# HANS - FULL HISTORY > [!warning] Content Warnings > Parental neglect, near-death neck injury, blood, pregnancy and birth, homophobia and transphobia, implied physical assault, suicide ideation. Nothing super detailed or gratuitous. ## NPCs ### People - **Jakey Goldstrom**, he/him, (former) teammate, husband - **Akari “Kari” Roxas**, she/her, child - **Evren Solak**, she/they, Hans’s adoptive parent - **Sidney Sixby**, she/her, (former) teammate, mentor, and Kari's babysitter - **Dougie Campbell**, he/him, (former) teammate, friend - **Angel Sheppard**, he/him, Jakey's rookie ### Teams - **San Francisco Blades**, NHA team. - **Montreal Wanderers**, NHA team. - **Death Valley Heat** (Las Vegas), the Blades’ minor league affiliate team. --- # XIII - DEATH ## 1980 - Hana Sweetheart Roxas de la Cruz is born in Oakland. They are partially deaf from birth. Their childhood is rather lonely and they often were home alone. Their neighbor, Evren, is Deaf and teaches them sign language. Their parents felt like anonymous sponsors. ## 1996-1998 - Hans is emancipated from their parents at 16 years old and starts going by Hans Roxas, instead of 'Hana de la Cruz'. They pronounce Roxas more like 'Roxanne', not like 'rojas'. They live, work, and go to school independently, funding themself through working at Evren's cafe. They find an outlet in hockey and they train their ass off, becoming the starting goalie at Eastshore High as a junior, then captained as a senior. - They are offered a one-year entry contract with a semipro California league team in Oakland, and they take it. ## 1999 - Hans succeeds in a tryout for the Death Valley Heat. They are signed alongside Jakey Goldstrom, who they develop a close relationship with. ## 2000 - The two are promoted to the big leagues and now play in San Francisco. Hans is openly gay and nonbinary and flamboyant, which management dislikes. ## 2001-2002 - Hans tends the net alongside Sidney Sixby, the starting goalie. Hans’s style is a bit old-fashioned, which she thinks is endearing. The Blades are pretty above average in their kinda-shit division, making the playoffs easily. - They're kind of a punk-ass and start fights frequently. Blades fans love them, but they're generally disliked by the rest of the league (on top of the homophobia). - Hans and Jakey are dating now, but their relationship is more friends than boyfriends. They aren't exclusive to each other. ## 2003 - Hans takes Jakey’s skate to the neck during a scramble in the crease. They lose a lot of blood and would’ve died if Jakey didn’t hold the cut closed. - Hans is hospitalized. Jakey refuses to leave Hans’s side and fights with coaches and trainers over it. Hospital staff have to force him to leave, and Jakey thinks it’s because they’re going to cut life support soon. Jakey is traded to Montreal while Hans is still comatose. - Hans wakes up, finds out Jakey's been traded and finds out they were having a cryptic pregnancy (the hospital had tested them, as protocol). The Blades management finds out about the pregnancy, since they’re footing the medical bill. Management gets real antsy and transphobic about this. - Right when Hans is due to be released from the hospital, Sixby arrives with a letter stating that the Blades have paid out their contract and will now dismiss them from the team. - It’s so unnecessarily cruel. Hans tries to contact Montreal’s front office to follow Jakey—so he can know his kid—but they don’t need another goalie. Ottawa and Toronto are the same. They don’t want Hans. Every team they call in the league denies having a goalie opening, even the minor teams. - Hans can’t bring themself to write or call Jakey yet, feeling like they need to talk in person. The next Montreal @ San Francisco game is right before the baby’s due date. - The birth is troublesome, requiring a vertical c-section. Some former teammates (including Sid) visit the hospital to see Hans and the baby Kari. No Jakey. He didn’t want to see them. He still has no idea they’re alive, much less a recent parent. - Jakey is convinced he ended Hans’s career and killed them, and doesn’t deserve to visit their non-existent grave. - Hans is convinced that Jakey is running away from them, afraid to see what he set in motion, pretending it never happened. They have constant nightmares about bleeding out. - Doesn’t help that the NHA has effectively blacklisted Hans, so they have little contact with people within the NHA aside from a few former teammates. They didn’t want to play again, anyways. ## 2004 - Hans works at Evren’s cafe again, the one they worked at in high school. They go back to school for a B.A. in Sports Management while raising Kari, who gets a second set of parents in the Sixbys, now that Sid’s retired. ## 2005-2009 - Hans gets their degree and becomes a Little League parent for Kari, taking her to baseball games and tournaments. They become a fielding coach and realize how much they missed being a goalie… Catching things is really fun. - They also cling on to technology and music from their goalie era, refusing to get anything fancier than a flip phone and shitbrick of a laptop. - They buy Kari video games, though. On a whim, they buy a Nintendo DS for themself and they bond with Kari over Pokemon. - Sixby, seeing that Hans is coming back to sports, lets them know about a job opening…. # IV - THE EMPEROR ## 2010 - Hans returns to hockey, becoming a goaltending coach for the Blades. Dougie Campbell’s finally a starter for the Blades (he and Hans played together in the minors, with him acting as backup), having essentially taken Hans’ place in the organization. - Dougie tries to date Hans (he’s always had a crush on them), and Hans humors him for a dinner or two, but it doesn’t work out at all. Hans still has their heart for Jakey, even after all these years. - They become quite good friends with Dougie anyways—he suggests that Hans give Jakey a call, since most NHAers outside of the Blades still think they’re dead. Hans realizes how fucked up it’d be if Jake thought he killed them and that they were dead this whole time. Hans immediately calls him. - Neither Jakey or Hans have been serious with anyone else, but they’re not exactly ready to return to a relationship while they live on opposite sides of the continent. They video call frequently, though, and Kari starts to suspect that Jakey is her dad. Hans never tells her directly, but Kari is a smart kid. - Kari manages to call Jakey on her own, being more tech-savvy than Hans, even at 7 years old. Jakey realizes that Hans' little lie about Kari being Sixby's adopted kid is a little bullshit (but not totally untrue). He's still not sure if he's her dad, since Kari looks a lot more like Hans than him. ## 2011-2013 - Whenever the Wanderers come to play in San Francisco, or when the Blades go to Montreal, Hans and Jakey take the time to get drinks together. It’s only twice a season, but they’re good friends again. - Hans does eventually tell Jakey that Kari’s their kid, but not that he’s the father. - Jakey *does* suspect it’s possible, considering the time frame, but doesn’t press Hans about it. He just assumes Hans doesn’t know the father either, like a Mamma Mia kind of thing. ## 2014 - The NHA partial lockout is kind of chill for Hans and they side with the Players' Union, speaking about executives' and managements' greed. They imply that poor management is the reason they didn't continue playing after recovery, which becomes a rather popular story. - Public pressure alongside the Union’s pressure eventually ends the season-long lockout, with players and other staffers securing a raise and a bit more voting leverage within the NHA. - Hans finally gets a new laptop and starts talking to Jakey more often. ## 2015 - Hans becomes the head coach of the Heat over the summer and first couple months of the season. They live in Vegas while the Sixbys take care of Kari. - The Players Union, thankful for Hans' support, launches an investigation and files official complaints against several Blades executives and coaches that were tied to Hans' initial dismissal over their injury and pregnancy. - Hans is named interim head coach for the Blades as the organization scrambles to fill vacancies. They move back to San Francisco and take on the role of both General Manager and Head Coach, having massive control over the organization. - Blades fans/shareholders are surprisingly fine with this, since they love Hans. (They're fan-owned like the Green Bay Packers but that's another deep lore tangent. Do Not Worry About It.) - They struggle in their first season, but no one really blames them. At least they get the [top pick for the draft]([[Skyler Iwata]]). ## 2016 - The Blades have a comeback season. Hans leads the team to the Western Finals, but loses to Minneapolis (who, in turn, loses to Montreal). It's still a great showing, considering the Blades haven't been in the playoffs since... 2003.... Funny, that's the last season that Hans ever played. - They finally let themself love Jakey again, and the spark is still there. Jakey spends the summer in the Bay, being Hans's plus-one to all of Kari's baseball games. ## 2017 - Hans arranges a trade for Jakey, to bring him back to the Blades. Right before the 2017-2018 season starts, Angel Sheppard comes to SF instead. Hans knows that Jakey's the only person who could've forged and tampered with the trade—he knows their signature. - They’re frustrated and heartbroken, but Hans immediately sees that it was pretty urgent upon meeting Angel. They just wish Jakey told them. - Angel is beat up and obviously traumatized. Hans doesn't know the exact details and doesn't press him about it. - When the Blades face the Wanderers, Angel has a panic attack, Jakey refuses to play, multiple players get injured, it’s a huge fucking disaster. - Hans runs into Jakey in the halls between the locker rooms and they argue. - Jakey says Angel’s his rookie, almost like a kid to him, and Hans nearly explodes at him, grabbing him by the collar, in tears. They *finally* tell him that he’s Kari’s dad, who is now 13 years old, and that they never had a real relationship with anyone else but him. - Hans knows they’re being selfish and lets Jakey go. Absolute emotional damage for the both of them. The Blades start to lose more games. - Someone records part of the argument and posts it to Twitter: most notably, Hans calling Jakey a "fucking selfish idiot" and Jakey yelling back "I *know* I should've called! I know!" - The rumors and the media drive both Hans and Jakey into paranoia and depression. It’s not great. ## 2018 - The two are no-contact until the Blades go to Montreal (like two months, during the latter half of the NHA season, springtime). Hans notices Jakey hanging around the guest practice facilities and takes the opportunity to apologize. - Hans apologizes for being a stubborn asshole for the past 15 years, not calling, not asking for help, and not telling him about Kari earlier. - Jakey one-ups them. He apologizes for everything starting from the moment he thought he killed them, for not even keeping touch with the Blades, for giving up, then finishes by telling them he’s retiring this season. Tampering with player transactions, no matter the reason, is a true blacklist offense. - Hans insists the Players’ Union will defend him, but Jakey refuses. He wants to be with Hans, with Kari, and make up for lost time. Explaining his reasoning and defending himself would mean outing Angel’s situation, and Angel hasn’t decided anything. - The Blades make wildcard and fight their way to the finals, but lose in Game 7 at home to Pittsburgh. It’s bittersweet. It’s still a great playoff run. - Jakey does retire after the season and moves in with Hans and Kari. They still live in the same house they used to rent together back in 2003. Hans had bought it since then and has done a bit of renovation. ## 2019 - They’re… a family now. Hans is thriving as the Blades head coach. Jakey gets some work as one of the Blades’ beat reporters, but he’s mostly a stay-at-home dad now. Kari doesn’t call him dad, but she’s never called Hans papa or mama either; she’s on a first name basis with her parents. (She only calls Sidney Sixby ’dad’ jokingly.) - Kari gets her growth spurt and begins to develop a gray streak in her hair, on the same spot Jakey has his. She looks a *lot* more like Jakey now. It’s cute, really, and Hans loves taking pictures of them together. ## 2020 - The Blades stabilize as a top competitor. Hans has a pretty impressive winning record. Kari’s going to college early. Hans and Kari meet Jakey's mom, and she loves them. It’s looking good, really. Happy family, happy players. - So why are they still so *empty*? Is it because they’ve never stopped and took the time to process everything that happened? - They consider suicide, but they already saw all their friends’ grief while they were in the hospital the first time, and they don't even want to think about Kari getting sad. Guilt eats at them and they become withdrawn. - Jakey knows *something's* wrong, does his best to support Hans, sits with them at therapy, but they're still depressed. Hans feels like they're just going through the motions: the Blades are still winning, that's all that matters. ## Strategos & Memories - Hans is still fighting this state of mind when they find themself in Strategos. They remember most things, save for when and how they arrive in this new world. - They *think* they’re missing a memory regarding their depression and suicidal thoughts, but it’s not there—it doesn't make sense. (It'll never make sense.) - Hans *represses* a lot of their traumatic memories, but they’re not forgotten. They are definitely still there when they cross over.