an effin disaster

I just found two, in french, I might make one if anyone is interested

Just because he knows what it's like to know no one is coming and still hope that someone will show up - and to be proven right. And he doesn't want Bradley to know that too.

It doesn't make Bradley forgive him. It makes him fucking pissed, actually. It makes him cry too, later, when he gets too drunk celebrating with his classmates and realizes that Mav pulled his papers but he still showed up.

wild mood swings

constant need for attention

hearing about All my problems

crying

having my latest hyperfixation explained to you in excruciating detail

On the ground though? Yeah, he'll do everything textbook -- so long as it keeps him flying. But a guy who is willing to cause a class laughter by coughing "bullshit" into his fist as another student explains his process to their instructor is not a guy who is concerned with being a teacher's pet. I've seen it around here, so I'm not the first to note this, but honestly Ice looks bored in the classes. Hell he spends half his class staring at Maverick. The difference between Ice and Maverick is that Ice does care enough to know the rules and can be compliant when it suits his goals. Maverick will blatantly disregard rules he doesn't agree with and doesn't know when to keep a lid on his own perspective.

(Side note - People who climb the military ladder, I imagine as I do not personally know, don't do so merely by keeping their head down -- Ice has to take risks and challenges that get him noticed, which sometimes means pissing off people, with which how often he's a brat to Maverick he is clearly capable of doing. I think the difference between Ice and Maverick is that Ice knows how to play the game and knows when is the right time to piss off people and knows how to do it within the regulations and best tactics. Maverick -- Maverick can't keep an opinion to himself, and does things he feels are the right thing to do, regardless of the consequences. )

Also going based off of other knowledge I've seen on tumblr explaining what the Academy is which Ice apparently went to, it's (allegedly) a pretty prestigious school that's hard to get into. Which makes me think, personally, that Ice had exceptional grades for a long time, and probably even did advanced physics and aerodynamics already. These classes might be even easy for him, or at least nothing new. He pays attention as much as he needs to, but for the most part, he's already got it. (I personally like to headcanon that he would regularly get best scores on exams while at the Academy, or maybe even had a friendly competition with Cougar as to who would be the best academically, and maybe even helped tutor other students -- which would be a decent precursor to him being a teacher at TOPGUN)

Which I think is why Ice finds Maverick so compelling. Maverick gets all this, seems to be a damn good visualizer, and he didn't go to the academy. Ice worked his ass off, but Maverick had to overcome genuine barriers due to his family history, and did so while doing absolutely off the wall shit that Ice would have never even considered. The thing that draws Ice to Maverick? Maverick is the farthest thing from boring. Even if he is lying about flying upside down -- which despite Ice saying "bullshit" I think at least part of that is just reactive disbelief because holy shit, what if he actually did? -- it's still entertaining. Breaks up from the monotony. Catches his attention.

And then when he watches Maverick fly and realizes, jesus christ, he probably did fly his plane upside down. He flew his plane upside down and taunted the shit out of the enemy. And because this is the 80s, and toxic masculinity, instead Ice channels that feeling of kind of awe into antagonism because how else is he going to do it. So he asks Maverick, "who was covering Cougar while you were showboating?"

And the thing is that Maverick takes it in stride. He listens pretty politely. honestly, I think he notices the fact that Ice -- Goose's proclaimed "best" -- is paying attention to him. Even if it is by being an asshole, it doesn't stop the fact that Ice doesn't do that to anyone else. He keeps to his lane. They're teammates, they're all on the same side, but other than Slider it doesn't seem like Ice takes much of a personal interest in anyone. But he does in Maverick.

It's the fascination that makes the Icemav for me. The intrigue. Maverick asking Goose who he thinks is the best, and Goose points out Iceman, and Iceman backs it up because he flies textbook perfectly. Iceman having heard about Maverick, acknowledging that Mav and Goose were notorious, and discovering why and being compelled by it. The rivalry between the two that comes from really, being two sides of the same coin. They both want to fly, badly. They both want to be the best. They both have very different understandings and beliefs of how one becomes that, and even what the best means. They both recognize that the other is a threat to their own goal. And once the competition is over -- well. Damn. Who else do they want on their wing than this person who has earned their respect, impressed them, who they've come to understand, and with whom went through so much together?

It's one of the last few things we can have as a society that's free. You can engage, for free. People give you things (art, stories, etc), for free.

Don't buy into the consummerism just because it's everywhere else.

You don't have to consume everything you interact with. You don't have to use things, just because they exist.

You're allowed (still, for now), to have things that are enjoyable for free.

Do you realise how insane the world is? We don't have many places where we can just be, for free anymore, but ao3 is. Did you notice we don't have ads in ao3? We don't have pop ups? Where ELSE do we not have that?

Where else can you just go and not have to wait for a commercial to be over or for ads to be on the sidelines?

I don't think the younger people understand, but the whole of internet used to be like this. YouTubers would do Youtube for free, just because. You couldn't monetise your internet presence before.

Ao3 is like a little preserved corner of the internet where the old internet used to be, and it's being attacked by people who do not understand that free things are allowed to exist without judgment.

Please don't ruin this for us.

> borrow

> click read with epub

>download the acsm file

>de-drm the acsm file with calibre (make sure you have the acsm plugin installed first)

Calibre

Calibre ACSM plugin

Calibre NoDRM plugin

Download all of the above, run calibre, go to "preferences" and scroll down to plugins

Select "load plugin from file" (you will need to extract the NoDRM zip but not the ACSM) and load the zips

For DeACSM you'll need to log in using Adobe (you can use a free account for this). To log in, find DeACSM under "File types" in the plugins window and double click on it and log in with your Adobe credentials

Restart calibre

*reluctant sigh*

*scrolls back up*