#onlythebravest

(ask game)

9. Do you like hockey irl? Do you have a favorite team? Have you ever been to a game?

A no on all counts I'm afraid 🙈 I've been meaning to actually at least watch a game since I got into hr lmao but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

10. Have you ever ice skated, roller skated or played hockey?

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

so there’s like… a ton, but since i’m supposed to talk about one per question, i’ll focus on the one i’ve been thinking about lately. so, i feel like it’s pretty much unquestioned fanon that grigori hit ilya. i’ve seen maybe a couple of fics where it’s not the case, but mostly, people write ilya as having ptsd from physical abuse. and while i think it’s not out of the realm of possibility, some take it to the extreme, writing grigori straight up beating him half-unconscious. i personally think it’s wrong. for multiple reasons.

first of all, we know that grigori was very concerned with ilya’s hockey success. he wouldn’t do something that would hinder that, like giving ilya injuries that would realistically take him out of training for a while. he would also blame ilya for any injuries he could sustain by himself, like if he broke his hand in a biking accident, for example, but that’s another topic.

secondly, there’s this specific brand of an emotionally abusive (military) russian father that grigori encapsulates perfectly. one thing we know about ilya is that he has this deep-seated shame that grigori instilled in him and encouraged throughout his childhood. the whole lazy thing is the prime example of that. putting him down, being emotionally distant and cold; i don’t think ilya has ever heard any type of praise from his father. and it’s much more realistic to me than straight up physical abuse.

now i’m not saying these two can’t go hand in hand. but the most i personally see is an occasional slap, if even that. i also think it’s much more compelling for ilya’s character, because this type of abuse — silent, subtle and constant — is much harder to pin down and much easier to internalize. which is what we see with ilya throughout the show/books.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

yep, hayden love would easily fit here, but since i’ve talked about it extensively already, i’ll mention something else (which i’ve also talked about before, but less). early retired wag ilya. i genuinely don’t understand the appeal, and why this particular hc has become so insanely popular. the whole point of shane and ilya’s dynamic is that they’re the only two players who match each other on the ice, the only two players who are real competition to each other, who can push each other to be better, perform better, etc. ilya retiring early to become shane’s wag completely removes that. i just don’t see the appeal in that, and i strongly believe that this would never ever happen. neither ilya nor shane would find any kind of enjoyment in it.

1. brazilian gp 2024 (self-explanotory but also because i wasn't an f1 fan when ad21 happened)

2. abu dhabi 2021 (the fact that they believed til the very end and their beliefs were rewarded)

3. mexican gp 2024 (god, what he did there was absolutely calculated and cynical and i love that for him. he knew what he has to do to win that wdc and he did it)

4. japanese quali 2025 ("only he can do it" – fernando alonso)

thank you, Julia!!

28. Favorite work you wrote this year?

This is a tough one!! But I think I have to go with Suddenly Last Summer. It was just so much fun to research and write, and it turned out exactly how I wanted it to. It was very different for me, and I just felt free writing it, if that makes sense.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

This is tough too, but I'm going to go with some banter between Harry and Chris Pine in too into you, because I just love the voices and the dynamic:

“So we’ve established that I’ve been pining after you for literal years and you’ve… what? Noticed me?”

“Oh, I’ve more than noticed you, handsome. This is years in the making, you and me.”  

Harry’s heart flutters at ‘you and me,’ but he bravely forges on. “Why today?” he asks with a practiced coy smile (practiced for this very occasion, in fact). “If it’s been so long in the making.”

“I can only watch you flirt with so many other men before I snap. I don’t know why today, but Ian was my last straw.”

“You know Ian?”

“I see him and his husband at brunch at the restaurant here all the time. You do know he’s married?”

Harry rolls his eyes. “Of course I do. And they’re not open.”

“Oh my God,” Chris says, rubbing a hand over his face. “Did you ask?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” 

“Not really.” Chris shrugs. “What about you? What would you like to know? About me? I’m not married.”

“Thank God,” Harry laughs (the sexy deep kind, not the embarrassing strangled kind). “Let’s start off easy. What did you do today? After the bookstore? That’s nice, standard first date stuff, yeah?”

Chris raises a thick brow at the word ‘first,’ but instead of calling Harry on it, he just smiles and says, “I met with my writing class.”

“You teach a writing class?” Harry’s interest is officially piqued. He hadn’t pegged his regular as a professor, but he can see it. He feels bad for his students, having to try and concentrate on lectures when the professor is so goddamn sexy. He’d never make it out alive.

“No, no,” Chris says, flapping a hand vaguely as if to wave away the misconception. “I take a writing class.”

this is one that i actually remember the context for once but i think it'd be more fun to watch people try to guess what the context is hehe

Julia!!! <3 Ok so, I don't know if this will be disappointing or not, but it's basically a vague Louis-centric canon-compliantish exes to lovers thing that I am using to pour all my conflicting feelings about this place that I've had since end 2013 basically.

Excerpt, cw for drug ment:

He’s got money, he’s got more freedom that a nine to six job would give him, he doesn’t really need dreams. He's got a mum that succumbed to cancer and a sister that succumbed to money, and a hole where Harry used to be. He’s got dreams crushed so much that they became finely milled like the powders he snorts when he parties. He’s got a jaded exterior to help protect him from the shit world he’s in. He doesn’t like to think about the future anymore.

thank you 🫶🏻

32: you spend the most money on this: Louis (shocker, 15 concerts dont pay for themselves aldjdk)

34: sum up your 2022 in 6 pics:

26: Would you rather write a fic that had no dialogue or was only dialogue?

oh boy, definitely no dialogue, LOL. i have a very good fic-writing buddy from a long time ago who she and i used to joke that i could write a story where no one ever spoke and she could write a story where no one ever saw anything, lol. her characters would be sitting in dark elevator having deep meaningful exchanges, where mine would only ever interact with gestures and longing eye contact. i like to think i’m better at writing dialogue now than i was back then, but yeah, if i had to pick, i’d lose the chatter.

28. Does anyone read your fics before you post them? If so, who?