paperowl

Book #3 (1956): Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein

Where I read it: archive.org

Basic Info:

Okay this one is fun! Say goodbye to telepathy!

We open on a down-on-his-luck actor who sees a spaceman (astronaut basically) walk into a bar. They get to chatting and the guy ends up inviting our actor to his hotel room for a job. The spaceman is loathe to share details, but the basics of the job are that our actor is to be a double for some prominent figure. It takes some convincing, but our actor agrees to the job. Then a Martian walks into the hotel room, there are multiple dead bodies to deal with, and our actor ends up stuck in a spaceship headed for Mars being forced to complete this job he really doesn't want.

This novel was serialized and published as a novel in 1956.

What I Liked:

- We're free (temporarily) from telepathy and explorations of the human psyche! There is of course value in explorations of the human psyche, but I'm glad we switched it up. This plot was so fun.

- Breaking news, I like the main character! He's got personality (notable because our last MC didn't), and in a fun way. There were a couple lines of inner dialogue that distinctly reminded me of Andy Weir (aka: guy in a situation where the only way out is through, and through sucks) but the humor was overall more subtle than Weir.

- Speaking of humor, we had some fun. Honestly the plot is like a mix between the disney movie Never a Dull Moment (Dick Van Dyke's character is an actor playing a mobster, but gets mistaken for an assassin by an actual mobster who needs him to do a job and shenanigans ensue) and the second half of The Last Contract of Isako. This is, I admit, kind of a wild comp, but just trust me.

Women:

- There is one female character, Penny, and she is the most helpful secretary in the world whose main character trait is that she's in love with her boss and struggles with our actor being his double. She gets married at the end and also there's one of those 'yay we did it' moments where the main character grabs her and kisses her. He says she doesn't seem to mind but boy am I not stoked about the 50s, kinda feels like guys were just grabbing and kissing women left and right. This was, however, better than the previous two novels.

What I Didn't Like:

- There were a few loose threads (notably, the Martian who appears in the hotel room is part of a group who we must flee from immediately for fear of being murdered, and then they're never an issue or even mentioned again) but honestly, I think I'm just used to sci-fi books being longer and have to get used to these really quick little ones. I can assume what happened, I don't need it spelled out.

- The ending felt a little abrupt, but again, I think that might be me not being used to the sci-fi of the era.

Other Notes:

- I think this is the first book I would solidly rec. It was a fast, easy read, I had fun with the plot, and had no major gripes.

- This book is the first first-person POV Hugo winner!

- Excellent news for future Hugo reading that I enjoyed this book, Heinlein has 3 more Hugo winners. (Plus 2 retro-hugos)

- I don't star rank, I'm not sure I'll even be able to put books in exact order of best to worst, but I can tier rank: Double Star was for sure better than the previous two winners. How the other two compare to each other... I still don't know.

Back again so soon because these books are short!

Book #2 (1955): They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley

Where I read it: archive.org

Basic Info:

This is a more grounded sci-fi where everything is mostly normal (we're in San Francisco), but there's an artificial brain (AI) that could potentially cure health problems through psychotherapy! Also there's telepathy again. And also it's about the human psyche again. I think I'm sensing a theme.

They'd rather be right was published in 4 parts in 1954 and released as a novel in 1957.

Things I Liked:

- Super interesting to read a story about AI that wasn't concerned with it taking over the world. It wasn't evil or benevolent or really full of personality tbh, it was just a machine with facts. The final takeaway is that it's just a tool for people to use as they wish, which is in contrast to most AI-based stories.

Things I Didn't Like:

- The plot was very straightforward. It was nice after the messier plot of The Demolished Man, but also meant that a lot of really interesting plot directions were passed over. Joe (our MC) wants Bossy (the AI) to exist and helped create her for purely selfish reasons, but we never really dig into the consequences of that, despite the fact that he's a clear authority in how Bossy is used. Characters who undergo treatment from Bossy are fundamentally different people, but because they're enlightened/cured of ailments it's just kind of glossed over. Opinion control is introduced as a thing that exists and then... do we defeat it? are there consequences? or does it stay? Genuinely couldn't tell you. I don't think this necessarily means the book is bad, but given that this is a Hugo winner I think I expected a little more from it.

- Gonna be honest I was a little bored. I don't know if it was the slower pacing, or the lack of novelty in the world, but it just didn't hook me like The Demolished Man.

- Starting to think I need an extra section for women. Better than The Demolished Man but the only female character starts with a little potential and ends up being mostly a pretty face/love interest. Not quite sexy lamp territory, but close.

- Actually, thinking about sexy lamps, many side characters could be described as such. Our MC Joe kind of runs the show and everybody else just goes along with it. Probably another part of why I was bored. You can see what's coming from a mile away and every choice is pretty easy to follow through on because there's minimal opposition to Joe's decisions, especially in the second half.

Other Notes:

The AI's name is Bossy. This is a nickname for a cow apparently, but get used to reading it!

Placement compared to other Hugo winners is TBD (Ancillary Justice was also better than this one).

Apparently this is widely considered to be the worst Hugo winner. If this is the worst I'm in for a grand time, because it really wasn't that bad! It was meh, but not terrible or too much of a slog (though if it was 250+ pages I think I'd change my tune), it just left a lot unexplored.

I've decided to read all the Hugo best novel winners (though I am as-yet undecided on Retro-Hugos and winners from the middle of a series), basically just because. We'll see how long I stick with it, but right now I'm going chronological and my goal is to review each book in some fashion.

Book #1 (1953): The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

Where I read it: archive.org

Basic Info:

The Demolished Man is a sci-fi mystery set in 2301 NYC. It's an inverted detective story where we follow the murderer during the planning and execution of the murder, and then jump between the murderer and the detective in a race to find/destroy evidence. Key to this plot is that murder is basically impossible because there's a subsection of society who are telepathic and can read everyone's minds.

The Demolished Man was initially published in 3 parts (1952) before being published as a full novel (1953).

Things I liked:

- It was short! Depending on the edition it's somewhere between 180 and 250 pages.

- It was easy to start and compelling enough to keep reading. The prose was well-done and the plot generally pretty tight. I was never bored.

- Exploration of the world was minimal, which made even small little tidbits super interesting to mull over (explosive guns are antiques of a bygone era but there are still phone booths? some people have symbols in their names (S&erson)?). I think in other circumstances this would have been annoying, but the plot was so heavily focused on the murder and investigation that it was just kinda fun to observe.

-The world itself was conceptually interesting, and it was a fun setting for a detective story

Things I didn't like:

- The pacing was breakneck at times. This was positive because it was easy to read, but it also felt like it would have been worth spending more time on certain plot points. The investigation felt like a montage, and I would be super interested in learning more about the ESP side of things, so many interesting ideas were introduced that would be fun to explore.

- Unsurprising given the publishing year, but the female characters and their treatment left much to be desired. Female characters felt pretty one-dimensional (though some male characters had this issue too) and the two most prominent female characters had promise in concept and then the execution was just romance? And like almost-incest (father-daughter) but not actually? There was a (very brief) assault scene that was wholly unnecessary, and male characters just kissed women with no warning multiple times.

- The conclusion was umm. Something. It was Not where I expected it to go and was pretty chaotic and confusing until the final chapter. I expect I'll run into this quite a bit with earlier Hugo winners, but the sci-fi was for sure just a vehicle to explore the psyche of man. And not subtly. Oedipus complex is a somewhat correct descriptor here, and I was not a fan of the execution (I'm anti-Freud in general though, that man was just Saying Things).

Other Notes:

The telepathic folks are colloquially referred to as peepers, and "peep me" means read my mind. It adds fun flavor in the middle of high-stakes action sequences and heated conversations (by this I mean that it's silly).

Despite my criticisms I enjoyed the reading experience. Where I place it as compared to other Hugo winners is TBD because I haven't read many (though I can say Ancillary Justice was better). I'm not sure I would read it again, but I also don't know that I would dissuade others from trying it.

Binaries
ficlet - 691 words
ilya character study, grigori rozanov & how not to be a father

According to his father, the world is made up of binaries. Ilya is good at hockey (except for when he’s not), worthy of parading in front of friends and colleagues, bragging about the skill and discipline he inherited from his father. Alexei is not. Alexei is good at following the rules; he behaves, he listens, he shows respect (he sneaks and hides and lies). Ilya is not.

Ilya wins or he does not. There is no almost, there are no bad days, the team does not matter. At the beginning of his first MLH season, after his first few media appearances, his father calls him; because Ilya wins or he does not, what is this? ‘The team needs to click’, ‘it was a close game’, ‘we were in a rough patch’. Unacceptable. But the team wants what the team wants, and soon enough his father no longer bothers to watch most of his games. Ilya is not winning. Ilya is not good at hockey.

Ilya remains bad at hockey when he loses at the Olympics. His father doesn’t comment on his Cup win. Either he remains bad at hockey—he failed Russia on the world stage—or his father is too far gone to pay much attention. There should be a grey area in there somewhere, Ilya thinks, but his father never sees it. Never will see it probably, with his mind falling apart the way it has been.

Ilya lives in the grey area, in between the black and white. But even after his father dies he catches himself thinking in binaries and yesses or nos. Years with his father are hard to unlearn, even the parts that make no sense.

Irina was alive or she was not. But Ilya watched as she became a living corpse, unable to get out of bed, unable to smile. And then one day, Irina was dead. (How she died was an accident, no other option). Ilya was still alive, but in the days immediately after he wondered if this was what she felt like, right before the end. And he wondered how alive he really was.

Ilya wonders this more often than he would care to admit.

Hollander hates him or he does not. He wonders about this more often than he would care to admit too. Ilya is pissy and rude, then Hollander is pissy and rude, and it just goes back and forth. By the time Hollander morphs into Shane and Ilya says ‘I love you’ down the phone in Russian, Ilya thinks he should be able to stop wondering.

But it follows him. The stretches between grow longer, but it’s still there, lodged in the back of his mind. It follows him to Ottawa, to his big, empty house where the nights feel dark and gray and never-ending and he becomes desperate enough to see a therapist about it.

They are out or they are not. In that, Ilya feels, the grey area is meaningless. Either they can hold hands wherever they want, or they can’t. Either they can go on dates in public or they can’t. Either they can say they love each other or they can’t. Shane thinks the grey area is comfortable, but for once, Ilya is suffocated by it.

Shane doesn’t hate him, but Ilya wonders if they can make this thing work after all. If he’s feeling more like his mother, and he can’t just enjoy the one thing that makes him the happiest.

The plane crashes or it does not. Except it almost crashes, there in the grey area where Ilya lives, but it doesn’t. It ends with an engagement somehow (Ilya’s therapist raises an eyebrow at this) and the promise to come out ‘soon’. Shane swears he means soon, but Ilya wonders, longsufferingly, if he just means before retirement.

They never do get to find that one out.

Anyway, the therapist does help, eventually. And with a husband in his house, and his brain exercises, and a dog, he finds the binaries are easier to ignore. Except of course, which one of them is the better hockey player. That one never gets old.

Author: Paperowl¹

¹ Author has written for Marvel, 911, and Heated Rivalry.

Introduction

You know the google doc that has AI proof? Yes, the one that was released literally yesterday (Anon, 2026). I have beef with it and I am currently unemployed, bored, and possess the academic experience to redo it with (slightly more) rigor.

Major Issues I Have with the Paper:

- It did not verify the Claude HTML artifact and only referenced Linkedin posts. If you're gonna base an entire paper on this artifact, maybe double-check it?

Sub-issue: we have zero detail about this artifact. How long has Claude been producing it? What removes the artifact? Does this artifact appear in languages other than English? Is there any possible way to get this artifact without using Claude?

- Methods?

"After filtering the “Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types” tag, as well as other popular fandom tags (such as “Off Campus,” “The Pitt,” “Stranger Things (TV 2016)” and “Pluribus (2025)”) by either Word Count or by Most Recent"

So... which one is it? Word Count or Most Recent? Both? Why wasn't it consistent between all fandoms? Later in the paper it only says Word Count was used - why is Most Recent mentioned here? Typo? Why did we choose those two methods of sorting? My statistician brain assumes it's because those are probably the closest you get to randomization with Ao3's given sorting methods, but I want the authors to tell me that. At minimum where's my consistency.

"we viewed the source code for every fic on each tag’s first page."

That's 20 fics from each of these fandoms. It's a start, but it's small. Ideally you'd want minimum 50-100 fics as your sample size if you want results to be roughly representative (Central Limit Theorem, friends!).

"We then focused on the Heated Rivalry tag, expanding the search to almost every work over 1000 kudos and rumoured AI-assisted fics."

There are roughly 9,500 Heated Rivalry (HR) fics with more than 1,000 kudos, which is about a quarter of the total HR fics. That's not a bad sample size at all. The majority of fics identified in the appendix have more than 1000 kudos so we know they probably spent a lot of their time here. There is potential bias in the sorting method (kudos indicates popularity of a fic/perceived quality of a work; this may increase/decrease the presence of AI fics compared to a random sample). It's not a huge issue, but it should be noted.

Number of Fics in Paper Appendix by Kudos
Kudos	Number of Fics
1000+	26
999-700	2
700-450	5*
150 or less	3
None	1

*One of these fics was written by an author with another fic in the Appendix that has over 1000 kudos

Great, that's a fine sample with fine parameters, we're done! But hang on, why are there fics in the appendix with 53, 70, and 119 kudos? Where did they come from? Hey Lynn, you say, these are the rumored AI fics. But rumored by who? Where did the rumors come from? There are more than 16,000 Heated Rivalry fics with less than 150 kudos - how were these three fics singled out? And, wait a second. There are 37 fics in the appendix. Nine have less than 1000 kudos (a quarter!). One has no kudos because it's not currently public (reminder: this paper was about untagged AI use and encourages proper tagging. This fic is not public and hasn't been since mid-march, if memory serves, so how does proper tagging apply here).

If the goal of your paper is to encourage transparency and you are anti-harassment (as this author claims to be) you need to be crystal clear about the sources for these rumored AI fics with less than 1000 kudos. Did you suspect AI use? Did your friend? Did your group chat? Maybe you saw a post on the timeline (which social media platform?). But where did you find these fics? This is a quarter of your list, it's not something you can just gloss over.

- Have you noticed what's missing yet?

Remember when I mentioned verifying the Claude HTML artifact? Remember that this paper is about transparency in tagging because Ao3 has tags for this? We should be using those Ao3 tags to our advantage here - we can select a sample of only AI generated fics and see how often this Claude HTML artifact shows up. For whatever reason this was not done in Anon (2026).

- The focus of this paper was on Heated Rivalry only. Given the large sample size I get focusing on just one fandom. But the way it's presented is not my favorite.

Other fandoms were searched very lightly to find examples from other fandoms that demonstrate the Heated Rivalry AO3 tag is not the only fandom tag where the fragment of code exists. But these code fragments are equally unverified! This is where you should present works that are tagged as using AI. Not only does that help show the code fragments are related to AI use, but you'll also get fics from a variety of fandoms. Two birds, one stone.

We dragged a bunch of other fandoms into this paper to make a point, but what point? We barely looked at them. Plus, the title of the paper is "Fandom has a Hidden Generative AI Problem" which implies multiple fandoms, not just one. So, let's look at multiple fandoms.

There are other minor things to note, the paper really doesn't mention frequency of the Claude HTML artifact (some results had it twice, others had it hundreds of times) or give insight into how each author used Claude (was it for prose, code, or both?). Technically these are second study questions, meant for once you've established the presence of the HTML artifact and have demonstrated its prevalence in fandom. However, by mentioning specific fics by name and including the number of HTML artifact instances, the paper has made me more curious about answering these questions than I would be otherwise.

Overall, the methodology here is shaky. The authors did not verify Claude produces this artifact, they did not search for the artifact in works tagged as using AI, they did not clearly describe their methods, they made exceptions for fics outside of their perfectly appropriate sample size without explanation, even including a fic which hasn't been publicly available for months.

In an attempt to address some of these issues, here's the rest of my paper.

Methods

2.1 - Claude HTML Artifact & AI Tagging

I know I harped on about digging into the Claude HTML artifact, but I didn't do that. If this was a real paper I would, but to be so real I am not falling into an AI research hole for someone else. Now, luckily for us, someone else got curious and posted a test fic generated by Claude! So it's like, half verified.

To identify the Claude artifact a modified version of the site skin provided by Anon (2026) was used. The site skin turns the screen red when the 'font-claude-response-body' HTML is found anywhere in the work (all fics were opened to the entire work). Presence of the artifact was verified by searching for 'claude' in the page html using inspect element. Additionally, to easily verify the presence/absence of AI-related tags, the site skin also highlighted tags with the following words (included partial words, non-case sensitive (aside from AI)): "AI", "Claude", "Grok", "Gemini", "GPT", "GBT".

2.2 - Search Criteria

For consistency the same search criteria were used for each fandom/tag. Works had to be written in English (my convenience, plus lack of info on non-english Claude HTML) and posted between October 9, 2025 (Heated Rivalry trailer release date; Claude surged in popularity early 2026) and June 30, 2026. For each fandom the search results were sorted by kudos, and the top 100 fics examined for the Claude HTML and AI-related tags.

[Note: would love to have done more fics per fandom, but I'm only one person with limited time and also ao3 flagged me as a bot at the end of my hunt lol. As for why I sorted by kudos, that's how the Heated Rivalry sample from the original paper was determined. Ideally I'd look at fics from a random sample, which would probably be determined by selecting fics (i.e. the first on each page) from different kudos/word count/date segments - like 100 fics from those with 200-300 kudos, and 100 fics from those with less than 50 kudos, and 100 fics from those with 1234-1570 kudos, etc.]

2.3 - Fandoms/Tags

Verification of the Claude artifact was done on works (any fandom) tagged as 'Created Using Generative AI' (the most commonly used AI tag on Ao3) that explicitly mentioned Claude.

[Why didn't I also look at all fics tagged with 'Created Using Generative AI' regardless of Claude mention? Well, there were more than 3,000 posted during the search period, and given results on fics with a Claude mention if felt like the work to review some/all of them wouldn't give much additional insight. To be thorough, this should be done at some point though.]

Aside from Heated Rivalry, eight other fandoms were included. Five were chosen for their large and longstanding popularity (top of their respective fandom section on Ao3): My Hero Academia, Harry Potter, Good Omens, K-pop, and Marvel. The other three, The Pitt, Stranger Things, and 911, were chosen for their similarity to Heated Rivalry: TV shows that aired all of a season during the search period and have garnered popularity on social media (twitter/tiktok/reddit).

[If this were a real paper I'd need to give a tangible reason for each fandom being "popular". But this isn't a real paper, so I'm considering Marvel, HP, Good Omens, Kpop, and MHA's popularity to be common knowledge. The Pitt, ST, and 911's are anecdotal, but you guys probably know what I'm talking about here too. I do have some supporting numbers in the fun facts!]

Results

3.1 - AI-Tagged Fic

Alright, what everyone is here for! Probably.

There were 34 fics within the set search criteria that were tagged 'Created Using Generative AI' and that explicitly mentioned Claude. Two of the 34 were excluded; one for not containing AI-generated text explicitly produced by Claude, and the other is our test fic from earlier.

Of the 32 remaining fics, a grand total of two contained the Claude HTML artifact! Yeah. That's right. Two. Fic #1 was posted in June 2026, and Fic #2 was posted in April 2026.

[Warning! Don't generalize these numbers! I'm gonna do it in like 5 paragraphs but the sample size is small, the sample populations are totally different, and there's bias all over!]

3.2 - Fandoms

Number of Fics with the Claude HTML Artifact in the Top 100 Works by Kudos
Fandom	Fics w/ Claude HTML	AI-Tagged Fics
911	0	0
Good Omens	0	0
Harry Potter	1	0
Heated Rivalry*	0	0
K-pop	0	0
My Hero Academia	0	0
Marvel	0	0
The Pitt*	0	0
Stranger Things*	2 (same author)	0

*Bias note: these fandoms were mentioned in Anon (2026), so authors may have edited/removed works that would have otherwise contained the Claude HTML artifact.

Discussion

Examination of fics tagged as being created by AI revealed that the HTML artifact is pretty lousy (2/32 = 6.25%) at identifying Claude-created work. Basically this means that we can't draw meaningful conclusions from data related to the HTML artifact. It may, at times, give us insight into patterns of use, but it's really not some crazy AI kryptonite.

As for specific fandom Claude usage as indicated by the HTML artifact? Pretty sparse. Of course, as was just demonstrated, the HTML artifact is mildly helpful at best. But we're not being overrun by AI fics either. And maybe kudos self-selects and removes the AI works, who knows. Regardless, these numbers show fandom AI use seems to be pretty similar, there isn't one fandom that's markedly worse than the others. For more generalizeable numbers I'd love to look into the top 1000 in the future, or maybe figure out a solid randomization method so I'm picking fics from all over the fandom.

Now here's the generalization I warned everyone else not to make: It's really easy and really tempting to say that for every 2 fics with the HTML artifact there are at least 30 additional unidentified AI fics. I am going to make a math point with this generalization and then you're gonna forget I did this because I promise you it's super statistically unsound.

Lynn! Fandom is being overrun by AI! What do you mean it doesn't seem that bad! Let's use Anon (2026)'s numbers (but rounded for nice math) to investigate this. Assuming they looked at every fic above 1k kudos (9.5k), they found 26 fics with the HTML artifact. If it's 2 identified for 30 unidentified, that means there are approximately 390 unidentified Claude fics in that 9.5k. If we break even more stats rules and times it by 4 to try to get numbers for the whole fandom, that puts us at 1,560 unidentified fics + 104 identified fics, which we'll round to 1,700 for wiggle room. That's 4.25% of all Heated Rivalry fics. Friends, 5% is where they put statistical significance because it's a pretty small percentage, 5% is not that big of an issue.

Okay, but what about all the other AI models? Yeah, what about it. Double it - make it 10% (actually 8.5% but we're exaggerating. Apparently Claude is really good at prose compared to other models, which is why I only doubled). Do I like roughly 10% of a fandom I read being untagged for AI use? Not really. Is it worth losing my mind over? Also no. 90% of fics in my fandom are still made by humans! That's a lot! AI advertising would have you thinking the 90/10 split is flipped the other way, but it's not. There's work to be done, but the majority of fandom, even with our exaggerated AI numbers, is still creating with their own two hands!

Conclusion

GUYSSSS. What are we actually doing. No, seriously. What are we doing? If we make lists of "proof" (no matter how legit the proof is) and harass authors who we suspect of using AI - do you really think they'll magically decide to tag their work? No. Why would they when AI tags = losing the respect of your friends and readers and more harassment. And before you say it, authors who appropriately tag their AI use get harassed too! You guys remember our test fic from earlier? The one that explicitly says it's a test fic? It got two hate comments within several hours of posting.

It is worth having discussions about AI use in fic. It is worth investigating the overall presence of Claude HTML artifacts and fragments of AI prompts in fic so we have an idea of the scope of AI use on Ao3. It is not worth it or useful to publicly single out specific authors or fics for AI use. It's just not. You want to encourage appropriately tagged AI fics? Be chill about AI use. Don't harass people, don't go out of your way to be mean about it (be mean on your blog if you want, but don't go hunting around to be mean on other people's blogs), and if you suspect a fic you're reading is made with AI and you're uncomfortable with it? Mute the author, forget about the fic, and MOVE ON.

Encourage writing fic for the joy of it, encourage being "bad" at writing fic, write comments, make friends, post your own human-made work (even if you think it's awful), and build community! Fandom should be for fun! Yeah, AI use is something to discuss, but the way the fandom at large has decided to go about dealing with it is counter-productive and will fix nothing, so go have fun for a bit. AI will still be here when you get back, and nothing you do right now is going to fix it, so take a breather.

Fun Facts!

(they don't let you do this in real journal papers, but they should!)

Fics posted in the search time period (rounded):

Good Omens - 7k (6k for Aziraphale/Crowley - it's the top of the Theater fandom category by total fics (97k) but popularity is clearly waning)

Heated Rivalry - 40k (37k for Shane/Ilya)

Harry Potter - 68k (9k for Sirius Black/Remus Lupin)

K-pop - 72k (5k for Han Jisung/Lee Minho)

My Hero Academia - 42k (8k for Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku)

Marvel - 45k (2.4k for Bucky/Steve)

Stranger Things - 45k (25k for Mike/Will)

The Pitt - 22k (5k for Robby/Whitaker)

911 - 14k (10k for Buck/Eddie)

Heated Rivalry is That girl. The search period covers the entirety of the TV fandom time period and somehow the number of fics posted is on par with MHA, Marvel, and Stranger Things??

Popularity note: You know that list of the most popular pairings on Ao3 that gets posted at the end of the year? (I trust you know this, I am not digging it up for a link). Hollanov was in like the top 10 last year because it had 10k or so fics, after two months mind you. Now look at the number of fics posted in the other "newer" fandoms. All of these fandoms are doing Numbers.

Underrated = ~20k hits or less. Round 1 of the rec list can be found here

Sweet Little Snippets

Articles of Affection - Vee(Vera_DragonMuse)

Shane/Ilya, M, 4.4k

Shane has a system. It includes a forgotten sweater.

Clothes stealing and clothes sharing in the ep 4 montage, the cottage, and beyond. Articles of affection is the best title this fic could possibly have (love the double meaning), because this fic is solely about clothes sharing as a form of affection. It's a sweet little addition to canon.

as reliable as the sun - astrolesbian

Shane/Ilya, T, 7.3k

Shane does not like change. He does not like shifts in the status quo. He also honestly doesn't really like when people are in his house. However. Shane does like Ilya. Maybe enough that none of that matters.

sweet, syrupy cottage fic. A little bit of a character study, but mostly we just languish in the sun and have a lovely romantic time.

Character Studies

snowprint tracings - boxysmiles

Shane/Ilya, T, 20k

Long before he ever sees a photo of her, Shane dreams of Irina Rozanova.

A little sprinkle of magical realism, as a treat. Full of love and tenderness, though of course it's somewhat bittersweet too. Love the concept!

north american sentimentalities - courierstruck

Shane/Ilya, M, 10k

Over the course of the three days, there are plenty of opportunities to tell Shane about Moscow.

post-cottage, pre-ottawa Ilya and his relationship to russia. This concept is always a hit to me and this one is written with such love.

Communion - WriteSmart

Shane/Ilya, M, 1.7k

Ilya says his name like he’s taking communion. His pretty mouth wrapping around the whole syllable the same way he sucks Shane’s cock: with reverence.

Hockey as religion + Ep. 4 feelings from the author = this insanity. Love a religious metaphor, especially because Shane, canonically, kind of does worship at the altar of Hockey lol.

there are things i was never meant to keep (will you be another one of them?) - eurydicees

Shane/Ilya, T, 8.3k

The first snowfall in Boston that year brings several things: a heavy layer of dirty snow coating all the roads of the city; a freezing, threatening cold to the air both inside and out; all incoming flights to Logan getting grounded before they could even think about taking off; and the breaking rumors that Ilya Rozanov is fucking men in his spare time.

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. Just love the way it's written. It's about Ilya being outed, but it's also maybe more about a love confession? I bookmarked this ages ago in december, so it slipped through the cracks for rec list 1, many apologies.

some pacific wind - sartorussguru

Shane/Ilya, G, 8.7k

Rozanov drops his gloves for Shane. He wishes he could just be grateful, but it feels a little bit like the end of the world.

Ilya and Shane and racism. Love the way this fic approaches the topic. Also missed this in rec list 1 - I have A Lot of amazing bookmarks.

hockeybot - hiljainen

Shane/Ilya, E, 5.5k

Here is what everyone thinks of you. It’s exactly what you feared. It might actually be worse.

An SNL sketch about Shane and Ilya (as hockey rivals) sends Shane spiraling. Ilya and Shane have a little sex about it. Absolutely obsessed with this one.

ilya, i wish you were born a girl - Anon (1)

Shane/Ilya, 8.3k, M

Sometimes, he wishes Rozanov was a girl instead.

LOVE the way this tackles Shane's internalized homophobia. I'm always very struck by Shane's obvious jealousy of Ilya's attraction to women, so this train of thought feels like a natural thing that Shane would have considered.

Excerpts from the Fall of Troy - littlelamblittlelamb

Troy/Harris, M, 11k

“I’ve always been kind of weak in relationships.”
“Troy— ”
“I need someone stronger than me. Dallas and Adrian were. But they weren’t people I could trust — and I never trusted Dallas, really.”
Troy thinks Harris has an inkling about what he needs. That he needs a master. That he needs someone to guide him. Harris is so sweet about it that it looks almost nothing like how it looked with Dallas and Adrian — but it’s the same principle.

Fascinating character study of Troy and his relationships. No clue how it jives with canon since I haven't read Role Model, but this fic gives Troy so much depth and I think just expands his character so well.

Smut Corner!

(I realized I included no smut fics last time, so we are rectifying that problem this time. These are, however, mostly sex as character study)

head and body to you - naokime

Shane/Ilya, M, 4.8k

His body is good for two things: hockey and sex—even then, the latter comes with an asterisk. He’s good at being available for sex, he supposes, and that is a thought he cannot afford to entertain.

Ep. 4 montage where the hockey is sex a little, and Shane spirals a lot about a classic Shane anxiety: 'does Ilya actually like me or does he just like the sex?'

Sunday Blue - chaentics

Shane/Ilya, E, 9.1k

Again, this is the deal: Shane takes what he’s given.

CNC. Floaty and dreamy and wow. Very much summed up by this tag: the anticipation is the sex, kind of like hockey.

afterglow - christinegrrl

Shane/Ilya, E, 7.9k

Shane processes his first time with Rozanov.

Set in the 6 months of ghosting. Another round of 'does Ilya actually like me or does he just like the sex?'

Geryon - a_good_soldier

Shane/Ilya, E, 12.6k, cw: rape

Ilya is a young man in America. Here he is in the off hours.

Ilya and sex. VERY good, but also upsetting (see the cw). Proceed with caution.

sympathy fuck - lustmord

Shane/Ilya, E, 10k

We won’t release a statement right away, someone from the front office said, but if you’re missing a couple games there’s going to be questions. What are we going to call it? A family emergency? Ilya had almost laughed. What emergency? His father is already fucking dead.

Ilya and sex, in the aftermath of his father's death. Not exactly a two cakes situation with this and Geryon, because they both approach the topic so differently, but if you like one you'll probably like the other.

Three's a pattern - Anon (2)

Ilya/Cliff Marlow, E, 10.3k

Cliff Marlow and the innate homoeroticism of having a lot of two-man with your best friend.

Cliff Marlow discovering he's maybe a little gay via threesomes with Ilya Rozanov - what's not to love? Yes, this is still kind of character study sex. I have a type and it is most obviously not crackfics (sorry to all the crackfic lovers out there).

Misc.

(a couple of these are very newly published, so I might technically be skirting the hit count guidelines a little lol)

we took the scenic route - lowkey_existential_despair

Scott/Kip & Shane/Ilya, E, 18k

holy matrimony sequel, everyone cheered!

Genuinely selling this as just a holy matrimony sequel with no further information because you guys NEED to be reading holy matrimony. Also, there might be a Scott/Kip/Shane/Ilya foursome here, but you've gotta read to find out.

welcome to the family - pressuretoparty

Shane/Ilya, E, 32k

Shane finds himself grounded in Ottawa for the foreseeable future. With his newfound free time, he hangs out with his family, eats Costco Rotisserie chicken, and whips Ilya Rozanov back into a champion.

Winners!verse part 3!! The first two went viral recently, so you may have already read those - but I think this third part is the best part by far (it can be read standalone). I'm just so so obsessed with everything about it. Shane and Ilya are gritty, real athletes here. And it's not exactly Challengers, but I would consider this to be the closest 'Challengers but for hockey' fic I've read. I mean this as an immense compliment.

Proving Ground - maplesalad, smugrobotics

Shane/Ilya, M, 5.1k, series in progress, cw: rape, abuse

Absolutely genius AU universe exploring bodily autonomy (the lack thereof) in high-level sports. Deeply perverted, a fascinating lens with which to approach the topic. Proceed with caution.

This is where I refer back to our reminders at the beginning. If this sort of series is not your thing, kindly ignore and move on. However, the girls who get it, Get It. If it is your thing you'll be obsessed.

That Gay, Gay, Glitter - madeupwords

Ilya/Scott & Shane/Ilya, E, 11.3k, WIP

Because despite his age, despite being a rookie, and despite the many announcers who love to prophesize his failure, Ilya knows what's expected of the Bears’ number one draft pick.
or
Boston—A love story, one year to the left

Only 1 chapter so far, but it sucked me in! The author clearly loves Boston, so the world feels so rich and lived in. Plus I always have fun with rookie Ilya/Scott Hunter (two cakes! The Hottest Cold War - from rec list 1).

advice from fools - Anon (3)

Shane/Ilya, E, 22k

After Sochi, Shane starts sleeping with another man. After Vegas, he picks back up with Ilya, too.

messy messy messy!! However, I do believe this is exactly what Shane would do, so it's a realistic mess. Yet again we run into a (mild) variant of 'does Ilya actually like me or does he just like the sex?' except this time it's because Shane is into another guy just for the sex.

You can call me Lynn. She/her is what I'm used to, but they/them works too. I'm most active on tumblr at the moment.

What I'm Watching/Reading

I've been busy with life things, who knows if I'll catch up/keep up this year.

Movie goal: 3/52

No specific movies are next on the watchlist - maybe some of the best picture noms? So far I've only seen Sinners, but I'm curious about a lot of them this year.

Book goal: 3/52 (not including mountains of fic)

Currently rereading salt slow by Julia Armfield and A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske (fun fact, found her pre-Marvellous Light through her fic!). I've got two weeks left on my library loan for After Hours at Dooryard Books by Cat Sebastian, and I'm waiting impatiently for my hold on We Breed Lions by Rick Westhead because I need it for fic research.

TV is always weird, but I'm usually watching something. Always rewatching Heated Rivalry and rewatching the entirety of Elementary every fall. Currently catching up on The Pitt. Need to watch Artful Dodger season 2, and want to pick ER and Buffy back up at some point. Still bereft without a weekly TV show (911 had a standing appointment in my schedule for 5 seasons, I don't know what to do without it).

What I'm Working On

Fic: How Lucky He Is - 3.5k, Svetlana outsider POV

I have a Shane Hollander thesis that I'm chipping away at (wip snippet). It probably won't be done until April/May but it's my baby and I'm obsessed. As of yesterday I'm maybe also doing a Heated Rivalry Artful Dodger AU? I'll see if this AU still makes sense when I get to dodger season 2.

Rec List: Underrated Heated Rivalry Fic Recs

Have to spend some time reading, but will probably make another list in the next few months since people loved this one so much. Might post rec lists here too? Dreamwidth feels a little friendlier for long-form posts and my rec lists are, I think, impossible to shorten.

Miscellaneous Things

I graduate from a [redacted graduate degree] in May so life is hectic and weird and very uncertain right now.

I love to talk, chat to me about basically anything heated rivalry/TV/books/etc., I want to make friends!

Profile

paperowl

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Style Credit

Base style: Brittle by sforzinda
Theme: Argyle by krja

September 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 2026

whatever remains, however improbable

Recent Entries

Hugo Best Novel Winner #3

Hugo Best Novel Winner #2

Hugo Best Novel Winner #1

I actually wrote something!

Untagged AI Use in Fic - An Overview