Orym's Wil

[ID: Two digital drawings of Orym and Dorian Storm from Critical Role. On the left is a drawing of just Orym, smiling and looking pleased and flustered. He's poking the tips of his index fingers together. The drawing on the right is of Orym and Dorian together, kissing. Text above their heads reads "+3 hope". End description.]

"Pride Night", Shane Hollander, Ilya Rozanov, Scott Hunter [Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, Francois Arnaud] from Heated Rivalry, the original cover from the [REDACTED] zine

Mar 2026

This is a several layer work. First, I found three blank jersey templates and redesigned the Metros/Raiders/Admirals jerseys into a pride format. I then found a reference pic of three men standing next to each other wearing jerseys. I used inkscape to photoshop the jerseys onto the reference pic, and then photoshopped Hudson, Connor, and Francois's faces into place.

I then ran it through my process of playing with vectorising/lighting/overlaying watercolour textures and stock images, isolating the lines, drawing in more lines (don't look too closely at their numbers or their feet because I almost messed them up a few times). I blurred the letters because it's meant to look like a painting, I removed the lines from the Raiders icon because it was too busy, and then overlaid everything.

Believe it or not, the reflection on the ice was the hardest part of this. And if you still fucking think this is AI, just go ahead and block me already because I'm over trying to prove myself to everyone.

I had the incredible privilege to design this year’s Pride Shirt from Critical Role! It features our beloved Blue Boi Dorian Storm on hos steed Coriolis. I snuck in a little favour of his lover, tied to his arm, and some sneaky Latin: “Amore fiunt homines” is Latin for “It’s love that makes people.”

You can find it in all the CR shops! I’ll be offering prints, too. https://shop.critrole.com/collections/new-products/products/how-do-you-want-to-slay-this-t-shirt

[ID: A digital illustration of Dorian Storm and Orym from Critical Role. They're wearing their outfits from the Maelstrom Kingdom promo art and they both have mermen's tails. Dorian's tail is a sunset ombre with blue fins and Orym's tail is green with pale pink fins. They're under water, just above the sea floor and surrounded by coral, small fish, and kelp. Orym is swimming up next to Dorian's face, they're holding hands and smiling at each other. End description.]

which combined with ilya loving just making things up and saying them (as seen in the "yes, the rumors are true-" scene) offers the very funny idea that ilya actively tries to offer as much privacy as possible by just throwing out stories about them at random so there IS no central story for people to hound shane about.

assorted backstories a la "ilya just started talking and found out with everyone else where he was going with this":

they got snowed in at all stars one year (b-but wasn't that year in florida?) and decided there was nothing better to do

it started as a bit and neither is willing to give up first

they paired off to combine forces like nato

they paired off to limit how many kids they could have in the future to make sure hockey stayed fair

ilya lost a bet six years ago

shane lost a bet three years ago

ilya got tired of remembering phone numbers for his hookups and shane's is easy

ilya got tired of having to look things up in english and french when talking to other people and decide to marry someone who speaks two languages to save time

shane is gifted enough (wink wink wink) that other people are cowards and only ilya was brave enough to rise to the challenge (this one gets him in trouble on the phone later but it also gets him laid that night at home and also confuses the online speculation about who tops and bottoms, so net positive tbh)

yuna hollander is the best manager in the business and a political marriage was the best way to secure her services longterm

the reporter obviously knows he's not serious (...mostly) but plays along with "what kids?" and ilya just ☝️ as he pulls out his phone and starts looking through, and everyone is like "surely not...bUT WHAT IF", and then he goes "ah! here", and holds out his phone

and it's a picture of anya and luca haas

waudna wednesday!

Shane with a lily tattoo on his heart!!!!!! He's been driving me insane!!!!

I recently had the honor to draw the Araman timeline for Critical Role!

and finally whoever the handler is just "sorry, she's still in training." and ilya is just "ah, a professional in training. what a smart girl." "yeah, she's training to be an anxiety service dog. :)"

and ilya just looks RIGHT at shane, who is suddenly

oh my GOD, they had been fighting about getting another dog because ilya wanted anya to have a sibling and shane wanted to call it at one dog because what if the next one ISN'T good and now they're going to have two dogs AND one is a problem-

so they're already miffed at each other, and shane is convinced ilya keeps somehow signaling this dog to come over because he's being an asshole about their fight about dogs, the exchange about her being an anxiety service dog happens, shane avoids eye contact COMPLETELY and manages to fully escape standing next to ilya

but then ends up retreating to an empty conference room that the dog and handler also happen to go to as a break place for the dog, and the handler is like no worries if not it's okay but do you mind letting her practice tasking? it's really okay if not but she seems really eager-

and what is shane going to do? say no i won't help out with training this dog? no.

in their household, she is dogtor rosie because she has a degree even if she doesn't use it (ilya made it, it hangs on the fridge), and when shane tries to appeal to ilya to help him call rosie off when she's tasking, ilya shakes his head and refuses

dogtor rosie is SO good at this! she's a little angel (and sometimes menace), and i adore her.

i can also maybe picture anya picking up the basics of some of these moves/behaviors after the two dogs have spent some time together and she's seen rosie receive positive attention/praise for doing so. (ilya is for sure providing that, even if shane himself is more unsure at first)

all of a sudden, anya is also now fetching things With Purpose when she senses that someone is upset/anxious. she doesn't have rosie's discernment or training, so she's not grabbing water bottles or prescriptions (even if they are for the wrong person), but she is bringing whatever random item feels right in the moment. she has the spirit!!!

also the idea of anya frantically looking around for an item to give shane when rosie goes to grab the empty pill bottle from the counter because she WILL go looking for it if they don't leave it there for her is SO cute and funny to me. incomplete list of items anya has prescribed shane to make him feel better:

his sunglasses

ilya's keys

yuna's purse

a pair of tongs for the grill

her leash AND rosie's leash

a pillow from their bedroom

her stuffed hockey stick toy

the empty pill bottle when she got there first, prompting an annoyed rosie to try and take it from her because that's HER item!! give it!! meaning it actually did work because shane is now having to ref a sibling squabble over helping him with an empty bottle of medication that wasn't even his to start with

and @hardlyhinged adding your tags here because Best Wiggly Girl hopping the boards and getting carried off with a puck in her mouth is SO delightful to me

In any which case it happens, maybe they adopt a teen from their hockey camps or just in general adopt a child who turns into a great Hockey player too, Shane and Ilya find themselves in Regina again.

They are waiting outside the Ice rink to pick up their kid from training, who is there for a junior competition.

Some parts of the arena have changed since 2008. A lot of them actually. But Shane has this sort of sixt sense for building layouts, and that hasn't really changed in almost 20 years. So he takes Ilya by the hand and pulles him with, all the way to what seems to be a side exit to the building now. And it looks exactly the same. This part has not changed. Even the "No Smoking allowed" sign is the same, just weathered and sketched on.

They both stand there for a second, in shock and awe, unsure what to do. Then Ilya lets Shanes hand go and puts on his hat, which he had protested against all day.

He leans against the wall next to the sign and takes one of the glucose-lollipops their kid likes from his pocket. He grins at Shane and it takes his breath away.

The years fall away and all Shane can see is that very first meeting. So he takes a few steps back, puts on his worst 'Axious teen shane' face and turns around. When he sees Ilya again their eyes catch. He reaches out a hand. "Ilya Rozanov? I'm Shane Hollander. I wanted to introduce myself. You're an awesome player to watch." Ilya smiles around the stick in his mouth, before forcing a frown that makes Shanes heart ache.

"Yes." He says heavily accentuated.

Shane can't help but smile as he points to the sign on the wall. "I think, you're not supposed to smoke here."

He can see Ilyas brain work, he probably has some dirty innuendo about other things he could do in mind, but instead he sticks to the script. "Okay."

Something warm blooms in Shanes chest. This was it. This was how it began. He's sure their words arent the same, sure the mixed something up but this is the important part.

He leans next to Ilya for half a minute, silent, before he says "I should go, they're waiting for me."

He reaches out his hand again and Ilya takes it. But instead of letting go he holds it. Shane feels the flush in his cheeks rise. "Good luck in the turnament." hw wispers.

"You will not ne sk nice when I beat you." Ilya smiles as he pulls Shane in, letting the stick fall from his mouth.

"That wont happen." Shane wispers against his lips before Ilya kisses him, softly.

When they pull appart Shane knows he is blushing and Ilya looks extremely pleased with himself. Shane licks the sweet taste of the lollipop off of his lips.

"I wanted to do that back then as well." Ilya says quietly between them and tears well up in Shanes eyes.

"I love you." Ilya leans his forhead against Shanes before he answers.

"Ya tebya lyublyu."

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Voices echo across the parking lot and they carefully pull appart. Just that second Shanes phone buzzes in his pocket. He takes it and answers.

"Yes, we're outside. If you go around the building, left from the main entrance. Yeah you need to go all the way until you see us. We want to show you something."

Ilyas face lights up with glee. When Shane ends the call he smirks. "You want to..."

"It's where we met. It's a very important place to show our kid."

"Hm yeah. Place of Hockey history. There should be a plaque."

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