u/Academic-Balance6999

On my most recent re-heat I noticed some very clear intentional parallels / contrasts between Tuna Meltdown and Tampa Bay hotel (In addition to the obvious one of first name use— “Shane” / “Ilya”— being the cause of the meltdown and then the happy conclusion of Tampa Bay). Are there any others you've noticed?

Intentional Parallels

• In both scenes, they are wearing clothes that signify the other. In TM, Shane is literally wearing Ilya's clothes. In TB, Shane puts on a Hawaiian shirt in an echo of what Ilya wore in an earlier scene
• Both scenes end with Shane on Ilya's lap, trying to comfort him after speaking with or talking about his family has caused him pain

These parallels demonstrate how connected they are, even as they struggle with communication.

Intentional Contrasts

• In TM, Ilya probes about Shane's sexuality and Shane deflects. In TB, Shane is open about his sexuality and tells Ilya that he is gay
• in TM, Shane probes about Ilya's father and Ilya deflects. In TB, Ilya is open with Shane about his relationship with his family
• In TM, Ilya accepts a call from his father. In TB, he rejects a call from Alexei right before Shane shows up in the room.

These things together show that they are moving past the issues that have prevented them from being emotionally honest and close (family struggles, sexuality), and are growing in their ability to communicate honestly with each other.

Probably going to delete this later…. but this has been bothering me since the second time I reheated.

After Ilya asks Shane to roll over on his stomach, and Ilya asks “have you ever…? Do you want to…?” When Ilya doesn’t get an enthusiastic “yes” from Shane, he starts to do what LOOKS like rubbing between Shane’s ass cheeks.

Fine, but like… what is going on? Even if you’re not actually being digitally penetrated, a dry rub of an asshole doesn’t feel great (ask me how I know!). There’s no lube, there’s no spit. So my question is: what is going on?

1. Are we just supposed to suspend disbelief and assume it feels good?
2. Are we just supposed to suspend disbelief and assume Ilya managed to get some lube back there somehow?
3. Does this actually feel good to some people, maybe if they’re excited enough?
4. Maybe he’s just supposed to be SQUEEZING his butt? Or doing something else?
5. Some other explanation?

Thank you. This is for SCIENCE.

(ETA I just realized I should have titled this post Man in the Crease.)

(ETA2 I rewatched the scene this morning-- for SCIENCE-- and I think they were indeed intending to simulate that Ilya is rubbing his dick between Shane's ass cheeks. You can see that Ilya's thumb and index finger look to be curved around something, but the illusion isn't 100% convincing because Connor's body isn't QUITE at the right angle. However, this is very helpful to understand for my personal immersion in the scene-- ahem, for SCIENCE-- because a smooth dick getting rubbed around in an ass crack is 100% hotter than dry-ass fingers, for me personally, although I understand some of you feel differently. Thanks to the loon who suggested this!)

I used to be a pretty good sight singer— could crack open modus novus and not break a sweat. Those days are gone and I embarrassed myself at my most recent audition with a fully tonal piece. I know I could sit down at the piano and train myself but I want an app I can open on my phone for ten minutes a day without thinking about it. Does anyone have anything they like? Cheers.