#echos echo chamber

[echoric]

Iceman: *slips and almost falls on a patch of ice*

Iceman: Not a word out of your mouth, Mitchell.

Maverick: I didn’t even say anything!

Iceman: You were thinking it too loudly, asshole.

[echoric]

Iceman: I will end you. Maverick: Try it pretty boy. Iceman: ... Maverick: ...ugly boy

[echoric]

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!

[echoric]

Bob: I feel like I'm the only responsible one here. Phoenix: That's because you are. Hangman: And we love that for you.

[echoric]

trans iceman who is scared of needles so he asks the others to do his t shot for him

this is so canon in my trans iceman truthing heart </3

Goose knew first - he met Iceman in the Academy and with his Mother Goose tendencies, he was the first person to get under that ice cold exterior that Kazansky always put up. He noticed how Ice would never change in front of the others, how he always showered last and was the first to the locker rooms in the morning, already in PT gear and warming up before anyone else even showed up. There was one day when he woke up early, couldn't get back to sleep, and decided to go to the locker room to get an easy warm up in before PT would start - and he promptly had a shoe thrown at his head while Ice scrambled for his shirt. They had a talk, Goose was sworn to secrecy, and a few weeks later, Iceman appeared at his door with a vial and a question and Goose was more than willing to help.

Slider was second - he met Iceman fresh out of the Academy, but he had known about the infamous pilot for years before that thanks to Goose. He knew about the prickly exterior and the walls that would take patience to get through, but he wasn't put off by the glares and the icy attitude. They flew together, and slowly, that icy persona started to melt and Slider saw Tom peeking through. It was only a matter of time before they changed in front of each other, they bunked together after all. Ice told him to close his eyes, and he did - just thinking it was another one of the pilot's quirks - but when Ice told him to open his eyes again, the first thing he saw were the large twin scars on his chest. And Slider might've freaked out because he had no idea what they were, but once Ice explained, he held his hand out for the vial before Ice could even ask - he'd been through enough medical check ups after flights and missions to know that the man hated needles.

Hollywood and Wolfman were the next to learn - entirely by accident. They were messing around in the locker room at Top Gun after a hop because they were the first two back after getting shot down in almost record time, just throwing shit at each other and trying to smack the other with their towel. Ice and Slider are the next to in, both looking pissed and ready to kill - and Hollywood and Wolfman exchanged a single look before calming down their chatter. Ice opened his locker with more force than normal, and something fell out onto the ground and rolled over to Hollywood's foot. He tried to pick it up, but Slider was darting forward to grab it before he could, and Hollywood makes a face - "Dude, steroids are so bad for your heart, you're going to kill your career." Slider is about to tell him off when Ice stops him with a nervous glance, and Hollywood and Wolfman are added to the roster of people more than willing to help Ice with his monthly injection.

Sundown and Chipper never learn outright - but they have their suspicions. When a drunk Slider gets into a bar fight bad enough that the civilian ended up in a hospital bed and Ice ended up bailing Slider out of jail, there was a quiet understanding throughout the entire group. Some drunk prick making a snide comment about Ice's appearance was enough to set all of them on the defensive. Sundown and Chipper might not have known why, but they had their brother's back regardless. They noticed after that incident, Ice seemed to lower his guard a bit more around them.

Maverick was the last to know - and it was completely intentional. In fact, Ice was willing and hoping to go to his grave without Maverick knowing. The only reason he ended up learning was when Ice finally cracked and slammed him against the wall of their shared bunk room on a carrier. It was all heat and passion and years of built up tension crashing down at once around them, and it took only a few seconds for Maverick to rip Ice's shirt off - and then there was an icy chill colder than the Arctic ocean washing over Ice as he saw Maverick's eyes catch on the scars. Ice was ready to get told off, to get thrown out of their room, and dishonorably discharged from the Navy after so many years of careful work to purge any F from his files. But Maverick's hands were burning hot against the scars, tracing them with a concern and care that Ice had never felt before. They said the bare minimum amount of words so Maverick understood the situation, and then they didn't leave their bunk room until they were almost late for breakfast. None of the others commented on how they both carefully adjusted the collars of the flight suit - but money was definitely passed between hands.

[echoric]

more incorrect top gun quotes

(still taken from my collection of quotes from my friends and overheard at college)

Fanboy: You're putting a band-aid where? Hangman: The man already said it once, he needs a band-aid for his coochie!

Coyote: Woah...did you know the Norwegian navy has barcodes on each ship? Hangman: What? How is that related to our data numbers? Coyote: It's so they can scandinavian. Hangman: Get the fuck out of my study group.

Bob: When you start bleeding from the eyes, note to self: bad sign! Stop what you are doing!

Hangman: *ranting about the topic of the morning lecture* Rooster: How strange...I don't see a soap box, and yet.

Phoenix: You have said cockroaches way too many times for ten minutes. Stop. Payback: Ok. So, Malagasy hissing cocks-

Maverick: I just want a blond to be stabbed. Ice: Why do you want me to be stabbed?? Goose: Blonde with an 'e', dumbass. Slider: He knows a woman?

Coyote: I have great timing when it comes to moms.

Hangman: I'll be right back Rooster, I gotta go fuck your mom Rooster: Ew, I didn't know you were into necrophilia. Hangman: Hold on- Phoenix: That's how you tell us you're an orphan?!

Ice: I will kill you. Maverick: Try it pretty boy. Ice: ... Maverick: ...ugly boy

Phoenix: Friendship? Ended. Trust? Broken. Bob? A cunt. Fanboy: Woah, what did he do? Bob: I passed the exam. Fanboy: You're the one who ruined our curve? Man, I'm with her on this one.

[echoric]

they were never meant to last. not in this world, not in that time.

one was glacial ice carved by discipline and duty, the other was a flame of recklessness that never stopped long enough to see the embers settle in his wake. they met in the sky, where competition was another word for devotion, and every near miss, every quick save felt like a confession neither could make.

they call it rivalry. they call it respect.

but in the spaces between - the stolen glances, the lingering smirks, the heavy moments of silence - they built something fragile, something inevitable,

and yet love is not always a jet that is cleared to land.

not when the uniform stood for more than the body inside it. not when walls had ears and rumors could kill a career faster than a missile, not when the law turned silence into the only option for survival. a simple phrase, a loaded gun.

they never could speak of it. never dared to. because speaking would make it real - and real things had real consequences.

so they pushed it down.

turned feeling into friction, let the longing sharpen into a blade they wielded against each other because fighting is easier and safer than admitting what was beneath it. because it was easier to be enemies than lovers, safer to let the world believe it was about ego, not amity.

and maybe they could have lasted like that forever. maybe they could have stayed locked in a perfect tension, safe in silence.

but fire and ice were never meant to last. one had to let go, to move on.

because the thing about staying quiet? eventually, the silence becomes unbearable. and the thing about ice is that it doesn't just cool - it preserves. long after the fire has burned on to greater things, long after engines have gone silent, Ice remembers.

remembers the way it was to be seen, to be challenged, to be known in a way no one else dared to know him. remembers how they flew so closely to the edge, how they danced on a line that neither of them dared cross. how the air between them was always charged, always waiting for something that would never come.

but fate is cruel to those who burn. who melt and freeze with no return. no sky could ever be big enough to hold them both.

not then. not them.

one was ice, one was fire. one would always burn hotter, one would always stay frozen.

in the end, fire left first - because fire always does. but Ice stayed. because that's what ice does - it holds, it lingers, it keeps. and long after the embers had faded into the horizon, the echo of a laugh was carried on the wind.

love was never a fair thing. in the beginning, one of them was always going to have to leave.