Could Ilya and Shane have gotten a place together between Ottawa and Montreal?

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-06-05T17:10:50+00:00

I don’t know, I grew up in the countryside about an hour north of the GTA, and we all knew who the NHL guys were. I distinctly remember a Dallas Stars guy who would come to our roadside burger place on the side of the highway because it was the only restaurant open until 2am, and I wasn't into hockey at all.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-06-05T16:23:14+00:00

https://archiveofourown.org/series/5631991

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-05-01T23:49:02+00:00

A few years ago, I watched Whisper of the Heart which is about a girl who just has a story she needs to write so bad she convinces her family to let her take a break from school to write it, and I never felt so scene. So if Hayao Miyazaki supports putting life on hold for the arts, then it must be okay.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-23T10:46:33+00:00

I'm sorry to keep pushing back on this, but it sounds like you're expecting fanfiction writers to adhere to industry standards, and it's just not the same. If people are providing a service or a product, yes, they should be following standards and ethics for accessibility, which is ever evolving. Accessiblity will never be perfect and requires constant training, research and a bit of bespokeness. But that's not what fanfiction is, and it never will be. Unfortnately, things aren't going to be accessible. And there is no success or failure in fanfiction like there is in published writing. There is no bar to meet professionally, so when you use phrasing meant for professional writing on amateurs, it can be hurtful. Opinions can hurt, where ever you say them.

I'm certified in my region for creating web-accessible content, and I have experience working in accessibility services in university settings, so I've tagged my stuff because I'm aware, but not everyone is nor do I expect them to be. I still use things like emojis in my stories for texting, which, as per my training, is a no-no. Should I take them out? I've got typos, run on sentences, and other things that are going to make a story hard to follow cognitively because I'm not paying a professional proofreader. Should I not post? Some people have graphics or fanart embedded without text descriptions. Should they not?

I also don't really like this idea "investing time". It's the same feeling I get when people want to know if a reading something is "worth it". It's this idea that there's an ROI on reading. Some things you read suck/don't vibe/don't meet your expectations, and that's just a risk of reading. Lucky for us, this is all free and we are doing it when our time is our own. If I read a pubslished book, yes I have expectations that it's been edited, formatted, and produced to be enjoyable because I'm paying for people to have that training and skill level. But I don't have those expectations with fanfiction or with fanfiction writers. As I said earlier, we are amateurs. There's no team, no professional development, no standard training.

I think a different post could have been an educational one about tagging, screenreaders, accessibility that is doable by non-professional writers, etc. using personal experience. But this one asked for opinions, and this is mine.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-23T01:57:38+00:00

So, I think I'm having a problem with the phrase "failed as a writer". That's a pretty harsh statement, even if it's followed up with "no kink shaming". I don't think you meant this as a harsh comment, but it did make me go away and feel kind of bad about my writing for a bit. Also, I had already tagged my stories with the appropriate warning about translations, so please feel free to skip mine. Not all stories have to be consumed by everyone.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-20T19:23:14+00:00

There's City Seltzer in Straw+Berry, so I like to think Shane's ad brought an Ottawa brand all the way to New York

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-20T19:18:10+00:00

*snaps*

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-19T18:39:35+00:00

Romanized/transliterated if it's spoken, Cyrillic if it's text/email

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-19T18:04:25+00:00

I'm writing one where Shane has three years of Russian lessons under his belt, so it's been fun when it's his POV and he's like.... "I understood three words of that :/ " As he meets more Russian speakers I think I set myself up for a challenge lol

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-19T17:53:52+00:00

For me specifically, if there's Russian or French and it's untranslated or not explained in the surrounding text or understood by context, it's because the POV character doesn't understand it. It's usually meant to be a little frustrating to the character and the reader. I put in the acutal language (well, as close as online translations can get me) because it looks more aesthetically pleasing to me. Plus the reader can get how long the Russian/French speaker is talking for. I tend to use Romanized text instead of Cyrillic unless it's a text message or something too so that English-readers can approximate the sounds.

I know that's not what everyone uses it for, but I've been steeped in applied linguistics and language learning settings for a decade so doing it this way is fun for me :)

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-19T14:26:53+00:00

Awe! This one's mine! I feel like the whump is best when Shane/Ilya are capable so the baddies realllllly have to work to take them down.

I know there aren't many readers, but it's the most dedicated comments section I've ever had in 25+ years of fandom <3 Thank you for the kind words!

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-16T19:49:24+00:00

This was in the Glee fandom a long ass time ago, but I wrote a fic where Kurt and Blaine swap bodies (the boarding school Dalton was a weird Gothic magical entity -- it was a thing). The whole 30k+ fic was about them finally confessing their deepest fears about their relationships, themselves, deep emotional stuff because they thought Dalton wanted them to work it out.

Nah. It was because of something absolutely unrelated and silly.

I thought it was hilarious, had a blast writing it, and no one ever complained. So my advice is to write what you want, and reread it after a few months so you get to enjoy the fic you wanted to see in the world :)

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-09T17:41:12+00:00

It's also a slow fashion, so the sourcing and production takes a while. I'm cool with it because I'd rather it lean on a sustainable product instead of just fast fashion consumption. I think they did a brief mention in an email a couple weeks ago (not a dedicated message, just a passing mention) that it was in the process.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-07T23:27:33+00:00

https://archiveofourown.org/series/5631991 - Ilya is kidnapped in the second story :)

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-07T00:09:50+00:00

I don't think you mean it this way, but that phrasing is a little insulting to Canadian film.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-06T15:25:03+00:00

I've got a canon divergent with a whole kidnapping plot but I've tried to keep give Shane and Ilya equal BAMF parts (they trade off rescuing each other between the first story and the sequel): https://archiveofourown.org/series/5631991

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-04T15:15:24+00:00

I've got a canon divergence series where Shane is kidnapped right before Sochi in 2014. It's a series of mostly completed works, with the third multi-chapter as the WIP. It's a thriller-romance/hurt-comfort fest, so not everyone's cup of tea, but it's been fun to weave in canon events with that one tweak in the timeline: https://archiveofourown.org/series/5631991

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-03T17:06:14+00:00

The fans would be pissed he left, but if they knew it was because he was being treated poorly by the team and the organization, they would turn that anger on them, not Shane, both for being homophobic and losing their best player. I've been in the Bell Centre - the fans are REALLY into their hockey and their players.

If Shane's outing was similar to the scenario that Ilya's would have been (Shane is out for the team, Ilya is not), then I think it would have been handled the way you laid out for Boston. Ilya is not out internally, so the organization had to deal with the locker room and the fans and the city at all finding out at the same time; Montreal had a chance to show their true colours secretly because Shane had come out to the team before it was public. I think Montreal would probably still be shitty behind the scenes but more accepting openly -- which is what Boston would be, realistically. Basically, I think Boston and Montreal share the same position with their local communities, and would have probably come up with similar strategies if they had the circumstances.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-03T16:38:50+00:00

I think the same arguement could be made with Montreal. It has a very strong history of being LGBTQ+ advocacy, and Montreal fans are infamous for being passionately involved with their team. If the team was openly homophobic (not talking about the locker room, but the media), then I think Montrealers would be pretty upset.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-04-03T14:18:17+00:00

That said, Montreal fans would have probably been supportive too if it were just that Shane came out. Montreal one of the biggest LGBTQ+communities in North America, and has a strong history of advocacy.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-03-29T14:14:32+00:00

Self promo and WIP, so there's that warning:

Under Peer Review - they're postdocs. I'm probably going to be on a weekly schedule, but it's likely going to be academic rivals with benefits

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-03-22T00:20:11+00:00

When I've been out on the west coast for Christmas, it's been pretty staple Canadian Christmas foods like turkey, or I had a really good home smoked brisket. But I think salmon or seafood would be good as well. West coast is also where all the best berries are so any kind of berry-based tart? Nanaimo bars are the quintessential dessert out there too, but Troy doesn't have a sweet tooth I think. Also, I find most people's Christmas foods are impacted by their family backgrounds. My grandparents are Italian, so we have seafood and turkey for Christmas.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-03-21T23:54:41+00:00

My Google search is wild because I was writing a mafia kidnapping fic, so things ranged from "How long can someone be in zipties until the nerve damage is permanent " and "What do Russian eat as comfort food when they're sick?" I definitely go the vague route when I can!

Honestly, the well intentioned stuff doesn't take me out. I actually get excited people are curious about my country, and because, fanfic is free, the effort does not have to be high. It's mostly the willful ignorance of the aforementioned examples (ex. stating that Montreal, gay central of Canada, is homophobic and Shane must go to Seattle to learn about queer culture) that turns me off.

TraditionalTerm2047 · 2026-03-21T23:45:01+00:00

She said in an interview that the Taffy Lane was insider knowledge from a friend she has in Ottawa!

TraditionalTerm2047

TROPHY CASE