I think if Ilya and Shane's friend group played tabletop rpgs that Shane would DM and he would be SO good at it. Just the most cutthroat diabolical "consequences of your own actions" DM of all time. Everyone is on their third or fourth character a few months in because they're all stupid and impulsive and Shane isn't about to let that slide. It's not even that Shane initially designed the world to be horribly hostile but no one is taking it seriously and he needs them to lock tf in.
The only players still on their first characters are Hayden's kids because they've been taking it deadly serious since session 0. Ilya is on his fifth character and desperately trying to invoke the "dm's partner" get out of jail free card at every turn. Shane tells him if he doesn't want to die again maybe he should consider making better decisions.
At some point Ilya runs a one-shot where he's super soft on everyone and the players walk all over him the whole time. He suddenly intimately understands Shane's dming style. During the next round of combat he sics a swarm of mutant rats on the party and gets accused of favoritism when Shane's character is the only survivor. The ensuing argument goes down in history because Hayden owes $200 to the swear jar by the end of it.
The next session Shane dms Ilya locks in like never before. He still dies anyway.
