Steddie Going

and ilya is like holy shit. they gave this boy an eating disorder so bad he can't eat fruit.

(reference to this post)

OH MY GOD WAIT NO

they came over to have dinner at the cottage and it turns out shane was out of something they needed, so david volunteered to go get it, so he makes a grocery store run, and shane, ilya, and yuna are on the porch just sipping on drinks and maybe snacking on something and waiting while making smalltalk, and ilya has a !! moment of, "oh, shane, you should text him and ask him to buy mangoes. you don't have any." THINKING he's being a good boyfriend reminding shane of something he loves that he must have forgotten while doing the shopping because he must have been as nervous as ilya was (aw <3).

and then yuna just *sharp look up* "mangoes?"

and ilya (STILL JUST THINKING THIS IS "oh yeah, i'm NAILING showing off being a good boyfriend") affectionately nudges shane's shoulder with, "yes, i cannot believe you have forgotten to buy any with how much you love them"

and yuna immediately "shane!! you're eating mangoes? you KNOW better!"

and ilya knows by now that yuna is where shane gets his intensity from with hockey, and now he's torn between wanting to make a good impression but also wanting to be a good boyfriend, so he tries to thread the needle between the two of those things with, "is okay. really." because he doesn't?? really know why yuna would be this intense about mangoes??? when they have eaten pasta and hamburgers together by now?? and she seemed fine?? that seems strange?? but this HAS to be related to hockey, so maybe it's a weird diet thing, and he knows how much shane is a people pleaser, so he's trying to SO carefully and delicately push back on shane not getting to have something he clearly loves so much for some weird reason his mom is pushing.

and yuna who is STILL LOOKING ONLY AT SHANE, WHO IS DELIBERATELY *NOT* LOOKING AT HIS MOM "shane! they're bad for you! you know that!"

and ilya REALLY doesn't understand what the fuck the big deal is, but if she thinks mangoes are somehow hindering him as an athlete: "really, i promise, is fine. he has them every single time we meet up, and he is-"

"shane! what is the matter with you!"

and now finally shane REALLY can't stay quiet anymore, but he is still NOT looking at anyone in a way that now has ilya pausing and going "...hmmmmm" because now shane looks SHIFTY in a way that is making him think this is more than some weird hockey superstition or fad diet thing. and shane (who gives ilya a quick dirty look for telling on him to his mom, thanks a LOT, dude) is like, "it's really not that big a deal, mom, i just take some benadryl and-"

"not a big deal NOW, shane, but you KNOW allergies can get worse with repeated exposure."

and ilya ??!! "allergies????? what allergies????"

a few ways this could happen, but chiefly of which i imagined: injury scenario, quite possibly the concussion from cliff. shane drugged up and loopy when ilya visits him in the hospital waxing poetic abt how ilya is so nice and shane loves how he always has mangos for him because no one ELSE lets him have mangos (big pouty shane face here). and ilya is like. why does no one let you have mangos shane. and loopy filterless shane is just like oh yeah because im allergic! not BAD allergic but my mouth gets tingly and kind of burny for a while and sometimes i get hives. but its worth itttttt. and ilya TRAUMATIZED is like no it is NOT WORTH IT. i have been poisoning you??? for Months????? he is SO betrayed. this could also happen later, not during the concussion, but during some other injury incident during the post-cottage pre-tlg gap, where ilya is caring for a loopy shane for whatever reason and the secret gets out-- which draws out the length of time ilya has been spoiling shane with mangoes AND thus increases the level of betrayal/guilt on ilya's part.

option three is that it comes out during Dinner With Mama And Papa Hollander during their time at the cottage... not that first meal maybe but the dinner the next day. like, as a fun anecdote yuna and david bring up shane's allergy to mangos and how it was DETRIMENTAL as a kid because he loved them so much it took them so long to realize he was allergic, and even after he'd always find ways to run off to get his mango fix, haha ... wait ilya whats wrong why arent you laughing. meanwhile shane (whose attempts to shut his parents up with increasingly wide eyed Looks all failed) is thousand-yard-staring like a dog who got into the pantry and ilya is just LOOKING AT HIM. like. shane. shane is there something you would like to tell me. were you ever GOING to tell me. or were you just going to let me KEEP POISONING YOU for the REST OF OUR LIVES . look at me shane LOOK INTO MY EYES. and he's just having a whole crisis realizing he was made an unwilling agent in shane's mango-eating agenda... (though there is A bonus point in the form of: ilya's EXTREME distress over accidentally poisoning his situationship-boyfriend-soulmate endear him very much to yuna and david. shane's going "its a really mild allergy ilya its fine!" and ilya, going through the five stages of grief preemptively, is half-yelling back at him "WELL IT MAY NOT STAY MILD IF YOU KEEP FUCKING EATING THEM. YOU KNOW HOW ALLERGIES WORK SHANE YOU HAVE MANY OTHERS WHY DO YOU DO THIS" and yuna and david are like oh .... he Loves Him... our baby's in good hands ❤️)

anyways i hope u enjoy this humble contribution to the shallergies posting 🙇

oh my GOD

it's an attempted playful callback to the vodka being his reward in vegas, and shane is a little more honest by this point and is just *makes a face before he can stop it* make it something i actually want.

and ilya still trying to be playful is just "oh? and what do you want, hollander?" and HE'S kind of playing at going for a round 2, but shane is blissed out and is honest anyway so just *wistful sigh*

"mango"

and ilya obviously is fucking delighted because this is so Classic Hollander. he's going for sex and hollander?? is thinking of mangoes?? okay, you bizarre person. ilya must have you carnally once more.

and the next time they meet up, ilya has remembered this and is being playful when he offers up a mango (100% just playing it like a bit), but shane is genuinely visibly delighted before he can stop himself. he doesn't buy them for himself because obvi he knows they're bad for him

...but...if he didn't buy it...it would be rude...to NOT eat it... :) oh no :) guess he has to eat this mango :)

BUT it continues being a joke that shane only gets his mango after sex, WHICH MEANS! ILYA HAS NEVER BEEN AROUND FOR THE AFTER OF SHANE EXPERIENCING A REACTION TO THIS GAME. HE DOESN'T KNOW.

and shane like. logically knows he should probably say something, but atp it would feel awkward being like, "soooo by the way, i'm allergic to this so you should probably like. stop." and he also doesn't want to risk being rude/making ilya stop wanting to be playful with him or seeing him because he made it weird. and he's SO disciplined all the time. ALL THE TIME. he is SO disciplined.

buuuuut if he's already indulging in this with rozanov...really...what's being a little itchy for a day or so with a rare mango treat. it's not like they meet up THAT often. and this is for SURE the last time so it doesn't matter. it's for SURE the last time. NO more. for SURE no more. last fuck last mango.

...for SURE.

.........after the NEXT one-

and by the time they get to the cottage, like. shane knows he's going to have to tell him. but there's priorities above and beyond The Sex Mangoes between them, and ilya had to cross an international border so it's not like he brought any with him, and shane obviously doesn't have any in the cottage. so like. that can be a Later conversation.

...except for the fact where they're talking to yuna and david about them as a couple and ilya says something offhand to a question about their relationship to the effect of, "just mango by mango" meaning it to be like. playful and sweet and nudge nudge at them having a cutesy couple thing.

but shane who can FEEL both of his parents look to him sharply is just

gerard:

And there was a woman there who was some form of disability advocate (it was the 90s so her existence in the company was a minor miracle) and apparently she completely blew his mind on that project.

See, he'd imagined that this service was exclusively gonna be for deaf people. Obviously very useful for the very small number of people who couldn't hear their phone, but why would you even own a mobile phone if you couldn't hear?

But she described to him all the times he might want to read a message instead of listen to it. Maybe he was in a loud football crowd. Maybe there was important info that he needed to copy down that was spoken too fast. Maybe he was holding his sleeping newborn (me) and didn't want his phone to be loud and wake them up.

This doesn't feel as revolutionary as all that to those of us that have only ever known phones with the ability 'send text message', but given the timing and placement of this conversation I wonder if this woman and this project is *part of the reason text messaging exists*. The first text (SMS) message was sent by Vodafone UK in 1992 - where + when this conversation was happening - and then for a long time it was supported exclusively for 'messages from the carrier', and this project was an early potential extra use of the SMS protocol.

"Where did you come up with this convoluted plot?"

So I have a new roommate now. The chore wheel’s pretty lopsided.

Dignity of risk is the idea that self-determination and the right to take reasonable risks are essential for dignity and self esteem and so should not be impeded by excessively-cautious caregivers, concerned about their duty of care. - from the wikipedia page

let shane have his mango!!! he knows the consequences and is equipped and able to deal with them!!

imagining ilya having to talk to galina about it and how he knows he’s starting to do better about his mom when he stops having panic attacks at the thought of shane having his inadvisable mango

absolutely an important topic 🫡

but ilya gets home, repeats this, and shane is "wow I can't believe I HAVE to eat mango to help you do therapy"

"you don't HAVE t-"