here’s luck

Genre - Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Slice of Life, Case Fic, etc.

AU - If it's an AU, what kind? What role do each of the characters play? How is it different to their canon role?

Parts of canon - If it's not an AU, what part of canon is it about? Is it set before, during or after a particular episode?

Themes - Are there any topics or ideas which you are trying to explore, or which come up repeatedly?

Minor Warnings - Is there anything you think you should warn for that isn't included in the archive warnings?

Format & Length - Is your work art, video, podfic, etc? Does it use a particular format like a Drabble or 5+1?

Characters - What is going on with each of your major characters? If you had to describe them with one or two adjectives, what would you pick? (Format as [Adjective] [Character Name].)

Relationships - What is going on with each of your major relationships? Are there any relationship tropes like Slow Burn or Enemies to Lovers in your story?

Tropes - Are there any tropes or common story elements in your story that haven't been tagged yet? If your work was on TV tropes, what are the first things you would add?

Sex - If your work includes sex, what kink(s) and specific act(s) does it involve?

Does it fucking kill you too? Not anymore.

+ loving the things you love without shame is good actually

+ but also there's no contradiction in criticizing and/or improving on the things you love when they fail you in particular ways

+ it's good to learn from other people with other perspectives about blind spots you may have that prevent you from seeing particular failures

+ play, especially creative and communal play, is one of the great joys of life

+ life should be full of things that you do for the sheer joy of it and not for any "productive" reason

+ joy is compounded when it's shared

+ doing things together is (often) better than doing things alone

+ collaboration is better than competition

+ friendships are built on shared interests

+ art and shared interests can build cross-cultural and cross-generational communities

+ getting to know people who are very different than you--who come from different backgrounds, have different experiences, and see the world in different ways--is another of life's great joys

+ mutuality and reciprocity are the keys to community-building

+ connection with other human beings is the entire point of art

+ specificity, depth, and details create intimacy and good art

+ texts and narratives are created not only by the original writers/creators but by how readers/audiences react to and interpret them

+ there are a multitude of ways to interpret a given text/narrative

+ it's both fun and enriching to discover how other people react to texts/narratives differently than you do

+ gratitude, praise, enthusiasm, and other forms of feedback are the both best the compensations for the time you spend on creation and are the best fuel for more creation

+ infinite diversity in infinite combinations

+ etc.

obviously fandom doesn't always live up to these principles. but it can and often it does, and that's why i don't feel like the ~25 years i've spent in various fandoms was a waste of time. that in fact my fannish participation has enriched my life and made me a better person than i would have been without it.

all of these are in radical opposition to the assumptions that underlie mainstream society (at least in the anglophone world, i don't want to make assumptions about societies i don't live in):

+ everything is markets

+ everything should be optimized

+ everything should be monetized

+ everything should be at scale

+ everything should be shallow and bland enough to appeal to the lowest common denominator so as to reach as many people as possible so as to make as much money as possible

+ anything that doesn't help you accrue money and/or power is a waste of time

+ liking the "right" things will make you seem cool, which will help you accrue social capital or build a personal ~brand~ which you can then use to make money or accrue power

+ competition is the only thing that drives innovation

+ innovation is important because it helps you accrue money and/or power

+ if you aren't being compensated for the time and effort you put into something, you have wasted your time and you are falling behind

+ etc.

i find this worldview absolutely repulsive and at odds with everything i think is good in the world. even things that are fine in moderation and in certain contexts (markets and competition are okay within limited bounds) become cancerous when they are at the bedrock of how you approach life.

every time we take joy in leaving someone else a comment on a fic or a piece of fanart and it makes someonehappy

every time we read a piece of meta from someone who's sharing an insight into something we mutually love

every time we choose to spend time on creating something so that other people can enjoy it for free

every time we make each other laugh or smile or feel better on rough day

every time we learn something we didn't know about the world from someone we might never have had a chance to meet if our mutual love for a thing hadn't brought us together

every time we do any of these things, we are pushing back against those repulsive, predominating assumptions.

i'm not saying that fandom is going to save the world. it isn't. that requires actual political organization, unionizing, creating democratic and power-sharing institutions, educating ourselves ourselves and others, recognizing and working to dismantle hierarchies, building coalitions, finding the courage to admit when we're wrong, finding the courage to give other people second chances when they try to do better, etc.

but i think that practicing reciprocity and fun with other people gives us the energy to do the hard political things. i don't think we're ever going to be able to do those hard political things if we don't have communities (of whatever kind) that remind us what everything is for and that life, as hard as it can be, can also be joyful.

See you... bonus

shane hollander appreciation week: day five favorite relationship: familial -> his relationship with his dad, david ♥

HEATED RIVALRY (2025-) dir. Jacob Tierney

And not just that, I want it to tear Ilya apart that for months he’s been getting mad and snapping at Shane for fearing this. I want him to see Shane have everything cruelly ripped away while knowing the biggest fight they ever had was Ilya being mad about how afraid Shane was of this and how much he wanted to avoid it, especially with how supportive Ilya’s coach and team are in comparison

Of course Ilya didn’t think it would be so bad, his whole team is behind him as well as his coach

But Shane has his team immediately turn against him, his coach acts furious and disgusted with him, and the immediate punishment is that Shane Hollander, who lives and breathes hockey, who sees his entire identity and worth as a person being his skill in hockey, is told he is indefinitely barred from playing

This man has been told from day one that he has to be perfect, that he cannot ever fuck up, that he cannot be anything less than what is demanded of him every second of the day. And as soon as he’s not what he should be he takes a fucking sledgehammer to the chest made of every fear he ever had made real

This needs to be the thing that finally shatters him and makes him actually cry and stop holding everything in. I don’t want Shane sighing over the phone to show he’s upset, I need this to be viscerally heart breaking and soul crushing for Shane

It is very important to me that Shane was bone deep terrified of this and he was right.

And I want Ilya to sit there helplessly with every comment of “I think it would be fine, I think you’re the one with the problem” playing in his head. I want to see hockey homophobia manifest physically into human form and rip Shane’s heart from his chest while Ilya has to stand there and watch it happen

This is not anti Ilya, I love him, but I want this moment to be for him what it was for Shane to realize all Ilya had sacrificed to move to Ottawa. I want them to both have a moment where they’re horrified by what they’ve asked of the other while acting like it was nothing