you talking about the security threats Shane faces and how it's so normalized reminded me of one of my pet peeves about how this fandom reacts to Shane's sex condo
He is right that if Ilya were to come to his normal apartment he would get papped and they both would get caught and that they should instead meet up at a secondary location!!! He's hockey Jesus in Montreal! You think theres no one outside his apartment building waiting to get an "outfit of the day" on a slow news day? You think whoever they send to go hang out outside Shane Hollander's apartment isn't going to recognize Ilya fucking Rozanov his greatest rival? The likelihood of them getting caught goes up so much more when spending time together in any type of place Shane Hollander is known to spend time around, that's just what happens with high level celebrities and Shane Hollander in fuckign Montreal is a high level celebrity!
Hockey players just don't have that level of sheer instant recognition in the States, even in Boston, a hockey city, so not needing a secondary location there makes sense a bit. But in fucking Montreal??? Yeah, that's not Shane being adorabley paranoid about anyone overhearing, that's him being practical.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I really think so much of canon and fanon would benefit from the context that Shane plays for goddamn Montreal.
Shane very likely got dropped kicked into a much higher level of “local celebrity” type fame than Ilya did at the start of their careers. This has nothing to do with their promise as prospects or relative fame going into this—it’s pure location. Montreal is one of the most hockey-obsessed cities on the goddamn planet, and Shane Hollander was the trailblazing prospect who was being eyed to revitalize the entire team. Shane was probably getting recognized in 9/10 of his interactions in that city. Shane Hollander is fuck off famous in his city. And while Ilya himself is absolutely a major celebrity in his own right, his brand of hometown fame was probably much less invasive than Shane’s purely because I sincerely doubt there is a single city in North America that can compete with Montreal’s concentration of dedicated sports fans. It is purely about the kind of markets they got dropped into. Ilya found himself in a popular market with Boston but Shane found himself in what may be the hockey hub of the world.
Think of the scene where they first talk about it. Ilya says that they’ll fuck at Shane’s apartment like it’s no big deal. Shane is immediately so stressed out by the idea that Ilya is like “you’re having a panic attack. Calm down it’s just a plan to fuck.”
You can read that as “Shane is adorably paranoid about being overhead whereas Ilya is calmer.” Or you could read it as “Shane was signed by a team located in the city with one of the largest hockey markets on the planet and so Ilya’s approaching this from the perspective of who’s sometimes recognized in the club or the store as the next big thing in hockey but can for the most part still go about his day and Shane’s coming at it from the perspective of someone who hasn’t left his apartment without having his privacy violated since he was signed to the goddamn team so this reaction is pretty reasonable, actually.”
Ilya’s not tapped into fucking Montreal local news. At this point in canon, he’s played in Montreal maybe once. It’s probably as simple as a plan to fuck at Shane’s apartment for him. But for Shane, his own home is very likely not a safe option.
Shane probably laid in that all stars bed with Scott Hunter a wall over having a panic attack about the idea of them fucking in his actual apartment because he was thinking about the number of times he’d already been pap’d trying to go into his own goddamn complex. People probably wait in locations he’s known to frequent hoping to catch a glimpse of him. If they get a sight of Ilya Rozanov showing up to fucking Shane Hollander’s apartment complex, people are going to talk.
In light of that, the sex condo is one of Shane’s more reasonable safety measures. He created an option where he controlled access to the entrances and exits. He could skulk in there in a hoodie with his head down once in a blue moon and have no one else ever associate that building with Shane Hollander. He was an incredibly famous teenager in the hub of his fame who was trying to minimize risk that was born of a crushing amount of scrutiny focused directly on him. It was a smart decision. He shouldn’t get shit for it.
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