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UPDATED: Crash Landing (and Showing Off My Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov Second Life Avatars)

Ryan Schultz

Have you read? Heated Rivalry is Brokeback Mountain All Over Again (and How Coming Out Applies to Virtual Worlds, Social VR, and Other Forms of the Metaverse)

Six weeks ago, I wrote on this blog:

No, I will no longer be writing about Second Life, although yes, I still will be playing it.

Well, as long-time readers of my blog know by now, I am absolutely terrible at sticking to any promises I make about my blog content. Right? Right??!?

My four-week Heated Rivalry-inspired endorphin high ended when I got into a car accident last weekend (ironically, on my birthday). Both vehicles involved were damaged. I was badly shaken up, and the accident triggered some body aches, and, of course, aggravated my already-existing neck and shoulder pain. It was my first car accident in almost twenty years, and I feel like such an idiot. Now I have to fit in visits to my insurance agent, my car dealership, and a bodyshop in between visits to the physiotherapist, massage therapist, and doctors. I have been exhausted, and I have been taking some sick days to rest, relax, and recuperate. Frankly, I’ve been a bit of a mess these past few days.

To get my mind off my current troubles, and to avoid a depressive spiral, I have been doing a deep dive into the Heated Rivalry fan fiction community over at Archive Of Our Own, as well as popping in to check the latest fan art, memes, and fan fiction recommendations on both Reddit and Tumblr. And so it was, that I decided to take two of my minor male alts (i.e. alternative, non-main avatars) and transform them, as best I could, into the gay hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov of the hit Crave television series Heated Rivalry, based on the Game Changers series of novels by Nova Scotia author Rachel Reid. (Some people who are artists can draw fan art; I instead choose to use my 18+ years of Second Life avatar creation and styling know-how to create models for my own form of fan art.)

I posted the results in several successive Primfeed posts (which most people probably don’t have access to, since you need a Second Life account to access the posts, as I have my account set to private), as well as to Tumblr, where they have been favourably received (you have to agree to view potentially mature content to see my pictures, even though there’s no nudity or sex, and you might have to actually sign up to Tumblr to see this, I don’t know; all the pictures are reposted below, anyway).

So, I decided this evening to finally share some pictures of my works-in-progress, as well as include detailed styling notes for both my Shane and Ilya avatars. First some pictures (please click on each one to see it in a larger size):

Ilya Rozanov Styling Credits:

Shane Hollander Styling Credits:

Other Credits:

The Fitting Room offers private change rooms and photo studios.

UPDATE Jan. 30th, 2026: Okay, I finally found a good, large, front-facing picture of Shane Hollander from the internet (thanks again to Dreamer Pixelmaid!), and I spent some more time fiddling with the head and face sliders to make my Shane Hollander avatar look a little bit more like Shane Hollander/Hudson Williams. Here’s what he looks like today:

I’ve still gotta work a bit on the head shape (or perhaps, use a different head than the LeLutka Eon one). UPDATE Feb. 17th, 2026: I have now decided to switch out the Eon LeLutka Lite head for the Gen LeLutka Lite head from the Avatar Welcome Pack, and I’m much happier with that one:

This is (as a drugged-up Shane Hollander in the famous hospital scene from episode 5 of the TV show would say), BET-TER. 👍😉

Also, based on a helpful suggestion from Graeme Strange on Primfeed, I found a modify/copy/no-transfer gay cuddles/sex mat, which can be made invisible, and therefore can be incorporated with any Second Life bed! While I still like the Dutchie’s bed I mentioned above, and I am probably gonna go back and buy it, the Devinz mat cost only L$1,499 and was therefore an instant buy for me. Thank you, Graeme!

I couldn’t find it on their SL Marketplace store, but here’s the vendor at the Devinz Designz PG & Adult Furniture Store (exact SLURL), plus a few poses of Shane and Ilya cuddling that I took yesterday evening using their gay sex mat (click on each picture to see it in a bigger size):

UPDATE Feb. 1st, 2026: Okay, I bought some more hockey equipment for Shane and Ilya. First, some more pictures (please click on each one to see it in a bigger size):

I already talked about the hockey T-shirts above in my avatar styling credits, but here’s what I added:

The hockey pants from Meva (which only come in a Gianni size) fit my avatar’s Legacy Basic body fairly well, with a few alphas required in the hips. upper leg and knee area. These come in a very complete fatpack to change the texture of multiple parts of the pants and knee guards, and are L$495 here: exact SLURL (the Meva store has a central spawn point, so use the Show on Map feature and follow the red arrow/beam to the menswear section).

The only decent black hockey ice skates I could find were part of a hockey gacha from Sese PA, which I bought for L$120 from a reseller here on the SL Marketplace: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/11-Sese-PA-Winter-Hockey-Skates-black/26694430 (again, I needed a foot/ankle alpha and a toenail alpha for the Legacy Basic body used here).

To cover the bare skin between the skates and the kneepads, I just created a new underwear layer, using a wool fabric texture, adjusting the waist and length, and tinting it dark grey.

This last gallery of pictures was taken at Brooks Arena in the Chamonix City Winter Sports Complex.

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