celestial14

[celestial14]

Top Gun: The Gay Agenda (A Goose’s Lament)🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

1986, Miramar, California.

Nick "Goose" Bradshaw was a patient man. A devoted husband. A loving father. A steady RIO. A rock. But as he sat in the locker room, towel around his neck, while Pete "Maverick" Mitchell ranted in full, barely-repressed-gay-glory about one Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, Goose realized something truly chilling:

He was going to die surrounded by idiots.

"—and he's got these stupid, pretty blue eyes, Goose. Like—like oceans. Judgy, Arctic oceans. And his jaw? What the hell? It's like Michelangelo carved it himself. It's infuriating. He’s got these annoyingly capable hands and this silky, mocking voice like a villainous opera ghost, and he—he thinks he’s better than me just because he’s tall and broad and slim and hot! And don’t get me started on that beauty mark—I wanna punch his stupid angel face and kiss it at the same time and that’s messed up, right?!"

Goose stared at his best friend for a long, harrowed moment. “Mav.”

“What?”

“Sweetheart. You're in love with Iceman.”

Maverick blinked at him.

Goose turned, stood, and walked directly out of the locker room to call his wife.

That night, at the Bradshaw’s house, Carole, radiant queen of his universe, cackled like a banshee as Goose paced.

“I’m telling you, babe,” Goose moaned, massaging his temples. “It’s mutual. I overheard Iceman call him a ‘stupid green-eyed cutie.’ That’s not combat language, Carole, that’s foreplay!”

Carole nearly dropped the baby.

“I have spent weeks, WEEKS, keeping those two from killing each other or accidentally making out on the flight deck! And now? Now I have to make sure I knock before entering the locker room or I’ll walk in on Maverick’s legs around Iceman’s waist again! There were noises, Carole. Noises. I need hazard pay.”

But for all his complaints and grumblings, Goose was happy for his friends. And for himself, because, at last, he could put an end to the saga of emotionally repressed gay pilots.

He must have suspected this wasn't the case.

Goose never thought he’d be grateful for witnessing one emotionally-repressed Navy homoerotic slow burn resolve into a marriage, but the peace that settled after Ice and Mav tied the knot was glorious. Until…

The Phone Call.

“Hey, Dad?” Bradley’s voice, now grown and inflected with slight frustration, echoed through the line.

Goose smiled warmly. “Hey, kiddo. How’s flight school?”

“Fine. Mostly. Except this one guy—Jake Seresin. Ugh. He’s got these stupid pretty green eyes and this smug beautiful smile and he talks in this Texas drawl like he’s hot or something—he’s got dimples, Dad. Dimples. I swear, I wanna punch his annoyingly handsome face right in the—"

Goose froze. The coffee cup slipped from his hand in slow motion.

“Carole,” he whispered, handing over the phone like it was a live grenade. “Talk to your son about his OBVIOUS crush for Seresin. I—I can’t go through this again.”

On the other end: “WHAT?! It’s not a crush! I don’t even like him! He thinks he’s so slick just because he—he flies like he was born in a cockpit and he’s always—NO, MOM, STOP LAUGHING—this is serious!”

Goose was already on the other line, calling Iceman and Maverick.

“You DID this to him!”

Goose’s furious screech could probably be heard from orbit.

Maverick’s laughter came in unholy wheezing bursts, while he tried to say: “Technically, Goose, we never corrupted him. He’s just… following in our flightpath.”

“YOU TAUGHT HIM TO CRASH INTO GAY FEELINGS AT MACH THREE!”

Maverick wheezed, “I’m so proud of the kid. He’s even ranting like me!”

Iceman took the phone. “Hi, Goose.”

“Don’t you ‘Hi Goose’ me, Ice Prince of Gay Pining! This is your fault too!”

Iceman reply, calm and dry. “We accept full responsibility for corrupting your son. We’ll send a fruit basket. And tissues.”

“You cursed my bloodline with emotionally constipated, pilot-loving disaster men! You infected my son with your drama! Now he's as emotionally constipated as you two assholes”

Maverick gasped. “Goose. Goose. Did you just say that out loud?! Honey!”

“DON’T 'HONEY' ME, DEAR. I HATE YOU BOTH. I WANT NEW FRIENDS.”

“You’ll never do better,” Ice said serenely.

Carole could be heard in the background, howling.

Goose thought it couldn't get worse.

Until it did. Until it happened.

The Closet Incident

A week later, Goose received a call from Admiral Ron "Slider" Kerner. Current CO of NAS Pensacola. Goose braced for a tragedy.

“Hey, Goose. Slider here.”

Goose immediately felt dread.

“You're not going to like this, but—well—I just found Bradley and….”

Silence.

And then…

Goose isn't sure he heard correctly, but he swears something sounded like a dog choking on a bone. Was Slider choking?

“Bradshaw!” Slider chortled. “You’re not gonna believe this—I just caught your Gosling and Seresin in a storage closet. Doing things. Noises, Nick. NOISES”

Goose blue screen. He must have misheard Slider. He prayed he did.

“Say again?”. Please, PLEASE, tell me I heard wrong. Goose was at his wits' end, and he was sure this was just his imagination playing tricks on him. Trauma response. A form of PTSD. That must be it.

Instead: “Bradley and Jake. Storage closet. Caught them mid-thrust. Jake saluted me while still having your son inside him. Just thought you’d want the full picture, Admiral Dad.”

Goose screamed into a pillow for eleven minutes and then started therapy.

He was absolutely billing Iceman and Maverick.

After Slider's call (which the entire Top Gun '86 class knew about, thanks to Slider and Maverick), Goose was confident nothing worse could happen. Sure, the call he had with Bradley where they discussed guidelines for proper conduct regarding storage closets use in the Navy was awkward, but now everything was back to normal...sort of.

And then it happened again. On an ordinary day, a bomb landed on Admiral Nick "Goose" Bradshaw's desk.

In the form of a letter.

Dear Admiral Bradshaw,

Please accept my formal apology for the incident in the supply closet. While our timing was… unprofessional, my feelings for Bradley are entirely sincere.

I'd like to take this opportunity to officially ask for your blessing to have a relationship with your son (even though we've already had sex—again, sorry for the inconvenience—and we've done other things).

I really care about Bradley; he's perfect. I want you to know that I will always treat Bradley like the prince he is, because I'm sure your son is becoming my world.

I promise to always be the best version of myself for your son, because that's what he deserves. He makes me want to be better. To fly better. He's my wingman. And I will always take care of his wing.

Also, Bradley told me that you're close to Admiral Kerner (and I must confess that you and your friends intimidate me), so could you ask him to stop making faces and sounds every time he sees me? I'm worried he'll die of suffocation from laughing so much.

Respectfully,

Jake “Hangman” Seresin.

Goose practically ran the entire way home. Read the letter to Carole. Then together, they called Maverick and Iceman and read it again.

As Carole read the letter (and cried with laughter) Goose stared off into space like a man haunted by the ghosts of his past and Maverick could practically be heard on the floor laughing (gasping for air) Iceman, always composed and serene, said: “I like him. He asked permission. Good manners.”

Goose, finally out of his trance, said, "Iceman, you're paying for my therapy forever, man. This is worse than when I had to listen to you read poetry to Maverick while we were on the USS Enterprise.”

Iceman: “Fair.”

And so Admiral Goose Bradshaw carried on, wiser, wearier, and only mildly traumatized. He had survived the IceMav saga, and now the BradleyJake operation was well underway.

Sometimes, he looked up at the stars, wondering if future Bradshaws would continue this glittering, chaotic legacy of falling for their cocky flyboy nemesis.

He prayed not.

But just in case?

He increased the Navy’s mental health budget.

And added “Emotional Disaster Preparedness” to flight school training.

[celestial14]

oh im worried. im so so worried. i have several conflicting emotions rn and im so so worried.

[celestial14]

Do you think Little Pomelo would become fan of The Commoner because he sees in him what he once saw in Yang Cheng

[celestial14]

shangxiacheng commission for @silencedfalcon 🌼

transcript ;

Shang Chao: Don't worry about it. Trust me. You'll be a really great hero.

Xia Qing: You have this.

Yang Cheng: My armor?

Shang Chao: Your boobs

Xia Qing: Your heart

[celestial14]

An au where Lin Ling got hired as Ms. J's assistant

[celestial14]

israel bombed another hospital in gaza. this did not get the same coverage or reaction that the bombing of the first hospital in gaza received. i feel like this is because this cruelty and inhumanity has become normal.

what does the normalisation of a hospital bombing say about our world? i don't think that the cruelty and suffering faced by people in gaza should silently be accepted by everyone.

i think that all of us should be doing all that we can to support the people in gaza. we have ways to help a population undergoing a genocide, it's best to use those.

so please have heart and consider helping a family with two young children survive this genocide. every tiny bit helps. their fundraiser is verified.

donate here

[celestial14]

X’s cards, birds, coins, and finger snapping… Is he some kind of magician? And that’s why he’s so powerful. People believe he can do magic.

can’t access the rest of the article linked above coz I don’t have a subscription, but this part was interesting

[celestial14]

ok. idk if anyone has posted about this yet but i was reminded of it by @miyamiwu 's post so. gonna talk about it myself

thinking about zero from E soul's pv....what does it all mean

[celestial14]

oh im worried. im so so worried. i have several conflicting emotions rn and im so so worried.

[celestial14]

TBHX SPOILERS

I'M ALIVE AND DEAD AGAIN

AND SOMEONE ELSE IS ALSO DEAD. WONDERFUL.

It was interesting to see Yang Cheng struggle with his powers at first. Maybe because it wasn't originally his own, but power borrowed from the original E-Soul, so it felt unnatural in his own body until he established his own E-Soul identity?

Also, what is the old E-Soul's deal? It seems like he's retired, after all, 34 years in the hero industry is not for the weak, yet it seems like people are still expecting him to go fight. He seems to be a fairly good person right now, but his manager on the other hand...just trying to do his job, ig.

The support that both Shang Chao and Xia Qing have for Yang Cheng is so sweet, but then ONE OF THEM HAD TO GO DIE. rip loverboy, may you rest in peace.

The two kidnapping bozos from the last ep made a reappearance and then swiftly got disproven by the Enlightener. But that made me wonder how the info got sent to the news so fast. In a world filled with super-powered people fueled by public image, I wonder if that makes more news quicker and more open to everyone. Also, I wonder what rank Enlightener is back then? This is 5 years before Lin Ling, and he seems to have changed a bit from searching for the truth to searching for the truth by exposing his fellow heroes. Perhaps he just had a vendetta against Nice? Maybe he, like X, had grown tired of the commercialism of heroes? Either way, I feel like something must've happened.

Additionally, of course there's Trust value discrimination. :(

The main thing is how the original E-Soul views all of this. He's mostly secure in his image and brand, I think, but after seeing the trailer for the next ep, he can't just idly sit by and do nothing. ALSO WHAT IS WITH THAT TRAILER. WHAT IS YANG CHENG THINKING. WHY.

ALSO WE STILL DON'T KNOW WHO WANTED TO KIDNAP THE CHILD????

[celestial14]

cw for eyestrain and eye contact, I think?

Surely X could qualify as an eldritch being right....?

(okay maybe I just wanted an excuse to draw him with tentacles and too many eyes)

[celestial14]

X wasn't sure how late it was.

It hardly mattered, anyway. Work finished when he finished work. There wasn't a set time for this anymore. Here to there, to and from, he often had to pull strings to turn his 10-6 into a 6-10. His boss hadn't commented. So long as the work got done, he supposed.

3 hours of ad reads. 2 hours of sleep.

How absurd was that?

8 hours of office work. 3 hours of ad reads. 1 hour of business correspondance. 4 hours of housework, of transport, of filling out tax forms and signing important legal documents.

2 hours of sleep.

X felt his head loll as if it were only suspended by a frail string, gravity's influence seeming to double. It had to be late, so late. It had to be later than 12. It would be okay to sleep, just for a bit. He could be better, then. Do more. Create more. Produce more.

On the left monitor, a familiar news article stared back at him. 7 hours old now. Nice, the presumed rank 10 hero, was dead. Had been dead for quite some time now. No one had noticed. The kid had been replaced immediately. No one thought to mourn him in pursuit of the top spot. His top spot.

Pinching himself, X stood and staggered out of the empty office.

Just one more coffee.

Some weeks since Nice's death. 7 hours since the news broke. Less than a second of pain before the kid had died, preferably.

Just one more coffee.

2 hours was more than enough.

He had to do more.

[celestial14]

TBHX Body Horror Analysis/Ramble

CW: Spoilers for To Be Hero X up to Episode 5. Discussion of body horror, ableism, loss of autonomy, loss of consent, mental illness, trauma, canonical suicide, systemic injustice, vaguely medical horror and similar themes.

I just wanna say, as a lover of body horror, To Be Hero X does body horror RIGHT.

Often what's labelled "body horror" is just ableism, pointing at a physical or mental condition ppl have and saying "oh wow this is horrific, how could anyone live like this?? I'd kms honestly". Which is fucked up, incorrect, and NOT BODY HORROR.

What TBHX hits on is body horror is fundamentally autonomy horror. Changes enacted upon you without your consent. Your physical vessel being made into both prison and hostage. Knowing that you are undergoing metamorphosis, altered irreversably, at the behest of an Other without any way to prevent it. Even your ability to consent being altered. It's alienation. Derealization. Entrapment.

Think about the cyberpunk genre! What the best of cyberpunk get right is that being a cyborg, using prosthetics and aids, or altering yourself isn't the horror.

The horror is when your arm runs on a monthly prescription; the medicine you need to live is made scarce and expensive to keep you compliant; you're lied to about what those meds DO; or you're manipulated by a corporate entity into agreeing to treatment/contracts that are deliberately unclear because the system has made you so desperate to survive. (The horror is ca– [zapped]).

The horror is when your body isn't your own and never will be.

And that fits PERFECTLY with how TBHX's creators have made the show's superpowered society analogous to idol culture. The heroes are altered in real time by the beliefs of fans they rely upon for financial and domestic security. Whether through trust or fear.

(Fear being another kind of trust. Trust that you will hurt me. Trust that you are evil and unsafe and wrong. I can't speak on Chinese culture but Wreck talking like a jilted lover feels so much like subtextual homosexuality during the Hays Code).

And those alterations happen in horrifically literal ways. If all your fans believe you stand tall in the face of adversity, you will never be able to sit again unless that belief is broken.

And Lin Ling (who is totally Little Plum in episode 5 kuro FIGHT ME) is excellent at marketing. He knows from the beginning the importance of propaganda in a hero's career when their powers come from the beliefs of their supporters. But it is such a fundamental part of their society (ep 1 is 41 YEARS after the Commission's founding) that he understands the propaganda and still believes in it.

Let's be honest, he conceptualized all of Moon's commercials. He had a fixation for her and a direct hand in advertising that could literally alter her body and mind. I'm not saying he's a bad dude, obvs. He ends up using his skills and professional knowledge to free her once he understands that she's unwilling. Trapped and having her consent stripped from her. What I'm saying is that TBHX's horror isn't just how people are physically altered by outsider perception. It's also about how completely that power system and its abuses have been normalized. It's not a flaw in the design, it IS the design.

It's horrific not just that you have no say, but that you'll yearn for it. Ask for it. Want it until you understand it's fucking horrifying, and at that point you can't even escape it. Not truly and not ever, ever the same as you once were.

The horror of the Original Nice (and of idols and wartime posterboys) is that his existence became propaganda for the very career that made him fucking kill himself. The only way he could reject his tormentors was to, as his final act, reject the ability they gave him. To fall from grace when he'd been given the ability to fly.

And even that was taken away. His one last "fuck you" was covered up because the ideal of perfection is not allowed to die. There's so many lucrative careers banking on it. His body was too valuable, his image too profitable, his likeness too marketable. So his manager forced it on a no-name marketer.

Lin Ling is VERY poignant body horror for me because his unconscious psyche changes even while he has conscious awareness & cognitive control. His very mental makeup is rewritten to fit into Nice's corpse. His OCD, whether suddenly developed or a worsening pre-existing condition, crops up in such subtle ways Moon has to point it out to him. And isn't that so very much like the mental illnesses developed in a longterm traumatic situation?

It went pretty quickly and a lot of the focus was on him bonding with Moon, but they were fucking trapped in an apartment ALONE. FOR MONTHS. Denied any outside comforts or contact in order to fucking pressure them into signing even more of their autonomy away. They're prisoners in that condo. In their bodies. In their relationship and their abilities. I remember lockdown, people were clawing at their walls at the 2 week mark. And lockdown was for a good reason.

I'm rambling but the physical confinement, being made to volundie and put on an act for thousands, and being heavily controlled and gaslit by management creates a ripe environment for mental illness. I imagine he'll develop PTSD if he ever actually reaches the Post part of the diagnosis (rip ep4 ending). But the mental illness superpower analogue is BRAIN. BODY. HORROR. Not that Lin Ling has OCD, but that it's a normalized part of the career he was manipulated into. That others knew it would happen, how it worked out for the last guy, and morphed Lin Ling into Nice anyways.

That he was forced to volundie after witnessing OG Nice kill himself and yet believes in the system so much to think that it's worth it. That he wants it. Body horror is autonomy horror. Body horror is consent horror.

And Lin Ling's final form is so beautifully metaphorical. Perfect. That streak of white? CHEF'S KISS WITH TONGUE You can escape, but not unchanged. You are free, but you're not the same you anymore.

You died a long time ago. Nice died a long time ago— but no he didn't... that suicide was of some Nice fan. That splattered corpse was Lin Ling. There was an article on it and everything (it only got 1 view).

Lin Ling doesn't belong to himself anymore. He has no identity outside of the one he announced on camera. Lin Ling isn't a man's name anymore, it's a hero's title. He sold himself to a system to protect a girl running from that system so desperately she landed on a deserted island.

If Lin Ling isn't dead and Lin Ling isn't alive... what is he?

Property.

(BODY HORROR DONE FUCKING RIGHT. HIS FANS DIDN'T WANT HIM TO GO SO HE COULDN'T. I might rant more later. I MUST)

[celestial14]

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.

While catching up on Detective Conan, on episode 1144, I noticed that one of the books looked very familiar.

The book in front. It uses 薬局 (yakkyoku; pharmacy) instead of 薬屋 (kusuriya; apothecary). But still.

That's Apothecary Diaries.

Conan canonically reads his universe's version of Apothecary Diaries.

[celestial14]

TBHX: What do the doves represent? Or any of it, really?

I was rewatching TBHX and omg I saw things I hadn't seen or considered before. There are just so many details that it's hard not to miss things.

The click came to me while I was watching the scene where Nice kills himself. Notice the white doves flying around and then X's image on the screen facing them right at the moment Nice jumps. It made me think: 'So does X really have power over the other heroes, or is he just observing them... or neither?'

But then I remembered both the OP and ED being heavy on the dove metaphor.

Let's start with the OP:

First, we see X throwing each of the heroes' cards.

2. Then, they all turn into pigeons and fly toward him.

3. Finally, we see X in a breach, looking like he's above and below everything at the same time. Then red strings appear, with him at the center.

There are 9 red strings in the scene, with him in the middle, making 10. Of course, that's not a coincidence. It made me think: maybe the strings represent all the heroes' fates being intertwined and tied to X. The strings being red could symbolize not just the 'red string of fate,' but also blood ties—or maybe that they can only be broken by death.

There’s a lot more going on in the OP, but let’s go back to the doves.

They appear again, and even more, in the ED:

First, there’s a black-and-white scene with all the heroes sitting on the throne. The last one shown is X, who gets up and walks toward us—maybe tired of watching all this?

2. As X gets closer to the camera, a dove takes flight. More doves join it, flying above the city.

3. We see them looking at the heroes from above—9 doves total.

4. When X takes his hands out of his pockets, the doves seem startled, like a breach in the system happens. They take flight, X snaps his fingers, and they all start falling through (maybe the breach from the OP?), surrounded by feathers. The sequence switches to color.

Note that here we have an aspect ratio change, the colorful scenes are closer.

5. We see the same places as before, but now: no posters of Loli, her name is gone from the wall, the city looks empty, screens are off, no ads. An ocean of feathers keeps falling.

6. A feather lands on the palm of a hand that looks dead or unconscious. The trust count on the wrist starts twitching and eventually disappears. The hand moves and grabs the feather. So, did they regain consciousness after being freed from the trust's shackles?

7. It ends with a feather landing on the empty throne—now in color—and the light goes out.

We can’t be sure what it all means just yet, but I think the OP, the episodes, and the ED are beautifully connected. Everything feels intentional. For example, in the ED, the aspect ratio changes when the transition from black and white to color happens. It's a clever cinematic device that makes us feel drawn into the new 'world' they've just entered.

I think the meaning of the doves changes throughout. Sometimes they represent those controlling everything, other times the heroes, and sometimes (through the feathers) maybe even every person in the world.

X could be so many things—maybe the first person to awaken as a hero, or the one chosen to lead... or maybe not even a real person at all, but an entity. Though we do see him working in an office and doing daily things. Is he observing them all the time? If so, why?

There are also lots of gambling references—cards, coins, roulette—which I think inspired the black-and-red color scheme in the logo. Is X the one gambling with reality? Or against it? Or against whoever’s really in control?

X’s ability, the breach, and the red strings make me think of a ton of scenarios: death as the only way back to reality... which would imply multiple realities. Maybe he can access parallel universes? The three main art styles might reflect three different timelines. And when he snaps his fingers, can he choose who goes where? If not, and the feathers represent people, maybe everyone was teleported—along with the heroes. This metaphor would make perfect sense considering the feathers fell and reached a hand, giving it 'life' again. Looking at it as phoenix metaphor, people are reborn from the feather— meaning they didn’t die, just got teleported and are now waking up in the new timeline. Some red strings in the OP intersect, others don’t. That might reflect which heroes influence each other—like E-Soul being a fan of Lucky Cyan, or X saving Ahu. But none of the strings connect to X directly; he stands alone in the center. Maybe that’s because all of them are tied to him whether they know it or not. The cards he throws in the OP remind me a lot of Tarot Cards, which could also imply handling with fate somehow.

There are also a lot of references to a stage. So maybe when the light goes out at the end of the ED, it means the play is over. They’re no longer heroes—they’re just ordinary people again.

Maybe everything was in their heads. Maybe they were never heroes—just ordinary people daydreaming about being more. The story videos only show a few characters in the 3D style. Maybe some don’t have a 3D version. If 3D represents reality, were they never real? Or maybe the 3D characters were never supposed to become heroes—but did anyway���starting a revolution that will break the system?

It could be that X’s power — or X himself — is a manifestation of people’s desire for change, to become something more, even to the point of altering reality entirely. You know that theory that says, 'for every choice we make, a new timeline is created'? X might be the means through which people can travel across these alternate realities they’ve shaped. And the twist would be that they don’t remember anything from the other timelines.

Thank you @steelenspots for opening my eyes to yet another meaning for the doves: "I'm also thinking about how X strongly has a magician aesthetic, and how doves tie into that — magicians 'free' doves in their performances. Nice gains freedom through death, and so far we've seen Lin Ling gain the freedom to be himself. We know X is the only one who can’t be controlled by the Commission, so maybe he’s observing and helping the heroes find their own freedom. If not freedom, then perhaps the doves symbolize peace in a more traditional sense — each character finding their own inner peace."

Well, it's al too crazy and I’ve got so much on my mind, I’m sure I forgot something here and there. But this is just me writing as I think, sharing my questions with y’all. I’ll post more when it comes to me.

[celestial14]

white streak in my hair but no stress now (i'm so sorry)

[celestial14]

KRISTIN LIKES THE IDEA THAT Q!PHIL GOT LULLAH AND CHAYANNE TO DRINK 'THE MILK OF THE POPPY' AND THEY ALL DIED IN THEIR SLEEP

KRISTIN MINECRAFT WHAT THE FUUUUCK