MissMists

this is retroactively the funniest character introduction in the series. Miles that is your dad's boyfriend.

"'fandom' is a vehicle of marginalized subcultural groups (women, the young, gays, etc.) to pry open space for their cultural concerns within dominant representations; it is a way of appropriating media texts and rereading them in a way that serves different interests, a way of transforming mass culture into a popular culture"

Jenkins, Henry. “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 5, no. 2 (1988): 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038809366691.  

which is a pretty mundane sentence. but it's a lot less mundane when it's coming from the emperor of three planets who once drunkenly "fell" out a window and ran away to accidentally work in construction, and is one of two people who can consistently outscheme Miles Vorkosigan. He has the kind of pent up rage that can only be amassed by a lifetime of sitting through meetings with the dullest people alive. He is a quiet, mild mannered man who itches to watch the world burn.

“Er…25th of May, Sarge.”

“And you know what that means, Ping?”

“Er…”

“It means,” said Nobby, “that anyone important enough to ask where we’re going—”

“—knows where we’ve gone,” said Fred Colon.

The door slammed behind them.

Essentially, politically coherent works are works where the political message of the story is supported by all (or at least most) of the major story elements, and a politically incoherent work is a story where the political messages of different elements are seemingly all shooting off on different vectors.

The nice thing about this is it can bypass authorial intent (and the discussion of whether intent matters). This is about the text.

Like, politically incoherent works that had no authorial thought behind them are a dime a dozen of course, and politically coherent works that clearly had a lot of authorial thought are if not equally common than at least easy to spot. But there are also plenty of works that are politically coherent without the author intending them that way—like, whatever faults there are with Project Hail Mary, the overall opinion the book has about the nature of humanity & of science is consistent throughout. Likewise there are stories where the authors clearly meant a coherent political point and totally wiffed it. (The works @specialagentartemis has collectively termed “cozy colonialism” come to mind)

everyone always seems so surprised when shane is funny or makes a joke, and i don't think it's meant to be mean, but like? yeah shane is funny. he's always been funny. he's picky about his audience (because he has his image to think about and also because he's just naturally reserved), but he is snarky and quick with it. you know who has ALWAYS found him funny, though?

and on ilya's part, he chirps partially (i think) strategically to have the other team playing annoyed because that's not going to have them on their a-game, but also?? it's for fun. he is puppy nipping and going "play??? play back??? play??" and with almost everyone (because of the reputation he's been branded under), the response he gets is fuck off and a refusal to engage, like we saw with scott hunter. you know who's always understood that this is supposed to be for fun, though?

crack fic of homophobic metros GM finding out about them pre-outing and conspiring to make the metros a friendly team to gay people bc he did the calculation of “money + championships > homophobia”

Gerald finds out about Hollander and Rozanov by accident. It’s pure coincidence.

He’d just been about ready to leave the hotel room that he’d taken a cute little blonde cart girl back to, the door cracked open just a little when he’d heard them.

“Hollander,” the voice had said, accented and low, “don’t be…”

He hadn’t been able to hear the entire sentence, but the name had drawn his attention anyway, ready to greet Shane Hollander in the hallway, maybe ask what he was up to and look away if it was trouble.

But the sight that greeted him, when he barely glanced out through the crack, was one that he couldn’t look away from even if he wanted to. Hollander and—fucking Rozanov of all people.

And not only is Hollander fumbling to open the door to the hotel room, but Rozanov’s right behind him, hands on his hips and pulling him back against his—

“Ilya,” Hollander hisses, “Come on.”

“Fine, fine,” Rozanov says, as the door whirs open. “My boyfriend does not want me anymore.”

Boyfriend?

“Shut up,” Hollander says with a little laugh, and then the door closes behind them with a gentle click.

As far as Gerald is concerned, it might as well have been a bang, the way his heart is pounding in his chest.

--

It takes Gerald some time to decide if what he saw was real.

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov…are gay. And together.

They—well. In a strange way, he supposes it makes sense. The best in the world and pitted against each other from the start. They spent a lot of time together when they were young men, probably pent up.  

Maybe the urge of a teenage boy to get his dick wet made them confused

And now here they are. Together. And fucking. Fucking each other. Or, well, Hollander fucking Rozanov. Right? Well it’s not really—who’s the girl?  

--

It clicks in the middle of the night.

His eyes fly open and he sits up. The girl sleeping next to him—anothercart girl, a redhead this time—grumbles, turns onto her side and away.

Gerald can’t make himself care, because he’s busy getting out of bed and pacing.

Rozanov is in Ottawa. Rozanov left Boston for Ottawa.

It had been a shock when it had happened, and no one had been able to figure out why. Gerald had nearly laughed himself sick when he’d heard about it, James Jackson over in Boston losing his star and captain and biggest moneymaker to Ottawa of all places.  

But if he moved for his…lover, then maybe…

Hollander’s contract is coming up in the summer at the end of this season, Gerald realizes with a start.

“Fuck,” he hisses.

He can’t lose Hollander. The city would burn to the ground. His family’s legacy would be tainted—letting the Shane Hollander go to Ottawa. And worst of all, he’d probably lose season ticket holders.

He calls his assistant without a second thought.  

Dungeons and Dragons Journals