Love love love everything about the Sochi Outing AU Montreal rebuild!
Have you thought about coaching at all? I might have missed the post if you have already mentioned it. Obviously Theriault has to go.
In my own post-TLG Montreal woos Shane back head canon I have the Metros recruit the in-universe version of Vicky Sunohara as the new head coach. She is so amazing as both a player and a coach! Her style would be a total culture shift for the team and how players responded to the idea of working with a female coach would also be a useful litmus test of whether they are a good fit for the rebuild.
See I really love the idea of having a highly qualified female coach for the metros dream team rebuild. Like Iād be so down to use this for the rebuild.
So I have been thinking about how to handle the coaching because I think itās critical for curing team culture. So far what insofar as the progression is:
Theriault: homophobic from the outset, almost immediately ousted by Metros ownership. Heās calling Shane a slur and J.J. is texting team ownership under the table. Not his boy, not on his fucking watch. Ownership is. Askance. Is ANYONE thinking about what Obama would say.
Unnamed Assistant Coach: takes over as head coach in Theriaultās wake, not too much better. Not outright calling Shane any slurs but subtly encouraging the hostile behavior from his teammates. Heās gotta go too.
The To Be Named Female Coach also had a secret crush on The Truck. Sheās not even gay itās just the effect of The Truck. She intends to die with this secret.
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I am obssesed with sochi outing au, like i am interested in child star crashout au and snapping birch (though i feel scared? to read the latter), but something about the sochi au idk what you put in it BUT IT IS DRIVING ME INSANE I BINGED THE WHOLE THING IN ONE SITTING AND I GENUINELY FEEL DRUNK?Y ou are a genius and no one gets shane like you do i love you (platonically & parasocially) im climbing walls eatng concrete and i think ii need to go take a nap to reset myself I HOPE YOU HAVE A DAY AS AWESOME AS YOUR WRITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sleep well internet stranger Iām glad you like it
currently in my soccer phase; and one of the funniest things ive seen is people going 'does she think she loves him (messi) more than us' as reactions to messi's wife antonella. it mostly looks like a joke/meme BUT, to me, this is very very very montreal's energy to ilya except they definitely do mean it, unironically. montreal has such collective fight me bitch energy.
This is very much Montrealās energy in my head. As far as theyāre considered Ilya may be his boyfriend but Montreal is his WIFE
The reason why the criticism of the NHL and its many flaws falls so flat in the game changers series is because Rachel Reid refuses to examine the role that race plays in your experience of hockey and hockey culture in Canada, which is honestly very in line with the Canadian, āwell, we barely have racism up here!ā even though people of color, especially Black and South Asian immigrants and First Nations people of color will tell you otherwise.
You cannot criticize and examine hockey culture without the foundational understanding of the role that whiteness plays in the toxicity of hockey culture.
When she said that Shane doesnāt carry grief or trauma it becomes glaringly obvious that she is missing one of the core problems of the toxicity of hockey culture in Canada. Whiteness is what enables this toxic and abusive behavior to continue. Yes, the NFL, NBA, and MLB all have them problems and issues and Iām not denying that, but those leagues all have players of color who would never be allowed to get away with what NHL players do.
I mean even when it comes to the rules of their sport, you think a 6ā8, 300lb Black linebacker is getting a 5 minute penalty for shoving a ref or for getting in their face and yelling at them? You think a bunch of Black athletes could be living in billet homes in small towns with a reputation of violence against little white teenage girls and it would still be a national problem? Whiteness and racism is core and central to the problems in hockey. Look at Gavin McKenna, an indigenous man, being charged with a felony by State College police because they couldnāt wait to make an example out of him.
āShane doesnāt carry grief or trauma.ā
Iāve been reading hockey player memoirs and one of them is about an āaverageā player in the NHL. He was by no means a super star or prodigy, just very good at his sport and he talked about how, as a 6 or 7 year old child, he was already facing bullying by adults for how good he was at hockey. Parents of other players resented him so much for scoring they would tell their kids to target him and would scream obscenities. He was even flipped off as a child and humiliated by coaches because he was good at hockey. And this was a white man.
Add in the fact that Shane is Asian Canadian and hockey is a matter of national identity and lm willing to bet that the first time Shane remembers being called a slur, it was while he was playing hockey, and it was by an adult. Because if they already hate that a child is better at hockey than their child to the point of harassing them, how much worse does it get when the parent realizes that it is Asian child who is better at hockey than their kid? Shane wouldāve been punished at every level of hockey starting at 5 years old for being good at the sport and being Asian because he would make white teammates, coaches, and fans feels āthreatenedā because for so long hockey has been centered around their whiteness.
Not only would Shane have been called names, parents wouldāve been calling for their kids to ātake him outā to take cheap shots and probably screaming slurs at Shane. And Iām willing to bet the coaches and refs did nothing unless the Hollanders threatened to sue, and not Yuna, David had to go down there and flash some legal might around and also the fact that he works for the treasury board and probably knows a thing or two about hockey Canada.
But Shane wouldāve been punished for being not white and being good at hockey and it wouldāve been severe because whiteness is the cornerstone of this sport.
Laila Edwards has talked about experiencing misogynoir as a hockey player and has, probably in the best interest of her PWHL draft and desire not to be harassed by racist trolls, not been as outspoken on vocal as she could be.
Look at Jason Robertsonās exclusion from the Olympics roster and the handwringing of hockey podcasters who ādonāt get why the coaches made the decisions they made.ā Itās because the foundation of this sport and its success is whiteness and white people feel threatened when people of color succeed so they have to knock them down a peg even to their own detriment because thatās how much they hate seeing people of color succeed.
Whiteness is the foundation of this sport and racism is so imbedded that parents will scream at their 10 year old to hit a six year old just because theyāre brown and good at hockey
Like Hockey Canada is struggling to recruit and retain players of colors even as Canada gets more diverse because of the racism.
Even the big book about toxic hockey culture in Canada brushes over the racism even though whiteness and the excuses we make for white men ar front and center as to why hockey culture in Canada got to be the way it is.
You cannot address the issues in hockey Canada unless you also address the fact that the reason why it was allowed to get this bad is because of a whiteness and racism.
I haven't read the books so I dunno canon material, but I was wondering how much evidence is there in the books that Montreal is as obsessed with hockey in universe as it is in real life? We can infer that Shane is worried about getting recognized and that he faces a lot of pressure because Montreal is obsessed and the show mentions burning effigies, but we've also been told that the lock outs didn't happen, so if canon is willing to change that, shouldn't it be true that canon could change other things too? I guess I'm just curious about how much real world logic can and should be applied to a fictional setting. Obviously it's more compelling if more real world logic applies as you can draw on actual lived experiences and have more commentary on real life, but I am curious about how much the source material does this
So I actually agree that canon can absolutely change details about the world for the sake of worldbuilding, but in this case she didnāt. It is explicit in the book that Montreal is just as hockey obsessed as it is in the real world. At the very beginning of heated rivalry, she talks about how Montreal fans loved the Voyageurs to the point of absurdity. They were the loudest fan base and the most enthusiastic fan base, to the point where it was hard for visiting teams to play against them. The fans travel to Ottawa to cheer on the Voyageurs because theyāre such dedicated fans and they sell out the arena for the entire season in advance. They are described as the most legendary team in the NHLāall of which is just copying pretty directly from real life. Fuck, the Voyageurs is just the name of the Canadiensā AHL affiliate team, which is why they had to change it for the show. She just sort of copied and pasted Montrealās entire hockey culture.
She seems to have left all of Montrealās queer culture on the table though.
Like. Seriously, someone correct me if thereās something I forgot, but I canāt remember it being in the books at all. And Iām kind of pissed at that exclusion, specifically because itās implied that Montreal fans are a part of forcing Shane out.
I say implied because we get to see next to nothing about what happened to Shane that was so bad that it forced him off the team he loved. Almost the entirety of the aftermath happens from Ilyaās POV and he glazes over the it because he doesnāt give a shit about what Shaneās going through. He talks about how thereās a host of opinion pieces in the news the day after the game about how Shane tripped on purpose and goes off about how theyāre insulting to him, actually, because what do you mean he needs Shane to throw the game to win. We know that the team and the media have a vitriolic reaction, and thereās a host of āangry tweets in the gameās wake. Of course when Troy Barrett suffers backlash we get to see the tweets and an in depth portrayal of how they affect him. But I think we can glean that there was not an outpouring of support from Montrealās fan community considering whatever happens is so bad that Shane feels like heāll never be comfortable representing that team again.
Again, I think that itās fine to borrow from the real world but change real world details for the sake of world building. I do it myself. For example, the pride tape ban in snapping birch really happened, but it happened years later. I moved the timeline back but kept the real details, because it happened after the events of snapping birch and I wanted to talk about it.
I do have a rule though. And I donāt ascribe negative traits to real people, especially if they donāt have those negative traits in real life. I think itās in really poor taste. Like. I donāt want to be like āhereās my obvious insert of John Doe, except for the purposes of this story, he just loves kicking fucking puppies.ā Like. John Doe probably felt a little hurt by that.
Granted, Montreal fans arenāt a singular person who can get their feelings hurt. But I still think that having them be part of what forces out Shane for reasons related to his identity as a queer man was in really poor taste.
Like. We might not have queer rights if it wasnāt for the Montreal LGBTQ+ community.
In the 70s, the queer community in Montreal was targeted in a series of police raids and they rioted so goddamn hard that Quebec banned discrimination based on sexual orientation across the province just to get them to stop. In fucking 1977. It was the first major jurisdiction on the entire planet to legally protect sexual orientation, and it happened because of motherfucking Montreal. That city is one of the birthplaces of queer rights.
Iām going to be honest, coming into this fandom, I straight up thought that Montreal was kind of conservative and homophobic. Thatās how the fandom treated it. I didnāt know anything about the city before I came into the fandom. The biggest basis I had was āpushed Shane out after he was outed.ā
There is something that really pisses me off about farming the culture of a real city for your fucking gay smut, erasing the fact that they have one of the largest and most historically significant queer populations in human history, and then making them the villains who unfairly demonized and pushed out their previously beloved and historic queer captain for reasons related to his sexuality. And even if she didnāt intend it, thereās a fuckton of people out there that Iāve seen in this fandom who act like that historically queer city is filled with raging homophobes. I think that entire narrative was done in very poor taste, frankly.
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Okay, so, we know that once it becomes clear how good the Montreal rebuild team is in the Sochi AU, Shane's going to be getting a lot of questions about how he's managed to get such excellent performances out of players who previously struggled at the elite level.
And I know that the best way for him to handle those questions would be to hint at the larger issues and let everyone else fill in the blanks ("You know, I think these are all players who always had the talent and drive, they just needed a team culture that could properly draw that out." "Do you think systemic discrimination played any role in their previous lack of opportunities?" "I'm not sure it's my place to say that.")
But I do kinda like the idea of him turning straight to a reporter who tries to undermine his team of "diversity hires plus at least one straight white guy who was iced out for not participating in the worst aspects of hockey culture" and go, "yeah, it turns out that when you evaluate players on their actual merits rather than their race, gender, or sexuality and build a culture that supports players as people instead of forcing them into narrow, toxic boxes, the result is some really fucking good hockey."
Shane and the rest of the team are constantly subjected to these kinds of questions and they really try to toe the line around them.
Theyāre Team Tokenism who are so fucking sick of being the tokens. They just want to play fucking hockey without being constantly dogged about their identities.
I think they initially get a lot of questions implying that this team got built specifically as the Diversity Hire team. The media approaches this like they are a big damage control publicity stunt by the metros ownership.
In way of background:
After they return from Sochi, Shane and Ilya are going to experience a reversal of fortunes. Ilya leaves Russia in disgrace and returns to a team that embraces him. He redeems himself and wins his cup. But Shane leaves Russia as a symbol of national pride and comes back to a team that rejects him. For him, it falls apart. His team doesnāt make the playoffs for the first time since they drafted him. The (correct) rumors that he left before the final game at the Olympics to save Ilya are gaining traction, and people are acting like he betrayed his country and then came back to ruin his own team. Heās getting a lot of shit in the media.
I feel like in every hr fic I have Iām like AND THEN THERE WAS A LEAK but uh. Weāre gonna do it again here. And then there was a leak.
The thing is that Russia is absolutely infamous for state-sanctioned cyberattacks. They would be going after everything related to Hollanov to see if they could get dirt on them. And the thing is that, practically speaking, their teams and the broader NHL would not be passive about their safety when they return from Russia. Like. Theyād be worried about one of them getting assassinated on NHL ice and having to deal with the fallout. Theyād immediately hire a consulting firm to search for weak spots in their security. And I think that consulting firm comes to the conclusion that the greatest point of vulnerability for both Shane and Ilya are their own teammates. But for Ilya the security threat is āthese massive fucking himbos will absolutely fall for any honeypot Russia throws at them, we have to be worried about a beautiful female assassin gaining access to Rozanov because she batted her eyelashes at a Raider and now sheās invited to private team hangoutsā and for Shane itās āweāre about to experience the Sochi semi-final round 2.0 because thereās been an alarming amount of hostility displayed to him by his own team and we think if heās dying itās going to be because either that a member of his team does it or lets someone else do it.ā
I think Russia gets that report. And I think they leak it.
They donāt have a lot to gain by keeping it secret. Everyone already thinks that 1) they want to assassinate the hockey gays and 2) that they tried to kill Shane Hollander specifically in a game. The issues highlighted by the reports are already issues Russia is expected to exploit. Theyāll be accused no matter what as the party responsible for any attempt that happens on Shane.
But if they leak it, they get to disrupt the Love Wins šš³ļøāšš Hockey is for Everyone šš³ļøāšāØš Kumbaya šššš³ļøāš narrative that the US/Canada/NHL has been pushing since Sochi. Actually, no, you fuckers arenāt better than Russia. The report is politically embarrassing to them, and Russia wants to spread some of the political embarrassment around.
And they signal to all the hacked off homophobes who want to take out their anger on Shane Hollander that thereās an opening. Maybe Russia doesnāt need to send someone to kill Shane. Maybe someone else will get pissed and take him out during a game.
At this point, Shane is already knee deep in the rebuild. Heās been working with Metros ownership to try and replace the worst of the offenders and bring them back from this. As far as heās concerned, the problem with this leak is that now someoneās going to tell Obama and also like. Huge amounts of public discourse around whether he poses too many safety and logistical problems to accommodate him playing.
But as far as his team is concerned, he thinks heās got a chance to fix it. Ownership is working with him. Theyāve already traded Drapeau for Hayes. Comeau got traded for high draft picks. Theyāre in talks to get Price from the Raiders. Theyāre letting him have a hand in figuring out which players to pick for the rebuild. Like. Shaneās nursing a furious hope that he can pull off some kind of magic and find a collection of non homophobic players who are also magical superstars and can pull off a historical turn around. That. That could happen. The problems outlined in that report are mostly old news to Shane. Theyāre problems heās already trying to fix.
Ilya sees that report and freaks the fuck out.
So, Iām usually very reluctant to have romantic relationships develop through fights. I think itās overused in fiction and usually done in a way that detracts from the characters. I hate fights that are rooted in āyeah I decided to treat this person Iām supposed to love like garbage.ā I dunno maybe try not doing that.
If I have characters blow out during their relationship, itās usually because thereās some weakness in their dynamic that I donāt see them practically addressing before the issue boils over. And the fact that it boils over is meant to highlight the weakness and set them on the path towards healing it.
Thereās two weaknesses I see boiling over in the Sochi outing au. The first is the division caused by the fact that they are simply not in a relationship when this starts.
Shane and Ilya both go into this extremely uncertain of the other. This is very early into their relationship. Theyāve had penetrative sex one time. They know next to nothing about the other. And they donāt have the history where they have any confidence in the fact that the other actually wants to be with them. And while theyāre fake dating, they are going to be very hesitant about what they feel like they can take from the other. They think they have trapped the other in this relationship as it is. They are worried about being an unwanted burden.
I do not see them opening up to the other about their emotional struggles in the immediate aftermath of Sochi. They donāt have any kind of basis or framework in their relationship for that. I donāt see Shane telling Ilya about his struggles with his team. He is embarrassed about the fact that he canāt seem to fix his issues with his team on his own, and heās going to feel hesitant to bring up his personal problems to Ilya. They just have never talked about shit like that before, and heās struggling with the guilt of ātrappingā Ilya as it is. The first time Ilya finds out about Shaneās issues with his team, itās when the report leaks.
The second weakness is going to be Ilyaās lingering trauma from Shaneās semi final match.
He knows Shaneās a crazy motherfucker who will go back out there following an attempted murder attempt. He is haunted by the memory of it, actually. And he cannot fucking cope with the idea that this could happen a second time. That report sets off his every lingering issue around the semi final match, which Shane didnāt know he had, because Ilya also was not talking to Shane about his struggles during the last season. And thatās also part of the reason why Ilya doesnāt find out about Shaneās issues with his teams leading into this. Ilya hadnāt been watching Shaneās games because he was so fucked up by the memory of what happened. Marley was watching Shaneās games for him and most of his review was ābrother, he is NOT dead and NOT in the hospital. Your Man Is Safe.ā He missed most of the outward signs that Shaneās relationship with his team were deteriorating as a result, and Shane didnāt tell him about it on the back end. Their communication issues come back to bite them.
Before the leak happens, theyāre going to have a little bit of a honeymoon period. Ilyaās familyās bullshit combined with the fact that hockey is foreplay for him and Shane means that he tied a lot of his self worth up into his success as a player. He feels like he has redeemed himself by winning the Stanley cup and shown he was worth saving in Sochi. He and Shane had actively been trying to figure out their dynamic during the season leading up to this, donāt get me wrong, but winning the cup especially emboldens Ilya. He Is Ready To Woo His Own Boyfriend. He asks Shane to spend the summer with him and Shane is like. Yeah I sort of assumed we would be, the press would notice if we didnātā
And Ilyaās like. No. No, not because you have to. Because you want to. Ilya wants to have the summer with Shane. Heās hoping Shane wants the same thing.
Like. Ilyaās at the point where heās convinced himself he can win Shaneās love for real. This doesnāt have to be fake forever. He Can Seduce His Own Boyfriend And Shane Hollander Will Love Him Truly. Boris He Must Try. Boris does not fucking care. Jesus Christ he cannot keep hearing about that manās freckles.
They have a little oasis of time after Ilyaās Stanley cup win where things are really getting better between them. Theyāre living together. Theyāre spending a lot of time together. Theyāre starting to really talk and form a deeper emotional connection.
But theyāre still hesitant to burden the other with their issues. They both are worried about ruining the moment theyāre sharing with the ugliness of their real problems. And theyāre both at this stage of their relationship where they feel like they need to make up for the fact that they forced them into this farce, so they arenāt unburdening themselves to each other. Their talks are sidestepping the real issues, and so those real issues turn into the bomb that goes bang. The report comes out, and Ilya finds out for the first time that Shane was in discernible danger when it hits the news.
He tries to get Shane to force a trade to the Raiders.
As far as Ilya is concerned, itās a perfect solution. Even if the Montreal public wonāt support a trade, the rest of the world will. Heās got a fuck ton of leverage to make this happen now that heās been Baby Jessicaād. The Raiders were only security threats to the extent that they constantly believed that there were Hot Singles In Their Area Who Wanted Their Hot Hot Hockey Player Bods. The report graded the risk to Ilya on the ice as minimalāThe Boston Raiders Had Their Fucking Boy. Theyād welcome Shane with open arms, Shane could keep playing, and Ilya would be there personally to make sure that if anyone tried shit against Shane then he could put them through the fucking ice and erect a tombstone right there on the rink as a warning to others.
And Shaneās like. Why the actual fuck would I ever do that.
The Metros ownership is working with him. He has a chance to fix this. Itās a gamble, heād have to find players that could actually play with him, and theyād have to be good enough to actually be worth a damn watching his back, but itās a gamble he wants to take.
To be clearāIlyaās not blind to the fact that this would be a hit to Shaneās career. Itās not that he wants him to lose his captaincy and his team. Itās that he doesnāt want Shane to fucking die trying to keep them. Shaneās career is secondary to his safety in Ilyaās mind. This is a solution that offers shane a way to keep playing with minimum risk. He does not want to gamble another year of danger. Force the fucking trade.
And Shaneās like. Do you have any fucking idea what everyone will say about me if I do that.
Heād just be the guy who couldnāt take it. He canāt handle the game on his own so he had to go hide behind his fucking boyfriend. He wouldnāt have his own career anymore. They play the same position so heād go from being Ilyaās rival to being on his second goddamn line. Heād lose career opportunities. Heād lose every ounce of respect he had in the league. And heād already lost enough as it is.
All heād ever be is Ilyaās fucking work wifeāto the public, the press, their colleagues. It would be the only thing anyone ever thought of him. Only thing they ever said to him. Couldnāt fucking cut it on his own, ruined his own team and the only one that would play with him was his boyfriends, now all heās good for is getting on his knees in the locker room and sucking Ilyaās fucking cockā
Iāve mentioned this in other posts, but the issues Shane has lingering from major junior hockey keeps asserting themselves in this narrative like Address Me. The idea that heās going to lose his career and reputation after everything he fucking paid to get through his junior hockey years is absolutely tormenting Shane. He feels like he has paid so fucking much to make his career what it was and now itās all falling apart after a few years. The fact that the metros owner is willing to work with him on a rebuild turned into Shaneās lifeline. Shane is not at all willing to consider giving that lifeline up. He is hanging on with both hands.
Ilya doesnāt understand that. He has no idea what the major junior hockey system is like or what Shane went through in there. Shane hasnāt told him. What he does understand is the fact that Shane is willing to risk his own life to play hockey, because Shane did that already in Sochi. The idea of it happening again is killing him. It turns into a massive blow out fight, and Shane ends up leaving early to go handle the fallout with Metros management alone. He tells the press that Ilya didnāt return to Canada with him because he needs to spend more time in the U.S. to meet residency requirements, but itās more that theyāre just not talking after that fight.
So Shane goes into this rebuild with this very desperate mindset. He feels like this is his last chance to keep his career. And the Metros ownership is dealing with the fall out of the entire world being worried that Baby Jessica Is Back In The Well. He gives Shane a lot of leeway in a desperate attempt to keep him, and Shane takes every inch that heās given. By the end of it, the owner makes it clear that the fans want Shane to be their captain. But they also want the team to win. Shane reads between the lines and understands that he really pushed the boundaries with this rebuild. Like. He asked for a fucking woman to be on the team. If this fails, he will burn through the publicās goodwill in record time. They will decide that Shane truly ran the team into the ground.
And thatās kind of the assumption that people walk into that season with. Everyone thinks that the metros rebuilt with multiple gays, an Asian American man who was languishing in the AHL, Rose Landryās brother(???), and a fucking woman is an overcorrection for the fallout from the olā āthe metros are the most likely ones to kill Shane Hollanderā bombshell. Look, we are so so not homophobic, we got a fuck ton of gays and ones even a woman now. And they assume off the bat that this team build is going to fucking suck. One is a fucking woman.
And itās frankly a very unfair assumption. Like. Their team build is sort of fucking epic. Their first line consists of three Olympians, a guy who just won the Stanley cup, and one of the top wings in the league. The guy who just won the Stanley cup is the weakest link there. They have so much talent and skill on this team.
But people act like they are not there because they are good. They are there because they check a box of a minority identity. And when their winning streak starts, a lot of their success is diminished as being due to their identities.
Itās like what happened with Jeremy Lin with Linsanity. People tried to detract from it, saying that the only reason why he was receiving so much hype was because he was Asian. But he was pulling off things that no other player in NBA history had.
The first wave of questions is all going to imply that this teamās composition is just one big stunt. Then when they start winning games, the hype around them is going to be dismissed as being because theyāre X identity. People are just supporting you because youāre a woman, because youāre gay, because youāre Asian, etc. Then the success continues and people want them to make these massive statements on discrimination and the odds against them as if they werenāt up against enough without having to directly call out systemic discrimination within the NHL too. They get the model minority questions. They are treated as if they are Representatives Of Their Identities As A Whole. They get every loaded question in the book and they are so fucking tired.
There is a scene where Shane is eventually going to snap during an interview and say that sexuality, gender, and race did not play any role in building this team. They took all of that out of it, actually. They hired based off of pure ability and ended up with the team of a lifetime. And if people want to say that theyāre all here as diversity hires, then they can try to fucking beat them for once, because as of right now, theyāre undefeated. Their record speaks for itself.
And heās going to be caught on camera smiling a lot more. Heās going to be laughing more. They go into this season with the understanding that they are going to play every single game of hockey like itās their last. But the feeling turns into something thatās so goddamn electric. They all love hockey so desperately. This season turns into a kind of love letter to the sport. It is the first time most of them have gotten to play at the professional level and not have to worry about bullshit from their teammates or hazing or whatever prices theyāve paid to exist in pro hockey. They are having so much fun together.
Shane is going to get a few games into this season and realize heās happier with hockey than he has ever been, and the public will notice that. He smiles and laughs so much more now. This season is freeing for him.
we only need to compare ilyas reaction to troy barrett being threatened by the nhl commissioner in role model vs shane being threatened WITH BOTH HIS AND ILYAS CAREERS by the commissioner in the long game. for troy? ilya is supportive and patient. for shane? ilya is actively irritated at shaneās anxiety because he thinks this might deter shane from coming out. his frankly unhinged lack of empathy for his boyfriend and partner reads like ilya got a lobotomy in between books
The difference is LEGITIMATELY INSANE.
Shane is supposed to be the love of his fucking life, and Ilya is angry at him when he tells him about what happened with Crowell. There is nothing but understanding and compassion for Troy, but Shane? Itās once again āwow my bitch boyfriend will never want to come out now.ā Every single time Shane gets hurt in that book, it somehow twists into how itās either convenient or inconvenient for Ilya. Shane gets threatened by Crowell? Inconvenient for Ilya, booo. Ilyaās mad at him. Shane gets rejected by his friends and teammates of a fucking decade? Convenient for Ilya, he is holding his breath with excitement, maybe his boyfriend will come to his loser fucking team the happy land of the gays to be his full time work wife. Like Jesus fucking Christ can we have one single moment where we give Ilya the credit of giving two shits about his partner instead of thinking about how Shaneās trauma is good or bad for Ilya? Itās exhausting
Thinking about the paranoia Shane and Ilya must go through in Russia (and after) specially after Shane gets literally attacked in the semifinals while the whole world is watching (Ilya included and thatās one reaction I canāt stop thinking about like did he briefly see blood and think Shane just got murdered????).
But like what else can happen? Russia infamously takes out people on the dl. What happens the next time one of them has like a stomach flu and they wonder whether theyāve been poisoned?? Does it ever occur to them they could get snipped on the streets even later?? How do you convince yourself Russia isnāt just going to orchestrate a convenient accident even months/years later when suspicion isnāt as high? (Like those officials Putin got tired off and all happened to slip and fall off their balconies).
With Ilyaās mental health family history, do they need to publish one of those ājust in case something happens to me let it be known that I am not suicidalā like those journalists did before exposing multimillionaires (and some still just happened to die soon after). How does Ilya explain that he isnāt suicidal with guilt over this. How does he stop thinking about Shane having a freak accident and drowning in the bathtub or getting ārandomly hate crimedā when they arenāt together during the season.
The paranoia.
But also
what if something does happen? Because how does Putin let them win and become an icon of his global defeat and humiliation?
There was a brief moment where everyone thought Shane got murdered.
On TV, the angle of the camera was bad. People saw Shaneās arm go up but they couldnāt tell if it made it up in time. And after the first kick, he sort of rolled onto his knees but kept his hand up to keep his neck protected from a second kick. But there was a lot of blood, it wasnāt clear if it was coming from his hand or his neck. A lot of people saw Shane Hollander clutching at his neck with blood dripping down on the ice below him and legitimately thought his throat got cut and Shane was holding in his own blood with his hand.
His parents saw that. Hayden saw that. The entire population of Montreal saw that.
Ilya saw that.
I think the attack on the ice fucks everyone up. Shaneās very jumpy after it in a āI probably need to see someone professionally about this but I was raised in an environment allergic to the idea of therapy so we shanāt process thatā kind of way. When he goes down on the ice after this, he has strong reactions to skates coming anywhere near him. He jerks away hard and fast in a way that ends with teenagers making sad girl edits of him, which just makes him try to suppress his flinch instinct. Like. Heās embarrassed that it affected him in a way that people can tell.
Fundamentally, the very first time Shane goes on the ice after being outed, someone tries to fucking kill him. There was a moment where he wasnāt sure if heād get his arm up in time. And like, if that skate had reached his neck, the Team Canada doctor would not fucking be able to treat that on site. He would have to be rushed to a hospital. In Russia. Where Putin himself was mad at him for sucking off his favorite hockey player.
Shane wouldnāt have made it out of Russia alive. He just wouldnāt have. He got very close to death during a game. It fucks him up after.
Ilya meanwhile has several minutes where he thinks he got Shane Hollander killed.
Ilya could not possibly be more fucked up about that moment where Shaneās attacked during the game. He watched that game and felt like he was finding his mom all over again. He wasnāt there. He watched the game go down from Canadaās headquarters on a shitty fucking TV. The second that skate hit, the entire room exploded with people who were frantically trying to figure out if Shane Hollander had just died on foreign soil and what the fuck they were supposed to do about it. And Ilya was just sitting there in the center of it feeling like the entire goddamn world was ending. He thought Shane was dying and that he got him killed.
Shane returning to the ice and winning the game was one of the most talked about moments of the Olympics, after. It was the grand moment of human resilience that inspired the world.
Ilya hates that Shane got back out there.
He had his heart in the throat the entire time.
I think he has recurring nightmares about it after. Shane, and all the blood. And this is not a problem thatās going to go away either. Itās going to linger.
I donāt think Ilya can even watch Shaneās games after this. He is so fucking wired with anxiety every time Shane is on the ice. He knows Russia is going to be out for blood still. He knows there are Russian players still on the ice. He is fucking scared.
To be clearāhe watches Shaneās games at first. He watches every one. He is so visibly fucking stressed the entire time that Iām contemplating that Cliff makes it through one game with him and forces an intervention. Cliff or one of the other boys is going to watch Shaneās games for Ilya and tell him immediately if Shane gets hurt during them. But Ilya like. Medically cannot keep doing this to himself. He is sitting there on a knifeās edge the entire time. Heās obviously got some stuff still fucking him up over it.
Ilya is constantly and pervasively aware of the fact that Russia may still go after them and especially after Shane. He doesnāt care about himself nearly as much as he cares about Shane. Hes going to be struggling with the perceived costs of saving him, and heās going to be struggling severely with the memory of the semi final match. He never again wants to feel what he felt during the moment when he thought Shane was dying.
Hes going to be hyper attuned to risks to Shane as a result. And heās especially going to be hyper attuned to the risks Shane faces on the ice. Because when it came down to it, Shane had someone try to kill him and he immediately got right back out there and opened himself right back up to another attempt. And Ilya does not want Shane to be some inspiring symbol of human resilience. He wants him to be alive. He is so, so scared that Shaneās going to die one day because he kissed him on a rooftop balcony when they were rookies. His reaction to Shane being in danger is going to be extreme.
I donāt think Ilya will be releasing any statements about not killing himself though, just because 1) I donāt think those work, like that one whistleblower did it and Boeing still killed him he still died of a tragic mysterious unexpected suicide right after Boeing attorneys asked him to stay in town longer than expected and 2) I think theyāre going to try to talk about Russia assassinating them as little as possible after this. Theyāre trying not to poke the bear. Russia will be suspected for anything that happens to them no matter what. I think theyād be more worried about antagonizing Russia further.
i harbor so many fantasies about fics that i'm not going to write where shane snaps and very seriously tells ilya that his response to their outing and shane losing so much respect in their field was so bad that if the situation had been even slightly different he would have considered leaving him. like the way things are he cannot do that because he's just blown up his life to be with this man who he really really does love, but this man also disrespects him and lets others disrespect him. they're supposed to be equals, they are supposed to love and respect each other, and none of that was there during the worst moments of shane's life. i think ilya should spend some time living in fear of shane walking out on him and should do some serious reflection on how he thinks about his partner. and then they work on their communication and are obnoxiously happy and in love, knowing that they both care enough to put the work in.
I would honestly prefer this over what happens in canon.
The thing is that I legitimately want Shane and Ilya to be in a healthy relationship. I want them to be happy and in love and supported by their partner. And that just isnāt happening with the end of the long game.
If I had a partner react to me being subjected to workplace discrimination that ended with my career being fucking totaled by cracking fucking jokes about it, I would serve him with divorce papers because thatās the only way I would be able to stop myself from shooting him with a fucking gun. Ilya is just frankly not a good partner in the long game. Shaneās talking about how he doesnāt deserve how heās being treated post-Trip and Ilyaās getting so fucking excited that heās holding his breath because it means he may get to have Shane on the Centaurs. His compassion for what Shane experiences is borderline nonexistent, and Iām guessing itās because the author herself has no sympathy for what Shaneās experiences. And thatās consistent throughout the book. Thereās a scene where Ilya is making fun at Shaneās diet in front of their friends while Shane tries to get him to stop. Like. There is a different from being teasing and being cruel. Ilya consistently makes fun of Shane around things that are genuine points of sensitivity. That is not teasing. That is cruel.
Do yāall know that John Mulaney bit where heās talking about how ridiculous it would be if he got up on stage and made jokes like āmy wife is a bitch and I donāt like herā? But thatās legitimately how some comics act?
Thatās how Ilya in the long game feels to me. Like. Does he even like Shane. Because almost every joke he makes is at Shaneās expense, and he is constantly telling Shane that he should talk less and putting him down.
Their relationship just feels so legitimately unhealthy by the end of the long game that I canāt stomach it. I want them to be in a healthy, supportive relationship where they actually appreciate and uplift one another. I am not going to call a book that ends with one partner laughing at the other for the devastating loss he just suffered a happy ending. Itās fucking ridiculous
So Role Model begins after Troy has gotten traded because his coach took Dallas Kent's side, and all I can think about is how that happened before the events of the book, isn't even part of the story itself, and the toll being traded abruptly takes on Troy is given so much attention and empathy immediately. Troy is allowed to feel rage and despair over what happened even past the day he's traded, whereas in tlg, though Shane is allowed to cry and feel "sick" and "furious" directly after his team accuses him of intentionally tripping, he's already planning his transfer with Ilya the next day, and is depicted so much less seriously:
This takes place the morning after. It's not even from Shane's pov. Everything about it is so casual. This happens on page 387, and we don't hear anything about it again after this conversation until 398, and it's this:
Here he's depicted as having essentially made peace with it. What's even more absurd to me, is that this all happened specifically because Shane tripped. Specifically because the character who believed he had to be perfect or his whole hockey career would implode, made a mistake, and he made a mistake because he couldn't, of course, be perfect. In what world would that result in Shane being "done with fighting the future, and with trying to be perfect." How could he skip from his worst nightmare coming true, the very nightmare that dictated his every behavior down to standing on balancing balls and refusing to eat a cookie on Christmas, to just accepting he can't be perfect?
But there's something else that's just even more offensive to me - So far, at no point in Role Model (which I am only five chapters into, to be fair) has Troy's loss ever been trivialized. In fact, what he has lost and the toll it has taken on him is repeatedly emphasized.
But when Shane is talking to Ilya about hypothetically transferring to Ottawa the morning after the fallout with the team he's been with since day 1, captained for the last decade, and won three cups with, she included this on page 388:
So first of all, there's Shane saying that he's going to "calm down" as if 1) he doesn't have the right to be however angry he supposedly is, and, more over, 2) as if he is in any way being depicted as something other than calm here? Both Shane and Ilya are talking in this scene like they're deciding what they want for dinner and not whether or not Shane is going to uproot his entire career to transfer to Ottawa and Reid had Shane say that he was going to "calm down." It's just so condescending to me.
But then, in the next paragraph, Ilya thinks that he doesn't want to get his hopes up because it would take "a lot more" than negative public reception to make Shane leave.
That on its own would be fine except for the fact that that's almost literally all it took to make Shane leave!
Because again, this isn't brought up again until 398 when Shane literally thinks the words "The media in Montreal had been vicious to Shane, and he didn't think he could ever feel good about representing that team again."
We don't even see any of what happens between when Shane and Ilya first talk about Shane transferring and Shane officially deciding to transfer. We don't see any further interaction with his team or his coach. We don't see JJ apologize to him. We don't see the media's response to him. We don't see Shane grieving, Shane expressing his rage - anything. We don't see fucking anything. As far as we know, Shane pretty much literally decided to leave the Voyageurs because they didn't apologize to him and because the media was vicious to him and "he didn't feel good about" representing them anymore. It is all treated like this inconvenient and unfortunate happenstance that has no further effect on him beyond having to make the difficult decision to stick to his principles and leave the team.
You know who else was treated viciously by the media? Troy. And can you guess what we get to see, and have repeatedly emphasized to us right away?
I mean it's not like I didn't know it was going to be like this but it's so glaring I just don't understand how anybody can read these books and come away thinking that Reid ever treated Shane with as much empathy as any of her white characters.
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"they dump their smartphones for razr flip phones because the online hate is so bad and just all hang around each other constantly" the shades of the child star crashout au in the sochi outing au.... exquisite
I love sneaking little nods to my other works into my fics. The fact that they all go onto razr flip phones specifically is a nod to the child star crashout summer au
The thing that stresses me out so much about AUs set earlier in the series is worrying about how much the things that happen would affect Shane's cup chances and therefore his character as Shane Mother fucking Hollander, so thank you thank you thank you
my only role in this fandom is to make sure Shane Hollander is always winning
Also, itās okay to never date anyone ever. Itās okay to never even try it if you donāt want to.Ā
I wrote a masterās thesis on intentionally single people, and the number of them that said in various ways,Ā āI didnāt know not dating people was even an option at firstā was absolutely tragic. They honestly thought they had no choice and it never occurred to them that opting out was even a possibility available to them. Ā
People honestly believe these are life experience you are required to have AND THEY ARE NOT.
You can just not have sex. You can just not date people. You can completely by-pass one or both of those things. Neither of those things are required to be healthy, happy, normal, mature, fulfilled, or any of the other bullshit notions that get attached to these things.Ā
Sex positivity is about bodily agency which includes the choice to NOT/NEVER have sex, so inclusion of asexual/celibate/sex repulsed people will always be a pillar of any real discussion of sex positivity and sexual freedom.
Iām sure youāre also thinking of your own names for our new beloved violent lesbian who joins the Metros in the Sochi Outing AU but I just wanted to let you know that she is absolutely living in my head rent free. Like maybe itās because I originally misread the post and thought her name was Manon but now I canāt imagine her as anything OTHER than a fellow Quebecois to JJ. Which means Iāve been googling āFrench girls namesā and scrolling through them all like āfriendship, love, incredible violence - which one of you means incredible violence!!! I need a name that portrays VICTORĆE, BABY!!!ā
I also ADORE that her nickname is āthe Amazonā, like in my mind there simply must be a picture of her circling the Internet with her helmet off and some blood dripping down her face as she roars victoriously at her teammates rushing her on the ice. This instantly spawns a thousand pieces of incredible fanart, it simply must be!!
If I can throw my hat in the ring for name suggestions, I have a few:
Diane - divine woman linked to the moon goddess (and also just makes me think of Wonder Woman, which I know would make Wyatt Hayes heart burst with excited nerd joy lol)
Laure - a crowned victor with a laurel wreath of honor (absolutely INCREDIBLE imagery honestly)
OMG, does our violent lesbian winger have Yunaās number?? And it could just be a coincidence, but turns out itās not?!
(I just love this AU more and more with every single post about it!)
See I love that idea but Iām weighing it against the idea that she was Number 24 and Shane has her number already. Heās wanted his mom to have her place on the ice since he was a little boy. I like the idea that he tried to bring a little piece of her on with him when he was drafted
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You are a legend and I love you. I check this blog every single day just to see what fire youāre spitting. Youāre such a BAMF and I hope to keep hearing from youā¤ļø
if weāre putting Ryan price on the dream team and itās not just ocs, then can boodram be on the dream team too? I think he deserves to be on a winning team and his grill mastery would come in clutch for team hangouts. Iām sure that he gets lots of comments about being ātoo physicalā so he gets to be on the second line with the ānot physical enoughā former ahl player and they prove people wrong together <3
I donāt think Bood is making the Montreal dream team, but thatās because I want him to be the captain that rebuilds the Centaurs.
I want him on a winning team too, but I want him to get to be the one to make that happen. I think heās working on his own historic rebuild in the background of the fic.
I think between the international attention on Shane from Sochi and the number of minorities that turn the fuck up for the Montreal dream team rebuild, the Metros primary owner just about adds a fucking zero to his net worth. Like it is such a sleeper hit of financial success, which is why he keeps green lighting Shane to do whatever the fuck he wants with the team. #lovewins #womendoitbetter. He does not fucking care. He is profiting so much off of this. Do whatever hashtags you want. He thinks heās gonna convince Obama to go golfing with him soon.
I think Ottawaās ownership takes a page out of the Metros book and sees if they can get some measure of financial return from this failing team by leaning into the Diversity Hire angle. You wantā¦ you want a woman? POC? Homosexuality??? And then I get money?? Okayā¦
But this means that they just end up with a load of highly qualified people who were getting locked out by stereotyping. The Centaurs start winning more and more under Boodās leadership.
I like the idea that Bood + Shane + Ilya become friends down the line. There are still hosts of people who act like they + Scott Hunter are the captains personally destroying hockey. I think they bond over it. And the Centaurs and the Metros dream team rebuild are geographically close enough to do group hangouts, with Bood killing it on the grill.
Right now this is what Iām thinking of for the metros dream team rebuild:
Shane, Hayden, & J.J. - all stay, captain and alternate captains
To Be Named Violent Lesbian - first line wing
Ryan Price - first line defenseman (has to be on the ice at the same time as Shane to protect him, Shane is Vibrating at the idea of having just a Fight Guy on the first fucking line and insisting on BARE MINIMUM fights. We have to work on your passing. Ironically has never been fighting less in his entire career despite the fact that he was only acquired to protect Shane. Currently the most eligible gay bachelor in Montreal. Has never been happier in his career)
Wyatt Hayes - goalie w/ Miitka, Drapeau gets traded to Toronto for him
To Be Named Asian American AHL player who was getting underestimated as not āphysicalā enough - second line center or defenseman, still deciding which
Peter Landry, the Landry brother who was named as an AHL player one (1) time in the tv show - second line wing, absolutely weeping with ecstasy at this opportunity. Was asked by the Metros scout if he thinks he could play with Shane Hollander and insisted that you could not stop him from taking a bullet for that man. He WILL DIE before he lets anything happen to that beautiful beautiful hockey player. His brothers are so fucking psyched that they are actively trying to immigrate to Canada so they can be there for every game. They have gone viral 97 times since the season started and they Will Go Viral 97 more times before it is over. Thereās a running joke that Rose will wear every jersey but her brotherās (she keeps wearing Shane + the violent lesbianās jersey to give her brother shit, will wear the Landry jersey when theyāre in the Stanley Cup Finals)
