very small garden snail

Scallywags

(also his brother never becomes an asshole and addicted bc he didn't need to deal with their father + depression + their mom's death and his feelings about it)

Anyway ofc Ilya still pursues Shane with all he has and ofc Shane kind of fold for him (in every ways ehehehheheh i'm hilarious)

But also I have this scene in mind where Yuna and Irina talk during the draft after party and Yuna is internally grinding her teeth bc this woman's son took her baby's spot and victory but she is still being Polite so she's making small talk and.

Yuna: And what about your husband? He must be proud of your son too, right?

Irina, unfazed: Oh, he died a few years ago.

Yuna, assuming Ilya's parents were about the same age: Oh, I'm sorry! Was it an accident, sickness?

Irina, very obviously still in her thirties-not-yet-forty: Oh, no. Old age :)

Yuna, Who Knows How To Do Math: Ah. I see.

He says it's probably just a bruise, nothing bad. But Shane has seen this before, maybe on his Dad who still complains about how his right knee is weaker than his left because the infection had spread into his joint.

So Shane is adamant Ilya see a doctor and he does and yes it is lyma disease and he will jave to sit out a few games and take his antibiotics. Ilya feels like shit for a few weeks but the disease goes away.

He is veeeery carefull, maybe overly so, the next time him and Shane go into the canadian wilderness. And maybe he takes a little too much joy in checking Shane for Ticks still.

It's before Troy comes out, but he after he and Ilya visit the Kingfisher. They have taken to joking call each other the above names as a haha funny in joke, but only where the others can't see. One day, in the weight room, they are joking back and forth, and forget that Harris is doing a live stream that afternoon/lose track of time.

So ofc Harris walks into the room just in time for the camera to pick up Ilya saying "is okay Barrett, many of us know what a little whiny bitch you were when in Toronto, not much has changed"

Only for Troy to reply "Faggot"

And Ilya is grabbing at his chest as if hurt, "ah this hurts, suck words from a cocksucker"

And this is where Harris cuts off, having stood there in horror for a number of seconds.

I know a subset of the fandom has decided (inexplicably to me) that Troy is Evil and that RR should Punish Him in the next book for his past actions, as these 1. aren't romance books, and 2. as if his entire story isn't about him experiencing the consequences of his past actions. Yeah, he did and said shitty things, but I think the reason that we as western society are in the place we are in is that we can't let go of the very christian idea of eternal punishment for past mistakes. Troy got punished, lost his father and all his former "friends" to bigotry, got iced out by his new team for weeks and weeks until he proved that he had changed.

So yeah, as a millennial that is smack dab in-between their ages, I do think that Troy and Ilya would experience great joy at the chance to reclaim these slurs. They both know that they aren't hurting the other with these words, in fact it's become a bonding ritual for them. Neither is able to really be a part of queer culture because they are still closeted, but in private, they are creating their own little queer ecosystem, even if for now it's just the two of them. As someone who has been in that situation, I am speaking of my own experience here.

Like, Troy initially started speaking like this initially because of hockey culture/his dad/assimilation into the Guardians/ect. The fact that so many people want to #cancel him which, he's a fictional character, be so fucking for real, while not giving a thought to the reasons he did the things he did. Yeah, sometimes people do things that are bad in the interest of self-protection. And the idea that in the next book Shane should be really cold and unforgiving towards Troy is bizarre to me. My guy has literally already gone through his healing/changed behavior journey, and there are so many actual homophobes that are in the league.

Oh you KNOW he has. Hockey is expensive and any cash helps.