staying still

Julia | AO3 | edits

[topgunbigbang]

Artist: @ghostlykiss Author: @intrepidjourneys Beta: @mxrcusflint Title: Blank Silhouettes of You

There are few things that Bradley truly regrets in life. The magic isn’t one of them. Falling in love in the first place isn’t one, either. A curse, a decision, and Bradley struggling with remembering it all.

see the full art and read the fic on ao3!

[intrepidjourneys]

Nettles - Ethel Cain

[intrepidjourneys]

I'll leave the porch light on. Porch Light - Noah Kahan

[roosterseresin]

take what you want from me

a hangster alpha x alpha pwp // 17.5k

bradley has wanted jake for a long time. he may never get over the shock of jake wanting another Alpha. having him is different from wanting him, though. probably better. but maybe more difficult.

[read on ao3]

[mxrcusflint]

NFL AU Bradley and Jake at Jake’s parent’s lake house, grilling and sipping lemonade, Mimzy running around trying to get a bite of a hot dog. Jake’s got a tan line on his thigh that Bradley wants to bite on. Bradley’s got a backwards hat on and fiddling around with the sunscreen. They’re going to go back into the lake to escape the heat once lunch is done and once the beers wear off a little, and Mimzy is going to smell like wet dog so she’s going to need a shower, but they’re settled and happy and enjoying the off season.

[hangmanbradshaw]

the house don't fall when the bones are good on ao3

explicit, complete, 2/2, fake dating AU

Bradley is ready to go home. Not to Chicago and certainly not to the Lake of the Ozarks, but the Wright Resort project is the ticket that will get him back to California. All he has to do is convince a town to approve a resort they all hate...while working with his ex's family. Luckily, the hot, local Marina owner might be the solution to both problems. Jake Seresin is the perfect candidate to help him- just insane enough to do it, a man who knows the people, and most of all, not a risk to Bradley's heart. After all, there's no world where they'd ever work for real.

Or

Bradley's a Project Manager for a big firm in Chicago, his ex is a wannabe midwestern Hilton who thinks he should run for office, Jake isn't just a dockhand, and there are definitely raccoons plotting Bradley's demise. Love isn't always easy, but it is damn simple.

aka the architect learns that home isn't a place, but the people in it fic

[exhuastedpigeon]

match my freak or perish

[exhuastedpigeon]

[roosterseresin]

jake putting on 'slow ride' to tease bradley and that song being 8 minutes is actually insane. you ever just put on an 8 minute song full of sexual innuendos just to tease your coworker????????????

[unicornships]

just a collection of scenes in Top Gun: Maverick where most of the young pilots are together in the room. btw, notice how Jake / Hangman always tend to sit at the front row of the class….just like Maverick would (with Goose) in the first movie. overachievers or teacher’s pet? xD

[dirchristophernolan]

Valeria Luiselli, Faces in the Crowd

[mxrcusflint]

delusions of grandeur

aka jake losing his mind over a crush, 1k of pure crack Jake: dude I'm in this briefing and I can't look at him Javy: are you texting in front of Cyclone? Jake: It's either this or grinning like an idiot Jake: it's just me, my crush, and his ugly mustache

read more on AO3

[touchysoft]

My favorite thing about the tgm script and the movie is that Bradley is already dead.

Maverick keeps seeing him as a ghost and keeps telling him, You're dead! during training.

Like Bradley has already died before he has even begun to live. And that's why Maverick pulled his papers. He doesn't see Bradley as a real person. He's never allowed Bradley to be his own person.

So many instances of Bradley being framed as if he were a dead character being remembered by the living. Or a ghost someone is seeing. He's called a ghost in the script. And described in ways that you would describe someone who is dead. He's someone's memory, not a living person. "Maverick looks past Rooster." He's not seeing Rooster. He's looking past him, as if he were a ghost he can see through.

"Rooster just stares at him." As if he were a ghost haunting Maverick, looking at him. How does Maverick respond to Rooster doing this? He tells Rooster, "Why are you dead?"

Bradley is "a little ghost in natural colors" following Maverick around. (Phrase borrowed from Lolita by Nabokov).

There's a line he says to Maverick, "Everything's dead back here." And we see a gaping black hole where Goose used to control the other half of the plane with Maverick.

Orpheus and Eurydice. Bradley comes back for Maverick. Maverick saves Bradley. But Bradley is already dead.

[mxrcusflint]

Ice shows up at Slider's doorstep the night before he's about to get married, and it's the right thing they're choosing to do here – unsaid, unbidden, there's no path forward for both of them in the navy if they act on the feelings even if the feelings exist.

it's just – you fly with a man and the same guy is going to be your best man, and you love a woman and she's amazing, and he knows that, and that's the easy path forward for the rest of your respective lives. and Slider's got a girl he's going to be happy with. because you've both talked about, in as much as you can.

but you show up at the doorstep anyways and nothing happens, because it almost feels juvenile to, but there's a hunger to just laying down next to him so you can feel his breath rising and falling on the mattress besides you, the way its been since the Academy and on every deployment, the way it is in the cockpit when he's behind you and you know that that's where your other half is really tethered.

he's leaving the navy at the end of year anyways. you've gotta have kids and settle down, anyways. but before the shoes are polished and the whites are on, before you exchange vows and unlink from the best partnership you've ever known, you allow yourself to be greedy one more time.

[intrepidjourneys]

Happy birthday!!! Hope you’re having a day as amazing as you are!!! 🎉🎊😁

hi this is so sweet I'm sorry I missed it! thank you!! rip to gemini szn </3

[mxrcusflint]

At the Water's Edge

post-college road trip, hangster, 12k, and a very early birthday gift for @intrepidjourneys 💙

“Let’s go to New York tomorrow,” Jake said into the dark of the motel room as he worked a hand around Bradley’s waist.  It wouldn’t have been a road trip if they didn’t hit the city. Bradley hadn’t been back since Thanksgiving with Nat, spent getting high in the East Village as a means to avoid thinking about what they were going to do with the rest of their lives. “Okay,” Bradley replied. Jake kissed his cheek, and then Bradley fell asleep almost immediately.

Read on AO3

[mxrcusflint]

Happy Holidays! a short additional ficlet for this verse 🎄

[mxrcusflint]

As is tradition, a (belated) happy birthday to @intrepidjourneys and a Chapter 3 of At the Water's Edge rounds out the original plan for this fic, and is here ♥️

[mxrcusflint]

i love dropping diabolical plot ideas in @intrepidjourneys's dms and then bouncing

[ltjakeseresin]

in honor of Cars turning 20… Top Gun characters as Cars characters. first up we have Natasha “Phoenix” Trace as Lightning McQueen⚡️⚡️