#me: haha cole caulfield because we are both short. also it's abt LOVE and GROWTH and LOSS

[moregraceful]

1, 3, 5, 6?

I was like this will be easy if we narrow it by team but very difficult if we do it broadly...fuck around and find out 😩

Anyway for hockey:

which character do you relate to the most from your fandom?

GOD. I almost said Connor McDavid bc I too suffer the agonies but I am like, not nearly good enough at any one single thing to claim I'm like the next next one. YOU KNOW WHAT. maybe Cole Caufield, bc a) we're both short kings, b) I also get ripped up when my goals and life plans fall apart but I am Learning To Love The Journey, c) we love the homies and the homies love us, d) good size for huggin, e) my social circle is wide and affectionate enough that people get a bit 🧐 about interactions with my friends too, and f) the whole thing at the NTDP where him and Jack Hughes were BEST FRIENDS!! WHO SHARED EACH OTHER'S SUCCESSES!! LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE PRE-DRAFT PROFILE ON THEM MENTIONED THE OTHER!! AND THEN GETTING DRAFTED AND THE RELIEF ON COLE'S FACE WHEN MTL FINALLY PICKED HIM AND HOW EXCITED JACK WAS FOR HIM!! and now they're like the most underrated ship of the 2019 ntdp draft class and no one in fandom or the media ever thinks of them as a pair (except me, bc I have brain damage) but the love is still clearly there. anyway that whole situation of: childhood best friends who successes made each other what they are but the relevancy of that has faded overtime as they've grown up but there's still clearly a lot of love and affection...to drive this ask straight into a bridge, I recently found out one of my best friends in middle school died and I was thinking a lot abt how I hadn't spoken to him in over a decade (just due to like drifting apart, not a falling out or anything) but the fondness I feel for him is still so visceral....it's abt what we take with us as we grow. The love is still there, even as we fade out of each other's lives.

mainly we're both so fucking short. no way that dude is 5'7. no way

3. what is your favorite ship?

this is so hard bc as people get traded and the narrative evolves, my tastes change and I drop ships...anyway generally any Cale Makar ship makes me insane due to aforementioned brain damage (except natecale sorry to natecale nation but that's my one single notp) but rn I am sitting here so impatiently waiting for people to GET ON BOARD with Devon Toews/Cale Makar. Devon Toews is HANDSOME. AND CONFIDENT. AND HE WEARS PINK SUITS. you think he isn't blowing Cale Makar: most boring man on the planet's mind on the reg? You know how Cale never smiles anymore but sometimes he smiles around Devon??? my god. The photo of them at the Nuggies game looking like boyfriends?? kill me??? like I know the story of my fandom engagement is just me noodling from Cale Makar rarepair to Cale Makar rarepair but I stg Avs fans we GOTTA open our hearts to Devon Toews. GOTTA.

5. who is your favorite character (and maybe why?)

I love Cale Makar and Cale Makar hates me, because I keep writing weird rarepairs about him. My Avs fandom has kind of faded with time but every once in a while I see Cale Makar photo or gif or quote about how boring he is and there's a little kaiju in my head that rips a building off its foundations.

Also every Asian guy who has ever played the game and wasn't a douche bc they are my people and I must stan my people. Robo I love you. Kailer I love you. Nick Suzuki I love you, you monotone doofus. Matt Dumba? Make him commissioner. Paul Kariya I wish you ran DoPS and I also wish your husband would get off Twitter.

6. when you first think of the fandom, what image comes to mind?

This is SUCH an interesting question. like there's definitely vibes and memories and stories that come to mind immediately, but an IMAGE...maybe the fake worlds kiss photo from the inimitable @msmargaretmurry's fic The Next Next One which haunts me in my sleep. I have like real visceral memories of sitting in the Denver airport choking back tears when I got the final installment of that fic in my inbox, that is also an image. also this photo is the first photo I ever reblogged of hockey (I was a hater for SO long, sorry about the tags) and it still hits 8 years later. the joy on everyone's faces!! it's cute!!

Thank you for the ask my friend!!