Serious question, why do fic authors think that Shane Hollander is a blubbering baby who needs Ilya to do absolutely everything for him because he’s just so fragile?
‘Cause like, our boy is autistic, which makes him more sensitive to a lot of stuff, but also on a very real note, he doesn’t emotionally process most of his life. I say this as someone who is both medicated and therapized, but I still cannot emotionally process things unless I work through it out loud (AuDHD, baby!). Therefore, Shane internalizes EVERYTHING. He won’t sob or act out or be dramatic, he’ll just go quiet (and then MAYBE he’ll cry if he’s alone, maybe).
Shane hires people to manage things for him, yes, but when it comes to himself, he will Handle That Shit. Yep, it’s not healthy or wise most of the time (his ED, obsessive training, etc), but that’s how Shane regulates his feelings and emotional wellbeing. Again, he doesn’t do regulation well, but rigid routines and rules make him stable enough to present as a functional human (me too, Shane).
Shane doesn’t need Ilya to tell him how to think or feel. He does need to be poked at sometimes to actually talk about things, but Shane will not be the kind of person who has explosively emotional breakdowns at the drop of a hat. Between masking his autism and strict media training, he will never be that kind of person.
It’s also important to note that Shane grew up in a safe, loving home. His parents (from what we know) have a very healthy relationship. Yuna, while a little overbearing, is stable and controlled (behaviour that Shane likely mimics) and David is a very calm, relaxed guy that balances out his wife’s intensity. It’s very likely that Shane rarely witnessed any fights and if he did, it’s unlikely they were highly emotional displays.
Between them, Ilya will be the one who’s prone to emotional breakdowns. With the C-PTSD of his childhood finally catching up and his battle with depression, Ilya will struggle to regulate or push it down, especially since he’s in a place where he has a good support system. It’s part-brain chemistry and part learned behaviour bc his father was obviously abusive (explosively, so, from what we can glean about both Ilya & his mother) and he watched his mother struggle with depression. Ilya can put on a face until he explodes because he has no other way of expression.
TLDR: stop making Shane Hollander cry at the drop of a hat because it’s not him & also very fucking infantilizing (which is a massive fucking problem because people are constantly infantilizing autistics).
