They’re Both #1

He really thought he could use the clout of this interview as a leverage to instrumentalise her against the people and especially women in his own country. He wanted to pit her against the women in Iran protesting for their freedom - and conceal the international solidarity from them. He wanted to show off his power and she said no.

A Meeting by Wendell Berry

In a dream I meet

my dead friend. He has,

I know, gone long and far,

and yet he is the same

for the dead are changeless.

They grow no older.

It is I who have changed,

grown strange to what I was.

Yet I, the changed one,

ask: 'How you been?'

He grins and looks at me.

'I been eating peaches

off some mighty fine trees.'

If you can watch the last few minutes of Vincent and the Doctor without bawling you and I are not the same

This is the great love, this is the love lost, this is the love found again. This is the reason to continue fighting and to go the ends of the earth for the person, the thing that you love. [For Carol], it’s her best friend and her best friend’s daughter. Which to me, that’s so natural. I went and saw the movie with some people and it was like an hour later and they were like ‘Oh, Maria’s the love!’ and I was like 'Yeah!’. ― Brie Larson (x)

Everyone talks about Maverick and Iceman unofficially adopting the Dagger Squad, but can we take a second to consider: Cool Gay Uncle™ Slider? I mean, obviously Slider and Ice were super close (I just watched Top Gun again, and Slider seems like the protective older brother), so when Ice (or Mav) mentions adopting the Dagger Squad, Slider is just like ‘hell yeah’ and becomes the Cool Gay Uncle™

jakes about an hour late to the latest iceman-maverick (icemav for short, as phoenix has coined) barbecue, so he’s just passing through the kitchen, not even thinking as he tosses out an easy “hey pops,” to the hosts on his way towards the doors to the backyard.

two voices call back in response. “hey kid.” “good to see you jake.”

he feels the pause. his hand hovers uncertainly over the door handle. slowly, he turns.

iceman and maverick, happily married couple, have suspended all kitchenly duties to glare at each other. “he was talking to me.”

“no, he was talking to me.”

“everyone calls me pops,” ice says, eyes narrowed. “bradley calls me pops. mickey calls me pops. even cyclone called me pops that one time that was embarrassing for all of us.”

maverick waves a hand at ice, the hand also wielding a knife he was using to chop watermelon. “yeah, but jake calls me pops. he called me pops before he knew you. that gives me pops rights.”

jakes debating just slipping out the door when they both turn towards him. in unison like good wingmen.

“jake, buddy, sport, slugger, who were you talking to?”

he offers a shrug. “uh, both of you, i guess.” it’s the truth, he wasn’t thinking too hard about it, his mind focused on getting to the backyard where he has it on good authority that his loving boyfriend is sweaty and shirtless and waiting for someone to share his lawn chair with.

ice purses his lips. “that won’t do.”

“we can’t both be pops,” maverick agrees. “that’s ridiculous.”

“right,” jake says, “that’s what’s ridiculous about this.”

“a challenge then,” ice forges on, ignoring him. “to determine who’s the better pops.”

solemn as their air boss, maverick sticks his hand out (sans knife) to shake on it. in some funhouse mirror reflection of that one photograph that seems to be everywhere, ice clasps his hand back.

and jake is somewhere between laughing, running, and bursting into tears. because no sane person has ever had this argument before and certainly not over him. nobody’s ever fought to be jake seresin’s pops before.

no one except these two ridiculous, crazy old men.

I was listening to Motion Sickness by Phoebe Bridgers and the line I hate you for what you did, and I miss you like a little kid is 100% Rooster about Maverick

Sitting in front of a cake with 40 birthday candles on it, it's probably one of the weirdest experiences of Bradley's life. Not because he didn't think he was going to get forty, but because there were so many people around him singing and hugging him, passing him presents and taking photos of the event that it baffled him a little. Uncle Tom and Uncle Pete are there too, and that's another reason why his eyes are a little wet; he spent so much time being angry with them, and now they're here, on the other side of the table, drinking beers and laughing with the rest of the squad. At forty, Uncle Tom had been raising Bradley since 1988. He was married to Mav, and their little family was all they had to celebrate, and most of the men he called, calls, uncle were around the world. They are still around the world, but their presents and their birthday videos are there, and they will be around, in person, at least once a week. They, his uncles and his squadron, are his family now, and they're enough to not fit on his two hands when he counts them all. He makes Bradley's heart beat a little faster, and all he feels is happiness.

When he blows the candles, he wishes for another thousand birthdays like this.

(He falls asleep, drunk and exhausted, hugging Jake in the middle of the other twelve people, and Logan is hugging him. He knows his head and back won't thank him in the morning, but he's safe, and the blankets around him make it all warm and cozy. Bradley couldn't ask for a better birthday.)

“oh we don’t wanna consume problematic media–” i unironically think everyone should consume problematic media at some point in their life. obviously not to say that people should monetarily support hp or aot or that, but i think it teaches you critical thinking skills when you say “yeah, objectively kingdom hearts has a lot of issues with the writing of their female characters” instead of “if you play kingdom hearts you’re a sexist”, you know?

I have this idea that Rooster was raised by his mom (and Maverick) with the sort-of-old-fashioned, sort-of-nice manners of “you tone down the swearing when there are women around”. (It may really be something he got more from Mav than Carole)

It occasionally manifests as a little voice in his head telling him to not swear (or apologize when he swears) in front of Phoenix, but he knows she’d hate it if he did that. So he ignores the voice.

And then one day during training, while he and Phoenix and Bob and maybe a couple others are sitting around, he cusses at something. And he gets that impulse. Only this time, he doesn’t completely ignore it. He channels it sideways into a little joke, and says “Apologies, Bob.”

And Bob – who still hasn’t quite found his footing in the group, still doesn’t talk much – inclines his head graciously, and smiles a small smile at being included in Rooster’s dumb joke.

So Rooster starts doing it on purpose.

And then Phoenix picks it up, and then Fanboy, and Payback, and then everyone else, until by the end of the week when someone hits the simulated mountain, on the radio you’ll hear stuff like “goddamn sonovabitch sorry Bob fucking shit”