la "ilya just started talking and found out with everyone else where he was going with this":

they got snowed in at all stars one year (b-but wasn't that year in florida?) and decided there was nothing better to do

it started as a bit and neither is willing to give up first

they paired off to combine forces like nato

they paired off to limit how many kids they could have in the future to make sure hockey stayed fair

ilya lost a bet six years ago

shane lost a bet three years ago

ilya got tired of remembering phone numbers for his hookups and shane's is easy

ilya got tired of having to look things up in english and french when talking to other people and decide to marry someone who speaks two languages to save time

shane is gifted enough (wink wink wink) that other people are cowards and only ilya was brave enough to rise to the challenge (this one gets him in trouble on the phone later but it also gets him laid that night at home and also confuses the online speculation about who tops and bottoms, so net positive tbh)

yuna hollander is the best manager in the business and a political marriage was the best way to secure her services longterm

the reporter obviously knows he's not serious (...mostly) but plays along with "what kids?" and ilya just ☝️ as he pulls out his phone and starts looking through, and everyone is like "surely not...bUT WHAT IF", and then he goes "ah! here", and holds out his phone

and it's a picture of anya and luca haas

When AO3 went down for a bit in January, I decided it was a sign to pick up the pen. I am not new to fandom or fanfic, so I decided to embark on a very very big journey. I was going to write a long-fic.

So the idea of Rookie Mistakes was born: I wanted to write an AU set in 2024-2025 where Shane is a young rookie (less of a massive superstar) and Ilya is his slightly older “buddy”. I wanted to write it as a rom com AU, what if things could work out in the end? What if they didn’t carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Also who doesn’t love teammates to friends to friends with benefits to lovers? I EAT THAT UP.

So I sat down, literally, with a pen and paper and mapped it out. 25 chapters, I did the math and thought heck, I could do this in about 4.5 months, assuming I posted an average of about 1.5 times a week. I wasn’t going to make it this big serious fic, and also I’ve done long fics before so I know what is doable for me.

So I picked up the pen with some friends from another fandom and smashed out the first seven chapters over the course of a couple of weeks just so I could have a buffer. And Rookie Mistakes was born.

Part of it was also this: when I read the books, I wanted to write a Shane that was more in touch with his Japanese heritage, his sexuality, and his own confidence. I also like to think that a modern day Gen Z (like myself) would have a little bit more knowledge about sexuality and maybe be less afraid to experiment a little bit sexually.

So off I went. I planned out and invented a new Shane and Ilya, obviously based on canon but with my new twist. It gave me something to do when I was commuting or even as an alternative to doom scrolling.

There were times when I got really frustrated trying to map out a plot that wasn’t too angsty but still had some conflict, but heck, we got there in the end.

One of my favourite artists is a group called Tommy Lefroy, and in one song they sing, “Sometimes, as an exercise, I think everything’s gonna be alright.”

What if coming out wasn’t the insurmountable Everest that it is in the real world? What if it wasn’t so cataclysmic? What if no one gets outted?

It’s a very fluffy, smutty, naughty fic.

And as of next week, it’s going to be complete. It’ll be 25 full fucking chapters of a story. All for fun, all for free.

The last thing I want is my fic getting torn apart on TikTok (oh my god) but I think I trust the real fandom spaces to be kind, so I’m going to share it here.

So here it is. Currently 24/25 chapters, Rated E, around 83k words but it’ll be closer to 88k when I complete it.

connor storrie getting ready for the Met Gala 2026 (via GQ)

At night, in the dark, under his covers, behind a locked bedroom door and a double dead-bolted front door, after checking FindMy three times to triple check that his parents are still in a different city and not somehow on their way to his apartment. His dildo is also there.

Places Ilya initiates sexting

The locker room

On a run

His home shower

The club

Brunch with Svetlana

The Porsche dealership

Lifting weights with cliff

While taking a shit

In the back of an uber

On the other side of the room

The MLH awards

During a live interview

While watching men’s gymnastics

In the refrigerated aisle while trying to decide between brands of yogurt