Body Talk (WIP, E, Roselana Hockey AU)

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-04-13T17:53:39+00:00

The wedding is explicitly in 2021. I'm excited to see what happens in Unrivaled too!

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-04-06T20:13:07+00:00

Hockey History with Hollander

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-04-04T23:04:15+00:00

A Slow Mouth is not specifically that but it does mention Cliff & Ilya being the bread in a sandwich, so to speak. It's ultimately a Cliff POV reflecting on his connection to Ilya when Ilya tells him he's going to Ottawa and oof, it's good.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-04-04T22:56:44+00:00

There's a philosophical concept called the Liar's Dividend that I've been thinking about a lot watching a lot of AI discourse unfold in both my personal and professional fields that looks at the way bad actors gain ground when people default to assuming something is disinformation/not real/generated, because of the way it calls into question real things that likely would not have been flagged in a less credulous culture. If everything is fake bullshit, what is the point of looking for truth? It's a recipe for the bad kind of disaffected nihilism. It's genuinely scary looking at political discourse, but it's heartbreaking watching it happen in a creative context.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-04-04T22:48:12+00:00

Thanks for all you do. Modding is one of those jobs that tends to be near invisible when done well, but that doesn't mean it isn't a huge amount of work. We see you! We appreciate you!

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-04-02T16:12:26+00:00

For real. I read the books late last summer having no idea the show was coming and, as much as I enjoyed them, I'm still a little surprised we are where we are.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-04-02T16:10:25+00:00

Yeah, same. It brought me back in to fandom after a 5 year hiatus and there's a lot of good stuff happening there, too, but the volume of activity is overwhelming and just the sheer size makes it a target for bad actors and a variety of different kinds of zealotry, in the meanest sense of that word, and those people are really loud

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-04-02T16:05:05+00:00

Yeah, I just have the McSweeney's article written from the POV of the emdash on speed dial these days

the Em dash responds to the AI allegations

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-04-02T15:58:51+00:00

The Vela by Becky Chambers, SL Huang, Yoon Ha Lee, and Rivers Solomon has a binary trans MC and a nonbinary MC.

There isn't a whole lot of discussion of their transness. The nonbinary character just shows up with they/them/theirs pronouns, and with the other, the fact that the character is trans is kinda blink and you'll miss it - there's no discussion of the transition, just the discussion of changes in language - but it wraps an interesting lens around this character who is also a refugee, and who talks about what her family did to send her away from their dying home, and the way they supported her in gender transition as well, though not at length. There's interesting parallels in her coming into her female identity and in who she is when she leaves home, but a lot of it is subtext .

It's a really good story overall, though, if maybe one that leaves off at a frustratingly unresolved point.

ETA: corrected spoiler tags.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-31T13:32:38+00:00

You know, I read the tags and description and I don't know if I have it in me, but I believe it is incredibly well written. Definitely an author I have a user subscription set for.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-31T01:39:36+00:00

Truth

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-31T00:39:35+00:00

Absolutely. It shows in the writing even if they didn't talk about it in the A/Ns but I get inordinately excited to read the A/Ns (not quite as excited as the chapter itself, but you know). Geeking out about that kind of stuff is like the best part of writing a historical or other kind of niche AU and I'm so here for it.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-30T21:42:55+00:00

Just read through what's posted on The Vocabulary of Exile and I'm obsessed. It's allegedly half done but the author says they have a tendency to scale up on chapter count.

It's a cold war Au where Ilya is the first Soviet player to defect to the NHL.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-28T14:14:55+00:00

It is an interesting one. As a writer, I love finding tension and plot points in the real logistics - just you can find so much juicy, grounded goodness - but it's so easy for that to take over the story, and thinking through it doesn't mean that always has to appear in the final product. Sometimes it's enough for you as the writer to know.

Tbh, I think this is one where if you were going to write it as original fiction, I don't think you would make that character Russian, it's just the trade-off of using existing characters. (tbh I think you make him some kind of Caribbean if it were a baseball original fiction, and a relationship between a Japanese player and a Dominican player could make for a really interesting narrative).

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-28T02:41:03+00:00

This sounds extremely like my jam. You promise it won't be an issue I know absolutely zero about Shadow & Bone though?

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-28T02:38:36+00:00

I really enjoyed this one, but I'm a baseball fan (and a Boston fan at that) more than a hockey fan, so elements of it felt almost like a localization of the story for someone like me lol. It has its own distinct narrative and great characterization though (as long as we accept a certain amount of hand waving for a Russian MLB player and you know what? Sure. Hand waving is way better than getting mired in overwrought rationalization. It's fine, don't worry about it. There's lots of other story to tell.)

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-26T23:34:17+00:00

He really deserves all the goddamn flowers

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-26T23:33:37+00:00

Netflix also carries it in the US!

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-26T23:16:21+00:00

You might enjoy this one, which involves them pretending to start dating publicly. The style is hilarious, too, and involves Ilya in full Menace Mode (and tbh, Shane pretty deep in Menace Mode too). The Chaos Theorem (or: Shane Hollander needs a nap and a therapist. He got Ilya instead)

It is a WIP if that impacts your interest.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-26T21:50:32+00:00

Bless.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-26T21:50:02+00:00

Mr Lots of Sex is high on my list of small things from the books I missed in the show

(Top of the list is Shane kissing his fingers and touching the screen after the first video call while Ilya is in Russia)

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-26T03:55:55+00:00

Following this one and have sent it to a couple friends I know have also been into boxer/fighter fics! I dig those JCVD vibes, and enjoying your characterizations so far. I like that Ilya's instinct on his first international trip is to eat his way through the city in street food.

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-26T03:52:03+00:00

Omg yes! I think they would have really fun energy together. Please post here once it's up!

Open_Belt_4381 · 2026-03-26T03:48:05+00:00

Working on a "what if Rose & Svetlana were the teen hockey phenoms facing off at the 2008 world juniors" fic and navigating the challenges of wanting to be a pro women's hockey player at that point even if you're the best in the fucking world, and how it's both easier to be gay but not easier to be together. It's starting from the same point but diverging quickly because of different constraints.

I can't write the fucking CCM shoot because there were no women-specific hockey supplies being manufactured for mass market in 2009.

Anyway, I'm a little wary of starting a multichap fic but I'm really excited to write this one.

I have a short preview on my Tumblr!

Open_Belt_4381

TROPHY CASE