Conditions of Absolute Reality by StarlingDust | @starling-dust
E | 26k | hangster | Getting Together, Canonical Character Death, Lack of Communication, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Summary: The moment they’d bundled Bradley into the medical bay and the heady cocktail of elation and relief and pride had quieted its song in his bloodstream, a strange sense of detachment had descended on him. Two weeks later, it still hasn’t lifted. Bradley feels like he’s been watching the world from behind a thick pane of frosted glass—everything muffled and faraway and just beyond his reach.
If anything, the nightmares are a relief, because at least they feel real.
Maybe it’s his mind trying to protect itself from the trauma. Maybe the bailout rattled his brain harder than anyone realised. Maybe, he thinks, letting his head fall to one side to catch a glimpse of the unfamiliar landscape peeking through the gap in the curtains, it’s just the surreality of everything that’s come after. Like ending up here, in Jake Seresin's childhood home.
I read this fic at the cusp of the New Year and I fell in love immediately. It's so completely believable, capturing the authentic fallout of canon events as well as creating side-characters so well-rounded and full of life you'll feel like you know them.
It's a gorgeous meditation on Bradley and how loss and the anticipation of loss has shaped him, and how the sparkling-jagged dynamic between him and Jake could soften into something safe enough to make a future in. It also explores the kind of Jake that exists outside of the context of Top Gun and aviation; he's exactly himself but so much more, too.
To quote from my comment: It's a tender, warm, aching, grief-and-hope-filled fic, and it was a genuine joy to read.
Go forth to read, and delight, and comment!
Created as part of the inaugural @fanartfrenzy - this is for the ‘describe a perfume line for any fic' option!
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
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titsay
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2087
baratheonpilled
origamiaround
