"I don't want to bring something up from the past, but Fernando did braketest me many years ago, but I was in the McLaren. He braked 30 meters earlier. We went to the stewards, and he went, "Oh, it's my right to brake where I want to brake. That's where I needed to brake!" I was just flabbergasted. And the stewards went "oh, well, no further action."
Okay so, I want us to imagine a world where Goose doesn't die, where the good luck that has followed Maverick his entire life is enough to save them both.
Maverick, who has miraculously survived the craziest things over the years and continues to do so. He was soloing under a lucky star long before Ice became his guardian angel.
Imagine they go through Ice’s jetwash the same as before and they go into a flat spin, Maverick is pinned down and can't get his hands free, Goose has to eject them, but his fingers are slipping, fumbling before he finally yanks down on the cords. The canopy gets sucked in too close to the body of the jet with the position they're in, it can't clear completely and Goose screams blindly because he knows he’s going to die.
He knows he's going to collide with the canopy, but instead he feels like he's curled into a person.
It’s too warm and all he sees is a flash of dark hair and scared green eyes in the chaos. Mav, what? He's horrified that Mav is somehow in his arms, did their chutes get tangled? He doesn't understand. But he fumbles his hand up, grabbing Mav’s tags just in time for the canopy to collide with Mav’s back. Goose screams until he’s suddenly in the water, he's lost time and there's something clutched in his hand. But Mav grabs him, drags him up on his chest.
“We’re okay, Goose! We’re okay!”
And they are okay.
They get out completely unscathed and it’s only when they're on deck, shivering like wet rats, that Goose finally opens his hand. It’s a pair of dog tags — kind of. They're old, and barnacles have grown on the metal and stuck both tags together. It doesn't make sense.
Mav looks at him like he's lost his marbles when he mentions how their chutes tangled up.
He feels like he's nuts. But when Goose shows the tags to Viper in the base hospital and tells him what happened, the hardened old man seems to crumple before his eyes.
It’s only then that Goose notices a class ring, an USNA class ring dangling from that crusted chain. There’s no stone, but he would recognize it anywhere. Mav… Mav didn't go to the Academy.
“Sir?” Goose asks.
Viper just mutely shows him the tags, the barnacles peeled away to reveal a notch and the words:
she is based on the story/universe that my friend @haydardotjpg's OCs indra and yuwei exist in! pls go checkout haydar's art he is amazing!! his ocs can be found more easily on his ig but if you're lazy this is his oc indra (cempaka's one-sided love interest) and yuwei (indra's fated lover)
also, cempaka means "magnolia" in malay!! (she gets a flower name bc my name is lilly which is also flower c:)
bonus first iteration under the cut!
i accidentally had "poinsettia" flower in mind when i did this iteration instead of an actual magnolia, hence the color scheme. but yeah, this is as self-insert as it gets LOL like she's literally MEEEEEE but still very different and i love her as she is <3
The way fans on the st sub are almost all in agreement Nancy ending up with neither Jon nor Steve wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, and how they can even come up with a sleuth of reasons as to why, honestly pretty valid and fair reasons, but then are absolutely gobsmacked when fans merely speculate something along those lines for El is, quite something.