mystical-marlin

[mystical-marlin]

slider with icemav

[mystical-marlin]

Emerging from my year long writers block to post something shitty and promptly return to the darkness

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38236942/chapters/128292706

[mystical-marlin]

Wait. Someone help me understand the passing of time in the Top Gun movies.

The first movie was in 1986. The second one was in 2022. That's 36 years apart.

Bradley was roughly 4 years old in the first movie.

Is Bradley supposed to be 40 in the 2022 movie?

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TGM on social media after letting the cat outta the bag, bradley and jake are free to be, well, bradley and jake (pt. 1)

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History repeats itself AU or an AU where Bradley, one way or another, becomes what Mav was to him

When Bradley enters flight school, he's still reeling with anger about Mav and everyone tries to stay outta his way - he demolishes the training, talks to no one and ignores any attempts at assimilation with his train group.

There are only two people who never get offended - Mike and Sarah, an aviator and WSO couple that is also (not so secretly) a couple in their personal life.

Sarah is a laid-back lady who always has the right quips, Mike is a walking sunshine, always trying to see the best in people - Bradley often wonders how they ended up in the military. (He learns it not long after - they were both products of foster care, just like Bradley's mom and Mav, and in parts, Bradley himself, and had little choice given their financial situation.)

They're both nothing but persistent at befriending Bradley, always too handsy, always too smiley, always replying to his grunts and insults with the same without minding the attitude, always inviting him everywhere and inviting themselves into Bradley's plans without asking for permission.

By the time they finish flight school, all three of them live together in a two-bed house. When they got assigned to the same F-18 training squad, they move together, too, this time in a three-bed house in a nicer location.

A substantial amount of people actually think that there’s some kind of a trouple thing going on with them… Jake included. When Bradley starts being interested in him, for a minute or two, Jake thinks Bradley is trying to find a fourth for some kind of harem — this quickly gets resolved, though, because Sarah and Mike tease Bradley ruthlessly about Jake.

Jake and Bradley are not quite dating but they start having a thing just around the same time when Sarah finds out she’s pregnant.

Bradley is the first to learn that Sarah is pregnant, even before Mike. She is panicked as hell, still with the pregnancy test, rumbling all about how they will separate them now, how they won't be able to fly in a duo, how she might have to quit the Navy - and Bradley is the one takes her off the edge, reasoning that Mike would never want her to quit, that it's all going to work out some way.

And it does, at first. Sarah goes on light duty and Bradley and Mike negotiate a switch with their command — Bradley will take on Sarah as his WSO and Mike will start flying solo. They won’t be able to get deployed together anymore, but there will be at least one person at all times, with the kid, once they’re born. Bradley is named the godfather before they even know they’re having a girl and is the one to help Sarah plan the wedding — is the one to help her find a wedding dress that fits her baby bump, helps find a nice public place to hold the ceremony, helps to arrange the other bits, helps mix up the baby shower into the party. Mike takes a two weeks leave from his deployment to get married when Sarah is 6 months pregnant and they’re all really happy. It feels like Bradley has a family - a brother and sister, like he’s going to be an uncle.

Jake teases him so much because Bradley keeps on crying throughout the day, as the witness and when he makes the speech and when the gender reveal happens — even though Bradley had actually been the secret keeper of the little piece of paper they had been given by the tech when he accompanied Sarah to her scan. Jake is Bradley’s date to the wedding, which is also the first time they show up together anywhere officially — the relationship is still not really defined or named, but it is a Relationship with a capital R.

And then Mike dies on deployment, not even two weeks after their wedding.

Bradley is left grieving his best friend, feeling guilty because it was supposed to be him on that deployment, before they switched Sarah to fly with Bradley, and Sarah is 7 months pregnant and newly a widow. So he steps up even further, just locks everything he feels and tries to get them both through all of it, despite doubting how they can survive this.

Jake steps up, a lot, too. Because Bradley is there for Sarah but someone has to be there for him, too, and he can’t ask that of Sarah. He’s a their place almost every day, helps organising the funeral, helps get the nursery in order.

And then the worst scenerio possible happens — Sarah goes into labour and everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. The labour takes hours on end, going so slow they’re sent away and come back to the hospital a couple of times, but the minute when they try to induce her and speed up the process, the baby turns around and becomes breech and she is born but there’s so much blood they roll Sarah into the OR before she can even hug her.

Bradley is left in the NICU with little baby Daisy for hours and hours, never getting much of an answer of what is going on. The nurses try to dodge his questions as they show him how to change the baby and how to feed her the bottle and it all feels so surreal — all those firsts should've been Sarah’s to do.

He never sees Sarah alive again.

He doesn’t know what to do, once they tell him, so he calls Jake.

And being honest, Jake doesn’t know what to do either. He brings some more clothes for Bradley and Daisy into the hospital, brings him takeaways to eat, lets him sleep in the armchair for a few hours, keeping an eye on Daisy for him, brings him a coffee and a sandwich from the downstairs shop, and when the time comes, tries to remember as much information as possible, because Bradley might look calm, but he’s hysteric on the inside.

Bradley attends his second funeral in less than three months with a week old baby in his arms.

The shock doesn’t fully wear off when the CPS makes Bradley the temporary guardian for Daisy - he was Sarah’s next of kin and the only living person close to her - but the panic sets when he discovers the will states that in the event of death of both Mike and Sarah, he gets everything, Daisy’s custody included.

And the headaches start — Bradley is on special leave now, but at some point he’d have to leave the nursery and face the world. And no amount of Jake doing grocery runs and picking up paperwork for Bradley and phoning in to book appointments for Bradley can prevent that.

One of the evenings, when it all becomes too much, when Daisy hasn’t stopped crying for hours, when he can’t stop wishing Sarah or Mike were here, where they should be, when he can’t stop thinking about how this is all his bad luck’s fault, when the legal and social teams are on his ass to make a decision on what he wants to do next, he has a little breakdown. Because he wants to do all that, he wants to honor Sarah and Mike’s wishes, he wants to keep the last bit of his best friends close to himself, but how is he supposed to do that? He’s a wreck and his only support is Jake, who despite all this never made any promises or commitment declarations about their relationship. The Navy might let him leave based on special circumstances, but finding a job in any industry that would allow him to take care of a baby on his own would be a miracle — and there’s no one he could leave Daisy with, if they send him somewhere with his squadron.

And Jake comes back from the base that evening and finds him a mess, and sure enough, solution to all this is simple enough to him — he will move in, permanently, and help Bradley take care of Daisy and take care of her once Bradley starts getting deployed again.

What if they deploy us at the same time? We can’t just refuse, it’s not going to work, because while Bradley wants to believe this is an option, it really isn’t. Even if he felt comfortable with putting so much on Jake, it just wasn’t a viable option — if they both were away, the same problems would arose. Jake had no family, either, got disowned years and years ago, and even if Bradley, somehow, felt comfortable with reconnecting with his own family, he wasn’t quite sure if he could just trust them with Daisy straight away.

Well, I’ve got this crazy idea that might just work, is all Jake says, Give me a few days.

And the life goes on for those few days until one evening Jake comes back from work an hour later than usual and sits down next to Bradley on the couch, waits until he finishes feeding Daisy her bottle and she takes a little nap when he rocks her in his arms — and he shows Bradley a set of generic wedding rings and filled marriage licence application.

Married couples can’t be deployed together.

I can’t ask that of you.

Good thing you aren’t asking, then — I’m offerin’

Because, in truth, Jake knew he was in it for the long run for months now. He was going to pace it, just because Bradley clearly was a bit slow with those things and had a lot of baggage that he wasn’t as keen to share as Jake had been with his own.

So they get married, formally. Bradley accepts the custody and adopts Daisy and sure enough, they both spent some time away on adoption leave, getting used to things. It doesn’t make it all okay, but it makes it all easier, the burden to bear falling on two sets of shoulders instead of one.

At first, they don’t even mention the whole marriage thing, but as things go on, the word husband comes up in their lives more and more often — people shut up easier when it’s a husband and not a partner — and as the years go on, it feels like breathing, calling each other husbands. They might have married for one reason only, but the marriage feels more and more genuine with the years spent together piling up.

Daisy turns five when they both get called back to Top Gun at the same time.

[mystical-marlin]

TGM on social media In his flimsy defense, Bradley posted half-asleep

[mystical-marlin]

Ice: Это все твоя вина.

Maverick: I know, I know.

Slider: Wait, you speak Russian?

Maverick: No. I just know the phrase “this is all your fault” in every language he speaks.

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Maverick, now promoted to Admiral: Hey guys, I got takeout, so we can get down and pig out

The Daggers: ADMIRAL!?!?

Mav, whirling around *wide eyed*: WHERE?!???

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You know how ice has like, one of the the highest ranks you can get in the navy without being SECNAV by the events of TGM while maverick stayed a captain because he didn’t want to give up flying?

I bet ice felt the same in a way, but he was more attached to the plane he was flying rather than the concept of flying in general

I was doing some research and the last F-14 Tomcat was retired from service in 2006 from VF-213. Now this next bit doesn’t entirely comply with fact, but in the topgun universe VF-213 is Fist of the fleet, ice and sliders canon squadron. (In actual fact fist of the fleet is actually VF-25 but let’s ignore that)

So I hc that ice stayed at Commander (since captains oversee the general command of a ship instead of flying the missions) until the tomcat was retired, had one go on the new f/a-18 superhornet on a flight sim and upon deciding it wasn’t the same as the tomcat, he accepted a promotion to captain the same day. Also if we take into account that it usually takes 20-25 years for an officer to get promoted to captain and safely assume ice joined the navy somewhere around the late 70s early 80s, (flight school = 4years so pilots are immediately an Lt when they join the fleet and say it took ice somewhere between 3-4 years so get selected for topgun after that) it also fits the service timeline for getting promoted to captain.

And then after being promoted to captain, ice just gained promotion after promotion and ended up being promoted to COMPACFLT about 1-2 years before the events of TGM. (I hc ice was only on his first term during tgm and that since HE DOESNT DIE YALL, he would take office a second time to keep all maverick baby daggers out of trouble before becoming SECNAV after that.)

[mystical-marlin]

jewish iceman is a very important and special headcanon to me and i know that a lot of the fandom also has it, but what i haven't seen a lot of is jewish slider. kerner is a german jewish (Ashkenazic) last name, so i think jewish slider is such a good headcanon that i just don't see a lot of

give me slider and iceman who are determined to rise through the ranks to follow Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda's example!

give me slider and iceman who go back to the US Naval Academy for the ground breaking of the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish Chapel!

give me slider who helps ice plan a small bar mitzvah for bradley after they manage to get leave for his 13th birthday because he is ice's son just as much as he is maverick's!

give me slider and iceman sharing family recipes and teaching bradley how to make hamantaschen for Purim!

give me Admiral Kerner and Admiral Kazansky giving speeches for Yom HaShoah!

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Super bad quality but look at THIS!

Slider with (probably) nothing but a flight suit 😏

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I had a really bad migraine last night, but I've run out of everything except these hungarian pain killers my dad gave me 9 years ago, anyway I don't remember anything and I can't feel my tongue and the only thing in my search history is this

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In honour of the menstrual pad question- how would ASGZC (+the Turks) react if they had to help deliver a baby? 😁

Sephiroth: Calm, precise, and surprisingly knowledgable while everyone panics. "Labor can last anywhere from a few hours to over a day, but based on her current dilation—" *Everyone stares* "…What? Hojo made me study reproduction extensively. I've assisted in three live births. Of course, they were all lab specimens, but I assure you the baby will not be taken away to be dissected."

After delivering the baby and ensuring everything is stable, he looks down at the mother and says "You will need to maintain your attachment to the child. Do not leave it unattended. Do not die mysteriously and leave it to be raised by someone else."

Angeal: Absolutely glowing. More emotional than the mother. "You're doing amazing, just breathe, you've got this!" Then the baby crowns. He starts crying tears of joy. The mother is screaming. The moment the baby is born, Angeal grabs the kid and insists on holding them for way longer than is probably acceptable. If you try to take the baby from him, he gets very defensive.

Genesis: Acts like he knows what he's doing. "Ah, the miracle of life. A creation more profound than any verse, a testament to the enduring will of—" *the baby crowns* *genesis violently faints* He does not get up until the baby is already in someone else's arms.

Zack: Wild mix of enthusiasm and sheer panic. "Okay! Okay! We got this! You’re doing great—oh man, that's a lot of blood—okay, breathing, right, we're breathing!" *tries to help but is mostly bouncing around like an overexcited puppy* Then the baby actually starts coming. Zack freezes. His hands shoot up like he's trying to surrender to the situation itself. "OH. OH WOW. THAT'S A WHOLE—THAT'S—THAT'S HAPPENING—WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FUCKING STORK??"

Reno: "I did NOT sign up for this. Wait, did I sign up for this? Is this kid mine? NO IT'S NOT." *Halfheartedly fans the laboring person with a magazine while mostly looking like he wants to escape* "Where is the doctor? Shouldn't a doctor be here? No? Okay, cool, yeah, let's just deliver a whole-ass human today." By the time the baby arrives, Reno is in full panic mode and has 8 cigarettes in his mouth at once.

Rufus: Has never been this close to childbirth and is visibly displeased about it. "There are hospitals for this. Surely one of you has a phone?" Watches Tseng do everything.

Tseng: Rolls up sleeves. "Very well." *Delivers the baby with expertise, ensuring minimal distress for both parent and child* When asked where he learned this: "I've delivered many children in my time." Refuses to elaborate further.

Cloud: The second things start happening, Cloud surprisingly is the calmest person in the room. "Alright, someone get me hot water, towels, and a sturdy knife."

*Everyone stares at him*

Zack: WHY do you need a knife?

Cloud: For the umbilical cord. Or for protection in case a spirit tries to steal the baby. You know, standard birth precautions.

Zack: WHERE? Standard birth precautions WHERE?

Cloud: In Nibelheim? My mom was a midwife at one point. I know what I'm doing.

Cloud, to the mother: You're doing great. Deep breaths. Just like we do in the fields. If the baby's born under the full moon, they'll have the be rich. If it's storming, they'll be a warrior. If a crow caws three times, you have to name them after your grandmother or risk a bad harvest.

Zack: That doesn't even make sense!

Cloud, ignoring him: But if it's born with spiky hair, they're destined to be a hero.

Zack, fist pumping: Oh yeah!

[mystical-marlin]

Finding out the voice actors for Noctis and the other blond twink are gonna be at my local comic con in July is wild

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Kingdom Hearts is like what are you willing to do for your friends? What does it mean to be your own person? How do our circumstances shape us? What if Mickey Mouse went to the Dark World to defeat some time travelling multiplying old guy?

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Sitting here talking with one of my coworkers Scott, I’m totally stealing his stories for Things That Go Wonderfully Right or Horribly Wrong.

Which if you haven’t read, it’s a KH band AU kinda thing

Which needs a better title

[mystical-marlin]

Well those are allllmost done