Bean🥳

watching the clock and SWEATING because he doesn't have rozanov's number atp obviously so he can't text "HEY MY MOM IS HERE. CANCEL IT. CANCEL IT ALL. DO NOT COME UP HERE.", but yuna can read that Something is up with shane, so she's even less likely to want to leave him, so she's actually stretching this out LONGER trying to figure out if shane is just really nervous about this new brand or something and honey, did someone say something today? do i need to kill someone?

and shane is pulling out EVERY ounce of deception he has never consciously had to use on his mom before to just get her OUT. he doesn't even have time to fuck around with his outfit because he needs her to GO. in a moment of ABSOLUTE fucking desperation he says he feels sick and retreats to the bathroom and pours some water in the toilet so it sounds like he's puking, but he WAY overshot this one because now no WAY is she leaving.

which means ilya still knocks on the door.

and it's YUNA who answers.

ilya's whole body takes a screenshot.

and shane in the bathroom atp heard the door open, so he almost hits himself in the face with the bathroom door trying to get out and do...

what, exactly?

so they're now in this WILD three way standoff, and yuna is being polite about it but is clearly 'what the FUCK are you doing here?' and shane genuinely for a moment thinks his mom is about to find out that he was not only about to have sex, but he was about to have GAY SEX.

nope.

"sorry, i forgot i asked if he wanted to come up later and watch the game"

"what game is on tonight?"

*shane aol dial-up noises*

ilya jumping in because oops guess this is a group project now, taking a WILD swing in the dark based on something that was on a tv in a bar he snuck into a couple of weeks ago: "uh, cars. car racing."

"you two are going to watch...nascar?"

ilya, has never heard the word nascar in his life: "yes. sounds very interesting. i love...nascars."

yuna ends up leaving the room so they can...watch?? nascar???....but also shane has never been less turned on in his fucking LIFE.

they actually do end up talking because now shane is paranoid his mom is going to be in the hall watching and waiting to catch him in a lie, and the more nervous he gets about it, the more lowkey ilya is worrying about it, too, so they do actually end up spending a chunk of time together.

but now shane is trapped in pretending to like nascar because his mom asked how watching it with rozanov was, and he's like, "...really fun! yeah, it was exciting. they, um, they go really fast."

now shane who doesn't give a FUCK about cars beyond Thing That Takes Me Places is stuck in summer watching fucking nascar with his mom. and david clocks that shane isn't into it, but he figures that maybe yuna? has found an interest in it after the topic came up? so shane is bonding with her over that? aw, how sweet.

yuna teasing him about danica patrick being too old for him so don't get any ideas, and shane is just How Did This Happen To Me.

poor guy just wanted to explore gay sex and now he's doing a photo op in jimmie johnson's car???

the idea of shane being SO fucking annoyed that he has to go to this shit only to get there and learn that instead of a swedish princess, he gets to hang out with very strong men who move heavy car parts around for a living who are EXTREMELY competent and good at what they do

the high of getting to be around very fast cars and the low of knowing that shane is going to get to say hi to a handsome and very strong and capable man he has slept with before

his name is darren, and it is a modern miracle that he is alive when ilya is so constantly killing him with his mind.

the worst part? HE'S A GENUINELY GOOD GUY.

he's so friendly and warm and makes shane laugh and is polite and yes ma'am and no sir, AND he's hot? and good at what he does? he is proficiently doing pit tire changes fast as a motherfucker and showing off how good he is at his job RIGHT IN FRONT OF ILYA'S SHANE???

happy in his blankeyy

despite their respective orientations and genders generally being acknowledged, they're often treated as what is most convenient or acceptable. that is, treated the same as alloromantic and allosexual or binary gendered characters.

aro characters are being shipped as though they are alloromantic. ace characters are portrayed in sexual relationships as if they are allosexual. how often do you see people portraying these characters' orientations beyond the surface level?

nonbinary characters are referred to with gendered terms based on whoever they're being shipped with. with a woman? they're called "yuri", "sapphic", etc. with a man? it's "yaoi", "mlm", etc. how often do you see people using nonbinary-focused terminology for these pairings? why is the binary-gendered partner a priority in most cases?

when the problem is brought up, the "rebuttals" are the same: "aros/aces can still date/have sex!", "some nonbinary people identify with [lesbian, wlw, sapphic, yuri]/[gay, mlm, achellian, yaoi]!". neither of of these address the issue that this is what fandoms with these characters default to.

Grace is not a robot. Grace is not a child. Grace is not the youngest of a group. Grace is not naive and innocent.